I addressed an evening class of graduate students last night as a favor to the professor. Nice people, international, attentive. But I felt they were stunned when I explained how consultants operate and what the benefits are of this profession. It struck me once again that no one “studies” to be a consultant. We all wind up in the profession having traveled back roads or been washed up on the shore. The closest you get to an academic regimen is the legion of MBAs who are gobbled up by the “Big Four,” which are much more like auditing firms than consulting firms.
I think it’s for the best. The thought of thousands of theoretical academics teaching insanely complex models and pontificating on techniques they’ve never actually used and which would never actually work (just read some of the books being published) would probably kill the profession as we know it.
