Consultancy Firms

kinetic747

kinetic747

kinetic747

Soldato
Joined
2 Apr 2006
Posts
3,744
My experience of consultants over the years isn't good so I'm wondering what others think? For any consultants on here I apologize in advance, I'm sure some of you actually solve a problem with something you've thought of yourself. :p
 
What type of consultants? I am one, and generally the only time I struggle to add value is when I come up against a permie employee that is absolutely out to disrupt the whole process from the start as they're "that type".

@Malt_Vinegar - back me up man.
 
The term consultant is far too broad to make a thread complaining about them in general. What sort of consultants do you mean?

You have engineering consultants, management consultants, even doctors whose title is consultant. So what are you getting at even?
 
dl8860 said:
The term consultant is far too broad to make a thread complaining about them in general. What sort of consultants do you mean?

You have engineering consultants, management consultants, even doctors whose title is consultant. So what are you getting at even?
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Ah sorry, my bad. I mean consultants who look to streamline the manufacturing process i.e reduce waste, increase output and/or solve problems.
 
kinetic747 said:
Ah sorry, my bad. I mean consultants who look to streamline the manufacturing process i.e reduce waste, increase output and/or solve problems.
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Ah sure.

Can I ask are you a business owner or employee? I can very much understand that an employee who is involved with or even designed a manufacturing process might dislike a consultant who has been hired by his/her boss to critically review how things are working.
 
dl8860 said:
Ah sure.

Can I ask are you a business owner or employee? I can very much understand that an employee who is involved with or even designed a manufacturing process might dislike a consultant who has been hired by his/her boss to critically review how things are working.
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I'm an employee and consider myself pretty open to new ideas. It's difficult to explain but I have a problem with the methods they use. My experience is that they are very rigid to whichever system they employ, and aren't willing to deviate from that path, even if it means solving the problem in a much shorter timeframe. I also feel it's all about the presentation i.e it's a sales pitch to showcase any project they take on. They are extremely slick and polished at this, I can't deny otherwise.
 
dl8860 said:
The term consultant is far too broad to make a thread complaining about them in general. What sort of consultants do you mean?

You have engineering consultants, management consultants, even doctors whose title is consultant. So what are you getting at even?
Click to expand...

I was referring to management consultants. The Big 4 in particular.
 
We had a. Consultant in to decimate our workforce.
It makes the incompetent managers feel better because they don't have the balls to do their job
 
Worthy said:
What type of consultants? I am one, and generally the only time I struggle to add value is when I come up against a permie employee that is absolutely out to disrupt the whole process from the start as they're "that type".

@Malt_Vinegar - back me up man.
Click to expand...


Haha, I work with a few and you get the odd one stringing out the job, blaming vendors for (easily fixed) issues and generally dragging their feet to keep getting paid, but mostly the bigger companies pick decent peeps with a good rep.

It's a mixed bag, like any type of person you may work with. There are good and bad ones :D
 
I've worked on both sides of the fence

Frankly, they (management consultants) over charge for a service companies could do themselves but either don't trust their employees to do effectively or can't be arsed with the effort. Usually when the report comes out at the end (which has a lot of man hours spent on it) senior execs read it and delegate to their teams with "Go and do this". Then it never happens. Unless the "this" is firing lots of people.

In reality big (FTSE250) companies are so over burdened with dead weight, inefficiencies and ingrained work forces that it's not surprising management consultants exist. Not everyone in a big company is crap or lazy, but a lot of people are.

I both loathe management consultants and understand their reasons for existing.
 
I’m a consultant, and working for a consulting company.

I feel as though we’re very good, and I would argue we evidence this with some of the clients we have exclusive deals with.

This is primarily down to the culture - feedback is taught as a fundamental aspect of our job. Everyone gives you feedback all the time. It’s continuous improvement from day one.


Problem is, “consultant” is such a wide job spec these days, and there are many companies that do consulting. But there are few that do it right.
 
From my experience consultants are not bad in theory but the higher management do not know what they are doing and hire them to show they are trying to resolve an issue whilst not actually solving anything. Mainly due to the splintered nature of most departments each having their own top boss.

We have had management consultants in many a time and most have offered absolutely nothing because our management was fine. It was the engineering issues that were simply not getting resolved that was holding us back but it was being pinned onto to us.

They are a good idea for a business in its infancy but offer very little to a department that is already well equipped.
 
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