WHO NEEDS AN INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT WHEN THE COMPANY IS GLOBAL?
How true is it that International Consultancy Agencies offer internationally experienced counsellors to deal with clients with international competition or cross-border interests. Or are these agencies just local agencies cobbled together by an internationally known name...with virtually no connection between them, other than the logo and the company slogan.
Are the resulting 'studies' actually calculated decisions for the clients, or just carefully constructed background material that encourage clients to make their own decisions and then use the 'paper bricks' as support.
As my potential clients agonize over the choice of a consulting group to handle the study of a major private resort project, they are naturally tempted by me (an internationally experienced hospitality expert) as well as the proliferance of 
companies with well-known names on their shingles pronouncing them as branches of a global consulting group in 150 countries. Bound together by little more than a common name, a logo and a company slogan, these behemoths vacuum up the contracts from banks, insurance companies, governments, industry giants on the strength of the illusion that they are dealing with this gigantic global organisation, when in fact they are dealing with 'Bob'.
In reality, Bob is but a franchisor of the name and systems and has little interest in sharing his fees or expertise with others.....and vice versa. And while Bob enjoys the credibility and accumen that comes with the use of the global name, he need not have left his village other than by telephone to claim his international experience.
Is this a scam? Is this illusion defensible? Should a client be made aware of the actual direct support, specific guidance, hands-on work that will be done by the other 149 countries.
As the purveyor of advice and counsel garnered over 49 years and industry work in 23 countries, I 
find myself in direct competition with Bob's young, graduate, nameless students whose experience and judgements are suspect except that their output is cloaked in carefully structured text, refined and perfected over decades, and then signed by the firm.
What's Bob doing? Bob is travelling now. He is a professional panellist on industry events extending the illusion of corporate expertise and global integration. In this way he learns the business, the buzzwords, expands his network and pyramids the expansion of the global agency.
And you thought it was the Internet that created the WorldWideWeb!!
For studies that actually reach a conclusion, email me at [email protected]
.........and by the way, Bob's a good friend of mine!!
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