How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Economies and Harms Democracy | Mariana Mazzucato
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 มี.ค. 2023
- Join us for a ground-breaking investigation into how the consulting industry has made its way to the heart of our economies, weakening businesses and infantilising governments.
Professor Mariana Mazzucato is no ordinary economist.
Author of 3 blockbuster books, winner of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought, and heralded as one of the ‘3 most important thinkers about innovation’ (New Republic), ‘one of the 50 most creative peoplein business’ (Fast Company), and one of the ‘25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism’ (WIRED), she has the ear of policymakers from the WHO to the UN and far beyond.
Now she returns to How To Academy, alongside her brilliant PhD student and political economist Rosie Collington, with a ground-breaking investigation into how the consulting industry stunts innovation, obfuscates corporate and political accountability and impedes our collective mission of halting climate breakdown.
The ‘Big Con’ is possible in today’s economies because of the unique power that consultancies wield through extensive contracts and networks - as advisors, legitimators and outsourcers - and the illusion that they are objective sources of expertise and capacity.
In conversation with former Editorial Director of BBC News, Kamal Ahmed, Mariana and Rosie will expertly debunk the myth that consultancies always add value to the economy. Presenting a wealth of original research, they will argue brilliantly for investment and collective intelligence within all organizations and communities, and for a new system in which public and private sectors work innovatively for the common good.
Praise for Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington’s The Big Con:
‘A powerful indictment of a dubious industry. This book should be read around the globe, and kickstart a debate that’s long overdue: Do we really need all those consultants?’ Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists and Humankind
‘The power of government is crucial for driving the economy forward. But only if it retains capacity. Mazzucato and Collington have written a brilliant book that exposes the dangerous consequences of outsourcing state capacity to the consulting industry-and how to build it back. A fascinating look at the biggest players in the game and why this matters for all of us.’ Stephanie Kelton, author of The Deficit Myth
Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). Her previous books include The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths, The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy and Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism.
Rosie Collington is a PhD candidate at IIPP whose writing has been published in the Guardian, OpenDemocracy and the Independent. Her academic research Economics, United Kingdom, Great Britain has been published by New Political Economy and the Institute for New Economic Thinking.
Kamal Ahmed is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The News Movement, a new media business focused on social media channels, new audiences and digital consumption. Between 2018 and 2021, Kamal was Editorial Director of BBC News, working across news strategy, daily news and planning, commissioning, analysis, visual and audio journalism and new forms of digital content.
We need a new narrative about public sector value and public administration. Mazzucato is on the right track in developing a new narrative for public administration. Governments across the world need to listen to Mazzucato and not consulting agencies.
There is a revolving door between billionaire funded think tanks and global consultancy firms and local and central governments. Consultancy firms encourage senior staff to take senior management positions in local and central governments to reform policies and management structures that weave consultancy firms into management structures. The business model is to capture the income streams of local and central governments.
Government has an incentive to choose a consultant who will say the preferred policy is correct. Consultants have an incentive to tell government what it wants to hear.
It was a pity to listen to this talk and not hear that the blame doesn't lie solely with the consultancies, instead the blame lies partially with the Tory government giving backhanded deals to cronies at the big four.
Instead of creating expertise from within organizations that adds value to the people that already make a living from those organizations, outsource that expertise by adding another layer of bureaucracy. The managerial class must think that the people they manage only know what's going on if they tell them.
I find it hard to believe that "bribery" and "kickbacks" are not significant factors at play, yet those two words and their derivations don't appear at all in the book.
And yet she is a consultant
Great conversation, refreshing.
Perhaps a grass root narrative of positive peace and civic responsibility may create a consciousness that the individual is both a consumer and citizen requiring a government of by and for the people as the policy creator
Politics and economics looks exactly like what it is. A confidence trick.
Word.
This is a Neuroscience question, to be iterated from First Principle Observation approach.
Sharing will save the world.
Nice.
I have a number of problems with her message. This idea that consultants come and go is not new. Look up Steve Jobs' video on the lack of depth in consulting versus working in a product driven company and owning the scar tissue for your decisions. Unfortunately, there's often this tired old notion of "why can't we build a sizeable public service with people who have grey hair and know the history of how things were done in the past". It feels like that's 50% of her message. My answer to this is that the world is more complex and changes more quickly. As much as I think consultants lack depth, what's the alternative? A staid and out of touch public service? The world doesn't work like this anymore.
Ghengis Kahn asked "Consultants" from each religion under his dominion, (after his establishment of a systematic military Law), which way to "Heaven". In the era, as now ,"It's always NOW", so the advice was tailored to suit the believers, and that hasn't changed, consultation leads directly to Privatisation(?). Facts in Evidence are required for appropriate encompassing Social Policy.
If there was a way to live a good life I've lived off grid for 30 years and I'm learning every second of my life i could help people live better for free i don't want enething in return please be healthy happy and lucky
Keynesian Economics a balance of power worker union & corporate business with Government the leader
You should make a content on how to earn 6 figures in monthly profits cos I've been reading about investors making up as much and I'd really love to know how to such substantial profit in this current market
🌹🌹✍✍