The economists over at George Mason had a discussion this week about professional services firms (it looks like consulting especially, but not exclusively) that led them to try and answer two questions of interest to this blog: why do smart motivated young people join professional services firms, and why do firms hire consultants. I’m going …
Category Archive: Professional Services
Jan
31
Supply Chain/Operations Case Study, Courtesy of Jim Henson
How could a business case study get better than this? Building on the previous two posts, as well as my other passions, this 1963 Bell Data case study features: A business consulting case (operations/supply chain/communications) A Jim Henson Muppet A robot Rocket ships A great example of each. Enjoy, via @RobotCity_Chi
Nov
20
How Elite Firms Hire
Bryan Caplan is linking to a new study that covers an oft-discussed, but poorly researched, area of professional services firm management: the actual hiring process at elite firms in law, finance, and consulting. (The actual paper by Lauren Rivera, ”Ivies, Extracurriculars, and Exclusion“, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 2011, is behind a paywall). Bryan outlines the five …
Jun
03
Firm Culture
In response to disturbing changes at my firm, I sent the following e-mail to our regional director of professional services: I’m growing increasingly worried about the culture at [Firm]. When I joined, I was led to believe that certain things were important here, but I’m starting to think that we’re losing some of what makes …
Mar
19
Electronic Maintenance Records
From The Onion, “Quick Lube Shop Masters Electronic Record Keeping Six Years Before Medical Industry” “We figured that a basic database would help us with everything from scheduling regular appointments to predicting future lubrication requirements,” said the proprietor of the local oil-change shop, Karl Lemke, who has no special logistical or programming skills, and who …
Mar
07
Monitor Group Under Fire for Qaddafi Project
Monitor Group, the top-tier strategy consulting firm, is in hot water for their relations to Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi, who is currently engaged in a brutal war of repression against his own people. Mother Jones has the scoop on the project: But the firm also succeeded on other fronts. The two chief goals of the …
Feb
10
Changes in Top Law Firm Compensation
The Wall Street Journal reports that the spread between the highest paid partners and their peers at top law firms is growing: Now some top rainmaker partners at firms in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago earn $10 million or more a year, compared with $640,000 for the average partner at a U.S. firm, …
Feb
09
The Professional Conspiracy
From George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma: Preface on Doctors: But the effect of this state of things is to make the medical profession a conspiracy to hide its own shortcomings. No doubt the same may be said of all professions. They are all conspiracies against the laity; and I do not suggest that the …
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