We've established that external credibility trumps internal expertise. But what happens when the person with the white coat is actually wrong?
We still listen.
McKinsey & Company told AT&T that cellphones would be a niche market in the year 2000 with only 900,000 subscribers. This recommendation led AT&T to initially exit the cellular market, forcing a costly re-entrance years later. The firm also advised SwissAir on an expansion strategy that failed so spectacularly the airline declared bankruptcy in 2001.
Both companies took the advice seriously because it came with credentials attached. McKinsey definitely wears a white coat.
But the white coat doesn't guarantee correctness. It just guarantees we'll listen.
Here's the problem.
Credentials signal authority, not accuracy. A consultant can be externally validated and expensive. They can also be completely off the mark. But because they look authoritative, we assume they know what they're talking about. It's easier than actually evaluating the idea on its merits.
The real issue isn't that external expertise is bad.
It's that we've outsourced our critical thinking to the white coat. We readily adopt ideas from credentialed outsiders whilst ignoring the same ideas from people we sit next to every day. Or we reject ideas that contradict the white coat.
Maybe next time a consultant presents something that sounds familiar, check with your team first.
They might have been saying it for months. The lab coat didn't suddenly make the idea better. It just made someone finally listen.