Teddies, Fetishes and the Management Consulting Scam
What if I told you that the key to becoming a successful management consultant was to become a Teddy Bear?
What if I also told you that it involves fetishes? You might be re-checking the URL to make sure you are on the right site!
Fear not, this article is definitely not “50 Shades of Management Consulting Grey”. Nor is it about donning a cuddly animal suit as a mascot for a football team. To borrow from the much loved children’s TV show “Playschool,” there’s definitely a bear in there, but not the one you might be thinking!
You see, for many people, modern corporate life is now at a point where pace of change is accelerating, unrelenting and fatiguing. In my home state of Western Australia, businesses are reeling from unprecedented levels of disruption and uncertainty, be it the end of the commodity boom, the impact of global competition or disruptive, technology-enabled innovation. It is now difficult to think of any industry that has not had the ground shift beneath it in some way — except perhaps, for Management Consulting.
Management Consulting thrives in an environment of fear, ambiguity and doubt, principally because its business model is based on the presumption that they can make it go away. It’s lucrative too — ambiguity is such a powerful force that executives will part with copious amounts of cash in attempts to escape it…
read the full article at medium.com
Better Projects : Craig Brown’s short and insightful posts delve into the foundations of project management theory and practice. My favourite posts from his blog are this one on questioning the utility of a very popular project management methodology and this one about how respect for individuals can make life easier for both employers and employees. Cleverworkarounds : Paul Culmsee is one of those rare people who is as much at ease writing about technical matters as he is with the softer stuff. He weaves wonderfully entertaining stories as he explains and educates. If you have not read him before, head over to his blog and check out his recent series explaining the mysteries of SharePoint performance. Don’t be put off by the title, it’s a worthwhile read for anyone who has ever asked the question, “Why is that system so slow?” Another brilliantly entertaining and educational piece is this one on Monte Carlo simulation. (Full Disclosure: Paul is a good friend of mine and we’ve co-written a book)