For the consultants out there, I'm sure you do good work. But (there's always a but😊) I think that some of the contracts given to them are from managers not knowing their business in the first place or to chicken to do what's needed.
I worked for a company and the suggestion was that to increase profits, reduce headcounts across the board. Including sales people. (Can you see where this is going). Well, costs went down but so did sales, negating any reduction in costs and actually decreasing profits. All of us down in the coal mine knew what was going to happen but, hey, we weren't high priced consultants. What did we know.
The workers AND the consultants! It takes a village. To manage the process only pay consultants for advice given tied to the KPIs of their work. No one should get paid simply for showing up!
In a match between the talkers and the doers, take the doers!! The best consultants work with the doers to overcome resistance to the changes that the frontline workers see are needed.
McKinsey was asked specifically to make efficiency recommendations. Were workers? If one paid workers anywhere close to what a company pays McKinsey, perhaps workers would feel more invested in their jobs and make more efficiency recommendations.
Where do you think McKinsey gets their "ideas" from? They interview the workers!!!! Most consultants run around within a company talking to the employees about what they would change and then regurgitate that back in their "report". I would say all of their recommendations were obtained in this manner.
Actually there is nothing wrong with that. Those with the responsibility should be the Subject Matter Experts at their job function. The consultant’s value add is either to bring additional prior expertise, direct or transferable, or to spot opportunities between the gaps. What they fight, but must never admit, is the hierarchical information filter resulting job status. This core issue is literally inherent in the structure.
Many times workers don't bring ideas forward because they feel that higher ups won't listen, which is Often true. If management presents an open door culture and act... or reward good suggestions, they'll flow. If not...hire your pricey consultants, but act on theier suggestions.
Both. It eliminates some low value work for employees and validates that an outside perspective can sometimes see things that those embedded in the company are blind to.
As an HR pro, in all of my companies the consultants simply came in and talked to the employees about how things ran and what they thought could be improved. Often, if you have spent a lot of money on outside help, senior leaders are pressured to make some changes because of the cost. This could be done more economically if you had internal consultants who are outside the business units to perform the same functions. The trick is having the senior leadership viewing them as the same as the external consultants.
When I was employed as a musician in the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in the Netherlands, McKinsey was hired to suggest ways to cut costs in the Dutch Broadcasting system (then called Nederlands Omroep Systeem). Their suggestion: instead of employing an orchestra, play cds, which only cost 100 (pre-Euro) Guilders an hour. Seriously: Would they also suggest cutting real flights and replace them with virtual travel?
It's funny — I never know for sure which newsletters will prompt replies, but this one sure did! Maybe they could have suggested a book instead of hiring a consultant as a cost-cutting measure!
This one is getting some replies! Having rarely used consultants myself (I was so sheltered, the first time I even heard of McKinsey was when Chelsea Clinton got hired there out of Stanford in about 2002 or 2003), my sense is that whether their ideas are good or bad, they provide cover.
If you have to explain to a board why you choose X, if you can say, we hired McKinsey and it was their idea, you've got cover.
It takes something else to say, we changed our procedure on the advice of our gate agents!
Bureaucracy. What I find depressing is that the Lords of the Corporate Suite spend big bucks on the Courtiers of Consultancy to be told the obvious that otherwise does not seem to reach them. If this is an example of the Best and Brightest guiding the Masters of the Universe no wonder so many feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Might be time to examine what business schools teach and how top “Compensation” is determined.
A lot of the McKinsey suggestions seem like the type of small things Delta staff could have come up with if they had been asked by company management or company management "walked the talk" and used a more critical mindset in travelling on their own company flights.
I would add get rid of those pointless in flight magazines and duty free shopping brochures (plus dump in flight shopping, it is always expensive versus the air terminals duty free shops and increasingly little used plus a waste of crew's time).
The crux ones are probably 7. & 9. in servicing planes and avoiding engine or in flight problems and would need a lot more follow on consultant's time (which a cynic would feel was ultimately the intention)!
For the consultants out there, I'm sure you do good work. But (there's always a but😊) I think that some of the contracts given to them are from managers not knowing their business in the first place or to chicken to do what's needed.
I worked for a company and the suggestion was that to increase profits, reduce headcounts across the board. Including sales people. (Can you see where this is going). Well, costs went down but so did sales, negating any reduction in costs and actually decreasing profits. All of us down in the coal mine knew what was going to happen but, hey, we weren't high priced consultants. What did we know.
The workers of course!! The best ideas come from those that do and not those that don’t!
The workers AND the consultants! It takes a village. To manage the process only pay consultants for advice given tied to the KPIs of their work. No one should get paid simply for showing up!
In a match between the talkers and the doers, take the doers!! The best consultants work with the doers to overcome resistance to the changes that the frontline workers see are needed.
McKinsey was asked specifically to make efficiency recommendations. Were workers? If one paid workers anywhere close to what a company pays McKinsey, perhaps workers would feel more invested in their jobs and make more efficiency recommendations.
This does seem end of the line oriented. What whoppers went on before that?
Where do you think McKinsey gets their "ideas" from? They interview the workers!!!! Most consultants run around within a company talking to the employees about what they would change and then regurgitate that back in their "report". I would say all of their recommendations were obtained in this manner.
Actually there is nothing wrong with that. Those with the responsibility should be the Subject Matter Experts at their job function. The consultant’s value add is either to bring additional prior expertise, direct or transferable, or to spot opportunities between the gaps. What they fight, but must never admit, is the hierarchical information filter resulting job status. This core issue is literally inherent in the structure.
Many times workers don't bring ideas forward because they feel that higher ups won't listen, which is Often true. If management presents an open door culture and act... or reward good suggestions, they'll flow. If not...hire your pricey consultants, but act on theier suggestions.
Both. It eliminates some low value work for employees and validates that an outside perspective can sometimes see things that those embedded in the company are blind to.
As an HR pro, in all of my companies the consultants simply came in and talked to the employees about how things ran and what they thought could be improved. Often, if you have spent a lot of money on outside help, senior leaders are pressured to make some changes because of the cost. This could be done more economically if you had internal consultants who are outside the business units to perform the same functions. The trick is having the senior leadership viewing them as the same as the external consultants.
When I was employed as a musician in the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in the Netherlands, McKinsey was hired to suggest ways to cut costs in the Dutch Broadcasting system (then called Nederlands Omroep Systeem). Their suggestion: instead of employing an orchestra, play cds, which only cost 100 (pre-Euro) Guilders an hour. Seriously: Would they also suggest cutting real flights and replace them with virtual travel?
It's funny — I never know for sure which newsletters will prompt replies, but this one sure did! Maybe they could have suggested a book instead of hiring a consultant as a cost-cutting measure!
This one is getting some replies! Having rarely used consultants myself (I was so sheltered, the first time I even heard of McKinsey was when Chelsea Clinton got hired there out of Stanford in about 2002 or 2003), my sense is that whether their ideas are good or bad, they provide cover.
If you have to explain to a board why you choose X, if you can say, we hired McKinsey and it was their idea, you've got cover.
It takes something else to say, we changed our procedure on the advice of our gate agents!
Bureaucracy. What I find depressing is that the Lords of the Corporate Suite spend big bucks on the Courtiers of Consultancy to be told the obvious that otherwise does not seem to reach them. If this is an example of the Best and Brightest guiding the Masters of the Universe no wonder so many feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Might be time to examine what business schools teach and how top “Compensation” is determined.
Re the seat belt suggestion. I suspect this is used as a quick check for functionality, and reduce liability, more than to look pretty.
Yes, this happened to me once. The buckle wouldn't buckle. Sadly, I got moved to a middle seat, the only open one on the plane.
A lot of the McKinsey suggestions seem like the type of small things Delta staff could have come up with if they had been asked by company management or company management "walked the talk" and used a more critical mindset in travelling on their own company flights.
I would add get rid of those pointless in flight magazines and duty free shopping brochures (plus dump in flight shopping, it is always expensive versus the air terminals duty free shops and increasingly little used plus a waste of crew's time).
The crux ones are probably 7. & 9. in servicing planes and avoiding engine or in flight problems and would need a lot more follow on consultant's time (which a cynic would feel was ultimately the intention)!