MBB CAGR?

Hi monkeys! I recently got an offer with an MBB and am interviewing with the other two. I know it is really early in my career to be anywhere close to sure about this, but I am not completely ruling out the career consulting (partner track) option. Personally, I think M=B=B right now - and which one I choose is a function of the culture etc. But I was wondering if anyone has any data on their recent growth rates and any perspective on which ones are expected to grow/decline? Thanks!

 

Haha, if your offer is with BCG, you should ask whoever your recruiting buddy is about growth. Our growth is one of our core strengths, and its one of the areas that we're crushing it - BCG was the only firm that grew through the recession.

 
redninja:
Haha, if your offer is with BCG, you should ask whoever your recruiting buddy is about growth. Our growth is one of our core strengths, and its one of the areas that we're crushing it - BCG was the only firm that grew through the recession.

Yeah that's not true at all. And certainly implausible if this is where they've set the bar for "critical thinking."

 

I wouldn't worry about it. Keep in mind that coming out of undergrad you're going to need something like 12 years to start sniffing partner. 3 as an analyst, 2 getting your MBA, 6-8 to reach partner (much less director levels)

12 years ago, Apple hadn't released its first iPod, 9/11 hadn't happened, and you were probably striking out at your little league game. Predicting the general trend of the consulting industry, much less the individual firms within the industry in comparison to each other, that far down the line is probably not worth your time or effort unless you're looking at fast growing areas of the globe or hot industries, and even then... who knows.

Chances are it's a fairly unimportant problem anyway. If you make partner at any of MBB, and you'll be making money that should be sufficient to feed your 2 new kids and the wife you recently celebrated your 5 year anniversary with.

That's even supposing you CAN stay in consulting that long, given the up or out nature. And that's even supposing you WANT to stay in consulting that long (a major point that as a 22-year-old it is almost impossible to fully understand). My point isn't that this is a stupid concern at all... if you could see the future perfectly, it may well be a pretty relevant one. But even small immediate concerns should be controlling here rather than some prediction you make on each firm's growth.

 
Best Response

there are literally dozens of ways to decide between MBB, looking at growth for the overall firm is very silly

to be honest, from my experience at MBB, luck obviously plays a big role

if you are a manager in New Jersey and a partner that you get along with suddenly gets a lot of projects from a huge pharma co due to xyz macro factors, then you might be promoted much faster than your peer who is in SF and has a slowdown in tech.

or there might be a global healthcare crisis where all companies in the sector are cutting costs

above is just one made up scenario (but reflecting actual stories i've seen)

even if Bain grows fastest globally over the next few years, by the time you make partner it might be completely different

not to mention the % of people that go from analyst to even manager is like McKinsey Chicago over BCG NY

 

While I agree that looking at revenue growth rates solely would be unduly myopic, there is something to be said for using that approach for part of your analysis. For example, timlamcurry spoke about the "up or out" nature of consulting. I honestly feel that a slowly growing firm (McKinsey in this case) requires such a culture more than a faster growing competitor because there are fewer spaces available at the stop.

If you have a spade/diamond hierarchy (very few post-undergrad hires widening out to post-MBA and middle directors narrowing back to partners), then the pace of growth in the overall pool is quite important. I know anecdotally of several associates (post-undergrad) at my office who were directly promoted without business school. All in all, your ability to grow with the firm and have career flexibility is generally higher with a faster growing firm, ceterus paribus. Growth and size influence "culture".

Just my two cents.

 
YoungOne2012:
redninja can you elaborate a bit? I would've thought Bain is growing the fastest?
atleastimnotabanker:
Redninja, I am pretty sure that is what every consulting firm is telling the public/its employees...
expenseaccounts:
Yeah that's not true at all. And certainly implausible if this is where they've set the bar for "critical thinking."

sigh

When the recession hit, BCG (Americas) was able to sell a HUGE Pharma project that staffed literally over a hundred consultants for well over a year. If you work at MBB, you would know about this deal (both the client and the content) as it was the biggest deal sold during the first two years of the recession. It was great for the firm from a revenues perspective, but it wasn't all rainbows - work/life balance on that project was terrible, and a lot of people ended up burning out and leaving the firm because they disliked being stuck on that project. But yes, BCG actually was the only firm in the big 3 that saw continuous revenue growth ever year of the recession, primarily because of that one project.

One more thing.

Both the McKinsey office I worked at and the BCG office I currently work at were extremely transparent about the health of the firm. Every month there would be an office wide meeting where the partner in charge of the office would share revenues at a firm-wide, country-wide, regional and office level over the last five years with the entire office. These weren't "don't worry, we're doing great, keep drinking the kool aid" type presentations - they specified client names, revenue sources, ups/downs, etc. I obviously can't verify that every office does this, nor can I verify that Bain does this (I would love to hear a Bain perspective tho), but the notion that either firm was trying to pull a fast one on me is somewhat offensive. These firms are made up of data-driven people.

 
redninja:
I obviously can't verify that every office does this, nor can I verify that Bain does this (I would love to hear a Bain perspective tho).

I would assume every office at most global consultancies do such a thing. I can definitely verify for Bain.

I think other posters gave you a bit of flak for your comment since you made it sound like BCG was the distinct leader in growth and cited a recession-specific case. BCG is certainly crushing it (15% CAGR is very strong), but other firms are growing equally fast/faster (Bain equal, OW faster).

 

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