A Stanford–World Bank field experiment gave free Accenture management consulting to 17 Indian textile firms; treated plants raised productivity by 11% within a year and were more likely to open new plants within three years, showing weak management held them back.
17 firms (28 plants)
Textile firms in study
11 %
Productivity gain within first year (treated plants) (1 year)
5 months
Consulting engagement duration
~1.3 USD million
Total trial cost
Details
Promoter
Accenture (with Stanford Graduate School of Business & World Bank)
Period
2008–2013
Keywords
textiles and apparel manufacturing, management consulting, applied economics research
Context
Modern manufacturing plants in developing countries often operate well below the management-quality frontier seen in the United States, Europe and Japan, yet informational barriers rather than cost prevented most firms from adopting well-known practices.
Activities
A joint Stanford Graduate School of Business and World Bank research team partnered with consulting firm Accenture to provide five months of free, structured management consulting — covering quality control, inventory management and HR practices — to a randomly selected group of plants among 17 textile firms operating 28 plants in the Tarapur-Umbergaon textile belt near Mumbai, comparing them to a control group receiving no consulting.
Results
Treated plants raised average productivity by 11% within the first year through better quality, efficiency and reduced inventory, adopted more decentralised decision-making, and were more likely to open additional production plants within three years.
Conclusions
The intervention was a one-off, heavily subsidised research trial costing roughly $1.3 million for a small sample of firms, with no institutional mechanism identified to keep delivering similar consulting once the study ended, so its lessons about which practices matter have spread more widely than the delivery model itself.
Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
Stanford Graduate School of Business, World Bank, Accenture (consulting partner)
Conditions for success
Randomised design isolating the causal effect of management practices from other factors
Design replicated in comparable RCTs in Mexico, Colombia and Togo
Common failure modes
One-off, heavily subsidised trial with no institutional mechanism to keep delivering consulting after the study ended
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