Get Active in Our Amazing Community of Over 448,000 Peers!

Schedule mock interviews on the Meeting Board, join the latest community discussions in our Consulting Q&A and find like-minded Case Partners to connect and practice with!

How much research work does a consultant do?

Research
New answer on Oct 15, 2023
3 Answers
1.3 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Dec 10, 2021

I understand that some MBB firms have a specific research/expertise/domain knowledge department and consultants reach out to them for info. So how much research work do consultants do? Is it right to say that consultants focus on structuring the issue, speaking with client's staff, seeking research from the in-house research/expertise/domain team and then analysing all the info?

Overview of answers

Upvotes
  • Upvotes
  • Date ascending
  • Date descending
Best answer
Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 10, 2021
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

The short answer that that the consultants do a lot of research, they just do different research. Think about it as a delineation/segmentation of roles across the type of research.

When you think about it, speaking to domain experts is research - a consultant can't become an expert in a few weeks/months so they need to pull knowledge from the expert, client, internet, etc. For time-intensive research, or institution-based research, they can reach out to company experts to get the data/info. But, of course, the consultants need to know what to ask for, how to ask for it, and then what to do with it.

Make sense?

Was this answer helpful?
Benjamin
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Oct 15, 2023
Ex-BCG Principal | 8+ years consulting experience in SEA | BCG top interviewer & top performer

Hi,

This is an interesting question - and really depends on a couple of dynamics:

  1. Scope of research
    • Sometimes more mundane/repetitive research can be outsourced either to the research team, or to temporary research assistants
    • However other types of more complex research is best done by the consultant themselves
  2. Case budget
    • Sometimes you don't have budget to incur additional resources to help with research
  3. Time
    • Sometimes the time it takes to get external or outsourced help to do the research is longer than the time you can afford - in this case you would end up doing the research yourself

 

Hope this helps to clarify!

 

Was this answer helpful?
Pedro
Expert
replied on Dec 26, 2021
30% off in March 2024 | Bain | EY-Parthenon | Roland Berger | Market Sizing | DARDEN MBA

Analysist spend a lot of their time researching. It can be conduting primary research (interviews), finding experts, preparing surveys, analyzing surveys, interviewing clients' staff, googling news, analyzing industry reports (provided by the research team), analyzing competitors investor presentations, …

Of course, if you look at this, it is actually research + analysis. 

Then they also work on communication (slides) and on quantitative analysis (e.g. based on data provided by the client).

Regarding “structuring the issue” this is mostly manager type of work (but experienced analytists and senior consultants do this as well, for their own workstreams)

Was this answer helpful?
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or fellow student?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 = Not likely
10 = Very likely