Book Launch: The Big Con at UCL

There is an entrenched relationship between the consulting industry and the way business and government are managed today which must change. Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington show that our economies’ reliance on companies such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY stunts innovation, obfuscates corporate and political accountability and impedes our collective mission of halting climate breakdown.
Moderated by Carolina Alves, Associate Professor in Economics, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, authors Mariana Mazzucato, Professor and Founding Director, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and Rosie Collington, PhD Candidate, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose discuss the themes of the book in conversation with John Elkington, Founder and Chief Pollinator, Volans and Jeremy Oppenheim, Founder and Senior Partner, SYSTEMIQ.

[@bernadmanny]

This past month in Australia PwC has had a massive scandal where they gave advice on tax measures and then pinky promised to keep it confidential...they didn't. Now PwC is shedding its Australian government advice department. Hopefully this means the public service will now be rebuilt in Australia.

[@davidwilkie9551]

The consultation process at the Oracle of Delphi was empowered by Ethylene Gas, something similar, empowering the Consultation impositions related to Methylene Gases motivated the amputation of the "limbs" of effective democratic governance, by Privatisation and Fiscal fantasy economics.., not only in Australia. (Thanks for the reminder)

[@davidwilkie9551]

To quote a certain great Teacher of Physics, the Science of Measurement and Standards of equivalence in statistical analysis, "Everything is Waves", which means that the perception of a fixed Speed of Light is subject to Measurement conditions, for example. Deregulation has been tried, and like a discovery in Physics, reciprocation-recirculation i-reflection reference-framing is probabilistic empirical shaping laws, and are subject to "reregulation" of inputs to a coherence-cohesion resonance system, sync-duration is alterable. Economics is at best, "good intentions", and at worst, Tyranny not with good intentions in an Ecology going badly chaotic.

[@davidwilkie9551]

The Medical Doctor questioning methodology and evidence required to justify it is relevant "across the board". It's the continuous process of Actuality, in which all action is experimental and observation of consequences is extremely patchy under conditions of rote learned inflexible formulae.

[@davidwilkie9551]

Consultants are not evil, the buck passing policy of labelling scapegoats is.

[@tonywilson4713]

Yeah the McKinsey guy was insufferable and so DAMN TYPICAL - _"Its not our fault. Its those who hire us!"_ How does ANYONE fresh out of university actually have the experience to magically help those with experience at their job? The consulting industry, as far as the major plyers goes, is one giant scam where armies of incompetent clowns hide behind a few who occasionally know what they are saying.

[@MrMarinus18]

I don't think they are evil but I do think they are human which means they are flawed. "Experts" have their own prejudices and biases. Consultancy firms constantly hire from elite universities and the people there are overwhelmingly from high social backgrounds which creates a certain view of the world and a certain view of those below them in that hierarchy. I think the problem is that we are expecting "experts" to transcend human bias and that's just not possible. That's why we have democracy. While no individual can overcome their individual biases, when those biases are spread out over millions then a truth will come to light.

[@MrMarinus18]

One thing you see with technocracies a lot is that there is an excessive distrust of the lower classes and an excessive faith in the higher classes. That's because the experts are from that higher class and they are biased in favor of their own class and also biased against those they consider beneath them on the social ladder. I don't think this makes them evil, it makes them human. Favoring your own group, looking down on others beneath you on the social ladder and distrusting the 'other' are all things that are part of being human. That's why we have democracy and rule of law, to accommodate those flaws that we have.