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Consulting Conundrums: When Offensive Co...

Parmar, Bidhan L.,...

Case

Consulting Conundrums: When Offensive Comments Put You on the Defense

Parmar, Bidhan L.; Maiden, Stephen E.

E-0516 | Published December 17, 2025 | 4 Pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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This case puts students directly into the role of an engagement manager for the Automotive & Assembly group in the Detroit office of McBain CG and Company (McBain). Three important items are on the manager's list of things to do: (1) analyze the competitive market dynamics for an automotive supplier client, (2) make a monthly client Zoom call to Electric CarCo’s (ECC’s) CFO to provide an update on a long-running efficiency-improvement engagement at 4:00 p.m., and (3) write up performance evaluations for their team members. These tasks seem straightforward, but when ECC's CEO posts something inflammatory online and one of the manager's team members accuses another of saying something offensive in a meeting, the manager's tasks become more complicated. How should they address these situations?