Consulting Demons: Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global Corporate Consulting

by Lewis Pinault

Book Overview

"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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0066619971
• ISBN13: 9780066619972
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Critical Look at Strategy Consulting

This book gives an insider's perspective on high-level strategy consulting focusing largely on its negative aspects. Even if you do not share the author's skepticism of consulting, this is still an invaluable read, especially if you are considering a career in consulting. Although it is a mostly negative account of consulting, the author offers very astute and very useful insights into how to be a successful consultant in subsections called "Consulting Demonology" interspersed throughout the narrative. This book may be considered dated because of when it was published and because it is an account of the author's experiences in the late 80's and early 90's. However, in the final part of the book the author gives some insights into the future direction of consulting, many of which have turned out to be in the right direction. This book should serve as a warning to students whose primary interests are not business-related. Many consulting firms recruit such students in the misguided hope that academic success in any subject translates into business success. This ultimately results in mostly negative experiences for the academically-inclined recruit as well as the consulting firm and its clients. Unfortunately, the rare success stories are used to justify the continuation of this practice. Ultimately, this book serves as a testament to the simple fact that the best career to choose is one you are passionate about. If you are passionate about business - read this book and learn about the ins and outs of successful consulting. If you are not passionate about business read this book and understand it as a warning that you should pursue a career outside of business.

Skillfully Seductive

Very few recent business books have been written with such a superb combination of thrilling drama, industry confession, and informative insight. As I read this book I was equally captivated by the stories of corporate "spying" hidden under the cloak of strategic industry research, as well as by the careful analysis of the management consulting industry. As a consultant currently working at a big Five (or Four) firm, and as an MBA hopeful, I recommend this book to anyone who is remotely interested in working in the consulting industry. Mr. Pinault provides a peak into the lives of consultants, spinning a web of glamor as well as well emptiness. His confessions are honest and almost vulnerable. Simultaneously, he provides a historical account of this very private and elite profession.What's most intriguing to me is the effect the book has. On the surface, the book appears to be an industry expose and confession. However, the effect, at least for me, is not one of repulsion but of attraction. I can honestly say that, after reading the book, I want to be a management consultant even more than before. I wonder if Mr. Pinault still has a love/hate relationship with the industry.

Part "inside scope" part "wild ride"

As an IT consultant moving to Japan, I picked up Pinault's book in Houston and finished it during my first month in Tokyo. Consulting, and Japan, has changed a lot since Pinault's memoirs were inked, but his trick's of the trade are still valuable tools and his hilarious and memorable stories and anecdotes had me laughing to tears. Perhaps the greatest merit in reading this book is just to witness his intellectual power in use as he works the client cases and navigates his way through the politics and to the pinnacle of consulting. A very sharp and focused glimpse into a world few of have a change of getting to see for ourselves.

An excellent book!

Let me start by saying, that this book is very well written. The author successfully portrayed the life of a management consultant in a way that was both enjoyable and to the point. Mr. Pinault successfully takes the reader through the various aspects of consulting life, while making the reader anxious for more. Real life examples of consulting experience, such as the debacle at Shell Oil and the strategic intent boot camps for Phillips Electronics, provide the kind of first hand knowledge anyone considering the consulting industry needs to have. Furthermore, this book provides the kind of insights into business that extend way beyond the consulting industry. Anybody involved in the business world, should read this book and revaluate their role in society as the author did. As a senior in college who has recently made a tough career decision, this book was of particular interest to me. I very much needed someone to paint a picture of what a career in consulting would be like. It would be a great thing if leaders in every industry wrote books of this caliber to help young people with difficult career choices. Reading this book has provided the guidance I needed to make an informed decision about my life. Lastly, I would like to point out that a book such as this one will naturally have critics. I feel that there is no denying the great story Mr. Pinault has told here. It is a story that needed to be told and was told in a great way.

A Courageous Breakthrough Book! The Next Michael Lewis!

How often do we get an insight-packed business book, of the highest relevance, with an epigraph from Carl Sagan! With a strong narrative to boot! Pinault is to be congratulated for facing up to his own indiscretions, while laying bare the more outrageous goings-on of the hyper-competitive consulting industry. From my own internship experience I know this is the real stuff, and likely only to get worse, not better, if not examined and somehow constrained. Fascinating is his choice, and well-demonstrated ability, to layer in some of the best consulting advice in the public domain, in the midst of relaying his starkly revealing story. Taken together, this is a book that has it all: a dramatic story, a deeply intriguing, still-evolving central character, never-before-revealed facts and insights, and a great probing perspective on what the future may hold for the future of consulting, confronting massive eCommerce, IPO, and recruiting changes. This will be the consultant's bible you love to hate, on the shelves of consultants, clients and students alike. It's also a great social commentary for the early 21st century. Can it be an accident that this `Lewis' Pinault went to the London School of Economics, like Michael `Lewis' of "Liar's Poker" fame, to write a breakthrough industry expose? And for all of us, he serves up an even better `dish:' a deeply personal account, based on partner-level experience. When Pinault writes the `New New Thing' of consulting, addressing the key technology issues now screaming upon the scene, I have no doubt we will be thrilled and enthralled. My friends and I are suggesting this as required reading for all students at the Business School.