Re: [Sigia-l] Gordom Ramsey consulting?

Peter Van Dijck:

> 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...

Ramsey's advice to some of these morons are *already* what happens routinely
at 3-5 star restaurants: "fresh, local ingredients, well prepared, in a nice
environment..." Yes, 3-5 star restaurants are more expensive but they exist
because there are enough people willing to pay their price. You don't reduce
price when there's price elasticity, unless you want to reinvent economic
fundamentals. You can get a Razr phone for practically no money, but you
won't get an iPhone for less than $199, and Apple will never sell it to you
for less until it believes the price elasticity curve is exhausted. It's
silly to demand Apple sell it at $49 today.

> the consultants are the first to go.

Not necessarily.

In the U.S. for example, the top management of large companies don't make
large scale strategic decisions *without* consultants/consulting companies.
There are several reasons for that: they often lack the ability and
willingness to make tough decisions, they may think "independent" parties
can better asses the situation, their boards may mandate that third parties
must be consulted, such third parties can serve as lightening rods, it's
easier (but not necessarily cheaper) to hire and fire consultants,
consultants' allegiance is to whomever hires them, etc.

So it depends on what kind of consultants you are referring to. Large
consultancy factories have specialists who are tasked to fire a lot of
employees and wrap a "strategy/re-org" layer around it both for internal and
external consumption. IOW, market downturns are actually boom-time for these
kinds of consultancy engagements.

Such strategic decisions then trickle down to tactical layers where if one's
engaged as a non-strategic designer mostly in production billed by the hour,
one's likely expandable. Such people are in the cost column and are seen as
current liabilities. Strategic designers are in the asset column tasked to
create impending value, either by the prospects of low-risk returns or cost
cutting by process automation.

If designers wait for difficult times to justify their paycheck, it's
probably too late.

----
Ziya

Designers don't add value, they create it.


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