After the Consultant
- Thread starter gordo
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turbotom1052
Well-known member
How many times ive seen consultants come in and make recommendations that a companies existing employees have been recommending for years. Upper managements inability to change is usually the cause. Its either perceived as too costly, or too time consuming. So much easier to point accusatory fingers at employees lower on the totem pole!!!
chriscozi
Well-known member
And if the employees agree with the consultant the accusation is that the consultant must have bribed the employee. I have actually seen that happen to an employee who then quit the company because of the baseless accusations. That company did have a poor HR record. Sigh.
But it can happen - I have seen GM's get very close to vendors/salesman and the cozy relationship can have negative consequences for the business. I remember an owner who was great 'friends' with a paper salesman - the company got behind by a LARGE amount of money, aided by the salesman, and they closed within the year. This was a twenty year company with 30 employees. Sigh.
Ethics happen
gordo
Well-known member
A background to this 'toon.
It was inspired by an experience I had. I was contracted to guide a daily newspaper to convert their printing from 133 lpi AM to 25 micron FM. One of the things I did was to educate the press operators on the FM screening and how it differed on press from what they were used to. One of the differences is how the screening reacts to SID variation. - especially how the FM color is more stable,
So, I had a plate imaged with 133 lpi on the left side of the form and using the same image content, FM on the right. Mounted the plates on press and ran up to their standard SIDs. I then had them run only the Magenta SID as high as they could - about 30 points above their standard. The AM screened images shifted dramatically red but the FM was barely shifted. The press operators looked impressed by the FMs color stability.
Several days later the client informed me that the press operators actually thought that I was full of crap. The client went ahead with the switch to FM anyway.
It was inspired by an experience I had. I was contracted to guide a daily newspaper to convert their printing from 133 lpi AM to 25 micron FM. One of the things I did was to educate the press operators on the FM screening and how it differed on press from what they were used to. One of the differences is how the screening reacts to SID variation. - especially how the FM color is more stable,
So, I had a plate imaged with 133 lpi on the left side of the form and using the same image content, FM on the right. Mounted the plates on press and ran up to their standard SIDs. I then had them run only the Magenta SID as high as they could - about 30 points above their standard. The AM screened images shifted dramatically red but the FM was barely shifted. The press operators looked impressed by the FMs color stability.
Several days later the client informed me that the press operators actually thought that I was full of crap. The client went ahead with the switch to FM anyway.
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Alternatively management cannot stomach lower employees being right, so instead there is a consultant team employed who do lots of measuring (you can only manage what you measure) and then presents a thick report that is indecipherable or unintelligible and allows management to say the employees solution did not see the wider picture or the considerable ramifications; whereas the consultants did.
chriscozi
Well-known member
All of these stories fit my experience, sometimes in the same company at the same time!
As a consultant I saw production dismiss any changes out of hand regardless of outcomes IF they weren't vested in the change.
Then there was our management unconcerned with current issues 'because this always works' regardless of the real need to improve the processes spearheaded by production, because management wasn't vested in the change.
And lastly the 'consultants' and/or 'salescritters' (no insult to critters) who recommended or sold something to our company which had no need, ability, or desire to use.
Sigh.
People.
As a consultant I saw production dismiss any changes out of hand regardless of outcomes IF they weren't vested in the change.
Then there was our management unconcerned with current issues 'because this always works' regardless of the real need to improve the processes spearheaded by production, because management wasn't vested in the change.
And lastly the 'consultants' and/or 'salescritters' (no insult to critters) who recommended or sold something to our company which had no need, ability, or desire to use.
Sigh.
People.
Which reminds me of the case in the late Nineties, when I was contacted to advise on improving the print results of a brand new web offset press.
I spent a couple of hours by the press reading color bars and indicating shortcomings, but the press operators couldn't get the press to print an acceptable densitometric reading across the sheet.
The session was terminated by "The Boss" (Plant Manager) demanding to stop wasting so much expensive paper.
The press manager quietly told me later that Heidelberg engineers were supposed to come back in two weeks to finalize their job because that press wasn't actually certified for production yet...
My guess is that the plant manager wished to "cut corners" and get me to magically "play with press curves" and compensate in the films for whatever the press was incapable of, thus getting the new press into production earlier!
BTW, that plant manager later instructed to cut down my agreed fee, because he was unsatisfied with the results of that session!
I spent a couple of hours by the press reading color bars and indicating shortcomings, but the press operators couldn't get the press to print an acceptable densitometric reading across the sheet.
The session was terminated by "The Boss" (Plant Manager) demanding to stop wasting so much expensive paper.
The press manager quietly told me later that Heidelberg engineers were supposed to come back in two weeks to finalize their job because that press wasn't actually certified for production yet...
My guess is that the plant manager wished to "cut corners" and get me to magically "play with press curves" and compensate in the films for whatever the press was incapable of, thus getting the new press into production earlier!
BTW, that plant manager later instructed to cut down my agreed fee, because he was unsatisfied with the results of that session!
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