Olivery Wyman vs. PWC consulting

What's everyone opinion on Oliver Wyman vs PwC, specifically in healthcare management consulting field. This is for someone post-MBA.
I am looking for the perspective of salary, career advancement and exit opportunities?

 

OW--fast growing HC consulting practice. They currently do mostly payer/provider work, but are looking to expand their biopharma presence. Just poached 4 partners over from SDG/IMS.

Travel model, and I believe they're flat out right now. Latter isn't a bad problem to have. Pays very well, with higher bonus than most consulting firms. Believe in a "consultant to partner" model, so if you slot in as an Associate and bring game, could see partner within 6-8 years.

 
Best Response

I've always thought that OW is THE shop to go to if you aren't getting into MBB. MBB are a cut above in terms of prestige and exit options, so if you can't be at the top in those categories, I'd rather be tops in others (such as compensation and career progress potential within the firm), and OW is very strong there. I think Booz and Monitor have been around for longer and in some cases (such as Booz in the ME, where they are way stronger than MBB) these other consultancies may have an advantage over OW in terms of the quality of their practice, but OW pays more and offers more promotion potential. And the Big 4 consulting practices are not comparable to Booz, OW et al.

The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.
 

PwC's healthcare advisory is beginning to pick up momentum. They have been aggressively taking a market position in healthcare consulting so I would look into that.

I am certain the salary at OW is better though. People who work at PwC work for the brand and not for the money from I've been told.

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khara 3alekon:
PwC's healthcare advisory is beginning to pick up momentum. They have been aggressively taking a market position in healthcare consulting so I would look into that.

I am certain the salary at OW is better though. People who work at PwC work for the brand and not for the money from I've been told.

Can't speak for healthcare consulting in general, but I think perceived brand of OW>PwC. OW as a firm tends to have a lot of travel, so you may want to factor that into your decision.

Proboscis
 
consultingwiz07:
From what I have heard, PwC is rebuilding their advisory practice very fast and there is therfore a lot of room for advancement. In terms of prestige, I think OW has the edge.

I can shed light on this, and I agree with it.

In 2002, IBM bought PwC's consulting practice. About 50,000 associates/consultants. PwC's ex-consulting is basically today's IBM GBS Consulting. Here is the catch: PwC knew that its consulting team sucked in 2002, which is why it was a great move to sell it to IBM who needed people to maintain all their software applications and maintenance. IBM has changed and has become a more IT/Logistics consulting division now.

Back to PwC: PwC is definitely throwing resources at its Advisory Practice. Some of the top line growing divisions is their Financial Consulting (currently ranked 4th on Vault - yes I know Vault isn't THAT legit but it gives us a general idea without the trolling). I am certain that PwC will be growing rapidly in the coming future.

An interesting fac: people bitch and moan about how Del is the biggest big4 based on human capital, one issue in comparison of that, Del has a large established consulting practice, PwC's is small and growing fast. In the next couple of years PwC will be growing fast because the profits generated off of consulting is much bigger than the profits made from their assurance practice (audit) which is where PwC actually runs the show. (PwC's tax practice is massive as well)

Hope this helps.

.
 

You should definitely consider 'culture'. OW is more, um, some would say "cerebral" and others would say "nerdy". Definitely lots of travel, and less about the perks and more about compensation (a few years ago, their equivalent of a senior analyst would beat $100k all in, and wages at all big firms have gone up).

The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.
 

PwC Advisory is growing rapidly. With the purchases of Diamond last fall and now PRTM, PwC is moving aggressively and looking to steal clients from MBB because they can deliver strategy and execute as well. Just something to consider...

 

Take this with a grain of salt because it's only one example, but from what others are pointing out, it might be indicative of a trend.

I was recently involved in a bid review for a strategy engagement (health care industry) and PwC absolutely blew OW out of the water, both in terms of technical expertise, and cost of the engagement. We were grilling the teams pretty hard to get a feel for their competence. PwC didn't flinch; they had respectable and intelligent positions on everything we threw at them. OW by contrast, seemed canned and overpriced. The teams had similar pedigree - PwC partners had MBA's from Booth, Kellogg, and Wharton. OW, don't recall, but all top schools as well. It's worth mentioning that the PwC folks were all from the Diamond acquisition.

In general, OW has an edge in the prestige department (now) but if that's all you base your decision on, you are probably oversimplifying a major life decision. You really need to take into account things that others have pointed out - personality fit, lifestyle, exit ops, upward mobility, etc. PwC seems to be making a viable run at parity with the second tier shops, and you might be doing yourself a disservice by not giving it serious consideration. If they are successful, there will be a lot of new partners over the next 5-10 years.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I'm curious about why you all preferred OW over PwC given PwC's recent acquisition of Strat& and its higher position on Vault Rankings etc. Thoughts?

@"NoseOnTheGrindStone" Genentech offer is compelling but I'm wondering if I need to go through the rotation program to end up there. Are there opportunities to join them as a manager or sr. manager after working in management consulting for a few years

@"OpsDude" I did healthcare consulting prior to MBA and did not do a summer internship with OW. In fact, OW has had very limited presence at MBA internship and recruiting sessions. Do you think this is a signal that the company is facing challenges competing/growing in the management consulting space and needs to taper their recruiting efforts?

 
offspin101:

Thanks for the feedback! I'm curious about why you all preferred OW over PwC given PwC's recent acquisition of Strat& and its higher position on Vault Rankings etc. Thoughts?

@NoseOnTheGrindStone Genentech offer is compelling but I'm wondering if I need to go through the rotation program to end up there. Are there opportunities to join them as a manager or sr. manager after working in management consulting for a few years

@OpsDude I did healthcare consulting prior to MBA and did not do a summer internship with OW. In fact, OW has had very limited presence at MBA internship and recruiting sessions. Do you think this is a signal that the company is facing challenges competing/growing in the management consulting space and needs to taper their recruiting efforts?

OW has traditionally favored to hire undergrads and let them raise through the ranks vs. hiring from MBAs. PM me if need more info.

 

I would say Oliver Wyman is a clear winner among the consulting firms in reputation and exit ops. Career growth as I understand it lies within the span of the other two, so that would go to OW as well.

To put it in perspective, on my last case the client lead was a very well paid OW alum, MBB was doing the strategy work, and PwC was in the weeds making sure all of the "pipes" were connected

 

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