<p>311Griff, while I’m sure that’s what theoretically management consulting should be about, it frankly is quite often not the case. Many times after analysis of the client company’s strategies the conclusion reached is that drastic cost cutting would greatly benefit the company as a whole. As you probably know, this means employees getting laid off as a result of the consultant’s advice, something that does not sit well ethically with some of the management consultants I’ve spoken with.<br>
While managment consultants at top firms undoubtedly do greatly improve a company’s efficiency, this often comes at the cost of hard working peoples’ jobs. Furthermore the constant travelling, useless specialization in a specific industry (as opposed to the jack-of-all-trades approach of investment banking), and long hours have given me the impression that many management consultants (in fact all of them I’ve talked to, granted most of my friends are entry level associates), are not happy, and certainly do not think that they are helping people.</p>