コンサルティングの悪魔―日本企業を食い荒らす騙しの手口 [単行本]

   外資系コンサルティングファームが人気である。大学生の人気企業ランキングでは、ナショナルブランドのメーカーと肩を並べて上位にランキングされているし、転職市場でも人気が高いという。

   コンサルティング業界を目指す人は、本書を読まないほうがいいかもしれない。日本、アメリカ、イギリスの著明なコンサルティングファームで働き、パートナーにまで上りつめた著者が、書名の通りコンサルティングファームの悪魔的な実態とそこで働く人々の悪魔的な所業を暴いてるからだ。コンサルティングファームにとってはほとんど致命的な暴露本といえるのではないだろうか。

   まるでジョン・グリシャムの小説のように、コンサルティングファームに対するイメージとはあまりにもかけ離れたエピソードが連続する。しかも、世界的によく知られている企業が実名で出てくるから、書かれていることは真実なのだろう。エピソードの多くは、クライアントの弱みにつけ込んでいかに巧みに金を巻き上げるしくみを作り上げたか、コンサルティングファーム社内での足の引っ張り合い、といったコンサルタントたちの醜い日常である。

   副題に「日本企業を食い荒らす騙しの手口」とあるが、騙された企業として登場するのはほとんどが欧米の企業である。本書は、その騙しの手口でいま日本企業が食い荒らされている、という警鐘を鳴らしているのである。（坂井 誠）

In this gripping and colorful account of the American dream gone astray, Lewis Pinault provides the essential guidelines on how to get ahead and an enlightening perspective on the brutal infighting that can engulf even the most civilized consulting firm. This stunning exposé of some of the most prestigious and respected names in the business leads you into a world where a client's interests are skillfully subordinated to those of the consultants, where money rules the day, and where principles and morals are unwelcome baggage.

Humorous and insightful, this no-holds-barred account takes you behind the scenes of the dehumanizing indoctrination of an academic intellectual into an exploitative -- and exploited -- "global transformation contractor." Featuring new material dealing with the e-consulting industry's boom, bust, and its future, Consulting Demons offers the most complete look at an industry that exacts the highest prices for the most questionable standards of success.

--このテキストは、 ペーパーバック 版に関連付けられています。

東京のボストン・コンサルティング・グループを皮切りに、若き著者は、経営コンサルタントとしての道を歩み始める。時あたかもリエンジニアリングの嵐が吹き荒れるさなか、著者は日本の大手生命保険会社をはじめ、企業の経営立て直しに奔走する。しかし、クライアントを助けるはずのコンサルタントたちは、逆にその弱点につけ込み、利用し、騙し、再建に死にもの狂いの企業からとんでもない利益をあげていた―。本書はコンサルティング業界の驚くべき内情を暴露した衝撃の手記である。

企業再建を請け負い、クライアントを助けるはずのコンサルタントたちは、逆にその弱点につけ込み、利用し、騙し、とんでもない利益をあげていた-。元コンサルティング会社社員が、業界の実態を暴露する。

With the ubiquitous term consultant now being bandied about as practically every second person's job description, Consulting Demons is a book for everyone. At once an entertaining account of one man's personal odyssey through the various levels and organizations of the corporate consulting world, an informed opinion given to fresh-faced MBAs choosing this profession as a career, and an ominous warning to clients not yet privy to its inner workings, Consulting Demons is a compelling read.

Earning an undergraduate degree in political science at MIT, Lewis Pinault channeled his interests in space development into areas more salable in the late 1970s, namely, ocean engineering and Japanese. Hired directly out of college by a Japanese shipbuilder, he spent the next few years living in the conglomerate's dilapidated dormitories, mastering the language and gaining valuable project management experience. Pinault's introduction to the alluring world of corporate consulting came through company contact with consultants from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and a year later he'd been willingly sucked into the vortex of a fast-paced, all-consuming 12-year consulting career. His ensuing adventures led him throughout Southeast Asia, in and out of BCG, the MAC Group, Gemini Consulting, Arthur D. Little (ADL), and finally Coopers & Lybrand, and through a number of less-than-professional exercises in client scamming and industrial espionage (otherwise known as benchmarking).

Having left the sanctums of global consultancies to pursue his original aspirations in science and the law, Pinault has written an exposé of considerable force. Part autobiography, part cautionary manual, the book presents a dark picture of the world of management consulting; in fact, each of its chapters ends with a "Consulting Demonology" tract, including such topics as "Client Beware: Consultants' Spycraft Charms" and "Red Spots and Other Ruses Consultants Use to Close on Large Fees." Though Pinault's tone is sometimes rather arrogant, it serves to reinforce the nature of the consulting game, one that this book portrays as risky and lucrative for the consultant but extremely costly and often not worthwhile for the client. If you're already a bona fide member of the ever-growing management consultant population, read this book and measure your worth as a successful trickster or unknowing drone. If you're thinking of becoming a consultant, read this book and think again. If you're a client about to sign a pact with the devil (or its demons), beware. --S. Ketchum
--このテキストは、 ハードカバー 版に関連付けられています。

This expose is sure to incite envy and lust for the power and influence consulting entails, while simultaneously inciting dismay at the underhanded tactics consultants apparently use as a matter of course. Pinault, an international player in a number of major consulting organizations, narrates the story of his life as a participant in a number of corporate takeovers, reengineerings and project startups. The book is heavily dependent on dialogue, which lends an air of freshness and reality to business subjects often bound in stilted, academic prose. The story begins with Pinault's background: he tells how, having hoped for a career in space technology, he detoured into the study of Japanese and began his career working for a Japanese shipbuilding firm. This was followed quickly by his immersion into the international Boston Consulting Group. With the exception of a few detailed descriptions of actual consulting projects--the manufacture of disposable diapers is one--most of this account describes Pinault's rise up the consulting ladder, his struggles with the demands and stress of the job and the machinations of various consulting firms competing intensely on several continents. Pinault's work was sometimes skullduggerish, and he gleefully relates tales of his "benchmarking"--i.e., covertly, duplicitously discovering other companies' trade secrets--and low-bidding competitors' clients. Interspersed throughout are pithy guidelines that condense consulting into simple lessons: e.g., "Cases that begin to show obsession with large quantities of data... run a high danger of fractured expectations." This is two books in one, the narrative refreshing and illuminating, the guidelines terse and educational. At times, both serve to highlight the shady, sometimes questionable activities that seemingly permeate this professional culture. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this gripping and colorful account of the American dream gone astray, Lewis Pinault provides the essential guidelines on how to get ahead and an enlightening perspective on the brutal infighting that can engulf even the most civilized consulting firm. This stunning exposé of some of the most prestigious and respected names in the business leads you into a world where a client's interests are skillfully subordinated to those of the consultants, where money rules the day, and where principles and morals are unwelcome baggage.

Humorous and insightful, this no-holds-barred account takes you behind the scenes of the dehumanizing indoctrination of an academic intellectual into an exploitative -- and exploited -- "global transformation contractor." Featuring new material dealing with the e-consulting industry's boom, bust, and its future, Consulting Demons offers the most complete look at an industry that exacts the highest prices for the most questionable standards of success.

--このテキストは、 ペーパーバック 版に関連付けられています。

CONSULTING DEMONS

Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global Corporate Consulting

"What is a Management Consultant?" the prized MBA candidate asked.

"The best of us - and that could be you - know without ever needing to ask. We’re a breed apart," the consultant observed, arrogance and irony in perfect balance.

"Okay, so that could be me, but what does that mean?" the MBA persisted.

"Of course there’s money involved," the consultant offered. "Great deals of money. World travel, first-class living. A chance to influence every corporation on the planet. Virtually no limits to whatever secrets and appetites you feel you need to indulge".

"Yes, but what is it that we do?" the recruit tried one last time, his doubts rapidly evaporating.

"You’ll see""

In this book Lewis Pinault takes a humorous and insightful look at the world of management consultants in this no-holds-barred view of the business.

·For aspiring consultants, this is an unvarnished look at the life of a consultant, with essential, darkly revealing guidelines on how to get ahead and an enlightening perspective on the brutal infighting that can engulf even the most civilized consulting firm.

·For current executives and potential clients, Pinault reveals what consultants are really thinking and scheming, and explores the unscrupulous lengths to which a consulting firm will go in order to protect and increase its own lucrative fees.

·For the general reader, this is a rollicking yarn brimming with vignettes drawn from a consultant’s daily work, including such characteristic consulting activities as "benchmarking" (deep-cover corporate espionage), "business transformation" (mass brainwashing), and "client entertainment" (global debauchery).
--このテキストは、 ハードカバー 版に関連付けられています。

Lewis Pinault is vice president of consumer industries at one of the world's leading computer services and outsourcing firms, and he is a research practitioner with the Imagination Lab Foundation established by the LEGO Group. Consulting Demons, Pinault's notorious firsthand, partner-level account of the too-often unscrupulous workings of the consulting industry, led to his intensive exploration and development of new and better means of client engagement and consumer understanding. An MIT graduate, Juris Doctor, Fulbright Scholar and NASA Space Grant Fellow, Pinault combines a unique mix of science and policy perception in developing his exceptional "fun with a purpose" perspective on consumers, play and technology. He lives in London.

--このテキストは、 ペーパーバック 版に関連付けられています。

ピーノルト,ルイス
米ロードアイランド州生まれ。1982年にマサチューセッツ工科大学(MIT)を卒業。3年間、日本鋼管で勤務したのちロンドン大学へ留学。1985年に東京のボストン・コンサルティング・グループに入社。以来12年間、BCGをはじめジェミニ・コンサルティング、アーサー・D・リトル、クーパース&ライブランドなど、一流のコンサルティング会社に所属し、最終的に重役に相当するパートナーの地位に上り詰める。97年に業界を去り、その欺瞞と策略に満ちた実体を暴露した本書を執筆し話題となる。現在は念願の宇宙開発の夢を実現すべくNASAに勤務(本データはこの書籍が刊行された当時に掲載されていたものです)