Strategy& Recovery
Hello,
Would anyone have a good view on the current state of Strategy&? We've all heard the horror stories of the alleged mass exodus of partners and the overstaffing and subsequent layoffs, but those events (if they happened at all) seem to be from 2016 or so.
Where are they now, in terms of strongest practices, and current comparisons to rival T2 shops (OW, LEK, ATK, EY-P, Deloitte S&O)?
Hi,
I’m an EM at an MBB firm and actually made a throw away account just to respond to this post, as I’ve grown tired of reading the false rumors on this subject across WSO (many coming from people who are clueless and only consider prestige when making career decisions).
From what I understand, and many of my colleagues agree, the integration issues that Strategy& has experienced with PwC, while real, are incredibly overstated. My firm still competes with S& for projects and they even win the work that we don’t from time to time.
For your questions, I don’t know where I’d rank them in terms of Tier 2 shops, these things are very fluid depending on the industry, but they are certainly near the top and have recovered much of their prestige from the legacy Booz days (if pressed, I’d say they are best along with OW, LEK, and Deloitte). In terms of partners leaving and over staffing, I don’t have any firsthand experience with that, but the industry perspective, at least in my view, is that the firm is quite stable and beginning to excel within the PwC framework. If you’re not given the chance to start your career at an MBB firm, I cannot think of a better place to start than S& or any of the other top Tier 2 strategy consulting shops.
Insider popping in to clarify the S& Deals questions.
Basically, the best way to think of S& nowadays is as three distinct businesses under one organization. There is the old Booz practice, which is what most people think of as Strategy&. Then there is a group called PEVC (Private Equity Value Creation), which used to be a company that PwC acquired called PRTM that was brought under the S& umbrella. Then there is Deals Strategy, a group grown organically (well, through seeding with a few experienced Booz folks that did Deals work and then recruiting senior folks at practices like LEK, BCG, Marakon, etc).
All three of these groups are considered Strategy&, but they have separate staffing models, office footprint, and operating models. They are 100% aligned with S& for compensation and promotional cycles. My business card and email signature says Strategy& and we are part of the overall umbrella.
The best comparable situation in the market is Bain's PEG. Separate from Bain, but the same, and focused on a slightly different client set and type of work. If you were to break out Bain PEG into all of their PE cost cutting/ops projects (i.e. analyzing cost synergies and then big carveouts in the first 100 days post deal) then that would be pretty similar to the PEVC group.
Then there is Deals Strategy, the growth strategy practice. Private Equity Value Creation is a bit of a misnomer since Deals Strategy is also private equity oriented; we focus on growth strategy for PE firms, portfolio companies, and mid to upper middle market corporations. We focus on questions around market share and positioning - what are attractive markets to invest in and how attractive are each of the players for a particular buyer. So the CDD and growth strategy work at Bain's PEG would sit here.
This gets more confusing because PwC has a general Deals platform, where S& does not sit but Deals Strategy/PEVC do. This platform also contains PwC management consulting groups that are not part of S& that do long term implementation/integration for acquisitions.
This is purely a go-to-market strategy and has little effect on the dynamics within each group for junior staff. There is no cross-staffing with PwC or between the groups and PEVC/DS both focus exclusively on their areas of intent, outside of intentional 6-12 months rotations between the groups.
For partners, they think of all of this in terms of go-to-market strategy. PEVC and DS can go to market with PwC partners on the Deals platform who service every major private equity firm in the world (for financial diligence, accounting, PMI, etc) - part of what allowed DS to scale so quickly to be a major competitor to Bain/LEK/Parthenon/McKinsey in this space. They also get to leverage the S& brand name in selling work.
For junior staff, in terms of the work, it differs by the operating model of the three groups. However, for recruiting, exit ops, business school placement, etc the Strategy& brand name is more prominent than the individual group you are placed in. Recruiters that reach out to me almost exclusively do so because I work for Strategy&. Exit ops are broadly aligned between DS and legacy S& (I can't speak for PEVC).
Both Deals Strategy and PEVC have a lot of street cred in their specific markets and are great groups to work for if you're interested in private equity ops (PEVC) or inorganic growth strategy (Deals Strategy). They also both work across industries; most people will work in 10-20 sectors across 3-5 industries their first two years at Deals Strategy.
To clarify, there is no "DS&O". Deals Strategy is all growth strategy work. PEVC is operations and the strategy around how you tackle operational questions. I've never heard that term used, nor does it reflect the work.
[UK centric views]
Here Strategy& has been doing really well, growing substantially in the past years and established itself as a top contender in the T2 space, competing with MBB in many sectors, Tech and Telco in particular where S& has a real powerhouse of credentials in the UK.
The Deals practice that was spun out of PwC transaction service arm seems to be attracting leading talent with very high offer acceptance rates by grads and a number of senior experienced hire. I saw a lot of posts on LinkedIn advertising senior positions, so they must be doing very well.
I believe this holds true in some other countries such as Germany, where S& is often seen up there with the best.
That said, I am sure there are parts of the PwC ecosystem that S&-profiles may not find attractive; but I am sure they were grateful to have an Audit parachute during the dark months of May-September
Source: SO works for S& in London