Graduates flock to the consulting industry for the opportunity to work on interesting cases, get experience across a variety of industries, and build a valuable professional skill-set. But there’s an emerging threat to this value proposition, and it’s coming from within. If you happen to know a young consultant at a top tier firm, you’ve […]
Author: Sam Smith
All organisations engage in marketing activities: you have to show your customers you have something they want, after all. For top-tier consulting firms, there are two primary marketing efforts – the first, marketing to attract entry-level recruits, is quite visible. Firms regularly visit target school campuses, and buy online advertising on LinkedIn and Facebook to […]
Mark Twain, the fiction writer, first popularised the phrase “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”. Twain erroneously attributed the line to a British Prime Minister, who in fact, was never recorded saying any such thing. It’s fitting, given what I’m about to describe, that one of the best-known claims about […]
As tech firms play larger roles in more peoples’ lives, they attract the attention of regulators. Around the world, enquiries and court cases are underway, scrutinising everything from data protection to anti-competitive behaviour, and even – most notably – the role of tech firms in election interference. In my last post, I disaggregated the ‘tech’ […]
The technology industry is booming: in 2008, Microsoft was the only tech firm ranked in the world’s top 10 public companies by market capitalisation. In 2018, tech firms take seven of the top ten spots (Financial Times Global 500). Top graduates are more interested in joining Google than Goldman Sachs. Start-up ecosystems are exploding as […]
Student consultants certainly mean well: for their CVs if not the organisations they consult to. But whether student consulting organisations deliver for clients or the students who take part is questionable. In this piece, I look at the reasons professional consulting firms are hired, and explain how student consultants are ill-placed to offer the same […]
It is cliché to talk of Airbnb as the hotel company with no properties, or Uber as the taxi company with no cars. In 2018, marketplace platforms – products or services that mediate transactions in other products and/or services between two or more groups – are ubiquitous in many industries. Marketplace platforms create value by […]
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Recruiting versus reality
Consulting firms are very good at selling themselves to potential recruits. But, like any sales pitch, there’s a degree of exaggeration behind the polished smiles. In this post, I explore the other side of the value propositions presented by consulting firms during the recruiting process: “You will be exposed to a wide range of problems […]
When you first start consulting, it can seem like a sort of corporate utopia: interesting work, a new client every few months, access to leaders of industry, great colleagues, endless career development and training, generous dinner budgets, extensive travel, nice hotels, international travel. But, the consulting world is the Partner’s oyster, not yours. It may […]
Top-tier consulting firms are notorious for two or three-year up or out policies, and poor work-life balance. But by working smarter, doing ‘just enough’ is usually sufficient for promotion and can also improve your quality of life. Before getting into the tips, I remind you that your personal life is more important than being a […]