(Ebook) The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies by Mariana Mazzucato, Rosie Collington ISBN 9780593492673, 0593492676

(Ebook) The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies by Mariana Mazzucato, Rosie Collington ISBN 9780593492673, 0593492676

The book you hold in your hands began as a series of questions: Why do so many governments outsource critical activities to consulting companies? Why has the market for consulting services grown so much in recent decades—and globally? What do consultants do, and what role does the consulting industry play in the economy overall? Why do so many well meaning and smart graduates choose to work for these companies? And what might this tell us about contemporary capitalism?We wanted to unpack what happens to the brain of an organization when it is not learning by doing because someone else is doing the doing. To explore these questions, we had conversations with government leaders, civil servants, business executives, employees on both sides of consulting contracts, and colleagues and friends who shared their stories with us. From them, we learned not only about current challenges, but what alternatives might look like. Above all, they showed us that even within the most hollowed out of government departments and the most denigrated of workforces, visions of a better future endure—of more capable organizations, more responsive governance and more inclusive, sustainable and innovative economies. We hope this book not only starts a conversation about the problems with how our governments and businesses are run today, but also provides some tools and inspiration for creating public purpose within them in the future.