3 ms·

I thought the point of having SF, LA, NYC offices was to cut down on travel time, to the benefit of both the consultants and the client.

by huac 11y ago

PaulHoule 11y ago
There is a high element of bullshit social control in situations like this. You could probably hire a few people in (say) Eastern Europe and set them up with great process, tooling, and telecon and beat the hell out of consulting groups that run their consultants ragged, but running them ragged is a mechanism of control. You are so committed to it you are not going to question any assumptions. It is like the way that if you want to succeed in certain professions you pretty much need to move -- it satisfies the ideological idea that "we are hiring the best people from all over the world" and it separates you from friends and family and once more makes it almost impossible you will question the unspoken assumptions your career is based on.
- huac 11y ago
  Yeah, I guess my perspective is different since I'm younger, and I'm drawing upon what my friends do/did as MBB interns (or bulge bracket/boutique finance). One thing that stood out is that a good number of them this summer are paying absurd amounts for housing, usually less than a 5 minute walk to the office. But their logic isn't 'the less time I spend commuting the more time I can have to myself,' it's 'the less time I spend commuting the more likely I will be the first to respond when an MD needs me.'
- exelius 11y ago
  > but running them ragged is a mechanism of control. This is actually wrong. I used to think that, but again, the world has changed. Running your team ragged is purely a dog and pony show to win follow-up work. When you go into a client you don't know at all, and you do 6 weeks of work and develop a business strategy... the only way that works is if you walked in with a strategy. Which you always do. You then proceed to run your team ragged over the next 6 weeks to produce mountains of work and show the executive team at the client "Hey, look at our guys and how hard they work!" The work itself is usually just 120 slides full of busy work with so many assumptions baked in it's all but meaningless, but you make a great first impression and cemented your company's brand perception at the executive level of that client. You can then sell much lower-quality follow-on work for years on the strength of that one 6 week project. In consulting (ESPECIALLY strategy consulting) politics, perception and packaging are far, far more important than the quality of the output. Therefore, running your people ragged isn't about control or producing quality output. It's about impressing the client by working your ass off, and establishing a brand perception that hopefully will extend down to the other types of work your company does (which may or may not be of very high quality). Anyway, I firmly believe that most strategy consulting work in 2016 is really just pipeline development for operations consulting. Important for sure, but not really what most strategy consultants signed up for.

I thought the point of having SF, LA, NYC offices was to cut down on travel time, to the benefit of both the consultants and the client.

by huac 11y ago

I thought the point of having SF, LA, NYC offices was to cut down on travel time, to the benefit of both the consultants and the client.

PaulHoule 11y ago

There is a high element of bullshit social control in situations like this. You could probably hire a few people in (say) Eastern Europe and set them up with great process, tooling, and telecon and beat the hell out of consulting groups that run their consultants ragged, but running them ragged is a mechanism of control. You are so committed to it you are not going to question any assumptions. It is like the way that if you want to succeed in certain professions you pretty much need to move -- it satisfies the ideological idea that "we are hiring the best people from all over the world" and it separates you from friends and family and once more makes it almost impossible you will question the unspoken assumptions your career is based on.

huac 11y ago
Yeah, I guess my perspective is different since I'm younger, and I'm drawing upon what my friends do/did as MBB interns (or bulge bracket/boutique finance). One thing that stood out is that a good number of them this summer are paying absurd amounts for housing, usually less than a 5 minute walk to the office. But their logic isn't 'the less time I spend commuting the more time I can have to myself,' it's 'the less time I spend commuting the more likely I will be the first to respond when an MD needs me.'
exelius 11y ago
> but running them ragged is a mechanism of control. This is actually wrong. I used to think that, but again, the world has changed. Running your team ragged is purely a dog and pony show to win follow-up work. When you go into a client you don't know at all, and you do 6 weeks of work and develop a business strategy... the only way that works is if you walked in with a strategy. Which you always do. You then proceed to run your team ragged over the next 6 weeks to produce mountains of work and show the executive team at the client "Hey, look at our guys and how hard they work!" The work itself is usually just 120 slides full of busy work with so many assumptions baked in it's all but meaningless, but you make a great first impression and cemented your company's brand perception at the executive level of that client. You can then sell much lower-quality follow-on work for years on the strength of that one 6 week project. In consulting (ESPECIALLY strategy consulting) politics, perception and packaging are far, far more important than the quality of the output. Therefore, running your people ragged isn't about control or producing quality output. It's about impressing the client by working your ass off, and establishing a brand perception that hopefully will extend down to the other types of work your company does (which may or may not be of very high quality). Anyway, I firmly believe that most strategy consulting work in 2016 is really just pipeline development for operations consulting. Important for sure, but not really what most strategy consultants signed up for.