Consulting is about dogs, really

Now, I should start this post by saying that the following I will post is just hearsay and probably nothing more than slander and rumors. But gives an interesting insight in how great management consultant companies could work sometimes and for any readers working in a corporate setting which might involve consultants could give some warning on what to look out for…

According to hearsay, a senior person in a consultant company here in Tokyo who has been living in another country for some time, is considering moving back and is busy preparing for this. This also means that a loved nasty dog also needs to come back. In order to avoid three long months of horrible quarantine he hoped to avoid that by having all the paperwork in order, that all the shots had been taken etc.

Unfortunately, this was not the case and the Japanese authorities acted as any authority would’ve. They asked for the paperwork to prove that everything was in order. The person realized this and did what any reasonable person would do; he bought a domestic vet off to produce the required documents retroactively to a modest cost of around $200 USD.

Well, so far so good you might think, we have forgery already checked, but better stuff is coming!

Then, he decided that he didn’t want to pay this himself, so he invoiced a (completely unrelated) client this sum and decided that he wanted a little on top of this and added a $100 for good measure…

Then he realized that this too might not be enough, so he puts a team in the office together to produce material (in the great “Power Point” format) to prove that the Japan laws are stupid and why his dog should be allowed into the country. Not realizing that a Japanese official is pretty resistant against power points and would very likely throw him out than listen to a presentation without proper procedure being followed.

Well, as you might have got, nothing of this is confirmed or proven; really, it’s just rumors and slander. But if you should use a management consultant in Tokyo , my advice to you would be to check the receipts for expenses…