Consulting to Corporate Strategy to...?

Hey wanted to crowd source some wisdom on the topic of exit opportunities AFTER a two year stint in Corporate Strategy.

I've done 3 years in non-MBB consulting, developed as an 'expert' in a niche sector, and now have an interview to join the Corporate Strategy/Business Development team (as a Senior Analyst) for the largest company in this sector. To me it seems like a great fit for my background but not sure what I would do AFTER the 2 years or so in the position - do people normally stay on and get promoted through the ranks? Possible to make a jump to MBB? Go to b school? Or...?

 
Best Response

@"tds2006"

Pretty standard to go into a business unit after a 2-3 year stint in corporate strategy.

In what role?

This is actually an interesting question. I'm at an MBB myself, and what I see on the client side is that senior line managers are all sales people or ex-sales people. The strategy/development/planning/whatever groups that do project-based work and recruit from consulting and business schools do things very different from what line management does and develop a very different, hardly even overlapping, skill set. Higher-ups in the BUs basically manage sales people and do business development themselves (key clients).

Maybe in B2C industries like FMCG/Pharma/Telecoms/Consumer Tech it is somehow different. I have limited experience in those areas, but I can see a consultant-type person moving to brand management or something like that. At B2B companies though it's the sales people (very often ex-engineers and/or product specialists) who drive the business and who rise to the senior positions in BUs. Even someone like a BU GM or a regional VP et cetera is still very much a sales person. The only other senior people are "functional" executives - back office, like finance, HR et cetera. This kinda includes corp.strat, sad as it is.

 

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