Consulting toolkit consulting careers

© 2007-2012 IES Development Ltd. All Rights Reserved

CONSULTING TOOLKIT


Consulting Careers


AGENDA

• Consulting vs Management roles• The landscape

– Types of consultant– Types of business development role

• Consulting Interviews– Cases– Behavioral

• Q&A


CONSULTING vs MANAGEMENT ROLES

Some people are better suited as consultants, others as line managers

CONSULTING LINE MANAGEMENTLove…… •PROJECT LIFE

•100m Sprints•Problem solving•Ideas and concepts•Blank sheet of paper•Learning•Exploring and understanding•Living on a plane/travel

•STABLE LIFE•Marathon running•Managing people•Getting stuff done•Building things•Meeting goals/objectives•Having responsibility•Living at home and friends

Good at….. •Analysis•Going up learning curve fast•Working in a team of peers•Intellectual cutnthrust•Building and relationships trust quickly

•Intellectual leadership•Producing powerpoint packs

•Follow-up and persistence•The detail of implementation•Managing diverse types of people and motivations

•Organisational politics•Building long term relationships

•Real leadership•Producing results

© 2007-2012 IES Development Ltd. All Rights Reserved 4120112 © Chris Doran

Consulting is not a career choice to be made lightly………

Theodore Roosevelt

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

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There are several different types of consultant

TYPES OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTGeneralist Functionally related

TOP TIER•Bain & Company•Boston Consulting Group• McKinsey & Company

IT-RELATED•Accenture•Booz Allen Hamilton•Capgemini Consulting•HP Enterprise Services

•IBM Global Business Services•Infosys•Logica•Tata Consultancy Services•Wipro

SECOND TIER•A.T. Kearney•Booz & Company•L.E.K. Consulting •Monitor Group •Roland Berger•OC&C Strategy Consultants•Oliver Wyman

ACCOUNTING-RELATED•Deloitte Consulting•Ernst & Young•Stern Stewart

•KPMG•PriceWaterhouseCoopers

BOUTIQUE/LOCAL e.g.•ZS Associates (Sales&Marketing)•Eden McCallum (UK retail)•Greenwich Associates (Finance)

HR-RELATED•Hay Group•Hewitt Associates•Mercer

•Towers Watson•Headhunters (e.g.Egon Zehnder, Heidrick&Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Korn Ferry)


McKinseyBCGBain

BoozMonitorMercer

DeloitteOliver Wyman

PWCLEK

Ernst & YoungA.T. Kearney

IBMAccentureParthenon

KPMGKatzenbach

Towers PerrinCapgemini

Gartner

8.48.18.0

6.56.36.2

5.85.85.65.45.45.45.45.35.35.25.1

4.84.84.7

Source: The Vault Survey

BY REPUTATIONTOP MANAGEMENT CONSULTING COMPANIES

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There are many different types of corporate development roles with different skill profiles required

TYPES OF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT ROLE

Strategy

Internal consultant on strategy projects

Key skills: consulting, problem solving, analytical, solo operator

Deals

Supporting M&A, JVs, alliances

Key skills: Valuation, commercial contracts, relationship building

Analysis and Planning

Benchmarking, analysing performance, optimising

Key skills: Modeling, analysis

Business Development

High level sales, managing partners, reputation building

Key skills: Sales, relationship building, drive

Also consider HQ vs Regional vs BU roles• HQ: Corporate Initiatives•Regional: Regional CEOs “fire brigade /SWAT team”

CEOs Office

CEO’s go-to person, follow-up, composing reports and presentations

Key skills: Organisation, writing, getting stuff done

Always ask: “What is the career path?”


There are many different types of corporate development roles with different skill profiles required

CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT ROLES IN ASIA

1) Regional roles for Western Multinationals investing heavily in Asia, especially:• Finance• Industrial, Chemicals• Pharmaceutical• FMCG• Hi-tech/software

2) China roles for big Multinationals where you have• MandarinOR• Special industry expertise/connections

3) Corporate roles for the few MNCs with Asian HQs (e.g. HSBC/Cathay Pacific/SCB/AIA)

Very fragmented, so job-finding approach:

• Research!• Network!• Kiss lots of frogs!


• Recruiting is a consulting company’s core competence – they are only as good as their worst people, so they invest greatly in their recruiting process

• Not just looking for good consultants… looking for potential partners

• Two routes:–Milk Round: Typically 2-3 on-campus rounds, with 4+

interviews per round, partners final round, anyone can veto–Write-in: Each firm/office has different rules/criteria

• Key points: –If you miss the main annual process, it will be much harder–Which office will you apply to? Usually – the one where you

have the best chance

CONSULTING INTERVIEWS

To succeed in consulting interviews you will need to prepare


McKINSEY INTERVIEWS

Require competency in

all 4 and a “spike” in 1

area

• Every interview has a case, and one interpersonal area to dig into in a behavioural interview

• Team “wash-up” session afterwards - Hire yes/no, backed up with facts (so arm your champion with evidence!)

McKinsey looks for competency in 4 areas and a “spike” in one

Area Yardstick question

Problem Solving “Would I be worried if this person worked for a competitor?”

Personal Impact “Would I be happy to have this person representing McKinsey in a meeting with a CEO?”

Interpersonal Skills

“Would I want this person on my team at 2:00am with a meeting at 8:00am?”OR“Would I want to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with this person for a week?”

Drive/Energy “Do they have a record of outstanding achievement?”


CASE INTERVIEWS• Purpose: To understand how you think, how you solve problems• What hirers are looking for:

– Structured, logical thinking– Broad cross-functional business fluency and common sense in a new situation– Numeracy– Passion for problem solving

• Methodology:– Provide an outline of a business problem, usually drawn from their consulting

experience– Ask an open-ended question: “How would you approach this problem?”– Note how the interviewee thinks – flexibility, structure, depth, insights,

response to being wrong– Depth, not breadth, spend 15 minutes on one situation

– How to succeed: Take a moment to think, apply frameworks (e.g. issue tree), enjoy the process, be intellectually curious, PRACTICE 50 TIMES!

Best case interview website

Most consulting companies use case interviews to test your problem solving skills

http://www.caseinterview.com/




BEHAVIOURAL INTERVIEWS• Purpose: Drill down on a specific skill to understand how you work, your style/

motivation/values• What hirers are looking for:

– Honesty – depth enables you to spot bluffing– Proactive approach to problems– Reflection and learning

• Methodology:– Ask about a specific situation in their past when they used a skill e.g.“Tell me

about your worst team experience?”– Establish a full grasp of the situation– Elict interviewee thinking: “What did you do?” “Why did you that?”, “What

was the result?”, “What would you do differently?”– Depth, not breadth, spend 15 minutes on one situation

– How to succeed: Prepare some real life stories to illustrate skills that are required for the job you are interviewing for

Recent HBR Blog

Most consulting companies use behavioral interviewing to probe non-problem solving skills/competencies

http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2013/01/the-right-way-to-conduct-a-job.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)

Consulting toolkit consulting careers

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