Consulting Demons: Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global Corporate Consulting FROM THE PUBLISHER
"What is a Management Consultant?" the prized MBA candidate asked.
"The best of us--and that could be you--know without ever needing to ask.
We're a Breed Apart," the consultant observed, arrogance and irony in
perfect balance.
"Okay, so that could be me, but what does that mean?" the MBA persisted.
"Of course there's money involved," the consultant offered.
"Great deals of money. World travel, first-class living. A chance to
influence every corporation on the planet. Virtually no limits to whatever
secrets and appetites you feel you need to indulge."
"Yes, but what is it that we do?" the recruit tried one last time, his
doubts rapidly evaporating.
"You'll see.
In this gripping and colorful account of the American dream gone astray,
Lewis Pinault takes us to the shiny heights scaled, and the darkest depths
sunk to, by those ill-defined creatures known as "Management Consultants."
At once a riveting narrative, an alarming cautionary tale, and a treasury of
useful advice, Consulting Demons is a rare insider's view of the lucrative
arena of global management consulting. In this stunning expose of some of
the most prestigious and respected names in the business, Pinault takes his
readers by the hand and leads them into a world where a client's interests
are skillfully subordinated to those of the consultants, where money rules
the day, and where principles and morals are but unwelcome baggage.
For aspiring consultants, this is an unvarnished look at the life of a
consultant, with essential, darkly revealing guidelines on how to get ahead
and an enlightening perspective on the brutal infighting that can engulf
even the most civilized consulting firm.
For current executives and potential clients, Pinault reveals what
consultants are really thinking and scheming, and explores the unscrupulous
lengths to which a consulting firm will go in order to protect and increase
its own lucrative fees.
For the general reader, this is a rollicking yarn brimming with vignettes
drawn from a consultant's daily work, including such characteristic
consulting activities as "benchmarking" (deep-cover corporate espionage),
"business transformation" (mass brainwashing), and "client entertainment"
(global debauchery).
In this unique firsthand account, Pinault takes readers behind the scenes of
the dehumanizing indoctrination of an academic intellectual into an
exploitative--and exploited--"global transformation contractor." This
incisive and telling book details his ascension in the business, the
compromises he made to his integrity, and his eventual escape from a world
he could no longer come to terms with.With true accounts of harrowing days
spent in the hallowed trenches of consulting, and nights pondering personal
relationships gone out of control, Consulting Demons offers the most
complete look at an industry that exacts the highest prices for the most
questionable standards of success.
About the Author:
Lewis Pinault spent more than a decade rising through the ranks of
management con-sulting's most esteemed players, including the Boston
Consulting Group in the U.S. and Japan, Gemini Consulting throughout Europe
and Asia, and Coopers & Lybrand, where he became a Financial Institutions
partner in Hong Kong, before leaving it all behind to pursue his first
passion--International Space Law and Planetary Geosciences--at the
University of Hawaii where he now works with both NASA and the UN Office of
Outer Space Affairs.
FROM THE CRITICS
Busines Reader Review
An entertaining look at global consulting. The story-based approach
is supplemented by a surprisingly useful advice section at the end of each
chapter.
The Standard
Reading Lewis Pinault's new book is like driving by a car accident. You feel as if you shouldn't look - but you can't help yourself. The author seems so sleazy and self-absorbed, his professional wares so utterly worthless that you can't believe companies actually hire him. The book makes a compelling argument for newly minted MBAs to steer clear of consulting firms, and for managers who employ them to have their heads examined.
Consulting Demons is full of tales of Machiavellian consultants who plot to rise through the consulting hierarchy by scaring clients into parting with millions of dollars in consulting fees. For example, Pinault explores the inner world of C.K. Prahalad, a consulting guru from the University of Michigan who popularized such management bromides as Strategic Intent and Core Competencies. Prahalad mesmerized Philips Electronics into spending millions on consultants who alternately humiliated and rebuilt the company's managers.
In a manner reminiscent of George Stephanopoulos' All Too Human, Pinault also skewers his former mentors. He recounts the advice his old boss at the MAC Group gave him, detailing how best to carry on extramarital affairs in various cities while preserving the illusion of domestic harmony. It's all ostensibly in the name of expiation, and it seems of little consequence to Pinault whether his book lands with a thud upon the reputations of his ex-employers and ex-clients.
A high divorce rate is one side effect of the amoral and self-absorbed behavior demonstrated by the mutant strain of humanity that Pinault portrays. A side effect of his book may be to frighten away those few MBAs who might still be considering a career in the consulting field.
Could it be the coup de grace? Already consulting firms are having trouble recruiting the best and brightest. The talent goes where it can make the most money most quickly, so naturally the top B-school graduates are flocking to Internet startups and venture capital firms.
Of course, sufficient grist for exposes on those industries probably exists right now. But it is unlikely that anyone in the middle of our shiny new-millennium money machines will toss a wrench in the works until the new new thing comes along. In the meantime, Consulting Demons will have to serve as a warning for those who find that McKinsey or Boston Consulting Group is the best they can do.
As for companies that hire them, well, at least they're getting something for their money. Pinault suggests corporate espionage is one useful function that consultants perform for their clients. Such spying is a far cry from the honorable derring-do of James Bond and is instead conducted in a fashion that's at best morally ambiguous.
The clever manager will read Pinault's accounts of consultants' tricks and remember them the next time he finds himself on the wrong end of a phone call from a consultant performing a "multiclient study." Or perhaps we should say "right" end, for the continued existence of such studies does not reflect well on those managers who hire consultants to conduct them.
In fact, if you're considering a career in consulting or are a manager who works with consultants, Consulting Demons is one car wreck you should force yourself to look at.
Home
