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These topics on HN (where I know the industry well) make me realize how stupid I must sound when I have strong opinions on things I have nothing but anecdotal e
by viableSprocket1 4y ago
These topics on HN (where I know the industry well) make me realize how stupid I must sound when I have strong opinions on things I have nothing but anecdotal experience with. It's humbling to realize that I must also say things that are on par with "can't chatGPT do their job" or "all they do is make slides".
In aggregate and over the long term (~100 years or so in the case of consulting), most services find a fair market value. If McK is a ~$15B company running at ~30-40% margins, it is likely delivering some value to someone who is willing to pay for it. That value may be overstated to people not paying for it, or they may not understand the value because they are not faced with the same challenges as the typical McK customer.
...and that's ok, they are not the intended market.
- anon291 4y agoI worked at bain.. The main purpose these companies provide is to rubber stamp decisions and claim that experts made them
- viableSprocket1 4y agoNot my experience over a decade or so, but sorry it was yours. Sounds awful.
- qaq 4y agoIt is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it
- viableSprocket1 4y agoIs it more or less difficult than counteracting Dunning-Kruger? (for the record...former salary, several years ago)
- lmm 4y agoNo-one ever got fired for appointing McKinsey, and it's pretty easy to provide a positive RoI when the person hiring you is spending other people's money. These consultants certainly provide value to someone, but whether that translates into an overall net positive for the organisation that engaged them is an open question.
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago> it is likely delivering some value to someone who is willing to pay for it. I'm suddenly curious whether / how many of McKinsey's actual customers have a child in an MBA program that McKinsey recruits from. Get your company to spend money for a particular consulting firm, and then use that relationship with a particular consulting firm to get a leg-up for your kid? Are there processes in place at the large consulting firms to prevent this sort of quid pro quo?
- viableSprocket1 4y agoi'm sure it's happened somewhere...I'm not sure but from what I've seen, incredibly hard to game recruitment. Even if you do, the kid won't survive long -- it's up or out every ~2 years. Seems like a lot of work for not much payoff. What is encouraged is treating everyone leaving whether regrettable/non-regrettable with a great deal of love and care -- placement services are pretty good. There is a good chance those ex-McK folk are future clients.
- anonymouskimmer 4y agoAnd those ex-McKinsey executives are not only primed to hire their former colleagues, but assuming they've been doing a good job, they're McKinsey advertisements at their current job. Now that's a good deal for McKinsey.
- viableSprocket1 4y agoyep. that's 100% a strategy.