Part 5/16:
Consultants became the architects of post-merger integration, tasked with streamlining duplicated departments like HR, finance, and marketing. Their high fees and seemingly critical advice catapulted firms like McKenzie into corporate stardom. Yet, this golden era was short-lived. Scandals like Enron exposing widespread corporate fraud and mismanagement prompted a regulatory backlash, forcing a reintroduction of stricter oversight and halting the merger frenzy.