Roland Berger - MBA prospects still strong?
What is the deal with Roland Berger?
I've always looked mostly at MBB, but at least in Europe, it seems Roland Berger is also highly regarded. If I'm interested in German (my minor) and hope to spend time abroad and using the language... would Roland Berger be a possibility? I'd initially want to start out in their Chicago office.
Are the MBA prospects still strong? I.e. likelihood of still landing top 10? Is the prestige their in the US... do they have major clients?
what is this roland burger... sounds delicious ;)
Haha Not to hack this thread but I find your post incredibly hilarious. Any current updates on how RB is doing in North America now.
I think Henry Rowengartner, the former Cubs closer, works in the Chicago office. He felt like it was a good culture fit for him since his name was so similar to the firms. You should probably try to contact him.
very well known in germany, declining prestige the further you go. by the time you get here, no one's going to have heard of them.
but put that in perspective. outside MBB, accenture, and deloitte, no one's heard of any consulting firm. Walk up to an average person and tell them you work at Oliver Wyman, they'll probably ask where you got your law degree from.
if you like the culture, go for it. doesn't really improve your chances for business school, but keep in mind that the class at HBS is 900-strong and not all of them come from goldman and mckinsey.
hey i'm a german exchange student, just discovered this forum...
they are actually REALLY big in germany, second only to mckinsey according to a lot of rankings:
http://www.luenendonk.de/management_beratung.php
in any case, they are definitely among the top 3 in germany (with mckinsey and bcg), and among the top 5 in europe:
http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/companies/rankings?rankingId1=120&r…
i actually had no idea that they weren't well-known in the usa since they are so omnipresent in germany... hmm this thread makes me reconsider my internship choice for this summer... any more comments by american students?
You should stop relying on Vault rankings, which are awful.
i agree, the whole "prestige score" thing seems to rely on a very questionable methodology...
i still think that the first rating that i quoted is relevant, because it gives the firms' revenues and number of consultants. probably the "revenue per consultant" ratio would be the most telling statistic. and based on this stat roland berger seems to be very competitive in germany...
Roland Berger is very good in Germany, Benelux and France. They do some strategic due diligence for PE and strategy consulting where they compete with MBB. I met one guy from there who whent on to work as a VP for for one of the big international PE shops in London, but I think he had also worked ad GS at some point.
I think they are not as well known in the UK.
RB is also doing a ton of work in China, but I hear that's mostly because they're willing to come in with fees lower than anyone else. Lots of hires, lots of volume, very low cost.
Their Chicago office is TINY, though. And it's almost impossible to get an interview there unless your'e at a target for the office. I'd look at bigger ones in Europe or NY (which I believe is their biggest NA office) instead.
Not looking at consulting right now. Just curious where RB stood since the last couple of years.
I do not work at RB, but I have a lot of friends who do and I did receive an offer to work at their Middle East offices 2-3 years ago, but declined. At the time I did quite a bit of research and I still try to follow them, my views are:
RB is very highly regarded in Europe and the Middle East, and has gained a lot of ground in the US and APAC over the last few years.
RB is a very 'German' firm, which is a good thing and highly underestimated. People find it difficult to digest that the US is no longer (maybe never has been) the best at consulting. Keep in mind that even the top MBB offices (NYC, London, etc) call upon their German offices quite frequently for technical expertise; the best clients are aware of these things. And they do have plenty of top tier clients.
Whoever said RB doesn't improve your chances of getting into a better business school is largely mistaken. Every single person I knew that went to a b-school from RB ended up at a top 10 school, most commonly LBS, INSEAD, Wharton and HBS. Though Germans are not as b-school oriented as the rest of the world since they typically do Bachelors --> MS --> PhD --> Work, this seems to be changing though with the younger crowd.
In summary, I would choose RB over any consulting firm apart from MBB in the US. In Europe, I would rate them as pretty much on par to MBB and choose based on culture. .
When I interviewed at RB, it was by far my hardest interview, so prepare well! Though I have heard they are very inconsistent across territories so it all depends.
How does Roland Berger rank/compare in European markets? (Originally Posted: 10/04/2012)
Specifically London and Germany, vs. the US
A solid 4th or even 3rd in some markets.
In Germany McK, BCG and Berger are slugging it out in a league of their own. (Bain always takes 10-11ish spot, hence "MBB" often causes confusion when talking to a European)
Revenues: http://luenendonk-shop.de/out/pictures/0/lue_listepi_2012_managementber…
Ranking by project type (Manager Magazin): http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/beratertest/0,2828,637164-4,0…
Both sources are in German - but if you aren't fluent in German then there's really no reason to think about joining RB in Germany anyway... ;)
As for London: I have no numbers, but several orders of magnitude smaller. Not one of the main players. That being said, everybody I've ever met from RB LDN was Oxford/ Cambridge/ Harvard for what it's worth.
Other Euro markets: Bilanz Magazine, Switzerland www.bilanz.ch/sites/bilanz.ch/files/article/documents/bil_0212_consulti… France I have no numbers, but position similar to Germany.
I don't know what you mean by "vs. the US". RB is non-existant there compared to their Europe/ Asia/ South America business.
Also, I have a question about Roland Berger Do you know if bilingual (French & English) capacity is an absolute must at the Montreal office? How competitive is it to get into RB Canada?
as far as i know the montreal office just opened recently and is therefore quite small. i guess its pretty competitive to get in there.
in general rb has a really good reputation in europe (except england, but they dont target that area anyways) and in asia. 24837 is right about the people working in the london office. i just recently talked to an HR person at RB and she said that since they only hire very few people there, all of them have outstanding resumes. it's definitely easier to get hired in germany.
Roland Berger - Insights and view on the company (Originally Posted: 08/15/2011)
Hey guys,
I'm trying to finalize the list of firms I will be applying to, and am wondering if anyone has any insights on Roland Berger in the United States. It seems like they have a very strong European presence, but are not well know to the student population in North America. Do people working in consulting have any views on where this firm is going?
Thanks
I interned at one of their EU offices, great presence in continental europe, competing with MBB.
Their US presence is tiny/non-existent, have two offices in Chicago and Detroit and mainly doing automotive projects. NY office is representative only and its pretty BS (my principal told me this when I worked there).
If you're looking for a company with presence in EU and France check to Massat Consulting Group. This company have two office in USA, one in NY and another in Miami. for more info see http://massatconsulting.com/vocationandservices
Roland Berger is weak in the US not because they failed/suck but simply because US regulators chose to keep them out of the US market. RB used to be owned by Deutsche Bank. Banking + consulting was cited as a conflict of interest in the US (albeit nowhere else in the world). It was not until the 2000's that RB could begin to compete with the US firms on their home field - obviously a bit of an uphill battle considering the late entry plus the fact that RB is the only elite non-anglosaxon firm in the world.
RB is said to push for a stronger US presence specifically through Automotive/Detroit and Financial Services/NYC. On a global scale RB is up there with MBB in some core markets (i.e. EU, China), but let's face it: as far as the US goes, they have a lot of catching up to do.
Bottom line: RB have a long way to go if they are to compete at eye level with the US firms on US soil. That being said, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't grow in the US over time considering how well they did against MBB et al in other markets.
Any cites for that? Consulting isn't regulated in the US, and DB doesn't have non-investment-banking businesses in the US, so I'm not seeing how the US could stop them, even if it wanted to, which I also don't see.
It's good to know that their lack of success in the U.S. thus far isn't due to a lack of ability.
@rukawa - When you interned with RB, was there any hesitation with sharing information between offices? With such a strong EU presence, I would think that the offices there must have considerably more experience and intellectual property than U.S. offices.
I interned there last summer. All the offices in europe worked very closely together, for projects they'd usually pool bunch of people together no matter which office they were from. My principal also had a conference call every week with the other principals/partners in the region to coordinate on how to move people around etc. They even had a shared database of past projects/project proposals that were done regardless of who did it.
That's great to hear! I think I'll fire RB an application as well come recruiting season, and maybe stay away from their NY office if it's only meant to be representative as rukawa said.
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