A little light relief for a Sunday night (apologies to Sunday Times readers who will have seen this already).
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Very amusing, but speaking as one who moved literally overnight from the position of Chairman of one Orchestra Players' Comittee to General Manager of another orchestra, I can assure you that both have one important aim in common - the continued employment and improvement in working conditions and remuneration for the musicians within the orchestra.Originally posted by hafod View Post
... and just to put the record straight, speaking as a qualified Management Services Consultant, who has worked for such diverse interests as Rank Xerox on the one hand and the Government's "Manpower Services Comission" on the other; those silly jokes about cost-saving recommendations by "Time and Motion" operatives (the correct name is "Time Study") are just that - silly jokes. The preservation of our orchestral heritage is a very serious matter and it is regrettable that one has to go back as far as Jenny Lee (Mrs Anuerin Bevan) to find a politician who showed any concern at all for the future of the performing arts - Opera, Ballet and Instrumental within Parliament.
HS -
More importantly (and i'm a passionate advocate for electronic music so no luddite !)
This is currently a big issue amongst musicians in London
Lots of things on StalkerbookComment
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God protect us all from management experts, gurus and consultants. Snake oil anyone?Comment
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funnily enough, i was talking to one today, who was asking me , (yes ME !!) what I would do, and could I give him suggestions on certain areas of development.Originally posted by gradus View Post
He's alright though, and a decent customer to boot, (a portfolio career man) plus had bought me a coffee, so I gave him everything he wanted. Well, Kinda.
Generally, people who come into businesses from the outside to consult get paid too much, wreck things, and then sod off, leaving others to pick up the pieces, if there are any left to pick up. In my experience, of course.
Though no doubt HS is an honourable exception.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.Comment
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Sounds like the NHS...
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During my very brief spell as a quasi-civil servant, I was told by a wise old bird that "a consultant is someone who asks to borrow your watch and then tells you the time".
The place was over-run with them and they were fiercely competitive. Not a way to run a rail-road, from that experience.Comment
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My last contract as a Management Services Consultant was to set up a Central Store, sited in the old disused Regional Laundry in the SW Thames NHS region to co-ordinate all the hospital stores within the region, plus all of the London Ambulance Service.Originally posted by pastoralguy View PostSounds like the NHS...
The job required that supplies to the patients should never be compromised by all the activity and this operation was succesfully completed in 3 years.
The annual saving in this region alone was in excess of 10 million pounds.
Two years after I retired, I was told that the NHS moguls had sold the premises to a company for development as a housing estate and that this huge building, with all its pallet racking and shelving had been scrapped.
The former hospital stores had, of course, all been taken over by other hospital departments, so the previous regime of individual hospital stores (and ordering) could not be re-instated, which meant that all hospital supplies now have to be farmed out to outside contractors (who can charge what they liked and deliver when they feel like it!)
My overall experience is that top management frequently commision a survey and report but, when push comes to shove, only do that part of what the report recommends which suits them. They then blame the Consultant for any resulting failures.
"A Management Consultant is just an average bloke who has been brought in from outside"
A popular comment by those who should know better, but the fact is that the "bloke from outside" sees only what is there at the time with no previous knowledge of methods and practices which have been going on for years in that particular workplace or organisation.
Hornspieler A.I.M.SComment
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