House of Lies

How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time

by Martin Kihn

Warner Books, 2005

ISBN: 9780446576567
Pages: 288

Category: Industries

In this summary you will learn

• What consultants do and do not do
• What the consultants’ rules for engagement are
• How McKinsey & Co. uses a five-step approach to solve problems
• How to understand consulting through jokes, jargon and unwritten rules

Why you should read House of Lies

This unusual, entertaining business book covers one man’s experience working for an unnamed, but top-line consulting firm. Author Martin Kihn tells unvarnished stories about working with clients who mix ambiguous problems with political infighting. The consulting firms he describes come off as unbalanced organizations with barely functioning teams and aged political hierarchies. Then there are the bleak working conditions and long weeks of travel, described in ways that completely dispel the glamorous myth of the globetrotting consultant. Throughout, Kihn keeps the story moving and funny, even though he sometimes gets too caught up in his own cleverness. Now and then, he seems to restrain his real opinion and the resulting conclusion seems flimsy compared to his other material, but soon he gets back to deflating jargon and popping myths. Even though it is an additional rock being hurled in the hailstorm of consultant bashing, getAbstract.com recommends this funny, informative book to anyone working with consultants or considering a consulting career.

About the Author

Martin Kihn holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Yale. His work has appeared in New York, The New York Times, GQ, Us, Details, Cosmopolitan and Forbes, among others, and he has been on the staff of Spy, Forbes, New York and Vibe. Kihn currently works as a strategy consultant at a top-tier management consulting firm.

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