Outsourcing Management

“Accenture… a leader in management consulting and technology outsourcing, profits handsomely by helping big corporations change continually to meet the demands of their markets…

“Like their brethren at McKinsey, Accenture's nearly 15,000 management consultants help businesses and governments implement strategic plans to improve such things as customer relationships, finance and performance management.

“It also takes on an outsourcing role for companies to help them lower costs, assuming responsibility for such functions as human resources, finance and information technology. Like EDS, it also handles IT-infrastructure outsourcing…

“CEO William Green has said clients are looking to enter new markets, lower costs, manage increased levels of risk and ‘tackle the headwinds’ of the economy. ‘That is the stuff that makes our business go,’ he said during the company's third-quarter conference call...

“The trends don't appear to be slackening. In late June, Accenture once again raised its outlook for revenue growth in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, to the upper end of its previously announced 9%-12% guidance in local currency, and its forecast for diluted EPS to $2.63 to $2.65, from its previous range of $2.55 to $2.60.

“CEO Green said in the conference call that ‘we feel better looking at '09 than we felt this time last year when we were looking at '08.’ …

“[Tim] Fidler of Ariel Investments says that consulting is sometimes one of the first things to be cut during a recession, ‘Accenture projects are typically mission-critical to an organization.’

“And unlike its competitors, the same Accenture professionals who are selling projects to customers later help with actual work on the project. That's one reason, Fidler says, that Accenture's win rates are so high.”

(“The King of Cost Cutting.” Robin Goldwyn Blumenthal. Barron’s: July 21, 2008. pg. 21)

IF MANAGEMENT CAN'T handle strategic planning, customer relationships, finance, performance management, HR, IT -- the "mission-critical" responsibilities that "makes our business go" -- then what are they doing... ?

If they are not driving strategy, tactics or implementation, then what are they doing?

With such high-priced hand-holding so rampant, are shareholders paying twice... for managers who ought to be in touch, and for consultants who are not?

What are they doing?