Book Review
Management Consultancy, Morgan Witzel, London and New York, NY: Routledge, Paperback, 2016, 167 pp., $59.95 and £29.99, ISBN: 978-1-138-79884-7.
Morgan Witzel’s book on Management Consultancy sets out new ground in a field, which is insufficiently explored in the academic literature. The author is a well-known writer on management and its history. He is much published and has written many books and articles in the field. His books have come out in 12 languages and sold more than 60,000 copies worldwide. (see http://www.morgenwitzel.com/publications/). He is a Fellow of the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter Business School in the West Country in the UK. Witzel has long experience in dealing with companies not only from an academic, but also a practitioner angle.
The book deals with both conceptual and practical dimensions of consultancy in a readable and interesting manner. It is divided into three parts, what consultancy is, what consultants do, and issues in management consultancy in altogether a dozen chapters, with a full bibliography and index.
The respective chapters, which cover a very wide range of topics are respectively: introduction, what is management consultancy?, from company doctors to strategic partners, the rules of the consultant, the client, analysis, problem solving and capacity building, impact, failure and recovery, ethics in management consultancy, consultancy and sustainability, and last, a career in consultancy.
Witzel’s coverage of this very interesting topic is most thorough and his analysis is indeed robust, presented in a truly global business setting. The book has many analytical dimensions and contains a number of box-diagrams, which will be of considerable use to readers. There is also at the end of each chapter, one or more case-studies with an international coverage. The last chapter of the book, namely a career in consultancy, offers a number of sensible pointers to those who wish to pursue this track as a practitioner.
Although the book is based on interviews, it is not, however a global survey of the subject. This work is free-flowing and does not overburden the reader with too much detail. However, one awaits a full-scale research project on this subject on the themes covered in this short work. The author would be eminently suitable to pursue such an investigation in depth and breadth. Perhaps he might be persuaded to apply for serious research-funds to carry out such an extensive project on the topic. The field certainly needs more research to shed light on the far-reaching influence of consultants vis a vis the world of corporations and government, whether one approves of the role or otherwise. There are, for example, many who see them merely as the handmaidens of power and rather expensive ones at that!
Last, it is hard to deny that the book is clearly written and accessible to not only undergraduates and MBAs in the subject but also interested practitioners. As it stands, at 167 pages, it is a very suitable short introduction to the topic for all those interested in this field of activity. There are not many books which can compete with it and which are as up-to-date. It can be highly recommended to such readers.
