#consulting

This company no longer operates like a professional organization. The most capable leaders have left, and the remaining management is looking inward to hire their own consulting services. Gainwell is a complete mess

There will be an other layoffs after next Monday likely in January. BCG will be on site in December.

Another ex McKinsey guy to head up a transformation office. That's 3 in the last 6 months, Alfonso, Ferry and now Harrison.

ARE YOU NOT TRANSFORMED??!!!

Ok, think people, these are the people that GP is hiring as advisors:

• The Opi--d Epidemic: McKinsey paid nearly $600 million in settlements to U.S. states and local governments after investigations revealed it helped opi--d manufacturers—including Purdue Pharma—devise strategies to boost sales of painkillers.
• Conflicts of Interest: Congressional inquiries exposed that McKinsey consultants frequently worked simultaneously for pharmaceutical companies and the federal regulators tasked with overseeing them, such as the Food and Dr-g Administration (FDA).
• Controversial Global Clients: The firm has provided consulting services to authoritarian governments, tobacco companies, fossil fuel producers, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• Intent Laundering: Critics argue that corporations and government agencies hire McKinsey to provide an objective veneer ("intent laundering") for unpopular decisions, such as mass layoffs, cost-cutting, or circumventing regulations.

Yeah, this is a great business. :/

They don't care about you, really.

Any they were immediately let go when he was gone when it was determined you didn’t need to pay 80 million dollars for people to run efficiency sessions. Funny their only other big clients were at PNC and BOA.

When Corrupt ML comes asking for another 80 million for efficiency initiatives, have the courage to ask if it can be done in-house

I never understand bringing in a consulting company, like McKinsey, to tell management what to do. Maybe it is the wrong management team if they don’t know? Or the wrong management team if they let Comcast get into this spot. Remember, “I like the hand we have” from Dave and Steve. Or FWA will run out of spectrum or take only “value” customers. Seems like a long time ago.

For those who took VSPs and ISPs, would you ever consider returning as consultants? What would be compelling enough for you? I’m not a decision maker, and I’m asking purely out of curiosity. I know many who happily took the package and made plans for retirement, but I also know others who were negatively impacted. My heart goes out to everyone whose lives were disrupted.

Really? Same play for EVERY company that they su-k millions of dollars from over and over again to be the fall back villain so the ELT have someone to blame. SAME play for years. McK and Bain are the worst. And yet, no one notices that it’s the same play for every company layoff year over year? Insane. Has anyone googled the corruption against these companies? Oh, it’s real. Yet, a scapegoat matters more than our jobs.

Restructuring is necessary, we have too many levels of CEO, EVP and SVP. Most are just ex consultants looking for a payday.

Curious how things are looking in the Polish office these days, especially with all the restructuring.

Back when I was around, a huge portion of "contractors" were basically treated like regular employees. Same management in Outlook, annual performance reviews, same Jira sprints – just on an invoice. I remember management even joking behind closed doors that regular B2B was basically a disguised employment risk, sometimes throwing around weird workarounds.

Is this still the main model there? How common are these B2B setups now in Poland while full-timers are dealing with layoffs? Anyone worried about ZUS or tax stuff catching up?

So...CDW added a new board member that was a high ranking C level at Deloitte.

Another consultant. Go read what it's like to work at Deloitte. Seems like CL and team want to double down and reshape CDW by outsourcing more and paying coworkers less.

Customers will be left with a lower quality of service since the company doesn't want to actually pay for the best in the industry. What will be left are people too desperate to quit/leave to go elsewhere as they can't afford any lapse in income or health benefits. Basically a workforce of desperate coworkers being held hostage fearful of their bosses rather than coworkers that respect their bosses. What a way to run a company.

At this point...just outsource everything to India. Get H1B's to run the warehouse. I'm sure customers will want to pay more for the same Tech and Services. CDW charges more for the same Goods & Services than others but now will provide a lower quality of everything in terms of account management. So what is the value add anymore.

Public debate often blames H-1B visa holders for lowering wages and taking jobs. But the visa holders aren't the problem—America’s broken corporate consulting model is.

The H-1B program was created to bring top foreign talent to the US. Instead, low-grade staffing agencies use it as a cheap labor loop that hurts international graduates, foreign workers, and American citizens alike.

1. Skill Misalignment and Wage Exploitation
   Jobless Graduates: Thousands of foreign students graduate from accredited US universities every year with legitimate degrees but cannot find visa sponsors.

Exploiting the Loophole: Low-grade staffing agencies import workers from overseas often with exaggerated or unverified credentials who are willing to take sub-standard pay. Usually jobless US citizen's and Jobless graduates also fall prey to this loophole.

Modern-Day Dependency: Because these workers rely entirely on the agency for their legal visa status, they cannot negotiate fair pay or leave easily.

1. Middleman Corruption and Kickbacks
   Third-party consulting creates loopholes for unethical practices that undermine merit-based hiring:
   Example: An H-4 EAD visa holder (dependent spouse) started his own staffing agency to sponsor H-1Bs. To get his workers hired, he secretly paid hiring managers a $10/hour kickback per worker directly into foreign bank accounts.

When hiring managers profit off middlemen cuts, skills no longer matter only the middleman’s profit margin does. When hiring a Foreign worker the hiring manager's foreign accounts has to be checked for any additional deposits.

1. The Inverted Purpose of "Consulting"
   Historically, consultants were hired for short-term (3–12 months), highly specialized skills and were paid more per hour than full-time staff.
   Today, corporate America has flipped this model:
   Permanent Roles: Companies use contractors long-term to avoid paying benefits, 401(k)s, and severance.
   Cheap Labor: Instead of paying a premium for special skills, companies use consulting firms to undercut standard employee wages.

2. Two Simple Policy Solutions
   To fix the system, America must reform third-party consulting rules:
   Require Direct Employment: H-1B holders must be full-time, direct employees working at the sponsoring company’s office—not placed at third-party client sites. This eliminates middleman "body shops" overnight.

Set Premium Pay for Contractors: Require contract roles to pay significantly higher hourly rates than full-time roles. If consulting becomes expensive again, companies will stop using contractors to lower labor costs and focus on better hiring practices.

1. How It Directly Harms American Citizens
   This corrupt setup impacts everyone including US citizens.

Personal Experience: During a recent job interview for a full-time role, a hiring manager contacted me off-line.

The Deal: He asked me to work as a contractor under his friend's staffing firm instead at the same pay rate so he and his friend could take a cut off my hourly wage.

The core issue isn't foreign workers. it is a corrupt consulting culture that extracts profits from workers to enrich middlemen.

If you're an advisor, don't get su-kered in like I did to go to their their VIP event or whatever. They call it where they want to show you their platform and take you to dinner. Definitely not worth it. Ask about their fees up front before you go!

If this is directly happening to you or an engineering team you work with, let me know:
• Are they being transferred to a global tech vendor/consulting firm (like Infinite, Cognizant, or Infosys), or a standard local temporary staffing agency?
• Have they been offered a severance package if they choose not to sign with the new agency?

It will be funny and sarcastic to see how many more H1B indians is IBM Consulting able to bring in. There were about 1,200 already in 2024. Indian Sub CIOs just bringing indians like a swarm. Stupid decisions.

1. Make a hasty and uninformed decision, consulting only people who know nothing about anything (J and Yogi) and not anyone who actually knows.
2. Waste a few million dollars.
3. Reverse course.
4. Pretend that was the plan all along.

Something that keeps getting lost in the H1B wars is the difference between a specialized engineer hired directly by a company and someone supplied through a staffing or outsourcing firm. Critics argue that parts of the consulting industry have used the program to supply lower-cost labor for jobs Americans could perform. Supporters argue that plenty of H1B workers have genuinely specialized skills and are difficult to replace.

Both can exist...

Wouldn't it make more sense to concentrate enforcement on questionable staffing practices, wage violations and fraudulent job descriptions instead of treating every H-1B employee the same? I know we have many people who have worked with both direct hires and consulting firms, what's been your experience?

Comes from McKinsey. Surprise surprise.

It would be nice to share the 30 year knowledge I picked up from my masking tape division with some Chinese factories, anybody have any prior knowledge of how i can contact them and earn a few bucks getting their QC up to western standards.

I think all the consulting firms our leadership hires for print out advise have made moral go down the sink. No more VP and SVP promotions from the bottom up. Time Warner and General Motors with clueless to IT but get big pay checks for getting rid of to many SMEs and GenX are here short term to place on resume but again Att USA company is expanding especially with India a 3rd world country. Like sp--k said no need for devotion just make sure click in and out =8hrs, do not support after hours or weekends

a high-visibility internal consulting and executive ghostwriting/presentation role

I guess 100 million to mckinsey wasn't enough

A consultant's report for the city of Redding suggests addressing vacant positions before considering any staff reductions. The report recommends eliminating unnecessary vacant authority and controlling new hires. It also advises validating current services and workloads for filled positions. The consultant proposes using attrition and voluntary transitions before any layoffs. A formal analysis would be required for any reduction in force.

Redding, California

https://krcrtv.com/news/local/circle-6-report-urges-city-to-cut-vacant-positions-before-considering-layoffs

Throwing stuff against the wall & expecting it to stick. The company hires contractors for things nobody wants to do and nobody can do. Where is the logic there? They treat people like C***p too. No respect. TRAIN your own people & GET RID of the idle Middle Managers that know nothing & hire the consultants.

How can the bank trust an outsourced company with sensitive banking work under a consultant contract?

Can anyone explain the recent and upcoming changes in IBMC?

How is this going to impact b6 to b8?
I've read the announcement but still have no clue what's changing beyond my manager.

The flashing lights are blinking red,
The servers groan and cry.
The "Think" signs hanging on the wall
Are watching tech hopes die.

An email lands at three AM,
"Restructuring is here!"
Which means your budget got slashed down
And mainframe teams disappear.

The cloud is mixed with legacy,
The software’s glued with tape.
They bought Red Hat to save the day,
But there is no escape.

The consultants pitch a massive plan,
With slides of pure design,
While engineers are pulling hair
To keep the code online.

Oh Watson AI used to rule,
The champion of the screen,
But now it’s just a broken cog
Inside a sad machine.

So raise a glass to Big Blue skies,
Now overcast with gray.
The storm is blowing through the tech,
And blowing cash away.

Nothing else to add. Extract everything from the worker. Shame.

Fidelity is a very successful profitable, but I do not think it is a very well-managed company.

People see trillions of dollars in assets, huge revenues, a prominent brand, and decades of survival and assume that the people running it must be exceptionally capable or the business is well wrong. That conclusion is wrong.

Of course Fidelity has enormous structural advantages. It has scale, customer relationships, brand recognition, distribution, infrastructure, regulatory barriers, and the economics that come from operating at enormous scale. Those advantages create a substantial moat. But while a moat protects helps protect a business, it t does not prove that the people inside the business are intelligent, creative, or competent.

In fact, Fidelity has a serious problem with managerial mediocrity. This starts with the head, Abby, who if you've interacted with her you notice isnt the brightest.

Nevertheless Fidelity proves that a firm can make enormous amounts of money while still having weak decision-making, bureaucratic processes, mediocre technology management, and an excessive dependence on H1B1 labor.

Fidelity's senior leadership is surrounded by consultants who make this problem worse. Large companies are constantly sold fashionable management ideas wrapped in impressive language: “digital transformation,” “Agile transformation,” “AI-enabled operating models,” etc.

Consultants can take a straightforward problem, invent a complicated framework around it, give the framework a name, and convince executives that they have received sophisticated strategic insight.

That is not necessarily deception in the Executives start believing that because they are discussing sophisticated terminology, they are doing sophisticated management.

Fidelity's technology organization is where I find things especially troubling. Outsourcing software development is not inherently stupid. The problem is becoming dependent on contractors and third-party organizations for core technical capabilities. If the company does not maintain deep internal engineering expertise, its executives can end up depending on H1B1 to explain their own systems to them. That creates exactly the kind of agency and information problems that organizational theory warns about. You cannot effectively manage technology that you do not understand.

Returning to leadership: My assessment of Abigail Johnson is that she does not demonstrate the creative or strategic imagination I would expect from the leader of an institution of this size. I regard her leadership as fundamentally unremarkable. Calling her a “mo--n” is obviously an opinion rather than a measurable fact, but it captures the level of intellectual confidence I have in the leadership.

Fidelity is what i would call a wealthy mediocrity: an organization with enormous resources that does not appear to use those resources with corresponding intelligence. That model can work for a very long time.

But that does not mean the model is sustainable forever.

In fact I think Fidelity is sc--wed.

(More on this later)

What is the timeline for moving all GP execution roles to India? I heard there was a report recently to move in this direction.

Usually pre reorg they use consultants to assess the structure and talent. Who is LHH? Why is goal setting such an urgency when majority of folks get ignored and sc--wed

Looks like Vivek is out . Verizon IT unit as a whole will go to Deloitte

MW is 0-2 on deep cut reorgs that have royally messed up the company. Is he going to go 0-3 and mess it up further with more reorgs run by consultants we pay millions to? Managers out there, what is being said about the state of the company and the poor morale?

https://www.barrons.com/articles/ibm-stock-quantum-computing-1384b7c4

By: Mackenzie Tatananni | Updated Aug 31, 2026, 11:11 am EDT / Original Aug 31, 2026, 10:39 am EDT

In their latest research note, Susquehanna analysts raised a question most tech investors probably have considered at least once: “When do investors need to own IBM for quantum?”

The line of questioning makes sense, considering IBM’s quantum division has drummed up plenty of attention in recent months—a bright spot at a time when the stock is under pressure.

Second-quarter earnings were the latest reminder of IBM’s sluggish organic growth, compounded by new threats including customers reallocating their budgets to artificial-intelligence hardware.

Shares have slumped 19% since July 14, anchored by a record plunge the same day IBM pre-announced earnings. In contrast, the S&P 500 has gained 2.1% over the same period.

As other business lines face headwinds, IBM’s quantum division has been a shining star in its portfolio. Susquehanna analyst James Friedman ticked off a number of recent developments including IBM’s acquisition of HRL Laboratories to bolster its hardware capabilities and a partnership with the Commerce Department to build Anderon, a standalone quantum chip foundry to serve IBM itself as well as industry players.

Still, it may seem difficult to consider quantum a cornerstone of IBM’s business. Although Big Blue has researched the technology since before the turn of the 21st century—and contributed to major scientific breakthroughs along the way—the effort generates paltry revenue. Researchers are banking on big technological advances before the end of the decade to usher in broader commercialization.

Friedman is tempering his expectations. “With a number of upcoming quantum catalysts on the horizon, each deliverable keeps accelerating,” he wrote Monday. “At the same time, there is a lot more to getting IBM’s fundamentals right as the other segments transform.”

The analyst flagged a renewed focus on software within the consulting arm, marked by a new leadership appointment, and limited growth in IBM’s Red Hat software business due to passing server supply constraints. There is also the “math of the mainframe cycle” to consider: Revenue was delayed rather than lost, with 40% of the deals that slipped in the second quarter closing early in the following period.

While Friedman remains Neutral-rated on IBM shares, he raised his price target to $235 from $225. The revision reflects upcoming catalysts expected to generate buzz around the technology, particularly the annual Quantum World Congress meeting in late September.

I remember when Target was well known for solving internal problems quickly.

It's been 2 years since I've had a skip level status. Most of my team didn't take the best team survey because they don't believe it works. The biggest problem on our team was never followed up on after the survey.

Get your sh-t together, Target. How about instead of calling consultants you actually talk to the people who work there.

Copy architectire from one project put it to ai give specifications for this project, ask it to generate architecture. Architecture ready! that's architect DINOSAURS work in fidelity paid $200k+ shamelessly.

It’s all about the money. It’s not about skilled labor. You get what you don’t pay for. TIAA-CREF’s recent experience says it all from The Layoff TIAA Board:

I was just about to come to this site and make a post about my first experience with Accenture. Our TIAA FTE team is partnering with two teams that are completely made up of Accenture resources, and holy smokes, these people are completely incompetent and useless! We’ve met with two Accenture teams that are supposed to be working together on our project, and neither are aware of what each team is doing, completely unaware of how to tech solution, and any time you ask a question, it becomes a “takeaway” that they NEVER respond to.
Ten calls so far since the beginning of the PI, and we’ve literally done nothing but listen to the Accenture teams argue with each other about who is supposed to own things on their teams.
All those KT meeting with Accenture and they learned nothing.
RKT is going to sink because of these people.

18d ago by Sastry will be the fall guy for T-Duck
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A Japanese company and a North American company decided to have a canoe race on the St. Lawrence River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The North Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.

A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the North American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. So, North American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder.
It was called the ”Rowing Team Quality First Program“, with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices, and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the North American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments in new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was outsourced to India.

Which accounting firm audits the financials? Who specifically at this firm is conducting the audit?

For those that were offered a rebadge in the past and accepted it, I'd like to know:

1. How was the transition?
2. How long was the initial contract?
3. How long did it actually last?
4. Did you train your replacement?
5. Did the consulting company expect you to work 60+ hours / week?
6. Did the work life balance change?

Thank you.