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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 08:25:50 -0500
From: Robert Munzenrider <
rfm@PSU.EDU>
Reply-To: Academy of Management - ODC Section <
ODCNET-L@lists.psu.edu>
To:
ODCNET-L@lists.psu.edu
Subject: fwd: NEJM BOOK REVIEW ON CONSULTANTS:FYI
Hey Gang: Is this a book that folks like us should read?
>
>From: "Vernon E. Weckwerth" <
weckw001@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
>Subject: CONSULTANTS:FYI
>Date: Mon, 3 Nov 97 18:41:07 -0600
>
>Dangerous Company: The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They
>Save and Ruin By James O'Shea and Charles Madigan. 384 pp. New York, Times
>
>Books, 1997. $27.50. ISBN 0-81292-634-X
>
>The New England Journal of Medicine -- October 23, 1997 -- Volume 337,
>Number 17 Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D.
>
> Sex is a lot like consultants. It can be treacherous to live
>with but untenable to live without. Achieving the right balance of both
>is something, I suspect, that a great many health care executives
>struggle with. Consulting, not sex, is the focus of Dangerous Company, a
>revealing book by two Chicago Tribune reporters. It is one of the first
>exposes of an industry that tries hard to keep its activities out of the
>public domain. Consultants are hired by the government, the largest
>medical centers and managed-care organizations, and the smallest group
>practices. The consulting industry eats up precious health care dollars
>and has grown remarkably in the years since market-driven forces began
>to dominate the field.
>
> Dangerous Company relies on many well-documented anecdotes to
>paint an incomplete but compelling picture of the way consultants, and
>especially the large consulting firms, operate and the kinds of
>influence they can have on huge corporations. Though several of the
>anecdotes illustrate how effective consultants can be in helping
>companies cope with change, the bulk of the book details the mess they
>can make. Failing to make good on promises, raising inappropriate
>expectations, overcharging, assigning inexperienced junior employees to
>complex tasks, obtaining the wrong answers, and nearly
>bankrupting a firm are but a few of the outcomes that O'Shea and Madigan
>describe.
>
> Most of us in health care have had similar experiences. Cynics
>might describe the experience as follows: pin-striped consultants a few
>years out of business school take our time to learn about our
>"business," then issue a report that regurgitates what they have
>learned. They then make a recommendation that makes no sense, and it
>ends up on a shelf with others of the same ilk. Many of their decisions
>seem to be designed just to please the people who pay their bills. Even
>people who are less cynical will recognize this pattern, and it is no
>surprise that heads nod in health care organizations at the
>hackneyed definition of a consultant as one who "borrows your watch and
>then tells you the time."
>
> Dangerous Company is a must-read for leaders in health care.
>Apart from gaining a greater appreciation of the scope of the disasters
>that can befall organizations that rely too heavily on consultants, they
>might benefit from the recommendations that O'Shea and Madigan make
>after their two-year study. These proposals could help executives obtain
>help when they need it without exposing themselves to the confusion,
>obfuscation, and drain on resources that consultants sometimes bring to
>an organization.
>
> Some of the helpful hints are these: Define the goal clearly and
>narrowly. Don't ask a consultant to solve a vague problem. Decide
>whether outsiders are really needed to help reach the goal. Don't hire a
>consultant to take the blame for decisions that you already know you
>must make. Find out the cost and how long it will take. If you're not
>happy about the process, say so immediately. Don't lose control; make
>sure that your own managers stay in charge. Value your own employees;
>remember that long after the consultants are gone, your employees will
>still be there. Remember that it is in the consultant's best interest to
>find trouble where there isn't any. If you know that something isn't
>broken, don't let them persuade you to try to fix it.
>
> I've often wondered how much health care we could buy if we
>eliminated the superfluous costs of consultants. Even before reading
>Dangerous Company, I was convinced it is quite a lot. The judicious and
>appropriate use of consultants should be a major criterion for
>evaluating the performance of all health care executives.
>
>Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D.
>
>
>Vernon E. Weckwerth, Professor, Director ISP, U of Minnesota
>Healthcare Management, Carlson School of Management
>C-304 Mayo, Box 97, 420 Delaware St. S.E.
>Minneapolis, MN 55455-0381, Fax: 612-626-1186
>PHONE: 612-624-0603, EMAIL:
weckw001@tc.umn.edu WEB: ispweb.csom.umn.edu
>
>
>