WHO IS consulting good for? Consultants, obviously. Chief executives, who can blame failure on bad outside advice and take credit for successful counsel. Also, for the industry’s one listed behemoth, its shareholders. Between the start of 2015 and the end of 2024 Accenture, which split off from its accounting sibling in 2000 and went public a year later, generated a total return (including dividends) of around 370%, handily outdoing not just the S&P 500 index but also Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, rival redoubts of advisory smugness. As America’s stockmarket climbed to an all-time high in February, the firm was worth $250bn, more than either investment bank.
