My understanding is that corporate execs generally know when they need to change their business practices, but personal relationships make it difficult for them to confront presidents and vice-presidents that are making bad decisions.
So they hire firms like McKinsey to do polling, studies, etc. and just so happen to come up with the same ideas as the CEO was planning on implementing anyway. That way when they push the bad veeps to the curb they can blame it on the consultants and they can still be golf buddies.
But because the CEO was responsible for the old policies that didn't work, and the CEO is the real force behind the new policies, they most likely won't work either.
The real tragedy is that these organizations hire lots of the "best and brightest" who end up spending their careers making lots of money adding little or no value to the economy. Basically they are a legion of parasites. Beautiful young parasites no doubt, but still parasites.
My brother’s take on McKinsey and other consultants:
“The top brass brings in a consultant when there is a tough decision to be made, and they really don’t want to make it. So they bring in consultants to take the rap for them. We really didn’t want to do this awful thing, but the consultants told us that we had to.”
They are the Fall Guys with huge billable hours.
And, to cap it all, it looks like McKinsey gets to use whatever they learn about their clients for their own benefit. Makes you wonder - do other C-level advisers (legal, accounting, tax, HR, PR) get the same side benefits? In this day and age, and with the general lack of ethics of our elites, it makes you wonder...