How will Digital McKinsey be impacted by COVID-19?

Hello!

It is out of doubt already that COVID-19 is harming GLOBAL economy, and in the next weeks we will see whether we are heading to a global economic recession -while it seems clearer by the day, unfortunately-.

If this is the case, and we indeed face a global recession -even if not as hard as the previous one-, this will have an impact in consulting. Why? Simply because there would be less clients, less engagements with the usual clients, and an overall freeze in spending.

At this point, for sure McK Digital, as well as McKinsey and MBB in general, will see their overall volume reduced.

It´s also true that the effort towards digitalization is a hot topic at this point -see, for instance, the companies who have been forzed to stop their operations due to the fact that they are not digital enaugh to continue in a remote and smart-work way.

At this point, honestly, none can still know.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

I see a lot of businesses that now have to activate an online channel to stabilize revenues and even for their own survival - my hypothesis is that this will positively impact digital projects in the next months, in particular once the quarantine ends in major economies.

It is important to notice that not all digital projects and companies are thriving in this period. While certain sectors such as online deliveries or cloud services are growing substantially, advertising revenues are decreasing for major online companies. Companies related to marketplace in the travel and tourism sector such as Uber and Airbnb also are suffering. Overall though the net effect will likely be favorable for online and digital channels, for its adoptions by companies and thus also for related consulting services.

Best,

Francesco

Hey A,

the global recession has already begun, even we still don't the actual figures, but we are at the beginning of the crisis both on the demand and supply side.

Many business will go bancrupt soon and massive layoffs are to start.

The remaining companies will be focused on surviving in these conditions:

1. Cut their costs and optimize processes

2. Focus on their most valuable customers and respond to the changing customer behavior.

We will get used that everything could be done online or delivered directly to your home - this will change the whole economy paradigm towards online consumption. Offline businesses would need to adapt.

So McKinsey Digital as well as other consultancies in the coming 2 years will help their client to cut costs, secure liquidity, optimize/digitize processes and transform the companies to the new digital world.

You as a candidate should also become ready for the new reality that the whole application process and interviews will be all online.

I am happy to help you with referrals and online preparations.

Cheers,

André

Hi! you are right, the arguments can be made for either way. I agree with Andre though: more and more things are moving online, so it might be a big argument for McK Digital.

Hi,

It highly depends on your location, company preferences, position. I can explain it in the following way:

Firms:

• MBB: less affected, interviews are still conducted, offers are issued for Q3 and Q4 2020 and Q1 2021; companies still have business and enough liquidity to survive; some offices expect to grow in terms of revenue for 2020
• Tier 2: highly affected, the general trend is that interviews are postponed, the majority of firms do not issue offers, some firms experience liquidity gaps and cut FTE or ask employees to take an unpaid leave
• BIG 4: less affected, advisory business experiences problems, but recurring revenue from Tax and Audit allows to manage through temporary uncertainty

Geographic coverage:

• USA: the strongest market for consulting, interviews are conducted, offers are issued, consulting revenues might even grow
• Europe: consulting is affected, but is expected to recover in Q3 and Q4
• CIS: consulting is affected, MBB and BIG 4 will survive, as well as Accenture, but boutiques have liquidity problems
• Asia: consulting revenues begin to recover, but Hong Kong political crisis still creates uncertainty around Financial sector and transportation (that affects consulting revenues from these industries)
• Middle East: MBB firms still conduct interviews, consulting business starts to recover slowly, low oil prices still slow down the economy
• Latin America: no info
• Australia: no info

Positions:

• Interns: affected, interns is a long term game for consulting firms (as well as a way to handle “monkey” tasks) and consulting firms at the moment are not super focuses on long term investments
• Junior and middle management: less affected, hiring is in progress across MBB and Big 4
• Principals & partners: less affected, consulting firms still look for experienced leaders

Programs:

• Summer programs: the majority of programs are cancelled, bad news
• Full time: highly depends on other factors

Career tracks:

• Generalists: generally affected as consulting firms currently have more demand towards digital and data driven projects
• Industry focused experts: depends on the industry, but oil and gas industry is affected
• Digital experts: almost not affected, high demand for digital projects and the supply of experts is weak
• Data scientists: not affected at all, consulting firms are heavily hiring data scientists

Hope this helps!

Anton