During my undergraduate education, I was always mesmerized by the sessions run by the MBB consulting firms: McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. Having worked at a boutique consulting firm and a Big 4 firm, I always sensed that the MBB experience was distinct. My friends at MBB firms have unique opportunities, such as travelling the world […]
Category: Consulting Industry
Business students and prospective consulting candidates often ask me what life is like as an MBB consultant. The answer can vary significantly depending on the client, project, and team. However, I wanted to provide a glimpse into a typical day during a longer-term client project to give you a better understanding of what your daily […]
Between 2011 and 2017, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which is one of the world’s leading management consulting firms, engaged in high level bribery in Angola. BCG has admitted to paying millions in bribes to secure contracts with the Angolan Ministry of Economy and the National Bank of Angola. The misconduct orchestrated by employees in BCG’s Lisbon […]
In recent years, the consulting industry has witnessed a significant shift, with boutique consulting firms emerging as competition against their larger counterparts. This trend towards specialization and personal service is reshaping the landscape, offering clients a unique blend of niche expertise, agility, competitive pricing, and strong relationships that big-name consultancies struggle to match. In this […]
In the competitive, fast-paced, and ever-evolving landscape of technology and business, the role of a product manager is pivotal. A great product manager is not just a project coordinator, they are visionaries, strategists, and leaders. In this short article, we will delve into five key strategies that can help you become a great product manager. […]
If your job description involves providing a service to a client utilizing your skill set and time, then you are probably a consultant of some kind. If you have read some of the blogs on this website, you have probably come across many that describe life and work as a management or business consultant. These […]
Consulting is a wide field of work. If your job description involves providing a service to a client utilizing your skill set and time, then you are probably a consultant of some kind. If you have read some of the blogs on this website, you have probably come across many that describe life and work […]
Over the years, many leading organizations have struggled to retain top talent. Employees who leave often cite lack of recognition, professional growth, and reward for their long hours of dedication and hard work as key reasons for pursuing other opportunities. Today, the rise of remote working has enabled many employees to re-evaluate their employment options […]
“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves”, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web “The ability to take data – to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it – is going to be a hugely important […]
In June 2021 at the annual G7 summit in Cornwall, major western powers committed themselves to the idea of a global minimum corporate tax. This shift is part of a longer-standing endeavour by the OECD to prevent international tax avoidance called the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative. The BEPS initiative has two main […]
Have you ever wondered why someone would be attracted to consulting as a profession? Prior to Accenture offering me a position, one of my interviewers asked me “what attracted you to consulting?” This is a common question in consulting interviews, and it is one that usually throws people off. I often hear people say they […]
The past two years have certainly been challenging. Every business sector was disrupted and negatively affected by the pandemic and its aftermath. Today, companies are desperately seeking strategies to retain customers, rebuild inventories, and restructure operations to fit the new business environment. Companies are also starting to adopt digital tools to streamline daily operations. These […]
This article continues on from Part 1, in which I shared some of my experiences of working with an internal strategy team at a large financial institution, and some of the main projects and activities I undertook. In this article, we will explore the 7 main differences between internal strategy and management consulting. Note that […]
I initially started out my career in management consulting, exited to an internal strategy team in industry, and pivoted back to consulting. This two part article series will provide valuable perspective for those who are considering internal strategy teams as their next career option as I unveil my personal thoughts and experiences. In this article, […]
Whilst COVID has been a universal force of devastation, bringing both the greatest number deaths and economic declines seen in decades, it has also been a force of transformation. For all the destruction, there has been an equal and opposite force of construction as people have found ways to adapt to the ‘new normal’. This […]
Consulting is one of the most sought-after careers for graduate students looking to work in a high-responsibility and dynamic work environment. While almost everyone has heard about the prestigious careers in management consulting, there is a career that is quite similar and just as lucrative in economic consulting. In this article, we will examine a […]
Tax advisory is primarily the province of the Big Four: Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG. A major specialisation of the tax departments of all four of these special services firms is transfer pricing, making it worthy of a closer look if you are considering entering this field. Transfer pricing comes into the picture when the […]
In this short post, we will briefly explore how consulting firms work, the hierarchy within firms, the main types of firms, and a few ways to learn more about a particular firm as you chart your career path, prepare your applications, and get ready to matriculate into the consulting industry. 1. How do Consulting Firms […]
Roaming through a series of management books and business coaching sessions, one can easily feel overwhelmed by the constant reappearance of certain buzzwords. ‘Resilience’, ‘agility’ and ‘holistic thinking’ are all features of effective business management that have gained widespread consensus approval, but the meaning behind these catchphrases often becomes blurred by the hype. I believe […]
Software consultants set up customized software solutions tailored to the needs of individual businesses. Software is key to the efficiency of organizations in almost every industry. The increasing use of e-commerce, cloud computing, data analytics, and other digital tools allow businesses to engage in personalized interactions with customers at scale. Software consultants provide the technical […]
Business development consulting is about helping businesses grow sales and profits in order to achieve their strategic objectives. Business development consultants enable companies to reach their full potential and rescue companies that are struggling to survive. Business development consultants engage in ‘prospecting’ which involves searching for potential customers who are likely to be a good […]
Digital marketing consultants provide marketing advice and optimize the online presence of organizations so that they can be easily found by their target audience. Unless your business has the brand power of Amazon, Google, or Facebook, a failure to optimise digital marketing is likely to place an unnecessarily large barrier between potential customers and what […]
At its core, innovation consulting involves bringing together technical, creative, and analytical skills to solve business problems, address societal issues, and transform ideas into reality. Innovation is an umbrella term for designing and developing new products, navigating unchartered business environments, and creating change in unexpected ways. Consultants here are forward thinkers. Some aspects overlap with […]
The incriminating title of this article was inspired by Charles Tilly’s book ‘War Making and State Making as Organized Crime’, which describes an instrumental, yet generally unrecognized trait of any organisation. We tend to consider our institutions as being means to a specific end, a social instrument for pursuing a distinct goal. The Ministry of […]
With the tight professional services market in the US, everyone I know in consulting has talked about how they know people who jumped consulting firms (this does not count those who changed firms after attending graduate school). I have heard some stories of when firm jumping became a highly stressful endeavor, and occasions when it […]
When career entrants and university graduates discuss the Big Four accountancy firms, EY, PwC, KPMG and Deloitte, they are most often portrayed as some of the most highly regarded employment opportunities. The recognition is definitely not baseless. PwC held the No. 1 position in The Times Magazine’s Top 100 Graduate Employers list for 15 consecutive […]
‘Technological innovation’ has recently become an ossified catch-all term not only in venture capital circles, but in management consultancy as well. Under the deceiving influence of this catchy buzz-word, we tend to underestimate the complications which technological trailblazing entails. Such issues gain increasing relevance in a consulting career, if one decides to take projects with […]
Discussion on management consultancy often reduces the clientele of strategy firms to multinational corporations. Although this might largely be the case, such a simplistic view ignores a major field of consulting: governmental and public sector advisory services. MBB strategy firms and the Big 4 professional services companies all have departments specifically designated for public policy […]
Dane Sequeira was an advanced professional degree consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. In 2019 he earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, studying under Dr. Brian Mann. In the field of nonlinear dynamics, Dane studied ocean energy harvesting buoys. He worked at the Los Angeles office of BCG, performing due diligence with private equity clients […]
Billy Gerhard is a consultant in the Philadelphia office of the Boston Consulting Group, a Big 3 management consulting firm. In 2019, he received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Gunsch Lab from Duke University. His research was on microbial response to water treatment and invasive bacterial species movement. Prior to attending […]
Consultants in the rainbow nation have continued to operate efficiently and effectively during the Covid pandemic. The chaos has changed the way the consulting process is carried out but the end goal of providing reliable solutions to clients has remained the same. Based on several interviews with consultants, here is the picture painted for me […]
Consulting, like many other industries, is under threat from artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). AI refers to a range of technologies that allow computers (or robots) to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. ML plays an important part in building AI systems, and refers to the study of algorithms that improve with […]
A management consultant is someone who is consulted on difficult business issues. In other words, senior managers come to consultants for information and advice. Whilst not untrue, this is a fairly unremarkable description of what a consultant does. It is a description that, actually, doesn’t describe all that much at all. For instance, how, or […]
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EY buys Port Jackson Partners
EY has purchased Port Jackson Partners, a Sydney based boutique management consulting firm. Founded in 1991 by ex-McKinsey Directors Terrey Arcus and Fred Hilmer, PJP works with CEOs, boards and executives in Australia and overseas to set corporate direction, define business strategies and develop organisations. EY-Parthenon already has around 15% market share in Australia, but MBB […]
What is Consulting? Many of us have heard the term consulting before, whether it comes up in a chat with friends about making money or just throwing around the term loosely when trying to come up with an entrepreneurial idea. What does consulting actually mean and is consulting right for you? The term consulting is […]
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What is consulting?
When people think of consultants, they tend to visualize professionally suited employees, degrees from the best schools, high pay-checks and fancy travel stories. Some people also call consulting a ‘talk-job’ – you go to the clients, you talk about what the ideal world scenario would be for a particular project, product or market, and your […]
University is a difficult journey for anyone, regardless of major. Oftentimes, it takes a lot of navigating to truly understand what you want from your experience and where you want to end up. For me, I was fortunate to study at a Canadian business school and interacted with numerous small and large companies from a […]
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4 Types of Consulting Firms
If you’re trying to get into consulting, it can be more than a little confusing trying to understand the various types of firms and their practices. In this post, you will learn about the 4 major types of consulting and the firms that are typically associated with them. 1. Strategy Consulting This is the type […]
Management consulting is a professional service offered to organisations which aims to help internal management improve operating performance. Consultancies are brought in to tackle individual problems (falling revenue, rising costs, geographical expansion, product launch, M&A) or to evaluate the company through a deep dive analysis. The management consulting value chain encompasses strategy (idea origination, analysis […]
During the recruitment process for consulting internships and full-time positions, I went to countless presentations given by consulting firm representatives who explained the consulting industry and made sales pitches about their firms. They brought up important points, such as diversity of work opportunity, mentorship structure, and even frank conversations about work life balance. Yet, what […]
We have updated our lists of consulting firms in key markets: North America, UK, India, and Australia/New Zealand. If you are an aspiring consultant, these lists can help you narrow your focus and target a few consulting firms that are right for you. Below are links to the relevant documents. Happy job hunting! Consulting Firms […]
When you’re interested in working at a consulting firm, there are clear things you can do to prepare: meet associates, prepare for case interviews, and do your homework on what sets the firm apart from its peers. These steps are relatively straightforward, but what happens when you finally get your foot in the door? The […]
Graduates flock to the consulting industry for the opportunity to work on interesting cases, get experience across a variety of industries, and build a valuable professional skill-set. But there’s an emerging threat to this value proposition, and it’s coming from within. If you happen to know a young consultant at a top tier firm, you’ve […]
All organisations engage in marketing activities: you have to show your customers you have something they want, after all. For top-tier consulting firms, there are two primary marketing efforts – the first, marketing to attract entry-level recruits, is quite visible. Firms regularly visit target school campuses, and buy online advertising on LinkedIn and Facebook to […]
Mark Twain, the fiction writer, first popularised the phrase “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”. Twain erroneously attributed the line to a British Prime Minister, who in fact, was never recorded saying any such thing. It’s fitting, given what I’m about to describe, that one of the best-known claims about […]
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The Paths of Consultancy
Daryl Morey slinks away to a secluded weight-room with two muted TVs broadcasting the tipoff of his beloved Houston Rockets, the team he created. As general manager, he had the power to build the team to exactly his desires. But how did he attain this power in a league where two thirds of GMs are […]
2020 Delivery is a management consultancy committed to improving public services and bringing about lasting change within public sector organisations. I recently had the good fortune to talk briefly with Mike Meredith who is a Director at 2020 Delivery, and leads the firm’s people development function. Please read the edited transcript of my discussion with […]
There were rumors circling last week that Crescendo Partners (the elite global advisory firm based in Sydney) are winding down their operations. These rumors are incorrect. Crescendo Partners MD Joseph Crepaldi confirmed to me by email that while the physical office has been closed because the building is being brought down, Crescendo Partners is still active!
I recently had the good fortune to communicate with Anne Burley, Director or Regional Talent Acquisition for Asia Pacific at A.T. Kearney. A.T. Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries. A.T. Kearney is a partner-owned firm, committed to helping clients achieve immediate impact and growing advantage on their […]
I was grateful for the recent opportunity to communicate with Jennifer Marsh, Global Head of Public Relations Strategy, and Cheryl Coulthurst, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, at North Highland. Founded in 1992, North Highland is an employee-owned global management consulting firm that has been named as a Best Firm to Work For every year since 2007 […]