Category Archives: Uncategorized

“I want to be a management consultant” is a statement most careers advisors hear a few times a day. I heard it twice today myself. It’s easy to jump to advice about which companies to apply to or the application process. But there a few things students should think about before applying. First, there isContinue reading “So you want to be a management consultant? Three important things to tell aspiring students (and two things to get them to ask).”

We’ve been told for a long time, that ‘traditional’ management consulting is being ‘disrupted’ (or even ‘dead‘). The idea being that new entrants, the democratization of knowledge, the competition for talent (especially from technology companies) and the rise of ‘asset-based’ consulting (read consulting + databases & software) will knock the incumbents off their thrones. But, to paraphraseContinue reading “Consulting is changing, but the big beasts are still winning”

I’m writing this piece because there is a predominant, though not universal, view among management consultants in my network that things will return to normal after a pause in operations. An increasing stack of evidence suggests that this is not the case. First, I will outline the reasons for the relative complacency of especially youngerContinue reading “COVID-19 career survival for consultants: jobs & strategies”

It’s one thing to get a job in consultancy (congratulations!), but it’s another thing to be successful, whatever that means. Speak to any consultant, and they will bore you with their advice, regrets and could-have-beens. My dad always told me ‘if you need something, then go to the top’…. so I asked all the Partners in myContinue reading “Landed your consulting job? What now?”

Why do McKinsey & others spend so much time on the campuses of Oxford, INSEAD, London Business School & Harvard? The answer isn’t what you’d think. A student of mine, Ioanna, recently interviewed several strategy Partners, consultants, and HR-specialists as to why their recruitment effort was so skewed. In what order would YOU put theseContinue reading “Why do strategy consultancies recruit from elite universities?”