What do consultants actually do?

In a letter to the US business magazine, Fortune, an American executive, Charles Yarham, explained the remarkable boom in consultancy.

"If you initiate a project on your own and it succeeds, well, that's your job. If the programme fails, it's your neck. However, if you hire a consultant and the project succeeds, it's a feather in your cap. If the project fails, you have a consulting firm to blame. After all, they're the experts."

In other words, it's about the transfer of accountability. Making sure that the dungheap ends up on someone else's doorstep.

source: Business Telegraph