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There are some specific cases where consultancies can be very useful. If you'e going through pretty much any on-time transition where you don't have internal ex

by simonh 4y ago

There are some specific cases where consultancies can be very useful. If you'e going through pretty much any on-time transition where you don't have internal expertise, bringing in outside expertise can be worthwhile. Things like opening an offshore office for the first time, buying another company and doing a merger, turning around a failing department or division. Clearly defined time bounded activities that require specific skills you don't have. Too often though companies use consultants to manage core activities of the company. If it's a core activity, and you can't do it yourself, what are you even doing in business?

the_lonely_road 4y ago
Consultants bread and butter are long standing regulations. Healthcare, banking, environmental and probably some others I am less familiar with. You find yourself on the other side of a government regulator action and what do you do? Stumble your way though it for the first time while redirecting business critical assets to an unfamiliar one time project or hire a group of people who have been standing on the other side of these regulators twice a year for the last 20 years?
ethbr0 4y ago
Absolutely agreed! I think where so many of us have seen this go awry is when companies think IT isn't a core activity. And I also see companies consistently screw up defining their deliverables and by not building in a draft review process (early enough for feedback to be actioned on). If you have nebulous deliverables and a single project end date... of course consultancies are going to throw together what they think the minimal acceptable product is, at the last minute. We don't build software that way anymore, and for good reason.
acdha 4y ago
> If it's a core activity, and you can't do it yourself, what are you even doing in business? The most value I’ve ever seen was at a large, well-known organization where the 24 year-olds in $2k suits met with the actual staff and gave the C-level an honest report about all of the problems which had been getting buried for years by the mid-level management. That worked but so many things are just broken for that to be useful. Nobody wanted to deal with that, so unsurprisingly a lot of people left after a year or two.

by simonh 4y ago

the_lonely_road 4y ago

Consultants bread and butter are long standing regulations. Healthcare, banking, environmental and probably some others I am less familiar with. You find yourself on the other side of a government regulator action and what do you do? Stumble your way though it for the first time while redirecting business critical assets to an unfamiliar one time project or hire a group of people who have been standing on the other side of these regulators twice a year for the last 20 years?

ethbr0 4y ago

Absolutely agreed! I think where so many of us have seen this go awry is when companies think IT isn't a core activity. And I also see companies consistently screw up defining their deliverables and by not building in a draft review process (early enough for feedback to be actioned on). If you have nebulous deliverables and a single project end date... of course consultancies are going to throw together what they think the minimal acceptable product is, at the last minute. We don't build software that way anymore, and for good reason.

acdha 4y ago

> If it's a core activity, and you can't do it yourself, what are you even doing in business? The most value I’ve ever seen was at a large, well-known organization where the 24 year-olds in $2k suits met with the actual staff and gave the C-level an honest report about all of the problems which had been getting buried for years by the mid-level management. That worked but so many things are just broken for that to be useful. Nobody wanted to deal with that, so unsurprisingly a lot of people left after a year or two.