Consultants....

Let me list a few...

McKinsey
Deloitte
Earnst and Young
PWC
AT Kearny

In 30 years of Procurement, Contract Management, Logistics, Project Management, Operations and many other experiences, I am sick of the different "managers, CEOs, leaders" listening to these pr1cks.

I have watched my companies spend a million dollars on amateur consultants asking me questions and then playing my answers back to my leaders as their own....even though I have previously given the answers.

Last year, we had E&Y suggest we change paying our suppliers 45 days after the end of the month they invoice.....

Think about this, we are a large company, we tell our suppliers you have to have about 60 days credit...the big players (ridiculously E&Y suggested it but refused to accept it) refuse, which leaves the small mom and pop shops.........

If i were the boss I would not only sack the acting CFO but I would sack all the Yes Men who allowed it...

Short...has anyone had a good experience from these leeches? I personally am a little bit bored by a Indian chap telling me how to save money...case in point, have my GE parts manufactured in china....yeah ok McKinsey, no quality or IP problems there....

a reply to: Forensick

There is no respect for workers with years of experience. Every CEO thinks people can be replaced by non-skilled outsourced foreign labor.

I think the lack of job security has taken a huge toll on the quality of workers efforts. People just don't care because CEOs just don't care about their workers. Lip service and layoffs get old after a while.

originally posted by: Forensick
Short...has anyone had a good experience from these leeches?

Yes, we (the company I manage for) work with one of the partners at Deloitte on our strategic growth strategy and we are currently ahead of schedule. Is all that on him? No. But it certainly helped.

I think you are onto something here. Anywhere I have worked that has had consultants come in - has been decimated. They parachute in to problem-solve problems that weren't problems until they identified them as problems. LOL!

It's the greatest scam ever.

In the meantime, turnover is brutal, core institutional knowledge is lost, the brand gets wrecked and customers suffer. I think it can work in manufacturing to improve inefficiencies within a system where one thing depends on another but when it's strictly to maximize profits in other types of industries, it starts going off the rails. At some point whittling becomes wearing away...streamlining becomes erosion.

originally posted by: Forensick
Let me list a few...

McKinsey
Deloitte
Earnst and Young
PWC
AT Kearny

In 30 years of Procurement, Contract Management, Logistics, Project Management, Operations and many other experiences, I am sick of the different "managers, CEOs, leaders" listening to these pr1cks.

I have watched my companies spend a million dollars on amateur consultants asking me questions and then playing my answers back to my leaders as their own....even though I have previously given the answers.

Last year, we had E&Y suggest we change paying our suppliers 45 days after the end of the month they invoice.....

Think about this, we are a large company, we tell our suppliers you have to have about 60 days credit...the big players (ridiculously E&Y suggested it but refused to accept it) refuse, which leaves the small mom and pop shops.........

If i were the boss I would not only sack the acting CFO but I would sack all the Yes Men who allowed it...

Short...has anyone had a good experience from these leeches? I personally am a little bit bored by a Indian chap telling me how to save money...case in point, have my GE parts manufactured in china....yeah ok McKinsey, no quality or IP problems there....

I worked in strategy consulting for one of the firms you listed. I can see your perspective. As with any service, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly.

In general, you have to understand why consultants are often hired. Consultants are usually brought in because the client does not have the in house skillsets and resources to tackle whatever problem it is we are being asked to solve. Usually the issues the client is facing are one time situations - corporate strategy, M&A, market segmentation, financial analysis, and other higher level issues that corporate management wants addressed.

Sometimes we are very successful and other times we are not. There are so many factors that it is hard to just blame the consultant.

Procurement is one of those types of engagements where every dollar you save typically goes straight to the bottom line. Often times larger corporations turn into government like entities and they often don't see where they are pissing away money. While corporations may have their own procurement staffs, one of the advantages of consultants is that we often come in with a clean slate meaning we may see things that are missed because you are so used to "doing it your way".

I found my most successful engagements were where the client and the firm worked together as partners. I never claim to know my client's business better than they, but often I had the intellectual horsepower they did not to do the complex analysis (regressions, manipulating huge datasets of customer data, market research, etc) that they needed to convince management of taking some course of action. This is often the strength that consultants bring to the table.

There is a joke that consultants will take your watch and tell you the time. However, it is a multi-billion dollar industry, so the firms must be doing something right.

Old joke :-

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers, "Sure. Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says, “You have exactly 1,586 sheep.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep.” says the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the shepherd says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep? “

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a consultant.” says the shepherd.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required.” answered the shepherd. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you don’t know crap about my business..."

"...Now give me back my dog!"

a reply to: Forensick

Answering as a long-term tech employee with a company that has worked with consultants for almost 10 years.

Yes, I have had some good experiences with consulting firms. Working with people who know their specialty so well it's like they were born knowing it... It allowed them to use their brain to really understand my business and really solve my problems. Pure joy!

And some mediocre ones. Could have done as well ourselves for half the money, but probably would have taken longer.

And some 'just shoot me now' awful ones. Ones who were so new to their specialty that I had to learn their world and guide them step by step but watch them get the fat paycheck, more holidays, more sick days and shorter workdays. And take all the credit.

I am super glad I had the best experience first though!! Otherwise I would probably feel just like you.

Good luck to you, I know it can be rough.

a reply to: ScepticScot

That one never gets old!

In my experience Financial Consultants do a fantastic job - enriching themselves

The Banks can have a lot to answer for too, sometimes one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.

My ex-employer called in a young man from our Bank to go through her finances and help with investment advice etc. He spent an afternoon with us very efficiently putting together a picture of all her assets.

Off he went and we sat back waiting for all the get rich quick advice. Except we never heard from him and he was never available to take our calls.

Finally we managed to speak to one of his colleagues and persuaded her to convince him to get back in touch.

We got a huffy little letter informing us that The Boss wasn't rich enough to merit any more of his time or attention.

a reply to: ScepticScot

LMAO!!!! Exactly.