Matchmaker for independent consultants Comatch starts in Spain

Following recent expansions into France and the United Kingdom, Comatch has started its push into the Spanish consulting market. The 6,000 strong matchmaking network is aiming to tap into demand for diversity at businesses, which the gig-economy is well positioned to provide.

German-origin Comatch was launched as a response to the growing demand for freelance consulting, amid the booming ‘gig economy’ across the world. Due to the need for organisations to anticipate earlier and faster to external changes, clients are increasingly looking for a flexible layer of top talent. The number of management consultants and industry experts that have affiliated with the online marketplace recently surpassed the 6,000 mark.

Since its founding the company has gained more than 1,500 contracts, or some 25,300 days of consulting work, while 94% of customers recommend its use. The disruptive start-up has swiftly assembled a network spanning Europe, and recently it entered the UK consulting industry as it looks to boost its growth with access to Britain’s burgeoning freelance scene. Kicking on from this development, Comatch has now taken its first steps into Spain.

According to Fernando Orozco, Business Development Manager for Spain at Comatch; "The digital transformation, the implementation of robotics and big data, as well as the projects that Spanish companies are undertaking in different parts of the world demand very specialised professional profiles in a flexible way. Therefore, we see a major opportunity."

The Spanish consulting industry is valued at €1.4 billion, and following a challenging time during the crisis years and its aftermath, the sector has returned to sustained growth, with last year's nearly 8% growth the best performance in a decade. The use of independent consultants by clients is however not as common as in other more mature markets, such as Germany or the UK, where independents are estimated to hold a 20% share of all management consulting spend. To this end, in Spain, Comatch aims to play a frontrunning role in the development of the high-end freelancing market.

Diversity

The matchmaking platform also hopes that it will be able to cash in on the lack of diversity in Spain's consulting industry in order to hit the ground running. In Spain’s consultancy scene, only 15% of the workforce are women, and with the competition for talent heating up in crowded markets across Europe, this is pushing companies toward making an improved effort at attracting and maintaining female talent. Meanwhile, women who are managers represent a portion of just 33% across Europe and in Spain 31%. All this is driving demand for professionals operating in the gig-economy, and presents a key opportunity for matchmakers.

According to Beatriz Recio, CEO and Founder of Womantalent, a network for executives and professional women in Spain: "It does not seem therefore that in Spain women's talent is being captured in its proper measure, given that we are 50% of the population and that 60% of university students are women, with more brilliant records, in many cases, than of our male colleagues… It should not be difficult to find the right profiles, what is more difficult is to find profiles with experience in certain positions, which would allow women to make the leap to Europe and the international arena. The problem is that at home our talent it is not valued and does not allow us to reach the managerial positions.”

In fact, at present, only 15% of Comatch’s own network are women, although the organisation is working to change that by emphasising its model’s capacity to combine work and family much better. According to Orozco, a high frequency of travel is impeding the compatibility of many women’s lives with consulting within firms, but the gig-economy offers a solution to this.

He added, "Large consulting firms start with about a third of women in their workforce among junior consultants, but finding women at the partner level is extremely rare, and they often switch quickly to high profile roles in large companies or enter politics."