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Hey Big Spenders!!!

LATEST - Ealing Spends Eighty Million Pounds on Agency Staff And ConsultantsAnd according to Ealing Council they are in dire straits with services being cut to the bone

Jean F Fernandez ● 4093d8 Comments

Agree with your views in general Nigel.  Management consultancy used to(still does) cost the earth too - and in the end it was so obvious that the solutions were common sense and the cooperative will to make things work.

Gerry Tan ● 4092d

I used to specialise in setting up customer contact centres, skills that did not normally exist within an organisation but never failed to be amazed at the sheer incompetence of 'managers' and directors who hired teams of consultants to 'point out the bleeding obvious'.Often it was down to a total lack of the application of something that no amount of money spent on consultants could teach; common sense.

Nigel Brooks ● 4092d

Over my working life, I've been 're-organised' three times, each by a team of management consultants. The work done was completely useless and didn't improve the firms' objectives - 'nuff said. I rate management consultancy personnel with estate agents, bookmakers, investment bankers, property developers and bent solicitors. But bless 'em, they're a necessary evil.

Gerry Tan ● 4092d

It might be a good time to change the Ealing motto : Progress with Unity : to  Regress with Impunity.

Tony Wood ● 4092d

Would they sell Keith :) ??

Penny Crocker ● 4093d

I worked for a local authority in the 80's and into the 90's for nearly 6 years and during that time the dept. I worked in had 3 consultancy led 're-organisations'. In my opinion such a re-organisation should be robust and flexible enough to last at least 10 years but the whole shooting match smacked of nepotism and vested interests, after all it was only public money. There was a climate of fear and intimidation to some extent, based partly on race and culture and no one wanted to question things too much. Maybe they should allow people to buy shares in councils so that we could all have a stake in what happens.

Keith Iddon ● 4093d

Peter as a fellow (now happily retired) consultant it was the bane of my life to be engaged by managers devoid of any ideas about their organisation who could then justify their existence by hiding behind the advice given.Now consultant can ever really hope to understand the full dynamics of an organisation unless they are there for months/years at a time and short term engagements to 'fix' systemic problems will never work.

Nigel Brooks ● 4093d

Yes, arrogance of power? Ealing is like a big corporation. and as such people feel good by spending bug money to get people to advise them. but they themselves are getting a salary that should mean that they can make good decisions?? as an IT Consultant I feel that consultancy is a curse when used by weak and arrogant management.

Peter Chadburn ● 4093d