What is Management Consulting?
Management consulting is one of the most prestigious career goals of many aspirants in India. The top 3 consulting companies – McKinsey, BCG and Bain – are some of the most prestigious recruiters at the MBA schools. The application process is rigorous, and candidates are hand-picked – The ideal profile is an overachiever with fantastic academics and national-level extracurricular achievements.
Why the rigorous selection process? There’s a simple reason – The life of a management consultant is like juggling knives – You need dexterity, focus and discipline to manage the hectic pace.
As a former management consultant at McKinsey, I have experienced first-hand the various highs and lows of a typical consulting lifestyle. Read on if you’re curious about what a typical day in the life of a management consultant looks like.
What type of activities do management consultants do every day?
The daily schedule of a consultant typically involves a mix of activities, which can be broadly categorised into the following:
- Data analysis: Data analysis is the starting point of the problem-solving process. Here, the consultant extracts insights from various data to understand the problem and find patterns and insights. This includes primary research, secondary research, spreadsheet analysis, forecasting, modelling, industry analysis and any other number-crunching.
- Slide making: Once the consultant has insights and data to present and discuss, they find a way to communicate the same to their team and clients visually. This is a two-part process –
- Visualising a meaningful framework to represent the insight
- Creating the slide in PowerPoint, and populating the relevant content
- Slide making: Once the consultant has insights and data to present and discuss, they find a way to communicate the same to their team and clients visually. This is a two-part process –
- Internal updates: Every consultant requires internal updates with their seniors (and juniors) in the firm. These meetings and problem-solving sessions with partners or managers can be organised for a variety of reasons:
- To discuss an approach to a particular problem to kickstart analysis
- To get an opinion or insight from a colleague who’s an expert in the industry
- To vet material before an important client meeting and to ensure everyone is on the same page
- Internal updates: Every consultant requires internal updates with their seniors (and juniors) in the firm. These meetings and problem-solving sessions with partners or managers can be organised for a variety of reasons:
- Client meetings: Every consultant has to organise and run client meetings to solve problems successfully. The meetings could be in-person, over calls, or video conferences, and have different purposes:
- Informal conversation with junior-to-mid-management clients (also called working clients) to understand the organisation
- Data request discussions, followed by calls to understand incomprehensible data
- Alignment meetings with working clients to explain the analysis so far and get them on board
- Meetings with the CEO/Board (often called steering committee meetings) to present important case findings or recommendations
There are also some other standard activities in consulting – writing and responding to emails, travelling (either between offices or between cities), and iterating between versions of slides.
How much time does a consultant spend on each activity?
Every management consulting project is differently structured (these projects are also called cases or studies, depending on the company). Hence, the split of time between different activities undertaken by a consultant will depend entirely on the type of case they are working on. The slide below represents the variances in daily schedules basis the consulting case:
Implementation cases are heavy on client meetings (both at the senior and working clients level), as they involve a lot of coordination with clients to make things happen.
Strategy+early stage implementation cases also require many client meetings, but there is also a higher amount of internal updates and analysis.
Pure strategy cases have a healthy mix of different activities to ensure the needle is moving – Here, the client meetings are often very senior clients.
Due diligence cases have very intense number-crunching and analysis, hence the lion’s share of the (long) workday is occupied by data analysis. Client meetings are infrequent and usually with very few key senior clients.
What’s the ultimate goal of all these activities?
Ultimately, all activities lead to one thing – Problem-solving.
Every project has a problem statement. Consultants start with a rough idea of what the answer should be (also called the ‘day 1 hypothesis’)Â and spend time doing different things to perfect this hypothesis by the end of the case. The approach varies, but the goal is the same.
Ultimately, the goal is to solve a complex problem for the client, leading to a positive outcome. The outcome could be anything: cost optimisation, revenue acceleration, improved processes or better decision-making – but it is typically measurable and critical to the top brass of the company.
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What about all the fun we’ve heard about?
Yes, the fun is very much there! Apart from the workday, consulting has a heavy dose of parties, events and socialising too.
Team dinners at swanky 5-star restaurants, Friday-night office-wide parties, 5-star hotels stays, millions of airline points, international trainings and insane lifestyle benefits are all a part of the consultant life.
You also end up making a lot of friends from among the wonderful, interesting people around you. Hence, apart from the official events, there are also many informal get-togethers and events that you attend with your friends, whether it’s post-work or post-parties!
But a word of caution, apart from the fun, consulting also has long hours, 4 am flights, weight gain, burn-out and exhaustion. The parties are fun, but you need to be free to attend them!
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In conclusion…Â
Management consulting, especially in MBB, is a fantastic learning experience with a lot of opportunities to grow and succeed. While it’s difficult to keep up with the pace and challenges, it usually leads to a lot of professional accolades and benefits!
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but definitely an exhilarating roller coaster ride!
Hope this helps! Please leave your thoughts, comments and questions in the comments section below! You can setup a mentorship session with me here.
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