ATK offer and firm outlook
I'm a 2nd-year MBA student at an M7. I just received an offer from A.T. Kearney (in the US), and I'm pretty floored by the package. I know this is pretty much the norm at MBB (though ATK's all-in is actually higher than MBB's), and I'm curious to know if this is the case with other firms as well.
Also, perhaps industry insiders might know: How is A.T. Kearney poised over the next few years? I guess I'm a little concerned given Booz has been acquired by PwC, Monitor by Deloitte and Roland Berger has been shopping around for a while...that said, ATK has this whole "Vision 2020" thing going on (google "A.T. Kearney and "Vision 2020") that I think sets it apart. What do you think?
My two cents - atk is on par if not better than Booz or monitor Deloitte. Unf for Booz and monitor their brands are being diluted by the giant who swallowed them. I haven't seen any proof Deloitte know what to do with monitor and the word on the street is that the monitor folks are bailing left and right because they don't want to be in a big implementation body shop.
Consulting is a year by year proposition anyway so ATK will be just fine in the short run. Congrats on the offer.
Thanks! As for Deloitte Monitor (they made it a point during recruiting to emphasize that they're different from S&O), I know of quite a few people who already moved or are moving on to "greener" pastures elsewhere. Monitor has definitely lost its sheen, and I guess the story will be the same for Booz. I guess given that ATK and Booz were in merger talks 3-4 years back, I was just curious as to how ATK is positioned going forward...though, of course, you did have a point when you said consulting is a year by year proposition.
Curious as to the breakdown of your offer package, especially the differentiation from MBB's.
Congratulations on the offer. I think you'll be fine.
ATK is a solid shop. If they do not sell themselves in the next year to the Big 4, there is a good chance that they will not exist as a firm in the near future.
Sure sounds like a solid shop then!
@udkeudke - a "good chance"? On what basis?
Lol. I think that I am making this sound more dire than it actually is. The strategic consulting world is undergoing massive consolidation. The days of the second tier shop are over. Parthenon has been approached by Big 4 but have rebuffed so far. LEK are for sale. An RB/Deloitte merger is imminent. The Strategy world is McKinsey BCG and to a lesser extent Bain. The Big 4 are the only ones with the capital and ambition to help the second tier stay afloat. Unfortunately, the senior partners at ATK do not realize this. Whatever second tier shop is the last one to sell will fold unfortunately.
The Big4 acquisitions/rumored acquisitions have much more to do with their own desire to rebuild their consulting practices than some doomsday for tier 2 strat houses. Audit revenues are flattening, Enron's in the rearview and the Big4 want these lucrative and diversified practices to bolster firm-wide revenues.
Consulting firms who want to remain independent will continue to expand their un-sexy, but steady revenue generating, consulting practices. Strat is too fickle to be your only meal; you need the fibers and proteins along with the sugar to remain healthy.
Why do you think ATK would have to sell themselves to one of the Big 4 instead of merging with another Tier 2 or even being purchased by MBB? If Bain (or even BCG) want to grow quickly and increase their presence in operations/supply chain, wouldn't ATK be the prime candidate?
From an MBB perspective, why buy the whole firm? Can't you just poach off a few partners, principals or some talent and build it accordingly? Believe it or not, culture does matter at these places, and you are diluting your special sauce by at least 40% by grafting on what most people there would think is an "inferior" shop, making for all kind of odd internal relationships. There are better ways of spending $1B of the partnership's money.
Congrats on the offer and I am also keen on knowing the potential outlook of the firm.
From the conversation here it seems that a merger seems unlikely. The only upside of considering ATK is that I hope the operational side will offer some experience to setting up a firm in the future.
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