As someone who did an MBA and was groomed to be a Consultant and then repented (now a software engineer) you have to understand that the customer of a consultancy project is an exec.
1. The exec has been charged with exploring a new product space, a potential M&A deal, more vertical integration etc etc
2. The exec needs a gauge on the "size of the prize", is this thing worth doing? roughly how will it be done? how long etc.
3. The exec probably already has a rough idea or gut feeling about one such option
4. The consultants produce something that usually supports the gut feeling, other times it will suggest alternatives and provide some facts and figures to support
Years ago, I was introduced to a “what would Elon do?” assistant. Execs want to know what their (current or hypothetical) competition would do given their decision-support data. But they also want to know what a consult-assistant cutout would know.
This entirely depends on industry and geography. I've worked with big companies where the customers of consultants were effectively middle management, several layers removed from execs.
True, they are called the "Hidden Client", any good consultant will be able to essentially do intelligence gathering on who that is and what they want, because it will be one exec
Hey this report was done by McKinsey and they hire from Harvard and Stanford, and hear how well they speak and look how soft their hair is, the report must be good!
1. The exec has been charged with exploring a new product space, a potential M&A deal, more vertical integration etc etc
2. The exec needs a gauge on the "size of the prize", is this thing worth doing? roughly how will it be done? how long etc.
3. The exec probably already has a rough idea or gut feeling about one such option
4. The consultants produce something that usually supports the gut feeling, other times it will suggest alternatives and provide some facts and figures to support