Big Bucks for Nortel Executives

I was NOT impressed at all by McKinsey. They literally took our grass-roots ideas (which management never listed to before) and massaged them into chartware for executive presentation. I've seen MBA students do better than McKinsey. I personally can't identify one recommendation from McKinsey which was actually executed upon. What a waste of money, energy and time! You know, McKInsey and GE alumni all run together … go figure.

Bill,

a greater example of Z's lack of integrity came when he recommended that the stock was a strong buying opportunity when it was at $19…..and here we are eighteen months later undergoing BK protection!

Another example is the hiring of his GE associates who along with the board knowingly acknowledged the lack of telecom experience each of them had during the hiring……I highly doubt that Z's GE connections were sought out by the BOD,so this falls directly into Z's hands.

The former may be construed as genuine belief; the latter is SPOT ON! And I tried my best to warn him against it…–bb

Layoffs in CALA will happen independently of the CH11 fillings. US based employees are reached by CH11 proceedings as far as I know. Employees from Mexico to Argentina will have severances because the local laws do not allow companies to fire people without paying severances. But it will not affect Nortel cash because there are not many employees in CALA offices outside Sunrise (around 600) and they have comparatively cheaper salaries and thus cheaper severances.

Ugh. Apropos of sliced bread: I remember when consulting/branding/imaging became all the rage during the yuppie 80s overseas.

Yer neighborhood bakery, with all of its 6-7 employess, was remodeled with chrome, mirrors, tile, bistro tables and halogen lamps, its workers stuck in logo'd uniforms, the boss policing his businesses in the flashy de rigeur Miami Vice couture <du jour.

“This is 1985, buddy! I got with it! Bought a Real Car! It takes money to make money! What? Our donuts and pretzels are now smaller because its healthier for you! Plus, we buy and use less ingredients which leaves less waste, which reduces the strain on our landfills! Halogen saves energy!”

All it takes is a consultant to interpret your books in a positive light.

And by the way, management use of consultants is one of the surest ways to lose the respect of the employee base. It broadcasts a message of “We don't know what to do so we're going to ask people who have never done what we need to do what we should do.” The day that a company hires a McKinsey is the day that company jumps the shark.

According to Dilbert: CONSULTANT is a person who CONs and then INSULTs.

I have seen this with McKinsey, Gartner, BCG etc. They just massage the same old chartware, put a spin and make it sounds like the next best thing from sliced bread. Only they never implement. And if you question them then they give you this look like you were a high school geek who knows nothing about business.

They have visibly even doctored their own reports to suit what the 'client' is looking for and charged big bucks north of 500/hr for it.

Correct. The McKinseys of the world are editors, not authors. You pay them great sums of money to tell you what you already know. The happier you are with their output, the more clueless you were to begin with.