LEK vs MBB

I was wondering if anyone could answer this- how does LEK differ from the MBBs, apart from the prestige of course. E.g. Work culture, people, hours, and other intangibles or tangibles like salaries etc.

How Does LEK Rank vs Other Consulting Firms?

Whether you’re interviewing for LEK or another consulting firm, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about the firm. Here are some questions, and answers from the WSO community, to consider.

Main Differences
What are the main differences between LEK and MBB?

  • Between LEK's dual-staffing practices and MBB's increasing move toward longer projects, you will likely see a much wider variety of projects in the same timeframe at LEK.
  • LEK does not travel frequently especially at the associate level, mbb you are on the road 3-4 days of the week. Not traveling as an associate at LEK does have an upside in developing a strong social circle at the firm.
  • The average project at LEK is 5 weeks or so, the average at mbb is 3 months so in a year you will do 11 at LEK, and possibly get exposure to more industries, versus 4 or so at MBB

Associate Role
How are the roles for Associates? Is it mostly just data-crunching and Excel monkeying or do Associates get opportunities to interact directly with clients and/or participate in delivering results to the client?

  • Less client interaction as a by product of NOT traveling to the client site frequently
  • Your impact is largely in the deck and can come through in client meetings
  • First year associates get plenty of on the job training, but the amount of work can be daunting
  • Excel, PPT, etc are used along with proprietary research software. Knowledge management is decent, but they're currently in the process of a global re-organization to make it even better.

Senior-Level Interaction
Are most client points of contact senior-level management or is it more middle management?

  • I would say largely both its hard to really say. In a fortune 500 company there are so many divisions that just on sheer probability you are more likely to work for a division than the corporate head. I would say we have done work with both.

Strategy vs. Opps
I've heard that LEK is very strategy-focused... is the work always strategic or are there still ops projects/tracking studies that Associates may get stuck on?

  • There are maybe 50 partners in the U.S. and 49 are focused on strategy
  • I would say less than 5% of projects are operations (big point of differentiation from other 'strategy houses' including m/b/b)

Additional Perks and Benefits
Is the international swap program and profit-sharing still in effect?

  • There is still a lot of emphasis on SWAP
  • Profit sharing is still in effect and is quite nice

Templates
Is there a design team/a lot of ready-made templates or is it up to the Associates to do the formatting and whatnot?

  • There is no design team, but largely people aren’t reinventing anything, you will likely use a similar slide from a past presentation as a starting point

MBA Reimbursement
What is the deal with MBA reimbursement? Is it available to all/most Associates? Does LEK have any programs to help with MBA admissions?

  • Reimburse fully, 2 year commitment after I believe (although I don't know for certain)
  • It is available for pretty much anyone that wants to come back
  • LEK has an mba strategy session and they will pay for some tutoring to help coach you on your application strategy

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Best Response

One of the big differences is that betwee LEK's dual-staffing practices and MBB's increasing move toward longer projects, you will likely see a much wider variety of projects in the same timeframe at LEK. (The exception is probably if join Bain or McK's PE practices, which do a good amount of diligence work that tends to be faster turnaround).

I hear they offer a slightly higher base than MBB, but don't know much about the actual bonus numbers, so I can't say for sure where their numbers ultimately fall.

The prestige gap might not be as significant as you think, depending on what you want to do afterwards. Their entering classes are pretty small and the Boston office seems to place a couple each year into some MM Boston PE funds (which, as a percentage of the class, probably makes it comparable to the lower end of MBB placement in PE).

 

Really? My perception of LEK, also having interviewed there is that these guys are very 'strategy' heavy (which for some could be a great thing!) and often work with C-Level execs on answering big-picture questions. Working closely with middle-management and building models is not really their cup of tea.

Basically like any MBB, tons of smart, extremely well-educated and talented people work for LEK.

 

biggest differences with LEK and mbb are travel and timeline of engagements / type of engagements.

LEK does not travel frequently especially at the associate level, mbb you are on the road 3-4 days of the week.

The average project at lek is 5 weeks or so, the average at mbb is 3 months so in a year you will do 11 versus 4 or so

LEK has a lot more PE work as a percentage of their business than any of the mbb's. Of course if you are doing the bain type thing i know they are very similar, but as a generalist you see more PE on the average at lek

In terms of comp i would say 10% lower or so, but thats more a guess than anything

 

Thanks guy:) but it kinda looks as though LEK may not appreciate diversity as much as the MBBs do. All information I gather is from the site though.. by the way, from what i gather from the comments above, would you rank LEK just below the MBBs- high 2nd tier?

 
slickthinker:
would you rank LEK just below the MBBs- high 2nd tier?

really depends on how you look at it - Booz, Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger are all more than double the size of LEK, so from that perspective (total revenue/global footprint/...) it's not a high 2nd tier.

That being said, anything Tier 2 you should always take a closer look to figure out which regions/industries are a firm's flagship! (As mentioned, LEK is very strong in the UK) Tier 2 doesn't necessarily mean colleagues/projects/training are inferior to MBB - I personally know candidates who chose a presumed "Tier 2" firm over an MBB offer simply because they were interested in a specific industry/region and felt this firm offered a career path which better suited their goals.

 

exit options of course differ, side effect of prestige, i heard projects tend to be with similar/repeat clients, LEK is pretty international so it should be about the same, you probably get less in terms of stuff like training/job guidance, less network because it is a smaller firm

 

Great thread. Few questions for anyone equipped to answer them:

  1. How are the roles for Associates? Is it mostly just data-crunching and Excel monkeying or do Associates get opportunities to interact directly with clients and/or participate in delivering results to the client?
  2. Are most client points of contact senior-level management or is it more middle management?
  3. I've heard that LEK is very strategy-focused... is the work always strategic or are there still ops projects/tracking studies that Associates may get stuck on?
  4. Is the international swap program and profit-sharing still in effect?
  5. Is there a design team/a lot of ready-made templates or is it up to the Associates to do the formatting and whatnot?
  6. What is the deal with MBA reimbursement? Is it available to all/most Associates? Does LEK have any programs to help with MBA admissions?

Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to post!

 

1 - less client interaction as a by product of NOT traveling to the client site frequently. Your impact is largely in the deck and can come through in client meetings

2- I would say largely both its hard to really say. In a fortune 500 company there are so many divisions that just on sheer probability you are more likely to work for a division than the corporate head. I would say we have done work with both

3- There are maybe 50 partners in the U.S. and 49 are focused on strategy. I would say less than 5% of projects are operations (big point of differentiation from other 'strategy houses' including m/b/b)

4-Yes, SWAP are going strong and are likely. And profit share is still in effect and is quite nice

5-There is no design team, but largely people are reinventing anything, you will likely use a similar slide from a past presentation as a starting point. I assume thats fairly consistent everywhere

6-Reimburse fully, 2 year commitment after i believe (although I don't know for certain). It is available for pretty much anyone they want to come back. LEK has an mba strategy session and they will pay for some tutoring to help coach you on your application strategy

If you have any more questions let me know

 

Thank you so much, darkstar19 and run4run for all your constructive questions and comments respectively.

run4run: coming back to this thread originally, maybe you could share a little more about the recruiting differences between LEK and the MBBs. Are they in any way slightly less selective, do they look out for anything different from the MBB pe say etc?

 

if anything i would say smaller strategy houses like LEK are MORE selective given they are smaller, and thus cast a much smaller net in terms of the individuals they will interview.

That being said at least with the people I work with most interviewed at MBB and a lot of the MBB people I know interviewed at LEK

In my opinion there really just is not that much of a difference in terms of the candidates. Everyone is smart, everyone is motivated and thats just the way it is.

 

Thanks for your response run4run... very helpful. Few other questions if you don't mind:

  1. I think as a potential applicant it's really easy to "glam up" a firm and put it on a pedestal. What are some things that you don't like about LEK? This could be in project work, the culture, the management styles, exit opps, or anything else.
  2. As Associates, what tools are used the most? I'm assuming Excel, Access, and Powerpoint, but any other tools? SAS? SPSS? Any proprietary tools?
  3. How's the knowledge management at LEK? Is it really easy to find resources and/or ask for additional research?
  4. Are staffing and reviews fairly transparent and fair, or are people generally frustrated by these processes?
 

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