[rdtsc]

Yap pretty much. Remember reading an expose with some examples of how consulting firms would hire fresh grads from Ivy Leagues, and then send them to big companies, for top dollar, (or to other countries like Saudi Arabia) to basically do what you describe -- support the viewpoint of the executive who hired them. Of course all done officially with power point slides, excel spreadsheets and pie charts.

[anon8418]

At the top tier firms, the creation of slides, charts, etc is usually outsourced to a back office dedicated to the job. I'm not sure if this is still the case at McK, but this office used to be stationed in the developing world...

Consultants would draw and describe what they wanted, goto bed, and awake to slides, charts in their inbox.

Same thing with models. Most firms have "rockstar excel jockeys" (usually analysts/associates/etc.) that are pimped out to project teams to serve this singular role (making models, building business cases, etc.).

Management consulting, such a surreal profession...