[Sigia-l] Gordom Ramsey consulting?

[Peter Van Dijck]

(Apologies for crosspost)

Hi all,
I love Gordon Ramsey's kitchen nightmare shows: he goes to a restaurant
that's loosing money, and tells them to focus on the basics: fresh, local
ingredients, well prepared, in a nice environment, for an affordable price.
And then the restaurants often gets better, clients are happy, they make
money.

I *always* have to think about my consulting when I see that show. I think
some of its appeal is that he gets to shout at his clients, whereas I
(usually) don't. The other part is the focus on getting the basics really
right.

And then there's this frustration of me that consulting, especially in a
traditional "consulting company" environment, brings with it all these
constraints (headcount, billable hours, ...), which mean that in the end,
you always end up selling things for loads of money to clients, that could
be done much more effectively and cheaply. I've seen it again and again, in
different companies. Is it even possible to have a culture of quality
instead of billable hours when all the pressure on the people where the
culture originates (the leaders of the org) is about $$?

So I just want to open an discussion around this. Can/should consultants be
more like a good, local, affordable eatery, with local ingredients well
prepared, instead of the expensive 3-star restaurant that we often try to
be? It also relates to the financial crisis that's happening, as we all
remember from last time: the consultants are the first to go.

Thoughts?
Peter

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