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Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

economist.com

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Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#171

Post by squiffsquiff »

burnte wrote: post #116
OptionOfT wrote: post #61

It was a really interesting place to work at a Software Engineer. It made me understand the business. It made me understand that doing the right thing isn't valued. You do the thing that has the shortest ROI. It also made me realize that it is horrible to build software with people who expect short term deliveries like the usual McKinsey engagement. People who expect that the automation of an Excel file takes the sam…

I work with a guy who used to be at McKinsey. He's literally the worst coworker I've ever had. Everything needs to be done yesterday, except he takes weeks between responses. He delegates nothing to his people, and constantly tries to take over things from other departments, making himself an INCREDIBLE constraint and burden. They have an insanely toxic culture there.

It's funny I worked with someone for a few months who was ex McKinsey. You could be describing him.

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#172

Post by rolandog »

malfist wrote: post #46
stonethrowaway wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less than nothing. It has flipped to the other side in the bullshit of it all. Pundit hot takes have ruined quality dialogue. Frankly I’d rather have discussions with people who do their own research and form their own opinions, no matter how faulty those opinions may be (there is always room for improvement precisely because there is room for discussion), than to hear them regurgitate party-speak drivel shilled by a…

I get the feeling you haven't watched Jon Oliver. He does deep dives on relevant issues and does a ton of research. I was recently interviewed about his process and it's pretty enlightening. He complains about how activists often twists perfectly good data to make a point but under scrutiny it falls apart, even if the original data would have been good enough. He's about as far from a hot takes engine as you could ge…

I think you may be referring to the Lulu Garcia-Navarro interview [0]. It's so good! I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they have 12 researchers (fact-checkers) and a bunch of lawyers (in addition to the writers) that are working on ensuring the accuracy of the episodes.

[0]: https://youtu.be/Q9kNMJ8SguQ

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#174

Post by [deleted] »

pphysch wrote: post #155
alexashka wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've provided all the necessary information to piece it together without explicitly telling you. That was not an accident.

Given the reddit energy of these posts, I'm guessing it's a Japan/Scandinavia preference. Right or wrong?

[deleted]

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#175

Post by Discordian93 »

throw4950sh06 wrote: post #115
Discordian93 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than code related data annotation for LLMs, this is the only kind of work I've ever been able to find in software development, all the consulting shops big or small work like that here. When I read about people having proper testing, code review, product managers setting actual expectations of what the software should do... It sounds like a wonderland to me.

Yeah, unfortunately you need a proper startup culture at your location to have access to companies small and big like that. I don't think there is a single place like that in Europe. Fortunately, it's quite easy to find work for American companies. And well paid.

I haven't found it easy but my credentials... Could be better. I guess I'll have to pick s niche and really get to contributing to GitHub issues for it.

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#176

Post by Discordian93 »

cpeterso wrote: post #167
noleary wrote: post #32

Used to be at BCG. I think it's worth bearing in mind that relatively little consulting revenue -- even at the top strategy shops -- comes from pure strategy work anymore. You can push much, much more volume and absolute impact through by running big merger integrations, digital transformation, and other large scale change projects at big companies. It is basically a better business to become something like a premium…

> You can staff an army of junior people for a very very long time on those kinds of projects. Given this is a common business model and has known bad outcomes, what would a Blub programming language and rapid development environment designed to improve the quality and maintainability of an army of rising junior engineers look like? (I originally wrote “productivity”, but reducing billable hours is not a positive out…

F#?

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#177

Post by nothercastle »

throw4950sh06 wrote: post #125
whatever1 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which kinda makes sense. The work of an SWE at big tech can bring in a ton of cash due to (almost) infinite scaling of software and (almost) zero marginal cost. But as an SWE at a manufacturing company, how much can your work increase their revenue/profit? The bulk of their income is still coming from the widget/commodity they are producing.

I mostly agree, but for sake of honest discussion... Why are the mechanical/electrical engineers also not paid well at these companies? Even at these companies capable of achieving massive scale with new products they design. Think something like 3M, making billions of units of widgets and commodities.

It’s not marginal utility it’s supply vs demand. The reason SWEs can demand so much is because there are a lot of options to branch out solo or small company so companies need to pay competitive wages. The employees are therefore able to capture more of their value.

For chemical or mechanical engineers they need a lot of infrastructure to do work so employees are more locked to employers and wages are not as competitive. Employees are unable to capture their value without the employer therefore they get a smaller piece.

Also SV has an obsession with hiring the best while most large manufacturers consider heads interchangeable with only a few spots reserved for top talent.

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#178

Post by stogot »

datavirtue wrote: post #92
neilv wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> teams compete rather than cooperate [...] political cover for taking the necessary actions they wanted to in the first place That looks like three deeper problems than the consultants were tasked to solve. (Not only do you have counterproductive, misaligned culture; but even the CEO can't/won't fix it; and the CEO even has to play political games, just to work around the bad culture, for smaller goals.)

This comment and the parent sums up GE exactly. These consulting engagements were/are a constant stream there. However, they were often ordered by ineffectual, siloed pretend managers and absolutely nothing came of it aside from a bill and the manager getting to feel like a manager for triggering the engagement.

They’re usually expensive. How is a non manager authorized to order this engagement?

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#179

Post by godelmachine »

OptionOfT wrote: post #61

It was a really interesting place to work at a Software Engineer. It made me understand the business. It made me understand that doing the right thing isn't valued. You do the thing that has the shortest ROI. It also made me realize that it is horrible to build software with people who expect short term deliveries like the usual McKinsey engagement. People who expect that the automation of an Excel file takes the sam…

How is the work culture overall? I am of the opinion they are ruthless and will cull you if they think you are underperforming.

Re: Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?

#180

Post by godelmachine »

burnte wrote: post #116
OptionOfT wrote: post #61

It was a really interesting place to work at a Software Engineer. It made me understand the business. It made me understand that doing the right thing isn't valued. You do the thing that has the shortest ROI. It also made me realize that it is horrible to build software with people who expect short term deliveries like the usual McKinsey engagement. People who expect that the automation of an Excel file takes the sam…

I work with a guy who used to be at McKinsey. He's literally the worst coworker I've ever had. Everything needs to be done yesterday, except he takes weeks between responses. He delegates nothing to his people, and constantly tries to take over things from other departments, making himself an INCREDIBLE constraint and burden. They have an insanely toxic culture there.

I heard the same about McKinsey
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