I need someone to tell me whether an top 5 (not H/S) MBA is worth it: working at MBB as a manager at 26 y/o, joined directly out of a well regarded state school (UVA, UNC, UM) from a non business background, with consulting experience and interest in tech. Debating leaving directly for a tech company against going to school. West coast in case that makes a difference.
When’s the last time that there was a real shake up in the peaking order? 10 years ago it was the same, 20 years ago it was the same. There is no technology disruption in strategy consulting, MBB will be MBB in 15 years too.
In the 60’s, top three were McKinsey, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Cresap McCormick and Paget.
Cresap’s owners were more interested in retiring rich than in leaving a legacy. Booz did pretty well but could never compete with the advent of BCG and Bain. McK managed to transform itself and stayed top dog.
Bain very nearly went bankrupt in the 90’s. They managed to survive but their creditor went bankrupt.
Gemini Consulting was arguably a serious contender to dethrone an MBB. Re-engineering was the #1 industry topic and they were #1 in reengineering. But re-engineering crashed hard and took Gemini Consulting with it.
I’m sure there are more examples we can find.
Chief
I think the real question is around the future of premium strategy consulting. BCG and McK no longer focus there, but use the prestige and brand umbrella to get price on other offerings that increasingly make up the bulk of their business. Can they keep that up?
No matter what, in 10 years the landscape will look largely as it is — MB as large generalist firms with strong strategy pedigree + Bain as a focused strategy shop, then a second tier of big 4 consulting shops + smaller firms with strong pedigrees (OW, LEK, ATK etc). Question is how big the gap will be. If prestige effect lets McK and BCG continue to charge McK rates for Big 4 implementation work, it’ll remain large — if pressure forces prices closer together gap will narrow.
Deloitte Consulting is investing in Operate to compete against ACN, Cog, Infy, TCS. We’ve let our Advise capability atrophy.
Pro
Bain getting swallowed by EY
Chief
The US Government will be a division of Accenture Federal Services in 15 years time.
I’ve been saying forever that the Navy should put advertisements on the nuclear submarines! Can’t make a horse drink though
I doubt anyone will be talking about management consulting 10-15 years from now.
Biggest reason for growth of our industry over the last 50 years has been the information asymmetry. Management consulting brought information and insights that were not available within the organization or the industry. We have seen that information asymmetry wane over the last 15 years.
Multiple organizations are bridging the industry benchmark and insights gap via in house capabilities and third party information provides.
A lot of executives do not see value of generalist management consultants when they can hire seasons industry advisors themselves. We have seen all this happen in the investment banking.
All consulting firms are spending a lot more time and effort on execution vs strategy. It is also expanding into areas other than corporate strategy.
Watch out for Slalom. Growing like crazy
McSlalom 😂
All Acc all the way
Big 4 will be MBBK.
You misspelled Alix
I hardly see Bain as a competitor, they simply do not have the scale and capability to run large transformation programs - and that is really all Mck and BCG sell these days.
Partner 1 - your comment targeted at B1 is what I meant. Less than 20% of the work in my system is what I consider strategy, in that area Bain is a competitor. But in selling 2-3 year transformation efforts, it is McKinsey, a Big 4 or if it is restructuring someone like an Alix. It is actually not intended as an insult at Bain, quite the contrary actually.
Pro
No changes up there, but huge firms get bigger by acquiring niche firms. I'm still surprised Accenture or Deloitte hasn't bought our education practice since they keep investing in that industry but seem to struggle to get at-bats.
Pro
HC is still 45%, Higher Ed is 30%, then everything else. So it'd be a big bite out of the company but it could stand on its own easy. The challenge would be they would end up as a public company with a pretty narrow focus.
Please, highly doubt it!!
I think this is likely - consulting is power of partners and staff, Bain would be the first MBB to buy out, imagine how rich it would make all the Bain partners too.
MBB = Mercedes, BMW, Audi
They may take an L one year to the likes of Acura or Lexus for one model, but they will always have the brand equity.
The best and brightest now go to tech as of 3 years ago. It will continue like that for the next few years atleast.