What’s the industry endgame for consulting?
Longtime reader, new poster. While a fair amount of consultants may aspire to work in PE or go off and start their own business, I’m curious about those that plan to transition to client-side roles in strategy groups and what the long-term play is for this cohort.
I’m sure there’s a subset of these folks who plan to stay and make a career working in the strategy function at a F500.
But what about those who want to move into GM or GM-like roles and up into the C-suite? Based on some conversations with classmates and LinkedIn perusing, it seems like F500 companies value operating experience more than experience in a staff/support role per se.
So if I’m about to graduate from an MBA program and I know my long term aspiration is to make it to a F500 C-suite role where I’m responsible for driving the business (disclaimer that I know this is much easier said than done), why would I go into consulting rather than straight to brand management or marketing? Is it purely an option value thing?
I've seen consulting to internal strategy to running a BU to rising up the ranks/ going back to internal strategy
Both could culminate in c suite of course
Have you seen the jump from internal strategy right to running a BU? I had been under the impression that unless you've worked your way pretty far up in a staff/advisory role like strat, it's unlikely you'd be able to transition right to running an entire BU without more junior experience in a line role, like brand management.
I'm in the strategy group at a F100. To my knowledge no one has gone straight from strategy --> running a business function, let alone a BU. However, more senior folks typically exit into senior Director or even VP level positions, depending on past experience. Once they've proven their operating chops, they tend to do well in the business. A past CEO, a BU leader, and several function leaders came from our group.
YMMV in other companies. Good luck!
Caveat: company I was talking about is ~2b market cap and BU in question is a smaller one in the company
It depends on what you have in mind when you say BU. If you are, for example, talking about GE Power or GE Aviation then the answer is no.
However, I can tell you that I have seen a lot of people become business unit heads or country managers (outside of the US) straight out of consulting at decently sized non-F500 companies. I'm not entirely sure what's up with the F500 allure as there are many exciting non-F500 companies and quite a few bad F500 ones, although in general I obviously see why you would want to end up there.
In Tech companies I rarely see people exit from the Corporate Strategy groups to running any of the BUs. What is more common is having people move up through the Product Management side into those types of roles. For tech(and this is tech specific) you'd probably have more luck in trying to move into a PM role post MBA and then do well there to move up.
+1. This is exactly right from my observations of alums from my firm. Corp strategy or "business operations" just ends up being consulting-lite and I'm glad I did not go that route. The other caveat is that product mgmt can be difficult if you do not have any credible tech expertise.
As someone who currently works in one of those "line" roles (and who worked in consulting pre-MBA) I can say that it is quite rare for an ex-consultant to step into a role with P&L ownership. At my current F500 firm I can count on one hand the people who have done so and without exception they had pre-consulting experience in said line role. If you're looking to make this transition keep an eye out for strategy groups that are structured to move you into a line role. There are certain groups out there that are explicitly designed to place you into an operating role after 2-3 years of working in the strategy group.
Really helpful perspectives across the board -- I've been wondering about a similar issue
Empirical approach: pretty sure that data says your chances of being a CEO as a McKinsey alum are better than having any other company on your resume
I don't think consulting>star>BU exec is likely. Not to say no one has ever done it. I think consulting gives you a leg up for sure on the FIN or strat groups. Most c-suite execs I have interacted with have a great deal of breadth under their belt. In my personal opinion, to be an exec you have to move to a new role every 3-4 years. Strategy is more often than not much simpler than consultants make it out to be.
Voluptatum veniam ad qui rerum atque nisi est. In cum a illo architecto corrupti impedit quo.
Quaerat accusamus officia porro natus omnis voluptatem rerum. Culpa quae consequatur quo iusto porro accusamus non. Dolorem autem rem quasi.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...