Back in 2011, a colleague and I researched and wrote a report on the consulting market in the Middle East & Africa – the "MEA" part of "EMEA." One of the amazing takeaways, given the vast amounts being spent on consulting by the governments of the ME region, was precisely that almost all the consulting spend was coming from public coffers. At the time there were huge investments being made across the board in nearly all industries and sectors. This was part and parcel to an effort to transform and diversify the local economies, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region countries. Massive sovereign wealth funds fueled (no pun intended) by revenues from oil were being used to buy economic assets abroad and bring them home, and fund the building of infrastructure to run these assets – utilities, roads, bridges, airports, seaports, etc. More than that, the governments of the Gulf region were investing heavily in local human infrastructure, using consultants to create schools and hospitals (and all the attendant systems needed to run, staff and connect them). It was a greenfield investment bonanza.

The proverbial chicken or egg quandary

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