Consulting Ethics Concern, Once Again

Lack of consulting ethics once again.  It doesn’t have to be but here are my thoughts.  Over the past week both NPR and Wall Street Journal have reviewed the book, The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilizes Our Governments, and Warps Our Economies, by authors Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington in which they skewer the consulting industry.

I have written previously on the topic (Reputational Damage, see https://www.tcpgroup.net/blog/reputational-damage) and provided several examples of other negative press from a nearly $600 million settlement in work for Opioid companies, to implication in Angola corruption scandal, and to possible violations of French campaign laws.  In sum, the list of abuse includes many of the big consulting firms.

In November 2022, an Economist article started with this sentence, “If a list were made of the reviled species in the professional world, only investment bankers would stand between management consultants and the top.”  Yikes.

Then, some of these scandals were illuminated in When McKinsey Comes to Town, spotlighting McKinsey & Company, a powerhouse leader in consulting.

Now in this book, The Big Con, the authors argue that the consulting industry is selling snake oil that is poisoning governments and distorting economies.  They suggest consultants often merely create an impression of value that is strong enough to secure fat contract but, in the end, their recommendations don’t amount to much.  Additionally, Mazzucato and Collington address consultants’ work in both governments and corporations.  In the later, they assert that in many cases corporate ‘leaders’ turn to consultants to merely ‘rubber stamp’ the controversial decisions the leaders want to make anyway, likely boosting short-term profits and possibly be detrimental to long-term health of the company.  Further, the authors show concern over apparent conflicts of interest when consulting firms work with both the regulators and the regulated.  They provide a notable example of work with governments who populations seek lower emissions and with fossil fuel companies that contribute to the climate crisis.

Where were the consulting firms ‘North Star’ or values?  Was it an almighty quest for profits or was it doing what is right for all, including society.  You know the answer to that.  

But it doesn’t have to be.

In my blog entitled, Reputational Damage (February 1, 2023), I highlighted two things that could have been done, and still needs to be done, to likely prevent these, and other grievous and damaging situations.  I strongly suggested that there are two things consultants, and their consultancies, must do to improve their image and prevent further damage:

1. Understand and adhere to the international standard in Consulting Competencies, and

2. Adopt and adhere to both a Code of Ethics and a Code of Conduct.

The Consulting Competencies are about how you consult, not what you consult in and sets an international standard for performance as a consultant.  Your ethical behavior is set forth in the Code of Ethics and your professional and personal behavior expectations are set in the Code of Conduct.

I have been a Certified Management Consultant®, CMC®, since 1988 and my practice and behavior has been guided by those consulting competencies and an enforceable Code of Ethics.  In fact, specific lines in our Code of Ethics would have precluded some of these problems the books and articles reference.  As partial examples:

3.0   I will only accept assignments for which I possess the requisite experience…

6.0   I will avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of such…

13.0 I will represent the profession with integrity…

My sense is simple – had the members of any of those larger firms subscribed to and adhered to the same standards I, and my peers, do, the likelihood of these reputational hits would have been minimized or eliminated.  It’s a shame, the organization I am part of, the Institute of Management Consultants USA, had as one of the founding members, Marvin Bower, who was also one of the founders of McKinsey. In fact, the year I was earned my CMC®, Mr. Bower was awarded the highest honor in the Institute, Fellow of the Institute.  In 1964 he enunciated six requirements for McKinsey, the first was “to bring ethical values essential for a professional practice…”  Hmm.

Up your game and your professional standing.  Separate yourself from the negative reputation some of the large firms are giving consultants.  They get the bad press; we get the result of their damage caused by their wake.

And, finally, my acceptance and adherence to these consulting competencies and a code of ethics has been transformational to my practice.  Now I, too, have been recognized by IMC USA as a Fellow of the Institute, in 2018, following Mr. Bower and only60 other consultants.

I’m ashamed of what’s happened.  I can only guess what Mr. Bower would be thinking about this negative press and it’s not good.

More information about Consulting Competencies, Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct can be found, internationally, at www.icmci.org and in the U.S. at www.imcusa.org.