In Search of Good Advice: No Room Left for Good Intentions. Bankers Increasingly Press Consultants for Concrete Results. Often They Hand over the Keys and Say, "You Drive"
2004; American Bankers Association; Volume: 96; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0194-5947
Autores Tópico(s)Securities Regulation and Market Practices
ResumoMankind has always stood in need of good advice, and often went far to seek it. The Greeks had Oracle at Delphi. What is Bible's Book of Proverbs but an extensive guide to right action? George Washington had General Pulaski, a foreigner who gets much of credit for turning a rabble into Continental Army's crack cavalry. Charlie Brown had Lucy Van Pelt in her sidewalk psychiatric booth. Nancy Reagan and countless others have their astrologers. Businessmen and women rely on consultants. This is hardly a 21st century idea. Consider this quote from Hal Higdon's The Healers: Business has become so complex today, particularly with advance of computer sciences, that no one man can possibly have all answers. He is forced to go outside for help to succeed.... And so management consulting profession has experienced its greatest period of growth within past decade. Take a guess when this was written. 2001? Try 1969. Higdon's book was rich in references to such names as Booz, Allen & Hamilton; Boston Consulting Group; Fry Consultants; A.T. Kearney and Co.; McKinsey & Co.; and more. Some remain, others have faded through mergers or otherwise. Banking has not only dipped into pool of advice generated by such titans of industry, but has spawned nearly countless legions of more specialized consultants. If a megabank redefines its mission in life, odds are a consultant has been involved. If a community bank introduces overdraft checking, insurance brokerage, or asset finance, odds are strong that a consultant designed and helped implement program. And, as with AmSouth, one of first things a bank in compliance trouble must agree to is engagement of an outside expert. Sources of consulting expertise have grown and blurred as dividing lines between law firms, accounting firms, and traditional consulting firms have blurred. Increasingly, line between consultant and client itself has blurred, as business process outsourcing has turned advisors into implementers. Regulatory emphasis on management, in all its variations, has heavily influenced shape of both newcomers and consulting firms of longstanding. Even Sarbanes-Oxley Act, bane of so many bankers today, has exercised its own influence. In putting together this look at modern consulting business and banking, ABA Banking Journal spoke with both bankers and representatives of more than 20 consulting firms, from giants to boutiques and specialists to one-person shops. We've also looked to our own experience--the symbiois between banking press and consultants teaches much over years. This first instalment of this two-part article concerns bankers' use of consultants, how it has evolved and why. In January, second part will examine how banks can get most out of their consulting bucks. A listing of consultants interviewed, with more about their firms, appears on www.ababj.com. Widening industry, narrower needs Traditionally, when a banker thought of a consultant, term connoted a visionary, a strategic thinker, a management guru. There's a lot more things that are called 'consulting' today than were called 'consulting' 20 years ago, says James McCormick, president of First Manhattan Consulting Group. Back then, McKinsey and its peers, and some major banking specialists like Golembe and his own firm were names that came to mind. Now, says McCormick, who continues to concentrate on management strategies, the list of where consulting dollars go is dominated by those firms that deal in technology and implementation. McCormick, whose firm does risk management and other services as well, sees demand as cyclical, with a resurgence of major interest in strategic consulting, with an emphasis on revenue growth, in offing. At one time in Corporate America, as Higdon's book traces, using a major consulting firm was something of a status symbol, and one that more than likely was controlled and metered from corner office or even boardroom. …
Referência(s)