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Teamwork in consulting

consulting
New answer on Apr 04, 2021
6 Answers
1.5 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Apr 01, 2021

Hello, why consultants always work in teams? Thanks

Overview of answers

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Best answer
Henning
Expert
replied on Apr 03, 2021
Bain | passed >15 MBB interviews as a candidate
  1. Because working alone is boring and much less fun than working in a team
  2. Typically there's it's too much work to do for a single person
  3. The type of work requires multiple different skill sets
  4. As a means of quality control
  5. So junior team members can get coaching from senior team members
  6. .... I'm sure there are many more
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Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Apr 01, 2021
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

Interesting question that no-one seems to ask!

  1. Fundamentally, the assignments/tasks at hand generally can't be done by one person. These are massive/broad/vague topics that move entire Fortune 500 companies - hard to put that on just one person!
  2. Time is critical on most of these projects. When picking between 1 person for 4 months or 4 people for 1 month to figure out how to respond to xx existential threat to the company, which would you pick as a CEO? :P
  3. Work done by teams is generally better. Humans are social creatures. We need to discuss, ideate, review, etc. Eveyrone brings something different to the table. At the end of the day, something done by multiple people will be better than someone done by one (assuming all are high calibre and the end product needs brainpower).

Great question!

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Franco
Expert
replied on Apr 01, 2021
Ex BCG Principal | INSEAD | 10 yrs in consulting | Interviewed >200 Career Switchers, MBAs, Undergrads in Europe and USA

Because

  • There's a lot of work and one person alone usually cannot do it
  • At a minimum, you need a person who does the grunt work (excel and ppt) and one (or a share of time of one) that is more senior and experienced and can project credibility and charisma in front of the senior leaders of the customer and at the same time manage the junior resource (and this guy would be too expensive to do the grunt work himself)

The smallest team I've seen in an MBB team is one business analyst + 30% of the time of a project leader / EM.

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Antonello
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Apr 02, 2021
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi, usually the project should be delivered in 1-4 months and it is too big for 1 single person. However, there are some engagements with only one associate

Best,
Antonello

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Adi
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Apr 01, 2021
Accenture, Deloitte | Precision Case Prep | Experienced Interviewer & Career Coach | 15 years professional experience

In the professional services industry (and many others), no job is really solo, if you think of it. You may be an individual contributor but will need to indirectly manage others to get the job done.

Depending on the type (length, scope, complexity etc) of project sold, consulting teams can be as small as 1 full-time person + 1 part-time person to 40-50 (or bigger) person pyramid teams.

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Apr 04, 2021
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

Usually, in a nutshell, because there are multiple workstreams in an engagement and you need to share among people. If not, it would take forever.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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