[Intro]

Welcome back.
We have refined the framework.
The framework now contains four additional frameworks.

[Verse]

They arrive at nine with matching cases,
Temporary badges and permanent faces.
They know the lift, the coffee code,
The fastest route to the executive floor.

Their deck begins with a mountain trail,
A lighthouse, a compass and one upward scale.
Slide fourteen says "Simplify the Core."
Slide fifteen adds twelve workstreams more.

They speak in verbs that cannot be measured:
Enable, accelerate, unlock hidden leverage.
Every sentence lands with practised grace,
Then disappears before it can be traced.

[Pre-Chorus]

Mara's laptop waits for another year.
Two open roles quietly disappear.
But the contract signed in polished ink
Moves through approval before we blink.

[Chorus]

Consultants remain strategic,
Untouchable and photogenic.
Cut the tools and freeze the people,
Keep the invoice at the centre.

When the answer costs a million,
It is called a transformation.

[Verse]

They interview the teams for half a day,
Then show the teams what the teams already say.
They rename "too much work" as "capacity debt,"
And sell the phrase in a leadership set.

One draws a circle around "customer need."
One adds an arrow labelled "speed."
A senior partner with a silver pen
Explains why they must extend again.

Nadine asks where the outcomes sit.
The room becomes carefully uncommitted.
"Value is forming across the space."
She writes that sentence beside the day rate.

[Duet]

"We provide perspective."

"You invoice the view."

"We challenge assumptions."

"We repeat what we knew."

"We create alignment."

"You book another hall."

"We ensure accountability."

"You own nothing at all."

[Chorus]

Consultants remain strategic,
Their renewal is automatic.
Cut the course and close the vacancy,
Keep the people studying our people.

Every failure proves the company
Needs more external capability.

[Instrumental Break]

[Bridge]

Nadine lays two documents side by side:
One says "freeze." One says "renew through July."
Same signature, same date, same executive name—

Only the rules are not the same.

[Final Chorus]

Consultants remain strategic,
Now the phrase sounds mathematical.
The ledger does not own the language—
It only records who takes the payment.

Three calculator clicks interrupt them.
No framework answers after that.

[Outro]

The final slide reads:

NEXT STEPS

A blank page follows.

The invoice does not.
