Working as a Team

Working as a Team

Let’s face it. Working as a team just NEVER works. You have to arrange numerous team gatherings with people who have totally different schedules and the distribution of work never seems fair. When it comes to the level of devotion of each team member, all you can really do is to hope that you won’t have to chase after runaways. Professors of universities just never seem to realize that they are tormenting and frustrating their students so much. The executives of McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group(BCG) are sure to be heartless, brutal monsters since they always make their employees work as a team. They are even worse than professors at school. They gather a task force, but not in a random way, they ENSURE that the diversity among team members is maximized. So much for efficiency, right?

Too bad for this notion, sadly(?) the firms stand proud as the two most successful, prominent entities within the contemporary field of business consulting. Interesting? Wait untill you hear what the employees of McKinsey and BCG have to say. The Business Analysts(BA) of both companies give explanations on how they work, and within their words the key factors of their success can be found.

“We know that the solutions we are delivering to the client will have long lasting impact, because it was something that was CO-CREATED”

Just by the truth that everyone had something to say and that every voice was equally counted when developing the solutions, the final solution justifies itself. The fact that an idea gets to stand as a final, implies that it is based on everyone’s consent and agreement. This may sound simple, so simple that it may even sound stupid, but nobody can deny this truth. Ever since mankind had to make decisions, this statement stood as the sole principle that mattered. Then where does “Diversity” suddenly come from?

“Without that DIVERSITY, we wouldn’t have had any of this magic”

Business Analysts of both consulting firms never hesitate using the word, “magic”. The main objective of a consulting firm is to analyze the problem which its client is facing and bring up break-through solutions. Clients drag their difficulties to the consulting firm’s doorstep because they are the official experts at developing effective, working answers. Some might already be guessing that the BA’s must have Ph.D’s on business strategy or at least a Master’s of any kind of business major. Well, what I saw was a young lady with a Bachelor in Liberal Arts, and I thought the BA’s had made a mistake in using the word “magic”. They should have used the word, “miracle”. What makes this “magic” possible is “diversity”. So many different minds come together to take a deep look into the given problem. Every member has