Consulting: Aside from M/B/B

Question

Could anyone tell me a little bit more about the top consulting firms outside of the Big 3 (M/B/B)?
E.g. AT Kearney, Monitor, Arthur D. Little, etc.?

I have a glut of pre-MBA recruiting dinners coming up and some of them conflict, so I want to prioritize the ones that are more in-line with my career interests (energy, technology, and manufacturing)

riverripper · Answer

Deloitte, Accenture, AT, Booz and the like are all major consulting firms...just dont have the brand of McKinsey or BCG. Deloitte does a lot more ops stuff from what I know, if you want ops it might be better than some of the big 3. Monitor is big with marketing stuff. If you want energy its more about location then just company. McKinsey has a huge energy practice but its definitely aimed more at oil and gas. All the big firms do lots of energy in their practices in oil heavy places. Schlumberger is a pure oil consulting practice, but I dont think they recruit at Booth. I know Accenture and Deloitte do a lot of tech stuff not sure in what roles. All the firms will do manufacturing stuff.

Most of the big firms require you to be a generalist and wont allow you to specialize in a particular area of expertise. One of my friends is going to a Texas office of one of the Big 3 because he wants energy and figured his chances of getting those jobs are much higher in that part of the country. One thing to consider is different brands have different strengths in different parts of the world. For example some of the top consulting firms in Europe are 2nd tier here such as Roland Berger. If you want to be back in your home country that is something to look into too.

isa · Answer

I don't know very much about those companies beyond what the websites say but I think the Booth career website lets you get to some of the vault reports on those companies - you might want to take a look to see if those have some good overviews.

xenok · Answer

Thanks for the tips, riverripper and isa. However, I've decided since I'm incredibly shallow, I'll go to the one being hosted at the nicer hotel, hehe.

isa · Answer

Hehe. Out of curiosity, are these dinners through booth or through the companies?

terp26 · Answer

Well chicago sent out all that info in their newsletter. It appeared to be geared towards women and minorities for Bain,BCG etc but did not seem specific to booth. Not sure whether this is the same info xenok was using. If not, xenok, please share

isa · Answer

Ahh. I didn't read that yet - will do now

riverripper · Answer

Bain did these last year and a few others also did. I think overseas office do a lot of them too for people heading to top schools around the world. Its harder to find people at top schools for an office in Seoul or São Paulo than it is for Boston, Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, etc.

xenok · Answer

All the consulting companies in Seoul are doing their pre-MBA recruiting right now, so for the next three weeks there will be lots of wining and dining.

I'm trying to figure out if I should go prepared for those dinners or not. I should at least prepare for M/B/B at the very least.

Mikus · Answer

Accenture and Deloitte both do a bit more implementation-related work relative to M/B/B. For example, Accenture has a large IT practice, and Deloitte has groups dedicated to human capital management. The difference between implementation projects is that they often last longer and are often seen as more "contractual" work (e.g. on client site executing the processes yourself). It is not uncommon for "implementation" engagements at these firms to last over a year (it takes a surprisingly long time to install a new IT system, migrate data, etc.). The caveat here is that both Accenture and Deloitte also do have disparate "strategy groups"-- they are just not quite as scaled as M/B/B with regards to the larger projects. There are pros and cons to this model-- strictly depends on your interests/style.

Other non-M/B/B nuances include: LEK's private equity focus, ATK's procurement/supply chain focus. (Similar to above, these are just particular strengths-- not corporate definitions as a whole)
 
Note: M/B/B firms also have process-oriented and implementation cases; they are just typically shorter in duration and less contractor like. (They simply don't specialize to that level and don't compete head to head with some of the more niche expertise mentioned above). This is why M/B/B will oftentimes refer to themselves as "The 3 pure strategy firms". Most of the cases (not all!) that I have seen enter multi-bidder situations are usually with other M/B/B offices. Some people mistake then as a tiering system (MBB vs. Non-MBB), when it really is just classic market segmentation.

Disclaimer: This is just the general "lay of the land" from a consultant's perspective. I am sure you can find exceptions and examples where the generalizations above are not true-- but most consultants know consultants from other firms, and have a general sense of how their host firm's core capabilities differ. To me, this seems at least in the ballpark of "representativeness".

bipolarbear · Answer

monitor katzenbach...etc all are very highly respected and may be good for someone looking for a closer-knit work setting
there are also other types of consulting aside from management that you can explore

krispy · Answer

I am also getting invitations from most of the i-banking and consulting firms too! It is crazy that recruiting has already started, even before we marticulate... If you want to do consulting in your home country, I think it is easier to get MC gigs since there are less bilingual top talent with top MBA. That certainly is the case in where I am from.

Accenture and Deloitte are a bit tricky because they have large IT practice (and for general population, thats what they are known for), but as Mikus said, they have their own strategy practice (Accenture's strategy group and Deloitte's strategy and operations group). If you have an MBA, that is where you end up, and you wont be doing IT implementation although your operation project may involve some implementation tasks. I have never heard of anyone with an MBA recruiting for IT groups of these firms. As Mikus said, although we have substantial strategy projects (I work at Deloitte's S&O), we definitelly have a good number of operation related projects compared to M/B/B. I always thought strategy projects are "sexier", but having worked for about 4 years as a consultant, your daily work isn't that much different; they all can be tedious whether it is strategy or operation oriented projects. One trend in my country is that even M and BCG are moving a bit towards operation side. They have hard time justifying their fees just on strategy (also hiring consultants isnt very pupular among traditional companies here), and operations work, which tend to last longer, is an attractive source of revenue. We often come across M/B in sales pitch these days.

If you are recruiting in your home country, you should really network and learn what they actually do. For example, Monitor, which I think is a great company in general, only has about 30 people here. And mostly because of their size, they dont have enough capabilities and presence to sell projects on their own. So their tasks are mostly doing market research, that can only be done locally, for foreign companies (mostly American) trying to enter the market, which is not fun at all. Even if an office has 100 consultants, their practice should be concentrated in core industries or competencies. So, I actually think size matters to certain degree.

trader1 · Answer

I'm curious if anyone can add any insights regarding public sector consulting.

I've started to open to this career path, because I like mgmt and strategy consulting, but I don't like the lifestyle if you're working for a private sector client. It's a top priority for me (over the money) to maintain a good work/life balance. I also have a background that firms like Booz Allen and PRTM value - ex-military w/MBA and high level clearances.

Any other firms out there I should be taking a look at?

bsd_lover · Answer

Most mgt (and even tech) consulting firms have a govt. arm which deals primarily with public sector organisations. With your background, you should appeal to any of the top tier consulting firms in their Washington office (depending of course on their recruitment requirements).

trader1 · Answer

I know McKinsey has a DC office, but when I met their representative at a career fair in DC last month, they were not looking to take on any additional consultants.

I'll have to check further into Bain, BCG, and the rest of the lot...

bsd_lover · Answer

Don't discount the Accentures and the Deloittes of the world - these firms might be more generalist or tech focused but they do have reasonably strong strategy practices. In this market, getting the experience and exposure would be the most important thing.

domtri33 · Answer

Assuming this is who I think it is, how are you not completely sold on Booz? Do you really need to look anywhere else :wink:

isa · Answer

You might also want to look at PWC and Deloitte, they have a DC office as well. Not sure how much you want to get in on the policy/development side of things, if you're open to that try firms like Abt, Gallup, Chemonics, etc.

unhedged · Answer

Both PwC and Deliotte have sizable Public Sector practices. Additionally, Deliotte's practice is growing with their purchase of BearingPoint's public sector consulting practice through the bankruptcy court.

trader1 · Answer

PRTM? <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" />

Consulting: Aside from M/B/B

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