Advisory Board layoffs

[Anonymous]

Back to CEB/Gartner.

DH started at CEB last year, and is now concerned about possible layoff due to Gartner acquiring them.

We are new this whole acquisition thing....feeling a bit uneasy

[Anonymous]

Makes sense to me. They hired up big time in 2010/11 after the ACA was enacted. Now ACA is basically implemented so there is not as much demand for analysis. And industry already knows (sort of) what to expect if it is dismantled, because we've been there before...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i still don't know what abc and ceb do....like is it a budget MBB shop?

pretty much.

Not at all. ABC and CEB sell subscription services to their industry reporting, insights, etc. They don't do strategy engagements like MBB. Model is wholly different.

We used CEB enterprise architecture group. Total waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Makes sense to me. They hired up big time in 2010/11 after the ACA was enacted. Now ACA is basically implemented so there is not as much demand for analysis. And industry already knows (sort of) what to expect if it is dismantled, because we've been there before...

Not in the HC industry (though have a friend who was laid off by Advisory Board) so this might seem like a basic question: I would think that the tremendous uncertainty about what replaces ACA would create more demand for work from companies like Advisory Board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i still don't know what abc and ceb do....like is it a budget MBB shop?

pretty much.

Not at all. ABC and CEB sell subscription services to their industry reporting, insights, etc. They don't do strategy engagements like MBB. Model is wholly different.

We used CEB enterprise architecture group. Total waste of money.

+10000

[Anonymous]

what exactly do they do and why do hospitals pay them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i still don't know what abc and ceb do....like is it a budget MBB shop?

pretty much.

Not at all. ABC and CEB sell subscription services to their industry reporting, insights, etc. They don't do strategy engagements like MBB. Model is wholly different.

We used CEB enterprise architecture group. Total waste of money.

+10000

so is it your feeling that these companies are not long for this world?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i still don't know what abc and ceb do....like is it a budget MBB shop?

pretty much.

Is it really? I always thought the work product wasn't pragmatic business solutions but rather white papers, reports, and the like. Clients pay MBB to make immediate change - not write a paper on it and present at a conference.

McK and BCG do tons of white papers as well - I notice their white papers in places like HBR and other publications more often than ABC's.

That reflects a significant difference in quality. I know this because I worked at ABC for a summer and later worked at BCG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes sense to me. They hired up big time in 2010/11 after the ACA was enacted. Now ACA is basically implemented so there is not as much demand for analysis. And industry already knows (sort of) what to expect if it is dismantled, because we've been there before...

Not in the HC industry (though have a friend who was laid off by Advisory Board) so this might seem like a basic question: I would think that the tremendous uncertainty about what replaces ACA would create more demand for work from companies like Advisory Board?

Not necessarily. There were a lot of provider payment demonstration projects and reimbursement changes in the ACA. Most people don't expect the Trump replacement bill to be quite that sophisticated. Plus a lot of healthcare companies have hired up internally over the past four years, so there is not as much need for consultants to do the analysis.

[Anonymous]

who are the customers for ABC and CAB? i cannot imagine paying for that stuff..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what exactly do they do and why do hospitals pay them?

I worked for the Advisory Board one summer. I had no experience whatsoever in health care, but was hired because I was going to a top law school. I had spent much of the previous year between college and law school working as an au pair. I called up hospitals and asked them a lot of questions and then wrote reports on my "research". What a crock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:who are the customers for ABC and CAB? i cannot imagine paying for that stuff..

I worked for ABC for one year in 2013-14 (my first job out of college). I would say that the biggest benefit is the networking opportunities. They hold lots of "member events" to discuss their syndicated research.

Now ABC also has a lot of tech/software offerings (such as Student Success Collaborative to improve student retention at universities), which I think are much more valuable than their research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:who are the customers for ABC and CAB? i cannot imagine paying for that stuff..

A lot of the CEB members pay $$$ to sit with other C-level people and discuss "how to do their jobs better," which means maximizing profits and minimizing people.

You don't know soul-crushing until you've sat in a room with 50-100 Fortune 500 CHROs, general counsels, or CFOs. I work in a similar industry and have had the pleasure of this experience this many, many times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:who are the customers for ABC and CAB? i cannot imagine paying for that stuff..

A lot of the CEB members pay $$$ to sit with other C-level people and discuss "how to do their jobs better," which means maximizing profits and minimizing people.

You don't know soul-crushing until you've sat in a room with 50-100 Fortune 500 CHROs, general counsels, or CFOs. I work in a similar industry and have had the pleasure of this experience this many, many times.

Yep. Employees are nameless, faceless cogs in very large machines.