Consulting in Middle East
CO
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(Chimp, 6
Points)
on 10/29/10 at 5:45am
Hello all,
Anyone out there know the what is happening in the management consulting scene in the Middle East? How are comapnies faring? What is the current pecking order? What is the projected outlook?
Thanks





My cousin is with PWC in
My cousin is with PWC in Oman. He loves it, said half the year is super busy, the other half is quiet. He also says it seems to be picking up. Do you have any specific questions that I could forward to him?
booz is the only real player
booz is the only real player in the region, every1 else is an afterthought
Booz is largest though losing
Booz is largest though losing share (heard ~500 consulting staff...though they do a lot of long-term design/implementation so the consultant profile may be a bit different)...McK is second ~250 consultants...BCG at ~100, Bain at ~80....OW strong in telco (don't know size), Monitor and ATK have been picking up some steam...Arthur D. Little has been around a while...Roland Berger was in Bahrain..but things are very dicey now....my two cents..happy to hear from others who have more current info.
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if you haven't seen this, not
if you haven't seen this, not really relevant but a curious read
http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N18/dubai.html
that article's been beaten
that article's been beaten into the ground. Wouldn't take anything it says as fact unless confirmed by at least 3 other sources - the guy hated consulting and the ME and got fired for tweeting or blogging about his client or some shit.
Plus, my friends at MIT who knew the guy thought he was a few fuel rods short of a nuclear reactor, for whatever that's worth.
ditto bleedblue...the story
ditto bleedblue...the story is a non-story
seekingalpha2 wrote: Booz is
Booz is largest though losing share (heard ~500 consulting staff...though they do a lot of long-term design/implementation so the consultant profile may be a bit different)...McK is second ~250 consultants...BCG at ~100, Bain at ~80....OW strong in telco (don't know size), Monitor and ATK have been picking up some steam...Arthur D. Little has been around a while...Roland Berger was in Bahrain..but things are very dicey now....my two cents..happy to hear from others who have more current info.
This seems pretty accurate. A lot of these firms had ambitious growth strategies but the crisis slowed things down considerably, and now all the pro democracy protests in the region have hurt them even further.
Some firms have frozen recruitment until things settle, while others are relocating people from places which have been hit hard like Egypt, Libya and Bahrain to more stable countries like UAE/Saudi/Qatar.
In general, OW is growing rapidly; they just opened an Abu Dhabi office and merged with OC&C. Roland Berger is a small team based all over the ME, currently has some projects in Saudi Arabia and trying to expand into the Turkish market. ATK and Monitor are recruiting, and there are/were rumors that ATK would merge with Booz. Nothing exciting going on at MBB... I'm only aware that Bain is hiring senior people which should create quite a few job opportunities for people looking to get in at entry/grad level.
As for Big 4 Advisory: EY and Deloitte are expanding, KPMG is hiring in certain areas like Saudi and PwC is probably going to be firing people soon.
The above is what I've heard from various people at these firms, so some of it may be inaccurate.
The most dynamic places in the ME are currently Saudi Arabia (especially Eastern Province), Qatar and to some extent the UAE. Historically Financial Services was one of the top industries in the region but this is obviously not the case currently. I'd personally focus on Oil/Gas, Telecom and/or Healthcare.
I see lots of opportunities for all these companies now, given many firms need restructuring and revised strategies. There's also some deal flow in the places I mentioned above, especially compared to last year, so we'll start seeing some PMI type work and everything else related to that. The major challenge will be dealing with low fees as clients will not be willing or able to pay too much, and the outcome of the current wave of rebellion throughout the Middle East.