Sunday, April 5, 2009

The deadliest insult in consulting ...

Ok - wil get to the B-School post later, but just had to get this thought down. A recent revelation of mine is that the worst thing you can describe a fellow consultant as is "you are not [insert name of firm here]". Its the kind of imprecise description that can spell one's doom at a consulting firm. It doesn't mean you are not good at your job, doesn't mean you aren't smart or personable, it just means that you somehow don't quite fit. It could be a variety of reasons - maybe you have the wrong type of personality, maybe you are too industry (and not consulting) focused, maybe you just pissed someone off. In any event, once people start believing it, you are pretty much finished.

Hasn't happened to me thankfully, but I can think of a couple of examples at my place of work. How about you all out there - any thoughts?

1 comment:

  1. I see where you are coming from. But I don't think that insult works for all. For instance, I think, "You are not Accidenture" is probably more of a complement. Then again, whether you can call them management consultants or not is highly debatable.

    But yes, the worst thing you can do in consulting is piss the wrong person off. Stuff spreads like wildfire here. Even stuff that hasnt happened. Will write a post on that on my blog soon.

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