Consulting Uncensored

Have you ever watched a firm with real talent completely sabotage a relationship through sheer carelessness? In this episode, Neal shares a firsthand account of being disinvited, and essentially accused of planning to crash a party, by an investment bank conference his firm had attended and presented at before. Neal uses the experience as a real-world case study in how poor communication, absent l...

What separates great business development from everyone else? In this episode, Neal sits down with Grant Marcks , Partner at The Riverside Company , to explore why winning work in private equity and consulting depends on patience, credibility, and long-term relationship-building. Grant explains how thoughtful “no” responses can create future goodwill, why silence damages trust, and how strong refe...

Most investors are laser-focused on the exit. StoicLane Co-founder and President Matt Foran is playing a completely different game: acquiring fragmented, founder-led businesses in finance, insurance, and real estate, and turning them into best-in-class organizations they intend to own indefinitely. In this episode, Neal sits down with Matt to explain the philosophy behind StoicLane's permanen...

In this episode of Consulting Uncensored , Virtas Partners founder and CEO Neal McNamara provides an update from two recent private equity conferences on what investors are saying about the consulting industry with regards to deals, value creation, and the disruption being caused by AI. Neal shares what’s real, what’s noise, and what consulting and Office of the CFO leaders need to pay attention t...

Most consulting leaders say “people are our greatest asset,” then design firms where the best people burn out, stall out, or quietly leave. In this episode, Neal sits down with Jason Gandy, CEO of Performance Improvement Partners, a technology advisory and private equity–focused consulting firm, to examine what it actually looks like to lead from the front in a modern consulting business where car...

The consulting industry is entering a more volatile phase as the Big Four (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG) face a new kind of competition: former partners building well-funded firms designed to compete directly with them. As industry giants respond with aggressive legal action, they are forced to balance protecting their market share with broader risks around culture, talent, and long-term positionin...

What really happens inside the world of consulting? Consulting Uncensored is a space for unfiltered conversations about the realities most people don’t talk about. Host Neal McNamara draws on decades of experience across the industry, from technical delivery and leading global teams to building and scaling a consulting firm from the ground up. This podcast will dive into leadership, strategy, cult...