McKinsey consulting interaction

Another thing about managers — they'll reorganize the system to make things easier for them. My advice to Bob, the one I was talking to last night, was: have them fill out the spreadsheets, it's their job. Why are you filling in the spreadsheet form? They're the ones who have to report to the CEO on what's happening in your research department, so why are you doing their job for them? I find that the consulting firms — McKinsey, for example. I have a former doctoral student who's a partner at McKinsey, and he's very capable. He tells all the other consultants, call Tom Eagar if it's anything with a materials problem. So they call me, they pump me for information for an hour — which is about all I'm worth — and I charge them a slightly higher rate. But they never want me to do anything else, going deeper, because my rate's too high — they've got to double it when they charge to their client.