Different Types of Consulting - Respective prestige level
Just had some questions about Consulting in general
I was wondering about the different types of consulting, what they refer to, their respective prestige level, and the companies that have that specific consulting.
- So when people say "Management Consulting" or when a Firm has a "Management Consulting Unit", they are referring to specifically their strategy consulting? Correct? Management Consulting does not include Operations, IT, or Industry Specific Consulting?
And in general, we have Management/Strategy Consulting, Operations Consulting, IT Consulting, and then other Industry Specific Consulting?
- Management Consulting is generally considered prestigious (Lets define "Prestigious" as what MBA schools like the most).
Is operations consulting less prestigious? IT consulting even less? And industry specific, where does that fall to?
Or is all consulting on the same level?
How does the prestige breakdown look?
- Do all consulting firms have a management/operations/IT consulting unit?
For example, I know MBB has management consulting. But do they also have operations and IT?
Do other consulting firms like Accenture, Delliote also have MC? Or are they operations and IT only?
Thanks for taking the time to read my post! Hopefully you can clear some misunderstandings I might have
Anyone? Please help clear my misunderstandings and questions
ill try to help clarify things for you.
the only "true" management consulting firms are MBB, however this is moot. nobody really cares about "management consulting" as much anymore, its purely consulting. firms are so diversified nowadays that you primarily separate them by the type of consulting they do (i.e. strategy, IT, HR, etc.)
prestige does not necessarily go hand in hand with the type of consulting you do. MBB does the same kind of consulting that Deloitte does, or Oliver Wyman or any other firm for that matter. However, 90% of their work is strategy, and some indirect work is in IT, etc. Some firms specialize in other fields, like Accenture in IT. In no way does this make one firm better than another. MBB is so prestigious is because they have a incredible workforce. They hire almost exclusively from top MBA programs, have a incredible alumni base, work with top clients, etc. But working for a smaller firm like Navigant Consulting (for example) is not worse. Its just what you want to get out of it. I think you need to look beyond prestige or youll never make it into the field. There are just as good consultants at PwC/Deloitte/OW/Monitor, etc. as there are in MBB.
no, not all firms have these departments. Next time google this before asking people on the forum, You can easily read what services firms provide on their websites. Accenture is an IT house, however they have a small strategy group. Deloitte is more of a strategy/risk firm, but they do IT work too. Google the firms man.
Hi! I follow up this discussion and I put it differently: given that the core business of MBB is strategic consulting, they also have other practices, such as distressed firms restructuring, M&A and corp.fin.
Similarly EY, deloitte, pwc and kpmg are primarily auditors, but among their practices there is also strategic consulting, corporate finance and so on.
The question is: in the latter firms the practices that are not auditing are good enough? can you do good experience there, or it would be better to target other firms that are less prestigious (at least to my perception) like at kearney, oliver wyman, arthur d little, but that operate mainly in strategic consulting?
To make a parallelism with another industry: if you want to work in marketing, probably p&g would be one of the best options: as a second choice would you advise another fortune 500 firm, that is not so focused on marketing, or it would be better to go in a less known firm, but which is putting a lot of effort in the marketing division?
I hope I was clear, thank you for your answers
"There are just as good consultants at PwC/Deloitte/OW/Monitor, etc. as there are in MBB. "
That's nonsense, on average this is definitely not true.
Firstly, you can't dismiss something as "nonsense" when you then discuss a completely different metric (the average, rather than the upper bound).
I would agree about Deloitte, but as for Monitor/OW, the only difference to MBB is the prestige, and people want the prestige so they can hop ship. It's not the low-level analysts doing it for their CV that make a good consultancy, it's the managers, principals and partners. And they don't give a shit about prestige.
Pardon me for my ignorance, but could someone explain what MBB actually means? I'm assuming it a boutique management consulting firm?
Sean, MBB stands for McKinsey (&Company), Bain (&Company) and Boston (Consulting Group); top three management consulting companies :)
I wonder why mmonkey seems to think that its nonsense that there are just as good consultant at PwC/Deloitte/OW/Monitor and etc., as there are in MBB? Surely, not everyone is hung up on the prestige thing of MBB?!
1) Yes there are different types of consulting, and I think in common nomenclature Management Consulting is now a catch-all.
2) The biggest difference is who does implementation, and what percentage of the work is Strategy (of any sorts, I'm not going to worry about the finer points of overall corporate strategy vs. short term ops/talent/mkt strategies), and the level of implementation in this firms.
I've stated before that I've run across MBB doing identical projects for different groups in the same company we are in (looking at "shadow HR" in one geography while we do the same in another). Supply Chain Category management, global consolidation of O&G IT department, development of a new healthcare model etc. At the end of the day, the amount of their work in developing the plan vs. implementing the plan really differentiates the firms.
As for talent, in my experience (and I have a friend from university at MBB who I was in a couple classes with) and when I tried we performed the same. The difference is he always brought 100% effort. This would be consistency in the product produced by him. While our best work would be similar, his average work is likely of a higher calibre. That being said, the best partners/directors require you to work to your best and that's where the "top band" comes into play.
The best at other well regarded firms are very similar to the best at the others, but there isn't as many of them in the firms population as at the more prestigious firms. Although many of the other non-MBB firms are actively working to improve this, because it improves their ability to compete.
Check out firmsconsulting where they show the good and bad of all the firms generally. Including poor MBB work, and great Big 4 work, or vice-versa. Again, my main point is I feel MBB is more consistent in delivering great work vs good work....and the pay is better ;)
TT
Types of Consulting by Non-MBB Firms (Originally Posted: 08/29/2014)
I have found this forum seems to have a lot of information about MBB work, but I'm not sure everyone is familiar with the work by the other firms. Considering the number of questions asking about non-MBB firms, I thought I would start a thread to share the types of projects done by consultants at these firms. This is my personal experience, so I can't speak to other consultants.
PwC (Not Strategy&) - My Personal Projects (Past 4 years) - Established PMO (structure, processes, tools) to facilitate $3 billion construction and strategic sourcing project - Four organizational design projects (3 design, 1 implementation; O&G Major, Provincial Healthcare System, Utility, Engineering R&D Firm). These generally included aligning strategy to the structure, governance, and building 10 year financial models for each of the recommended alternatives - Procurement spend analysis for supply chain project, identifying opportunities for cost reduction and developing approaches to drive down costs - Mapping processes and tasks to build an interactive model and simulation of patient flow within a healthcare organization to improve quality while maintaining current costs levels - Benchmarking and reporting on Operating Models for 8 of the 25 largest global private banks (in person interviews, and qualitative discussions as well as financial/KPIs) - Cost Model for IT to determine the cost to deliver services (similar to a pricing model, but internal); used to forecast changes to services and their effect on costs; we also helped develop a tool to prioritize projects for implementation - Sustainability Value Analysis for Fortune 500 manufacturing company with their investors, customers, and suppliers etc. - Supply chain vendor financial analysis to support negotiations - Centralization of finance function in group of 11 companies (Procure through Pay Process, Structure) - One SAP Support Project (3 months)
TT
I worked for a tier 2 shop. Project experiences include: - Network analysis / optimization for airline co - Predictive analytics modeling framework for retailer - B2C marketing strategy for traditional b2b hardware co - PMO for IT implementation for retailer - PE due diligence
Nice! More contributions would be great.
abcd
Can you elaborate on the types of models you were building for these excperiences? Looking into purchasing an online program but can't decide if cases would be better for big 4 advisory type of work. Thanks
All sounds like cooler projects than what I'm involved with in MBB lol
At a Big 4 Advisory firm for a bit over 2 years and have worked on the following: - Distribution Channel planning and mobilization (road-mapping and resource planning) - Implementation of a nation-wide quoting platform - Cost model for IT department - Vendor Selection to update/change an Insurance carrier's operations and business process - Product Strategy for an Insurance company (more focused on the Cost-Benefit model side) - Integration of a Business Intelligence tool
Most important lesson I've learned in the past 2 years is this: Almost anything explained in a high level sounds awesome. Even while writing this post and trying to boil down my project in one line, I almost convinced myself that they sound like cool projects. Its when you get into the details and the nitty-gritty (which you most likely will) - that's when things can get very uninteresting/too technical very quickly. Granted, I did enjoy some of these projects, and even during the ones I did not like, there were aspects I enjoyed. Just thought I'd put that out there.
Other types of Consulting? (Originally Posted: 10/20/2008)
Hey there, I have recently been starting to look into Business Consulting, and have pretty much read every post on this forum. However, I am starting to second-guess my ability to excel in the field, as I am looking at the case studies, and not exactly acing them.
I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on the field of Management Consulting, or some other related types of consulting?
I'm definitely very interested in going on-site and working with different companies, but I do want to see other options that I have, before I commit myself to the path of Business Consulting, only to be disappointed in the end.
So basically, I'd like to know:
I know this is a bit of a long, and maybe irritating question, but I am insanely confused about this. If anyone has a better resource to point me towards to learn about this type of stuff, that would be amazing as well.
Thanks in advance!
but if you really read every post on this forum on the subject then you'd have the answers to all of your questions... just search these questions are always getting asked...
best of luck :)
I have never seen anything regarding management consulting here, it's mainly business consulting from what I've read. If you could find a thread on one, I would gladly read it.
usually here we consider MBB to be management consulting...(which is literally half the threads in the consulting forum) what is business consulting vs management consulting in your opinion?
"Business consulting" would be a vaguely more general term that encompasses management consulting. What exactly did you think the difference was?
To be honest, I thought Business Consulting encompassed the financial end more so, while Management consulting pretty much dealt with the daily operations end(including lower management). I suppose it was just a misunderstanding on my part, it's just confusing to decide what you want to be "when you grow up," even though I'm almost there, ya know?
This is only one post but it seems to me:
-you do not know how to look up terminology -you do not know how to use the search function find answers
The most basic thing management consultants do is desk research. Read the Vault guide to consulting (see scribd.com) to get a better basic understanding of what you're getting into.
Different Types of Consulting - Different types and kind of skills (Originally Posted: 05/11/2008)
I would imagine this is a simple question, but until recently I would group most consulting into managerial, given that is what vault.com ranks the companies. What exactly are the different types and what kind of skills would best fit for each position, as well as what kind of work does each category of consulting do?
id say that there are essentially two poles of consulting--mgmt and technical, and that most types can be placed somewhere on the spectrum in between. mgmt at its most general would be what youre referring to--ie lets say i want to know how to grow my company, so then i hire a strategy consultancy. technical at its most specific would be something like say there's a guy who specializes in say IT, and you need something very specific done (need a better network set up or something), and so you hire them to do it.
What kind of sub groups are there are of management consulting or different areas if there are not as pronounced as well as how each rank. I talked to one friend who recieved offers at Deloitte's consulting branch and McKinsey as well for supply chain consulting. I would imagine that McKinsey would be her choice (given its higher rating on vault), but she said that specifically for supply chain Deloitte was better (and paid better). More specifically, I am a finance major so I wondering if there were certain types of consulting more aligned and a more natural fit for a finance major.
if youre looking for finance--
-McKinsey's corporate finance practice -financial institutions consulting at McKinsey, owfs/mow, bain (but with the exception of owfs i dont think you can specifically apply to these practices) -pe due diligence at MBB
most consulting anyways isnt really about your skills as much as your ability to think (and bullshit) rigorously, so your major usually isnt that relevant. if youre looking for rankings, there are thousands of those types of posts on the forums, so either search the threads or do some research on the internet.
Do a bit more research on consulting and try and set up talks with current or ex-consultants. Strategy consulting will be your best bet, but you cannot really apply for a specific segment/industry (other than the corp fin groups). However, once you start you can angle for finance-heavy projects, FS clients, PE work, etc.
No one really cares about "specialty" rankings. Mckinsey > Deloitte, can't really think of any circumstance one would pick Deloitte.
Don't really know how to break down different types of consulting- if you want a good luck at the different functions, closely examine the Monitor website and the different companies of the Monitor Group. Read the Vault guide as well.
"...can't really think of any circumstance one would pick Deloitte."
She says she was offered 50k at McKinsey and 75k at Deliotte.
Double check your facts.
There are as many flavours of consulting as there are fields in which people may need advice. From strategy to lactation consultants (I kid you not - http://www.lcgb.org/) It's relatively easy for anybody who provides advice as a service to call what they do 'consulting'.
Corporate Whore - The Musings of a Legal Prostitute
Different types of consulting within company--know each other? (Originally Posted: 09/14/2012)
In a big company, such as Deloitte that has many divisions (S&O, IT, etc.), do people know each other across divisions? For instance, would a Deloitte consultant that works in S&O know IT Deloitte consultants? Or would they not know each other for the most part?
At my internship with Accenture, there was a clear split between business consultants and IT consultants. They were located on different floors of the office, never had projects together and even had separate christmas parties or other corporate events
In a Big 4 company, these different divisions will usually be completely separate. Unless there is some kind of rare project where it is both IT and S&O at the same time, you usually will only work with people in your department. However, there are many offices where the different consulting divisions will be on the same floor. In addition, these companies are making a push to have more events where you can network across divisions.
Depends. Most big transformations will have Human Capital / Change paired with S&O consultants, and almost always in big Implementation (SAP/Oracle) projects. Also depends on the office. A small regional office like mine, we are all on the same floor so city events are together. For the lines of service we tend to go our own way for the bigger events.
I've been contacting some friends within Deloitte to try and get me in touch with some of their other divisions and everyone always says they don't really know anyone. It seems like there is a clear split in the work and no interaction (unless you're friends and go out to drink/eat/party).
Same. I reached out to a Tech Consultant, the only people he referred me to were in the tech service area. Although all of them had mentioned that they worked with people from all service areas on projects, so go figure.
I've been contacting some friends within Deloitte to try and get me in touch with some of their other divisions and everyone always says they don't really know anyone. It seems like there is a clear split in the work and no interaction (unless you're friends and go out to drink/eat/party).
Unless you make the effort on Fridays (when you're actually at your HQ'd office) to network with people from other areas, you're probably only going to know people from your vertical/horizontal alignment. Things can change if your client has your firm working on like 5 different types of projects and you all go out for dinner/drinks at night.
I've noticed there is quite a difference between how different areas/acquired firms/and internal networks operate. (For example, some people on long implementation projects aim for 40 hr weeks, strategy guys expect at least 60 etc). Sometimes it can feel like you're working for a completely different company if you're staffed in a new area within the firm (which I like, you learn more/different perspectives).
When you're in the huge consulting arms of Deloitte, PwC, or ACN, it's all WHO you know and who likes you. Expand/focus your question if you're trying to figure something in particular out about these firms that we can help you with.
We have a little bit of both. I am planning to get lunch with some of the girls from other departments in the office, and we get people brought in on projects from all departments, but generally we need to make an effort to get to know people as well.
Events help, and we have an intranet and a big focus on internal networking which helps also.
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