---
title: "The Great Consulting Masquerade"
subtitle: "When generalists sabotage technology: a scathing post on the imposture of consulting firms"
date: 2025-08-16
author: JAS
theme: "Consulting"
keywords: ["consulting", "Accenture", "Hertz", "transformation digitale", "échec IT", "tech debt"]
image: https://ik.imagekit.io/l2lkwahet/199A/hertzbug.jpg?updatedAt=1755352025429
slug: the-great-consulting-masquerade
---

# The Great Consulting Masquerade: When Generalists Sabotage Technology
A scathing post on the imposture of consulting firms in digital transformation

**Prologue: The Phantom Expertise Syndrome**
In the air-conditioned universe of glass towers, a self-proclaimed caste dictates its law to companies in digital distress. Their weapons? Glittering PowerPoint slides, jargon as hollow as a watermelon, and arrogance proportional to their technical ignorance.

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<span class="fs-3 text-muted lh-sm"><i>A revolutionary platform for 32 million dollars.</i></span>
</div>

In 2016, Hertz dreams of modernity. Its website? A digital fossil worthy of the Geocities era. Magic solution: Accenture, the "prestigious" firm promising a revolutionary platform for 32 million dollars.

**Chronicle of Disaster: Catalog of Aberrations**
- The Phantom Responsive Design
Accenture delivers a site unusable on mobile. The comic part? The contract specified *"mobile-first"*. When Hertz is surprised, the firm retorts: *"That was in the bonuses, pay more"*.
- The Garbage Code
Contractual requirement: a reusable foundation for all subsidiaries. Delivery: a mess of spaghetti code specific to North America.
- The "RAPID" Technology: The Scam of the Century
Accenture sells expensive licenses for RAPID — a tool that its teams don't master. Result? Months of delay.
- The Myth of the "Superior Generalist"
The firms have implanted a toxic belief: a manager trained at HEC would know better how to architect a system than an engineer with 10 years of experience.

**The more the project derails, the more profitable it is**
1. Sales phase: delusional underestimation of costs
2. Execution: massive hiring of under-trained juniors
3. Crisis: overcharging for "overruns"

Why Do "Experts" Ignore Technology? The Factory of Credentialed Morons
Consultants are recruited on their ability to solve case studies, not a line of code.

Lacking real skills, consultants invent methods:
- "360° Transformation"
- "Next Generation Digital Paradigm"

The Massacre of Internal Teams
In-house developers were dismissed as "old technological carcasses".

### The Economic Slaughter
- 32 million dollars gone
- Lost market shares

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<img src="https://ik.imagekit.io/l2lkwahet/199A/hertzbug.jpg?updatedAt=1755352025429" class="img-fluid w-100 d-block rounded shadow">
<span class="badge rounded-pill text-bg-light">32 million dollars gone. Expensive bug.</span>
</div>
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Shock Remedies:
- The "Code or Get Out" Principle. Only authorize consultants who can demonstrate their technical skills.
- The 50/30/20 Rule
-- 50% internal technical experts
-- 30% real external specialists
-- 20% max consultants

**"Those who don't know how to do don't lead those who know."**

### Appendices: The Anti-Consultant Arsenal
1. **Trap Questions**
- "Can you explain how your solution handles CORS?"
- "Show me the API sequence diagram"
- "You're not here tomorrow, how do we manage?"

2. **Detoxification Checklist**
- [ ] No consultant without technical portfolio
- [ ] Zero PowerPoint before POC
- [ ] Methodologies are only useful if you know how to use them

3. **Bibliography of the Awakening**
- *"Bullshit Jobs"* by David Graeber
- *"Refactoring"* by Martin Fowler