Management Myth: Management Consulting Past, Present, and Largely Bogus

Don't go to business school. Study philosophy. Fresh from Oxford with a degree in philosophy and no particular interest in business, Matthew Stewart might not have seemed a likely candidate to become a consultant. But soon he was telling veteran managers how to run their companies. Striking fear into the hearts of clients with his sharp analytical tools, Stewart lived in hotel rooms and got fat on expense account cuisine-until, finally, he decided to turn the consultant's merciless, penetrating eye on the management industry itself. Alongside his devastating critique of management philosophy from Frederick Taylor to Tom Peters, Stewart provides a bitingly funny account of his own days in a management consulting firm. Combining hands-on experience with the theoretical underpinnings of contemporary fads in efficiency improvement, empowerment, and strategy, Stewart knows his stuff, and thus he lays bare how little consultants have really done for the business of others-while making a killing for themselves.