shit creek consulting

Brilliant!

I’ve clicked every link on the perversely compelling S__t Creek website without finding out exactly what sort of work they do, except in the most general sense.

Every page of the SCC website reeks of snarky attitude and massive self-love. SCC apparently is so good that it can afford to turn down the business of those who don’t like the word “s__t”.

I like to see a little humility in the specialists I pay to work for me. This may mean that I “have my head up my ass”, or that I am a “douchebag”.

But let me tell ya, today’s douchebag may be tomorrow’s client. It doesn’t pay to alienate anybody, if you can possibly avoid it. SCC will learn this lesson, painfully, in the months ahead.

(Gaping Void is great!)

@caffeine_head, while my consulting firm isn’t quite as confrontational in name, my approach isn’t far off from theirs (I’ve made a fair bit of money cleaning up after bigger consulting firms messes).

We get asked to submit responses to RFP’s and we refuse, asking for a meeting to talk about the problem instead. That pisses off a lot of clients who just want someone to bid on the RFP and do the job as specified. However, a smaller group is intrigued by the fact we don’t do RFP responses and we get a few hours of their time to genuinely engage them about their problem. And, it turns out, that engagement usually leads to much better projects than playing the RFP game.

I understand your desire to see a little humility. However, understand that many consulting firms don’t like to work with clients who view the business relationship as “working for me” rather than “working with me”.

I know in my own practice, if you want someone who will work “for you”, I’m not the right consultant.

I’ve got more than enough work and actually had my biggest boom years right in the middle of this economic downturn.

Their approach (and one that Hugh’s stuff takes as well) is to work in such a way that 20% of the general audience LOVES what you’re doing and 80% HATES it rather than everybody looking at it as bland and common. Generally, trying to avoid offending anybody results in nobody loving what you do.

I’d rather work with the 20% that loves what I’m doing. They’re *happy* to be paying me. They respect me *more* when I say “no”. They value the fact I call them on their bullshit and question their assumptions. It’s not for everyone, but I can only work on a limited number of projects in a year and, since I started doing tech consulting (1999), the number of people who want me to work on projects has always exceeded the number I can actually do (through 2 bubbles bursting).

Nice shit brown color scheme to match the name. This is a parody web site I assume. There are no people behind it as far as I can tell. No client references , no portfolio.

But it is mildly amusing.

Lovely attitude, great engagement, and I wish them well. Don’t see a client list on that website though, or any testimonials…. maybe I’m missing something…. and maybe they’ll get a bite?

We don’t really feel the need to justify ourselves or our way of doing business. But given some of the comments here, we do feel the need to assure the doubters that Shitcreek Consulting is legit. We do real work for real businesses each and every day.

Yep, we have loads of parody and satire on our site but we are dead serious about our work, our clients, and people we work with.

Just keep your eyes peeled as we tell our story.