Career & Application at McKinsey & Company

Hello!

Yes, for sure, passing from a strategy role in consulting to MBB is indeed one of the most frequent paths for experienced hires!

Another question, do you have an MBA? This would help, but not deal-breaker either.

I have coached 3 people who indeed made this move -from Tier2 and boutique to MBB-, ping me if you would like me to connect you.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

No, for MBB background check is not going to be what so ever a problem. At all!

Funny enaugh, this precisely that you are describing happened to me with my background check for the MBA acceptance in MIT. My role in Amazon has another naming internally, and they went crazy saying that it was diffrent than what I had submitted.

In any case, I asked for an HR letter saying they are the same, and it was solved.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Well, lucky for you they've given you your buckets :)

But, first you have to clarify the objective. So, what do they want to achieve with these acquisitions? Are they trying to acquire companies within their existing industry so as to reduce competition? Are they looking to acquire companies with knowledge they don't have? ARe they looking to vertically integrate? Horizontally integrate? Perhaps most importantly, are they prioritizing topline or bottomline growth? Finally, what's the budget? I.e. how big can these companies be?

Clarifying the exact purpose is incredibly important, as you cannot identify, screen, and prioritize if you don't know what you're looking for!

Let's assume you've asked this in the case. A quick and dirty approach would be

Identify

• Look at the "world of" targets (consider below approaches)
  • Look in public sources for companies that have said they'r looking to be bought, or those that might want to be
  • Reach out to the local network to find potential targets
  • Hire a PE firm
  • Etc.
• Once one or many of the above approaches have been selected, we can get a list of possible targets

Screen

• From this list, we need to first eliminate anything that doesn't fit (i.e. doesn't meet table stakes). This could be
  • Too big
  • Too expensive
  • Doesn't address key objective/needs (clarified in the prompt) (i.e. not in an interesting industry, etc.)
  • Not

Prioritize

• We should have a shortened list now, but we need to figure out what matters (relates to above clarifying question)
• We need to pick the top 3-4 things that matter, rank them, and use those as selection criteria. Some of these could be
  • Positive cash flow
  • Genuinely interested seller
  • Fits our market
  • Fills a hole in our existing capability
  • Reduces competition
  • Gives us a new customer base
  • Is a valuable brand
  • Strong IP
  • Culture fit
  • etc.
• We can then rank the companies across these criteria to make a shortened list of ~10-20 to approach seriously

To get the above information/data, we can:

• Request income statements, balance sheets (or, if they're public, find them online).
• Talk to industry experts
• Speak with company contacts
• Speak with company customers
• Review government industry reports

This isn't the full answer, so feel free to reach out to talk about this in more depth!

Hi there

Are you looking for a permanent move or a temporary one?

If you are top performer, you can take advantage of company mobility programs to go UK from Asia/MENA. BCG has ambassador / associate abroad program for junior levels that you can take advantage of to go for 1 year. After which, if you build a good relationship with the team and office there, it is possible to stay on. I guess other firms might have similar programs as well.

Visa sponsorship won't be an issue once the office sees you as a great talent and wants to keep you.

Best,

Emily