As strategic consulting opportunities go, the notion of fixed-mobile convergence would not likely top the lists of most management consulting firms. However, for IBB, a boutique with a rich portfolio of cable companies as clients, the convergence space is an ever ripening niche.
Described as the space where broadband in the home and mobile broadband come together, fixed mobile convergence is causing companies to altogether rethink their approach to business, according to Imran Shah, IBB's cofounder and managing partner.
"This combines two phones into one. There are hundreds of technical problems," says Shah. "What is the business model when you combine two phones into one, and how do you execute it?"
From the start, the IBB consulting model was different. Where other firms would have played for the broadest possible market, IBB focused on one group of players that it expected to be critical, the cable TV industry. "Today, a lot of firms have general telecommunications practices. We do large engagements in the cable TV industry," says Shah. The company has just 34 consultants, but by focusing on the cable TV industry and working at the highest levels, it "has a very large footprint," he adds.
In the process, "we have become part of the client's trusted inner group. Because of that we can cut across company silos," Shah explains.
Part of IBB's mission is to help its giant clients, like Comcast, to navigate this changing landscape. The ATT-Comcast integration became IBB's first project. "It was a huge merger. For us, it was a three-year engagement," Shah recalls. Since then, the company has been deeply involved with most of the major cable firms, including Adelphia and Time Warner.
Although IBB Consulting Group was formed in 2001, the core team actually had been playing in the same space, the telecommunications industry, for years before as part of PA Consulting. "Call it a combination of insight and luck, but we have been at the convergence of broadband, mobile, and media telecommunications for over 10 years. 'Convergence' has become a buzzword now, but it wasn't when we started," says Shah.
The IBB partners claim that they understood from the outset that the emergence of digital cable TV, interactive TV, and high-speed data would mean numerous opportunities and create great challenges for executives in the cable, media, mobile, and technology industries. Shah and his team moved to work with top industry executives in driving the changes.
For the moment, Shah says that he is not bothered by the consolidation going on in the cable TV industry today. "Eventually, there will be three large cable companies and three large telcos. We are moving toward duopoly. Cable companies compete with telcos, not with each other," says Shah. In this developing epic battle, it appears that IBB stands where it began: squarely with the cable industry.
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