Consulting firms in South Africa have come in for a significant amount of criticism over the past 12 months with the likes of Bain, Mckinsey, Gartner and KPMG being questioned about the value they actually add.
This has been particularly relevant when it comes to their work relating to parastatals and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) where consultants have been seen as the answer to many operational and strategic challenges that these organisations face.
In some cases, public pressure has forced the consulting firms to repay significant retainers and fees that were generated from the work they did.
INSEAD are recognised as one of the Business Schools in the world and they recently featured a forum relating to Artificial Intelligence and one of the panels featured Emmanuel Jusserand, Partner at Accenture Digital Strategy. Here he introduces the concept of “Sheldon” – a tool aimed at changing the way that management consulting is likely to work:
