I'm delighted by all the consultant bashing that's taking place on this board. In my experience though, most consultancy fails to deliver its stated objectives because it is purchased incorrectly.
Consultancy should be purchased in small doses to achieve specific tasks. Yes, sometimes consultants simply serve to validate and legitimise what management have already decided to do. But other times, they add real value through their experience.
I don't know much about much, but what I do know I've done with over 50 Fortune 500 companies. How many executives can claim that sort of experience? Through experience, I can highlight the pitfalls ahead of time and save a company an enormous amount of learning time and expense.
Where consultancy fails to deliver is on an open brief. I've seen this, particularly with the big-five consultants, again and again. In many Fortune 100 organisations, there are swarms of consultants running around the organisation with no clear strategic objective. And that gets very expensive, very quickly.
Sigh. Aren't there some lawyers around to pick on?