I refer to Ghaleb Cachalia’s most recent column (“The dark side of management consulting,” July 21).
I’ve also been involved in the consulting game first hand, across the world and in SA, and have a slightly different take.
Management consultancies are a business tool. Like a laptop or a forensic audit, it’s generally not the tool that’s defective; it’s how you use it. Like people, some organisations injure themselves using tools.
As the article points out, management consultancies around the world have often caused immense damage, or aided and abetted corruption. But so too have telephones, laptops and independent auditors.
It’s the ethical tone and calibre of the organisations that hire them that allow consultancies to operate for either good or evil. Sadly, the general absence of ethical compasses in most SA organisations ensure that consultancies tend to the latter effect in our case.
“The fault, dear Caesar, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Stuart Meyer
Via BusinessLIVE
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