Yes Dave, sometimes the Consultants can do a number on a company. In their quest to eliminate company jobs and not pay benefits, consultants are used. The practice I see all the time is using outside firms to do inspections. They often screw up, give the company wrong information on what they saw and it ends up in a big mess. Outside auditors are almost as bad. I had one say he couldn’t get an audit done after making an appointment while our insured was waiting for him to show up. We got him fired for that.
Dave, one of my company’s uses independent inspection firms. A few years ago, they sent one out to one of my clients to inspect. The guy sent a report to the underwriter that my client was 7 miles outside the city limits, had no hydrant for fire protection. The actual truth was the client was inside the city limits, city limits sign in plain view and a fire hydrant 100 feet from the property. I told the Loss Control department and the underwriter to not use that firm to do any more inspections on our clients. This dude was both incompetent and blind.
Most consulting companies treat ethics like a “check the box” exercise, it’s not part of their culture. Top and bottom line is all that matters, billable hours and more client projects at any cost.
I found this very interesting: McKinsey and other consulting companies hire people with advanced degrees right out of their program. These PhD’s and MA’s have no business experience, but might have PhD’s in things like chemistry, biology, etc. They hire them, send them to a month training and then they hire them out at huge costs to companies to give them direction on their business practices. They do work these folks hard and they are on the road 4-5 days per week, all year, but they are the ones making recommendations to big companies to change their business models. Usually, these folks have no clue, but they know how to research a lot of data and come up with something. Anything works, so long as it is different than current practices. Of course many times these consultants are simply a cover for upper management to do something that is unpopular. They recommend and say, we have to do this because the experts are telling us to.
Dave, we call teachers/professors educated idiots. They have no clue what business is all about. In our business, I know several CPCU’s. They have all that insurance education, but can’t sell. One of my friends with the designation jokingly said it stands for “Can’t Produce, Can’t Underwrite.
Ah consultants!
Yes Dave, sometimes the Consultants can do a number on a company. In their quest to eliminate company jobs and not pay benefits, consultants are used. The practice I see all the time is using outside firms to do inspections. They often screw up, give the company wrong information on what they saw and it ends up in a big mess. Outside auditors are almost as bad. I had one say he couldn’t get an audit done after making an appointment while our insured was waiting for him to show up. We got him fired for that.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Dave, one of my company’s uses independent inspection firms. A few years ago, they sent one out to one of my clients to inspect. The guy sent a report to the underwriter that my client was 7 miles outside the city limits, had no hydrant for fire protection. The actual truth was the client was inside the city limits, city limits sign in plain view and a fire hydrant 100 feet from the property. I told the Loss Control department and the underwriter to not use that firm to do any more inspections on our clients. This dude was both incompetent and blind.
7 yrs ago, McKinsey came in and recommended Plan A for efficiency reasons. The company did so.
They came back in recently and under a new name, reverted the office set up back to way it was 7 years ago.
When asked if what was done 7 years ago was a mistake. Management said, It was the right choice at the time. Truly a Dilbert moment.
Ah Dilbert!
One version of an all-time favorite consultant story:
http://www.joe-ks.com/archives/Waiters.htm
Most consulting companies treat ethics like a “check the box” exercise, it’s not part of their culture. Top and bottom line is all that matters, billable hours and more client projects at any cost.
I found this very interesting: McKinsey and other consulting companies hire people with advanced degrees right out of their program. These PhD’s and MA’s have no business experience, but might have PhD’s in things like chemistry, biology, etc. They hire them, send them to a month training and then they hire them out at huge costs to companies to give them direction on their business practices. They do work these folks hard and they are on the road 4-5 days per week, all year, but they are the ones making recommendations to big companies to change their business models. Usually, these folks have no clue, but they know how to research a lot of data and come up with something. Anything works, so long as it is different than current practices. Of course many times these consultants are simply a cover for upper management to do something that is unpopular. They recommend and say, we have to do this because the experts are telling us to.
Kind of reminds me of the old adage, those who cannot do, teach. I guess you can add consult to that.
Dave, we call teachers/professors educated idiots. They have no clue what business is all about. In our business, I know several CPCU’s. They have all that insurance education, but can’t sell. One of my friends with the designation jokingly said it stands for “Can’t Produce, Can’t Underwrite.