1. The Curtain Is Falling on the Empire

For decades, the Big Firms—EY, PwC, McKinsey—were seen as untouchable. They built empires on suit-and-tie prestige, process-driven bloat, and a legacy of gatekeeping disguised as “best practices.” But let’s be clear: the world that made them powerful no longer exists.

Legacy consulting is bloated, slow, and allergic to innovation. It’s no longer about being right—it’s about being fast, real, and brutally effective. The streets know it. The clients feel it. The next generation of leaders demands it. And yet, too many firms are still polishing the same old pitch decks and calling it “strategy.”

Enter the micro-network: fast, fluid, fiercely intelligent ecosystems of independent talent who operate below the noise—by design.

2. What Is a Micro-Network? (And Why It’s Scaring the Hell Out of Incumbents)

A micro-network is not a firm. It’s a distributed, dynamic, high-trust alliance of expert consultants, strategists, designers, and technologists who come together around problems—not payrolls. No hierarchy. No middle management. No overblown overhead.

Here’s what defines a micro-network:

• Nimble composition: talent rotates by project, not by tenure.
• Radical transparency: outcomes over optics.
• Strategic specialization: you hire the sniper, not the squad.
• Low drag, high velocity: most networks function under the radar but outperform legacy teams tenfold.

In short: Micro-networks don’t play the institutional game. They rewrite it.

3. Unity Consulting: The Canaries Are Leaving the Mine

This isn’t a fringe movement—it’s now led by the very architects of the old world.

Unity Consulting, a new firm founded by ex-EY and PwC executives, is slated to launch this year. These aren’t disaffected rebels. These are insiders who saw the writing on the wall and walked out of the boardroom with blueprints for something leaner, smarter, and far more disruptive.

Unity isn’t just a name—it’s a signal: the unity of elite thinkers freed from bureaucracy, operating as a strategic swarm, not a monolith. Their move validates what micro-network leaders have known for years: real strategy needs freedom to think—and speed to act.

4. Strategic Destruction Is Real—Micro-Networks Are the Antidote

In our previous article, we laid bare the symptoms of Strategic Destruction—a silent epidemic of stagnation in metro areas, legacy institutions, and over-consulted enterprises. Collusion between power silos. The slow suffocation of innovation. The unspoken hazing rituals of small businesses trying to scale.

Micro-networks are the underground resistance.
They subvert the gatekeepers.
They decentralize the power structure.
They inject fresh strategic oxygen into dead zones.

Where mega-firms reinforce the old guard, micro-networks weaponize agility to break the cycle. They don’t ask permission—they solve problems. They don’t pitch—they partner. And they don’t care about your org chart—they care about outcomes.

5. Offensive? Good. This Isn’t For Everyone.

Let’s not pretend this shift won’t tick people off.
If your career depends on hiding behind your firm’s logo, you’re not going to like what’s coming.
If your model is built on bloated staffing, 80-hour billing, and repackaging Google searches as deliverables—this is your extinction-level event.

Micro-networks don’t want to be you.
They want to bury you—and build something better in your place.

6. The Future Is Underground—By Design

You won’t always see these networks on stage at the next overpriced strategy summit. You’ll find them in back-channel Slack groups, on private referrals, and embedded in critical missions across sectors. They’re faster than your RFP cycle. Smarter than your generic “Center of Excellence.” And hungrier than any partner on a draw.

The future of strategy isn’t loud. It’s lethal.
It’s decentralized.
It’s self-healing.
It’s already here.

Call to Action: Join the Underground

If you’re tired of waiting for the org chart to give you permission to lead—join us.
If you’re done with safe thinking and want to shape the post-institutional future—connect.
If you’re building, breaking, and boldly thinking outside the system—welcome to the underground.