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Corporate Strategy or In-house consulting?

corporate development inhouse consulting Internal Strategy
New answer on Aug 19, 2022
3 Answers
4.0 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Mar 29, 2018

I've offers from Beiersdorf Corporate Strategy (CEO's office) and Merck Inhouse consulting? Which should have better career prospects?

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Anonymous replied on Mar 29, 2018

I'd suggest the CEO office, assuming there's hope for also being groomed to take on a P&L role eventually. The problem with pure "Inhouse consulting" units is that they lack decision making power & clout, and are seen more as a cost center within a company, whereas a CEO office role typically carries prestige & hopefully a "path to P&L".

Hope this helps.

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Best answer
Retired
Expert
replied on Apr 02, 2018
Former BCG interviewer

My instinct answer and personal bias is for Merck. The main reason is company size, global footprint and brand. That said things that can change my initial bias: role at which are you joining (the more junior the more I side with Merck), size of the team (the larger the team the more I side with Beiersdorf), your interest in international opportunities (the more interested the more I side with Merck).

I agree that internal consulting has clout and direct decision making power however that is a very important skill to learn (how to lead through influence) because that is how you will manage most things when you will be in a senior position.

hope it helps,

andrea

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Simon
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Aug 19, 2022
50+ successful coachings / Ex-Mckinsey JEM & Interviewer / Industry + Engineering background

Hey anonymous,

Let me just add to this conversation that in some markets there are also inhouse consultancies, that can be mapped to the Tier 1 / 2 / 3 logic, e.g. in Germany / US / China often Siemens Management Consulting (now Strategy unit of Siemens Advanta Consulting) is seen similar to a Tier 1 (MBB) consultancy with competitive salaries until the EM level.

Best

Simon

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