• SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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    18 minutes ago

    And if you are wondering why the German military is being made fun of so much: it’s McKinsey again. But no worries, we took care if it. The minister of defense in charge back then is long gone. Cause she is the president of the European Commission now. Multiple of her children have worked for McKinsey in the past. What a coincidence!

  • merdaverse@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    From my (fortunately) brief experience in software consulting, I can confirm that is an important unwritten rule of the job. It doesn’t matter what exactly you sell to customers, as long as they are willing to buy it and come back. It explains why a lot of software is dogshit.

    • stinky@redlemmy.com
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      59 minutes ago

      “I can’t produce anything, so I’ll take money away from other people doing business” ~consultants

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    TLC used to be The Learning Channel. Before it was “here’s a bunch of children who are being sexually abused behind the camera,” it was educational outreach. Vocational training. Satellite college courses for people in Alaska and Appalachia.

    Then Discovery bought it. Fuck Discovery.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Yep. I thought for ages that it was a spinoff of discovery but no, it was a whole thing that went back to the 80s. After Discovery acquired it blam.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      Why do I associate TLC with, like, Trading Spaces and other domestic not-quite-a-game shows like that? Am I conflating it with something else? Also I haven’t had “television” in decades now.

      • VetOfTheSeas@discuss.online
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        9 minutes ago

        It used to be PBS for adults. I remember turning it on and there would be a documentary about like piano players and the connection to the brain.

        Went down hill thanks to reality TV.

      • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Because that’s the slop it turned into. It was a place for documentaries and educational content, just like MTV used to have music. But watching Kate torment her brood of children or Honey BooBoo eat sketti makes the kind of money airing a college lecture doesn’t.

        • fishy@lemmy.today
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          48 minutes ago

          This kind of content taking off and the popularity of the Kardashians were the proverbial canary in the coal mine for the intellectual apocalypse we’re dealing with now. We are what we eat, and what you watch absolutely influences how you think and act.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    13 hours ago

    In, fire 30 percent of the workforce, new logo, boom, out.

    You are now a fully trained management consultant.

    • MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works
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      14 hours ago

      “Certainly Sir! Money well spent!”

      You have to understand why they are employed though - somebody stands to gain from doing some thing, so the way they get to justify doing that thing is to hire these people, so they come in, deliver a report that says the thing is the best thing to do with graphs that go up, and it happens, McKinsey gets paid, the beneficiary gets what they want and life goes on.

      • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        That plus there’s a massive incentive for overpaid executives to farm out any actual decision-making to consultants. They could lose their cushy jobs if they did something unpopular that made the news and hurt stock prices. But if the decision was promoted by an expensive consulting firm, that launders the blame. It hurts the business in a fundamental way, obviously, but publicly traded companies have not been very focused on fundamentals up until lately. Tighter monetary policy should have changed this, but the paradigm has been slow to shift for many.

    • Auth@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      That would unironically be good advice which means he couldnt give it.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          1 hour ago

          Only if you also sold the idea to the investor class

          It’s why companies all seem to lay people off and go to a subscription model in lock step - the stock price only goes up because they’re playing both sides

  • Jack@slrpnk.net
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    18 hours ago

    Consulting services are vital because they improving corporate synergy by utilizing market solutions and relocating potential where it is needed most.

      • MimicJar@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        I mean no need to spread misinformation. This information in easily verifiable.

        Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, worked at McKinsey for ~2 years and then joined Google in 2004, eventually working his way into the position of CEO.

        Pichai’s fuck ups are unlikely a result of McKinsey, at least not directly. That isn’t to say that McKinsey is completely off the hook. They work with plenty of “top” companies and I’m certain Google is one of them.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    19 hours ago

    Well, consulting is often used because they need an answer to a question. That may be open-ended like:

    “What moves should we make to expand our business?”

    But other times they just want confirmation:

    “Should we merge with Discovery?” (Sure, I guess. Here are some reasons you could. cha-ching)

    “Should we split with Discovery?” (Sure, I guess. Here are some reasons you could. cha-ching)

    Other times they just need to pay people to give them excuses to lay off people. McKinsey’s always available for that.

    • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      18 hours ago

      When Chipotle got a new CEO (Brian Niccol, who has since become the Starbucks CEO) a few years back, they were headquartered in Denver. But the CEO lived in Newport Beach. So they brought in a consulting management firm to examine where the best place in the country was for them to have their corporate headquarters.

      After weeks of analysis - surprise, surprise - they determined that the best place they could possibly have a corporate headquarters was in Newport Beach, where the CEO lived.

      So they fired most of their corporate workers and moved the office to be closer to the CEOs house.

      • BossDj@lemm.ee
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        14 hours ago

        I have experienced this where I work. There is a consulting company that gets rolled out to make packets full of “data”, graphs, summaries, and surveys that always manages to support the unpopular thing the boss wants.

      • Soup@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        “Sorry we don’t do remote work and you’ll have to come into the office.”

        “Counterpoint: …”

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      17 hours ago

      McKinsey:

      For when you have no fucking clue how to do your job, and want authoritative, plausible deniability about that.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        15 hours ago

        Obviously you should keep paying my $1.3 million annual salary. We just paid McKinsey $30 million to say how vital my department is

    • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      19 hours ago

      Other times they just need to pay people to give them excuses to lay off people. McKinsey’s always available for that.

      What would you say… you do here?

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        Get paid to do the work of someone who could be employed for a reasonable salary, but the board or CEO wants the answer to come from someone outside the company to avoid taking any blame.

      • kambusha@sh.itjust.works
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        16 hours ago

        Look, I already told you: I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to. I have people skills. I am good at dealing with people! Can’t you understand that!? What the hell is wrong with you people!!

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      How should we defend Athens?

      Consultancy says “A wooden wall will save Athens”

      We’ve been doing this forever…

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    On the other hand, they’re grifting Zaslav, who is possibly the worst person in show business, so…maybe let them cook.

  • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    I thought CEOs commanded wildly exorbitant salaries because they were super smart and made all the decisions. Why would a consulting firm exist?

    • Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 hours ago

      Consultants are paid to provide outside consensus. They strengthen the CEO’s perceived smartness. They give it validity. McKinsey, because of its brand, provides the most value to a CEO in the boardroom.