Client-consultant relationship

We’ve spent the last three months finding out what senior executives think about consulting, both the industry in broad terms and the specific firms they work with.

In the course of researching our 2012 Management Consulting Market report we've been asking consulting firms how the competitive landscape has changed for them. Specifically, we've been asking whether they're coming up against competitors they haven't encountered before. In all the conversations I've had so far only one consulting firm has ever been mentioned in response to that question: McKinsey.

A recent article in Booz & Company’s strategy + business magazine draws attention to some fascinating academic research on how power affects decision-making.  We already know (from other research) that the quality of decision-making declines when people depend on their own beliefs and ignore the advice of others: “outside information helps ‘average out’ the distortions that can result when people give a great deal of weight to their own opinions and first impressions,” observes Booz.