Hilariously Basic Consulting Insights
Lads, Friday is upon us!
So after a hectic few months on a deal i'm catching up with leisure reading and came across some consulting articles about business models, agile organisations yada yada... now i'm not sure if this had to do with the fact that it was written by Tier 2 firms (albeit still well known) but some (if not an overwhelming proportion) of articles are of such shallow insights / messaging that they are outright hillarious.. just some examples:
Article talks about need for organisations to think and act faster - 10 pages, cites 2 examples of companies missing M&A opportunities cause they took too long to decide. I mean, seriously? so many factors go into a deal, speed of information by counterparty, complications in negotiated terms, etc etc - in summary my 5 year old nephew had more compelling arguments when he wanted candy for breakfast...
Another article talks about how companies need to transform / digitialize during / post Covid yada yada ... now consulting firms are the easiest to operationalize / transform in this direction, given the simplicity of the business model (just staff talking among each other and using excel / ppt without many sophisticated other logistics / physical goods / "real business dealings") - are any consulting firms doing what they're preaching?
Long story short, consultants, or maybe better yet, ex-consultants here - what do you think of consulting? Do you / did you believe in your client recommendations, or was it just "get the job done and get paid" - curious about how consultants think
I would distinguish three things:
Briefs/ marketing material: very high level and often lacking in depth of content, the goal is pretty much to have C-levels think that consultants from firm X view the same problems so that X appears like a good potential partner for a project.
Publicized studies: some of McKinsey's insights are good examples (e.g. retail during COVID), Bain's PE & Luxury studies and BCG's CFO & tech perspectives come to mind as well. These are relatively content heavy and can contain valuable insights, in my opinion.
Actual work deliverables/ client recommendations: more in-depth and tailored to the specific situation, if this does not carry strong insights then the consultants are doing it wrong.
Number 2 and 3 are solid and worth reading/ considering. #1 is kind of useless if you're looking for something more than a conversation starter
Good breakdown mate - to be clear though, I think MBB are way ahead of the rest. I was looking at TOP 10 firms that weren't MBB and the said materials would fall under category 2 as they were supposedly "xxx insights", so admittedly I have less sympathy for the lack of depth they pass off as "insights"
Pity - I found some good stuff from other firms (mostly big 4) but it tends to be harder to find a gem, for sure.
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