The Great Consulting Masquerade: When Generalists Sabotage Technology
A scathing post on the imposture of consulting firms in digital transformation
Prologue: The Phantom Expertise Syndrome In the air-conditioned universe of glass towers, a self-proclaimed caste dictates its law to companies in digital distress. Their weapons? Glittering PowerPoint slides, jargon as hollow as a watermelon, and arrogance proportional to their technical ignorance.
In 2016, Hertz dreams of modernity. Its website? A digital fossil worthy of the Geocities era. Magic solution: Accenture, the "prestigious" firm promising a revolutionary platform for 32 million dollars.
Chronicle of Disaster: Catalog of Aberrations
- The Phantom Responsive Design Accenture delivers a site unusable on mobile. The comic part? The contract specified "mobile-first". When Hertz is surprised, the firm retorts: "That was in the bonuses, pay more".
- The Garbage Code Contractual requirement: a reusable foundation for all subsidiaries. Delivery: a mess of spaghetti code specific to North America.
- The "RAPID" Technology: The Scam of the Century Accenture sells expensive licenses for RAPID — a tool that its teams don't master. Result? Months of delay.
- The Myth of the "Superior Generalist" The firms have implanted a toxic belief: a manager trained at HEC would know better how to architect a system than an engineer with 10 years of experience.
The more the project derails, the more profitable it is
- Sales phase: delusional underestimation of costs
- Execution: massive hiring of under-trained juniors
- Crisis: overcharging for "overruns"
Why Do "Experts" Ignore Technology? The Factory of Credentialed Morons Consultants are recruited on their ability to solve case studies, not a line of code.
Lacking real skills, consultants invent methods:
- "360° Transformation"
- "Next Generation Digital Paradigm"
The Massacre of Internal Teams In-house developers were dismissed as "old technological carcasses".
The Economic Slaughter
- 32 million dollars gone
- Lost market shares
32 million dollars gone. Expensive bug.
Shock Remedies:
- The "Code or Get Out" Principle. Only authorize consultants who can demonstrate their technical skills.
- The 50/30/20 Rule -- 50% internal technical experts -- 30% real external specialists -- 20% max consultants
"Those who don't know how to do don't lead those who know."
Appendices: The Anti-Consultant Arsenal
-
Trap Questions
- "Can you explain how your solution handles CORS?"
- "Show me the API sequence diagram"
- "You're not here tomorrow, how do we manage?"
-
Detoxification Checklist
- [ ] No consultant without technical portfolio
- [ ] Zero PowerPoint before POC
- [ ] Methodologies are only useful if you know how to use them
-
Bibliography of the Awakening
- "Bullshit Jobs" by David Graeber
- "Refactoring" by Martin Fowler
