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EBRAHIM EL KALZA: CONSULTING INTERN
Ebrahim El Kalza prepared this case under the supervision of Professor James A. Erskine solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality.
Ivey Management Services prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its written permission. This material is not covered under authorization from CanCopy or any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey
Management Services, c/o Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, London,
Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3882; e-mail cases@ivey.uwo.ca.
Copyright © 2004, Ivey Management Services Version: (A) 2004-04-27
That’s not at the Matthews standard! You’re going to have to perform at a higher level if you want to work here!
Summer Associate Ebrahim El Kalza slowly rubbed his temples as his senior manager, Sherif Mahfouz, at Matthews Management Consulting stormed out of the client office they shared. It was early August 2003, and El Kalza had been in
Abu Dhabi for only two weeks. Already his dream assignment was becoming a nightmare. He felt he could do no right, and was beginning to lose confidence in his abilities. This was the third time he had been scolded, and he felt his chance of leveraging the internship into a full-time offer with Matthews was in serious jeopardy. THE CONSULTING INDUSTRY
Since the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2000, many articles, in business magazines, had characterized the industry’s decline and even forecasted its demise.
With the consulting industry’s role in scandals such as

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