How you were able to positively impact your clients’ businesses?

I once reviewed a company's investment priorities and came up with a tool to prioritize investments. They quickly realized that they were going to spend hundreds of millions in projects that wouldn't have enough return. 

The CEO was new to the company, so the week after was giving out an interview to the news and explaning how they were reviewing their investments and were going to save a ton of money. My work made the headlines on the business paper that week.

On another occasion, I was leading a strategy review for a small company, and decided to review their portfolio of contracts. The way they made their money was around selling multi-year service contracts. Through that analysis I realized that the margin on their largest customer was so low that it was not even covering what we would call “central office costs”. I also realized through the process that cost allocation had some issues, meaning that some costs could be understated while the project was in progress. 

So a couple of weeks later management realizes that the project was high on the red and the company could face bankrupcy if things weren't corrected quickly. Basically that day I saved not only that company from bankrupcy, but also saved around a thousand jobs.

While I probably have other compelling examples of things I've done at a more senior level (e.g. successfully performing a continental-wide merger, setting up a breakthrough national policy for a specific sector, avoiding a billion dollar mistake in a M&A bid, etc.), what I find most interesting about these two examples is that they are examples of things great analysts can do. In fact, they weren't really within the core scope of the project, but were additional value add opportunities that wound up being worth even more than the strategy project itself!

Hi there – what a delightful question :) 

There were many occasions where I could make true difference. I once led a project where I created and launched what is now a country’s most popular credit card. It was business-building from scratch, done in mere months. 

This was probably my best project in terms of a practical, tangible, impactful result at a client. 

It is not always like that. But sometimes it is. And if so, it is glorious :) 

I could go on: there was a project of mine which directly improved the lives of 15 million people, there was one where I helped a company back on its feet after a fine worth billions of dollars… but then I would run out of space in the PrepLounge reply window. The best part is – your projects will be different but nonetheless meaningful and impactful as seen by you! 

Hope this resonated! Good luck on your way toward MBB :)

Hi there,

Very thoughtful question! I actually highly recommend you ask this during your networking calls! It is not a pre-requisite to know someone at MBB…you should reach out to people similar to you and try to have a chat. There are ways to do this right (and many ways to do it wrong), but I encourage your to put yourself out there!

Alas I can't tell you any stories here as they are all confidential in nature, but people are generally more willing to share via call!

Thank you for your question. It is definitely something you want to get input on before you start your actual recruiting process. Try to informally talk to people who have first-hand consulting experience:

• Attend campus recruiting/info events that consulting firms host
• Reach out to consultants via LinkedIn (ideally to people with a common connection, e.g. mutual contacts, graduates from your university)
• Sign up to/apply for consulting workshops

Just a word of caution: The question itself is rather high-level and open which will lead to very subjective answers. Think of additional, more specific questions as well that you want to ask during those chats. That will help you better understand the different facets of the job and determine if a consulting career is an avenue you'd want to pursue

Hello,

If you are interested in strategy consulting, I encourage you to reach out to people at MBB (potentially in the offices/industries you would be interested in applying to), and talk to them about their experiences!

Personally, as a strategy consultant I have been involved in a variety of great projects spanning fintech, medical devices, electric vehicles, the future of work, and energy.