News Article: James Dolan hires "consultants" to analyze Rangers

[lucky13]

I cant be the only one who Immediately thought of the movie Office Space, can I ??

Maybe they'll move Sathers desk down to the basement and stop giving him his check....haha

 

[Ola]

Well at least he hired the right company.

McKinsey is the big leagues.

Yeah, I thought the same thing.

 

[Ola]

I think this is it. I doubt that business consultants would be brought in to help out with team strategy.

I have a few classmates that ended up at McKinsey (and other big name consulting firms like Bain and BCG). Consulting is a somewhat imprecise term, basically used for outsourced analysis for virtually any facet of business management and operations.

It seems reasonable.

But just to be clear, McKinsey can and will do anything.

The GMing or coaching side of hockey is NOT a reach for them. They are not about knowledge, it's almost the opposite, they are about method to find out what is right.

I don't know exactly how they work with reference groups etc. But they are just extremely diligent. I've heard one story about McKinsey, and that is that their employees/consultants are not allowed to sit in a meeting and listen to someone say something without questioning it, unless they themselves know it's true.

 

[Levitate]

Eh, why do people think Sather is a "classic" GM other than he's been around for a very long time and has lots of connections?

 

[SML]

Just a thought...
Does anybody know who the people are who actually designed the salary cap? I mean the actual minds who sat down and drew it up? Because this sounds like the kind of firm that the NHL would have used to do that. It also sounds like the kind of people you want to have on board when you weigh the cap implications of potentially large, long term contracts. If I want to have a "capologist" on staff, would it make sense for me to have one who worked on inventing the cap? Pure speculation on my part, btw. Just a stab in the dark.

 

[pld459666]

If these "consultants" are worth anything, they will advise that everything business related to the Rangers derives from the on ice product and that until you can get a really competitive team, the annual revenues will remain the same as they have been.

If you want to make more money, then you need to improve the on ice product.

Everyone wants to be associated with a winner.

The Rangers are not winners right now. Any consulting firm will take the industry they are in and make recommendations based on those factors.

I have a feeling that Dolan will ignore all of the positive recommendations made such as getting in a new GM that understands how to construct a proper hockey team.

 

[silverfish]

Bookmarked, and sending my application in tomorrow morning.

Don't worry guys, I got this.

Things HFBoards wants:

1. Fire Sather
2. Trade Lundqvist for anything, he sucks and Prince Cam is the best.
3. Call Charmin and have them sign Boyle for sponsorship opportunities.

Then call Downy, too​

On it.

 

[Mr Atoz*]

If these "consultants" are worth anything, they will advise that everything business related to the Rangers derives from the on ice product and that until you can get a really competitive team, the annual revenues will remain the same as they have been.

If you want to make more money, then you need to improve the on ice product.

Everyone wants to be associated with a winner.

The Rangers are not winners right now. Any consulting firm will take the industry they are in and make recommendations based on those factors.

I have a feeling that Dolan will ignore all of the positive recommendations made such as getting in a new GM that understands how to construct a proper hockey team.

The two most valuable franchises in the NHL have one Cup between them in the past 50 years.

 

[pld459666]

The two most valuable franchises in the NHL have one Cup between them in the past 50 years.

Location location location

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

Bookmarked, and sending my application in tomorrow morning.

Don't worry guys, I got this.

Things HFBoards wants:

1. Fire Sather
2. Trade Lundqvist for anything, he sucks and Prince Cam is the best.
3. Call Charmin and have them sign Boyle for sponsorship opportunities.

Then call Downy, too​

On it.

Make sure you've got a downloaded version of your college transcript ready to be attached, along with downloaded attachments officially proving your GRE, etc.

 

[Mr Atoz*]

Location location location

Which nullifies the logic of your post.

 

[iamitter]

I work in Sustainability Consutling (entry level, I just graduated college with an environmental degree). I work in a small firm though, and a lot of the major management consulting companies, McKinsey included, have dedicated sustainability teams, so I've spoken with many employees at these companies (Mckinsey included).

Goldman Sachs hires the smartest people with finance backgrounds, McKinsey hires the smartest thinkers worldwide, it doesn't matter their background. They're put on a tier with BCG and Bain, but from the people I've spoken with McKinsey gets the first pick of the litter at every school. They're truly on their own tier. They are also unanimously the hardest company to get a job at (in any industry, on the planet). Most management consulting companies work mainly with strategy, but McKinsey also works with implementation (as in coming up with a solution for a company, and working with them to make it happen).

For MSG, I think Crease's post is spot on for what they'll be doing. I doubt they'll be personally evaluating the Rangers. My post was more in relation to the fact that Dolan hired the smartest people in the area to figure this out. Management Consulting is an intelligent industry, but McKinsey takes the cake. If hiring someone to do his work is his plan, he can't do any better.

This isn't really true (while the rest of the post is spot on). While you need a small finance background for investment banking, they take any major (they prefer hard math and science because of the mentality it instills, however). The same actually applies to consulting, in that they like hard math and science. The other main difference is iBanking is almost twice the hours as consulting (as well as almost twice the pay, but that doesn't mean its always worth it).

While the two are quite different in using entry level positions (I don't know much about higher ups), they look for very similar people. It's just that in iBanking you're going to spend most of your day working on Excel or reading up on finance, while at a major consulting firm, you'll spend much of your time traveling, thinking and working on Powerpoint.



Also, I'm not sure how much to expect in change in terms of the Rangers. This seems more like an MSG corporate kind of thing. If they wanted to just look at sports stats, they could've hired a company like Darkhorse Analytics.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

I work in Sustainability Consutling (entry level, I just graduated college with an environmental degree). I work in a small firm though, and a lot of the major management consulting companies, McKinsey included, have dedicated sustainability teams, so I've spoken with many employees at these companies (Mckinsey included).

Goldman Sachs hires the smartest people with finance backgrounds, McKinsey hires the smartest thinkers worldwide, it doesn't matter their background. They're put on a tier with BCG and Bain, but from the people I've spoken with McKinsey gets the first pick of the litter at every school. They're truly on their own tier. They are also unanimously the hardest company to get a job at (in any industry, on the planet). Most management consulting companies work mainly with strategy, but McKinsey also works with implementation (as in coming up with a solution for a company, and working with them to make it happen).

For MSG, I think Crease's post is spot on for what they'll be doing. I doubt they'll be personally evaluating the Rangers. My post was more in relation to the fact that Dolan hired the smartest people in the area to figure this out. Management Consulting is an intelligent industry, but McKinsey takes the cake. If hiring someone to do his work is his plan, he can't do any better.

Thanks a lot, man. Honestly the only thing I knew about consulting came from the Don Cheadle show.

 

[Krams]

I cant be the only one who Immediately thought of the movie Office Space, can I ??

Maybe they'll move Sathers desk down to the basement and stop giving him his check....haha

What would you say you do here, Mr. Sather?

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

This isn't really true (while the rest of the post is spot on). While you need a small finance background for investment banking, they take any major (they prefer hard math and science because of the mentality it instills, however). The same actually applies to consulting, in that they like hard math and science. The other main difference is iBanking is almost twice the hours as consulting (as well as almost twice the pay, but that doesn't mean its always worth it).

While the two are quite different in using entry level positions (I don't know much about higher ups), they look for very similar people. It's just that in iBanking you're going to spend most of your day working on Excel or reading up on finance, while at a major consulting firm, you'll spend much of your time traveling, thinking and working on Powerpoint.



Also, I'm not sure how much to expect in change in terms of the Rangers. This seems more like an MSG corporate kind of thing. If they wanted to just look at sports stats, they could've hired a company like Darkhorse Analytics.

You're actually completely correct, and I definitely didn't convey that properly.

Financial companies look for backgrounds like Engineering, Physics, Comp Sci (such a good degree to get for both of these industries) and Finance.

I was more referring to the fact that I know you will find a ton of Philosophy and Art History majors at major management consulting companies. That's something I personally haven't encountered at companies like JP Morgan, GS, etc.

 

[PlamsUnlimited]

What would you say you do here, Mr. Sather?

I was actually thinking

 

[Gardner McKay]

Dolan is a ****ing *******. He clearly views the rangers and knicks as mere business entities and could care less about winning. I think so long as the $$$ pours in dolan could care less if the teams are 3-12 or 12-3.

When the day comes that we have an owner who doesn't have the deep pockets of Dolan and we are a budget team like Ottawa or the Isles... You all will be singing a different tune (will that ever happen, I dunno but it is possible).

 

[UAGoalieGuy]

Could it have something to do with them having to find a new location for MSG in the coming years?

 

[Saitama]

Could it have something to do with them having to find a new location for MSG in the coming years?

A new location for the newly billion dollar renovated MSG?

 

[iamitter]

Could it have something to do with them having to find a new location for MSG in the coming years?

They have absolutely no plans of moving. Dave Howard said they would've needed to find a place by around 2012 if they were going to move by 2020, so it's not even in the question.

You're actually completely correct, and I definitely didn't convey that properly.

Financial companies look for backgrounds like Engineering, Physics, Comp Sci (such a good degree to get for both of these industries) and Finance.

I was more referring to the fact that I know you will find a ton of Philosophy and Art History majors at major management consulting companies. That's something I personally haven't encountered at companies like JP Morgan, GS, etc.

Completely agreed. They exist, but you have to have the analytical mindset going in and that's rare in those kinds of majors. It's kind of like a philosophy major going to med school. It happens, but you need the science background anyway.

Totally agreed on the comp sci bit. I'm a 4th year applied math/physics dual major at a pretty heavily recruited school here in NYC, but I picked up a comp sci minor for that very reason. Many employers want you to have a working knowledge of at least Python and C++. Two of my friends (also APAM majors) have full time offers from Goldman for next year and they didn't know a lick about finance before studying for interviews for internships last year. They just learned everything on the job and it really isn't a hard learning curve if you have an analytical background to begin with. Then again, not the lifestyle for everyone.
I, personally, like having time to actually spend the money I earn

 

[gmerger37]

When the day comes that we have an owner who doesn't have the deep pockets of Dolan and we are a budget team like Ottawa or the Isles... You all will be singing a different tune (will that ever happen, I dunno but it is possible).

Do you ever envision an owner of the Rangers NOT having deep pockets?

You'd have to be ridiculously loaded to buy the ranges to begin with. Dolan has literally no redeeming qualities except for his bank account, and so long as he remains loyal to the incompetent uncle glen, that deep pocket means jack ****.

 

[ThisYearsModel]

Prepare for time-motion studies resulting in reduced staffing and a drive for more productivity from the employees that do not get laid off, and more opportunities to add cost for customers while reducing services, and so on. Guess the Knicks and Rangers are not profitable enough for Dolan.

 

[beastly115]

I have to imagine the consultation was about growth, sponsorship, business strategy, pricing, etc.

This.

Nothing to do with the team, per se.

More so to help him answer the question, "Is this team a money pit or should I sell and invest elsewhere?"

 

[jacko23]

the phrase that made me cringe the most was the one about these guys knowing how to get "blood from rocks" or something like that. if prices at MSG arent high enough (from what i read here, i havent been to MSG in years) they are probably about to go up. some up, some down, but i wouldnt be surprised if the price of an entire evening at a Rangers home game goes up.

its all about the bottom dollar. not the success of the on-ice product.

 

[RangersHank*]

the phrase that made me cringe the most was the one about these guys knowing how to get "blood from rocks" or something like that. if prices at MSG arent high enough (from what i read here, i havent been to MSG in years) they are probably about to go up. some up, some down, but i wouldnt be surprised if the price of an entire evening at a Rangers home game goes up.

its all about the bottom dollar. not the success of the on-ice product.

Yep, its gonna be tough to win when we have guys running the team who are more worried about money than winning. Horrible