Corporate consultants in global companies

Abstract

This chapter focuses on corporate consultants, those employed by private sector companies. What distinguishes their kind of consultancy is ‘product development, promotion and exchange in regard to a particular brand’. We illustrate this mode of consultancy through case studies of major companies (e.g. McKinsey & Company) and through studies of individuals (e.g. Mona Mourshed; Sir Michael Barber). Drawing upon our data on the role of corporate consultancy within education policy, we identify certain modes of work: agenda setting; product development and retailing; delivery and evidence collection. Working through examples of each of these processes drawn from our research into corporate actors, we draw out the meanings of such work, identifying issues of accountability and exchange relationships. We critique the embracing of corporate consultancy by education ‘leaders’. Our argument is that the entry of corporate consultants and consultancy into education signals that its ‘purchasers’ are efficient and effective, and that such interconnections between corporatisation and educational policy signifies the growth of privatisation, as well as the blending of economics with social reform strategies.