Are you an iPhone user? If you are, then it is very probable that you also own an iPad, a MacBook, and Airpods. Do you frequently order from Amazon? If so, it is reasonable to assume that you own an Alexa homekit and a Kindle e-reader too! Apple’s and Amazon’s product lines are showcase examples […]
Author: Bence Borbély
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 […]
This article was inspired by a recent conversation with an IT prodigy who specializes in building virtual games used for recruitment purposes. Online assessments, aptitude tests, and gamified problem-solving tasks have become ubiquitous in the recruitment processes of top companies, with consulting firms being some of the earliest adopters. However, the scope of these tests […]
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 […]
With the emergence of cryptocurrencies in 2009, the financial industry has experienced major disruption. This invention acted as a catalyst for many subsequent innovations, which came about by building on the revolutionary blockchain technology, or by reacting to it. A prime example for this phenomenon are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). As opposed to cryptos, […]
Cryptocurrencies are some of the hottest commodities among investors, and also the subject of heated debate. While some of the most respected investment banks, such as JP Morgan, are investing heavily into blockchain technology, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler has often vocalised his scepticism towards cryptos as an inflated speculative […]
Skyrocketing energy prices in the wake of the post-pandemic economic recovery has been all over the news, and for good reason. The rising cost of energy feeds into the pricing of all goods, causing inflation globally. What is more, these market trends have tremendous geopolitical significance, since the price of oil and other hydrocarbon-based products […]
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 […]
Journalists have a very specific writing style. Newspaper articles rarely have a storyline, or a narrative curve. Instead, they make their most significant statement right in the title, and the first sentence of the first paragraph. As we proceed reading, we are gradually unfolding the issue at hand, finding out more circumstantial details about the […]
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 […]
Economic meltdowns hold important lessons for business consultants. Since the philosophies, frameworks, and insights developed by top firms contribute to the business practices which play a role in making the economic system unsustainable, a crisis signals the need for reflection. For instance, in the lead up to the 2008 Great Recession, McKinsey actively promoted mortgage […]
Knowing the ins and outs of upcoming trends in finance is indispensable for any aspiring consultant. You are likely to receive a question at your upcoming job interview, which assesses to what extent you are up-to-date with the latest business developments, and also requires you to reflect on that knowledge with regards to a major […]
I have recently been asked questions on how pioneering inventions will interact with government regulation in multiple consultancy interviews. Cryptocurrency, electric and self-driving cars, 5G bandwidth, and the Internet of Things represent some of the technologies with the greatest market potential for the upcoming decade, and so making predictions on how they will develop is […]
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 […]
Although commentators have long predicted a shift towards remote working, the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly driven the point home. As we currently stand, the question is not if the work-space will digitalize but to what extent. Most consulting firms have managed the transition to remote working relatively easily, and some have even realised that they […]
‘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 […]
Expertise in case studies is considered a given not just among the veterans of business life, but even for newly aspiring consultants, who wish to break into the consultancy industry. Market-sizing, competitor-analysis, pricing-strategy and legal risk-assessment are all components to a standard case study which we tend to give primacy to, yet in many cases, […]
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 […]
For all those seeking a career in the consultancy sector, the obscenely competitive nature of MBB applications is hardly news. Candidates are highly aware of the acceptance rates which never exceed a few percent, yet still try their fortunes with consulting, often not despite, but because of this. Nevertheless, these ambitious careerists are exactly the […]