How To Academy:
The Big Con – How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Economies and Harms Democracy

Mariana Mazzucato is no ordinary economist.

Author of 3 blockbuster books, winner of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought, and heralded as one of the ‘3 most important thinkers about innovation’ (New Republic), ‘one of the 50 most creative people in business’ (Fast Company), and one of the ‘25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism’ (WIRED), she has the ear of policymakers from the WHO to the UN and far beyond.

Now she returns to How To Academy, alongside her brilliant PhD student and political economist Rosie Collington, with a ground-breaking investigation into how the consulting industry stunts innovation, obfuscates corporate and political accountability and impedes our collective mission of halting climate breakdown.

The ‘Big Con’ is possible in today’s economies because of the unique power that consultancies wield through extensive contracts and networks – as advisors, legitimators and outsourcers – and the illusion that they are objective sources of expertise and capacity.

In conversation with former Editorial Director of BBC News, Kamal Ahmed, Mariana and Rosie will expertly debunk the myth that consultancies always add value to the economy. Presenting a wealth of original research, they will argue brilliantly for investment and collective intelligence within all organizations and communities, and for a new system in which public and private sectors work innovatively for the common good.