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A good management consultant approaches her task the same way a bad teacher approaches a parent-teacher evening: by begging questions<ref>Sample exchange: <br> | A good management consultant approaches her task the same way a bad teacher approaches a parent-teacher evening: by begging questions<ref>Sample exchange: <br> | ||
''Teacher'': So, how do you think junior is getting along? <br> | ''Teacher'': So, how do you think junior is getting along? <br> | ||
''Parent'' (''affecting baffled look)'': Um, isn’t that the question I’ve come here to ask you?</ref>. Her first step will be to make her client outline all the opportunities that exist for synergy, optimisation and automation. She will demur from recommending anything herself: your user acceptance factor is exponentially higher if you fix the problems the middle management tier which commissioned you thinks it has (viz., an expensive and under-performing “[[service line]]”) rather than the one it actually has (viz., an expensive, pointless and profoundly | ''Parent'' (''affecting baffled look)'': Um, isn’t that the question I’ve come here to ask you?</ref>. Her first step will be to make her client outline all the opportunities that exist for synergy, optimisation and automation. She will demur from recommending anything herself: your user acceptance factor is exponentially higher if you fix the problems the middle management tier which commissioned you thinks it has (viz., an expensive and under-performing “[[service line]]”) rather than the one it actually has (viz., an expensive, pointless and profoundly dim [[middle management]] layer). Indeed, the art of [[management consultancy]] is to carry out countless chargeable hours precisely ''without'' doing that: the key is to elicit ideas ''from the client'' as to what to do, responsibility for which, when inevitably they fail, can safely be laid at the client’s own door. | ||
In ordinary Euclidian [[space-time]], there is a simple formula — not quite as elegant as ''E = MC<sup>2</sup>'', but close — which sets an immutable bound on the minimum time (''t'') required for a management consultant’s “output” (''∞'') to be implemented<ref>Careful: a management consultant’s output is ''never'' called a “recommendation”.</ref>, which must be longer than the maximum theoretical length (''L'') of the [[management consultant]]’s engagement (''e'''). | In ordinary Euclidian [[space-time]], there is a simple formula — not quite as elegant as ''E = MC<sup>2</sup>'', but close — which sets an immutable bound on the minimum time (''t'') required for a management consultant’s “output” (''∞'') to be implemented<ref>Careful: a management consultant’s output is ''never'' called a “recommendation”.</ref>, which must be longer than the maximum theoretical length (''L'') of the [[management consultant]]’s engagement (''e'''). |