Illustration 15.3 Dinner with the consultants

514 CHAPTER 15 THE PRACTICE OF STRATEGY

ILLUSTRATION 15.3

Dinner with the consultants

Consultants operate through both formal and informal channels to influence strategic thinking.

Locco * was a major European automotive component manufacturer. In the mid-1990s, it began to experience declining profits. The CEO therefore invited consultants to undertake a strategic review of the firm. This consultancy team included a partner, a senior consultant and a junior consultant. Their recommendations led to changes in Locco’s product and market strategy.

Like all other consultancy assignments the consult- ants undertook extensive analysis of industry data and company data. However, in addition to this more formal work, there was more informal engagement between the consultants and the management, including three din- ners held during the period of the project.

At home with the CEO

At the beginning of the assignment the CEO invited the partner and senior consultant to meet senior managers at his home for dinner ‘to get together in a more informal way . . . to get to know each other better . . . and . . . learn more about the history of our company’, but also to estab- lish trust between the managers and the consultants.

Others saw it differently. For example, the marketing and sales manager viewed it as an attempt by the CEO to influence the outcome of the project: ‘(he) likes to do this. While dining in his home you can hardly oppose his views.’ The consulting partner was somewhat wary, fear- ing a hidden agenda but none the less seeing it as an opportunity to ‘break the ice’ as well as gaining political insight and understanding of the management dynamics.

Over dinner discussion was largely between the CEO and the consultants with the CEO setting out some con- cerns about the project, not least the danger of cost cutting leading to a loss of jobs. As they mingled over after-dinner drinks other sensitive issues were raised by other managers.

At the castle

In the third week of the project the consultant invited the CEO to a restaurant in a converted castle. He saw this as an opportunity to get to know the CEO better, to gain his agreement to the consultants’ approach to the project, but also to gain a clearer understanding of the politics

among the senior management and establish more insight into the CEO’s perceived problems of Locco.

Over the meal the consultant established that there were two management ‘camps’ with different views of strategy. The consultant also took the opportunity to influence and gain the CEO’s approval for the agenda for the next management meeting.

At the pizzeria

Some weeks later the senior consultant invited middle managers whom he saw as ‘good implementers’ for pizza and beer at an Italian restaurant to ‘exchange informa- tion and get opinions on some of our analyses, see how some of the middle managers react . . .’. Some of those who attended were sceptical about the meeting but went along. Senior managers were not invited.

At the dinner the consultant discussed his initial analysis, particularly on strategic competences. He also raised some issues to do with the political dynamics within the senior management team. The consultant regarded the dinner as a success both in terms of establishing a rapport but also in establishing that ‘some (of the managers) know exactly why the company has a prob- lem . . . they already have some ideas for solutions . . . but their voices are not heard’. The managers who attended were, on the whole, also positive about the dinner, many regarding it as ‘good fun’ though others who were not there felt threatened by their absence.

* A pseudonym used by the researchers.

Adapted from A. Sturdy, M. Schwarz and A. Spicer, ‘Guess who’s com- ing to dinner? Structures and uses of liminality in strategic manage- ment consultancy’, Human Relations , vol. 59, no. 7 (2006), pp. 929–60 .

Questions 1 Why are informal settings such as dinners useful?,

2 Could the consultants have influenced the agenda in more formal ways? How?,

3 If you had been one of the managers at the Italian restaurant, what would your views of the meeting been?,