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Capture Consulting Offers

Intro: Consulting Industry Overview

1
Topics

① Importance of Firm Knowledge

② Universe of Consulting Firms

③ Firm Deep Dives

④ Wrap-up

2
Firm Deep Dives

Why is learning about the

background of the firms
important?
① Targeting: Job Search
Strategy

② Interview Prep:
 Why consulting
 Why you
 Why firm
 Experience Questions

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Importance of Firm Knowledge
Job Search Strategy
1
Consulting vs. Consulting “only if”

2 3 4
Firms Positioning Geography

• Generalist vs.
• Consulting only or
specialty
also industry roles • Office choice
• Industry, function
• Plan A/B/C Firms • U.S. vs. International
• Align/position to firm
• Focus vs. broad
organization

4
Importance of Firm Knowledge
Interview Preparation
Networking
Case Study
Interaction

Experience
Resume
Questions

To get an Contribute to
Cover Letter Fit
To get an
intervie
offer
w

Essay Questions
(other firm-specific Other Firm Specific
elements)
One word:
RIGOROUS

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Importance of Firm Knowledge
Interview Preparation (cont.)

Firm Research Case Preparation Experience Preparation Mocks

Experience Question
Case Practice
Practice
Phase
3
Networking Case Delivery Key Question
Preparation Outlines

Practice
Story Details Phase
Activities
2
Firm Literature Experience
Review Theory Review
Inventory
Phase
Strategy / Positioning  B3Q’s 1

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 Capture Consulting Offers
2 Universe of Consulting Firms

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Universe of Consulting Firms
Many More Firms To Explore
The universe of consulting firms is large!
• Accenture • Clerestory • Infosys • Samsung Global
• AlixPartners • The Chartis Group • KPMG Strategy
• Altman Vilandrie • Civic Consulting • The Keystone Group • Schlumberger Business
• Aon Hewitt Consulting Alliance • Kurt Salmon Consulting
• Arthur D. Little • Crowe Horwath • LEK Consulting • Siemens Management
• AT Kearney • Deloitte • Marakon Consulting
• Bain & Company • Edelman • Mars & Co • Simon-Kucher and
• Blue Ridge Partners Management • McKinsey & Co Partners
• Booz Allen Hamilton Consulting • Mercer • Slalom Consulting
• Boston Consulting • Ernst & Young • Monitor Deloitte • Stax
Group • Fidelity Business • Navigant • Strategy& (now PwC)
• Blue Ridge Partners Consulting • Ocean Tomo LLC • Waterstone Management
• Bridge Strategy • First Annapolis • Oliver Wyman Group
• BTS Consulting • The Parthenon Group • West Monroe Partners
• CapGemini • Genpact (now E&Y) • Wipro
• Campbell Alliance • Gillum Strategy • Point B • ZS Associates
• Capitol Consulting Partners • Promontory
• Clarion • IBM • Prophet
• Claro Group • IDEO • PwC (includes
• IMS Consulting Diamond/PRTM)
• Roland Berger

…and there are many more out there. 8

Universe of Consulting Firms
Analysis of Chicago Booth Hiring (2016)
8 Consulting Firms make the majority of FT hires – 80%+
Prior Year
Firm FT Difference
Intern
McKinsey 35 26 9
BCG 23 21 2
Bain 15 10 5
Accenture 13 8 5
PwC Strategy& 10 6 4
Deloitte Consulting 9 14 (5)
AT Kearney 5 9 (4)
Cornerstone Research 4 N/A ~4
Subtotal 114 94
20
84% 61%
Total Consulting 135 154

Most major business schools publish an employment report, where

similar data can be found.
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Universe of Consulting Firms: Overview
Groups Firms
 “Pure” Strategists Large: Boutique:
• AT Kearney • McKinsey • Arthur D. Little • LEK • MonitorDeloitte
• Bain • PwC/Strategy& • BTS Consulting • The Parthenon
• BCG • Roland Berger • Bridge Strategy • Marakon Group (E&Y)
• Gillum • Mars & Co • Stax
• Keystone

 Internal Consultants • Fidelity Business Consulting • Siemens Management Consulting

• Samsung Global Strategy

 Diversified Services Business: Technology-base:

• Deloitte • Oliver Wyman • Accenture • IBM
• E&Y • PWC • CapGemini • Slalom Consulting
• KPMG • Genpact • West Monroe Partners
• Infosys • Wipro

 Functional Specialty • Aon Hewitt Consulting (HR) • Mercer (HR)

• Blue Ridge Partners (Revenue) • Navigant (Expert services)
• Cambridge Group (Growth) • Prophet (Marketing, Brand, Innovation)
• Edelman (Brand, Org, Corp) • Simon-Kucher (Marketing, Sales)
• IDEO (Innovation, Design) • ZS Associates (Marketing, Sales)

 Industry Specialty • Altman & Villandrie (Tech) • Kurt Salmon (Fin Services, Retail, Healthcare)
• Booz Allen Hamilton (Gov) • IMS Consulting (Life sciences)
• Capitol/Civic Consulting (Gov) • Promontory (Fin Services)
• Clarion | Chartis (Healthcare) • Slumberger Consulting (Energy)
• First Annapolis (Payments) • Waterstone Management Group (Tech)

 Experience-based • AlixPartners • Point B

• Crowe Horwath

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Universe of Consulting Firms: MBA Focus

Hypothesis:
MBA hiring is the dominant focus for consulting firms

This is driven by market trends, but, awareness is key!

 More than half of the consultants at McKinsey & Company do not have a
Master of Business Administration degree, a share that is up sharply from a
decade ago. Some 20 percent of Boston Consulting's new hires in the United
States fall into the same category this year -- four times the level in 1995.
Other firms are following suit.

-New York Times, October 2000

 A consultant who helped oversee MBA recruitment at his firm agreed: “95
percent of our intake is from the top-five business schools.

–HBR, October 2015

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Do Your Homework! Each Firm is Different.

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 Capture Consulting Offers
3 Firm Deep Dives
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Firm Deep Dives Group:  “Pure” Strategists (Large)

Firms Bain & Co BCG McKinsey & Co

Their work • Help clients make • Customized solutions • Trusted advisor
better decisions • Create lasting • World-shaping client
• Create results competitive advantage impact
• Pragmatic, holistic, • Agents of change – • Network of leaders
enduring business and society • Management insights
• “Our clients • Innovation • Shape the world
outperform the market • Delivering value • Distinctive, lasting,
4:1” • Make clients more substantial
• Private Equity capable improvements
• Non-profit • Governments
Key characteristics • Passion • Curiosity • Entrepreneurial Drive
to shape TMAY/ Big • Problem solving
3Q’s/EQ’s • Problem solving • Path finding • Personal impact
• Results delivery • Impact • Leadership
• Ability to Lead • Leadership

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Firm Deep Dives: Compare/Contrast

Firm Leadership Definition

Bain & Co • Looking for all-rounders — independent thinkers who thrive as part of a team.
• Works with, and develops, some of the worlds' top leaders with the capacity not only to
contribute to teams, but to lead them and our clients' organizations to change.
• Demonstrated leadership, whether through work, school or extracurricular activities, frames
your application in a favorable light.
Boston • A path is useless unless you can lead others to it. Can you persuade with facts and with
Consulting empathy? Can you bring traffic to the road less traveled?
Group • We see teams as a means not only to solve problems but to lead.
• Enjoy intense interaction among junior BCGers, senior partners, and clients. Here leadership
is not tied to hierarchy or experience.
• Your voice and ideas are valued regardless of your tenure. And your reward for arguing and
implementing your ideas? The leader you become in the process.
McKinsey & Co • The ability to take people forward and act as a catalyst for productive teamwork
• Recognize that different people lead in different ways; appreciate diversity of gifts that make
some people capable of inspiring others to rally behind them.
• We help create positive change within client organizations—and our own.
• Some say we are a leadership factory based on the CEOs, entrepreneurs, politicians, and
social-change agents we develop. (Cite 300+ CEOs are alumni)

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  Diversified Services (Business)

Featured Firms Deloitte Oliver Wyman PwC

Their work • World’s largest management
consulting firm
• Part of Marsh & McLennan
and affiliated with Mercer
• Combination of PWC,
Diamond, PRTM – now Booz
• Areas: Human capital, • Optimize business, improve & Co
strategy and operations, and operations and risk profile, • Help organizations works
technology accelerate organization smarter and grow faster
• Disciplined improvement performance • End-to-end services
initiatives marked by • Specialized industry and • Turn strategic insights into
powerful leaps and functional expertise operational realities by
breakthroughs • Rigorous methodologies bringing a mix of strategic,
• Acquired Monitor • Agenda-setting research functional and technical
• Non-profit fellowships – offer professionals
externship with Kiva (micro- • Leverage deep industry
lending organization) expertise
• ~3,500 consultants • Practical approach

What they look for • Know about Deloitte

• Can look at business
• Ability to hold a conversation
• Appreciate healthy exchange
• Embrace a challenge
• Comfort in ambiguity and
problems from all angles of ideas recurring change
• Dress like an executive • Strong aptitude and interest in • Believe in the opportunity
• Ability to sell yourself research • Value relationships
• Solid personal experiences • Eager to learn
• Display intellectual curiosity • Well-balanced
• Passion to make personal
impact

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  Functional Specialty

Featured Firms The Cambridge Group ZS Associates

Their work • Owned by Nielsen
• Demand Strategy – find or create demand as
• Create customer demand via sales and marketing
• Focus on:
a market maker - Customer insight
• Believe demand should be placed before - Product development
supply - Sales and marketing strategies
• Firm led by economists and business leaders - Sales compensation planning
• Entrepreneurial • Data-driven strategies
• Quantitative • Large base of clients in pharmaceuticals,
• Chicago office only biotechnology, and medical products
• ~115 professionals • Typically office-based work model, travel to client
as needed
• ~2,000 professionals

What they look for •

•
Problem solving
Impact
• High motivation, good work ethic, maturity, and
professional initiative
• Leadership • Attention to detail
• Creativity • Creative and innovation-oriented
• Curiosity • Primary and secondary market research skills
• Analytics/mathematical skills • Client service orientation
• Communication skills that will enable personal
impact with executives

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  “Pure” Strategists (Boutique)

Featured Firms LEK Consulting Marakon

Their work • Help business leaders make informed
decisions
•
•
Value creation via aligning direction
Challenge, collaborate, catalyst, conviction
• Produce practical, high-impact results – • “The Marakon Way”
quickly • Senior leaders on the ground
• Strategy, Shareholder Value Management, • Teams combine deep sector experience and
Mergers & Acquisitions support, Operations functional knowledge
& Organization and Marketing & Sales. • Considered generalists
• Philosophy of evidence, not opinion • Strong professional development
• ~900 professionals • Offices only in Chicago, NY, Boston, and London
• <500 employees
• Division of Charles River Associates

What they look for •

•
Honest, diligent, personable
Like to deep dive
•
•
Genuine interest in business
Analytic and creative
• Want big responsibility as an Associate • Confidence with humility
• Great camaraderie • Independent thinking with collaborative skills
• Understand issues facing CEOs and general
management
• Achievement oriented
• Possess common sense
• Desire to build and grow the practice
• “Clear interest in Marakon”

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  “Pure” Strategists (Large)

Featured Firms AT Kearney Strategy& (PwC)

Their work • One of McKinsey’s original founders – firm
split and Chicago office became ATK
• Founded in 1914 (one of the originals) – famous
for creating the NFL
• Previously, part of EDS – now independent • Formerly Booz Allen Hamilton:
though management buyout - 2008 – Split with USG business
• Foundation in operations and manufacturing - 2009 – Merged with Katzenbach (Org Perf)
• Focus on “CEO’s agenda” - 2012 – Merged with Axom Advisory Partners
• Apprenticeship model (Digital bus)
• Collaborative - 2013 – Merged with Management Engineers
• Diversity of thought (Bus strat)
• Global Business Policy Council • Capabilities-driven strategy
• AT Kearney Global Prize Competition • Tough challenges, side-by-side with clients
• ~3,300 employees • Align consultants to industries and/or functions
(IT, Ops, Org/Leadership)
• Become famous for something, build personal
brand
• ~3,300 employees

What they look for •

•
Strong academic record
Robust analytical and quantitative skills
•
•
Thought leadership
Analytics/problem solving
• Superior problem-solving skills • Personal leadership
• Often use team case/presentation in final • Big picture view
round • Motivation – done something very hard very well,
• Recruit Dec graduates to start Jan satisfaction to excel in the quest

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  Diversified Services (Business)

Featured Firms Ernst & Young KPMG

Their work •
•
Roots in accounting and tax
Global organization, wide footprint
• Similar to E&Y

• Evolving consulting services (re-building)

• Opportunity to grow fast
• Lot’s of infrastructure due to large scale of • Desire to cut through complexity
firm • Flexible work environment

What they look for •

•
Experience
Achievement oriented
•
•
Someone “technically brilliant”
Quality focus
• Energy • Team player
• Thrive on challenges • Ambition
• Integrity • Integrity
• Problem solver
• Global mindset
• Insightful

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  Diversified Services (Tech-base)

Featured Firms Accenture CapGemini

Their work •
•
Consulting, technology and outsourcing
Do it all (“comprehensive” services)
• Consulting, technology and outsourcing
• Focus on transformation
• Go deep, go broad • Identify, build, and carry through transformation
• Stimulating, challenging, cutting edge programs to improve growth and sharpen
competitive edge
• Diverse capabilities
• Collaborative Business Experience
• ~3,600 professionals

What they look for •

•
Interest in building a career with deep skills
Oriented to industry and/or function
• Boldness
• Entrepreneurial
• Value the resources of Accenture • Executive presence
• Down-to-earth
• Wide array of background and interests

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  Diversified Services (Tech-base)

Featured Firms IBM West Monroe Partners

Their work •
•
Consulting, technology and outsourcing
Do it all (“comprehensive” services)
•
•
Entrepreneurial in nature
Evolving firm
• Go deep, go broad • People first emphasis
• Stimulating, challenging, cutting edge • Growing rapidly – can invent the firm
• Emphasis on innovation • Focus more on middle market clients
• Global footprint and mindset • Broad industry focus
• Large scale transformation • Somewhat of a technology and process
• Strive to be first orientation
• ~400 consultants

What they look for •

•
Dedication
Team-oriented
•
•
Commitment
Potential for growth
• Relationship builder • Integrity
• Diverse talents • Achievement
• Strong academics • Diversity of thought
• Continual learner • Problem solving capabilities
• Forward thinker
• Change focused

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Firm Deep Dives Group:  Experience-based

Featured Firms Alix Partners Crowe Horwath Point B

Their work • Improve corporate financial
and operational performance
• Large public accounting firm
with advisory services
• Sought for industry and
functional expertise, and
• Experience and knowledge • Financial advisory services ability to execute
• Built on foundation of and performance • Focus on driving impact
corporate turnaround work improvement consulting • Serve start-ups to Fortunate
• Actionable, fact-based, result- • Focus: Financial services, 100s
oriented solutions manufacturing and • Work to minimize travel with
• Low leverage model distribution, healthcare, local staffing
government, PE • Drive ownership of the
business by all professionals
• Values include “Choice”

What they look for • EVERYTHING – very tough

interview process
• Willing to work from specific
locations
• Experienced consultants
• Self-driven leaders
• Dynamic • Prior consulting experience • Expertise in project
• Driven • Industry experience management and technology
• Intellectually experienced • Work well with structure implementation
• Demonstrated ability to get • Conservative approach • Experience working in
results multiple industries and
• Experience from professional business areas
services or industry

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 Capture Consulting Offers
5 Wrap-Up
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Wrap-Up / Summary

 Key component of your game plan: Which firm(s) are right for YOU – your
career, lifestyle, personality

 Clarity about “Why Firm” is a recruiting advantage

 Considerations:
Brand name Boutique
Established Emerging
International Locally-based
Generalist Specialist
Industry VS. Function
Structure Ambiguity
Long-term Short-term
Diversity Strong culture
Consult Manage/firm build

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Remember: Your End Goal

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Capture Consulting Offers
Presented by: Pam Schilling

www.archcareerpartners.com