Abstract
In the previous chapter, we saw that an important characteristic of large corporations in the purchasing top management consultancies was that they tend to base their purchasing decisions on the reputation of the consultancy and earlier personal experience of the consultancy. As shown in Furusten (2003), reputation and previous assignments are also seen as important by management consultants in how they look upon their relations to potential buyers of their services. Working close to potential buyers, and assisting them in their definitions of problems and need for services are seen by many consultants as crucial strategies, not only to do business, but also to be able to deliver professional services. Against this background, it is very interesting to focus on public organizations' purchasing of management consulting services since these organizations have to play by strict government rules when purchasing everything, management consulting services included.