By Guillaume Carton, EM Lyon Business School 

McKinsey & Company and other consulting firms have long faced criticisms for their involvement with governments. Investigative journalists and academics alike have flagged their growing influence, citing cases like the staggering expenses of up to £1 million per day on private consultants for the UK’s Covid-19 Test-and-Trace service, or the €10.7 million in contracts paid to McKinsey by the French government during the same crisis.

The investigation into the French government’s over-reliance on McKinsey led to a Senate report and, eventually, a scandal dubbed “McKinsey Gate”. On September 18, journalist Elise Lucet brought the issue to the forefront with her investigative TV show Cash Investigation. The episode zeroed in on McKinsey’s ties to the 2017 presidential campaign of Emmanuel Macron, alongside allegations of fraud and tax evasion.

Cash Investigation is famous – or infamous, if you happen to be the subject of an episode – for its deep dives into corporate and political controversies. The show has exposed a myriad of scandals, from environmental misdoings to tax fraud. In the episode dedicated to McKinsey, Lucet was on a mission to unravel the web of influence it allegedly wove during Macron’s ascent to the presidency.

Consultants’ criticism

While the episode raised more than a few eyebrows, consultants who made the time to watch it were less than impressed. “Lame,” said one former strategy expert on social media. For consultants, the documentary’s criticism surrounding the financing of Macron’s 2017 presidential campaign remains limited to his relationship with Karim Tadjeddine, the McKinsey partner who managed the firm’s work with the French government. Similarly, the accusations of fraud and tax evasion were viewed as issues confined to McKinsey’s corporate financial practices, rather than something that implicated individual consultants.

As one senior public sector consultant put it, Lucet’s angle is “rather hackneyed.” With the industry experiencing at least 10% annual growth, consultants argue that they’re simply fulfilling demand. According to an insider working for one of these strategy consulting firms, Lucet is missing the real target – criticising consultants when the fault lies with the French government for mismanaging their services.

Has consulting lost its way?

Yet there is broader criticism that consulting firms have lost their professional ethos. Investigative journalist Duff McDonald, in his 2014 book The Firm, argued that McKinsey veered far from the ethical standards set by its founder, Marvin Bower, in the 1950s, who invented management consulting by taking inspiration from the law profession. What was once a field dedicated to advising clients in the public interest has since become a business focused on maximising profit for its partners.

This shift has led to a long series of scandals involving corruption, unethical work, and conflicts of interest. Other consulting firms, including Bain & Company and BCG, have also faced their fair share of scandals. In 2022, they were banned from bidding on South African government contracts for their role in a state capture scandal, and BCG recently agreed to forfeit $14 million in profits in Angola after admitting to bribery scandal.

While Cash Investigation‘s documentary sheds light on Macron’s ties to McKinsey and highlights the French’s government excessive spending, it pays little attention to a crucial distinction: unlike elected officials, who are accountable to the public, consultants operate in the private sphere. As a consequence, they’re driven by financial interests that may not always align with the government’s responsibility to ensure social welfare. This potential conflict of interest casts doubts on the objectivity and trustworthiness of their advice.

A closer look at recent scandals that strategy consulting firms have faced in advising governments reveals four types of conflicts of interest:

• Personal interests and relationships: As the Cash Investigation episode revealed, Karim Tadjeddine’s connections with Macron’s party allowed McKinsey to establish a strong foothold within government decision-making. This not only advanced Tadjeddine’s career but also underscored a deeper conflict – where consultants build relationships or align themselves with key networks to secure future contracts, bonuses, or other rewards. One common avenue for such conflicts is their pro bono work, which Cash Investigation exposed as a tool that Tadjeddine used to forge connections that later led to profitable contracts.
• Working with conflicting clients and assignments: McKinsey & Company’s involvement in the opioid crisis is a striking example. The firm provided strategic advice both to opioid manufacturers like Purdue Pharma and to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates the opioid market. An investigation by the US House of Representatives revealed that McKinsey failed to disclose these conflicts over a 10-year period, impacting 37 FDA contracts at a cost of over $65 million. Although Cash Investigation did not address such overlapping contracts, similar conflicts likely exist in France, where McKinsey’s work with both public and private clients raises red flags. According to the French Senate, those advising the government are legally required to declare potential conflicts of interest, yet in most cases McKinsey failed to submit these declarations.
• Profit-centered advice: In a highly publicised case, the South African Government Commission found that Bain & Company acted unlawfully colluding with private companies to manipulate government procedures and shape policies in their favour. This highlights a crucial issue overlooked by Cash Investigation: private consultants often pursue financial interests that conflict with the government’s responsibility to serve the public good. When such firms work for governments, these their profit motive can undermine social welfare goals.
• Revolving doors: Another conflict of interest involves leveraging personal connections within government to influence decisions. Largely overlooked by the documentary, this issue is significant: around 1% of McKinsey’s employees in France previously held high-ranking positions in the government, and several have transitioned into government roles. In an industry where networks create opportunities, this revolving door between consulting firms and government raises serious concerns about impartiality. A notable example outside France is Deloitte’s role in the UK’s Covid-19 Test and Trace program, as detailed in “The Big Con”. Deloitte’s close ties to government officials, including Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith – who previously worked for Deloitte – likely fast-tracked the firm’s £279.5 million contract during the pandemic.

A missed opportunity

In its attempt to expose the relationship between McKinsey and the French government, Cash Investigation falls short of addressing deeper issues. It fails to fully explain how consultants have become invisible actors within governments, weakening democratic accountability. It also minimises the extent of conflicts of interest, which are far more pervasive than it acknowledges. While former Minister of Transformation and Public Function Stanislas Guerini explained in the documentary that he avoided pro-bono work following the Senate investigations, it raises the question: why focus on just one form of conflict of interest when there are many others at play?

This article was co-written with Master’s student Juan Carlos Javier Sakr.

Guillaume Carton, Professeur associé en Stratégie, EM Lyon Business School

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.