In this gripping and colorful account of the American dream gone astray, Lewis Pinault provides the essential guidelines on how to get ahead and an enlightening perspective on the brutal infighting that can engulf even the most civilized consulting firm. This stunning exposé of some of the most prestigious and respected names in the business leads you 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 unwelcome baggage. Humorous and insightful, this no-holds-barred account takes you behind the scenes of the dehumanizing indoctrination of an academic intellectual into an exploitative -- and exploited -- "global transformation contractor." Featuring new material dealing with the e-consulting industry's boom, bust, and its future, Consulting Demons offers the most complete look at an industry that exacts the highest prices for the most questionable standards of success.

Management consultants of various kinds play an important role in the world of business, and other organizations. This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of research and thinking on the role, history, and function of management consultants.

‘I have never seen such a book about management consulting before: this sets a new standard. This book is extremely thorough and addresses all of the relevant topics.’ - Sander van ′t Noordende, Group Chief Executive Products Operating Group, Accenture Whether you are looking to build on your management studies or experience of working in business, you are likely to have come across management consultancy and will need a clear and concise introduction to this area to help you understand its practices and techniques in order to hire and implement management consultancy in the future. This text provides you with these essentials for success in your studies and later industries when working with and not just for consultancy firms. The text is built around learning objectives to empower your understanding of the ′what′, ′how′, ′when′ and ′why′ at macro and micro levels of management consultancy and its stakeholders, and provides you with engaging real life examples and extra web materials for study. As well as full courses on management consultancy, this text will be invaluable to your management knowledge and skill-set across strategy, change, analytics, problem-solving, solution implementation and decision-making as applied by the world′s top management consulting firms, such as McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company. Lecturer’s resources Lecturer’s guide Teaching notes per chapter Answer guidance to end-of-chapter questions in book Suggested discussion questions Suggested small group assignments Suggested small group field project Lecture slides Option 1: provide all figures of the book on PowerPoint slides Option 2: create complete PowerPoint presentations for each chapter Exercises Exam questions Discussion forum Student resources Templates for developing logical structures Web resources Consultancy publications Consultancy web site, career page Job application preparation services Consultancy institutions

Strategy consulting is one of the most highly respected and at the same time deeply detested jobs on this planet. Despite all the attention and controversy, though, there is surprisingly little written about it specifically. To address this void, this Element provides a comprehensive overview of this fascinating and emerging profession. Relying on existing research and the author's practical experience, it describes what strategy consulting is, where it comes from, how to effectively practice it and where to take it into the future. Taking the position of the individual strategy consultant, it offers an insightful perspective that is useful for scholars, students, consultants and clients of strategy consulting. In doing so it moves away from the dominant corporate practice of analytical strategy consulting. Instead, it offers an idealized whole-brain and whole-person view on what strategy consulting could and should be like in order to fully live up its promise as a profession contributing to society.

"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 exposé 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.

Management consultants are typically seen as key mediators in the flow of management ideas. And yet little is known about exactly what happens when they work together with clients, behind closed doors in consulting projects. Do they really innovate or simply legitimate existing knowledge? This book presents research from a three year long 'fly-on-the-wall study' of consulting projects and challenges our taken for granted view of consultancy. It draws on and integrates theories of knowledge and social boundaries to reveal a picture of complex and shifting insider-outsider relationships. Here, the outsider or expert status of consultants in relation to their clients cannot be assumed in their day-to-day project interactions. Different actors, roles, and types of knowledge are involved in an interactive and dynamic process where various boundaries are constructed, reinforced, negotiated and transformed. The chapters selectively explore these dynamics, revealing the importance of boundary complexity, the role of humour and challenge in often tense relationships, and the importance of shared knowledge domains such as sector knowledge. This in-depth analysis of inter-organizational project teams also covers a wide range of consultancy contexts, drawing on cases studies which include: * a US-based strategy firm and a multinational client, * the public and private sectors, * a sole practitioner consultant, * IT implementation in financial services. The book is important for all those with an interest in management consultancy, project working and management knowledge as well as in innovation/change, inter-organisational relations, boundaries and professional services. The authors include some of the leading research experts on management consultancy as well as a former management consultant and current expert in management learning.

This book provides a thorough examination of a variety of specialties within the broad range of management consulting. A book of such scope and depth could only be written by a large number of experts, each from one of the many specialties related to management consulting. Together, all 27 contributors take the reader through an industry that is currently undergoing significant change. While covering all the major practice areas of consulting, the book also offers new insights into change processes and addresses compelling management issues now facing consulting firms.

New topics covered in this edition include: e-business consulting; consulting in knowledge management; total quality management; corporate governance; social role and responsibility of business; company transformation and renewal; and public administration.

Organizations are increasingly investing in consulting capabilities to understand what changes they need to make to keep up the pace with the competition and future-proof their business. Consultancy, Organizational Development and Change is a guide for students and internal and external consultants needing to develop the necessary skills to consult in organizational settings where there is a great deal of complexity. It tackles the issues posing the greatest threat to the success of the change programme, including how to adapt to rapidly shifting needs, deal with the emotional and ethical issues that arise and ensure that the managers take full ownership for the change so that 'business as usual' is established. Complete with case studies from the 'Big Four' consultancy groups as well as boutique firms, Consultancy, Organizational Development and Change shows how to identify and execute interventions in a variety of organizational settings to deliver value. It provides guidance on how to develop a value proposition; define, write and present the business case for the proposed interventions; establish credibility and report on the results.

Strategy is becoming more 'open' - more transparent and more inclusive. Opening Strategy tells the story of how corporate strategists and strategy consultants have worked since the middle of the last century to open up the strategy process. First strategic planning, then strategic management, and now 'open strategy' have all brought more people into the strategy process and provided more strategic information, for the benefit of both business and society at large. Informed by interviews with corporate strategists and consultants at leading firms such as General Electric and McKinsey & Co, and drawing on the historical archives of strategy's pioneers, this book provides vivid insights into the trials and tribulations of practice change in the strategy profession. Above all, it stresses the hard work of the little recognized and sometimes eccentric individuals who have been leaders in practice change. By building on a wide range of illustrations, covering both successes and failures, the book draws out general lessons for practice innovation in strategy. Those studying the topic will be able to set standard strategy techniques in historical and social context and develop new areas for investigation, while practising executives and consultants should gain a sense of how to innovate in strategy - and how not to.