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Comment by huherto | Hacker News Reader

In our consulting company we have noticed that a lot of the ex-employees become our customers. Somehow, we have built good relationship with them and when they go and work for somebody else they call us. But I never saw it the way they put it in the article. It really is a good idea. Embrace turnover and get the benefits.

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That's certainly an interesting way of getting customers. Employ people, have them quit, they get hired into a position that has the ability to give their old company money.

I can't ascertain if you are being sarcastic or honest in your post, so I'll give my 2 cents.

If you run an organization that experiences the phenomenon of a lot of an organization's alumni become customers, then this is a pleasant and welcome side effect of what is described in this article.

See Goldman Sachs.

Or McKinsey et al. I find connections into the private sector ethical OK, but connections to the government worry me. Just a gut feeling.

See: members of congress and lobbyists.

Viral. I like it.

I don't think it has anything to do with giving their previous employer a kickback.

Rather, it's simply that they're already aware of their old employers strengths and weaknesses, so vendor evaluation is made a lot simpler.

This is pretty much how consulting firms get their contracts. The ex-employees aren't actually your customers directly. That would imply that they are giving up their own money of your services (something any reasonable ex-consultant would never do). What they do instead is convince the companies they work for now to hire your firm. They are tricking the new company into becoming a customer and shelling out cash for a service that probably offers very little value to them.

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