I recently talked to an ex-McKinsey partner with lots of connections in the field, and he told me to be careful about working at Oliver Wyman. He said from his knowledge, OW isn't getting many new clients, isn't growing like its competitors and mentioned how they closed their Korean office. Can anyone shed some light on what they know about OW, good or bad?
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I think it grew something like 6% in 2019 which outperformed the market (which it had done for a couple of years actually). Not sure about 2020 with covid and all, but did hear they were very busy even through the pandemic, and that they didn’t go through dumps other firms did (comparing more to other T2 firms in this statement). Honestly I’ve only heard good things about OW especially as of late, but curious to hear about what anyone else has seen or heard.
6% is below market and they've done so consistently. You can always redefine the market to be better than the market, but reality is that the "global consultants" segments of the market grows at +8-10% on average, implying they're losing share
Office closures are generally a red flag obviously
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.consultancy.eu/news/amp/3881/consultin…
“In its 2019 financial year, Oliver Wyman generated revenues of $2.12 billion, up 6% on the year previous. While the growth was slower than the 8% and 7% rates booked in the two years previous, Oliver Wyman managed to outperform the growth of the global management consulting market – estimated at 6% – for the third year in a row. “
Note: don’t work there. Just been doing my own research about them and other firms out of curiosity.
Also read on fishbowl that they’re actually growing very fast and have been, and as a result have been experiencing growing pains. Again don’t know about 2020 specifically because of covid.
Also do know they didn’t have the cuts that other T2 firms did nor did they withdraw offers (which happened to some other T2 offer holders).
Could you share the links to the fishbowl posts about the fast growth of OW?
Yes, that growth rate includes lots of random consulting shops they'll never compete with. Within their segment (i.e. large, established firms) they're underperforming the market
For what it's worth, I'm a first-year hire at OW and I know they've been asking people to move up their start dates. There is a lot of work and they are understaffed.
OW also just opened a South Africa office. Sometimes firms that do not have strong global scale need to make business decisions to cut losses and redeploy focus and resources, or come at markets from another angle. It is true that OW is severely understaffed right now due to a ton of demand, and are hiring in droves across several practices.
Closing offices isn't necessrily a sign of financial trouble. Some companies set up offices in every corner of the globe to sell their "footprint" to win business. In most cases, you can do a lot of your business from a central location, with local offices being a marketing experience above anything else. If you have offices in Singapore, Seoul and Hanoi, do you really need Hanoi and Seoul? Unless those markets are bringing in a huge amount of business and you're trying to establish a local footprint, you can conduct your SEA business from Singapore.
You definitely don't set-up an office and then close it because it was going so well. Basically proves no upside from the additional office at the minimum
South Korea isn't in Southeast Asia...
I’ve not heard this about OW, interesting to hear though. I have heard they’ve been actually really busy and specifically their FS practice has been busy
They are just like any other consulting firm... it is a sales business in which some sectors and geographies grow and others do not. This is true of every consulting firm. As a member of firm leadership, your role is to think about "buying and selling" partners to help the firm generate cash, grow in future strategic directions, etc. This is an oversimplified view but it's kind of a waste to think about a consulting firm as a single monolithic entity. I just saw a peer of mine post on OW that the firm has over 20 roles across levels open that they are hiring for, so I am assuming that for those sectors, they are pouring fuel on the fire. If you look at their CMT group, for example, they poached some partners from Altman Solon and are strategically trying to grow in that area. Other areas, (e.g., Korea), may have a different story.
As a junior level employee, you'll get a good experience wherever you go if you go to a brand name firm. Sure, McKinsey probably edges out Oliver Wyman in say, PE exits. But at both, you will get a great foundation in general business skills (e.g., pushing paper effectively). You only should really worry about the growth / contraction of a consulting firm once you are a mid-level professional. And even then, it is not like McKinsey or Oliver Wyman or Altman Solon are going to disappear overnight. What you should be focused on is 1) is the sector I'm interested in specializing in growing or shrinking, 2) is this an area where the firm is currently investing, and 3) do I have champions in this area at the firm. Talking about whether a firm overall is doing well is an immature way of looking at things.
tbf arthur andersen disappeared overnight
so did monitor
Wasn't Arthur Anderson an audit firm busted for cooking books, and Monitor acquired and (very) successfully integrated into Deloitte?
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