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Maybe finally business “leaders” are realizing how completely worthless these companies are? Business consulting is literally a bunch of Ivy League grads making

Maybe finally business “leaders” are realizing how completely worthless these companies are? Business consulting is literally a bunch of Ivy League grads making PowerPoints and calling that a deliverable.

ingoaf 3y ago
Before joining a corporation I really thought that this is an exaggeration by people who are unsatisfied by their own fate at the companies to which the consultants come. I was shocked by how true this statement is. A lot of PowerPoint slides and very little value in them.
- athrowaway3z 3y ago
  Its worth to remember that 25 years ago it was actually really valuable to get some people to go around a company, collect the data, and present it. But that was 25 years ago.
- Jcampuzano2 3y ago
  I previously worked for a large management consulting firm, but in one of their newly acquired tech/implementation teams. There are quite literally analysts and sr analysts on every project whose entire job is just creating and editing powerpoints, sending them to their partner managing the case, getting feedback and repeat. Nothing else, just powerpoints. They may sit in on some meetings themselves but don't really offer much in the way of actual expertise in any meaningful way. Many of these people have literally never worked in the sector/field they are supposed to be consulting/advising on They all have due dates basically every night for a new powerpoint presentation and that is literally the only deliverable for many of the people on a given case (client project). While I was paid a lot for the job, often multiples of the developers working for any given client and it was hyper stressful, there's probably not a single project I can think of where the client wouldn't have been better off just doing things themselves and hiring full-time positions or even contractors who aren't one of these giant complex expensive firms. Now that isn't to say there aren't a handful of very valuable/knowledgable people staffed to a project, but I'd wager on the average project only like 10-20% of people have anything of actual value to offer.
- watwut 3y ago
  That is best case scenario. In a company I worked in, they managed to create reorganization ... without actually talking to anyone who would know what people and departments do. The two most capable managers looked at new organization they were supposed lead and left. So it was headless for next two months. Remaining people inckuding manageme t spent a lot of time doing nothing for months complaining in the kitchen. We all got used to low productivity as normal. Then I left, not sure what happened after.
- toss1 3y ago
  Yup. I've gone in as a workflow software / network company to clean up after some of these top consultants' "recommendations" (i.e., make and/or replace their systems so they'd actually work as advertised). With what I've seen, these "consultants" are the most vulnerable segment to LLMs, especially LLMs tuned to the corporation's information store. Which means that the consultant's largest clients will disappear first. Of course the consultants will try to sell "we will help you implement these LLMs for your business". YMMV
juujian 3y ago
Fat chance, business leaders are cut from the same cloth. Same education, same schools, even more privileges background in many cases.
Rapzid 3y ago
They provide valuable services.. But that's a subset of what they'll take money for lol.
Simon_ORourke 3y ago
There was some LinkedIn profile highlighted recently around this, some guy working at one of these consulting companies highlighted his roles (in ascending order but I'll list them the other way) as.... * Making beautiful looking powerpoint slides really quickly. * Telling other people to make beautiful looking powerpoint slides really quickly. * Convincing the client that beautiful looking powerpoint slides quickly answered their problem.
Freedom2 3y ago
The PowerPoint making actually gets offshored too.
- sebazzz 3y ago
  Yup, that's all India.
  - WirelessGigabit 3y ago
    That's also changing. Used to be that you sent an email. Now you can only do it from within PowerPoint.
asdff 3y ago
You are missing the entire point of bringing in a consultant: plausable deniability and double dipping. For one, if you come up with some idea and it goes south, guess who gets the blame. If you, on the other hand, come up with the idea to bring in McKinsey, and listen to what they have to say, and that idea goes south, you get a pat on the back for bringing in a great consultancy into the mix, and if things went wrong its not even McKinsey's fault but dubious things like "market conditions" or whatever they cite. The things they often recommend to you are sometimes bordering on corporate espionage made legal by proxy, taking what worked with another competing client in your field and applying that formula to your own work. Then of course these consultancies are for profit companies, creating another investment angle for anything that you do for shareholders that are invested in both your company and the consultancy. They are never going away. It doesn't even matter what they put in those slides and they won't be going away.

ingoaf 3y ago

Before joining a corporation I really thought that this is an exaggeration by people who are unsatisfied by their own fate at the companies to which the consultants come. I was shocked by how true this statement is. A lot of PowerPoint slides and very little value in them.

athrowaway3z 3y ago
Its worth to remember that 25 years ago it was actually really valuable to get some people to go around a company, collect the data, and present it. But that was 25 years ago.
Jcampuzano2 3y ago
I previously worked for a large management consulting firm, but in one of their newly acquired tech/implementation teams. There are quite literally analysts and sr analysts on every project whose entire job is just creating and editing powerpoints, sending them to their partner managing the case, getting feedback and repeat. Nothing else, just powerpoints. They may sit in on some meetings themselves but don't really offer much in the way of actual expertise in any meaningful way. Many of these people have literally never worked in the sector/field they are supposed to be consulting/advising on They all have due dates basically every night for a new powerpoint presentation and that is literally the only deliverable for many of the people on a given case (client project). While I was paid a lot for the job, often multiples of the developers working for any given client and it was hyper stressful, there's probably not a single project I can think of where the client wouldn't have been better off just doing things themselves and hiring full-time positions or even contractors who aren't one of these giant complex expensive firms. Now that isn't to say there aren't a handful of very valuable/knowledgable people staffed to a project, but I'd wager on the average project only like 10-20% of people have anything of actual value to offer.
watwut 3y ago
That is best case scenario. In a company I worked in, they managed to create reorganization ... without actually talking to anyone who would know what people and departments do. The two most capable managers looked at new organization they were supposed lead and left. So it was headless for next two months. Remaining people inckuding manageme t spent a lot of time doing nothing for months complaining in the kitchen. We all got used to low productivity as normal. Then I left, not sure what happened after.
toss1 3y ago
Yup. I've gone in as a workflow software / network company to clean up after some of these top consultants' "recommendations" (i.e., make and/or replace their systems so they'd actually work as advertised). With what I've seen, these "consultants" are the most vulnerable segment to LLMs, especially LLMs tuned to the corporation's information store. Which means that the consultant's largest clients will disappear first. Of course the consultants will try to sell "we will help you implement these LLMs for your business". YMMV

juujian 3y ago

Fat chance, business leaders are cut from the same cloth. Same education, same schools, even more privileges background in many cases.

Rapzid 3y ago

They provide valuable services.. But that's a subset of what they'll take money for lol.

Simon_ORourke 3y ago

There was some LinkedIn profile highlighted recently around this, some guy working at one of these consulting companies highlighted his roles (in ascending order but I'll list them the other way) as.... * Making beautiful looking powerpoint slides really quickly. * Telling other people to make beautiful looking powerpoint slides really quickly. * Convincing the client that beautiful looking powerpoint slides quickly answered their problem.

Freedom2 3y ago

The PowerPoint making actually gets offshored too.

sebazzz 3y ago
Yup, that's all India.
- WirelessGigabit 3y ago
  That's also changing. Used to be that you sent an email. Now you can only do it from within PowerPoint.

asdff 3y ago

You are missing the entire point of bringing in a consultant: plausable deniability and double dipping. For one, if you come up with some idea and it goes south, guess who gets the blame. If you, on the other hand, come up with the idea to bring in McKinsey, and listen to what they have to say, and that idea goes south, you get a pat on the back for bringing in a great consultancy into the mix, and if things went wrong its not even McKinsey's fault but dubious things like "market conditions" or whatever they cite. The things they often recommend to you are sometimes bordering on corporate espionage made legal by proxy, taking what worked with another competing client in your field and applying that formula to your own work. Then of course these consultancies are for profit companies, creating another investment angle for anything that you do for shareholders that are invested in both your company and the consultancy. They are never going away. It doesn't even matter what they put in those slides and they won't be going away.