A Consultant's Comeuppance

This article—written by The Bloom Group's founding partner, Bob Buday, and published in the February 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review—is a fictional case study about a consulting firm called Flynn Fuller Consulting that is about to be banished by a longstanding client, a major bank. A new CEO of the bank orders senior managers to get rid of all consultants except those who can make a convincing case about why they should stay. The case study then explores the debate among a quickly assembled Flynn Fuller team about what should go into the one-hour presentation the CEO has requested. Several commentators, including executives who have used consultants, offer their views on how Flynn Fuller can make a strong case. For a reprint of this article, e-mail us at info@bloomgroup.com