Leicester Mgt Consultancy Guide

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Management ConsultancySector Overview 2010

The Leicester MBA

By Peter FennahRegistered & Chartered Occupational Psychologist, MSc, MA Hons.

All rights reserved. Career Synergy Limited 2010


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"The world is divided into people who do things, and people who get the credit.Try, if you can, to belong to the first class.There's far less competition."

Dwight Morrow, 1935

IntroductionThis guide draws heavily upon consultants personal views as well as my own eight years asDirector of Cranfields MBA Career Development Service. It is deliberately subjective to giveyou some insights into what you may experience. Like a map it is not the actual landscapewhich you will have to navigate for yourself. Key areas covered include:

What is management consultancy & a day in the life of a consultant

How to decide if it is for youand for how long? What are some of the other choice dilemmas? Big Vs. boutique What do consultancies look for? An overview from Don Leslie of BLT Jumping the hurdles to become a consultant Onboarding / top tips for new consultants

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got asecond. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that

comes out of you."

(William James, Psychologist, 1842-1910)

Its all about the money, right? DeloitteConsultant approx. 55-58; Manager 60-75k, SeniorManager 75-100k. Plus up to 15% bonus, 5% pension, 25 days annual leave. Public Sectorinternal consultants are likely to be 10k+ less, though they often have better workingconditions.

Consultancy:The Pros: Project work is varied though you are likely to start on projects where you havesome degree of familiarity and can add value. You can translate your experience and much ofyour MBA into practice. Personal development through practice can expand your skillset andenhance your CV with operational project deliverables. Most consultancies offer good training

opportunities.

The Cons: Leading project teams is not the same as leading sustained change within anorganisation. Making the move to a senior manager role often requires an intervening step,such as coming into an organisation to initiate a change and then take on a leadership rolethereafter. Do consider your exit strategy, most consultants move on after 3-5 years often asa result of being told they wont make the next job grade or that they want more of a personallife. You may be asked to sign 70-100% time away from home contract. 50-70 hours a week isstandard. Decide how much intense work with unbreakable deadlines either thrills you orthreatens you over a sustained period of time. Tough targets many consultants are expectedto be utilised i.e. working with clients for the vast majority of their time targets are set andneed to be met on time.

Career Synergy Limited 2010


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Consultancy Vs Investment Banking (IB): The days are shorter than in investment banking(12-14 hr day average, with spikes up to 16 hrs for particularly busy periods). While theyreshorter, theres no real downtime. In IB, you may go hours, even half a day spent waiting fordata or a review from the associate/VP. In management consulting, youre always working youtypically have one big project and many smaller tasks running in parallel Projects like the onebelow, you live and breathe with the client team. This means lots of meetings, lots ofproduction of memos/slides/etc, an opportunity to build meaningful professional relationshipsand often to manage client teams to help you get the job done requiring good delegation (notabdication) skills. You work REALLY closely with your team. Expect to check-in with yourmanager at least once daily if not 4 or 5 times (for internships, its even higher), and since 80%

of the time you work in one room with the entire team, youre always on-call and constantlyinteracting with other team members and your manager.

Strategic Consulting Insight: initially you will demonstrate a lot of ambition, effective teamworking analytical skills and high achievement compared to the other applicants (not just yourlocal/geographical peer group). Junior people are hired almost exclusively from the bestuniversities based upon their potential. More senior people are hired based on their prior workexperience and demonstration of excellence in their field. Partners recruit staff and selectinternals from the bench if: you have a relevant background and operating level to the client(often blue chip), are comfortable (diplomatic in your challenges, proactive; low supervisionrequired; resilient to pressure; adaptive in communications; solutions orientated rather thanfocusing upon the problems and agile to spot patterns through probing questions).

Hello. I am a strategy consultant and my day mainly consists of making old men who talk thetalk but don't walk the walk. I specialise in acting really interested and concerned and thankfulwhen some old duffer gives me his "valuable" insights with fuzzy logic and concepts that arefundamentally flawed, and then leaves me to turn it into a written document that actually makessense, mainly through fudging the various issues involved and trying to make it resemblesomething he said closely enough that he thinks it's what he actually described. I also spend alot of my day in front of a computer re-doing analysis and preparing powerpoint slides that werefine to start with, mainly so that the older folk can claim that they have somehow made acontribution to the final written deliverables.

M&A: A view: often a vastly overrated field of work - seriously long hours against concretedeadlines, lots of number crunching, and that's just the due diligence stage. It varies but about1:10 due diligence activities will move forward so a lot of your hard work will not result in anoutcome.


Day in the life

Background I am on a 4-member team (manager and 3 associates). We are staffed on anoperations turnaround project with a focus on personnel (read: reward the best employees, train

the average ones, and develop systems to remove or improve the underperformers). Clientheadquarters and main operations are located in the same city, a 4 hour flight from New York.


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7:30am Hotel alarm wakes me, I automatically reach for the Blackberry. The Production teamhas emailed me with Powerpoint slides I sent them last night. Breathe sight of relief as thismeans I wont have to spend 2 hours this morning before team meeting getting my clientpresentation slides ready.7:45am as Im getting ready, blackberry buzzes. Manager says hell be 15 minutes late thismorning. The team usually meets in the hotel lobby to share a taxi to the client (client isparticularly cost-conscious on this project). I contemplate going back to sleep, until I look at mywork shirts. All are wrinkled, and v-neck sweaters are at the hotel dry cleaners. No extra sleepfor me.8:15am shirt is ironed, laptop bag is packed. Meet team in hotel lobby and we pile into the taxifor the client. In taxi, everyone is reading the WSJ or busily scrolling through their blackberries.Manager asks collectively if were ready for the client meeting at 2pm, I silently nod my head in

agreement.8:45am arrive at client headquarters. We spend most of our time in the clients satellite office(the bulk of our project is focused there) but this, our monthly progress checkpoint, requires usto be at headquarters.9:30am - weve settled into our office for the day, a nondescript conference room on the 10thfloor. Everyones a little nervous but also excited the CEOs secretary has just confirmed theCEOs attendance at todays meeting. I do a quick scan of my emails and open the attachmentfrom the Production team. Thankfully most looks good there are the usual typos, missingfootnotes, and weird alignment issues to fix but could have been much worse.10:30am - Ive fixed all the minor issues with my part of the presentation, or the deck. Print out4 copies to share with team as we aim to do a quick review at noon. I let the manager know.10:31am - I can now focus on cleaning out my enormous inbox piled up from the last few daysof focusing on this presentation. Its littered with: emails from ex-teammates asking mequestions about work I had done on past projects; surveys and questionnaires sent by firm HR,recruiting, and various other groups (and boy are there a lot of these); random forwards fromfriends and other analysts12:00pm - team meeting starts. The main partner on our team is dialing-in (stuck in Toronto fora different client meeting). Minor confusion as we seem to be on the wrong dialcode. Turns outour team secretary has changed everyone to a new dialcode but partner was still using the oldone. Problem fixed.12:30pm - the two other associates have finished running team through their slides andanalyses. Only one tough question from partner so far. Manager has seen our material athousand times so no surprises from him. Its my turn to present. I carefully run them through

the slides, making sure to highlight the so-whats, the really interesting anecdotes from theclient that reinforce my conclusions, and leave time at end for questions. There are none partner has small nit on the source for a particular chart I realize I left out the footnote. Dang.1pm - team meeting ends. Partner wraps up by mentioning that the senior client had somequestions recently about scope being too narrow (i.e., were not doing enough), and has


scheduled a late afternoon call with the broader team (read: more partners) to hammer out thisissue post-progress review. I twitch nervously in my chair wondering if this means workload willincrease.1:30pm - were at team lunch, and have invited some of the client team from the satellite office.Through the last 8 weeks weve built strong working relationships with the 4 member client team

and through forced socializing have gotten to know them on a quasi-personal level as well.Chipotle burritos done, we head back to the office to prepare for the meeting.


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2pm client meeting starts. Im still mentally reviewing my slides even though Im not leading

the presentation, I know Ill be called on if anyone has questions about the data, themethodology, etc2:10pm - CEO enters room. Everyones attention is immediately focused on her. She smiles,shakes each of our hands I briefly wonder if shell ask me how old I am as she shakes mine.But no theyre too professional for that, even though its probably one of the first questions onher mind. Her VP (and our senior client lead) tells her that weve worked together very closelythese last 2 months, and have a lot of interesting findings to share today. Everyone smilesnervously.2:45pm - manager is leading CEO through one of my slides. The CEO who to this point haslargely been silent points at a graph and says, wow, is this really the improvement youvebeen seeing? And were the initial performance numbers consistent across all employees?Everyone rotates their heads toward me. My time to shine. I look down to make sure Im seeing

the same thing she does, and then quickly share facts and figures that by now Im reciting in mysleep. (Yes, this is the improvement 300% over priors based on pilot with 10% of theworkforce; No, initial performance numbers were not consistent across all employees but 80%fell with a plus/minus 5 point range). Manager flashes a relieved smile and our attention onceagain returns to the CEO. She nods in silence.3pm - meeting over! CEO seems happy with our findings. Mentions to partner on phone (withwhom shes worked several times before) that once again, he found an excellent team, andshed been hearing great things all along from senior client lead. CEO says she looks forward toseeing where well be by project end (in 4 weeks time). Manager is beaming.3:15pm - after politely saying farewells, our team heads to our original team room for a post-meeting debrief. Upon dialing in, partner thanks all of us and mentions the scope issuediscussion call at 4pm.4:00pm - scope issue discussion call with 3 partners and team begins. Manager spends nexthour in increasing frustration as partners cannot agree on anything how to address the scopeissue, which client to address it with, what our recommendation should be. Finally, two of thepartners have to drop off for another meeting. Finally, the lead partner (who weve been workingclosely with) stays behind on the call, and tells us that hell circle-back with the other 2 partnersto try and reach consensus. Hell circle-back with the manager to sort out the details. We returnto our laptops.5:30pm - receive large email attachment from client team. Its new employee performance datagathered from this quarter. They wanted to share the latest with me so it can reflect in the modelweve built. I look through the data its a mess. Quarter of employees are missing from thesheet, data is improperly formatted and different attributes are combined in one cell. This is

going to take hours to clean-up with a variety of Excel functions. I resolve to work on it latertonight and tomorrow.6pm manager packs up and suggests we go home early. Its been a long but successful day plus tomorrow, we have a busy schedule packed with client interviews (were trying to gathermore qualitative insights to further reinforce the data findings).


6:15pm we all pile into a taxi back for the hotel. Two associates are on the phone withsignificant others. Manager is having a catch-up call with our partner. I put on my iPod, and planout my night which will include the gym, room service dinner, and several hours spentcleaning and incorporating the new data in time for tomorrow.

Who are the top firms?


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This all depends (a typical consultant answer) upon what your criteria is as to turnover

1. McKinsey2. BCG3. Bain4. Booz5. Oliver Wyman6. AT Kearney7. Others (OC&C, Value Partners, etc.)

Big Firms vs. Boutique Whats similar & different?Similarities include the travel, team working & client interaction as ananalyst/associate/consultant, your focus will be on data gathering, analysis, and presentation.In plain English, this means youll receive lots of data from your client, do calculations in Excel,combine that with thorough Internet research and some interviews, and put it into slides toshare at meetings.

Important differencesThe fundamental workmay be similar but, the application of that work can vary. Boutiquecompanies like Kurt Salmon typically focus on narrower questions and in fewer industries. Ata big 3 firm (Bain, BCG, McKinsey) you receive exposure to different industries and functions(e.g. strategy, operations, organization). In boutiques your exposure is more narrow at KurtSalmon, your primary focus would be on retail and consumer goods companies. This is botha pro (you start building expertise and potentially become known for it) and a con (what if youdecide the retail sector is not for you?).

Some boutiques do a lot of traveling if they have an industry focus (Kurt Salmon is a well-regarded expert in the retail/consumer goods space, with clients spread throughout the US andinternationally). But other boutiques have a more local focus and thus you may travel very little most of your work would be with area clients with whom your firm has developed a lastingrelationship.

Team & client interactionscan vary, both in terms of the types of team members, quality ofclients and nature of interaction could be different. Boutiques have less coverage for clientsoverall, which could mean youll see significantly more client interaction from an early stage, andwith more senior members. Your teams will usually be smaller, often with you and maybe oneother person as the only real day-to-day presence at your client site. Each of these comes with

its own set of pros and cons.Career Synergy Limited 2010

Cultureand Training is often key: boutiques can offer greater personalization and support,

everyone knows your name, youre a big fish in a small pond so you can take time to develop

your political skills and it is easier to be visible when things go well (and wrong). At larger

organisations, its harder to standout. The support network is not personalized and easily


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What Do Consultancies Look For?

Caution: What follows is subjective and meant to stimulate your thinking rather than taking it asall that they are looking for

AccentureWe would be very interested in all points on your list as professionalism and keyknowledge/skills would be clearly demonstrated. Particular points on the list which wouldinterest us most are Clarity, Brevity, Logical, Be Yourself, Legitimate Confidence, Connect withthe Audience. These are key areas where many candidates fall down.

Boston Consulting GroupThese skills would benefit candidates. It would be looked on favourably as we focus oncandidates communication and presence in interviews. We look at their precision, activelistening and relationship management. The key is Personal Behaviour.

Cap Gemini Ernst & YoungIn the Consulting business its very important to have good communication skills. We wouldbe very interested in candidates who could demonstrate the skills listed. The most importantfactors are Personal Behaviour and Relationship with the Audience. Its all very well having thecontent, but if you put people off with your personal behaviour and dont connect with youraudience, it will go to waste.

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

We would be interested in MBAs having as many of the skills you list as possible.Our decision process clearly includes presentation skills, but analytical skills and ambition aremore desirable as we can train/cure other development needs. We cannot train someone to beambitious nor do we want to train an analytical mind, that is the reserve of national educationsystems.

Diamond Cluster InternationalPresentation skills are of course valued by us and all consultancy firms. A candidate who comesacross as confident in their presentation would certainly impress at interview. In terms of theskills you list, they are all good skills to have. At interview we are predominantly interested in aperson who can lead a discussion to find the right information to solve a problem, structure theirthinking, and then make assumptions based on that data. The ability to clearly convey

intelligence and thoughtfulness is therefore of primary importance.

Mercer ConsultingWhen interviewing candidates the essential competencies are planning, organising, teamwork,communication skills and the ability to add value to our clients. We look for evidence of theseskills. In the Consulting role, which involves dealing with Clients, someone with goodBehaviours including communication and presentation is important.

Impact Plus PLCWith communication skills we are interested in success. We look for Actions a behaviouralresponse to a presentation is a critical measure of its success, rather than simply writtenfeedback.



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Spectrum Strategy Consultants

We would be very interested in people with the skills on your list.Excellent presentation skills are one of the key skills that a consultant will need. The mostimportant point on your list is Relationship with the Audience. You have to be able to engagewith the audience and hold their interest throughout your presentation if not, it doesnt reallymatter what the content is or how much preparation youput into it.

Latitude PartnersThese are good guidelines. The particular points I notice are Be Yourself and Connect with theAudience. Presentations should connect to the audience not be independent of it.

McKinsey& Company

In essence Presentation Skills need to be in place before joining McKinsey. McKinseys wantpeople who can demonstrate being very smart, can find the right answer, Influencing ability isvital. You start with two years learning scientific techniques of problem solving. Its not aboutimplementation or managing people. Its about presenting findings in a meeting. McKinseywants people who can build relationships with clients. They must be trusted, credible, serious,inquisitive, listen and participate. Culturally they are interested in the content, the work theyredoing, not just presentations themselves.

FutureSteps RecruitmentAssessment days are typical for Consultancy. Theyre given a problem and have to come upwith solution which they present. Or they can sometimes just do a presentation aboutthemselves. At UBS theyre given a difficult technical problem and a very short time to find asolution. Then a longer period to produce a presentation. MBAs: Large American outfits likeFord, GM, Pepsi use assessment days as standard. Consultancies like Cap Gemini, Accentureetc. were extremely interested in people with IT backgrounds because of the governmentsnational NHS venture. Overall, practises have changed considerably in the last 2 years. Theresmuch more competition now.

Korn/Ferry Recruitment and who recruit consultantsRecruitment at Associate level comes from Business Schools including MBAs and PhDsfrom Tier 1 and 2 schools. Big question: Are they interesting. What achievements have theyattained outside of work? Looking for evidence of teamwork, interpersonal skills, drive energy &commitment plus problem solving ability. Problem solving is tested through casing (case

studies). Looking for teamwork, logic, use of feedback (without being defensive).



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Jumping The Hurdles To Decide & Become A Consultant

No EU Passport? Tier 1 is needed: historically it has been easier for IT consulting to sponsorwork permits for so called "skills-based recruitment" as long as the candidate had a specifictechnical skill not easily obtainable in the UK. This has become harder over the years; youshould target a Tier 1 Visa once you have your Master's Degree certificate in hand.

Limited Work Experience? The first hurdle you'll have to clear is what type of consulting andwhat type of firm you are interested in, and why. With a little work experience under your belt,you would be expected to articulate a clear choice in any application or interview.

What Should I do? 6 Next Steps:1) Work out why a firm should take you on (an MBA isnt enough). Brandingcan be importanthere do you have Six Sigma, etc. like other consultants in your field? (NB client seniormanagers and often management consultants can have a low regard for good projectmanagement skills and the value that it brings. A pretty high proportion of project failures comeas the result of unrealistic "high level" plans and woefully overoptimistic timelines. And giventhat A LOT of nontrivial projects fail, there are clearly lessons to be learned here.)

2) Do your homework on the firm you want to get interviewed by (know the founders, seniorexecs, strategy, key clients, recent wins, service offerings, USPs, how the money flows, etc.).

3) See if there is a link between 1 & 2 (preferably where 1 will actually enhance (2).

4) Develop your 'Dragons Den' pitch (e.g. I think I can help you increase your win rates by 20%.)Practice your pitch on someone you trust to give you blunt feedback. Ask him/her the question'if you had just met me and heard what I've just said - would you hire me?' Seek outinternships and make use of projects to build your credibility.

5) Exploit your network of friends, family, alumni other MBAs, etc.

6) Be flexible you may have to join a lesser known consultancy in order to reapply in 18months for a better known firm. Take a developmental perspective to seek to best develop yourskills and confidence to spring board you into your future ideal role.

How to break inJust like actors you will be typecast by your previous: work experience roles; education;business school reputation; and your goals. If you dont fit the profile then you are likely to beinitially rejected unless you network. People buy people. If you have a personality, confidenceand demonstrate good market research then you can create opportunities. There are nostandard career paths into the industry. However, you will have to give evidence of skillsincluding client handling, practice development, strategic planning, business analysis and teambuilding. Prospective employers will also be looking for evidence of creativity, flexibility andinterpersonal skills.



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While you will learn exactly the same subject matter at Leicester as at any other school, it is not

on the radar of the elite consulting firms, and this is a big disadvantage as the amount of workyou will have to do to get interviewed increases hugely. Better to know it nowand find peoplewho can introduce you to partners within the firm.

Is it for me? If you are poor at managing your time and if your family and lifestyle matter a lotto you then forget the top-tier consulting firms and stay in industry as you will be much happier.

Resilient? Ever been in the bottom 10%? Most of the top firms have an up or out policygiven 67% of their costs are in their staff; therefore if you are in the bottom 10% of performance(i.e. within team and office) then you will receive developmental feedback and then be fired if noimmediate turnaround occurs. Be prepared for politics; if a favoured partner doesnt like / knowyou then you could be next you need to network internally to keep your visibility high.

Whats your exit strategy? thechurn rate was 8% in 2009 now 17% (Datamonitor, 2010) dueto limited pay awards BUT recruitment salaries are stronger as this isnt as high an overhead forthe firm.

Which consultancy should I join?Most consultancy firms will have areas of specialism and you will be employed to reflect thiswith the client, therefore it is important that you research what a firm does and to consider how itwill feature in your career strategy. Talk to the firms you are interested in and to people whohave worked with them. Dont forget about speaking to clients in the industry, what do theyappreciate and get frustrated by in working with consultants? In short, demonstrate your

consultancy skills through your homework. McKinseys, Boston Consulting Group & Bain allrecruit early and predominantly through internships. These are the elite firms where thecompetition is highest, so if you wish to apply ensure your application is as good as it can bewhich means you need to collect high quality feedback on your CV & cover letter. Writtencommunication skills are key for consultants so ensure there are no mistakes.

The websites and publications of the firms themselves can be a great source of information.These vary in style and detail, but are generally pretty informative. Larger firms have adedicated HR department (though only of a few people so prepare for long silences (though 2weeks is often the case having completed an assessment centre) and a lackof feedback)

How do consultants add value?I've called myself 'Generalist', I'm far from it. It's always hard to say what value consultants addwithout sounding vague and clichd (doing it already!) - I'll give a specific example.

I worked on a transport optimisation project for a multi-national client that resulted in significantsavings and a billing mechanism that was adopted in the company. I worked side-by-side withsomeone from the client who had the same, if not better, 'specialist skills' as me (operationaland financial modelling and logistics management experience) - we spent long hours pouringover data, building and calibrating models and identifying savings. A good example because onface value the client could have done this without us (me). So what did I add?



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1. An intensity/energy/paranoia to get the job done on time and to spec no matter what.

2. The ability to stand back from the detail each day and think about the 'so what?'

3. project management and communication with the project sponsor.

4. Suggestions of ways to get our methods/findings across to a wide audience.

5. Structured presentation of the project results/recommendations.

Nothing remotely vague/clever/gibberish about it and in full acknowledgement that the projectwouldn't have been a success without the client's day-to-day involvement.... BUT, it wasn't my'specialist skills' that were particularly valued, more the things I did as listed above. Pretty typical

of other projects I've done / been aware of. Bottom line is that the client wanted us involved andwas happy with the result.

Onboarding: 11 Tips For New Consultants

1. Set up Google Alerts for your client and its competitors

This is an absolute must. Google Alerts feed you the latest online information (collected

primarily from news sites and blogs) related to keywords that you specify. Setup these alerts

for your client and its top 3 competitors.

This will help you stay current on client and industry developments, which will come in handythrough the project. Many people are too pre-occupied to do this regularly, and its a quick

win for new consultants to add value. If you dont know your clients key competitors, use tools

like Yahoo! Finance.

2. Know basic financial data for your clientI cant tell you the number of times basic questions like Whats Client Xs total annualrevenue? have come up in internal discussions. You want to be the one that can provide anaccurate answer, as opposed to Oh, I think its something like $10-20 billionlet me check.

Some key numbers include:

-Market cap-Overall revenue-Gross profit-Margins (profit and operating)-Memorizing them doesnt take long. It will come in handy.



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3. Familiarize yourself with the client CEO and senior management

There are many stories of newbie consultants having a casual conversation with an employee inthe company cafeteria, only to realize a week later that it was an Executive VP. Dont let thishappen to you. You can find most executive profiles on the client website. Read themthoroughly and become familiar with the faces. Not only will it prevent foul-ups like the above, itwill also help you understand and manage client relationships.

4. Familiarize yourself with the competitorsThis shouldnt take more than a few hours. Simply have a grasp on the following:

-Who are the top 5-10 competitors-Relative sizes (e.g., number of employees, overall revenues)

-Key products/services (especially what differentiates each competitor from the client)-General grasp of their strengths and weaknesses.

Good ways to get a quick handle on this include:-Internal firm research reports (if available)-Analyst reports (e.g., JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, etc)-Yahoo! Finance-HooversPeriodically review this information to make sure youre fresh. While its important to know thisinfo, its even more important that you dont confuse one competitor with another.

Dont ignore the small, innovative guys. The best way to identify them is toscour Google and Techcrunch for your clients name and industry-related keywords. Staying

current on innovative practices is one way to be a thought leader.

5. Store the contact information for all people on your team, especially partnersAvailable through your firm intranet/database. Program the following into yourBlackberry/iPhone for all involved parties, from interns to senior partners:

-Cellphone number-Office number (if available)-Email address-PA email and direct line (if applicable)

On every 2-month project, there will be at least 2 times where a client meeting is about to start,the partner cant be found, and no one has immediate laptop access. This is when having allthose numbers programmed into your phone comes in very handy

6. Thoroughly review previous client-related workMost consulting firms have internal knowledge libraries that store information about pastprojects and the firms latest thinking.

When youre starting a project, you should mine that library for information related to your client,its competitors, and even functionally similar projects (e.g., if this is your first cost-reductioncase, youll find plenty of introductory material on running a cost-reduction project including



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examples of analyses, suggest output, etc). Pay very close attention to the work thats been

done before this will help your team avoid re-creating the wheel (which can happensurprisingly often).

You should also review the sales documents that led to the project, including the projectproposal and preliminary research.

7. Know a few good places for team events and dinnersAs the newbie consultant, the responsibility of planning team events (such as dinners, team-bonding activities, etc) will fall on you. Take the opportunity to demonstrate your diligence andattention to detail. It helps if you have an idea particularly in unfamiliar cities of thefun/popular things to do. Ask your friends and do internet research. The more familiar you are,the better prepared youll be.

While a poorly planned team dinner at the city steakhouse wont kill your performance review,people will notice. Its not your fault that the food wasnt amazing, but it is your fault that thetaxis arrived late; you didnt invite the partners, and forgot to make the reservation.

8. Build a knowledge hub of client/project-related documentsSometimes this will already be started by your manager/teammates. If not, take the lead andcreate a shared hub for project-related documents. Things to put in it:

-Annual reports and 10-Ks-Analyst reports for client and competitors-Documents and presentations from previous client-related work

-Primers on the industry and functionThis will be an invaluable resource. Organize it well. Continually update as the projectprogresses with new reports, presentations, and so forth.

9. Pack extra suppliesThe Scout Motto is Be Prepared. If the previous 8 tips havent taught you the value ofcontingency planning, this one should put you over the top.

Be reasonable no ones asking you to bring 4 laptops. But have backups of small, necessaryequipment that less prepared teammates may forget. Examples include: power cords, ethernetcables, USB drives, mice, power socket adapters, etc.

10. Proofread all client-ready documentsDo this even if youre not asked. The day/night before a client meeting, review the final versionof the documents carefully. Youre looking for small mistakes like misspellings, syntax errors,and misaligned charts. Do a quick sanity check on the analyses.

Partners and clients can become unreasonably focused on typos and other micro issues. Youwant the discussion to be about the synthesis, not the syntax.



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11. Build a strong working relationship with the team assistant

At the beginning of each engagement, introduce yourself to the team assistant. This personis absolutely critical to a high-performing team. Not only do they coordinate the freneticschedules of all parties involved, they often help on things like proofreading and basic research.As the new consultant on the team, you may interface with them frequently. Earning theirrespect is important to getting things done promptly. After all, team assistants have busycalendars too. You want your requests to have top-priority.

Management Consultancy: A Summary

The sector in 2011: how to apply, where to find the jobs, and what youre letting yourselfin for

By Don Leslie 2010

Management consultancy and investment banking are the two top career choices for businessschool graduates. Join a consulting firm and you can become comfortably off: chooseinvestment banking and youll be obscenely rich. But its about more than the money, isnt it?Isnt it?

My contention is that consultancy is the better choice. In the course of your time as a consultantyoull see a wide variety of businesses across a wide variety of sectors, work alongside a widevariety of skilled professionals on a wide variety of problems.and be able to take all thatexperience off into the real world when you finally decide to get a proper job (typically after 3-5years as a consultant, for reasons Ill explain later.)

The consulting industry is recovering after two awful years. Firms are hiring again, but thecompetition is fierce. So the first thing you need to do is to polish up your CV. You need to standout from everybody else in your class wholl be applying. Any application, whether by post ofemail, mustbe tailored for the specific opportunity. And a cover note needs to highlight: whatyoure good at, what you can bring to the firm, and how theyll benefit from hiring you.If youre hoping to join a strategy house (McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain are the holytrinity of the top tier firms), get on to their websites right now. The closing dates for applicationsare generally about a year in advance of start dates, so you need to apply early. (Hint, if youvemissed the deadline, still apply. Other applicants may drop out/choose investment bankinginstead, and you might get lucky)

Most other firms, however, recruit on an as-needed basis. Check out their websites for currentvacancies. Remember, these requirements are listed around 4-6 months before the new recruitsare expected to start, so theres no point in applying too early.

As well as a consultancy firms own website, look for advertisements posted on job boards (egTop-Consultant.com), and trawl around social media (YouTube, Facebook etc) for otherrecruitment announcements.

But dont just wait for an opportunity to be advertised. Be proactive. Find people you know(friends, alumni) who are working in consulting firms and ask them to put your CV in front of ahiring manager. (Almost all organizations encourage their staff to do this now).



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Scour the business pages of quality newspapers for comment from consulting firms (journalists

frequently solicit quotes from consulting industry figures for analysis pieces on issues of theday). Make that the reason for introducing yourself to them. (I saw your comment in the FTabout doing business in China and By the way, Im finishing my MBA shortly with a view tobecoming a consultant, and as I speak Mandarin I wondered if you could introduce me to.)Dont just target well known consultancies. Although a big consulting name on your CV willresonate widely when you move out into industry, a small consultancy which specializes in thesector in which you intend to make your long-term career can be just as valuable. (Hint: thinkabout your exit before you even enter a consulting firm. Say you plan a long-term career in thepharmaceutical industry: why not seek out the niche firms who consult in this sector?) There aremany good reasons why a consulting career with a boutique (ie small) firm makes sense: youllbe exposed to the problems that keep that industrys CEOs awake at night, youll learn at theshoulder of a director or partner of a boutique consultancy (rather than just a senior consultant

or manager at a large consultancy), and youll have more dealings with the CEOs of thecompanies youll want to join when you eventually leave consulting.

If your course requires an internship or summer project, why not find a placement in aconsulting firm? Even a few weeks in consulting will demonstrate you know what consulting islike. And 70% of interns are offered a permanent job at the end of a placement.Be realistic: not everyone can become a strategy consultant. Most business school graduateswho go into consulting will join a mainstream consulting firm (eg Accenture, Deloitte) and will behired not just for their intellectual horsepower but also for their pre-business school experience.So if you have a background in the insurance sector, say, then look for opportunities in thefinancial services team at a consultancy. Or if youve been as software engineer, try to positionyourself in IT advisory.

And dont get hung up on rank. Unless you are nationally known speaker in your field, youll joinat the standard entry level.even if youve been a senior vice-president managing scores ofstaff and managing a budget of tens of millions. Youll need to go through consultancy bootcamp just like everyone else.

Salary? Again, youll have to take the going rate. Its currently around 58,000 in London.Thats base salary: expect a bonus (but dont rely on it to pay the bills) of 15%, a pensioncontribution of 5% and benefits such as private healthcare and life insurance. Holidays: 25 days.And if youre good, and you last that long, youll double it in around 4 years.

Sowhy do I think you wont last that long? Its the baggage that comes with consultancy whichmakes consultants leave after 3-5 years. Work life balance? Its all work, and no life.

Expect to spend around 70% of your working year away from home. (Some consultancies willask you to sign an agreement to spend 100% away.) That means three nights in a hotel andfour days on the client site which might be five hours journey time from home. The workingweek averages 50 hours, and a stretch of 70 hours a week to bring a project in on time is notuncommon. Think of the impact that has on your personal life.and youll understand why Ithink youll last 3-5 years before you move on.

Still want to go into consulting? Good. I think its the best possible choice for consolidating yourbusiness school education. And just look where former consultants end up: UK Foreign



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Secretary (William Hague); HSBC Chairman (Stephen Green); Enron CEO (Jeff Skilling)ok,

maybe not that last one.

Whatever you choose investment banking, setting up your own business, or consultancy -study hard, enjoy your time at business school, and good luck!

Don Leslie is a recruiter at management consultancy recruiters BLT. Thats his day job. What hereally enjoys doing is evangelising for the consulting industry. You can contact him at BLT [email protected]

References: Topconsultant.com; DataMonitor; Vault; MBA alumni; Management ConsultancyAssociation; Mindbench & Don Leslie.


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