Consulting rates are rarely published. The ones the French State pays are: the Senate and the Cour des comptes (the national audit court) recorded them. Here we set them beside those of interim management and our own, which are public too. Every figure has its source, every calculation is shown.
These are the only public, verifiable rates on the French market. They are a floor: the State negotiates, and before the Senate's commission of inquiry, the consulting industry body stated that public prices were 30 to 70% lower than private-sector ones, depending on the contract.
incl. VAT, the average consultant day for ministries
Senate, report no. 578, March 2022 · 2018 to 2020, excluding IT and excluding UGAP framework agreementsexcl. VAT, the day of an expert consultant
Cour des comptes, July 2023 · €1,150 excl. VAT for a senior, €850 excl. VAT for a juniora day, on a study by a large strategy firm
Senate, March 2022 · two other studies recorded at €3,069 and €2,503 a dayIn 2017, the consulting framework agreement of the French interministerial directorate for public transformation (DITP) included a lot called "Performance and process re-engineering". Its prices, recorded by the Senate, are public.
| Grade | Price of one day, incl. VAT |
|---|---|
| Partner or expert | €2,155.20 |
| Manager or director | €1,668.16 |
| Senior consultant | €1,163.42 |
| Junior consultant | €840.64 |
Source: Senate, report no. 578 (2021-2022), table "Theoretical average daily cost of a consultant for the DITP framework agreement", prices of the holders, November 2017.
No public source gives the average length of a consulting engagement. The average amounts, however, are known.
and more, the average amount of a strategy and organization engagement
Senate, March 2022 · ministries, 2018 to 2020, against €25,000 for other engagementsthe average amount of a State consulting order in 2021
Cour des comptes, July 2023 · 4,854 new ordersthe average amount of an intellectual service for a local authority
Cour des comptes, June 2025 · sample of audited local authoritiesThe interim manager takes a post and holds it. It is the right answer when a position is vacant or a crisis calls for someone at the helm. The price is read by the day, over several months.
a day, weighted average rate in the first half of 2026
France Transition, barometer of member firms, September 10, 2026a day, excluding stand-in engagements: transformation, crisis management, project management
France Transition, same barometeraverage length of an engagement excluding stand-ins (6.97 months for all engagements)
France Transition, same barometerThe first-half 2026 press release does not say whether these rates are excluding VAT; the 2023 barometer of the same federation expressed them excluding VAT (€1,280 excl. VAT a day on average over the year).
The rates come from the sources above; the volumes are assumptions, written out so that you can redo the calculation with your own.
Assumption: three months, or 60 working days, two senior consultants full time (2 × 60 × €1,150) and one expert one day a week (12 × €1,600), at the Cour des comptes rates. Then the engagement ends.
Assumption: an 8-month engagement excluding stand-ins, 20 days a month, at €1,494 a day (8 × 20 × €1,494), France Transition rate and duration. Then the post goes back to the organization.
Assumption: two leadership meetings a month for twelve months (24 × €1,000 excl. VAT), plus two business leader mentoring sessions a month (24 × €250 excl. VAT). Our public prices, excluding travel expenses, with no minimum term.
What the simulation does not say. It does not say that a shadow board replaces every engagement. An acute crisis calls for a stronger presence in the field, which we price after the interview; a vacant post calls for an interim manager. It says that duration is expensive when it is paid by the day, and that once the emergency has passed, the outside view can stay for a fraction of the price.
And so that the method lasts. The rituals put in place can live in pylotik, our management software: for an SME of thirty people (8 Pilot seats and 22 Contributor seats, Business tier), the public price grid gives €10,032 excl. VAT a year. The detail is on the pricing page of pylotik.com.
The figures below come from the firms themselves and from public audit bodies. They do not measure the same thing, and each time we say what they measure.
fewer than a third of transformations improve performance and last
McKinsey, "Losing from day one", December 2021 · self-reported survey, 1,034 respondentsof the targeted financial value, captured on average by transformations that fail (67% for those that succeed)
McKinsey, same studyor so of transformations reach their initial ambition
Bain & Company, April 2024 · more than 400 executives surveyedOn digital transformations, the Boston Consulting Group finds that 70% miss their objectives, and that only 30% reach or exceed the targeted value with lasting change (October 2020, 825 executives).
On the State side, the Senate's commission of inquiry titles one of its sections "deliverables of uneven quality, which do not always get followed up". It cites a five-month engagement billed €957,674.20 to a public body, to which "no tangible follow-up" was given. The Cour des comptes observes that the evaluation of such services "was, until now, only exceptional".
The time that counts is the time when a decision is prepared, taken and followed up. The rest of the time, the organization works without paying for presence.
The experts held executive positions for more than twenty years. There is no pyramid to keep running beneath them.
The deliverable is a decision that has been prepared and followed up, not a document waiting to be implemented. The written debrief says what was decided, and what was not.
No minimum term. When the executive committee runs its own rituals unaided, the pace slows, then stops.
One question remains, that of scarcity: a cross-functional reading of the organization, the kind offered by gifted profiles who have also led, cannot be recruited and is expensive to rent. We explain why on our Gifted at work page.
All consulted on October 28, 2026. The simulations are our calculations, based on these rates.
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