that was awarded contracts worth 100s of k worth of local authority money every year to do very basic excel spreadsheets and write reports. Really simple work and a waste of taxpayer money. (not like the work wasn't worth doing - I believe it was - just hugely overpriced even when you take into account all the overheads for employing people full-time) In my experience management consultants bring nothing and take out a lot. They don't do anything that the existing managers should not be able to do already. Or they provide "leadership skills" coaching or other such nonsense. Or they're hired through acquaintance. And anyway, as per the case studies, I don't understand how recent graduates with experience of university life and little else, can "consult" on anything. Bullshit merchants. The exact reason why recent graduates do not consult on anything. That is why they go through a rigorous training regime at the start of their entry into the consultancy. During that time, they may work in teams and interact with clients but generally, they will not be doing any direct consultancy. Only after a few years, once they have picked up the skills that you rightly alluded to, do they then start to consult. I worked for 18 years for a French industrial group, CAC40, rock hard and extremely successful until they put in an HEC Graduate as CEO (after 60 years of Engineers) and went back on 140 years of practice which consisted basically of "we don't