The creeping influence of consultants on cities: McKinsey’s involvement in Berlin’s urban economic and social policies

Vogelpohl, Anne; Klemp, Felicitas

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.02.028

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Frequent diagnoses of urban crises, accelerated since 2008 (Blanco et al, 2014;Harvey, 2010;Soureli and Youn, 2009), have increased both potential policy transfers (Dolowitz and Marsh, 2000: 17) and the demand for quick solutions and, thus, advice. Management consultancies are one of the policy-relevant agents whose role gains importance in times of crisis, as they do not hesitate to offer a future vision of a prospering city in reply to urban crisis (Vogelpohl and Klemp, 2018). Strikingly, most urban policy papers that resulted from the consulting processes that I will discuss below develop a vision and are labelled 'Hamburg Vision 2020', 'Berlin 2020', 'Essen 2030', and the like.…”

Section: Management Consultants and Managing The Entrepreneurial City Today: Connecting Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global expertise, local convincing power: Management consultants and preserving the entrepreneurial city

Vogelpohl

2018

Urban Studies

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The advice of management consultancies on urban policy is particularly influential in moments of crisis involving entrepreneurial principles. As global experts, management consultants appear as appropriate assistants for steering growth-oriented, competitive urban development. In order to show how consultants turn the urban into an entrepreneurial project to be managed, I discuss the literature on urban policy and consultants then examine the activities of private management consultancies in six German cities. Empirically, I first explore the specificities of urban policy advice given by globally operating consultancies (their methodological approach and the projectisation of the urban; global networks and comparative–competitive thinking; fast databases; reputation; externality). Second, I critically reflect on how the consultants’ advice is fundamentally reshaped by local actors in the process of policy making (through participation, appropriation, slowdown and politicisation). The paper thus critically evaluates the rise of expertise–policy relations and calls attention to mechanisms for patching the fractures of the entrepreneurial city.

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Section: Management Consultants and Managing The Entrepreneurial City Today: Connecting Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global expertise, local convincing power: Management consultants and preserving the entrepreneurial city

Vogelpohl

2018

Urban Studies

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“…Research on the effect of consultants on urban policy developments suggests that transnational consultancies aim to foster a position as neutral observers to the political process, operating at “modest witnesses” (Hurl, 2018). From this position, consultancies broker alliances and organize consensus positions through active framing of contentious issues, oftentimes relying on pro‐bono work to create future contracting opportunities (Canato & Giangreco, 2011; Linovski, 2017; Vogelpohl & Klemp, 2018).…”

Section: Global Professional Service Firms In Nascent Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeding the cloud: Consultancy services in the nascent field of cyber capacity building

Willers

2021

Public Administration

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Transnational issues in public administration are charged with coordination problems between public and private actors. This is especially true for nascent issue fields. The mitigation of global cyber risks represents one such emerging issue. International organizations have encouraged the development of cybersecurity strategies as an integral part of national security regimes and to strengthen the global security environment. Cyber capacity building (CCB) efforts respond to these calls and disseminate digital risk management to recipient states. At a time where public administrations have not determined a position on CCB, global professional service firms have affirmed the importance of external third‐party knowledge on cybersecurity issues. They are “seeding the cloud” to benefit from the field as it matures. Through the application of the Strategic Action Field framework, I highlight how field dynamics are shaped through framing contests and reflected in the practices of policy production.

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“…Consultant influence on firms has frequently been assessed in terms of measurable indicators, such as layoffs, share price, or in the diffusion of key ideas in management (Canato and Giangreco 2011). In contrast, assessments of management consultants' influence on government agencies address broader societal and public interest issues such as policy convergence, changes in public service provisions, and democratic processes (Saint-Martin 2000;Vogelpohl 2019;Vogelpohl and Klemp 2018;Weber and O'Neill-Kohl 2013). Ethnographic accounts have shown that that the profit motivations of management consultants have led to their ignorance of the broader socio-economic impacts of their advice (Stein 2020).…”

Section: Impact Of Management Consultantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alongside these changes in private sector planning, there has been outsized growth in the management consultant industry, influencing a wide variety of both public and private sector organizations, and creating implications for society as a whole (Canato and Giangreco 2011;Hurl 2018;Kipping and Clark 2012;Vogelpohl and Klemp 2018). While planning consultant firms provide advice on planning issues, management consultants provide advice on the business of firms, such as organizational strategy, firm valuation, and ownership models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Value of Planning: Views from Management Consultants

Linovski

2021

Journal of Planning Education and Research

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Professional planners working in the private sector intersect with a complex sphere of business interests. Management consultants have a growing influence in many organizations, including private sector planning firms. Using a mixed-method approach to examine the strategies and priorities of management consultants, I find that management consultants view the “value” of planning as opening the door to future contracts and selling firm services. This has implications for understanding how practitioners reconcile professional values (such as autonomy, neutrality, and protection of the public interest) with market imperatives, and for the profession as one driven by societal, rather than entrepreneurial goals.

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The creeping influence of consultants on cities: McKinsey’s involvement in Berlin’s urban economic and social policies

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

Global expertise, local convincing power: Management consultants and preserving the entrepreneurial city

Global expertise, local convincing power: Management consultants and preserving the entrepreneurial city

Seeding the cloud: Consultancy services in the nascent field of cyber capacity building

The Value of Planning: Views from Management Consultants

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