The outside world will say 'don't be deceived into thinking anything else. Building trust in society, solving complex problems for the good of humanity, contributing to a sustainable eco-system, blah-dee-blah-dee-dah. Consulting bollocks. Consultants are sharks who need to make the numbers. Get the sale. Don't make a loss. That's it.'
Cynics will say all the rest of it (the noise in the brand) is but a means to that end. And if that message isn't working, then watch the swift pivot to the next big thing that does make the numbers.
Well, if that was true, then one of the challenges of this 100% financials approach would be a drive towards internal competition to the detriment of getting the most skilled person to the problem at hand. That couldn't happen in real life though ?
Whilst I could not possibly conceive of behaviours like this in my own firm, in a less progressive, enlightened and encouragingly diverse environment, there's always the risk that this might happen.
In my 30 something years in the consultancy sector I cannot recall any specific moments of individuals being self-serving and placing the client's interests secondary to their own. Never happened. Not that I saw. Not once.
But then I again, for many years I thought Bugs Bunny was real and that if I wasn't looking at the TV when England took penalties in the Football World Cup, then maybe they'd win.
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