Renewable Energy recruitment - McKinsey hiring spree - Monitor Deloitte's bums...and more in Don Leslie's August Management Consultancy Newsletter

As you may know I’m ex-Deloitte, an ex-consultancy recruiter and now part-time guide to those who want to make a career for themselves in strategy and management consultancy. I scour the internet and the professional press for information which may help you find consultancy jobs, some of which I cover below. Please feel free to circulate this newsletter.

EY’s FS expansion?-?MBAs in demand (and well paid)?-?PE and Channel 3?-?Strategy&’s new boss?-?Monitor Deloitte memo?-?Gate One in Paris?-?Culture Designers appointed?-?Renewable Energy recruitment?-?McKinsey hiring spree?-?consulting to the police

There are many more consultancy opportunities being advertised now than a few months ago – hurrah - but competition for them is fierce. You can improve your chances of entering consultancy by looking for unadvertised roles as well. If you’ve heard me share my tips and tricks for uncovering the hidden jobs in consultancy, you’ll know that – amongst other things - I recommend looking out for signs that recruitment might be imminent. These include:

·???????investment from a venture capital fund

·???????mergers and acquisition

·???????new offices

·???????new partners/directors

·???????new service lines???

Market News

·???????The UK consultancy market outstripped growth projections to record ￡12.5bn fee earnings in 2020, according to trade group The Management Consultancies Association. https://tinyurl.com/jpevby9t???This represents an increase of 4.5% over 2019. The Association’s members are predicting a 9% rise for 2021, reflecting the all-round improvement in demand for consultants’ services in the UK.

·???????Consultancies will continue to be the destination for more MBAs than any other sector in 2021, says the Graduate Management Admission Council. McKinsey hired 1500 new joiners and accommodated 1000 interns during 2020 (a third of them MBAs). Brian Rolfes, global talent acquisition lead for McKinsey is quoted as saying “We continue to hire and don’t foresee major changes to our hiring approach. We have increased our recruiting goals and anticipate that in 2021 we will hire the largest incoming class in McKinsey’s history”.?https://tinyurl.com/53m6syya

·???????A new review of the consulting world by Source Global Research reveals that the pharma and life sciences market grew by 16% to $1.5bn in 2020, and cybersecurity by 50% to $1bn. https://tinyurl.com/n8ftpb2m

·???????The US environmental consulting market is predicted to be worth more than $22bn before the end of the decade, https://tinyurl.com/yb8satyr??say researchers at Business Market Insights.

EY will add another 3,000 consultants over the next three years to the financial services practice in its Europe, Middle East, India and Africa region. The Managing Partner, Omar Ali, says “The new roles are all in areas where we see a lot of market disruption, where clients are being asked big questions about their future” https://tinyurl.com/dbk6jb6v ?and cost management is a top priority. The firm already employs 14,000 consultants in this space. (See also July’s newsletter about PwC’s financial services expansion www.donleslie.uk). Also announced is a new financial services lead partner, Alex Birkin. https://tinyurl.com/2myhf2vv

Healthcare Consulting

·???????US Healthcare consultancy Ashfield Advisory has recruited two new Vice Presidents for its strategy and HR streams. The firm’s service lines cover market access, commercial strategy, brand management effectiveness and benchmarking, culture and organisational change, and strategic consulting with a focus on science and data. https://tinyurl.com/kn3t9473?“We have a strong growth trajectory and plan to accelerate this by continuing with the success of ambitious acquisitions and hiring the best talent that industry has to offer.” Its summer Internship Programme is in Boston. Additional offices are located in San Francisco, New York and London. https://tinyurl.com/uj7vcunm??

·???????Deloitte runs the largest UK NHS Test and Trace contract - worth almost ￡300m. Other winners in the UK Government’s flagship operation set up to stem the spread of Covid-19 in Britain include IBM (a contract worth ￡40m), and Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and PA Consulting (￡30m each). https://tinyurl.com/296hw35s

·???????Following a management buyout the new owners of Channel 3, a UK boutique healthcare/public sector/third sector consultancy, have accepted external investment from two private equity firms, Kempen and Westbridge. https://tinyurl.com/4hsrxue First time entry consultants are invited to apply on the firm’s website: https://tinyurl.com/ynpeeuf to join the existing 40 employees.

Website BusinessBecause says consultancy is still one of the highest paying jobs for MBAs https://tinyurl.com/46ctn8a5, alongside senior product management and financial management.?It quotes MBB starting salaries as averaging $165,000. Managementconsulted’s website lists the top 20 best-paying boutique consultancies. https://tinyurl.com/6dm37mtd DGCpartners tops the list at $180,000. The firm is based in Maine (USA).

Meet the New Boss

·???????Kantar Group, the data analytics and brand consulting company, has a new CEO, Chris Jansen. He sits atop 30,000 employees in 100 countries who work on data and insights led consulting. https://tinyurl.com/4r4v8kbn?Kantar was part of the advertising group WPP (see the April 2019 newsletter https://www.donleslie.uk/whats-going-on-in-consultancy-april-2019-newsletter/ and February 2018 too for background).?Its careers page has openings for graduate entrants and experienced hires in over 30 international locations from Colombia to Korea, Ecuador to Egypt, Finland to The Philippines https://tinyurl.com/ftxefdwe

·???????KPMG UK has hired a new Partner, Marlon Richardson, into its energy and natural resources leadership team. https://tinyurl.com/59kbjee6

·???????Strategy&’s new Head, Peter Gassman, takes over from a fellow German as global leader. https://tinyurl.com/s9pbfx3w The firm is currently hiring in over 20 locations, according to its website https://tinyurl.com/3r4deuew

·???????FTI in Singapore has a new senior managing director in its Risk & Investigations practice, Rachel Layburn. She sits in the Forensic and Litigation Consulting unit. https://tinyurl.com/4at5ty3k

·???????McKinsey Asia’s new chairman is India managing partner Gautam Kumra. He will take charge of McKinsey operations in South East Asia, Australia, India, Japan, and Korea. https://tinyurl.com/8dbsv82a

?Following its takeover by French media giant Havas, London business consultancy Gate One has opened an office in Paris. https://tinyurl.com/fjrety4 The firm’s jobs portal can be found at https://tinyurl.com/w54npdxz?

Buying and Selling.

The appetite for acquisitions in the consultancy sector is huge at the moment. So who’s swallowing whom? This is important to discover, as investment in a consultancy almost always leads to an increase in hiring.

·???????Another month, another acquisition or two for environmental consultants ERM. Renewable energy consultancy RCG, with 60 consultants, https://tinyurl.com/zuwjr4 and low-carbon advisers Element Energy with 90. https://tinyurl.com/4rxsfwen There are over 700 jobs on its website https://tinyurl.com/34p6baxpx across US and Canada, India, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia,?Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Panama, Puerto Rico, Colombia, UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Ireland, Romania and South Africa. (See previous newsletters for more detail of ERM’s growth spurt. www.donleslie.uk)

·???????Environmental, social and governance consultancy KKS has been bought by Dupont Sustainable Solutions.?https://tinyurl.com/3eymzdd6 It’s the second acquisition by DSS since it went gained independence from Dupont itself last year. KKS’s offices in Greece, the UK and the US “enables DSS to provide its clients with deeper insights, strategy expertise and integrated capabilities to develop and implement their ESG and sustainability plans so they can successfully protect people, improve operations and create a sustainable future” says the group’s CEO. ?

·???????EY has bought leadership development consultants Lane4. The firm was set up by Olympic swimmer Adrian Moorhouse https://tinyurl.com/ke5pnsc6, and will sit in EY’s People Advisory Services.

News from the Americas

·???????The proposed merger between Aon and Willis Towers Watson has been blocked by the US regulator. As well as creating the world’s largest insurance broker, it would also have created the largest insurance consultancy. https://tinyurl.com/vexpc56b

·???????Customer experience consultancy The DiJulius Group is advising US police departments on improving customer service and satisfaction https://tinyurl.com/3j32m78a

·???????Boutique change consultancy Fearless Culture has hired Julie Mandel for its Canadian operations. https://tinyurl.com/yabfvnj5 She joins three other new executive consultants - or ‘culture designers’ - in Argentina, Mexico and the UK.

Consulting industry expert Calvert Markham offers advice to aspiring consultants https://tinyurl.com/45f8s5wd

Monitor Deloitte’s UK chief has ruffled the feathers of junior staff with a memo advising them to become “millionaires, authors or bums” if they are too fastidious about the projects on which they choose to work. https://tinyurl.com/uzz4kdjz

Success Stories

·???????Oxford Sa?d Business School MBA 2020 Jack Hanna has joined operational excellence consultancy Partners In Performance. https://pip.global.com “I saw your talk on the consulting industry and then spoke to you for some more tips on breaking into the sector. As you advised, I approached an SBS alumnus at PiP, who put me into the selection process. I went through (remotely) three rounds of three case studies, all involving operations issues. I started as a Senior Associate in summer 2021”

·???????Newcastle economics undergraduate Ellie Lussey took a Summer Vacation Scheme internship with Deloitte. “I looked on Deloitte’s website and saw the different vacation schemes they had on offer and then chose which one I thought I’d enjoy the most! There were four selection stages - an online application, a numerical test and vocab test, a pre-recorded video interview with more maths and vocab questions, and then the final stage interview with a senior manager which lasted around an hour. Everything was online, and the internship itself has also been all online. Despite being virtual, the SVS has been incredibly interactive and has beyond exceeded my expectations.”

·???????Michele Bolognese, who graduated with a Masters in International Business from Birmingham Business School, has joined Accenture. Having sent his application through Accenture’s online portal, the firm suggested he interview for a role in Accenture Applied Intelligence. Three interview rounds later, he was offered an Analytics Analyst post in Milan.

·???????KPMG India has hired Nottingham MSc Madhulika Vallabhaneni?as an Analyst in its CFO Advisory team. “You mentioned the importance of tracking updates from target consultancies – that helped me a lot.”

·???????Alberto Zannoni has taken his undergraduate degree (King’s College London) and Masters degree (LSE) to Roland Berger’s London office as a Junior Consultant Intern. He applied through the Careers Service, and hurdled four case studies during the Roland Berger selection process. He gives this tip: the firm is expected to grow significantly in the next few years, so keep them in mind.

During July I zoomed the full-time MBA class at Loughborough University’s School of Business & Economics, and provided 1:1 coaching for students there and at Warwick Business School, City University Business School and Birmingham Business School. I’ll be taking a break from presentations during August, but normal service will resume in September with webinars for University of British Columbia’s Sauder Business School, NTU Singapore’s Nanyang Business School and Cambridge Judge Business School.

The next newsletter will be published at the beginning of September. Back copies can be found on my website, https://www.donleslie.uk/newsletter/

Don Leslie ??Careers and Consultancy

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