Procurement

The fall in public sector expenditure on consultants in the UK since June’s election has been steeper and sharper than anyone expected. And it’s not stopping there: two thirds of senior public sector managers expect it to continue falling over the next year, our research has found.

Speaking to a senior executive within the pharmaceutical industry about the value consultants deliver recently, I was struck by one particular comment: ‘Everyone knows that half of consulting works and that the other half doesn’t’, he said. ‘The trouble is, you never know which half you’re going to get.’

A very good friend of mine recently admitted to a rather strange affliction. She calls it shopping bulimia, and it manifests itself as a desire to buy items (particularly shoes) and then return them. The idea is that she gets to enjoy all the pleasures of retail therapy without the lasting guilt of having spent her money. For those of us of a saner disposition – or, dare I say it, for those of us who are men – this seems singularly ridiculous.