Kihn, Martin

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Kihn, Martin

PERSONAL: Married Julia Douglass (a singer/songwriter). Education: Yale University, B.A.; Columbia University, M.B.A. (with honors), 2001.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Warner Books, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Previously worked for large management consulting firm; MTV Networks, New York, NY, "Pop-up Video," head writer; Fast Company, member of consulting debunking unit.

WRITINGS:

House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time: A True Story, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Forbes, New York, Gentleman's Quarterly, Details, Cosmopolitan, and Spy.

SIDELIGHTS: Martin Kihn combines his love of writing with his business prowess in his book House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time: A True Story. In this comedic look at the business world and the people who inhabit it, Kihn sheds light on the truth behind the myths concerning the high-rate management consulting profession, using examples from his own experiences as an employee at a large management consulting firm. A contributor for Publishers Weekly called Kihn's book a "highly intelligent and deeply funny debut memoir," and added that "his reconstructed dialogue from within his (unnamed) firm … is alone worth the price of admission." Farhad Manjoo, writing for Salon.com, stated that "the real story here focuses on the damnable daily life of the modern management consultant. Kihn's breezy, Jay McInerney-inspired writing style renders this drudgery precisely, often hilariously."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2005, Mary Whaley, review of House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time: A True Story, p. 1042.

Publishers Weekly, January 17, 2005, review of House of Lies, p. 42.

Training, August, 2005, Skip Corsini, review of House of Lies, p. 38.