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This video is a blunt critique of why I will never return to a big consulting firm. After years inside the machine, I came to see how far the industry has drifted from real client service and honest advisory work. What gets marketed as strategy and transformation is often a sales engine driven by partner incentives, internal politics, and quarterly revenue pressure. The result is predictable: clients are treated like accounts to mine, not businesses to serve; leadership rewards politics over competence; and chaos gets mistaken for innovation.
I break down the five reasons I walked away: consulting has become a glorified sales job, partner-led tech selling feels like legalized fraud, the operating model is disorganized, the wrong people are in charge, and the client is no longer the first-class citizen they should be. This is not a polite industry overview. It is a direct, first-hand view of what big consulting has become and why I believe the model is broken at its core. If you have ever questioned the value, incentives, or integrity of large consulting firms, this conversation will probably hit home. It names the incentives, the culture, and the leadership failures most insiders are afraid to say.
By David Linthicum5
44 ratings
This video is a blunt critique of why I will never return to a big consulting firm. After years inside the machine, I came to see how far the industry has drifted from real client service and honest advisory work. What gets marketed as strategy and transformation is often a sales engine driven by partner incentives, internal politics, and quarterly revenue pressure. The result is predictable: clients are treated like accounts to mine, not businesses to serve; leadership rewards politics over competence; and chaos gets mistaken for innovation.
I break down the five reasons I walked away: consulting has become a glorified sales job, partner-led tech selling feels like legalized fraud, the operating model is disorganized, the wrong people are in charge, and the client is no longer the first-class citizen they should be. This is not a polite industry overview. It is a direct, first-hand view of what big consulting has become and why I believe the model is broken at its core. If you have ever questioned the value, incentives, or integrity of large consulting firms, this conversation will probably hit home. It names the incentives, the culture, and the leadership failures most insiders are afraid to say.

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