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Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

(www.economist.com)
167 points godelmachine | 1 comments | 19 Oct 24 14:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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photochemsyn ◴[19 Oct 24 17:26 UTC] No.41889135[source]▶
Don't all these consulting firms have a really bad record when it comes to large-scale infrastructure projects? Some of the worst examples are Ciudad Real International Airport (Spain/McKinsey), Karuma Hydroelectric Project (Uganda/Deloitte), Chongwe River Water Supply Project (Zambia/Boston Consulting Group), Isimba Dam Project (Uganda/McKinsey), Haramain High-Speed Rail Project (Saudi Arabia/Deloitte), and Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant on Long Island, New York (McKinsey).

In constrast, China's infrastructure projects are highly successful - high-speed rail now covers 42,000 km across 100 corridors, and the first one was only completed in 2008. Based on their example, the most efficient way to build modern infrastructure is to cut the consultancy firms out of the loop entirely.

replies(3): >>41889960 #>>41890832 #>>41894772 #
1. shadowmanifold ◴[20 Oct 24 11:58 UTC] No.41894772[source]▶
An even better example is the city of Chongqing. Looking at pictures of Chongqing from when I was in high school, I would say what stands today is simply not possible. Yet there it is.

If you cut out consultancy firms, we would still not be able to do anything close to that in America. There are many reasons. None that I would expect to figure out and resolve anytime soon , if ever.