Criticism against consulting and role of Implementation

Question

Consulting ( Strategy in particular) is often critcized as being very top-down and detached from actual decision making around execution. For ex: a group a consultants fly in - work on a project for a few weeks - create a fancy deck and it sits in a shelf in the office because it is not neccesarily executible.

I believe a lot of this is changing with firms investing in their implementation practises. Do you think this is true?

I am new consultant at an MBB and I have been thinking about this in terms of how I should strategize project selection to make myself most marketable to industry after a couple of years. The ultimate goal would be to transition to a P&L role after spending some time in a strategy division of a company. Do you think having project experience in both strategy and implementation makes me a better candidate for a P&L role in the future?

Answer 1

Hi,

1) Everyone will look at the brand, not the projects that you've done - so does not really matter

2) In consulting a much better strategy for your survival is to select the projects by people to work with (Manager, Partners), not the scope

3) The level of impact depends on whether it's a long-term client or not and how much money he has / ready to pay. You can work for a strategy for a client and your next project will be the implementation of this strategy. So I would rather look at the size of the client rather than project type. But still. people to work with are more important than anything else.

Best

Answer 2

Hi Varun,
your impression is correct. Companies are being increasingly interested in whole-packaged engagements where, in addition to strategy and initiatives design, the impact is implemented and measured. E.g. in McKinsey implementation practice is growing double-digit.

Best,
Antonello

Answer 3

Hi,

Yes, it is true that more and more projects are evolving into implementation. While you will be staffed on implementation cases, you will also have the chance to work on other types of projects as well. And in reality, the combination of both will prepare you the best for P&L ownership in the future.

Best,

Deniz