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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 consult

by 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

by ingoaf 3y ago

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