Читай и обсуждай. Бизнес-курс английского языка. Учебное пособие

If I were in a strategy consulting firm, I’d be buying as much insurance as I could. In terms of liability, I think the day is coming when consultants will be seen as equivalent to lawyers, investment bankers, engineers, and accountants. I don’t think consultants can continue to claim that they provide valuable professional advice and yet cannot be held accountable for it.

McLaughlin: The management consulting industry does not conform to professional standardslike those in law, accounting, and medicine must. Why do you think this hasn’t happened?

McKenna: It’s due to some consultants’ unwillingness to move in that direction. It’s a remarkable pattern we have seen that people, particularly in the large firms, have been unwilling to take the appropriate steps that would transform consulting into a full-fledged profession.

On numerous occasions, people have proposed government regulation, examinations, minimum requirements, standards of malpractice, and so forth. And in each case, consultants have fought against this, arguing both that they want to keep the government out and that they think they can self-police.

But self-policing requires the ability to throw people out and prohibit them from practicing again. In the consulting industry, you can fire a poorly performing consultant from a particular firm, but that individual can move to another firm.

It’sveryhardtopatroltheboundariesofaprofessionunlessyou’re willing to take on government certification and other such trappings. Consulting industry leaders clearly decided not to do so, and that is not illogical for the large firms. The small consultancies, which account for the vast majority of consultants, are not helped by this.

A profession is not defined by what it practices and what it does right, but by how it deals with failures and malpractice.And in dealing with malpractice, the expectation is that you are willing to be judged by a jury of your peers.

Partners in consulting firms have told me they’re not prepared to submit to that. They consider their own firms to be separate and distinct, and they will not be judged by people in other firms.

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McLaughlin: In your view, what is the best role for management consultants in helping clients?

McKenna: Consultants, of course, do many, many diverse jobs. I would propose a simplified way to understand their function. Consultants provide two benefits for clients: a combination of legitimacy, which derives from management audits, and the transfer of best practices.

These days, we tend to think that legitimacy is less valuable. We view it as somehow disreputable, which it’s not at all — in spite of recent scandals.All professions function by providing legitimacy. The consulting profession arose from the need for independent evaluation of how businesses were organized and run. That remains a valid and important function.

McLaughlin: Do you think the second benefit you mentioned that consultants bring to clients — the transfer of best practices—is more important than innovation?

McKenna: It’s very nice rhetoric to suggest that consultants are innovators who develop and bring new ideas to clients, but that’s not actually the best role for them.

It’s very expensive to ask someone to think. That’s why we have universities, which are nonprofit institutions for a reason. There’s not much profit to be made in paying somebody to sit and think. Potentially, your thinker could come up with something big but could also sit there for twenty-five years and not come up with a new idea.

So it’s risky to pay a thinker. On the other hand, if you pay consultants to bring you ideas that they already understand very well and have transferred to other organizations, then it’s a good bet those ideas will work for you.

So excelling at the transfer of best practices will continue to be the central plank of consulting for the foreseeable future.

McLaughlin: What other projects are you working on? McKenna: I have struggled to understand went on in the Enron

case, and have thought a lot about the nature of professionals and their relationship to white-collar crime. Next year I’ll be starting a project on a very broad history of white-collar crime.

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APPENDIX 1. DESCRIBING GRAPHS

Task 1. Here are the words and phrases you need to talk about trends using graphs1.

1 Gordina E.A. Describing Graphs. Workbook. Описание графиков: пособие-

практикум. — Новосибирск: НГАЭиУ, 2002. — 87 с.

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PREPOSITIONS

a rise from $1 m to 2 m to fall by 30 %

to increase by 50 %

an increase of 7,5 per cent

to fall from 4,567 in the last quarter of 1990 to 2,345 to rise steadily to 6 % in 2016

to remain unchanged at 2,9 % a rise of 0,2 % after inflation to fall to 12,9 % in December

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Task2.Thefirstsentencescontainadjectivesandnouns.Complete the second ones using verbs and adverbs.

Example: There has been a dramatic rise in the Nikkei Index. The Nikkei Index has risen dramatically.

1.There was a substantial fall in the Nikkei Index in the beginnig of 2016.

2.TherewasaslightincreaseinthenumberoftimesMrs.Thatcher was mentioned in late 1991.

3.There was a steady growth in GDPin the Philippines from 2006 to 2014.

4.There’s been a sharp increase in sales.

5.There was an unexpected rise in advertising costs.

6.There’s been a modest rise in profits.

7.There was a significant improvement in profits every year for four years.

8.There’s been a rapid growth for five years.

9.There was a dramatic decrease in sales.

10.There was a rapid growth in investment in 2008.

Task 3. The first sentences contain verbs and adverbs. Complete the second ones using adjectives and nouns.

Example: The Nikkei Index fell substantially in 2016.

There was a substantial fall in the Nikkei Index in 2016.

1.When Mrs. Thatcher lost power, the number of times she was mentioned fell dramatically.

2.The Philippine growth rate decreased rapidly in 2015.

3.The Nikkei Index rose sharply in 2015.

4.Sales have risen gradually over the last five years.

5.Sales through supermarkets are rising rapidly.

6.The sales of stock increased sharply in 2016.

7.The sales of stock dropped greatly in 2013.

8.The figures improved dramatically.

9.Profits fell sharply.

10.The company sales fell dramatically in 2016.

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Task 4. Translate the sentences.

1.Therewasadramaticriseinsalesfiguresbetween2012and2013.

2.Prices rose steadily from February to October.

3.Inflation rose slightly in March.

4.2016 saw a sharp decrease in production.

5.There has been a significant increase in export figures.

6.The number of people using the Net will rise sharply.

7.There will be a slight drop in the number of people using the Net next year.

8. There was a significant increase in Apple’s sales due to the launch of the iPhone 5.

9.OurturnoverremainedstableinJanuaryandFebruary.However, in March and April, it dropped suddenly as a result of the financial crisis.

10.In March andApril, there was a sudden drop in our turnover as a result of the financial crisis.

11.Since 1998, the use of broadcast TV has fallen sharply.

12.In February sales revenue fell significantly by €100,000 to €200,000.

13.Thisfigureleveledoffslightlyin2002.(theuseofbroadcastTV)

14.By March there was a substantial decline of €100,000. (sales revenue)

15. The use of broadcast TV went down from 950 to under 600 hours in just seven years.

16. And in May there was a dramatic jump of €300,000 to €410,000. (sales revenue)

17.By June, it went up gradually to €560,000. (sales revenue)

18.We forecast that costs could rise considerably by a further 5 % between now and next year.

19.Prices have gone sharply up by 10 %.

20.The cost of living is increasing gradually .

Task 5. Study the following sentences.

1. This graph shows a comparison between the Smith Corporation andtheWaltersCorporationinrelationtotherateofemployeeturnover.

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2.Noticethatthetwocompaniesareeachrepresentedbyaseparate vertical bar and that the companies can be compared year by year for several years.

3. This graph shows that for 1980, 1981, and 1982 Smith Corporation had a higher rate of employee turnover than did the Walters Corporation.

4.In 1979, however, the Walters Corporation had the same rate of turnover as did the Smith Corporation.

5.This bar graph shows positive and negative numbers.

6.Notice that on this graph the value zero is drawn through the middle of the graph. Positive quantities are drawn above the zero line and negative quantities are below the zero line.

7.The largest positive quantities are entered first on the left side of the graph, and the values decrease toward the right side of the graph until the lowest negative quantity is included.

8.This line graph can shows trends.

9.Notice that the quantities to be plotted are given vertically on the left side of the graph.

10.Timeisplottedhorizontallyacrossthebottomofthelinegraph.

11.This is the double line graph.

12.It shows both trends and comparisons.

Task 6. Describe the graphs.

A.ThegraphbelowshowsNumberofCarsSold1.Usinginformation from the graph, write a short report. Write about 150 words.

1 http://www.mathcaptain.com/statistics/line-graphs.html

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B. The graph below shows CPI % Increase (CPI — consumer price index)1. Using information from the graph, write a short report. Write about 150 words.

C. The graph below shows Australia’s Share of Japan’s tourist Market2. Using information from the graph, write a short report. Write about 150 words.

1 http://onlinestatbook.com/2/graphing_distributions/bar_chart.html

2 http://www.ielts-mentor.com/writing-sample/academic-writing-task-1/135- academic-ielts-writing-task-1-sample-47-japanese-tourists-traveling-abroad- between-1985-and-1995-and-australia-s-share-of-the-japanese-tourist-market

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D. The graph below shows Mean Monthly Temperature in Scotland1. Using information from the graph, write a short report. Write about 150 words.

1 http://www.djhweb.co.uk/article17.html

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