Thoughts on The Parthenon Group

Looking at The Parthenon Group right now for strategy consulting. Looks like they keep a pretty low profile online so its been tricky to find much info on the firm. Any thoughts here about the culture, reputation, exit opps, etc. for post-MBA roles at Parthenon?

 

Check out their Asia office in Mumbai -- they cover "emerging markets" (ie anything non-US / Western Europe). A friend from the US works there and has been to Brazil, China, Middle East and SE Asia in the last year and made it back to Boston for company events. Can't beat that for travel!

 

The recession really hit Parthenon hard. During 2008-2009 they recruited at some schools and conduct numerous interviews but would only give out 1-2 offers. Did not hear about the reneging but a similar thing happened with OW and Bain where they tried to get people to stagger/delay their start dates.

 

Interesting question and analogy (Parthenon/LEK:MBB as Elite Boutique:Bulge Bracket). I've kind of wondered the same. Elite boutiques focus on a subset of the services offered by BBs (to me the most interesting, i.e. M&A and sometimes restructuring), but work with the same level of client and are book runners on major deals. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a notion that LEK and Parthenon are strategy shops that do less operational work..I'm curious to know if they solve the same type of c-level problems for Fortune 500 companies as MBB does...Or are they primarily doing PE due diligence and strat cases with mid-sized companies stemming from their network of PE port-cos. The fact that their cases are much shorter to me indicates that they do different type of work.

 
Best Response
CorpDev86:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a notion that LEK and Parthenon are strategy shops that do less operational work..I'm curious to know if they solve the same type of c-level problems for Fortune 500 companies as MBB does...Or are they primarily doing PE due diligence and strat cases with mid-sized companies stemming from their network of PE port-cos. The fact that their cases are much shorter to me indicates that they do different type of work.

At least in the case of LEK, it's more the latter. They do a lot of due diligence for MM and smaller deals, and a lot of their non-DD cases stem from them. Their regular client mix is also decidedly more MM than MBB. (A couple of very close friends work there.)

And there's a big push internally within LEK to move into operations and implementation, which isn't surprising at all. There's very limited growth potential for pure strategy cases, especially given LEK's position. They probably have been meaning to move into the space for a while but were probably limited by capacity constraints.

 

In the tier of consultancies below MBB, the firms are more differentiated by the fact that they tend to have specific niches, rather than by clear, overall 'prestige' differences.

Parthenon and LEK are small, mostly pure-play strategy shops. Because of this they rarely ever travel, and sometimes work on 2-3 different cases at once (this is actually something that Parthenon stresses in their recruiting info). The lifestyle, and I imagine method, is very different from what most people think of consulting (they probably do much more research and data analysis than client interviews and interactions). They both have strong PE practices, especially Parthenon, which is a plus for a lot of the more prestige-minded people on this board because it means that you have a shot at exiting to a MM PE firm. Parthenon has a very large education practice. LEK seems to do a lot of biotech and life sciences strategy, but this may be more office-dependent.

The other firms that pnb mentioned have a more similar business and work-travel model to MBB. OW is great in financial services, ATK in operations work, Deloitte is the biggest and does a mix of strategy and ops like MBB, although none have a PE practice.

 

PE is half the work at Parthenon; Friend who worked there did one corp strategy case in 3 years, was otherwise doing 2 PE due diligence projects at a time.

From my understanding, they do very little F500-type work outside their market niches (education & publishing being one).

I know my fund has hired them for both DDs and strategy projects. We've also hired all of MBB for strategy projects, but they're very small companies for MBB to work on, whereas they're in Parthenon's wheelhouse.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points
 

Oh my God, the sky is falling. You got wait listed for an interview after getting MBB interviews. Oh, the horrors. This is really nightmare-ish material. You must be feeling so inadequate. I just cannot imagine your pain and frustration. God forbid there were other qualified candidates who may have done more networking and/or were more impressive on paper.

Array
 

Temporibus possimus fuga repellat exercitationem enim necessitatibus et sit. Molestias dolorum tempore eveniet sed excepturi. Itaque sed dolores recusandae voluptatem adipisci. Velit minima mollitia modi cupiditate. Et nobis velit ut aut. Voluptates similique ut odit ut. Maiores ducimus provident impedit soluta vero.

Nemo expedita aliquam necessitatibus sint aut. Unde molestiae et aspernatur aut repellendus eaque. Ut rerum ea nemo error. Est ipsum voluptatem ducimus dolorum cum rem. Molestiae voluptate sed adipisci voluptatem accusantium necessitatibus dolor. Veniam qui unde culpa explicabo vel sed necessitatibus. Architecto cum quos vero repudiandae.

 

Sit veritatis qui earum et quaerat quidem ut. Perspiciatis ullam dolorem explicabo ut quidem. Nisi omnis eaque consequatur qui. Qui cum quasi ea tempore ab aliquam.

Minima consequatur delectus neque expedita officia. Placeat aut vitae aut aut. Quo dolor laboriosam quidem architecto quibusdam.

Et et optio quo. Distinctio rerum veniam vero id nihil velit dolor consequatur. Quis ut omnis laborum voluptas debitis quam blanditiis voluptas.

Accusamus tenetur aspernatur non illo. Ab culpa voluptas ducimus inventore ratione. Velit debitis molestiae possimus nobis et. Repellat vel consectetur ipsa iusto. Doloremque dolorum ullam et quo consectetur.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • Cornerstone Research 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • McKinsey and Co 97.7%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Consulting

  • Partner (4) $368
  • Principal (25) $277
  • Director/MD (55) $270
  • Vice President (47) $246
  • Engagement Manager (99) $225
  • Manager (152) $170
  • 2nd Year Associate (158) $140
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (108) $130
  • Senior Consultant (329) $130
  • Consultant (586) $119
  • 1st Year Associate (538) $119
  • NA (15) $119
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (145) $115
  • Engineer (6) $114
  • 2nd Year Analyst (342) $102
  • Associate Consultant (166) $98
  • 1st Year Analyst (1046) $87
  • Intern/Summer Associate (188) $84
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (547) $67
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”