800 sustainability jobs - Bain, McKinsey insights - E Europe openings - FTI, A&M, Accenture and more in Don Leslie's August consultancy newsletter

Here’s my roundup of news in the consulting industry. If you’ve read my articles before or heard me speak about getting hired by a consultancy, you’ll know I try to ferret out information which will help you track down a consulting role.

Insights into Bain and McKinsey?-?Eastern Europe activity?-?Big Four in the news?-?Lists for Australia?-?Industry X’s latest Canadian acquisition?-?sustainability firm’s 800+ jobs ?-?consulting in Africa?- openings in Ireland and New Zealand?-?books about the Top Tier

Strategy House news:

·???????Serbia is the latest country to host an office of Arthur D Little, arguably the oldest consulting firm still in existence. Based in Serbia’s capital Belgrade, the consultancy’s target clients will be in the telecoms, technology, energy and government sectors. The firm hopes to use Belgrade to springboard into other western Balkans states – Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. The firm currently has 1500 consultants in 43 countries https://tinyurl.com/d3t9s88z and is advertising 48 jobs in 21 locations https://tinyurl.com/2mkc48jj from Korea to Czech Republic, Thailand to the Netherlands.

·???????Roberto Prioreschi takes on the role of Bain’s SEMEA Managing Partner as the firm expands across Europe and the Middle East. The newsletter has already reported on the new offices in Lisbon and Athens. The Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and Middle East Region looks after Bain in 10 cities with more than 1,900 people across Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Turkey and the Middle East— making this one of the most diverse regions for the firm worldwide. https://tinyurl.com/2s4b8cyu The firm has careers and advice pages for ‘advanced degree’ candidates, including medical doctors, lawyers and PhDs, who are thinking of applying. https://tinyurl.com/2p84dry6 ??

·???????US website ManagementConsulted.com has an interview with Bain & Co’s Global Head of Consultant Recruiting Partner Keith Bevans. Good background about Bain and its people and worth a read/listen if you are thinking of applying there. https://tinyurl.com/2s5awrm8 . There’s a previous interview with him from 2020 which you can access here too https://www.donleslie.uk/consultancies-and-coronavirus-whos-hiring-whos-not-part-4/ ?

·???????European website PrepLounge.com has produced a helpful guide to Kearney case study interviews https://tinyurl.com/ysy9jdj9?and another on the Problem Solving Tests (PSTs) used by top tier firms https://tinyurl.com/hukzhchc?????

·???????McKinsey has created over 700 jobs in Atlanta https://tinyurl.com/2jnukn94?as a result of opening a new tech and innovation hub in the city. It is currently hiring for nearly 400 new staff https://tinyurl.com/mkvk8w5s??“The fullness of the gender spectrum is represented at McKinsey, and our work is richer for it.” A non-binary transfeminine consultant makes their mark at McKinsey. https://tinyurl.com/yc4pxfee?And learn how McKinsey’s new parental leave policy supports “inclusive career advancement” https://tinyurl.com/yuh7sxmc?

·???????From ManagementConsulted.com, a list of application deadlines (mainly North American) for Bain, Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey https://tinyurl.com/2p9x8ud7

·???????Strategy house LEK discusses how it helps top companies achieve growth in a 30 minute podcast with ManagementConsulted.com https://tinyurl.com/2p8zcd3r?

An alumni network for overseas students who have studied in the UK has been launched by The British Council, Alumni UK https://tinyurl.com/4w4n4wbm?It’s another informal source of contacts in consultancy who can help students find employment with consulting firms.

Big Four

·???????KPMG’s Lower Gulf regional practice, which covers the UAE and Oman, has been in turmoil following an unsuccessful coup to remove the head of the practice. Some partners have been sacked as a result. https://tinyurl.com/ff5sxh26 ?Employees in the practice have claimed that KPMG did not respond to complaints about the UAE managing partner and others?describe “a culture of fear”. Some ex-KPMGers who left because of “bullying” said they were afraid to raise similar concerns with the global organisation KPMG International.

·???????KPMG UK’s private enterprise business service line has a new leader, Karl Edge. https://tinyurl.com/2hu6ckaj?He is an alumnus of Birmingham City University.

·???????KPMG has launched itself into the metaverse, https://tinyurl.com/bddpn5k6 joining other firms such as Accenture and PwC.

·???????Following its creation last year, KPMG’s Special Situations and Turnaround Team in the UK has added Brian Horn, Chris Coley and Paul Richards to its ranks. Their primary focus will be on helping to preserve and restore value to organisations that may be facing a period of financial uncertainty. https://tinyurl.com/pvxhevt2??

·???????Inflation hits EY in Europe – job title inflation, that is. 1800 senior staff have been given the title partner, although they do not share in the profits nor become owners in the firm. Their terms of employment (and remuneration) remain the same. (“Proper” equity partners in EY UK earned an average of ￡750,000 profit share in 2021). This appears to be an attempt to retain experienced professionals in the face of poaching from other firms. https://tinyurl.com/2sandj5u ?EY has, however, appointed over 1,000 new equity partners across the global firm. https://tinyurl.com/2p8bynxr?One third are women.

·???????EY has appointed Gaurav Modi as ASEAN and Singapore Consulting Leader, where he will take responsibility for Business Consulting, Technology Consulting and People Advisory Services, 100 partners and 3,000 consultants in 14 countries. https://tinyurl.com/me7rv25k???EY has bought French firm Fabernovel, a 450-strong innovation and digital transformation consultancy in its ’biggest deal in years’. https://tinyurl.com/3cn66zjs??EY says it now has over 10,000 consultants in Western Europe.

·???????PwC UK has expanded its deals practice with the appointment of Raj Agrawal and Wendy Britten as partners in its transaction services team. https://tinyurl.com/yuu2kn7p?

Website https://tinyurl.com/y3raam9r ?Ask The Headhunter has an article about signing-on bonuses.

Lists

·???????The 300 leading firms in Australia are listed by website Consultancy.au https://tinyurl.com/3z759f5m?Consultancies are ranked across 40 industry verticals and 40 service lines, making it a good source for anyone researching the players in Australia.

·???????A list of the 10 Top Consulting Firms in North America has been published by ConsultingQuest.com https://tinyurl.com/5x5dfscx?, categorising firms as ‘generalist’, ‘specialist’ and ‘hybrid’. Several of the names are new to me. The same website has written a short history of the consultancy profession https://tinyurl.com/ythh7sxd?and an analysis of the consulting market in Africa https://tinyurl.com/mrywesyz , which it estimates to be worth $10bn.

Success stories: I love it when those who’ve heard me speak on campus or via webinar and who have stayed in touch later contact me to say they’ve joined a consultancy.?To EY, MBAs from Warwick and Edinburgh; to Deloitte, an MBA from Strathclyde, an MSc from Cranfield and an MiM from Sauder; to KPMG, an MSc from Imperial; to Synpulse, an MBA from NTU Singapore; and to StratNXT, an MBA from ESSEC. Thanks too to them for sharing interview experiences and tips for success.

Meet the new boss

·???????FTI Consulting has hired Denis Reynolds as a Senior Managing Director in the Forensic and Litigation Consulting service line of its Financial Services practice. He will be based in Toronto. https://tinyurl.com/ykan34ps?He has a Masters from Trinity College Dublin.

·???????Mexico: FTI Consulting has announced the appointment of José Cortina as Leader of the firm’s Risk and Investigations practice, which sits in the Forensic and Litigation Consulting unit. https://tinyurl.com/2uw8ydfd?

·???????Shaun Delaney has become PA Consulting’s Global Head of Public Sector. https://tinyurl.com/yvz2uwha There are four jobs advertised on the firm’s website for this practice area: three in London, one in Utrecht. https://tinyurl.com/3n9e8ed4?Shaun Delaney graduated from the University of St Andrews.

·???????Jon Whiteman has been appointed as Managing Partner with ambitions to make CIL “the best consultancy to work with, and for,” through new practice areas and geographic expansion. Alongside new Senior Partner Alex Marshall, CIL, a strategy house with a strong position in the UK mid-market, intends to grow from three to seven locations, treble the team to over 500 consultants, and launch a Value Creation practice. ?https://tinyurl.com/4pu3enby On its Careers pages there are stories about CIL staff - https://cil.com/careers?

·???????Arpita Singhal is to become a Managing Director in Alvarez & Marsal’s Life Sciences division. https://tinyurl.com/4hjaaz6f???She’ll specialise in developing and accelerating large-scale digital transformation programmes for companies in the life sciences space.

Back copies of the newsletter can be found on LinkedIn https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/donfleslie/detail/recent-activity/posts/ and on my website https://www.donleslie.uk/newsletter/

Reports

·???????The latest study of sentiment in the consulting industry has been released by Source Global Research. Growth projections are down slightly for the remainder of 2022. Ukraine, inflation and the lingering effects of the pandemic are to blame…. https://tinyurl.com/mssxa9ry?

·???????The Management Consultancies Association of the UK, which represents most (but not all) of the consulting sector in the UK, has released its market report for 2021. https://tinyurl.com/2s3muthp?It records growth of 18% over 2020, a 14% increase in the number of consultants, turnover of ￡14bn, and notes that 65% of new consultants were hired for London offices.

Summer Reading: if mystery, suspense, romance and crime are your preferred topics for beach or poolside books, then you won’t find much of interest in these tomes about the strategy houses. https://www.donleslie.uk/summer-reading/

Who’s Eating Who

·???????Accenture’s Industry X (the firm’s digital engineering and manufacturing service line) is to be the new home of Eclipse Automation, a provider of customised manufacturing automation and robotics solutions headquartered in Ontario, Canada. Eclipse Automation has offices in Canada, the US, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia. It employs 800 professionals. https://tinyurl.com/45v3upau??

·???????ERM is reckoned to be the world’s largest sustainability consultancy. It has just acquired the environmental consultancy MarineSpace to add to its 7,000 experts in 170 offices across 39 countries.?https://tinyurl.com/p8ptuhx??There are 877 jobs?https://tinyurl.com/2p9dwdr4 available in 41 countries, from Panama to Poland, Korea to Kenya.

·???????Denmark’s Base Life Sciences consultancy has been purchased by Infosys. The firm has 200 consultants in seven countries https://tinyurl.com/2jb79db2. There are jobs advertised in the Americas, Europe, Australia and New Zealand https://tinyurl.com/mr32vd2h

Who’s Growing

·???????BearingPoint is planning to expand its Irish practice by 100 consultants https://tinyurl.com/3hdkezr7.?There are 30 jobs currently on offer in Ireland on its Careers site https://bearingpointcareers.ie/#join-our-team ?

·???????HKA, an infrastructure advisory consultancy has opened an office in New Zealand. https://tinyurl.com/4urywsmf The firm already employs 100 consultants in Brisbane, London, Paris and Sydney.

During August I’ll be a guest of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, answering questions about strategy and management consultancy careers for the School’s “Get Ready For Fall Recruit” programme.

I regret I shall be unable to schedule new Coaching Calls until early September. Sorry.

The next edition will be published at the beginning of September.

Don Leslie?Careers and Consultancy?London?+44 (0)203 051 8540

?+44 (0)7812 056 652?[email protected]?www.donleslie.uk