Reply to What is “consulting” in the business world

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]New grads do some excel (or sometimes mores sophisticated data tool) analysis, a lot of powerpoint, and any grunt work that needs to be done. The new grads fancy themselves much smarter than the clients and able to learn about any industry in a handful of days and produce useful insights.  I think that issilly.  The firms do provide some in house training, too, but it is nothing special.  It is mostly about how to sound smart and polished.  They also have senior partners to help guide and mentor junior staff.

Companies hire these firms for a variety of reasons.  The biggest advantage for a company is that they get an outsider perspective and a team of competent people to focus on a specific problem or issue that you really just can't solve from the "inside".  The corporate sponsor, who is some sort of high ranking person in the company, gets some reputable firm to deliver messages or plans.  Some (usually more lower tier) firms are more used for staff augmentation, like a high price temp agency with high quality employees.  Top grads from top schools may never accept a job at Company X, but Company X can hire firm Y, and then use those employees in positions that they struggle to fill.  [/quote]

Thank you for the detailed answer! So what kind of problems are they typically being brought in to solve? I assume these aren’t simple accounting/number crunching sorts of things. Obviously there’s huge money in the work[/quote]

NP, but typically they’re brought in for thorny problems that need a fall guy. Let’s say the CEO wants to cut costs and knows that layoffs will be unpopular. Well, drop some money on a big consulting firm (say, McKinsey) and blame everything on them! “Well, the McKinsey data showed that this is the beat way forward ... don’t blame me! They’re all smart and unbiased Harvard grads!”

On the staff aug side, PP nailed it. Bring in tons of young people who’ll do anything you ask out of an overachievement rooted in insecurity. They’ll stay late, respond to emails at all hours, and are very eager to please. You won’t find temps like that with a regular temp agency AND they’ll put up with more of your crap than needed. [/quote]

Yes, I've been told that consultants often prescribe layoffs and other cost-saving measures.[/quote]
or outsourcing.

The 22 yr old basically BSed their way through this.[/quote]

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