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Yes and no. On one hand, management consultants are typically working with the executives of a company, and usually one of those executives will have been a fo
by brianchu 14y ago
Yes and no.
On one hand, management consultants are typically working with the executives of a company, and usually one of those executives will have been a former consultant (the executive boardrooms of companies are filled with them). Not to mention that both consultants and executives usually have the same set of "skills."
On the other hand, one former management consultant I spoke to told me that executives would often hire consultants to tell them what they already knew. The only purpose of bringing the consultants on-board was so that their recommendations would serve as political validation in case they had to explain their decision (i.e. if they failed).
- _delirium 14y agoSadly it's not only management consultants doing that one: there's a certain proportion of the engineering-consulting business that consists of management calling in someone with an engineering degree to give a PowerPoint presentation to validate a point or provide political cover for a decision. I don't have any experience in that myself, but more than one of my friends are in jobs like that, which pay well but don't seem to produce much job satisfaction.
- niels_olson 14y agoAs a physician, I routinely do this. I may know the answer, but the patient just sees me as a primary care guy. This is quadruply true if it is a friend or ten times true if it is a family member. Politically far more favorable for me to consult. The specialists (aka, consultants), especially in private practice, are often happy to get an occasional easy consult, and the patient/friend/family appreciates me "recruiting big guns for the problem". If I stuck to insisting I know and I'm right, then I lose credibility, no matter how much evidence I cite. It's a social/political problem, not a scientific problem. And specialists consult each other constantly. There have been days in training I wrote more consults than orders (eg: meds, tests).
- rayiner 14y agoOh, I don't disagree. I think you see a lot of both: real value-added in operations, logistics, etc, and a lot of purchased CYA. And let's be fair--CYA is something we all do in corporate America, at least if you're smart.
- rdtsc 14y agoYap pretty much. There was an article from an insider about how these large consulting firms work. They are hired in order to protect against liability. They are paid money to say what clients want to hear (but in an official "report" and "power point format") and then if shit hits the fan executives can always point to "But look we hired the best of the best, these experts all agreed we should go this, so it is clearly not our fault".