Post by Teddy Bear on Sept 24, 2011 18:17:16 GMT
While we have covered before some of the individual aspects involved with this story, it highlights some important facets relative to the BBC.
Bear in mind the huge salaries the higher echelon award themselves, justifying it by claiming it's what they can earn in the private sector, although no evidence of this exists since most of the titles they give their job description have no equivalent elsewhere. This story clearly shows that if these executives are so good at their job, as they claim, then why do they need to hire consultants to explain to them how to do their job?
The BBC mindset believes itself to be the epitome of wisdom with every subject they cover, and they way they feel free to criticize everybody else. They arrogantly dismiss views with disdain that run counter to their desired agenda, as we detail on this site. But if this organisation show itself to be so inept at running its own affairs, what credulity and intelligence can they really claim? What we really have is a load of inept inferior individuals trying to make themselves feel good because they've found a way to get power and neutralize proper criticism of their agenda.
They believe that all they need to do to rectify their miserable output, in many different aspects, is to give it an upmarket name that would be the first thing that anybody would think of. Like this; '...according to Pat Younge, the chief creative officer at BBC Vision.
The BBC is set to announce details of its “Delivering Quality First” cuts programme to staff within the next few weeks. This is supposed to make you believe that attaining QUALITY is the purpose of their measures. What I've been seeing over the last 20 years is a gradual but steady decline in quality, in every area of BBC output.
Despite all this spending on outside consultants, if you attained something really good in terms of value for your money, would you really have to think about how to sell it to your staff? Here's what the BBC claim It is understood that negotiations over the savings are reaching their final stage and executives are attending lengthy briefings on how to ”sell” them to staff.
Disgraceful! Who are the bigger morons - the BBC or the general public that continue to fund them?
Bear in mind the huge salaries the higher echelon award themselves, justifying it by claiming it's what they can earn in the private sector, although no evidence of this exists since most of the titles they give their job description have no equivalent elsewhere. This story clearly shows that if these executives are so good at their job, as they claim, then why do they need to hire consultants to explain to them how to do their job?
The BBC mindset believes itself to be the epitome of wisdom with every subject they cover, and they way they feel free to criticize everybody else. They arrogantly dismiss views with disdain that run counter to their desired agenda, as we detail on this site. But if this organisation show itself to be so inept at running its own affairs, what credulity and intelligence can they really claim? What we really have is a load of inept inferior individuals trying to make themselves feel good because they've found a way to get power and neutralize proper criticism of their agenda.
They believe that all they need to do to rectify their miserable output, in many different aspects, is to give it an upmarket name that would be the first thing that anybody would think of. Like this; '...according to Pat Younge, the chief creative officer at BBC Vision.
The BBC is set to announce details of its “Delivering Quality First” cuts programme to staff within the next few weeks. This is supposed to make you believe that attaining QUALITY is the purpose of their measures. What I've been seeing over the last 20 years is a gradual but steady decline in quality, in every area of BBC output.
Despite all this spending on outside consultants, if you attained something really good in terms of value for your money, would you really have to think about how to sell it to your staff? Here's what the BBC claim It is understood that negotiations over the savings are reaching their final stage and executives are attending lengthy briefings on how to ”sell” them to staff.
Disgraceful! Who are the bigger morons - the BBC or the general public that continue to fund them?
BBC spent £8m on consultants while cutting programmes
The BBC spent more than £8 million on consultants in a single year while planning cuts to its programming budget, new figures have shown.
A breakdown of the figures shows the BBC spent £769,045 on consultants to help it with "change management" and £1.9m on "strategy"
By Heidi Blake8:00AM BST 24 Sep 2011
The bill for advice on “strategy” and “change management” from firms such as Deloitte and Capita equals the cost of producing a series of a flagship BBC drama such as Spooks.
Staff are said to have reacted angrily to the disclosure, which comes amid a sweeping programme of cuts at the broadcaster.
Around half of the savings needed to weather the six-year license fee freeze announced by the Coalition last October are likely to come from slashing programming budgets, a senior BBC executive warned last month.
BBC sources have said executives are considering scaling back BBC4, reducing BBC3's budget, increasing the number of repeats and replacing some of BBC2's daytime output.
Around 3,000 BBC staff face losing their jobs over the next five years and executives have already been forced to slash their pay.
But the firm racked up a bill of £8.23m hiring consultants in the 12 months to March, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
A breakdown of the figures shows the BBC spent £769,045 on consultants to help it with "change management" and £1.9m on "strategy".
It ran up the biggest bill with Deloitte, which earned just over £3m from the BBC over the 12-month period including £197,649 for "management consultancy" and £498,619 for "change management".
It also hired consultants from Ernst & Young and Capita.
The corporation has come under fire in recent months for planning cuts to its programming budget while “wasting” money in other areas.
The Daily Telegraph reported last month that the broadcaster pays out £32.5m each year in extra allowances for staff whose hours of work are deemed unpredictable because they “only” receive two weeks’ notice of their shifts patterns.
It also emerged that Caroline Thompson, the corporation’s chief operating officer, ran up taxi expenses of more than £10,000 in a single year.
The broadcaster has also faced criticism for splashing out on hundreds of tickets to the 2012 Olympics for staff and guests.
The latest annual bill for consultants represents a fall from the £10.9m that was spent by the corporation during the 2008/09 financial year.
Tracey Morris, the head of sourcing at BBC Procurement, said last night: "The BBC in common with other large organisations does employ consultants but only when we need specialist advice and resource on projects that are outside of the normal course of our business and where it would not be cost efficient to maintain those specialist skills in-house."
The broadcaster is looking to cut its operating costs by 16 per cent and around half of the savings will come from “contents budgets,” according to Pat Younge, the chief creative officer at BBC Vision.
The BBC is set to announce details of its “Delivering Quality First” cuts programme to staff within the next few weeks.
It is understood that negotiations over the savings are reaching their final stage and executives are attending lengthy briefings on how to ”sell” them to staff.
Managers faced ridicule in July when it emerged the BBC had spent nearly £1m hiring actors to teach them how to have “courageous conversations” and deal with angry staff.
Michael Crick, the former Newsnight political editor who recently moved to Channel 4 News, warned earlier this week that cuts to the BBC were threatening the flagship current affairs programme.
“The BBC is facing another five or six years of 20 per cent budget cuts. Newsnight is undoubtedly going to be affected by further cuts, so that means a difficult climate,” he said.
“They are trying to squeeze more and more out of the staff and use more and more non-Newsnight people, do more studio stuff and less filmed stuff, less foreign affairs. Life has become very, very difficult.”
The BBC spent more than £8 million on consultants in a single year while planning cuts to its programming budget, new figures have shown.
A breakdown of the figures shows the BBC spent £769,045 on consultants to help it with "change management" and £1.9m on "strategy"
By Heidi Blake8:00AM BST 24 Sep 2011
The bill for advice on “strategy” and “change management” from firms such as Deloitte and Capita equals the cost of producing a series of a flagship BBC drama such as Spooks.
Staff are said to have reacted angrily to the disclosure, which comes amid a sweeping programme of cuts at the broadcaster.
Around half of the savings needed to weather the six-year license fee freeze announced by the Coalition last October are likely to come from slashing programming budgets, a senior BBC executive warned last month.
BBC sources have said executives are considering scaling back BBC4, reducing BBC3's budget, increasing the number of repeats and replacing some of BBC2's daytime output.
Around 3,000 BBC staff face losing their jobs over the next five years and executives have already been forced to slash their pay.
But the firm racked up a bill of £8.23m hiring consultants in the 12 months to March, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
A breakdown of the figures shows the BBC spent £769,045 on consultants to help it with "change management" and £1.9m on "strategy".
It ran up the biggest bill with Deloitte, which earned just over £3m from the BBC over the 12-month period including £197,649 for "management consultancy" and £498,619 for "change management".
It also hired consultants from Ernst & Young and Capita.
The corporation has come under fire in recent months for planning cuts to its programming budget while “wasting” money in other areas.
The Daily Telegraph reported last month that the broadcaster pays out £32.5m each year in extra allowances for staff whose hours of work are deemed unpredictable because they “only” receive two weeks’ notice of their shifts patterns.
It also emerged that Caroline Thompson, the corporation’s chief operating officer, ran up taxi expenses of more than £10,000 in a single year.
The broadcaster has also faced criticism for splashing out on hundreds of tickets to the 2012 Olympics for staff and guests.
The latest annual bill for consultants represents a fall from the £10.9m that was spent by the corporation during the 2008/09 financial year.
Tracey Morris, the head of sourcing at BBC Procurement, said last night: "The BBC in common with other large organisations does employ consultants but only when we need specialist advice and resource on projects that are outside of the normal course of our business and where it would not be cost efficient to maintain those specialist skills in-house."
The broadcaster is looking to cut its operating costs by 16 per cent and around half of the savings will come from “contents budgets,” according to Pat Younge, the chief creative officer at BBC Vision.
The BBC is set to announce details of its “Delivering Quality First” cuts programme to staff within the next few weeks.
It is understood that negotiations over the savings are reaching their final stage and executives are attending lengthy briefings on how to ”sell” them to staff.
Managers faced ridicule in July when it emerged the BBC had spent nearly £1m hiring actors to teach them how to have “courageous conversations” and deal with angry staff.
Michael Crick, the former Newsnight political editor who recently moved to Channel 4 News, warned earlier this week that cuts to the BBC were threatening the flagship current affairs programme.
“The BBC is facing another five or six years of 20 per cent budget cuts. Newsnight is undoubtedly going to be affected by further cuts, so that means a difficult climate,” he said.
“They are trying to squeeze more and more out of the staff and use more and more non-Newsnight people, do more studio stuff and less filmed stuff, less foreign affairs. Life has become very, very difficult.”
