Bill Young |
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| Rip-Off! |
Despite a satisfyingly indignant reaction from the consulting
industry, David Craig’s effort to lift the lid on his former employers
is hardly as scandalous as the sub-title of this autobiographical
exposé suggests. ‘Rip-Off’ contains enough keen observation and
analysis to convince anyone who knows the industry that Mr. Craig
is an authentic insider. He understands the industry structure,
business models and business development techniques and the
reader may even be prepared to accept that he was a reasonably
accomplished practitioner.
He is an also unashamedly sensational, selecting the most extreme
of his experiences, spicing them with hyperbole and spinning each
of them to build indignation or even outrage. But is it really a shock
to find that consultants’ fees have a 400% mark-up; or that the aim
with any small project is to secure a multi-million deal; or that
consultants may charge clients full fare for air travel and pocket the
discounts from the airlines? To many, apparently, it is. Indeed Mr.
Craig reserves much of his scorn for his consultancy-dependant
clients whose habit is driving their companies into the hands of
greedy and unaccountable outsiders; and that is why I can
recommended this book. SM readers may find all of this in a days
work but they should keep a copy of ‘Rip-Off!’ on their shelf for
loan to colleagues – as an inoculation against the more dubious
practices of their consultant vendors.
Mr. Craig reveals some common scams. He gives a sound
description of the consultant’s business model, explaining
accurately how profits are delivered, not by high-fee partners, but
by the numbers of junior consultants on surprisingly modest
salaries. And he offers a sound account of standard Account
Management techniques. But he struggled to fill 300 pages. Mr.
Craig runs out of invective and hard experience and turns to
second-hand accounts of recent business scandals to pad out his
indignation. The sense of outrage wears thin as he piles on the
superlatives and repeats his stories in different formats. But
repetition and padding are such a feature of modern business
books that this criticism may be unfair.
‘Rip-Off!’ is similar in style and, indeed, in content, to 'Consulting
Demons' by Lewis Pinault and, if I have interpreted the codenames
of the featured consulting firms correctly, they both worked for the
same company. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that they are
fellow travelers!
Both books are criticised elsewhere for being out-of-date and no
longer relevant to today’s consulting market. But here I have to
support Mr. Craig for, although many of his stories are rooted in
traditional consulting, the growth area of Outsourcing provides at
least as much temptation for the consultant and risk for the Buyer.
Even the worst excesses of Mr. Craig’s former employers did not
give them a seven year contract with early termination penalties.
There is still a gap on my bookshelf, between these cathartic kiss-
and-tell exposés and the improving texts which tell me how to
engage consultants successfully. I’d really like to see a cold-as-ice
description of the techniques that enable outside consultants to
gain the sort of access and prestige in a few weeks that insiders will
never achieve before retirement or redundancy – perhaps at the
insitgation of Mr. Craig’s former employers.
industry, David Craig’s effort to lift the lid on his former employers
is hardly as scandalous as the sub-title of this autobiographical
exposé suggests. ‘Rip-Off’ contains enough keen observation and
analysis to convince anyone who knows the industry that Mr. Craig
is an authentic insider. He understands the industry structure,
business models and business development techniques and the
reader may even be prepared to accept that he was a reasonably
accomplished practitioner.
He is an also unashamedly sensational, selecting the most extreme
of his experiences, spicing them with hyperbole and spinning each
of them to build indignation or even outrage. But is it really a shock
to find that consultants’ fees have a 400% mark-up; or that the aim
with any small project is to secure a multi-million deal; or that
consultants may charge clients full fare for air travel and pocket the
discounts from the airlines? To many, apparently, it is. Indeed Mr.
Craig reserves much of his scorn for his consultancy-dependant
clients whose habit is driving their companies into the hands of
greedy and unaccountable outsiders; and that is why I can
recommended this book. SM readers may find all of this in a days
work but they should keep a copy of ‘Rip-Off!’ on their shelf for
loan to colleagues – as an inoculation against the more dubious
practices of their consultant vendors.
Mr. Craig reveals some common scams. He gives a sound
description of the consultant’s business model, explaining
accurately how profits are delivered, not by high-fee partners, but
by the numbers of junior consultants on surprisingly modest
salaries. And he offers a sound account of standard Account
Management techniques. But he struggled to fill 300 pages. Mr.
Craig runs out of invective and hard experience and turns to
second-hand accounts of recent business scandals to pad out his
indignation. The sense of outrage wears thin as he piles on the
superlatives and repeats his stories in different formats. But
repetition and padding are such a feature of modern business
books that this criticism may be unfair.
‘Rip-Off!’ is similar in style and, indeed, in content, to 'Consulting
Demons' by Lewis Pinault and, if I have interpreted the codenames
of the featured consulting firms correctly, they both worked for the
same company. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that they are
fellow travelers!
Both books are criticised elsewhere for being out-of-date and no
longer relevant to today’s consulting market. But here I have to
support Mr. Craig for, although many of his stories are rooted in
traditional consulting, the growth area of Outsourcing provides at
least as much temptation for the consultant and risk for the Buyer.
Even the worst excesses of Mr. Craig’s former employers did not
give them a seven year contract with early termination penalties.
There is still a gap on my bookshelf, between these cathartic kiss-
and-tell exposés and the improving texts which tell me how to
engage consultants successfully. I’d really like to see a cold-as-ice
description of the techniques that enable outside consultants to
gain the sort of access and prestige in a few weeks that insiders will
never achieve before retirement or redundancy – perhaps at the
insitgation of Mr. Craig’s former employers.