The regime of consultants.
I spent 4 days in a Central European city, in a kind of "strategic meeting", talking about / with Gartner (*), McKinsey, PwC, Roland Berger, BCG and other realities. Obviously the meeting was led by the strategic counterparts, while the technological consultancy counterparts present (AKA "we") were informed that they had been "promoted", as they were at the center of a new, forthcoming, financial and industrial revolution that sees them as strategic.
Unfortunately, I can't say much more than my abstract conclusions.
My impression was that the strategic consulting sector is in power. He is in power for several reasons.
- at the head of the "big traditional companies", such as Telco, there are perfect idiots chosen because they are perfect idiots. They are controllable because these perfect idiots, who have no idea what they are doing, are "supported" by strategic consulting firms.
- strategic consultancy firms to large industries are the same as those that consult investment funds. So as soon as they suggest the big idea of the situation to the industry poof… coincidentally the investment funds arrive, which are made up of as many incompetent idiots, but skilfully supported by consultants.
- consequently, forecasts are not predictions at all, but decisions. It means that I can decide “today I put more sugar in the coffee and milk”, and then after having put it to say “our predictions have come true”. They don't make predictions: they make things happen.
I explain the problem well. Suppose these consulting giants decide that tomorrow, I don't know, Paperon de 'Paperoni Acciaierie, has to become a farm. A giant farm.
So, these people have people inside PdP Acciaierie, and since the CEO, PdP is an absolute idiot, they convince him that it's a good idea. They will generally convince shareholders that they will make a lot of money, both by selling the steel mills and by converting.
At that point, if PdP Acciaierie is a large company that has many employees, the government will also have to be persuaded. But the Cassona Salvadaiaio and Usurai of the situation is directed by pure idiots who use the same consulting firm. And away, someone will explain to them that agriculture is the future of PdP Acciaierie.
At that point, some investor, let's say an equity fund, just needs to be convinced of this. But since the large equity funds are run by complete idiots who use the same strategic consultants, it will take a moment to convince them that the conversion of steel mills into agrotourism is the trend from which to make money. And so you have to invest in it.
Touching these three key players, the decisions of this oligarchy of strategic consulting firms become self-fulfilling prophecies: in the sense that if the financial data are correct, the sale of the steel mills will bring money to the shareholders, and also to the funds, and also the conversion will bring you money.
And this is absolutely normal for them.
And let's be clear: using this technique of the “growing network”, practically every time they make a coup they have a series of managers who then, changing company, go to other companies. And they are willing to redo the coup.
I can make you shut down national airlines, shut down the national telco, sell the towers and even the landline, whatever. Because they have friends BOTH in the government, in the company to bless, and in the funds they invest.
In short, they can “make things happen”.
In general, therefore, the most coveted posts (those of the CEOs who are overpaid) are now occupied by scoundrels and idiots who arrive there because, having the right consulting company behind them, then they sing the right song to the shareholders and relevant actors. Ditto many posts of people appointed by the government for a prestigious post. Total idiots.
So if we have a green turning point towards battery-powered electricity and not hydrogen, it was the choice of those who financed, I know, Tesla. Someone who was advised to do so. From a strategic consultant.
It is not a form of conspiracy. To create a system of power like that of strategic consulting firms (there are more and more of them, and in more fields), it is necessary:
- a ruling class of incompetent idiots. The more strategic consultants are able to make an idiot effective, the more idiots feel empowered to aspire to any position: after all, they don't have to think or know the subject. Strategic consultants take care of it.
- time. on the first successful trade, there will be N managers who believe that company really advises well. Managers change companies often. They pull the consultants after them. They replicate the successful operation. There are now 2 times N managers who know that those of that company push your resume up.
- acquaintances. As the company grows, even by hiring some of those managers, their network of acquaintances expands and becomes ubiquitous. They infiltrate governments, banks, funds, industries, everywhere.
- a tough selection process. These are usually skilled and competent people, for the simple reason that they are squeezed like lemons in a few years. Most of them use nervous system enhancers. They have a burnout every three years. But on the pitch they perform. If you can hire people with an IQ of at least 130 and do it for a long time, eventually you get to do what
This is not a conspiracy or something esoteric. It is the result of a business model applied diligently over time. It is an oligarchy of companies that over time have infiltrated everywhere. They have therefore made believe that any imbecile, with their help, can direct anything. Any idiots came forward (even exploiting political pushes), and the more they were idiots, the more they needed strategic consultants.
The result of this loop is that the business world is made up of an idiot & incompetent ruling class, managed by an elite of about twenty strategic companies.
But apparently, in the Telco world they need those who do things on the ground. They picked a few partners, including my fledgling company (they also giggle with the fact that we received the European VAT number from SE on April 1st, as if they didn't know what a quarter is), and blessed some. They also found us financiers, and coincidentally they also entered the capital. (Strategic consulting companies have an obligation to report conflicts of interest, but no one really controls.
In short, they are looking for tech experts to grow, to make money and make money from funds. Since we are a spinoff of a company that has done a couple of things that are strategic for them (or rather: that they DECIDED will be strategic), then we are the lucky ones. We were formally born a week ago from a rib of a larger company, and we have a terrifying customer pipeline that much larger companies can dream of.
Because'? Because now they will make our name (and other "blessed" names) to anyone.
So far, you will say, nothing new. I only got to know in detail how companies that I tended to consider crap sellers operate and make money. Their predictions come true because they make things happen. If I predict that I will have a foot in a cast tomorrow and I have a gun with which to shoot me in the foot, I did not foresee it: I made it happen.
The thing that struck me (besides the quality of the present g-knuckle) was that the conflict of interest has taken the place of corruption. There is no need to bribe: you can legally earn people by simply keeping silence on the obvious conflict of interest you have when you are an advisor to a fund that can finance the operation, to a government that can pass the losses on to the taxpayer, and to an industry that is performing poorly today and a CDA demanding a solution. This is the case with practically every Western telco.
There is a lot of work to be done.
You will say: but these are pulcinella's secrets. Yes, in the abstract they are. We knew that these companies were good and bad times. But having seen, in the specific case of their spin-off, AS PRECISELY they do, was impressive.
They are convincing many telcos to sell the cells, if not to sell the entire landline (did anyone say Telefonica?), To make cash.
Harry Baldock // harry.baldocktotaltele.com 
Shailaja Pai 
02/07/2021 
As you can see, they don't just sell old copper. That would be there. They're also selling THE FIBER!
And the towers too. 5G has yet to explode, and …
Ray Le Maistre 
And when you wonder what a Telco company can do without its most specific, productive and inimitable asset, namely the network, the answer is that shareholders have seen more cash than they have ever seen before. And then? Boh. That kind of boh, which should piss off the Spanish government, if only it weren't full of the same consultants, being made by idiots.
In practice, as the telcos were making little money, the shareholders asked the consultants for help. The consultants decided that the funds would buy away all the telco assets. The consultants would have advised the Board of Directors to do so. And they would advise the governments involved that what was happening was good for them.
Yeah, but after that?
They have a vision of the future of telcos, of course, but I can't say it.
And no, it's not a plot against the old telcos, which are immovable and give shareholders little money. It is simply a project to restructure the telco world. And if they manage to refurbish something like Telefonica, which isn't small, you can rest assured that they will succeed with just about any other telco. Getting a telco to sell the copper network, and then the fiber network, and also the towers, means having a pile of idiots running the telcos, a pile of idiots in government, and a pile of crafty in investment funds.
But, you will say again, what are you surprised at? Well, if you work in the telco world, follow the news. Telefonica is not the only one who wants to unbundle networks, and for years we have been hearing announcements of the unbundling of the networks and sale of assets, more or less from every “old-fashioned” telco.
What impresses me is the scope of the thing, its systematic nature, the fact that it is there for all to see but no one suspects a global direction, and the fact that history always ends in the same way: the old telco closes. Hundreds of thousands of people are to be relocated, but they don't know how to work in the "new" way.
Try to name any telco, let's say foo, and google for “foo sells fiber”, or “foo sells network”, or “foo sells towers”, and you will discover that almost all of them are doing it. Telcos are selling their unique, inimitable and specific asset. A farmer who sells his lands. A restaurant that sells cuisine. Absurd.
Well, it's the scale of the thing, its planning, that surprised me. And it also surprises me because conspiracy hunters suspect nothing, for the simple reason that it's not a conspiracy. It's business. As usual.
I am not afraid because my new company is one of the "blessed" ones. The process that is starting is going to last 15 years, so if I don't bullshit I'm going to retire with this operation.
But I must say, on the practical effectiveness of the way of working of some who I considered cazzari without dignity, I changed my mind.
It is a simple management of the conflict of interest, protracted over time.
You will say: but do they reveal their plans like this?
No. It's not a secret plan for them. It is a strategy, and if you subscribed to their consulting services you would see that they are not hiding anything from anyone. They are just the strategies they suggest to the market.
They tell us that in the customer pipeline there is this company that is selling the assets and has to unbundle them first and they know this because they personally helped the CEO to draft the plan. Then they tell you that the money is funded, and they know it because they are finalizing the contracts with their help. Then they tell you that they have already talked to the regulators, that they know why they consult, and they have green light from the governments because they are finalizing the decrees.
Seeing conflict of interest management as a source of power is obviously me.
To understand that this is a system of power so widespread that it seems like a conspiracy, while for some it is business as usual, that's me. For them it is "any Thursday", it is public (if you have the money to have their articles, which you pay for), and it is a simple "strategic vision".
Of course, I can't name names, but to say that a gigantic restructuring is going on that these companies govern is nothing special. Until we understand the practical significance of what we see.
Can't I just reveal anything? Maybe some funny things.
So, a certain consultant you love very much stands up and says “in the past working with your colleagues I got the impression that you didn't consider us very valuable. Why are you involving us now, to the point of finding our customers and financiers? ".
The girl's response was: “because we realized that if we want to make money even in the technology sector we need those who implement technologies in the field”.
In a nutshell: "you disgust me as soon as possible, you hate me and you will never stop doing it, but you will make a lot of money and we too, so it's time to make out a little in the shower, don't you think?".
The second juicy thing was that since we have, like many IT companies, a “business casual / eternal young” dress code, they tried to “lower themselves to our level”. Seeing people practically having their ties tattooed on the skin of their necks struggling with a regular hoodie was comical: I don't know how they did it, but the hood was stretched out so that it looked like someone had ironed it over their shoulders (and maybe they really did) was hilarious.
Then they couldn't come with patent leather shoes or heels, so obviously they came with tennis shoes. Except that there is little to do:
And of course they also put on jeans.
https://us.escada.com/collections/trousers-jeans
In short, they "are like us" and want us all to be "one and the same group".
We are the same, understand? Equal equal.
(*) Gartner positions itself on the market (by its decision) more as a strategic research firm, than as a consulting firm like McKinsey and others, but their commercial side operates exactly like a consulting firm.