Experienced IT Executive on Joining BCG

This article is a discussion with a reader of our site, an experienced IT executive, on his journey to BCG. Italic sentences are from Firmsconsulting. Thanks for maintaining such superb information at your site and allowing potential consultants to ask questions! I tried to look if this question was answered in your forum but could not find it hence the question. The question is representative of many experienced professionals from top IT consulting firms who are looking to make a career change. I would like to mention that these firms also derive 5% of their revenues from management consulting, examples being Infosys, TCS, IBM, Cognizant, Wipro. The type of consulting work done at these firms is totally different from McKinsey, BCG or Bain. Even where you are doing IT strategy, the technique, values and approaches you use are totally different. They are not comparable at all. I am currently employed with one of these firms as a business consultant. Now Accenture, Deloitte, E&Y and KPMG also have advisory services/management consulting arm which is as big as their core audit or IT services. My first question is what is the difference in recruitment methods in the BBM + other top pure…

Deloitte IT Strategy & McKinsey BTO

Michael, I listened to your podcasts about McKinsey, BCG et al versus the so-called second-tier of Deloitte, Accenture etc. My focus is IT strategy and I have offers from both McKinsey and Deloitte IT in the North-Eastern USA. I am obviously keen to take McKinsey but I have had coffee chats with the partners from Deloitte and seem to be doing much more strategic and exciting work than McKinsey. The people are also great and went to some amazing schools. The Deloitte recruiting partner is also Harvard alum and I cannot see any differences between her and the McKinsey partners Maybe you could shed some light on how this decision should be made? Alex *** Hi Alex, Thank you for your email. I am going to respond to your email in several ways. First, I am going to walk you through an IT strategy engagement which I led as a Principal when I was at BBM. As always, expect lots of details. Second, I want to talk through the differences between BBM and Deloitte on IT strategy and finally, in third place, I want to offer some questions you can ask Deloitte and McKinsey to expose some of the differences…

IT Professional on McKinsey Move

An IT professional with 7 years of experience discusses the difference between IT strategy at Accenture, etc. and the work done at McKinsey BTO. He also comments on questions IT professionals and other industry candidates should ask themselves prior to going after consulting as well as the image and communication changes he is making. I thought of putting together this post to help experienced IT professionals and other experienced candidates wishing to make a switch to management consulting. As an IT professional, having spent about 7 years in the technology domain, my work involved implementing many packaged solutions, which are commonly termed as COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf Software). Most of these implementations were in fact a result of management consulting work streams although it was not always apparent. There is a myth that technology implementation consultants are solving business problems where in effect what they do is implement an Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Business Intelligence or Data Ware House or similar software. There may be many instances of customized software that may be built to cater to business needs. Even though large technology firms such as Infosys, Cognizant, Accenture and the likes prefer to use technology implementation interchangeably with…

Client Testimonials

SAP manager Venkat approach to McKinsey BTO

Did you enjoy the program? If yes, how? This program was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I have total admiration for Michael and he introduced me to Marvin Bower. Michael is the modern Marvin Bower. Values mean everything to him. It was not always smooth sailing in the program but Michael and the team made a sincere effort to help me and they succeeded. There are many reasons why the program was pleasant for me but one reason stands out. I was not happy with my role at SAP and had quit. I had an MBA from a good school in the US, but was an Indian national and had never been able to break out of the technology field. I quit my job without telling Michael since I just could not think about going back into a technology role. Michael did not agree with my decision but was very sympathetic to my personal and financial constraints. We would speak around my availability and I was also given many free sessions which generously helped me. I sincerely felt that Michael was committed to helping me succeed. The McKinsey BTO action plan we developed was 100% focused…