Do you exclusively work in the US?

No. We can work anywhere in the world where it is safe and legal for us to work. We are based both in the US and in Europe.

How do you work with us?

Some company may want us to help their teams to develop a solution. In this case, we may work with the teams for a week, or a month, every day, to understand what is exactly needed, and then work a day a week or whatever cadence is needed with them to help them building the solution.

Other companies want us to do everything off site and bring them a piece of code, or a report for example.

We do not have a pre-defined format. Our goal is to solve your problem and help you. Whatever works for you should work for us. But we do not want to give you a solution that you cannot operate. Hence, if your team needs extra training, we will provide it.

How long is a typical engagement?

It depends on what you need. If we can help you in 5 minutes (which is unlikely if your problem is so hard that it requires us), so be it. If we need 1 year, that is fine too. Our goal is not to fill our bank account, but to solve your problem.

Do you work on site or off site?

We work as needed. If you want us to develop a solution with your team, we may work on site. If you would like us to develop a solution or do some study for you off site, that is fine too. We will do whatever works best for you and maximizes the chance of success.

After I inquire for a project, what is the process for Last Ditch Consulting to agree to do it?

We will need to gather some information to assess how likely we are to succeed. This may take a week to a month. We will ask you to help us to make that assessment by providing us the proper documentation, making some team members available to us, or whatever we mutually agree is needed.

How much do you think it should cost?

If we succeed in helping you, you decide how much this is worth, for you know that better than us.

If we fail, why should you pay us? If you think we failed, if you think we did not bring you any value, then it is free. However,

• for projects longer than 2 months, we ask $ 2,000 payment every 2 months, as a show of good faith and continuing interest (you may of course decide to give us more if you think it is worth it). Other than that, you decide.
• in some countries, the law does not let us to work for you for free. In this case, you have to pay the maximum of

  1. the minimum set by law (usually, minimum wage) and
  2. $1,000 per month.

If you want us on site, you will have to pay for our traveling (usually from Atlanta) and accommodation (any safe , clean, and quiet place should do).

Can my company really pay Last Ditch Consulting what it wants?

YES for projects below 2 months. For projects over 2 months, we ask $2,000 payment every 2 months, and whatever you think this is worth at the end of the project.

But as we indicated above, if this type of agreement is not possible where you are based, then we will go with a minimum fee structure in the course of the project and whatever you think it is worth at the end.

Last Ditch pricing model ensures that your goal and our’s are well aligned. We will take your project if we think we have good chances to succeed.

We understand that you hired consultants before who failed to help you. We acknowledge that there is a risk in tackling your difficult problem. Our pricing model reflects our willingness to bear most of the risk, and we want to make this risk financially acceptable for you. Again, we are not asking you to pay us if you think we are not delivering you a satisfactory solution.

How do I know this is real?

The personal website of our founder, ph-barbe.com should be enough for you to inquire further and check that this is very real (yes, you will have to work a little more to do the check but it is not too complex).

We do not work as subcontractor for consulting companies.

Do you work with startups?

Not on any big project, for we have no idea if you will still be alive tomorrow, and, honestly, we have no way to gauge if you are of good faith or not. We have seen our share of bad apples. Remember also that for us to work on your project, you pretty much have had to try other consultants first.

Are there companies you do not work for?

Yes. We have to like the products, the people, and the purpose of companies we work for. If your company’s goal is to make money by exploiting ignorance, selling ill conceived or deceptive products, do not count on us to help you.

What sort of company do you work for?

We work for companies that

1. have a a clear social purpose.
2. want to grow internally.

If it is not clear what have a clear social purpose means, companies that produce energy have a clear social purpose: without energy, a lot of human activities cannot take place. By the same token, aerospace is fine. Defense and military are usually fine, for countries need to defend themselves. Transportation and logistic are fine.

A company that produces yet another plastic toy may not have much of a social purpose in our view.

A company that produces well conceived furniture made by properly compensated adults is fine.

Most tangible products are fine.

Most services that are useful are fine.

We recognize that our social purpose, in helping your company, embraces your own.

A valuable business solves problems for their customers, preferably not creating problems elsewhere, but we acknowledge that this is not always possible.

Yes: 15% of the payment we receive.

If you need Last Ditch to work on data or intellectual property that are confidential, we will be happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

If we develop intellectual property for you, we will give you the right to use it in any way you want. However, this right is not exclusive. We will keep the right to use this intellectual property in any way we want.

We will not market to your competitors the work that we are doing or did for you. This is not out of sympathy, but because we have no interest in repeating projects. We are always seeking new challenges. In some cases, we may agree not to disclose the work directly to 4 competitors for a period of a year.

Why do you want to retain the intellectual property?

Our intent is not to spill everywhere what we do for you. But given how specialized we are, we want to be able to use our work to contribute to the general knowledge and write about any new methodological development that we may create, publish interesting reports or code that we may write for you, possibly with a one year embargo, and with some edits that prevent anyone from identifying your company.

This is discouraging! Why should I work with Last Ditch Consulting?

This is meant to discourage all the companies that do not have difficult problems, that is, most companies. A last ditch effort is a last-ditch effort! If you are not desperate, if you have not tried others first, please, do not contact us, for your problems are unlikely to interest us.

It illustrate our core philosophy: we are customer centric. Customers do not pay for fluff or beautiful presentations. Customers pay for results.

If you think some information is missing in this website, let us know and we will add it.

There are several reasons:

1. As mentioned, too many companies are dissatisfied with consultants. We want to do something about it.

2. We find there is a lack of transparency in the consulting world, where nobody knows what a fair value is. You should know how much a project is valuable to you.

3. We came across two threads https://getpocket.com/explore/item/stupefied and https://www.strike.coop/bullshit-jobs/. The first one asserts that in many company, employees are almost required to stop thinking, the second one asserts that some jobs are plainly useless. We think both are correct. At Last Ditch Consulting, we love problems that requires us to think really hard, and really dislike corporate BS.

4. Life is really too short to waste time on problems that others can solve and we love to do real innovation, that is, things that others cannot do.

5. We can afford it!