Beware Management Consultants

sscaryterry

This is nice big fat fuck you to the mercenaries that come and destroy companies. Well done Iceland.

arjie

Private firms are entertainingly idiosyncratic in ways only founder-powered public firms barely approach. The other big one I find entertaining is Dr Bronner’s soap which has a massive label full of dense text that is totally stream of consciousness sentences. Amazing. Perhaps it’s a characteristic of closed groups. SQLite has its moral code that is the Ten Commandments++. Good stuff.

unfunco

That's why mums go to Iceland.

mkoubaa

PE turning a beloved brand into a soulless skin suit exhibit no. 63631

dvaplima

Thats a good point of view of the traditional Managment consultants, now for the "AI era", this type of interventions will not exist Maybe now the Big coorp will finally get closer to real life solutions to the problems companies face

notahacker

Not gonna lie, the website of a remarkably ordinary frozen food supermarket found on most UK high streets is not where I'd expect to find this kind of content :)

jldugger

I think I'm missing a _lot_ of context here. Obviously management consultants are sycophantic but why post this now?

sillywabbit

The antique illustrations on this are fantastic.

hadrien01

The entire section of the website about 'The Dark Ages' is priceless. They don't pull any punches: https://about.iceland.co.uk/our-story/the-dark-ages/

ang_cire

Am I misreading something, or was it not in fact the corporate leaders who torpedoed the reorg suggestions they knew were coming, who were at fault? This is a classic hierarchy-brain/ bureaucracy problem, where "leaders" think the top is more important to the org than the bottom.

bigmattystyles

"What would you say you do here?" - The Bobs

gadiyar

Isn’t this the same company that had the trademark dispute with Iceland the country? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_v_Iceland_Foods_Ltd

Taikhoom10

I think generalizations are usually bad. I genuinely am weirded out by management's fascination with consultants. It really is about incentives, and consultants usually do not have the right ones, at least the big ones. Also, there are management which feel like companies always need change, but really you have to examine the competitve position within the broader industry not just a vacumm. Things honestly stay the same for a long time. IBM had more revenue then Microsoft all the way up to the early 2010s. Switching costs are powerful - https://s-1.vercel.app/posts/why-dropbox-is-a-obvious-pe-tar... I think a key takeaway is the human nature to constantly act, and not just sit and do nothing. Lot's of value in sitting around, especially in investing.

schnevets

I smirk and laugh this little slideshow and then remember that my own work involves internal tools to promote governance and productivity while formalizing requirements to two outsourced developers. I don't think I'm one of the red team's 7 captains, but I don't exactly have my hands on the paddle every single day. After all, I can find the time to lollygag on HN between 9-5.

paulorlando

That last line: "...to demonstrate fiscal and HR dexterity for stockholders..."

danesparza

I mean, the movie "Office space" could have taught you that lesson almost 30 years ago.

haunter

Funny because the tier list sub on reddit had a vote just a week ago about the UK supermarkets and Iceland only got a D https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fh... (not that it matters considering Tesco got an A)

whattheheckheck

Why is there still a single captain, why isnt he rowing, why are we rowing and where are we rowing to?

orf

This is great: https://about.iceland.co.uk/our-story/the-dark-ages/the-chie...