4 ms·

It’s also insane people think running a large business is easy, or that management consultants aren’t worth what they’re paid.

jack_riminton 3y ago
Worth here is the key word. I did an MBA which was specifically designed to get people into consulting, we did many consulting projects for real multinantionals and the key lesson was: "What does the hidden client want?" i.e. someone has been tasked with getting some consultants to come up with a suggestion, the key question however is what does THEIR boss want to hear. If you can work that out and give it to them then you've earned your 'worth'
- ghaff 3y ago
  Well, there's also the case where some internal engineering and product management think they have the right answer. But it may be a literally bet the company sort of thing. (Especially outside the software realm where once the bus has left the station it's not turning around.) Now I know there are people here whose reaction is that executive management should just shut up and listen to what the worker bees say. But it actually doesn't seem unreasonable to me (and I've been on the product management end of things in a case like this) to have some outside perspective from some people who are mostly pretty smart to nod their heads and say this seems sensible. As a bonus they create big spreadsheets that make the business planning types happy and keep them out from underfoot.
- hcks 3y ago
  Wow I’m sure someone that paid some money for an MBA and then stopped at the gate of an entry level position has expertise in this matter.
j45 3y ago
I hope someone builds a management consultant gpt to find out. Until then, our leaders, experts and institutions were few of those things during the pandemic. How large businesses are built and run has changed faster and more in the past few years than the principled predictions of a business’ future vector that are based on lagging indicators. It also depends on how cookie cut the management consultant frameworks and “toolkits” are. It’s no coincidence that it’s mostly juniors doing so much of the work and billing. New or average talent is more profitable per hour to bill than experience. Financially, if $7-8 of every $10 for improvement went to a management consulting undertaking, the other $2-3 is what’s left over for the rest without even knowing. This would be the coup, if this were true. The fun part to watch for is is tech people will be able to learn business easier than business people will be able to learn and apply tech when they can’t understand it’s capabilities or possibilities beyond speaking points. The technical analyst will M&A the business analyst. Maybe they learn to extract Management Consultant type value too.
- RandomLensman 3y ago
  Mangement consultants get comparatively small money from (large) firms. The total revenues going to McK, BCG, and Bain are only about $30B annually.
marcosdumay 3y ago
Well, if it was that hard, chatGPT wouldn't be able to help them.

jack_riminton 3y ago

Worth here is the key word. I did an MBA which was specifically designed to get people into consulting, we did many consulting projects for real multinantionals and the key lesson was: "What does the hidden client want?" i.e. someone has been tasked with getting some consultants to come up with a suggestion, the key question however is what does THEIR boss want to hear. If you can work that out and give it to them then you've earned your 'worth'

ghaff 3y ago
Well, there's also the case where some internal engineering and product management think they have the right answer. But it may be a literally bet the company sort of thing. (Especially outside the software realm where once the bus has left the station it's not turning around.) Now I know there are people here whose reaction is that executive management should just shut up and listen to what the worker bees say. But it actually doesn't seem unreasonable to me (and I've been on the product management end of things in a case like this) to have some outside perspective from some people who are mostly pretty smart to nod their heads and say this seems sensible. As a bonus they create big spreadsheets that make the business planning types happy and keep them out from underfoot.
hcks 3y ago
Wow I’m sure someone that paid some money for an MBA and then stopped at the gate of an entry level position has expertise in this matter.

j45 3y ago

I hope someone builds a management consultant gpt to find out. Until then, our leaders, experts and institutions were few of those things during the pandemic. How large businesses are built and run has changed faster and more in the past few years than the principled predictions of a business’ future vector that are based on lagging indicators. It also depends on how cookie cut the management consultant frameworks and “toolkits” are. It’s no coincidence that it’s mostly juniors doing so much of the work and billing. New or average talent is more profitable per hour to bill than experience. Financially, if $7-8 of every $10 for improvement went to a management consulting undertaking, the other $2-3 is what’s left over for the rest without even knowing. This would be the coup, if this were true. The fun part to watch for is is tech people will be able to learn business easier than business people will be able to learn and apply tech when they can’t understand it’s capabilities or possibilities beyond speaking points. The technical analyst will M&A the business analyst. Maybe they learn to extract Management Consultant type value too.

RandomLensman 3y ago
Mangement consultants get comparatively small money from (large) firms. The total revenues going to McK, BCG, and Bain are only about $30B annually.

marcosdumay 3y ago

Well, if it was that hard, chatGPT wouldn't be able to help them.