Sometimes I like criticizing Mckinsey and their superficial thoughts. Here it goes again on using Lean techniques for ADM engagement. How shallow and superficial they seem to be sometime! http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Information_Technology/Management/Applying_lean_to_application_development_and_maintenance_1979
I remember dealing with bunch of Mckinsey consultants donning a impeccable (Armani) suit and combing hairs in the rest room before a scheduled meet with CxO of my former organization - guess what they were pitching to get a consulting assignment to pioneer lean techniques in IT Services. Ironically they reviewed the work I was already doing for a large utilities companies, pretended to ask me questions and understanding what I've done (well ofcourse deep down I could sense they were thinking how to make their USD 25 Million money out of this client, and were giving me the "Rats-Ass"). They then repackaged whatever I told them into a nice document/ppt and pitched to the top mgmt. claiming to solve all the problems of the organization.
Guess what you can fool around with some people some time, but not all of them all the time!. They got mutiliated when their idea was presented to the leadership and lost the deal. On the contrary some good sense also prevailed among the leadership, to let us pioneer lean techniques ourselves by just reading books and applying it innovatively in our organization...the rest was taken over by the HBR case study on whether applying innovative techniques like Lean can help change course of my former organization over the other formidable competeitors in the IT services market....
The next I heard was 3000 miles away in Germany when an ex-Mckinsey partner messing up with a Communication giant telling them that vendors should apply lean techniques to cut-down ADM to accomodate + or - 30% variability after committing to the estimates....
Anyways happy reading Mckinseq quarterly....It is good sometimes to introspect!...
Now, I feel a lill good bitching about Mckinsey! I'm a mere mortal and this is my second nature!
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Hi Sunil
ReplyDeleteI read Mckinsey papers and many others and wanted to open the "can of worms" about the way these guys are minting on junk advise. (The book "Dangerous Company" tells the story of these advising companies). About Lean - the papers are so below par that the lowest experiment that we might have attempted in our work will go be much better at least intellectually.
I think the way one packages it matters more than the actual work!
Good article!
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