AI and Strategy
Most big consulting engagements are not bought for insight. They are bought for liability transfer.
New York City paid McKinsey & Company $4M for a 95-page report on moving trash from bags into containers, working with the NYC Department of Sanitation (2023). That is about $42k a page for an answer everyone already knew.
The value is the receipt. A deck that says “we studied it” helps survive procurement reviews, audits, union pushback, angry community boards, and the first bad headline when rollout week goes sideways.
I have watched public works teams use a brand-name firm as an insurance policy. If the pilot fails, the story becomes “the experts recommended it” instead of “we owned the call.” Responsibility gets outsourced before the work even starts.
The frustrating part is the obvious idea is never the hard part. The hard part is routes, enforcement, vendor performance, field training, and a basic system that shows what got done. In one rollout, simple driver checklists plus photo proof cut missed pickups 24% in 6 weeks and reduced overtime enough to fund the software.
This makes me wonder how many “strategy” budgets are really just fear budgets with a nicer name.
...but more importantly, how to charge $42k/page 😂.