Telkom's billion rand consultant bill

grand and gross corporate stupidity is what it is.
 
It seems to me that the job of a CEO is hiring management consultants to advise of strategy - lots of them do this as first order of business.
 
A breakdown would be nice then we can see what the money was spent on .

R1,35 billion is a hell of a lot of money , now they are retrenching staff , HeHe good luck with that one the unions are going to rub this one in .
 
R13... said:
It seems to me that the job of a CEO is hiring management consultants to advise of strategy - lots of them do this as first order of business.
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So they (CEOs) don't have the ability to do so themselves? Why are they being paid so much then? To project manage their consultants???
 
MickeyD said:
So they (CEOs) don't have the ability to do so themselves? Why are they being paid so much then? To project manage their consultants???
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Maybe they don't trust the people in the company they're taking over so they bring in consultants to do the leg work. And Bain & Co., seem to advise that you retrench lots of times. Apparently the short term gains make them look good, but in the long run you're just getting rid of capacity and that always come back to bite you in the ass in a never ending spiral.
 
Well one good thing about this article is that figures are finally out , not just the 91 million .
 
MickeyD said:
So they (CEOs) don't have the ability to do so themselves? Why are they being paid so much then? To project manage their consultants???
Click to expand...

No not to manage the consultants. They get paid to listen to the consultants and implement the ideas that the consultants have, and of course to look nice in the photos that are published in various shareholder leaflets and articles, such as this one.
 
FNfal said:
Well one good thing about this article is that figures are finally out , not just the 91 million .
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That R1bn figure was probably lifted from Telkom's annual financials, so it will include plenty of different types of costs.
 
MickeyD said:
That R1bn figure was probably lifted from Telkom's annual financials, so it will include plenty of different types of costs.
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The person who penned the article must have the breakdown, no? But he's chosen to emphasize consultants. Also I'd think Bain are much more expensive than 91m in that one article unless it was for a really short period.
 
This is like a developer hiring A software house to develop what he/she was meant to develop by him/herself. >.< but that's our government for you.
 
MickeyD said:
So they (CEOs) don't have the ability to do so themselves? Why are they being paid so much then? To project manage their consultants???
Click to expand...
It could actually work as a thin management approach if you get it right
basically have two or three exco project managers (PEOs) who report to the BoD quarterly and have your entirety of middle management being non-existent and then having an MD who is in charge of in-house staff and is a real manager for the exercise
 
Consultants are employed when the skill sets are not available within an operation.

These consultants are so prolific at various levels because of incompetence and cadre deployment.

A similar example, I am led to believe, is the Tshwane municipality with its massive annual budget and no chartered accountant on their payroll. When things go awry they call in external CAs' to assist as "consultants" who actually then do the work.

Go figure....
 
Actually in some cases this is ideal. i.e. you then dont have permanent senior staff and this is written off as operating expenses instead of hr expense which makes company look better on paper in some ways. its pretty much the the same developing software in-house vs buying a product + buying customization..
 
“These consultants offer expertise which fall outside of the ambit of the company’s core business focus,” said Telkom...

Let me translate that for you:

"Since BEE has completely failed us long ago, and what little is still running in other state infrastructure and service delivery sectors is being completely held up by consultants, we might as well join the club.... it's awesome, we get to sit on our fat black asses all day in meetings brimming with food trinkets, while we all talk about nothing in particular and compare our bling. You will STFU and accept this because firstly you don't have a choice and secondly, APARTHEID!!!"
 
I don't see the problem here. The only problem is that Telkom is so heavily unionised that this only makes sense. It is not BEE in my opinion either.
 
They waste the money because it's there. In the end we pay for all this
 
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