CONSOLIDATIONS have already begun in the fledgling corporate coaching market.
The Catalyst Group’s Digby Scott said the coaching market was in its infancy.
“As the market matures, coaches will become more specialised,” Mr Scott said.
“They will start to develop their own niches rather than just being lifestyle of executive coaches.
“This year there will be a lot of coaches banding together.
“The market is already littered with a number of sole traders. In the near future I think a lot of coaching companies will be formed, either attached to human resources companies or in their own right.
“I think coaching training will also develop but it is limited at the moment. Organisations such as the Australian Institute of Management will probably start taking on a role in this.”
People Solutions is setting itself up as the major corporate coaching provider in WA, contracting the many small operators that have sprung up to service the new market.
Its managing partner Steve Bowler said there were a lot of small providers in the market place.
“When we placed an ad for coaches we had 50 people apply,” Mr Bowler said.
“There were quite a few people who saw themselves as lifestyle coaches or were clinical psychologists that knew all the techniques.
“But we wanted people who had business acumen on top of that and that’s a rarity.”
Mr Bowler said his company planned to go Australiawide and fired up in the east over the past 12 months.
Southern Cross International managing director Kim Lisson said his firm took on coaches on a subcontract basis.
