{"product_id":"9780066619989","title":"Consulting Demons: Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global Corporate Consulting","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"What is a Management Consultant?\" the prized MBA candidate asked.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"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.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Okay, so that could be me, but what does that mean?\" the MBA persisted.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Of course there's money involved,\" the consultant offered.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"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.\"   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Yes, but what is it that we do?\" the recruit tried one last time, his  doubts rapidly evaporating.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"You'll see.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this gripping and colorful account of the American dream gone astray,  Lewis Pinault takes us to the shiny heights scaled, and the darkest depths  sunk to, by those ill-defined creatures known as \"Management Consultants.\"  At once a riveting narrative, an alarming cautionary tale, and a treasury of  useful advice, \u003ci\u003eConsulting Demons\u003c\/i\u003e is a rare insider's view of the lucrative  arena of global management consulting. In this stunning expose of some of  the most prestigious and respected names in the business, Pinault takes his  readers by the hand and leads them 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 but unwelcome baggage.  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.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor 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.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor 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).  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this unique firsthand account, Pinault takes readers behind the scenes of  the dehumanizing indoctrination of an academic intellectual into an  exploitative--and exploited--\"global transformation contractor.\" This  incisive and telling book details his ascension in the business, the  compromises he made to his integrity, and his eventual escape from a world  he could no longer come to terms with.With true accounts of harrowing days  spent in the hallowed trenches of consulting, and nights pondering personal  relationships gone out of control, Consulting Demons offers the most  complete look at an industry that exacts the highest prices for the most  questionable standards of success.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLewis Pinault spent more than a decade rising through the ranks of  management con-sulting's most esteemed players, including the Boston  Consulting Group in the U.S. and Japan, Gemini Consulting throughout Europe  and Asia, and Coopers \u0026amp; Lybrand, where he became a Financial Institutions  partner in Hong Kong, before leaving it all behind to pursue his first  passion--International Space Law and Planetary Geosciences--at the  University of Hawaii where he now works with both NASA and the UN Office of  Outer Space Affairs.   \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47063373676784,"sku":"9780066619989","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780066619989_p0.jpg?v=1763635011","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780066619989","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}