Monitor 2003

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

1/46

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

2/46

Copyright © 2002 by Vault Inc. All rights reserved.

All information in this book is subject to change without notice. Vault makes no claims as to

the accuracy and reliability of the information contained within and disclaims all warranties.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of VaultInc.

Vault, the Vault logo, and “the insider career networkTM” are trademarks of Vault Inc.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, contact Vault Inc.,

150 W22nd Street, New York, New York 10011, (212) 366-4212.

Library of Congress CIP Data is available.

ISBN 1–58131–237–7

Printed in the United States of America

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

3/46

Visit the Vault Consulting Career Channel at http://consulting.vault.com — with

insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more. vii R E E R

L I R R Y

Monitor

INTRODUCTION 1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Monitor at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

THE SCOOP 3

Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

ORGANIZATION 9

Business Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

CEO's Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Offices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Key Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

VAULT NEWSWIRE 15

OUR SURVEY SAYS 17

GETTING HIRED 23

Addresses to Apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Hiring Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Questions to Expect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Questions to Ask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

4/46

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

5/46

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

6/46

Employees: 800 consultants

Revenues: $320 million

(approximately)

Net income: (not disclosed)Number of offices: 28

PRACTICE AREAS

Custom Model/Software Design

E-Commerce

Economic Development Consulting

Executive Education

Financial Assessment/Evaluation

Marketing Strategy

Non-profit Consulting

Operations & Logistics

Organizational Design

Private Equity

Private Equity Consulting

Scenario Planning

Strategic Transactions

Strategy

Venture Capital

UPPERS

• Flexible travel

• Good office space

DOWNERS

• Budget cuts

• Poor communication with

management

• “Big thinkers”

• “Arrogant”

• “Impressive track record”

• “You can only cruise so far on HBS”

THE BUZZWHAT EMPLOYEES AT OTHER FIRMS ARE SAYING

Monitor at a Glance

© 2002 Vault Inc.2 C R E E R

L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

7/46

Monitoring the world

Monitor Group was founded in 1983 by a group of professors and consultantswho were eager to put ideas they had developed in the academic world into

practice by helping clients improve their business strategy. Though only a

medium-sized firm by industry standards, Monitor has developed a number

of practices and expanded its client list to include everything from Fortune

500 companies and international firms to government agencies and major

nonprofit organizations. Through its 30 offices in 23 countries, it offers

advisory services in areas including private equity and venture capital, e-

commerce incubation, and mergers and acquisition-related transactions.

Breaking it down

Monitor divides its operations into three groups: The Action Group, which

focuses on consulting practices; Monitor Merchant Banking, which is

involved in capital investing and venture projects; and the Intelligent

Products Group, which designs customized data and software products. Each

group, in turn, comprises a number of companies. For example, the Action

Group includes such operations as the Global Business Network, an

organization of top firms in various industries, and Market2Customer, a

marketing consulting operation. Merchant Banking companies, such as

Monitor Clipper Partners and Monitor Ventures, have an equity stake in 20firms and over their collective lifetime have invested over $1 billion.

The Monitor Clipper connection

Monitor Clipper Partners, which was formed in 1998 by partners from The

Clipper Group and consultants from Monitor, recently closed its first

investment fund at $625 million - topping its $500 million goal. Another part

of the Monitor Group family, the buyout company leverages the other units'

resources and connections, much in the way that Bain Capital Inc. has leaned

on its cousin company, Bain & Co. Thus far, M.C. Partners has attracted such

investors as John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., BankBoston Corp.,

Fleet Financial Group Inc., Fisher Scientific Inc., the Bank of Boston, and

Stanford University. Mark Thomas, Monitor Clipper chairman and a Monitor

founder, declares that the buyout firm will target midsize companies with a

market value of $200 million or more. Office connection or not, Monitor has

already played sugar daddy: The consulting company contributed $35 million

to the investment fund.

The Scoop

Monitor


insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Consulting Job Board and more. 3 R E E R

L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

8/46

Monitor

The Scoop

Unified consulting

Monitor predicates its consulting philosophy on a “unified theory” approach.

Rather than applying a single strategy or set industry practices to every client,

the firm integrates its operations across industries, allowing its projects to use

resources culled from the firm’s various subsidiaries. Instead of relying on

generic practices or reinventing the wheel themselves, Monitor consulting

teams are able to draw on marketing, e-learning and software designers to

customize their solutions.

It’s academic

Much of Monitor’s strength comes from its grounding in the academic world.

One of its founding principals, Harvard Business School professor Michael

Porter, is a legend among consultants and still remains an influence on much

of Monitor’s structure and practices. Other principals, such as Bernie

Jaworski, Mike Jensen and Tom Copeland, have strong ties to the Ivory

Tower and retain fellowships or adjunct professorships at some of the nation’s

leading business schools. In March 2001, MarketspaceU, Monitor’s research

and publishing unit, announced a partnership with McGraw-Hill to produce a

series of written materials on e-commerce for business professionals, students

and educators. The title that spawned the series, e-Commerce (co-authored

by Jaworski and Jeffrey Rayport, a former HBS prof), is an integrated print

and online textbook that has already been adopted by nearly 200 business

schools, 59 in the first three months - a record for business textbooks.

The chief brain

Chief brain among many, Michael Porter earned an undergraduate degree

from Princeton University in 1968, after which he seriously considered

becoming a professional golfer. Settling for a more reliable financial path, he

decided to attend Harvard Business School in 1971 and obtained his PhD in

economics two years later. That year, 1973, Porter joined the Harvard faculty;

he became a full professor in 1982. Despite the prestige of professorship,

Porter refused to remain isolated in Cambridge’s most renowned ivory tower.

He toiled for seven years in the Harvard libraries accumulating the

information he needed to craft his groundbreaking tome, “Competitive

Strategy.” Published in 1980, Porter’s book explains the interaction between

industry structure and competitive strategy, a sort of logical guide to the

variables affecting a company’s competitive situation. The practical and

business-minded immediately fell in love with the book. They particularly

appreciated the vocabulary Porter developed to illustrate his theories, because


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

9/46

Monitor

The Scoop

it cut across company and industry divisions. Almost immediately after the

book was released, Porter was besieged by offers for consulting work.

In 1982, Porter’s colleague, Mark Fuller, left Harvard to found a consulting

firm called Monitor with his brother Joe. Porter agreed to become a principal

of the new organization, and the contacts he brought with him helped to boost

the firm’s fortune. Within four years the company employed 175

professionals in five offices worldwide. Perhaps the most advantageous of

Porter’s connections were those to Harvard Business School, which provided

the firm an “in” with Harvard MBAs on the verge of graduation, as well as

academics interested in putting some of their work on campus into practice.

But the question remains: Will Porter ever turn his full attention to Monitor?

Probably not; the wealthy academic is reportedly happy to spend most of his

time teaching.

Marketing space

Monitor realized early on the value of consulting to the burgeoning Internet

economy, and in 1998 it founded Marketspace, an e-consultancy in the Action

Group family. Two years later it hired HBS professor Jeffrey Rayport as its

director. Rayport, who was voted outstanding professor at HBS in 1997,

1998 and 1999, is seen by many as the godfather of e-commerce, because so

many of his students went on to found prominent dot-com firms (his course

on e-commerce, which he began in 1995, was one of the first in the country

to approach the issue). In November 2000, Rayport and Bernie Jaworskireleased a textbook, “e-Commerce,” that became one of the most quickly

adopted business textbooks in history.

Feeling the burn

The impact of the recent economic downturn hit Monitor in mid-2001,

particularly in its North American and European offices, as well as its e-

consultancy Marketspace group. Layoffs hit Europe in July and North

America in August, with cuts as high as 15 percent in some offices,

particularly in such satellite offices as Los Angeles and Toronto. Nevertheless, the company continues to do well in Latin America and Asia,

and both regions were spared from any staff reductions.

Up-and-coming operations

In comparison with many other firms, Monitor has weathered the recent

economic storm very well, thanks in a large part to its wide variety of



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

10/46

Monitor

The Scoop

operations and the ease with which it can move resources and staff between

them. Whereas Marketspace was a leading part of the Monitor Group a few

years ago, these days Market2Customer is a leader: “On a stand-alone basis

it would be one of the biggest marketing strategy firms out there,” one

Monitorite tells us. And the Action Company, always a key part of theorganization, is more central than ever; “organizational strategy and human

assets/intellectual capital is something we’re currently working on.”

Thinking differently

Among the industry’s high-level strategy set, Monitor’s main competitors are

McKinsey, BCG and Bain – considered by most insiders to be the top three

firms in the business. To stay competitive, the firm emphasizes its

differences: its academic roots and atmosphere, and its penchant for close-

knit, unabrasive relationships with clients that produce superior results.Monitor has a business casual dress code every day of the week, and has been

compared to a university in its relatively relaxed atmosphere. The firm has no

stringent up-or-out promotion policy, and in fact allows its employees, after a

certain period of employment, considerable flexibility in their schedules.

Many employees can choose particular types of client assignments. The firm

is also flexible in allowing its consultants to transfer between offices.

Free-flowing ideas and terminology

Monitor’s academic atmosphere stretches beyond its legions of young, khaki-clad consultants. The company is “choked with ideas and jargon alike,”

including its emphasis on diagnostic techniques such as “Action Learning,”

its intervention technique for dealing with client employees that are

somewhat hesitant to hand the future of their company over to a consulting

firm. Monitor feels that many cases of failed implementation are due to

defensive, dysfunctional interpersonal and group dynamics. Action Learning,

meant to counteract these problems, is based on years of research by

Professor Chris Argyris of Harvard Business School and the Harvard

Graduate School of Education. (Argyris is now a member of Monitor.)

To handle even more cutting-edge strategic analytic theory, Monitor has

fostered a handful of small affiliate companies like tiny think tanks, including

software firms, organizational strategy firms, teaching firms and the Monitor

Institute, which handles the pro bono work Monitor prides itself on

undertaking.


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

11/46

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

12/46

Has your job offer been delayed – or rescinded? Are you tryingto get into the consulting job market or trying to move toanother firm? Then you know it’s tough – and that you needevery advantage you can get.

For more information go tohttp://consulting.vault.com

“I have rewritten this resume

12 times and in one review

you got to the essence of

what I wanted to say!”

– S.G., Junior Consultant,

Atlanta, GA

“I was skeptical at first, but you

proved me wrong! The critique

zeroed in on where I had

weaknesses in the resume.”

– S.S., Consultant, San Diego

“You made coaching fun!

Thank you.”

– H.C., Consultant, Toronto,

Canada

We know the consulting industry. We’ve got

experts and practicing consultants ready to

review your resume and give you the

competitive advantage you need.

Consulting Resume Writingand Resume Reviews

• Have your resume written from scratch or

reviewed by an expert that knows the

consulting industry and has seen hundreds if

not thousands of consultants’ resumes.

• For resume writing, start with an e-mailed

history and 1- to 2-hour phone discussion.

Our experts will write a first draft, and deliver

a final draft after feedback and discussion.

• For resume reviews, get an in-depth critique

and rewrite within TWO BUSINESS DAYS.

Consulting Career Coaching

• Want to know what it takes to get into

consulting from school or another career?

• Have a deferred acceptance and want to

know where to go from here?

• Looking to switch from one consulting

firm to another?

• Is the travel wearing you out and

you’re looking to see how else

your consulting skills can be put

to use?

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

13/46

Business Units

Most Monitor companies are comprised of a core staff of senior people; this

core then draws junior consultants from the Action Company on a project-by-

project basis – though we hear that after a few years consultants tend to settle

down in one company or another. As one respondent tells Vault, “Think about

Monitor companies as knowledge specialties.” Two notable exceptions are

Market2Customer and Decision Architects, which hire their own staffs,

though they almost always work in concert with other Monitor companies.

Monitor Action Group

Action Company is Monitor’s oldest and largest component, founded in 1983.

As of September 2002, the Action Group employs more than 800 consultants.

Directed by Monitor co-founder Joe Fuller, the Action Group is a major

player in the world of strategy consulting, working with a long roster of

Fortune 500 firms. It is also the fulcrum of the Monitor organization,

coordinating cooperation among its many units. Consultants hired into the

general Action pool sometimes work on cases staffed out of other business

units.

Founded in 1987, Global Business Network is a membership organization

comprising both major corporations and individual corporate leaders. Knownas a “future-scenario thinking company,” GBN is much like a think tank in

that it brings together its members to envision future scenarios and sculpt

strategies for dealing with them. GBN sometimes takes on outside

assignments. For example, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment asked

GBN to coordinate a mini-think tank of futurists to develop ideas to be used

in his 2002 science fiction film “Minority Report.”

Market2Customer is a consultancy focused on issues of marketing and

branding. Since 1992, it has provided clients with a variety of proprietary

tools for developing and growing products and brands, such as GrowthPathand Precision Marketing. Market2Customer employs 120 professionals and

shares offices with Action Company in Cambridge, New York, Toronto,

Chicago, London, Paris, Munich, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Monitor Institute, a subsidized arm of Monitor, caters to nonprofit

organizations. The Monitor Institute is effectively a semi-to-completely pro

bono consulting service for nonprofits and select public sector organizations.

Organization

Monitor



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

14/46

Monitor

Organization

Past clients have included cancer research organizations and the South

African Justice Department.

Marketspace is Monitor’s e-consultancy. Founded in 1998, it was soon taken

over by Jeffrey Rayport, a former HBS professor and the godfather of e-

commerce, whose course on the business of the Internet (begun in 1995)

spawned a brace of early dot-com successes. Rayport is also the author of “e-

Commerce,” an extremely successful B-school textbook released through

MarketspaceU, the company’s educational component.

The newest member of Monitor Group, Innovative Management Inc. came on

board in July 2002. Led by Ron Jonash, the company focuses on the

transforming effects of technology on business practices.

Monitor Corporate Finance advises clients on investment decisions such as

research and development programs, product development, phasedinvestments and acquisition programs. Directed by Tom Copeland, MCF has

served more than 250 companies in 34 countries.

Monitor University is Monitor’s client training program, providing classes in

strategic thinking, economics, marketing, assets (financial, physical, human

and knowledge), processes, productive reasoning and logic, negotiation,

leadership and judgment. Monitor University runs specially designed training

programs for corporate clients, and boasts that it also creates “a critical mass

of executives who have a common language to answer business questions.”

Activities, Processes and Systems (APS) is Monitor’s operationsmanagement arm, which seeks to repair the breaks in client organizations’

value chains. APS uses cutting-edge technologies such as target costing,

process webs, and decision rights mapping to help managers develop an

integrated point of view about the multi-dimensional, small-s “systems”

nature of challenges they face while attempting to repair the breaks in

organizational value chains. APS focuses attention on the cross-functional

points of integration in value chains – for example, the place where sales and

marketing meet. APS works from the demand (or “pull”) side of business,

not the supply (or “push”).

Monitor Merchant Banking

Monitor Clipper Partners is a $725 million equity investment firm run jointly

by Monitor and The Clipper Group. Founded in 1998, the fully invested fund

has put $475 million into 17 transactions since February 1999; deals have

involved such companies as Conseco, Datek/Island ECN and American

Fibers and Yarns Company.


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

15/46

Monitor

Organization

Monitor Advisory for Strategic Transactions (MAST) provides technical

assistance on complex finance issues such as divestments, mergers and joint

ventures. The firm is Monitor’s only non-U.S.-based operation: it is

registered and licensed in the U.K., and it is only now developing an

American client list

Monitor Equity Advisors adapts core practices developed in the Action Group

to the needs of private equity and venture capital clients. Its services include

assessing the risks involved a target’s portfolio, analyzing a target’s growth

potential and helping clients develop short-term operational improvements.

Not only does Monitor advise venture capital groups, it has its own in the

form of Monitor Ventures. Focusing on start-ups and other small firms,

Monitor Ventures relies on the assets and knowledge of other Monitor Group

firms to make decisions about where and when to invest, as well as to assist

those firms it invests in with their growth needs.

The Intelligent Products Group

This group is synonymous with its one company, Decision Architects, which

builds support software addressing competitive market issues. Almost all of

its work is done in cooperation with other Monitor firms. Its areas of

specialty include “war game” competitive simulations; MarketSight, which

allows managers to create surveys and analyze data without extensive

statistics backgrounds; and Product Concept Evaluation, a data management

tool to evaluate product profitability. Decision Architects, located in

Cambridge, Mass., employs just over 30 people. The company has its own

web page, www.decisionarc.com.

CEO’s Profile

Mark Fuller, a former assistant professor at Harvard Business School, co-

founded Monitor in 1983 with his brother Joe (who now heads the Action

Group) and five other associates. Fuller, now CEO, taught courses in strategy

formulation and implementation as well as industry analysis, and he used

many of the same approaches he expounded in class to build his fledgling

consultancy. In 2001 Consulting magazine ranked him No. 8 in its list of Big

Thinkers in the Consulting Industry.

Offices



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

16/46

Monitor

Organization

Monitor has offices in cities around the globe:

North America

• Cambridge, Mass. (headquarters)

• Chicago, Ill.

• Los Angeles

• New York, N.Y.

• Palo Alto, Calif.

• San Francisco, Calif.

• Santa Monica, Calif.

• Toronto, Ontario

South America

• Sao Paulo, Brazil

Europe

• Amsterdam, The Netherlands

• Frankfurt, Germany

• London, England

• Madrid, Spain

• Milan, Italy

• Munich, Germany

• Paris, France

• Stockholm, Sweden

• Zurich, Switzerland

Africa

• Johannesburg, South Africa

Mediterranean

• Athens, Greece• Tel Aviv, Israel


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

17/46

Monitor

Organization

Asia Pacific

• Beijing, China

• Hong Kong, China

• Manila, Philippines• Melbourne, Australia

• Mumbai, India

• Seoul, Republic of Korea

• Singapore

• Tokyo, Japan

Key Officers

CEO and Chairman: Mark Fuller

Director, Monitor Corporate Finance: Tom Copeland

CEO, Action Group: Joe Fuller

Director, Innovation Management, Inc.: Ron Jonash

Director, Marketspace: Jeffrey Rayport

Chairman, Global Business Network: Peter Schwartz

Head of Market2Customer: Bob Lurie

Head of Merchant Banking: Mark Thomas



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

18/46

Vault’s consulting experts bring

you a new service to help you

prepare for interviews with

consulting firms. We’ll help you

prepare for that all-important caseinterview with a 30-minute mock

interview and a 30-minute question

and answer session with our

consulting expert over the telephone.

Vault Live Case

Interview Prep

Do you have an interview comingup with a consulting firm?

Unsure how to handlea case interview?


A Vault consulting expert will put you through a real case

used by the major consulting firms. You will be given the

case at your appointment and will be asked to explain it,

dissect it, and give a rationale for your responses.

The prep session will cover:

• Case strategies for attacking different case types

• Case frameworks, including Value Chain Analysis

and Value Drivers Frameworks

• Market sizing cases

• A representative business strategy case (for example,

a market-entry case)

• And more!

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

19/46

July 2002: IMI joins Monitor

The newest member of the Monitor family is Innovative Management Inc.,which specializes in change management and incorporating new technologies

into existing practices. It is directed by Ron Jonash, formerly a partner at

Arthur D. Little.

June 2002: Steven Spielberg releases Minority

Report, with GBN’s help

In order to make “Minority Report’s” vision of the future D.C. area (circa

2050) convincing, Steven Spielberg asked Global Business Network to

convene a group of its members to develop scenarios for what the futuremight look like.

February 2002: Jaworski and Kohli win

marketing award

Marketspace’s Bernie Jaworski and Ajay Kohli won the first annual Sheth

Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award for their 1993 article “Marketing

Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences.” The lag time is intentional –

the award is designed to look back six to seven years to find the business

article that most accurately forecast the course of the marketing industry.

July/August 2001: Monitor catches the layoff

bug

Facing a drop in demand, Monitor laid off up to 15 percent of its staff in a

number of offices worldwide; layoffs hit Europe in July and North America

in August. Particularly hard-hit were the firm’s satellite offices, such as

Toronto and Los Angeles.

November 2000: MarketspaceU publishes

textbook on e-commerce

MarketspaceU released a business-school textbook, appropriately calling it

“e-Commerce,” on conducting business in the Internet economy and written

by dot-com gurus Jeffrey Rayport and Bernie Jaworski. Within four months,

59 schools had adopted the book, the first of its kind.

Vault Newswire

Monitor



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

20/46

How many consulting job boards have youvisited lately?

(Thought so.)

Vault Consulting Job BoardThe most comprehensive and convenient job board for

consulting professionals. Target your search by area of

consulting, function, and experience level, and find the job

openings that you want. No surfing required.

VaultMatch Resume Database

Vault takes match-making to the next level: post your resume

and customize your search by area of consulting, experience

and more. We’ll match job listings with your interests and

criteria and e-mail them directly to your inbox.

Use the Internet’s most targeted

job search tools for consulting

professionals.

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

21/46

Something different

Despite its perennial spot among the top 10 consulting firms, Monitor’semployees like to emphasize how their firm rejects the cutthroat attitude of

the Bains and McKinseys of the world. “Monitor does not have an ‘up or out’

policy like many of its competitors,” one insider says. The firm is close knit

and casual, they tell us, and it likes to keep it that way: “Monitor regularly

turns away extremely qualified candidates whom Monitor considers better

suited to work at McKinsey, Bain, BCG and other large consulting firms,”

we’re told.

While the Monitor culture “tends to vary from office to office,” those who

stick with the firm do so because of “a combination of people who are

incredibly smart but low-key and lots of interesting things always going on.”

And despite its avowedly intellectual flair, the staff is “cooperative rather than

competitive and really likes to socialize outside of work.”

On the road

Monitorites report that they are very happy with the firm's approach to travel.

While it doesn't back off on the need to send consultants to where the action

is, employees are able to work with the firm's allocator to find optimal

assignments, and Monitor is very accommodating toward families: "I askedto be kept off of travel-intensive cases for personal reasons and I ended up

being away for two days over the course of over a year."

When fully staffed, consultants usually work on two cases at a time, and

seemed resigned to the fact that the job can entail long hours. "Hours are

pretty standard for a strategy consulting firm," says a source. "50 to 60 hours

in a typical week, up to 90 in a bad one, which may occur once every few

months." Others put the upper end of a typical week closer to the 75-hour

range.

Workers of Monitor, unite!

One downside to life at Monitor is what insiders characterize as an imperfect

level of communication between junior and senior staff. “The leadership

tends to be secretive and evasive,” one consultant says, “the result of which

is an ‘us against them’mentality for some junior consultants.” Another says,

“There tends to be a lot of unspoken bureaucracy and it’s difficult to figure

Our Survey Says

Monitor



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

22/46

Monitor

Our Survey Says

out how to navigate the system. Things tend to be more ad hoc here than

systematized.” One consultant attributes this to the firm’s recent, rapid

growth: “The firm has grown quickly, and upper management isn’t used to

having a lot of people. It has a ways to go.”

And while insiders tell us that “Immediate supervisors tend to treat [us] with

a great deal of respect,” they say that some problems result from the firm’s

“Mr. Nice Guy” image: “Monitor doesn’t always know how to deliver tough

messages. For example, the 2001 end-of-the-year compensation and bonus

messages were extremely vague, contradictory and confusing. I attribute this

to Monitor’s inexperience with delivering unpleasant messages to its

employees.” And while senior staff may seem less than forthcoming at times,

junior staff have a check: an upward review system in which managers who

“continuously receive poor evaluations from the junior members on the team

have to address their performance.”

That said, most respondents praised the level of communication and cohesion

on the case teams. One consultant says, “Communication on case teams is

great. You end up getting close with people, building a good camaraderie.”

Monitor encourages its case teams to foster discussion and constructive

criticism, and it looks for applicants who are comfortable with the frank

sharing of ideas. “One thing that makes us different,” one respondent tells

Vault, “is that we look at the character of the people and get a sense of a

required fit for the culture. Monitor is a place where straight-forward

feedback is encouraged. We look for people who are comfortable giving and

receiving that type of information.”

Painful cuts

Like most firms, Monitor has been forced to cut back on expenses in recent

years, and the brunt of its cuts have been borne by compensation and training.

And while Monitor makes sure to pay new hires the industry average for top

firms, it has lagged in handing out raises and bonuses (typically the firm bases

compensation adjustments on performance). More than the money, many

consultants say they are frustrated with the way the firm has handled the pay

freezes: “Last year the firm led employees to believe that bonuses would be

paid, right up until the week of Christmas, when they were cancelled.”

Another put it into this perspective: “The system tries its best to be fair and

meritocratic but just tends to confuse.” Nevertheless, most are happy with the

salaries they take in, particularly at the first- and second-year levels. “I think

for a recent college graduate with no experience,” offers one newly minted

Monitorite, “I’m extremely well compensated.”


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

23/46

Monitor

Our Survey Says

Monitor consultants have plenty to say about the firm’s perks, and most of it

is negative. Many of the complaints surround the 401(k) plan, which does not

include matching contributions. That appears to be the only area in which the

grumbling is justified, however. For example, the London consultant who

says “Monitor has always had a very light benefits package by any standards”enjoys long-term disability insurance, an employee referral bonus, a laptop

computer and an on-site gym, among several other perks. Additional

offerings include stock options, an employee assistance program, sports and

theater tickets, and free food and drinks.

Hot and cold

Training has been a target area for cost cutting by Monitor, according to

Monitor insiders. “Monitor training is very hot and cold,” we hear. “When

it happens it’s usually very good, but it’s the first thing to get turned off whentimes are hard.” For new hires, Monitor provides a five-day general

orientation session, followed by three days of training at the local office.

They are then assigned a mentor, and over the next two years they are

required to complete a set of five courses in such key subjects as finance,

marketing and interpersonal skills.

Nevertheless, some say that there is too little training on the front end:

“Monitor has training programs throughout your career, instead of having

intensive training when you start. It may make more sense for us to provide

new hires with more upfront basic training.” And classics majors beware:while Monitor’s training program is typically strong, it assumes a lot of

knowledge that most liberal arts students never acquired. One consultant

reports that “the corporate finance training was geared toward an intermediate

level, which was great for undergrad consultants who had majored in finance

and accounting. But for liberal arts majors, the training was way over our

heads.” Still, many consultants call Monitor training “intense” and “the best

in the industry.”

Monitoring diversity

Many female sources report being very happy at the firm. One female

consultant says that “as a woman, I feel that I have role models – although not

as many as I would like – at the group leader [partner] level.” On the other

hand, she continues, “The company does need to think more about alternative

career paths for women with children.” But others say that the long hours and

travel required of Monitor employees are just the cost of being a consultant.



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

24/46

Monitor

Our Survey Says

“It’s a great job when you’re single or newly married,” one female source

tells us, “but once you want to start having a family, forget it.”

As for minorities, most insiders believe that Monitor is a tolerant and

welcoming environment, but contend that the firm is still “very white-bread.”

One source attributes the paucity of non-whites to the lack of a diversity

infrastructure: “Monitor does not have support programs, which limits the

number of minorities who see Monitor as an attractive place. The company

could choose to address this, but does not do so explicitly. In general,

Monitor is a fairly liberal environment but could do more in this domain.”

The firm does, however, offer domestic-partner benefits, and homosexual

respondents report a strong gay and lesbian support network. “There are at

least two long-term Monitorites I know of who have progressed well and

have been openly gay/lesbian,” one source tells Vault. “I have never heard of

any negative comments or bias in any way.”

Green and orange surroundings

Insiders rave about the office space at the firm’s Cambridge headquarters.

“Monitor has put great thought into the offices and the layout and amenities,”

says one. “The Cambridge office is decked out with Herman Miller chairs,

art everywhere and these crazy geometric walls painted subtle greens and

oranges.” Consultants “share offices with one or sometimes two other

consultants,” and “every office gets natural light.” Quips one source,

“Offices used to be cramped, but layoffs solved that problem.” The office

also has a nap room, “a comfy TV room” and “ a small workout room with

great showers that are always clean and stocked with fresh towels.” As one

insider puts it, “If you are going to work as hard as we do, it’s nice to spend

your time in a pleasant environment.”

The Monitor way

When asked why someone would want to apply to Monitor, most respondents

say that the firm offers a unique approach to consulting, one that is highly

intellectual and tight-knit but also very open and frank. One respondent says

he was attracted by the variety of possible career paths: “From an

undergraduate’s perspective, it’s the flexibility of career path. Lots of firms

sign you on for 2-3 years, and then it’s up or out. From day one, everyone’s

career path differs. It depends on how you perform and where your interest

lies.”


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

25/46

Monitor

Our Survey Says



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

26/46

Has your job offer been delayed – or rescinded? Are you tryingto get into the consulting job market or trying to move toanother firm? Then you know it’s tough – and that you needevery advantage you can get.


“I have rewritten this resume

12 times and in one review

you got to the essence of

what I wanted to say!”

– S.G., Junior Consultant,

Atlanta, GA

“I was skeptical at first, but you

proved me wrong! The critique

zeroed in on where I had

weaknesses in the resume.”

– S.S., Consultant, San Diego

“You made coaching fun!

Thank you.”

– H.C., Consultant, Toronto,

Canada

We know the consulting industry. We’ve got

experts and practicing consultants ready to

review your resume and give you the

competitive advantage you need.

Consulting Resume Writingand Resume Reviews

• Have your resume written from scratch or

reviewed by an expert that knows the

consulting industry and has seen hundreds if

not thousands of consultants’ resumes.

• For resume writing, start with an e-mailed

history and 1- to 2-hour phone discussion.

Our experts will write a first draft, and deliver

a final draft after feedback and discussion.

• For resume reviews, get an in-depth critique

and rewrite within TWO BUSINESS DAYS.

Consulting Career Coaching

• Want to know what it takes to get into

consulting from school or another career?

• Have a deferred acceptance and want to

know where to go from here?

• Looking to switch from one consulting

firm to another?

• Is the travel wearing you out and

you’re looking to see how else

your consulting skills can be put

to use?

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

27/46

Addresses to Apply

Monitor Company

Two Canal Park

Cambridge, MA 02141

(617) 252-2000

Fax: (617) 252-2100

Resumes and cover letters may be e-mailed to the [email protected]

address in ASCII format or submitted online. Undergraduates are required to

include a copy of their college transcripts. Those interested in international

positions should contact the appropriate office directly. The full contact

information of each Monitor office is listed below.

North America

Los Angeles

Monitor Company

100 Wilshire Boulevard

Suite 1100

Santa Monica, CA 90401

Tel: (310) 566-4400

New York

Monitor Company

650 Madison Avenue, 9th Floor

New York, NY 10022

Tel: (212) 940-6000

Palo Alto

Monitor Company

350 Cambridge Ave.

Suite 325Palo Alto, CA, 94306

Tel: (650) 475-7300

Getting Hired

Monitor



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

28/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

San Francisco

Monitor/GBN

5900-X Hollis Street

Emeryville, CA 94608

Tel: (510) 547-6822

Toronto

Monitor Company (Canada) Ltd.

The Monitor Building, 5th Floor

100 Simcoe Street

Toronto, Ontario M5H 3G2

Canada

Tel: (416) 408-4800

South America

Sao Paulo

Monitor MGDK

Av. das Nacoes Unidas, 11857

15 Andar

Brooklin Novo

Sao Paulo – 04578-000

Brazil

Tel: 55-11-5501-2300-5369

Europe

Amsterdam

Monitor Company Europe

The World Trade Center

Strawinskylaan 535

1077-XX Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Tel: 31-20-5703-603

Frankfurt

Monitor Company

Borsenstrasse 7

Frankfurt

60313

Germany

Tel: 49-69-929-1010


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

29/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

London

Monitor Company Europe

Michelin House

81 Fulham Road

London SW3 6RDUnited Kingdom

Tel: 44-20-7838-6500

Madrid

Monitor Company

Maria de Molinas,Nos. 4

28006

Madrid

Spain

Tel: 34-91-782-8000

Milan

Monitor Company

Via della Guastalla, 2

20122

Milan

Italy

Tel: 39-02-773-981

MunichMonitor Company

Maximilianstrase 14

Munich 80675

Germany

Tel: 49-89-25548-0

Paris

Monitor Company

10-12, Place Vendome

75001Paris

France

Tel: 33-1-55-35-1313



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

30/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

Stockholm

Monitor Company Nordic

Norrmalmstorg 16

Stockholm 111 46

SwedenTel: 46-8-52-22-66-00

Zurich

Monitor Company

Muhlebachstrasse 173

8034

Zurich

Switzerland

Tel: 41-1-389-7111

Africa

Johannesburg

Monitor Company

83 Central Street, Houghton

P.O. Box 784705

Johannesburg

South Africa

Tel: 27-11-712-7500

Mediterranean

Athens

Monitor Company

15 Lykeiou Street

4th Floor

Athens 106 74

Greece

Tel: 30-1-0-729-4734

Tel Aviv

Monitor Company

1 Azrieli Center

Tel Aviv

67021

Israel

Tel: 972-3-607-8750


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

31/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

Asia Pacific

Beijing

Monitor Company

Suite 808, Millennium Tower

No. 38 Xiao Yun Road, Chaoyang DistrictBeijing 100027

P.R. China

Tel: 8610 8453 8800

Hong Kong

Monitor Company

Suite 1002-7A, Shui on Centre

6-8 Harbour Road

Hong Kong

WanchaiChina

Tel: 852-2284-8000

Manila

Monitor Company

16/F Tower One Ayala Trinagle

Ayala Avenue

Manilla

Makati City

PhilippinesTel: 63-(2)-752-2000

Melbourne

Monitor Company

14-18 Morrison Place

East Melbourne, Victoria

3002

Australia

Tel: 61 3 8660 4600



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

32/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

Mumbai

Monitor Company

84, Free Press House

Free Press Journal Marg

Nariman PointMumbai 400 021 400 021

India

Tel: 91 022 288 2732/33/34

Seoul

Monitor Company

Ninth Floor, ccmm Building

12 Yoido-dong Youngdungppo-gu

150-010

SeoulKorea

Tel: 82-2-6333-1700

Singapore

Monitor Company

10 Collier Quayn # 14-01

Ocean Building

Singapore

089615

SingaporeTel: 65-325-6510

Tokyo

Monitor Company

Hibiya Dai Building, 11th Floor

1-2-2 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo 100-0011

Japan

Tel: 81-3-3506-7651


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

33/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

Hiring Process

In keeping with the firm’s anti-hierarchy bent, new hires at Monitor go by the

title “consultant” whether they are straight out of undergrad or seasoned

MBAs (naturally, salaries and responsibilities vary). In a normal year thefirm will hire about 30 MBAs and even more undergrads, but the economy

has put the pinch on recruiting recently. Always difficult, getting in is “now

pretty much impossible.” Monitor recruits at top-tier universities and leading

liberal arts colleges, a network of 12 undergraduate institutions and seven

business schools; while the firm accepts applications from non-MBA

graduate-degree holders, it doesn’t actively recruit them. Students should

submit their applications online.

To get in, candidates need more than good grades and a knack for business –

Monitor goes the distance to make sure candidates fit the culture. As one

source says: “It doesn’t take much to get denied an offer. Monitorites who

attended your college or university are often consulted as to your character

even before you get an interview.”

Monitor’s interview process typically consists of two rounds. The first round

is a short meeting (though outside the United States it can be two) and a

written case, which candidates have 15 minutes to analyze – a divergence

from the normal oral case. In the resume briefing, candidates should expect

off-center questions such as “I see on your resume that you like to play

soccer. What do you dislike about soccer?” What Monitor is looking for,

we’re told, is “a high degree of honesty and self-awareness.” The ability to

learn from one’s past mistakes is particularly important to the firm, which

advertises itself as a place where continual learning and personal growth are

paramount. “People have be able to take criticism,” proclaims one insider,

“and even to look for it.”

In the case portion, candidates are given a scenario, which is typically three

to five pages in length, full of graphs and tables (in order to exercise one’s

analytical and numerical skills). The case is usually a barely-veiled take on

one of Monitor’s own clients. Most of the details are already provided, and

the candidate’s work will consist of distillation rather than detective work. (Inverbal case interviews, interviewees must ask their interviewers questions to

learn information.) The case contains all the information necessary to “solve”

the case. The interviewer will leave the room, and the candidate will have to

analyze the case and prepare recommendations. When the interviewer

returns, he or she will ask for the candidate’s recommendations and spend

approximately half an hour discussing the case.



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

34/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

One insider reports that “The first paragraph of the case will describe the

relevant business issues; the company, what it does, and how it’s changing;

and the industry where the company is situated.” The following paragraphs

allegedly offer “more details about what the case is about.” There are often

“two to four exhibits – these are graphs and tables containing numerical data”and must be “thoroughly evaluated,” including presenting questions about the

data itself. The discussion portion is similar to that in an oral case interview,

though the data and its interpretation are very important. Monitor believes

this is closer to a traditional test of a candidate’s consulting capacity.

Both undergraduates and MBAs receive the same written cases, though of

course interviewers hold MBAs to a much higher bar than undergrads.

Because of the complicated and elaborate nature of these written cases,

Monitor is understandably quite guarded about them; the firm discourages the

transferring of case content from candidate to candidate. The case interviewsometimes “throws people for a loop,” one source tells us. “It can be

intimidating if you don’t process information quickly or if you don’t manage

the time you have well.”

The second round is a half-day affair, usually held at the nearest Monitor

office. Eschewing the industry-standard of high-level interviews and one-on-

one case problems, Monitor groups candidates into teams of three to six, who

work together on a case presentation with two or three Monitor consultants

who are trained to look for certain qualities in the participants. The group

cases are meant to test a variety of skills, though the most important, Monitor

asserts, is the ability to both lead and participate – they “don’t want people

who follow the group like sheep, but they don’t want overly aggressive alpha

types, either.”

At the start of the case, the group receives a general problem, and each

member receives a specific, additional aspect of the case; the challenge is for

the group to work together on solving the central problem while integrating

each member’s additional information. The group has 30 minutes to develop

a solution, after which they present the case to the interviewers.

During the next phase of the second round, candidates are shown a videotapeof a hypothetical client/consultant interaction. (This year the videotape may

be replaced with a written scenario of a client/consultant interaction.) What

follows is a half-hour discussion in which the interviewer asks the candidate

about important aspects of the scenario, such as the consultant’s shortcomings

and strong points. Insiders warn that successful candidates “need to pick up

applied concerns, what approaches future consultants should take, and the

client’s perspective” based upon this video. “Since Monitor gives all of its


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

35/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

consultants – even the very young ones – quite a bit of responsibility,”

declares one insider, “you’ll need to display a responsible and mature reaction

in your assessment of the videotaped interaction.” Another consultant

concurs: “Competence and an understanding of subtleties are crucial to

Monitor culture.” (Speaking of Monitor culture, the firm is reputed to testcandidate “fit” throughout all stages of the interviewing process. The bottom

line: be on your best behavior, but be natural.)

The third portion of the second round is a sort of debriefing interview.

Candidates discuss their performance in the process, but insiders report that

by this stage, Monitor often performs “a reverse selling job.” Monitor may try

to win over the candidate with tales (some tall, others true) of triumphant

casework, excessively grateful clients, bales of money, extravagant perks, and

a satisfying culture. The firm’s intentions aside, candidates who are given

offers after the final round generally accept them. As one consultant explainsit, “There is a very particular satisfying cultural fit here. Those who find

Monitor and make the cut never want to leave.”

Decision Architects, which does its own hiring, has a slightly different

process. It hires mainly engineering and computer science majors, mostly

undergraduates (“we make only a few experienced and MBA hires”). The

process follows the same course as the regular Monitor interviews, though

we’re told that interviewers “try to probe a little bit more.” There are also

usually additional, technical-focused interviews.

Monitor relies heavily on its summer internship program, using it as its primary source of new hires during lean years. Interns are staffed on firm

projects as if they were full-time employees. “I did what a normal first-year

consultant would do,” says one former summer staffer. “I learned a lot about

what consulting really means and got paid exceptionally well. There were a

lot of nice social activities, including dinners, tickets to baseball games, a

whitewater rafting trip and other field trips.”



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

36/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

Questions to Expect

1. What attracts you to Monitor in particular?

Highlight the things Monitor itself is proud of (like its unstructured career

path, its lack of a forced “up or out” policy, and its casual dress code). Try toalign your own strengths with those of Monitor.

2. What do you do in your free time?

Monitor, moreso than most other consulting firms, will actually be interested

to hear about your minor passions like cooking Tuscan cuisine or butterfly

watching. But don’t sound like too much of a loner. The firm wants team

players.

3. Tell me about a challenge you recently faced.

And, of course, how you overcame it. The classic consulting behavioral “fit”

query.

4. What are you most proud of on your resume?

Choose something the interviewer wouldn’t necessarily pick up on. In

particular, since Monitor is an entrepreneurial firm, you should highlight any

successful business venture you might have had.

6. Written case: There is a wine distributor in Spain with extensive

distribution problems. What sort of alternative channels should the company

pursue?

As is the wont of this case, insiders report that interpretations and inferences

are crucial. “All the key information is provided in the written case study,”

says one. “But you must look more closely for the details. Not everything is

so overt.

6. Your resume tells me that you enjoy a variety of activities. Tell me, what are

your dislikes?

Remember that Monitor’s “fit” interviews are built right into resume-related

questions and case studies. Here, Monitor is looking for self-awareness and

honesty in a candidate, but it is also looking for a calm, cool, and collected

response. Aresponse that implies an aversion to group activities (an anti-team

player mentality) or a rebellious streak (an inability to deal with difficultclients in a diplomatic fashion) will send the candidate right back to Resume-

Sending 101.

7. Written case: You are a large cola manufacturer that is considering

expanding its business into the beer industry. You need to find out whether

the market for soft drinks will be larger than the market for beer by the year

2004. How do you determine this?


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

37/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

First and foremost, the candidate needs to determine the lowdown on the

company’s current situation. How large is this manufacturing company?

How many people does it reach? Is it losing business in the soft drink

industry, and therefore seeking a boost in sales by way of a new venture? The

answer to specific inquiries is, of course, secondary to a more generalquestion: is one industry truly more lucrative than the other? All those graphs

will tell you.

Questions to Ask

1. What makes Monitor stand out from other consulting firms?

Expect to hear a lot about “pushing frontiers” and “customization.”

2. What expansion plans does Monitor have in the near future?

Monitor has grown at light-speed pace in the last several years. Since the

firm is a lover of new office development, interviewers blush with delight at

the sound of this question.

3. To what extent does Monitor still apply Michael Porter’s concepts? Which

other academics do you see as major contributors now?

You’ll likely hear that Monitor was built on Porter’s ideas, but is also

connected with academics including Michael Jensen, Barry Nalebuff, Chris

Argyris and Jeffrey Rayport.



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

38/46

Monitor

Getting Hired

4. Why do consultants at various levels of their careers at Monitor share the

title “consultant?”

As one insider reveals, “Monitor does not always think MBAs are a good

value for their money.” Indeed, undergrads are often more eager to learn new

and practical consulting concepts; perhaps more importantly, they are willingto work for much less money. Egalitarianism of title therefore comes as no

surprise.

5. What does it take to be an outstanding consultant at Monitor?

Permit your interviewer to rattle off a top twenty list as you catch your breath.

6. Tell me more about the professional training that Monitor provides.

Monitor’s recently revamped training program has been called everything

from “illustrative” to “exceptional.” The firm has bragging rights on this

subject. You’ll likely get the run-down of Monitor’s five training modules,

which all consultants are required to take.


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

39/46

Job Descriptions

Consultant (at college graduate level)

Most undergraduate hires at Monitor start off in the Action Company, the

largest of the Monitor Group firms. After a few months they begin to farm

themselves out to individual firms, where they perform such tasks as

interviewing client executives, gathering client-related information and

analyzing slices of data. As new consultants gain experience, they will begin

to supervise other consultants and perform more complicated analysis.

Consultants without advanced degrees do not necessarily remain at Monitor

for a fixed two-year period. Monitor, in fact, informs its interestedconsultants: “If you are developing professionally at a reasonable pace, we

would very much prefer that you stay longer than two years. That way, we

are better able to make available enriched opportunities for case team

management, as well as for international assignments of significant duration.”

Consultant (at MBA level)

Graduate consultants typically join five to seven colleagues on joint

client/Monitor teams. These teams frame essential strategic decisions, collect

and analyze data, communicate their findings to the client “in a clear andcompelling fashion,” make recommendations and facilitate the

implementation of their findings. For consultants with MBAs, client contact

is immediate. Graduate-level consultants may also play roles in Monitor

recruitment and training. Nevertheless, MBA-level consultants aren’t

necessarily favored over their more junior comrades; it is success rate, rather

than schooling or seniority, that is the true test of consulting expertise at

Monitor.

Summer consultantMonitor courts not only MBA students but also PhD and other advanced

degree candidates for its summer consultant program, which is designed to

approximate the work experience of a full-time consultant as closely as

possible. Monitor provides training, feedback and mentoring and places

summer consultants on case teams. The summer internship lasts 10 weeks,

but may start at any time that is convenient for the summer consultant.

Monitor also has a handful of summer internship positions available for

On the Job

Monitor



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

40/46

Monitor

On the Job

exceptional undergraduate students. The firm takes approximately 28

advanced students and 10 undergrads.

Career PathMonitor takes a somewhat unorthodox route by not distinguishing – by title,

anyway – between its college graduate and post-MBA hires. All are

designated “consultants.”

For undergraduates

Monitor has no fixed length of employment for college graduate hires.

Typically, they remain with Monitor for two to four years. Those who

continue for longer periods usually have the opportunity to take overseasassignments. After their time at Monitor, most new consulting hires go on to

graduate school – either MBA programs, law school or other advanced

degrees. Monitor modestly states that its undergraduate consultants have “an

excellent track record of acceptances by the top business schools.” As

opposed to most other consulting firms, however, an MBA is not required for

advancement at Monitor. The firm believes that employees who do not

follow up their Monitor experience with more schooling are pleased with “the

training and opportunities for development” they received. Accordingly, firm

alumni have an excellent background “for taking on managerial

responsibilities in both consumer and industrial businesses, as well as for starting up their own companies, working on cutting-edge business

publications, leading non-profit organizations and working for buyout funds.”

For MBAs

Monitor places few restrictions on its consultants’ career development.

Bonuses are purely achievement-based, and there is no up-or-out policy. As

tenure increases, consultants can shape their schedules to fit their personal

needs more directly. (MBA graduates do start at a higher salary than college

grads, despite sharing the same title.) Case assignments are carefully chosento address individual development needs, as well as the specific wishes and

talents of each consultant.

Training

Monitor has two levels of training for new hires. The first is an orientation

period, usually regionally or locally based; it’s “very general, about what is


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

41/46

Monitor

On the Job

Monitor Group, its founding principles, what is strategy, what is consulting.”

After that, hires are required to complete a set of five 2-to-4-day training

modules within 24 months; the modules are cost and consumer markets,

corporate finance, enterprise economics, system dynamics and interpersonal

skills. Respondents have nothing but praise for the training modules.Monitor draws on its academic background to lead the courses; “You get

taught by some very senior people,” we hear. “For example, corporate

finance is taught by Tom Copeland.”

Although Monitor’s training is sound and solid, insiders warn new hires,

“There will be no hand-holding. If you are mature and know what

information you need, people will give you advice and direction.” Another

consultant agrees: “Monitor has a caring environment, but you have to be the

instigator. You can move from area to area in Monitor if you ask the right

questions and respond the right way.” At the same time, respondents feel thatthe gradual approach to training is better: “Previously, Monitor had given 6-

7 weeks of training up front,” one consultant explains “But it found that after

a week, people’s eyes start to glaze over; they start, as the saying goes,

‘drinking from the fire hose.’”

Day in the Life

Consultant9:00: Arrive at the office. It really depends on which office you work in.

New York has a reputation for getting in a little later. Here in Cambridge we

get in a little earlier, but no one has to arrive before 9 a.m.. I check my

voicemail and e-mail.

9:30: I usually have a meeting or two in the mornings, typically with other

members of my case team and client team. The meeting times vary; we’ve got

to work around the senior members’ schedules. When there’s no meeting, I’m

doing research, pulling together slides and presentations, modeling, Excel,

whatever the current project is. Right now I’m researching the leading

competitors to benchmark a client’s cost structure.

1:00: Lunch. This can be as long or as short as I want it to be (unless it’s

crunch time). There’s a lot of flexibility throughout the day. The company

throws a lot of trust at its employees. I can take as much lunchtime as I need,

as long as I get the work done.



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

42/46

Monitor

On the Job

3:00: Meet with team to coordinate activities related to engagement. I

present some of the analysis I wrote up in the morning, and my boss tells me

to turn it into a formal presentation.

4:30: Work on preliminary slides summarizing analysis.

7:00: Submit preliminary results to word processing.

7:30: Check e-mail and voice mail once again.

8:00: Leave work and meet friends for drinks. As for leaving, there are two

kinds of days. There are days when it’s ticking along, there are no deadlines,

and I leave between 7 and 8. Then there are other days when I am there until

10, 11 or later.

Consultant (alternate day)

7:30: Get up, slip on sweatpants and take a jog.

9:00: Arrive at office; read the front page of The New York Times; look at

planner and determine day’s schedule.

9:30: Meet with client in the health care industry for a brief meeting. Discuss

competitors, escalating prices and the client’s other concerns.

11:00: Interview client’s competitors by phone.

12:30: Break for a quick lunch.

1:00: Interview industry experts by phone. As a CTM [case team member],

you often spend quite a bit of time going to sources, interviewing clients and

their affiliates and speaking to industry experts, either by phone or on-site.

3:00: Put the acquired information into memos, spreadsheets and slides.

There’s an unbelievable amount of slide-making at this firm.

6:00: Break for a snack. I’m a Hostess man myself.

7:00: Discuss the week’s proceedings with a senior person. If you’re more

junior, you’re told to go away and get more information. If you’re more

senior, you’re told to go and get an answer. ‘Seniority’means how much rope

you’re given to hang yourself with!

9:00: Take off to eat a late dinner with significant other.


L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

43/46

Monitor Group occupies an interesting position in the industry. It is large and

definitely part of the consulting mainstream, yet its youth and academic

background give it an edge that many of its more established competitors

lack. At the same time, it is flexible enough not to be pigeon-holed; when e-

commerce consulting began to sour in late 2000, the firm was able to quickly

and efficiently shift its resources elsewhere. It’s no surprise that Monitor has

done consistently better each year in the Vault prestige polls; it rose from No.

8 in 2001 to No. 5 in 2002.

Monitor’s group model also may represent the future of consulting, especially

at the large-firm level. With the onset of globalization and the explosion of

practice areas, it behooves large firms to specialize in many different areas;

at the same time, the volatility of the world economy makes efficiency and

flexibility a crucial asset – all of which are integral to the Monitor structure.

But as Monitor has shown, the core of the group model must consist of a

robust trove of intellectual capital – not just smart people, but people who are

leading thinkers on both the practical and theoretical level, who can lead the

firm and its clients in adapting to the fast-changing marketplace. If this

remains the case, Monitor will be at the top of the consulting game for years

to come.

Final Analysis

Monitor



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

44/46

Vault’s consulting experts bring

you a new service to help you

prepare for interviews with

consulting firms. We’ll help you

prepare for that all-important caseinterview with a 30-minute mock

interview and a 30-minute question

and answer session with our

consulting expert over the telephone.

Vault Live Case

Interview Prep

Do you have an interview comingup with a consulting firm?

Unsure how to handlea case interview?


A Vault consulting expert will put you through a real case

used by the major consulting firms. You will be given the

case at your appointment and will be asked to explain it,

dissect it, and give a rationale for your responses.

The prep session will cover:

• Case strategies for attacking different case types

• Case frameworks, including Value Chain Analysis

and Value Drivers Frameworks

• Market sizing cases

• A representative business strategy case (for example,

a market-entry case)

• And more!

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

45/46

Don’t even bother coming to the interview if you’re unfamiliar with Monitor

savant Michael Porter’s oeuvre, starting with “Competitive Strategy” (1980).

What’s the story on this book? If you lack familiarity with corporate finance,

the chapter summaries of Brealey & Myer’s “Principles of Corporate

Finance” (1996) will be useful, and Lyn Fraser’s “Understanding Financial

Statements” (1997) provides an introduction to accounting.

You might also want to browse some of the following publications by

Monitor authors:

• “The Accounting Transparency Gap” by Joseph Fuller, Harvard

Management Update, May 2002.

• “Strategy and the Internet” by Michael Porter, Harvard Business Review,

March/April 2001.

• “Cutting Costs without Drawing Blood” by Tom Copeland, Harvard

Business Review, September/October 2000.

• “The Truth About Internet Business Models” by Jeffrey Rayport, Strategy

and Business, issue 16 (1999).

• “Empowerment: The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Chris Argyris, Harvard

Business Review, U.S., May/June 1998.

• “Strategy: Dead or Alive?” by Manoj Badale, Business Standard , 29 April

1997.

• “Strategic Planning in an Era of Total Competition” by Mark Fuller,

Strategy and Leadership, May/June 1996.

Recommended Reading

Monitor



L I R R Y

8/16/2019 Monitor 2003

46/46

“For those hoping to climb the ladder of success, Vault’sinsights are priceless.” — Money

VAULT CAREER LIBRARYTM is the world’s most comprehensive and up-to-date

collection of guidebooks on career subjects. Researched, written and publishedby Vault, Inc., the Vault Career LibraryTM is comprised of more than 80 titles for

job seekers, professionals and researchers.

Vault Employer Profiles include:

Introduction: An overview of the

company and basic stats

The Scoop: The company's history,

current business, major products, and

rankings in the industry

Vault Newswire: Easy-to-digest

summaries of recent news about the

company

Our Survey Says: Employees speak

their minds on company culture, job

satisfaction, pay, benefits, diversity

issues and more

Getting Hired: The company's hiring

process, interview questions to expect

and application contacts

On the Job: Typical days in the life,

job descriptions, career paths

Final Analysis: The final word on the

pros and cons of working for the

company

VAULT EMPLOYER PROFILE:

MONITORTHE VAULT EDITORIAL PROCESS

Exclusive Surveys: Vault annually

surveys 10,000s of employees at

leading employers.

One-on-One Interviews: For each

employer, we conduct in-depth

interviews of current and former

employees.

VAULT CONSULTING CAREER CHANNEL

• Insider firm profiles

• Case interview preparation

• The Vault Consulting Job Board

• Advice on career-switching, job-

hunting and more

• Employee message boards

• Consulting resume and cover letter

reviews

HTTP://CONSULTING.VAULT.COM

I S B N 1 - 5 8 1 3 1 - 2 3 7 - 7

ABOUT VAULT, INC.: The Insider Career NetworkTM is thel di di f i f ti C ll d " kill

Documents

Monitor 2003