Topic: Has Rod shown his budgetary hand?

[Drone]

What's the Latin for "bleeding obvious ideas, expensively provided"? I want to start getting my business cards printed!

If you haven't read it, there's a good piece on the consultancy scam here:http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-management-consultancy-scam-2057127.html

[Ringer]

A consultant is someone you ask what time is it? They look at your watch and then tell you..... after which they bill you for the service  ;)

[Geoff Reid]

 

there is a growing body of academic research showing that the strategies pushed by these consultancies are in fact disastrous – and hasten the collapse of a company or service.

Just out of interest, has Rikki Hunt, (or any of the multiple companies he has started), every 'consulted' - paid or otherwise - for SBC?

I seem to remember him recently boasting on Twitter that he had:

RT @koma_dori Sad you think me helping SCS prepare for arms length for free for 3 years and creating wifi suspicious.

Come to think of it, I think I started a thread on that very topic.... When did de-coupling SCS start exactly?

 

[Geoff Reid]

Okey dokey, 5 minutes on t'net and we find:

Rikki (just one of his LinkedIn profiles): http://www.linkedin.com/profile?key=46029112&authToken=boJE&authType=name&viewProfile=&locale= 

* you may need to join linkedin to see this profile


Rikki  Hunt

Entrepreneur

Location:    Swindon, United Kingdom
Industry :   Wireless

Current

        * CEO at Digital City (UK) Ltd
        * Director at Cardio Consulting Ltd
        * MD at Avidity Consulting Ltd

        * Non Exec Director at Forward Swindon Ltd
        * Non Exec Chairman at Swindon PropertyGroup Ltd
        * Chair at Swindon Strategic Economic Partnership
        * Council Member and Deputy County President North at St John Ambulance Wiltshire & Swindon
        * Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Mitchemp Trust

 
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/613321

Cardio Ltd Headquarters
9 Wood Street Old Town
Swindon, Wiltshire SN1 4AN
United Kingdom

Cardio is a Corporate Culture Consultancy which specialises in providing business insight for Public and Private sector organisations that need expert help to broker and embed a sustainable value-based culture model.

The Cardio team works at all levels to effect ‘phase changes’, coaching people and organisations to transition from an existing fragmented cultural state to a more joined-up local collaborative network. less

One 'oddity' about Mr Hunts profile is that a link/url is situated next to Avidity Consulting. When clicked it brings up a Swindon Commercial Services page.


Does Mr Hunt 'consult' for SBC? - my own opinion can be summarised thus:

As Mr Hunt seems to be intimately involved with, and party to, many of the 'key decisions' that Cllr Rod Bluh takes, (often without consulting full council), I think it is reasonable for me to think that Mr Hunt enjoys considerable 'consulting' influence with Cllr Bluh & his cabinet of Bluhligans.


Do 'Cardio Consulting' consult for SBC?  do tell us: leaks@talkswindon.org  (your privacy is assured)

[Drone]

To quote from that Indie article:

Matthew Stewart, another former consultant, summarises his high-flying years in the industry by saying: "I felt like a snake oil salesman without snake oil."

Hunt seems to be at the bottom of every misguided, expensive and overdue project SBc has embraked upon in the last 10 years. As Hari says, "you almost have to admire the rancid chutzpah of it."

[komadori]

I note from the Companies House record that Cardio Ltd was created as an off-the-shelf company at the same time as Digital City (UK) Ltd and Avidity Consulting Ltd and seems to have passed to Mr Hunt at the same time as the other two. You could be forgiven for thinking that its business might be in some way related to Mr Hunt's rather moribund wifi activities.