Sorry, rich, but I disagree that everything in consultancy is BS. Much of the time, consultants are dealing with people considered senior / experienced enough to handle not insubstantial budgets. These people know enough about their business to know what will 'add value', be this through improving business processes (urgh) or providing advice on key products / services (pun intended). Let's not beat about the bush - consultancy is about sales, and many consultants (or directors / partners ARE excellent sales people), but the same rigour is applied to deciding whether to spend £xx on any aspect of their business as it is to deciding whether to spend on consultancy. Maybe some decisions were bad ones, and of course consultants will try to push sales onto their clients that aren't necessarily 'needed', but that's just part of the game that both sides are playing. It's called sales!The nib of my argument is that consultancy wouldn't exist if it didn't add real value / wasn't worth what was paid for it. It is not a new market sector, and as we're witnessing in every single news forum that exists, the banks that underpin much of our economy have been caught not just selling, but BUYING BS that they don't understand.If the day comes when consultancy has a meltdown, I'll put my hands up and admit that I am wrong. But I doubt that day will come. There are many arguments / reasons as to why firms need outside expertise, and they won't disappear any time soon. At least they have a grasp of what they're buying, unlike banks...!That is, unless you really do peddle BS to your clients, rich, in which case you're a shyster and should really try operating in a more ethical manner before you drag a load of regulation onto us all.
