Read Online Business Doctors - Management Consulting Gone Wild by Sameer Kamat - Free Book Online
Authors: Sameer Kamat
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understand the key areas that need your attention and we’ll also provide recommendations on how they can be addressed. However, implementing those recommendations is something that you’d need to do.”
“I don’t get it! Why are we paying you then?” Woody was obviously not seeing where all this was going. “You had two days to think about it and you are back in this room now because you are willing to help us. Now what part of that did I not understand?”
After a brief pause, Schneider tried again, “Let me explain this in another way. When you go to a doctor,” Schneider had realized he’d have to live with the medical analogy for a while more. So why not use it to his advantage? “- he examines you, asks several questions related to the problem, and gives you a prescription, doesn’t he? You then decide if you want to go ahead and buy the medicines or tear up the prescription on your way out of the clinic. Whether you want to go forward with the treatment and buy the prescribed medicines is totally up to you.”
Woody thought for a while. “I guess you are right,” he said. Martin heaved a sigh of relief. Finally the concept seemed to have dawned upon Woody.
“After we make the recommendations, my team moves out of the scene and you take over the responsibility of implementing the recommended solutions, if you see merit in them,” added Schneider hoping to put the final nail in the coffin and close the discussion.
“Ok. You can talk about what you need to get you going, with Joe. He’s your man. Take care of 'em, Joe and let me know if there’s anything you need from me.” Woody looked at Joe as he left the room.
Schneider turned to Joe, “We usually try to gain an understanding of a new client’s business before we start our analysis. For the more regular clients, we do this even before we meet them and have a suggestion even before starting. But in your case, we may need to visit locations where your business is conducted. We need to gain an insight into the existing processes that are followed by your organization. Based on our preliminary estimates, we feel that this project will take us around three months. Our billing will be time and material based, er, in other words, on an hourly basis,” Schneider quickly simplified the consulting jargon he was so used to. “Our consultants will maintain a tracker of the hours we spend on this assignment, and we will send you biweekly reports with these details. We maintain complete transparency in our business dealings, and we would expect the same from you as well.”
Joe’s expression hadn’t changed as Martin was playing out his standard speech. But one word evoked his interest.
“Transparency, hmm, that’s not always practical in our business, you’d agree, Mr. Schneider,” said Joe woefully. This was the first intelligent, coherent and fully relevant statement he had made since the consultants met him. Being in the mere presence of the consultants was lighting up his gray cells. “But we’ll do what we can to make it easy for you.”
“In our firm, we have a small ritual that we follow for each new assignment,” said Schneider while being escorted towards the exit by Joe. “At any point in time, we work on multiple projects. In order to easily identify each of them and to maintain their confidentiality, we give them code-names. How does ‘Project Lean and Mean’ sound? It’s a common phrase frequently used in corporate circles to define an organization that’s shed its fat and has become tough enough to take on the competition.”
“Whatever,” said Joe, sounding least bothered. “It’s your ritual. You guys can call it whatever you want. Just make sure you deliver what you’ve promised.”
The last part almost sounded like a threat.
All three stepped out of the lift. “So you want to see what we do, huh? Just to make you guys comfortable, we could start off with a review of one of our legit activities. We’d have
“I don’t get it! Why are we paying you then?” Woody was obviously not seeing where all this was going. “You had two days to think about it and you are back in this room now because you are willing to help us. Now what part of that did I not understand?”
After a brief pause, Schneider tried again, “Let me explain this in another way. When you go to a doctor,” Schneider had realized he’d have to live with the medical analogy for a while more. So why not use it to his advantage? “- he examines you, asks several questions related to the problem, and gives you a prescription, doesn’t he? You then decide if you want to go ahead and buy the medicines or tear up the prescription on your way out of the clinic. Whether you want to go forward with the treatment and buy the prescribed medicines is totally up to you.”
Woody thought for a while. “I guess you are right,” he said. Martin heaved a sigh of relief. Finally the concept seemed to have dawned upon Woody.
“After we make the recommendations, my team moves out of the scene and you take over the responsibility of implementing the recommended solutions, if you see merit in them,” added Schneider hoping to put the final nail in the coffin and close the discussion.
“Ok. You can talk about what you need to get you going, with Joe. He’s your man. Take care of 'em, Joe and let me know if there’s anything you need from me.” Woody looked at Joe as he left the room.
Schneider turned to Joe, “We usually try to gain an understanding of a new client’s business before we start our analysis. For the more regular clients, we do this even before we meet them and have a suggestion even before starting. But in your case, we may need to visit locations where your business is conducted. We need to gain an insight into the existing processes that are followed by your organization. Based on our preliminary estimates, we feel that this project will take us around three months. Our billing will be time and material based, er, in other words, on an hourly basis,” Schneider quickly simplified the consulting jargon he was so used to. “Our consultants will maintain a tracker of the hours we spend on this assignment, and we will send you biweekly reports with these details. We maintain complete transparency in our business dealings, and we would expect the same from you as well.”
Joe’s expression hadn’t changed as Martin was playing out his standard speech. But one word evoked his interest.
“Transparency, hmm, that’s not always practical in our business, you’d agree, Mr. Schneider,” said Joe woefully. This was the first intelligent, coherent and fully relevant statement he had made since the consultants met him. Being in the mere presence of the consultants was lighting up his gray cells. “But we’ll do what we can to make it easy for you.”
“In our firm, we have a small ritual that we follow for each new assignment,” said Schneider while being escorted towards the exit by Joe. “At any point in time, we work on multiple projects. In order to easily identify each of them and to maintain their confidentiality, we give them code-names. How does ‘Project Lean and Mean’ sound? It’s a common phrase frequently used in corporate circles to define an organization that’s shed its fat and has become tough enough to take on the competition.”
“Whatever,” said Joe, sounding least bothered. “It’s your ritual. You guys can call it whatever you want. Just make sure you deliver what you’ve promised.”
The last part almost sounded like a threat.
All three stepped out of the lift. “So you want to see what we do, huh? Just to make you guys comfortable, we could start off with a review of one of our legit activities. We’d have
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