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House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time
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Sales rank 767,807
Customers rating (based on 33 reviews)
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DESCRIPTION: In the bestselling tradition of Liar's Poker comes a devastatingly accurate and darkly hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the wonderful world of management consulting. Once upon a time in Corporate America there was a group of men and women who were paid huge fees to tell organizations what they were doing wrong and how to improve themselves. These men and women promised everything and delivered nothing, said they were experts when they were not, sometimes ruined careers, and at best, only wasted time, energy, and huge sums of money. They called themselves Management Consultants....Welcome to the world of Martin Kihn, a former stand-up comic and EmmyÆ Award-nominated television writer who decided to "go straight" and earn his MBA at a prestigious Ivy League university. In HOUSE OF LIES, he chronicles his first two years as a newly-minted management consultant in all its unadulterated glory--the erroneous advice, the absurd arrogance, the vicious backstabbing, and the bloody power stuggles. Hey, it's all in a day's work...and it pays really well.
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| Publisher | Business Plus | | Release date | 03/2005 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
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 Doesn't live up to the subtitle
I must admit that, probably like many others, I was attracted by the subtitle, "How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time". However, the book doesn't even come close to meeting this. It turns out to be a "biography" of the author's two years of (rather bland) experience in (too much) detail. Overall disappointing, and I wish I had read something more beneficial.
I do admit that there are some interesting paragraphs, but overall, nothing that is new and worth the time to read.
Consider the one star reviews seriously
It's amazing the shared experience I have with the one to two star reviewers. They said everything I'd want care to point out. Last I heard the author is actually writing for one of those 'hip' American business magazines. I wrote this just to say : To 'The Economists' shame, they gave this book a glowing review.
 Why is this child so unhappy?
Ultimately - and this is why the book fails - you just don't care. You don't care about the author in real life - he wanders through the pages without a life. You don't care about the persona - he wanders through the pages without a life. How can one man be TWO schlemiehls? Not even this wondrous puzzle is enough to rescue the book. And that's a pity.
"Marty" (he never grows up) is bright without being smart, verbal without being...well...interesting. He has experiences that could have taught him about the world, not only of consulting, but of people. Instead, he produces just one witty riff of lamentation after another. Too bad there is no melody. You read and read, hoping to see that this fellow has learned something, even if surrounded only by stick figures. He never does. They always are. Aren't we so, so very perceptive, world-weary, blah blah blah? At the end, you realize there is no end. Unhappy Martin did not go to a good enough B-school (it was only Columbia!) to become king of Corinth and doesn't have the guts to dig a deep enough hole to win the name of Sisyphus. Oh, First Tier Consulting Company (never named), just fire this kid. Do him a favor. Give him no choice except to learn about himself.
Yup, I've consulted for years, and I've met lots of people who consulted for other firms. Martin, Martin, Martin - listen to them, hear them. They are just plain folks trying to get by. They are not "consultants"; they are "people who consult". There are no "clients"; they are just plain folks who hire consultants and who try to get by. Of course they're funny. Of course they make mistakes. That's what folks do. But folks persevere - not just survive, Martin, they persevere. You need to learn that. You need to like them, Martin. It's quite your only choice.
But I'll give you two stars for several reasons. People who run business schools might benefit from this book - they can learn who not to let in. People who plan to go into business, indeed, into any profession, might benefit from this book - they can learn what not to become and who not to befriend. People who are already in business might benefit from this book - they can learn who not to accept on the consulting team. You are a witty fellow, Martin, if mostly froth and little beer. You show some promise, although that promise will take you only so far. And you do like dogs.
David Block
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Sour Grapes
The author is a very skilled writer and also demonstrates a sense of humor. However, his limited engagement experiences combined with obviously pre-conceived notions about the profession taint his story and undermine his argument that the industry is filled with cheats and liars. He also fails to adequately address the trend of consolidation in business and other factors giving rise to the consulting industry, and how the industry has become a very real cost of doing business for America's Fortune 500. Check it out at your local library.
Title sets you up for a fall.
Looking at the title I thought and expected to be shown how consultants are inefficient and bad value for their employers. I worked at the same company that Kihn, and can tell you he accurately observes some of the idiosyncrasies of consulting life. He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. The book is at times, entertaining, and other times long winded. For the entertainment I give it two stars. However, it falls short of what the title sets it up for.
The only proof that management consultants are "Stealing your watch" is Dilbertesque observations of the sometimes illogical and strange goings on in the consulting world. You could write about the unique and sometimes absurd world of engineers, doctors, etc, and claim that the profession was inefficient. His view is one sided. To listen to Khin every engagement is a bunch of BS artists sitting in front of a dazed, bewildered and hopeless client, and I know that is not true. If he really felt that he wasn't providing value and was "stealing your watch" how did he ethically justify staying so long?
Had he titled it, "The crazy world of management consulting and my life in it" I would have given it three or four stars, as it would have lived up to its billing, but to present it as an expose of the industry it fails short.
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