GeekMBA360: Beat Recession. Grow Career. Build Wealth. - Latest Comments in The good, the bad, and the ugly of management consulting

Re: The good, the bad, and the ugly of management consulting

10AM Co.,Ltd — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:02:30 -0000

I come across this article as I am now deciding between offers. I am an MBA student, fortunate enough to have been extended offers from two of the largest tech firms and one of the top 3 management consulting firms, after spending the summer with the firm.

I am gravitating towards taking the offer from one of the tech firms but wondering whether I am making the right decision. I really enjoyed my summer experience with the consulting firm and see how it will continue to keep all the doors open for me, but having worked in the industry before business school, I did not feel like I was adding a lot of value to my summer client even when that was already the case that everyone in the office would like to be staffed on (a pure strategic growth case).

I am torn between the prestige/opportunities presented by working in top consulting firm and creating real value to the business/having ownership/executing ideas...

Your article has helped me a lot but I am still in limbo. I need to make a decision in a less than a week time before the consulting offer expires.

Re: The good, the bad, and the ugly of management consulting

konfused — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:08:52 -0000

Great article.

I have worked in Consulting as well as Industry. I left Consulting because I was bothered by the question that why can consultants just walk in, conduct interviews, create frameworks, present decks and propose a brighter future. Why cant the management guys, who are equally bright Harvard pedigree, think the way consultants do.

The fact is, its easy to talk but lot more difficult to achieve. And this is where consulting has been taking a beating since the dot com bust. The way the consulting firms are structured, it causes a major disconnect between on-the-ground reality and powerpoint decks.

After MBA I want to move back to industry. And if a consultant comes my way, I will make him a simple offer - "Achieve what your deck promises and I pay you 10 times the agreed fee"!

Re: The good, the bad, and the ugly of management consulting

Rahul — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:41:07 -0000

very nice article. i have a lot of disdain for consultancy companies. I recently joined in the shop floor of a manufacturing plant and can tell you that I will need to spend atleast 1-3 years over here to be able to do inhouse consulting over here. If a management consultant tells me that he is gonna look around for a month and tell me how to improve the plant, I'm NOT buying it.

Re: The good, the bad, and the ugly of management consulting

GeekMBA360 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:35:04 -0000

Thanks for the comments.

I actually read Gerstner's book as a required reading for one of my MBA leadership class. I think Gerstner is a great example of former strategic consultant who did well outside consulting. But, I think he is a rare case. A couple other examples are Meg Whitman at eBay and Scott Cook of Intuit.

Most partners from consulting firms don't do well outside their own firms due to lack of operational experience/skills. George Sheheen, who were the managing partner at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), left the firm to run Webvan. :-)

Re: The good, the bad, and the ugly of management consulting

aiko — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:54:30 -0000

I remember Gerstner talked about why he left McKinsey and joined American Express in his book "who says elephants can't dance". that's the same reason as you wrote in the "The Bad" section.