The companies I worked for did it by: - Having better than average engineers. Not "10x", just better than average. - Having a project manager required for ne

The companies I worked for did it by: - Having better than average engineers. Not "10x", just better than average. - Having a project manager required for nearly all projects. The customer was billed for this and it was worth it. The PM managed a Gantt chart and periodically chatted with the engineers to keep the schedule accurate and the project on track. No daily standups. No agile. - Unless the project was for staff augmentation, the project had a clear set of goals and success criteria was defined up front. Feature creep was strongly discouraged. Is this a business model that will scale to billions of dollars? Most likely not. But it can be a good business that provides you with enjoyable work. Consulting companies are the first to be fired in a downturn, but they're the first to be hired when things get going again because companies are short-staffed and need to react quickly.