Live data from Hacker News

Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

theregister.co.uk

31–40 of 65 posts

Re: Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

#31

People are talking about building in-house talent. I was part of the in-house talent at Hertz. We were executing the strategic initiatives (at some level we came up with them), and we were doing a damn fine job at it. In early 2016, they fired us all. We were made to train up our replacements (at IBM in India) in order to receive severance packages. Later we found out that Accenture had picked up the initiative. And…

Profit, short term thinking, incompetence. This triplet is so common that seems to be part of a major study that lots of execs have properly mastered.

Is there anywhere some study/statistics that shows the impact of those 3 elements together? Because I am quite sure it's extremely common, or I just stumble upon such cases really frequently....

Re: Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

#32
post #27

I will be honest to admit, before I read this article, I didn't even know charging $32 million was possible for a website.

Super possible, but it's based on smoke and mirrors "scaled agile" and building stuff you don't really need.

Only really the big guys get away with it though.

Re: Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

#34
post #31

People are talking about building in-house talent. I was part of the in-house talent at Hertz. We were executing the strategic initiatives (at some level we came up with them), and we were doing a damn fine job at it. In early 2016, they fired us all. We were made to train up our replacements (at IBM in India) in order to receive severance packages. Later we found out that Accenture had picked up the initiative. And…

Profit, short term thinking, incompetence. This triplet is so common that seems to be part of a major study that lots of execs have properly mastered. Is there anywhere some study/statistics that shows the impact of those 3 elements together? Because I am quite sure it's extremely common, or I just stumble upon such cases really frequently....

Why should they worry about it? CxO are rarely held accountable for their missteps by the board.

Maybe this time it didn't go out unnoticed because someone actually tried to use their website and got pissed off it didn't work

Re: Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

#35
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profit, short term thinking, incompetence. This triplet is so common that seems to be part of a major study that lots of execs have properly mastered. Is there anywhere some study/statistics that shows the impact of those 3 elements together? Because I am quite sure it's extremely common, or I just stumble upon such cases really frequently....

Why should they worry about it? CxO are rarely held accountable for their missteps by the board. Maybe this time it didn't go out unnoticed because someone actually tried to use their website and got pissed off it didn't work

> CxO are rarely held accountable for their missteps by the board.

Why is that?

Re: Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

#36
post #23

Well the reality is that this setup is even more expensive than internal talent! I have hired and manage a team of 5 people for data analytics work. Our IT keeps pushing us to user offshore resources at hourly rates instead (Capgemini, same crap as Accenture) that would end up costing the company 2-3 times more then our internal analysts. On top of that these people are not well trained, lack motivation, do mistakes…

Hire me. I consult in exactly this field. I will charge an exorbitant rate (you know, to show I'm qualified) and come tell your leadership that they're wrong.

This is a service I'm very happy to offer!

Re: Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

#39
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profit, short term thinking, incompetence. This triplet is so common that seems to be part of a major study that lots of execs have properly mastered. Is there anywhere some study/statistics that shows the impact of those 3 elements together? Because I am quite sure it's extremely common, or I just stumble upon such cases really frequently....

Why should they worry about it? CxO are rarely held accountable for their missteps by the board. Maybe this time it didn't go out unnoticed because someone actually tried to use their website and got pissed off it didn't work

He was eventually pushed out, last summer. But it's not like he had to give his $7 million back.

Re: Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should they worry about it? CxO are rarely held accountable for their missteps by the board. Maybe this time it didn't go out unnoticed because someone actually tried to use their website and got pissed off it didn't work

> CxO are rarely held accountable for their missteps by the board. Why is that?

Because the company that decides to punish their CxO will have a hard time finding one. People job hunting at that level want a guaranteed golden parachute, whether things go well or not. And the board agrees to pick one of these guys up because that person will implement all the shitty decisions while leaving the board with clean hands. Everybody (who's high enough) wins because they all get their paychecks and bonuses by the time the cookie crumbles. And when it does you can blame the "dead guy", the same CxO that already took off with the golden parachute and is off to another company to do the same thing.

I know a few of these people, moving around in similar positions in every company. They are brought in as hatchet men, with full knowledge that it will be a fiasco. But before this becomes obvious everybody gets to tout cost savings, optimizations, etc. to get their bonuses. Then the person is paid handsomely to leave and take all the blame with them. Their LinkedIn profiles are chock full of 12-24 month stints at all kinds of companies with "successful" projects... until you ask someone involved with those projects.

Post reply on HN