I think in general advice is a
tricky thing. The bread and butter of Management Consulting is thought capital
(read: advice). Recently, a New
York Times article was released about a top firm’s track record. The
article was pretty harsh. There is an argument that a top consulting firm is partially
accountable for some of the worst decisions in business history. Of course, as
most media related articles I come across that focus on one off occurrences in
history, conclusions seem to be drawn from correlation and not causation. I
would argue that if there was statistical analysis done on all decisions made compared
to the success of those decisions, the presence of consulting firms would not
lean anywhere near bad decision making. There is something to be said about having a
room full of smart, problem solvers solely focused on the issue at hand. Those
problem solvers include a diverse set of thinkers from the shiny MBA's to the
20-year experienced industry experts and the young career starters who live,
breathe, and dream new ideas.
I know that if I was in the
C-suite and I had a small crisis to address, I would without a doubt get an
assessment from a consulting firm. As an executive, outsourcing brain power is
sometimes necessary to keep a high level perspective.
On the flip side, I am not
that trusting of strategy focused firms. I'd much rather an implementation firm,
so at least I know that company will be around when the ish hits the fan. At
the end of the day, leaders should look beyond fancy PowerPoints/Excel
spreadsheets for strategic decision making.
