The big con : how the consulting industry weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments, and warps our economies / Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mazzucato, Mariana, 1968- author.

Collington, Rosie, author.

Contributor:

John Lammey Stewart Memorial Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Business consultants.

Consultants.

Consulting firms.

Physical Description:

xiv, 338 pages : illustration ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Penguin Press, 2023.

Summary:

"A vital and timely investigation into the opaque and powerful consulting industry--and what to do about it There is an entrenched relationship between the consulting industry and the way business and government are managed today that must change. Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington show that our economies' reliance on companies such as McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, and EY stunts innovation, obfuscates corporate and political accountability, and impedes our collective mission of halting climate breakdown. The "Big Con" describes the confidence trick the consulting industry performs in contracts with hollowed-out and risk-averse governments and shareholder value-maximizing firms. It grew from the 1980s and 1990s in the wake of reforms by the neoliberal right and Third Way progressives, and it thrives on the ills of modern capitalism, from financialization and privatization to the climate crisis. It is possible because of the unique power that big consultancies wield through extensive contracts and networks--as advisors, legitimators, and outsourcers--and the illusion that they are objective sources of expertise and capacity. In the end, the Big Con weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments, and warps our economies. In The Big Con, Mazzucato and Collington throw back the curtain on the consulting industry. They dive deep into important case studies of consultants taking the reins with disastrous results, such as the debacle of the roll out of HealthCare.gov and the tragic failures of governments to respond adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic. The result is an important and exhilarating intellectual journey into the modern economy's beating heart. With peerless scholarship, and a wealth of original research, Mazzucato and Collington argue brilliantly for building a new system in which public and private sectors work innovatively for the common good"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction: The Big Con

A Confidence Trick

In every room

Surfing capitalism's trends

Unlearning by not doing

2. What Is the Consulting Industry?

A taxonomy

Meet the consultants

The scale of consulting

Getting in the room

Interrogating the omnipresence

3. Where Consulting Came From: A Brief History

When consultants counseled

From engineering to the matrix

Consulting by numbers

Shaping post-war capitalism

Neoliberalism's opportunities

Privatization and the growth of consulting giants

Consultants without borders

Lucrative transitions

Taming a Goliath?

4. The Outsourcing Turn: Government by Consultancy and the Third Way

Contracts at scale and scope

"Reinventing" government

Who contracts the contractors?

Digital-era outsourcing

Consulting the financial crisis

Contracting for austerity

Auditing the outsourcers

5. The Big Confidence Trick: Consultology and Economic Rents

Why bring in the consultants?

Extracting rents The best and brightest

Talent drain

Case-savvy and PowerPoint

ready

Quasi-academia and fast fashions

Rubber stamping

6. Evading the Risks, Reaping the Rewards: The Business Model

Consulting risk

The art of limited liability

Shareholder value in public firms

Risk shifts after acquisitions

7. Infantilizing Organizations: When Learning Is Undermined Across Government and Business

Extortionate costs for likely failures

How do organizations learn?

Learning from consultants?

Beyond budgets: The consequences for future learning

Capture by brochuremanship

"Cronyism" and incapacity

Skeletonizing business

Apotheosis: Betting on management, stripping out science

8. Colliding Interests: Consultancies and Democracy

Privatizing bankruptcy, avoiding blame

Both sides of the street?

Poachers and gamekeepers

Hidden capital, minimized taxes

Arresting development

Bargaining against labor

Democracy dies in the shadow government

9. Climate Consulting: An Existential Threat?

The turning point

The dawn of climate consulting

A brief history of (market-driven) climate governance

Manipulating models

Conflicting interests: Running democracy on fumes

Resisting accountability: The case of ESG

Future-proofing: Commitment with action

10. Conclusion: A Government That Rows So It Can Steer

Innovating from within

A government that rows so it can steer.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-278) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the John Lammey Stewart Memorial Library Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Mazzucato, Mariana. Big con

ISBN:

9780593492673

0593492676

OCLC:

1341260695

Publisher Number:

99993061242