House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time

by Martin Kihn

Book Overview

In the bestselling tradition of Liar's Poker comes a devastatingly accurate and darkly hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the wonderful world of management consulting.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446576565
• ISBN13: 9780446576567
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Business Plus
• Length: 273 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Funny, Realistic Intro to Consulting, Although Highly Negative

This book is a fast, fun read and a fairly realistic introduction to the negative aspects of consulting. Anyone considering a consulting career should read it to understand the downsides. The author is clearly a skilled writer, far better than most business writers. He is also very funny. It is rare to read a book that is a quick read, funny, and informative all at the same time. That's why I gave it five stars. The author touches on several aspects of consulting. He discusses a bit of his experience at Columbia Business Schools. The bulk of the book is taken up by his discussion of a couple of his consulting assignments. This is very much a worse-case scenario book. Most people don't have such a negative experience, but it is vitally important for those interested in consulting to be aware of what can and often does go wrong. I also think the author may not have been all that seriously interested in consulting as a career. This book is especially useful for those who are trying to decide whether or not to go into consulting; many people become consultants just because that's what others do or because there is supposedly a lot of money to be made. Read this book before you make the decision to target consulting firms in your job hunt. If you read it and still are excited about consulting, then you will probably be a pretty good "fit' for consulting.

I had Mr. Price in 7th grade too!

I couldn't put this book down. The "consultant speak" glossary in the back of the book is worth the price alone. At times, the book would have benefited had Kihn's editor been more aggressive: the 3-4 page "consultant speak" monologue was a bit tedious ; the description of the plane ride could have been cut by a few pages. But it's almost shameful to direct such petty gripes at a true masterpiece. I wonder if, like the "counseled out" "alumni" of his former firm, Kihn is also invited back to parties and presentations of his former employer. A $5 rebate should go to every individual who finds the spot where he slips in the motto of his alma mater.

Right Up There with Stanley Bing

This riotous book stands with the work of Mr. Bing, my longtime favorite "business" writer. The idea that anyone would read this to learn anything about management consulting strikes me as pretty silly; after all, at the end of the day, Marty's not trying to boil the ocean--he's simply trying to put a stake in the ground and then add value so he can increase his billability just in case he gets counseled out. (Hey, Marty, did I pass my consultant-speak audition?) Start at the end, with the faux acknowledgments--"negativity of the pissants around him," brilliant! It's FUNNY, people! Get a grip!

All Consultants Must Read

For those in the consulting industry, this book is absolutely dead-on. Strategy consultants do not provide anything to any company except another expense item. All these business mantras used by consultants, Porter's Five Forces, Core Values, everything Jack Welch has ever said or wrote, are absolute nonsense. Kihn does a great job of describing how consultants provide nothing of "value" to clients and somehow keep staying in business.

Dark, funny and on the money..

From someone who works in this industry, Martin Kihn has hit a lot of nails on the head in the mode of 'Snapshots from Hell' and 'Liars Poker'. If you are thinking of becoming a management/ strategy or technology consultant read this book before making that decision. Kihn lifts the lid on the self serving consulting firms, their inability to proffer little more than repackaged data and the clever use of a language and culture to protect their vested interests and hideous cultures. Companies run by partners and VP's, whom a large proportion are sociopathic and driven by personal greed. Men and women prepared to sacrifice their home lives, health, relationships and quality of life (universal payback) for the Babylonian mirages of money, vanity, status and ego .. This book is funny and dark too. .. Kihn (former MTV writer and Columbia MBA) joins Booz Allen Hamilton in New York and injects the book with a fresh ironic wit to make his points. His depth of insight is valuable as well as his ability to extract some of the more dysfunctional elements of an industry built on intellectual snobbery, stabbings and shamings. The book is thought provoking and although not written in a moralizing style it contains Kihn's values that are good. He empathises with those would may lose their jobs in the companies the consultants work with. He explains the truth of the devaluation of humanity within this sphere as people are fired and the game is to survive, and not look over your shoulder and consider those whom you have trampled on to do so. Two other core truths Martin Kihn exposes are 1. Consultants actually don't know much. Therefore there is a series of cover ups and masks used to hide this fact and it is a game of manipulation via smoke, mirrors, vocabulary and image. Then it is about reprocessing data and packaging it nicely for the client... for a lot of money. That only comes about because people BELIEVE in consultants however the majority of these people have a vested interest in the consulting industry or have too much of your money in their budgets (read government departments for one). 2. The demands made on young consultants. The shams and tricks to get young people to work in these firms and with a deluded enthusiasm believe that a) They are highly valuable contributors to society/ the economy b) The best of the best (breeding mentality ground for young sociopaths) It does not make easy reading thinking what consultants have to do in their early years `to make it'. The travel, denial of family, the hours and the ghastly culture in which their teams works. At best you feel a sense of compassion at worst you feel that McKinsey, Accenture etc are worth a visit from Amnesty International. Basically if you believe the hype of these firms and that they make a valid contribution to industry, society and the lives they touch, you will see this book as a Michael Mooresque expose. You won't get it.. as contempt prior to investigation with s