Journalist Richard Brooks examines the profound influence of management consultancy on modern life. Who are consultants, what do they do and how do they transform our world?

Award-winning Private Eye financial journalist and author Richard Brooks examines the impact of management consultancy - its history, the lifestyles and ideas of its practitioners and its influence on all of our lives.

Their elite training gives us many of our political and business leaders. Their techniques guided the post-war information revolution and helped put a man on the moon. They’ve shaped contemporary capitalism.

Management consultants operate inside 90% of FTSE 100 companies, most public services and many of the world’s governments. But most of us know very little about what they do or what impact they might be having on our world.

Guiding Richard on his exploration of the consultant’s world are:

Peter Lacy, senior managing director for UK and Ireland at Accenture Strategy.

Julian Richer, retailer, entrepreneur and vocal critic of management consultancy.

Felix Stein, an ex-management consultant and economic anthropologist. The author of Sleep, Work, Repeat: The Abstract Labour of German Management Consultants.

Dina Nayeri, previously a consultant with one of the world’s best known consultancy firms, McKinsey and Company and now the author of The Ungrateful Refugee.

Dr Christopher McKenna Reader in Business History and Strategy at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and author of The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century.

Original music composed by Daniel R. Wilson

Original concept and consultancy from Margot Gibbs

Produced by Michael Umney

A Resonance production for BBC Radio 4