The profession of management consulting is supremely intellectual, involved with the application of frameworks, hypotheses and logic to messy and abstract realities, furthering the search for truth (and incremental EBIT).
Many professions share this search for truth, in their respective domain. What makes management consulting stand apart is the absence of collaboration and sharing of knowledge, so present and integral to other professions.
Consider the following:
Doctors
- Open teaching hospitals, books, published papers, conferences
Lawyers
- All briefs and arguments filed with the court are open to the public
- Legal arguments and analysis are shared with opposing counsel in any negotiations.
Scientists/Professors/Engineers
- Research is shared publicly, published papers, conferences, teaching universities
Military Officers
- Army War College, joint training exercises, officer exchange programs, published books
Auditors/Accountants
- FAS rulings, journals, filings with the SEC.
Management Consultants
- Conclusions are never shared outside the client
- Books & articles are filled with bland platitudes
- Clients rarely share decks from prior work from previous consultancies
- Internal Knowledge management systems are universally pathetic
In short, the management consulting industry has no means of independently evaluating and rigorously defending logic & analysis.
"Without light, truth cannot be found."