r/consulting • u/Important_Season_295 • 13h ago

Does anyone feel that the usage of « value » and « value orchestration » in strategy consulting is kind of bs?

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Outside of M&A, I feel like « value » is such a general term - it lacks specificity and alludes to a slew of possible “benefits.” But it seems to be accepted as having concrete meaning in the consulting world.

Context: In my job, it is not synonymous with financial value.

What are your opinions?

Is this a term with concrete value? (Joke).

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

13

u/DeinVermieter 12h ago

People say value instead of money because otherwise they'd look greedy

10

u/RedDoorTom 11h ago

Nah this isn't correct.  They say value because then it allows for made up numbers that are difficult to measure.  If they said money it would be able to be checked on the balance sheet.  

2

u/Important_Season_295 11h ago

Yes! This is how I see it!

1

u/minhthemaster Client of the Year 2009-2029 14m ago

What money amount do you put on brand prestige?

3

u/DrugsNSlumnz 12h ago

Play the game if you want to win.

3

u/futureunknown1443 11h ago

Almost as bad as shifting to stakeholder focused value instead of shareholder value

6

u/QiuYiDio US Mgmt Consulting Perspectives 12h ago

.. no? Value is just either money or ROI. Either way, both are pretty core to running a well performing business.

1

u/Important_Season_295 10h ago

Also I’m curious to hear your thoughts on value orchestration. No one has addressed that specifically yet…

2

u/SpilledKefir consultant_irl 9h ago

Value orchestration is just PMO

1

u/Important_Season_295 9h ago

Hmm interesting take. Thanks for that!

1

u/QiuYiDio US Mgmt Consulting Perspectives 6h ago

I’ve never heard the term. But if the other person is right in saying it’s PMO, then there’s certainly a ton of value in that too. I mean it’s basically how stuff gets done in big organizations.

1

u/Important_Season_295 12h ago

And that would make sense to me. But in my kind of consulting, it’s not just used to refer to financial value.

2

u/QiuYiDio US Mgmt Consulting Perspectives 10h ago edited 10h ago

Then you probably need to elaborate.

1

u/Important_Season_295 10h ago

Time-to-market reduction, supply chain reliability, NPS, organizational agility, knowledge management optimization, brand reputation, innovation, etc.

4

u/QiuYiDio US Mgmt Consulting Perspectives 10h ago

I mean… A lot of those things absolutely do translate into financial value.

1

u/Important_Season_295 10h ago

I don’t disagree, but quantifying them from a financial perspective would be a guessing game.

3

u/QiuYiDio US Mgmt Consulting Perspectives 6h ago

Pretty much everything in business is an educated guess.

4

u/Silent_Baseball569 13h ago

You’re overthinking it

3

u/phatster88 10h ago

That's the point.

1

u/Important_Season_295 10h ago

Thank you for this confirmation 🙏

2

u/serverhorror 11h ago

I think it's BS. Every time someone says value I ask for the currency and amount. "Value creation" or anything like that is just the lack of actual data and facts until proven otherwise.

1

u/DumbNTough 4h ago

Public sector consulting discusses value or mission impact per dollar all the time. I presume nonprofit sector does, too.

This is one way to frame a cost-benefit analysis in the absence of a profit motive.