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We're currently working with a McKinsey consultant, seems like a great guy - really polished fella, but I'm not sure why he was brought in. We're working on a o

We're currently working with a McKinsey consultant, seems like a great guy - really polished fella, but I'm not sure why he was brought in. We're working on a organization-wide project, so there's lots of moving parts - and he's mostly just joining in on our meetings, taking notes. One boss said he's there to develop strategy for a part of the organization, another said he's there to help with developing project management, so I don't know - someone above them brought McKinsey in. Looked him up on LinkedIn, and it seems he graduated last year. Probably costs a pretty penny.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
They're getting paid to drive a narrative for whomever's budget is being charged against. sharemywin provides more depth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34779586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34779586
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
You'll get a lot of cynical takes on the internet because a lot of people have had bad experiences with consultants. Or more accurately, bad experiences with management who hire consultants for some goal. The underlying goal in a lot of consultant engagements like you describe is to get something done outside of the inertia of your org structure. As companies grow, people get set in their roles and become resistant to change. Trying to make change things, start new initiatives, or shake things up will often fail if it doesn't fall neatly into the inertia of the company. Hiring a consultant is like inserting someone out-of-band who can generate some outside analysis without feeling obligated to respect all of the hidden politics, histories, and strong personalities that can come to shape a company. Now whether or not that goal is inline with your own goals at this company is a different question. It could be that the outcome involves a new initiative that makes your work better by removing some of the painful organizational cruft that has built up over the years. Or it could become an effort to reshape the parts of the organization that you personally liked. Or maybe the consultant is taking notes for some entirely unrelated initiative that you'll never see. You don't know, but I would suggest making a good faith effort to work with this person while they're in your company.
- raverbashing 4y ago
  Well, in theory yeah In practice, he'll most likely go for the most basic solution (which a lot of people probably noticed already) and try to package this in a "report that cost a lot of money" Institutional inertia is bad, but feel-good/turnkey "solutions" to undefined problems (think stuff like 6 sigma, "agile consultants" etc) don't help neither
  - namaria 4y ago
    People put out a lot of words about management as a science. In reality companies are ruled by politics and accounting.
- hd95489 4y ago
  Or just feed them your line and work to discredit any opposition.
skottk 4y ago
They're often extremely impressive people. Sometimes you don't find out what they're really working on for a long time, sometimes you never do. Sometimes you find out after it's too late.
- hd95489 4y ago
  If you can’t figure that out you aren’t looking. Once you know who hired them you already know what the outcome will be

toomuchtodo 4y ago

They're getting paid to drive a narrative for whomever's budget is being charged against. sharemywin provides more depth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34779586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34779586

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

You'll get a lot of cynical takes on the internet because a lot of people have had bad experiences with consultants. Or more accurately, bad experiences with management who hire consultants for some goal. The underlying goal in a lot of consultant engagements like you describe is to get something done outside of the inertia of your org structure. As companies grow, people get set in their roles and become resistant to change. Trying to make change things, start new initiatives, or shake things up will often fail if it doesn't fall neatly into the inertia of the company. Hiring a consultant is like inserting someone out-of-band who can generate some outside analysis without feeling obligated to respect all of the hidden politics, histories, and strong personalities that can come to shape a company. Now whether or not that goal is inline with your own goals at this company is a different question. It could be that the outcome involves a new initiative that makes your work better by removing some of the painful organizational cruft that has built up over the years. Or it could become an effort to reshape the parts of the organization that you personally liked. Or maybe the consultant is taking notes for some entirely unrelated initiative that you'll never see. You don't know, but I would suggest making a good faith effort to work with this person while they're in your company.

raverbashing 4y ago
Well, in theory yeah In practice, he'll most likely go for the most basic solution (which a lot of people probably noticed already) and try to package this in a "report that cost a lot of money" Institutional inertia is bad, but feel-good/turnkey "solutions" to undefined problems (think stuff like 6 sigma, "agile consultants" etc) don't help neither
- namaria 4y ago
  People put out a lot of words about management as a science. In reality companies are ruled by politics and accounting.
hd95489 4y ago
Or just feed them your line and work to discredit any opposition.

skottk 4y ago

They're often extremely impressive people. Sometimes you don't find out what they're really working on for a long time, sometimes you never do. Sometimes you find out after it's too late.

hd95489 4y ago
If you can’t figure that out you aren’t looking. Once you know who hired them you already know what the outcome will be