Things To Know About London & the UK for Consulting

Question

Hi all,

Greetings from Madrid and Happy New Year!

I am interviewing with Roland Berger's London office next week and wanted to write to you all today to ask what are some "must knows" about London & the UK market, resources to read up on, geographics, etcetera. I have some insights from my previous work experience with UK partners, and I'm drawing upon my knowledge that the UK population is approx 70M - which is good for cases - but want to round out my knowledge evenf further. Any tips?

I am non-native to the EU/UK!

Thank you all so so much,
SE

Answer 1

Hi Sabrina,

First, good luck and Happy New Year!

I'd also recommend being clear on the following:

UK vs England vs Great Britain (both territory delineations and population)
Breakdown of pop by age, income, urban v rural etc. (% breakdown)
European population and general breakdown of pop
Key European country populations (Germany, France, Spain, Italy)
Key European country GDP totals (incl. UK of course)
London total population and breakdown

Important to have already thought about a few key major trends/topics in the UK as well (and their implications on business):

Brexit (particularly in the finance sector)
Covid (restaurants, retail, tech)
Globalisation (or the reverse of it)
Major industries and growth areas

Good luck!

Answer 2

Hi Sabrina,

These are the best sources to find out everything about UK

https://www.gov.uk/
https://www.ons.gov.uk/

Good Luck!

Answer 3

Hi,

Do you mean knowledge for market sizings about London and the UK?

If this is the case, I'd recommend you memorize basic demographic information (e.g. population, age distribution, etc.).

Hope this helps.

Best,

Antonello

Answer 4

Hello!

TBH, I would not waste any time on this. It´s never been asked in any of my interviews!

Furthermore, the London office is usually supre international, so you may never work in the UK at all!

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 5

Hi Sabrina,

I only wanted to point out that it's not expected from you to be super precise, but being familiar with the key information (demographics, economics) of the leading european countries is very useful for market sizing questions.

Cheers, GB

Answer 6

Some other key facts to bear in mind include

Population - 70M
London population - 9M
Ageing society - inverted pyramid
Avg income - ~25K
Strong sectors in the economy - financial services, professional services