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I agree that there are some unsuccessful cases in consulting industry, that not all international consulting companies are great, and that not everyone in the industries are brilliant -- just like any other industry does. However, I think LZ you are very unfamiliar with the nature of consulting companies and have no clues at all what they do for the clients. While, you are also not in a very objective mood / perspective. Consulting companies tend to hire people with strong background is the fact, but that's because the nature of the work. The work requires you learn very fast (pick up the problem within 2 weeks), you identify the problems, make hypothesis, priority resources, develop solutions, and sometimes, help the client to implement. Also, since consultants are dealing with top management team / middle management team who are normally older and more experienced than you, so consultants should know how to endure pressures, deal with relationship (esp. the company politics), convince clients using their languages, and, well, have some experience, client-industry specific or board working/living/oversea experience. So, people from top MBA is a great match to consulting. Smart, aggressive, strong analytical skills and problem solving ability, great personalities, profound work & life experience, and workaholic. But I also agree with LZ that such profiles make it easy to sell the projects, but are never a necessary assurance of the quality of the solutions they develop. International consulting firms have great knowledge management system, as well as great methodologies, in other words, the frameworks to guide and make sure the quality of the analysis and problem-solving processes. It's the essence of consulting firms, that's the thing international firms having advantages over local firms. But whether you apply the framework well or turn out the best / most suitable implementation results, depends on the consultants. Whether they are ethical in dealing with conflicts of interests, whether they work hard enough, and yes, whether they understand Chinese market. Believe it or not, international consulting firms have a very prominent localization trend, and the implementation teams consist of an even higher rate of local people -- which won't make them in an disadvantage of the local firms. While their foreign employees sometimes could provide different perspective/insights of similar cases in oversea market and let companies in China avoid the same bumps, and their experiences in the already-in-the-mature-stage-of-life-cycle industry in which Chinese industry only in the early stage. So, working for an international firms sometimes will enable consultants gain experience within short time frame, and more professional in dealing with oversea business partners. I do believe someday, there will be sophisticated Chinese firms providing service in oversea market. Just like as of the construction / technical kind of Chinese consulting do overseas these days, while Chinese business consulting firm is just not ready yet. And nowadays, when overseas company coming into China, they just select the most appropiate consulting firm to serve them, no matter it's international or Chinese firms, so LZ, please also don't make such a unbreakable line between Chinese firms and international ones. Well, also don't assume that IPO strategy / oversea expansion strategy are the only things international consulting companies could provide. Meanwhile, public relation firm is far more sophisticated than its literal meaning. You are too negative towards it. Also, in terms of building your own relationships then start your own company -- which industry does not have such cases? Just that you don't see some not so positive cases doesn't mean this industry is NONSENSE! No offense. And I'm not from the company you named in your argument.
[此贴子已经被作者于2007-6-6 23:27:11编辑过] | 
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发表于 2007-6-6 14:11:00
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