The British daily Financial Times revealed in early July that Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a major consulting firm, had carried out an assignment for an American security company, commissioned by an Israeli think tank, on the “reconstruction of Gaza.” The study discussed the displacement of 500,000 Palestinians and assessed proposals – if one dares call them that – to make to Gazans, weighing which would be most effective: $9,000 in cash or $5,000 and four years of rent. A plan conceived without the residents, for a reconstruction without the survivors, billed at several million dollars. BCG apologized, fired those responsible, and gave up its fee.
That might have been enough, if not for the countless deaths, horrors and suffering. We could pretend to forget the McKinsey controversy in the United States, in which the consulting firm recommended increasing opioid dosages to drive up prices. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people from overdoses. Once again, the firm expressed its “deep” regrets and, in 2024, reached a settlement of nearly a billion dollars to avoid litigation. Those fond of calculations will appreciate the irony.
We could settle for these acts of contrition. A moment of nausea, before moving on. But it would be more useful to ask what makes these scandals possible. Like all businesses, consulting firms have “processes.” No one is staffed on a project without approval. No new client is accepted without a risk analysis. No work is done outside the rules of deontology.
Poorly known codes
These rules do exist: Some firms refuse to work for the sex, gambling, or tobacco industries, others avoid certain countries. All of them establish “Chinese walls,” supposedly protecting against conflicts of interest. But unlike regulated professions (lawyers or certified public accountants) or those with formal codes (like journalists), these rules are rarely published and often little known even to the consultants themselves. Everything depends on self-regulation.
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