Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I am speechless. (Almost.)

I was with clients last night who told me that a well-known business consulting company was hired to look at my clients' organizational structure and recommended a drive toward "functional excellence."

Here's a definition I found online of "functional excellence."

Functional Excellence

"Companies that excel in delivering value to their customers also excel at managing the internal value chain — high performance internal processes. In an era of focus on cost, and a need to outsource all but the most critical functions, the requirements for excellence in internal functions has never been greater."

Turns out "functional excellence" is new consulting-speak for firing.

BTW:
Years ago I abruptly quit the highest paying job I'll ever have as the ECD of an enormous digital agency. My wife put it best. "You made one mistake," she said. "You're working for consultants and you thought they were human."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahh that must be digitas. Consultancy is right. Wall Street bought it and ultimately Publicis did as well but youre correct in your pov that it wasnt about being human or creative. Kudos for not selling out your principles.

george tannenbaum said...

Yes, Anon.
We all do things for principles.
They usually cost us a great deal of money.