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McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

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Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#71

Post by Spooky23 »

williamcotton wrote: post #61
JCM9 wrote: post #13

McKinsey’s brand has taken a beating these last few years with the company going from scandal to scandal. The NY Times has been doing a whole string of stories on the firm’s questionable business practices and ethics. Funny though how it sounds like, per their own admission, McKinsey badly mismanaged running their own internal operation and woke up to realize they need mass layoffs. Sort of causes one to question how…

Have you worked with Bain or BCG? Are they any more competent?

They are all competent. It’s just that they work for their principal in the company and are always selling.

If you think something these guys are doing is awful or dumb, follow the money. The guy signing the checks is calling the shots.

McKinsey’s lack of ethics and self-preservation is notable. But they weren’t hoodwinking innocents into preying on the weak. Perdue and the medical providers writing those oxycodone scripts to make money.

The other stuff is a byproduct of modern corporate management. Most companies don’t have departments that do administrative or organizational analysis. They run lean and hire the capability.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#72

Post by jdkee »

midoridensha wrote: post #39
JCM9 wrote: post #13

McKinsey’s brand has taken a beating these last few years with the company going from scandal to scandal. The NY Times has been doing a whole string of stories on the firm’s questionable business practices and ethics. Funny though how it sounds like, per their own admission, McKinsey badly mismanaged running their own internal operation and woke up to realize they need mass layoffs. Sort of causes one to question how…

>Most had never actually run a business or done the thing they were offering up advice on, and it showed. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

"And those that can't teach, consult."

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#73

Post by qaq »

viableSprocket1 wrote: post #55
anon291 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at bain.. The main purpose these companies provide is to rubber stamp decisions and claim that experts made them

Not my experience over a decade or so, but sorry it was yours. Sounds awful.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#74

Post by HillRat »

JCM9 wrote: post #13

McKinsey’s brand has taken a beating these last few years with the company going from scandal to scandal. The NY Times has been doing a whole string of stories on the firm’s questionable business practices and ethics. Funny though how it sounds like, per their own admission, McKinsey badly mismanaged running their own internal operation and woke up to realize they need mass layoffs. Sort of causes one to question how…

McK also pivoted into trying to execute over the past few years, picking up some design and digital capabilities to compete for Big Five-style work. I ... haven't been impressed with their work, to put it mildly, and I'm curious how much of that capability they're jettisoning as part of this restructuring.

Gotta love the fact that they're just completely transparent that they're going this to preserve the partner comp pool, though. Even for the MBBs that's a hell of a "fuck you" to the folks doing the hard work.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#75

Post by hammock »

ulfw wrote: post #12

"Under a plan dubbed Project Magnolia, the management team is hoping the move will help preserve the compensation pool for its partners" This says all you need to know. Reminded me of similar news I read yesterday about HSBC: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/hsbc-cuts-staff-bonus... "HSBC cuts staff bonus pool, lifts CEO Quinn's total pay" Sure.

Partners buy into the firm and the alternative is a capital call, so it’s not as sinister as you might think

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#76

Post by balderdash »

JCM9 wrote: post #13

McKinsey’s brand has taken a beating these last few years with the company going from scandal to scandal. The NY Times has been doing a whole string of stories on the firm’s questionable business practices and ethics. Funny though how it sounds like, per their own admission, McKinsey badly mismanaged running their own internal operation and woke up to realize they need mass layoffs. Sort of causes one to question how…

> Mass layoffs generally don’t follow strong management execution.

Professional service firms largely sell their time. Yet demand for their services is anything but (just ask people that work in restructuring). Hiring and layoffs in these businesses is simply capacity management.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#77

Post by Scubabear68 »

nradov wrote: post #70
Scubabear68 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the people you are hiring are doing the same work as full time employees, with the same work structure, you're not supposed to hire them as contractors. This is not true at all. Many firms do “staff augmentation” for exactly what the parent described, bursty work for clients on a time and materials basis.

Right but the difference is that those contractors need to be W-2 employees of some other company. You can't hire them as 1099 independent contractors. That used to be common practice among tech companies but federal and state income tax authorities have cracked down hard on it.

Agreed.

But the point is there are “bursty” options if firms wish to to pursue it as an option.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#78

Post by nradov »

Scubabear68 wrote: post #77
nradov wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right but the difference is that those contractors need to be W-2 employees of some other company. You can't hire them as 1099 independent contractors. That used to be common practice among tech companies but federal and state income tax authorities have cracked down hard on it.

Agreed. But the point is there are “bursty” options if firms wish to to pursue it as an option.

Well yes and no. Those contracting firms don't keep a lot of bench resources. During slow periods they lay off employees just like every other employer. And during boom times they jack up their rates and still don't have many experiences contractors available on short notice. Using those staffing agencies works fine for small bursts but if you need thousands then you run into practical limits.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#79

Post by Scubabear68 »

nradov wrote: post #78
Scubabear68 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. But the point is there are “bursty” options if firms wish to to pursue it as an option.

Well yes and no. Those contracting firms don't keep a lot of bench resources. During slow periods they lay off employees just like every other employer. And during boom times they jack up their rates and still don't have many experiences contractors available on short notice. Using those staffing agencies works fine for small bursts but if you need thousands then you run into practical limits.

Citation?

Bench is a thing.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#80

Post by lmm »

viableSprocket1 wrote: post #51

These topics on HN (where I know the industry well) make me realize how stupid I must sound when I have strong opinions on things I have nothing but anecdotal experience with. It's humbling to realize that I must also say things that are on par with "can't chatGPT do their job" or "all they do is make slides". In aggregate and over the long term (~100 years or so in the case of consulting), most services find a fair…

No-one ever got fired for appointing McKinsey, and it's pretty easy to provide a positive RoI when the person hiring you is spending other people's money. These consultants certainly provide value to someone, but whether that translates into an overall net positive for the organisation that engaged them is an open question.
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