FOR RECENT MBA GRADS AND other aspiring consultants, Consulting Demons is an unvarnished front-lines look at the life of a consultant, containing essential tips on how to get ahead and a perspective on the industry's brutal infighting that can engulf even the most civilized consulting firm.

For current executives and potential consulting clients, Pinault reveals what your consultants might be thinking and scheming, and explores the unscrupulous lengths to which a consulting firm will go in order to protect and increase its lucrative fees.

For the general business reader, this is a rollicking yarn that's brimming with vignettes drawn from a consultant's daily work, including such typical consulting activities as "benchmarking" (deep-cover corporate espionage), business transformation ("mass brainwashing"), and client entertainment ("global debauchery").

With the insouciance and voyeur's delight of Liar's Poker, coupled with a richness of information and content possible only from an insider, this riveting and illuminating work offers the most complete look at an industry that continues to be tightly closed in spite of its burgeoning success.