• Best practices
• Associations
• Positions
• Adresses in US and web

Consulting Positions

• You may well be uncertain about your precise future career, but you have no doubts at all about what it should offer you – tough challenges with high rewards, a chance to be surrounded by exceptional people, a springboard to a whole variety of opportunities, exposure to e-commerce? And you’ve heard that strategy consulting can provide you with all of these and more, but what does being “a strategy consultant” actually mean?
  
  What is strategy? 
  At its simplest, strategy is the most effective possible use of available resources to get from point A to B, usually in a competitive environment – the term is often used in a military context to describe the decisions required of the commander-in-chief. And in exactly the same way, a company’s chief executive also faces a competitive situa-tion, with scarce resources and the need to move the company from A to B, so he or she requires a strategy, too. 
  
  There are two basic levels of strategy that company may devise: corporate strategy concerns the portfolio of businesses in which it invests, and business unit strategy concerns the management of individual business units. In today’s world of share-holder value, the typical objective of a chief executive’s strategy would be to “maximise shareholder value”: that is to make the highest return possible on the money that individuals and institutions are investing in the company. 
  
  The strategies of companies vary as widely as the companies themselves – an airline, for example, might undercut its competitors by offering a ‘no frills’ proposi-tion, or a PC manufacturer could bypass retailers and focus on serving its more prof-itable business customers directly. And there are just as many varied aspects to a company’s overall corporate strategy – a consumer goods company may be asking what prices it should charge (pricing strat-egy) at the same time as how it should dis-tribute its products (channel strategy) and how it should get customers and then keep them (customer acquisition and retention strategy). 
  
  Who needs strategy consultants? 
  Some companies are more sophisticated than others in developing their strategy: the managing director of a small enterprise could well base his strategy on his own per-sonal experience, while a multinational corporation will devote weeks of effort to answer the key questions which will help it make the best-informed strategic decisions. And that company often needs help in answering those questions – so it turns to strategy consultants, whether to obtain an objective opinion, or to bolster its own resources and skills, or to benefit from some specific expertise that a consulting firm may have. 
  
  Fortunately for consultants, the ques-tions they are hired to answer are almost bound to be unique and specific to their clients’ circumstances, providing them with an extraordinary diversity of assign-ments. Whether the task is to identify the optimal pricing strategy for a multinational consumer goods company, or to devise high street bank’s internet strategy, or to help a small start-up dot. com which needs incubation support, it will require a specifi-cally tailored solution. The consumer goods company looking to devise a new pricing strategy, for instance, would want to under-stand whether its current pricing strategy was indeed optimal, or whether there was scope to increase profits by reducing prices, by price discriminating, by bundling prod-ucts or by implementing loyalty schemes. 
  
  In arriving at a recommendation, the consultancy team would have adopted a highly structured approach. This would probably involve meetings with manage-ment to understand the problem and then conducting initial research into the indus-try, so that the team could hypothesise about the potential solution. They would then develop a work-plan of activities to answer the key questions around the hypothesis, and allocate these among the team members. The team would regularly analyse whether the emerging results proved or disproved their hypothesis, and discuss the findings with their client, all of which would help them to refine their orig-inal hypothesis. Even after the team and client had reached and agreed the final con-clusions, the team is likely to continue to help implement them in order to create that ever-important shareholder value. 
  
  A typical day in the life of a consultant.
  Well, one of the great things about strategic consultancy is that there is actually no such thing as a typical day, simply because of the huge variety of projects that come up. However, let’s look at the pricing strategy example. If the team’s initial hypothesis was that the client was overpricing com-pared with its main competitors, and so losing market share, some key activities could include:

  • Analysing market research in order to understand customers’ criteria when it came to buying, and the importance of price 
  • Interviewing the client’s marketing department to understand its pricing model and its past successes
  • Quantitative and/or qualitative customer research to develop a deep understanding of the customers’ purchase process
  • Competitor benchmarking to analyse competitors’ pricing models, and their suc-cess relative to the rest of the market
  • Interviewing industry experts to forecast any future price changes due, for example, to regulatory or technological reasons
  • Analysing any capability issues that could arise from a change in pricing strategy (for example, excess capacity in factories if prices increased, or possible supply-short-ages if demand increases strongly through price reduction, and so on)

  Teamwork is essential for the success of any consultancy project. A team generally consists of at least three members working closely, meeting daily to discuss emerging findings. From the very first day you, as a new consultant, are given individual responsibility for a discrete workstream, although the more senior team members are always there to give guidance and coaching. This vital on-the-job coaching helps you to learn both analytical and interpersonal skills very quickly, and complements the various formal training courses provided by the firm – which may also provide sponsorship to study for an MBA at a top international business school. 
  
  And as a career? 
  There’s a great deal more to a career in strategic consulting than the specific projects themselves. Top firms may offer you the chance to travel abroad on a project, or take a transfer to an interna-tional office. There will be opportunities to carry out a secondment, perhaps working in industry for a period before returning to consulting, and because many of the lead-ing firms are global, you’re sure to develop a broad and stimulating network of friends and colleagues. And for some people, the strongest attraction of a career in strategy consultancy is the practical business train-ing it provides, which opens the door to a whole range of interesting future careers outside consulting itself. 
  
  The future is yours
  Technological advances and globalisation are forcing virtually every industry to undergo fundamental change, so that companies face opportunities and threats such as they have never known before. Never has there been such an opportunity to make a fundamental impact upon the fortunes on both current and future industry leaders, and for strategic consult-ants the opportunities, the excitement, the challenges and the rewards will be breathtaking. Do you see yourself as part of this future?
  

• In the Encyclopedia, immediately before Parkinson's the disease, you will find Cyril Northcote Parkinson, an English political scientist. His excellent book, Parkinson's Law, the Pursuit of Progress, centred on the principle that 'work expands to fill the time available for its completion'. Another gem in this book is The Peter Principle, which states that employees tend to be promoted above the level at which they are efficient. 
  
  As the book was published in 1958, an addendum regarding consultants may be required. From the client side, finance directors may recommend The Consultant Conundrum: the more you pay a consultant the less you see of them; while consultants themselves might offer The Isaac Principle: any action taken by an external consultant will be met by an equal and opposing reaction by people within the company. 
  
  Old versus new
  It is true that consulting has often had an adversarial approach. In the 'old' model (still operated by some and expected by many), management brings in expert consultants, framing them as the people with 'the answers' who will solve 'the problem'. 
  
  It's not surprising that this creates opposition from employees. At its extreme, consultants seek to demonstrate superior knowledge while resentful internal teams scour over the solutions, looking for holes or flaws that they can highlight in order to negotiate a lower bill and demonstrate that they, too, have some expertise in the matter. 
  
  This 'give us the answer' approach can and does work, but it's not the most enlightened, comfortable or even sensible way to conduct business. The new model that is evolving is based much more on partnership, acknowledging that both sides have expertise and perspective and that only by teaming can the best solution be designed and implemented. The value of the consultant-client relationship is increasingly seen to derive from successful management of the 'softer' areas - intangibles, brand, know-how, supplier relationships and at the more tangible end of the scale, people. 
  
  There's still a great deal of discomfort as companies try to get to grips with people issues, often considered unquantifiable, messy and unpredictable. In practice, people issues get little more than lip service and a nice slogan while the tangibles (sales, profits, earnings per share) get the majority of management time and attention. The new challenge for consultants is not only to help tease out the metrics in these greyer management areas, but also to help clients act on them. 
  
  The integrated, holistic path to a new you
  The surge of popular interest in complementary therapies and talk of a 'new economy' created by the internet has also created a 'new wave' of consulting speak, e.g.; "an integrated, holistic approach to help your community of knowledge system users reflect on their learning history". While it is easy (and amusing) to poke fun at such jargon, the need behind its creation is real. We need new words to reflect the new ways of working and thinking about problems. 
  
  This new view of businesses is that they are not a combination of processes and functions, but 'living systems'. To interact with such 'new economy' systems, they need to integrate many different skills to communicate and implement change successfully. 
  
  For example, a shift in the way a business system works might require a different kind of office space, different communication with customers and within the company, or a re-positioning of the brand. Experts with narrow functional or process specialisms cannot achieve this kind of fundamental change. 
  Integrated consultancies are so-called because they integrate the skills of all kinds of professionals to deliver a solution across the whole business entity. They attempt to manage their input across the whole 'living system' of the business, producing a balanced solution which does not create more problems than it solves. But to do so they have to change the way they interact with clients, integrating them into the team, making them part of the solution, not part of the problem. 
  
  The kind of individuals most likely to succeed in this new business model are those with excellent social and communication skills, and a sense of wonder, humility and empathy. They must be capable of getting under the skin of team members without getting on their nerves. 
  
  Integrators begin major projects with several days of fairly intensive 'getting to know you' sessions. Presentation, discussion, role playing, problem-solving, Myers-Briggs, envisioning, psychometry and good old-fashioned eating and drinking all form part of this process. As a result, team members learn about each other's strengths, specialisms and interests and begin to develop a view of how they can work together. 
  
  As one practice leader comments, "A consultant-client team which has trust and integrity built in from the start has a far better chance of surfacing and dealing with the real issues inherent in solving complex business problems than the old adversarial model ever did."
  
  

• Strategic consultants
  What they do
  • help organisations with strategic decisions
  • give advice on planning for the future
  • undertake projects on the client's behalf
  • conduct the necessary research needed to carry out projects
  • interview the client's customers, competitors and staff to build up a complete picture
  • formulate recommendations
  • present their findings to the client
  • if client agrees, help to implement strategy

  Key skills
  • high intellectual standards
  • outstanding academic ability
  • ability to be analytical and methodical, yet creative
  • good communication skills
  • interview skills
  • ability to work under extreme pressure
  • physical and mental stamina
  • pragmatism
  • teamworking skills
  • ability to work on own initiative
  • language skills (sometimes required)
  • ability to withstand disruption to personal life, such as having to travel at short notice

  Training : A small number of graduates enter directly as strategic consultants. Those who do spend at least a couple of years as research associates. They may then be sent to business school to pursue an MBA. Salaries Depending on the size of firm and its location, the few graduates who gain direct entry start at about £24,000. After five years, this can rise rapidly. Professional bodies
  Institute of Management Consultants, Management Consultancies Association

  SOME FRENCH DEFINITION

  Les compétences les plus demandées pour un poste de Consultant en stratégie

  • Rassembler, analyser et synthétiser les informations.
  • Développer des recommandations et en tirer des conclusions.
  • Préparer les budgets et les plans des missions, définir les objectifs et les approches méthodologiques.
  • Conduire les missions du client et assurer le contact quotidien.
  • Conseiller l'équipe pour s'assurer de la bonne réalisation du projet conformément au délai, budget et qualité.
  • Rédiger les rapports d'audit, présenter les résultats et les conclusions au client
  • Participer au recrutement de consultants.
  • Jouer le rôle de manager avec efficacité, notamment par le coaching et la formation pour développer une équipe de qualité.
  • Développer la notoriété du cabinet grâce à la rédaction et à la publication d'articles.
  • Fidéliser les clients grâce à un travail de qualité.
  • Développer de nouvelles activités et générer de nouveaux comptes clients, en élaborant des propositions et en les présentant aux prospects et clients.

  
  

• Conseil en stratégie :

  On trouve sur ce segment plusieurs cabinets anglo-saxons à très forte notoriété et quelques-uns de leurs spin-offs. Le recrutement, très sélectif, se limite aux meilleures écoles d'ingénieurs et de commerce. Les profils internationaux et les MBA obtenus aux Etats-Unis (top 20) sont eux aussi très appréciés.

  Le conseil en stratégie reste avec la banque d'affaires et, depuis peu, l'e-business, un des secteurs les plus attractifs aux yeux des jeunes diplômés. La concurrence entre les cabinets est très forte et, pour attirer les meilleurs, certains proposent jusqu'à 300 KF de salaire d'embauche aux juniors sortis d'école.

  Les cabinets connaissent une pénurie de collaborateurs au niveau middle-management (consultants seniors et managers) car ceux-ci rejoignent rapidement des postes opérationnels en entreprise. Les cabinets compensent ces départs par le recrutement de jeunes professionnels ayant acquis 2 à 5 ans d'expérience au sein de sociétés reconnues pour un savoir-faire particulier (marketing, finance, production…). Quelques consultants profitent de cette tension du marché et changent de cabinet pour obtenir une progression de leurs responsabilités et surtout de leur rémunération.

  Les rémunérations variables diffèrent beaucoup, tant sur les bases de calcul que sur le montant total. On distingue les primes ponctuelles bloquées, parfois sur 2 ou 3 ans (welcome bonus, prime de nomination), et les primes annuelles indexées sur différents critères : performance du cabinet, investissement personnel, nombre de jours facturés, indemnités pour forte mobilité, complexité des interventions, fidélité au cabinet. Ces rémunérations variables représentent 10 à 50 % de la rémunération fixe.

  Enfin, certains cabinets ont mis en place des avantages supplémentaires (plans d'épargne entreprise, car-plans, voiture de fonction…).