Dangerous Company: The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save and Ruin - Hardcover

O'Shea, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081292634X ISBN 13: 9780812926347

Publisher: Times Books, 1997

Synopsis

Two investigative reporters reveal the enormous power exercised by the biggest, most secretive firms in the consulting industry, detailing their magnificent successes and failures and their impact on employment and corporate organization. 50,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

Review:

It sounds like a thriller, it even reads like one, but Dangerous Company is actually the paperback version of a 1997 bestseller focusing on some of the most famous consulting firms in the world and some of their most famous faux pas. Written by two Chicago Tribune journalists, this fascinating book blows apart the powerful and secretive world of the likes of McKinsey & Co, Andersen Consulting and Deloitte Touche.

Based on sources within the consulting elite as well as their key clients, chapter after chapter reveals mind-blowing accounts of some of the worst disasters in consulting history, but also some of the greatest turnarounds. Read how one Fortune 500 company spent over $75 million on consultants only to find itself facing bankruptcy, while Sears' clever, and limited, use of consultants saved itself from the jaws of financial ruin. James O'Shea and Charles Madigan have revealed a side of management consultancy the consultants would rather you didn't know. For anyone hiring, or thinking of hiring, consultants, buy this book now. Even if you only read the 10-point checklist at the end, the few pounds outlay could save your company considerably more. For the rest, this book is an unmissable business handbook, revealing compelling insights into management-thinking at the end of the twentieth century. --Carey Green

From the Publisher:

"Required Reading" -- The Economist
This is a great book for anyone whose company has ever been invaded by consultants. It answers the most basic questions: Who are these people? Why do they earn so much money? Are they really responsible for the downsizing epidemic? What happens when executives let their consultants run amok? DANGEROUS COMPANY is a HOT book -- it has already been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times ("Engrossing"), The Economist ("Required Reading"), Business Week, and Fortune. And as Jack Stack puts it, "It reads more like a thriller than a book about business."

About this edition

• Publisher: Times Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 081292634X
• ISBN 13: 9780812926347
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 355