Project Report - Grp 2

8/13/2019 Project Report - Grp 2

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STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SERVICES Page1

Contents

1. Executive summary.....2

2. Introduction.....23. Project objective......24. Literature review....35. Hypotheses and model if any or propositions with proper justification46. Research Methodology...........47. Data analysis and results............58. Discussion and implication.....69. References.......610.Appendix.....7


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Executive summary

We identify some useful characterizations of consultants as found in consulting literature, in particular the

classification of consulting firms into P2 and MPB type organizations. The characterization shows that

consultants are viewed as experts who solve problems and also as agents with a more abstract,

empathizing role. Further, consultants are also required to develop positive relationships with clients and

while these relationships are jeopardized by the clients unease about ceding control, consulting firms

have created established norms that guide the management of client relationships. By conducting indepth telephonic interviews with consultants from well established firms, we examine the true real world

utility of these characterizations and the P2 MPB classification.

In particular, we found limited support for the utility of the P2 MPB classification when applied in the

context of strategy consulting and service consulting firms. The support for the predictions of the

classification about the structure and hierarchy of the firms, roles and responsibility of employees, degree

of specialization and separation of concerns in consulting firms was significant. However, there were

broad areas of similarity across consulting firms as well, which point to a significant degree of non

institutional professionalization of consultants which has made consulting a calling where members enjoy

a certain common subculture at the workplace, much like software professionals and doctors. We also

conclude that the high rate of attrition (15 to 20 percent) in consulting firms and the high likelihood of a

consultant to leave one consulting firm to join another is aiding this professionalizing process.

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to summarize the results of the groups efforts to derive insights about the

consulting profession through in depth interviews. In particular, the groups focus was to understand how

consultants in different consulting firms view themselves, consulting firms and how human resources and

the work environment is managed in these firms in the pursuit of organizational goals.

It must be recognized that consulting has been viewed as a peculiar profession due to its dual nature. Atfirst glance, consultants are experts who share their professional advice with a client in exchange for a fee.

In this context, consultants use their special expertise in a domain of knowledge to solve or propose

solutions to a specific problem posed by the client. However, clients also derive other kinds of utility for

consultants advice, ranging from the political use of consultants opinions and recommendations in the

workplace to strengthen ones position to the use of consultants as corporate shamans who use their

credibility to bless decisions, goals and strategies. Given this dual nature of consulting work, in addition to

the quasi-professional nature of their role and the importance for a consultant to be a personable

individual who is good at interacting and building relationships with clients, consulting firms are

sufficiently complicated organizations from a human resource management perspective.

Project objective

The objective of the project is to determine if the responses of practicing consultants can be explained

through existing theories. In particular, we examine whether a particular synthesis of existing notions

about consultants can explain the responses actual consultants gave in interviews. We do not seek to

completely explain the behaviour and opinions of these consultants but look for limited support for

existing concepts in their responses.


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consulting process, usually at the expense of the process of implementation of the consultants advice in

the client organization. However, this situation has changed to some extent in recent years, with clients

asking for more involvement of the consultant in implementation and more predictability of the success of

the consultants recommendations.

Conventionally, consultants are sensitized about the psychology of interactions with clients, in particular

the uneasiness a client may face about providing knowledge about the organization and ceding decision

making control to a certain extent. The usually prescribed solutions to this issue are identifying with theclients view of the core problem, effective requirement gathering, disambiguation of expectations and

respecting the clients knowledge and expertise.

Further, consultants are also required to intervene into processes and decisions at the client organization

in accordance with her brief and to make necessary changes in the clients organization. To do this

effectively, consultants must be objective, emotionally balanced, be mentally active and have attention to

detail. Also, clients ascribe positive of negative traits to consultants based on the success of their

expertise, which means that the skill of a consultant is determined by her rate of success.

Finally, as mentioned above, consulting is not recognized as one of the conventional, institutionalized

professions and developing a rigorous and widely accepted body of knowledge is part of the process ofinstitutionalization. However, institutionalization may not be a priority for the consulting community. The

development of a professional code of conduct for consultants may be useful. Such a code could focus on

dedication to meeting clients briefs and ethical conduct.

Hypotheses

Our primary goal is to discover the level of support for the characteristics of P2 and MPB firms in the

responses from actual consultants. So the working hypothesis for this purpose is that P2 firms and MPBfirms have the same characteristics as described in the literature review above.

Beyond hypothesis testing, we also summarize other insights that illuminate other aspects of the work life

of consultants.

Research Methodology

The research method of choice used in this project was in depth telephonic interviews. Four consultants

from established, well known consulting firms, based out of India, were interviewed using apredetermined set of questions, so that responses could be compared to each other and insights derived

with some degree of confidence. We had a respondent from on P2 firm, Bain and Company and three

respondents from MPB firms Ernst and Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte. Transcripts of the

interviews have been provided in the appendix.

One limitation of our methods is that telephonic interviews do not allow the researchers to pick up on non

verbal cues and communication. Further, since all four respondents were male, we cannot claim our

results to be gender neutral. In addition, we have a single respondent from a P2 firm, which means that

any results that can be derived should be considered anecdotal and not conclusive. Another limitation is

that while Bain and Company may be a good proxy for a P2 firm, it may have become too large to be the


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mirror image of the idealized P2 firm. In general, there is utility in the claim that management or strategy

consulting firms are closer to the P2 archetype than other consulting firms.

Analysis and results

We found that the routes of entry for P2 and MPB firms are the same. Both kinds of firms recruit at

multiple levels in their hierarchy and select high achieving candidates with well known credentials for the

entry level. Further, in both kinds of firms entry level candidates are motivated by the high salary, thediversity of exposure, the variety of problems to solve and the head start they get in their career.

However, the long hours, generic nature of the work involved, the lack of specialization of the kind

enjoyed by white collar service firm employees in other businesses and the constant travel were identified

as some of the reasons for consultants leaving the industry. One respondent belonging to a MPB firm

claimed that there was no work life balance in consulting careers. Consultants leaving the profession

often choose a role in an aligned industry they have consulted to in the past, or set up their own business

or join strategy and planning roles in a different industry. In particular senior consultants and partners

have a higher propensity to start a business or their own consulting firm as they have the benefit of a

strong network across client organizations. Consultants also leave their firms for other competing firms.

Among MPB firms, the desired competencies for a successful consulting career were analytical skills,problem solving skills, critical thinking, personability and professionalism. P2 firms were different as the

main focus was on people skills, client handling capabilities and having a diverse skills profile. This

difference seems to originate from the way P2 and MPB firms are structured, with P2 firms having lower

number of tiers or rungs in their hierarchy, which means greater visibility of the entry level and mid level

consultants to clients compared to their counterparts in MPB firms.

In both MPB and P2 firms, the ability to generate positive, lasting relationships with clients and to sell the

firms capabilities to the client were the main determinants of being able to rise through the ranks and

become a partner. This of course is expected and also mentioned repeatedly in the relevant literature. At

PricewaterhouseCoopers it takes about 7 years for the right candidate to become a partner, starting as anentry level consultant. In Deloitte and Ernst & Young, this period is as long as 15 years while in our MPB

proxy Bain and Company it is typically 7 to eight years. Once again, the depth of the hierarchy seems to

determine how long it takes for an entry level employee to reach upper management at these firms.

One striking difference between P2 and MPB firms is that P2 firms seek to establish a uniform culture

across locations while MPB firms often rely on subcultures and structures that are contingent and make

contextual sense. At Bain and Company, the One Bain initiative to homogenize environment, behaviour

and strategy across locations uses a lot of effort and cost. In particular, the pursuit of a uniform culture has

led to the establishment of a number of capability centres at Bain which are used to train and enable

employees to use the same tools and techniques in their practice. In contrast, Deloitte has chosen toestablish different subsidiaries and divisions for different markets and client groups. In particular, the

experience of a Deloitte consultant based out of India serving the Indian market and a Deloitte consultant

based out of India but serving the U.S. market was discovered to be substantially different.

Also, the attrition level at both MPB and P2 consulting firms in the Indian context was found to be about

15 to 20 percent, which was regarded by respondents as controlled or normal for their industry and not as

a cause of worry. Since a significant fraction of consultants who leave their firms join a competing firm, it

is likely that a sense of professionalism and perceived uniformity in roles and responsibilities across

consulting firms is enabling such behaviour. In that sense, consulting, while not a institutionalized

profession, can definitely be considered a non institutionalized profession, as suggest in the relevant

literature. The support for this assertion also comes from other commonalities among the respondents

responses as described above.


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Further, while both MPB and P2 firms have cultures where performance, the ability to work in teams,

personability and going beyond immediate requirement are valued, P2 firms are more open and flatter

while MPBs are definitely hierarchical. Parallels were also found in measurement of performance and the

use of incentives, both MPB and P2 type firms give significant stress on the importance of doing more for

the organization than completing briefs, developing positive, workable relationships with clients and

working well in teams. Both kinds of firms use some notion of a bell curve to compare employees at the

same level and also use the construct to reward and promote the best performers and let go of the worst

consultants.

Discussion and implication

In particular, we note that the use of the P2 versus MPB classification of consulting firms and force fitting

them on the four consulting firms discussed above has its utility and also drawbacks. Specifically, the

initial tentative claim was that management or strategy consulting firms such as Bain and Company are

more like the P2 archetype while service consulting firms like Deloitte, Ernst & Young and

PricewaterhouseCoopers are similar to the MPB template. We found that the archetypes explain the

differences in organizational structure specifically how hierarchical they are and the roles and attitudesof employees at different levels to a significant extent.

Further, we also found that there is a limit to the analogy, and that there are significant similarities among

consultants from different firms across the P2 MPB divide. This was identified as the result of the high

level of movement of consultants across firms and the resulting limited uniformity in the behaviour of

consultants across firms. We may also connect this to the non institutional professionalization of the

consulting industry.

References

1. Patterns of Human Resource Management in Consulting Firms, Richter, Dickmann and Graubner2. Managing Consultants, T. Clark, 19953. Management Consulting: A guide to the profession, M. Kubr, 20004. We Have Never Been Modern, B. Latour, 19935. Professionalism and Ethics, P. Lynch, 19996. Business as a Profession, J. Mahoney, 19897. The Client Consultant Relation, Mulligan and Barber, 1999


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Appendix

This section contains transcripts of telephonic interviews of consultants conducted by the team.

Interview with Amit Sinha of PricewaterhouseCoopersWhat are the main routes of entry into a career in consulting?

One of the most common routes is through the campus interviews and internships. Usually recruiters

conduct a series of case study interviews of the applicants with senior management members. Then there

will be few interviews to ascertain how the applicants fit with the organisation. Usually there are two kinds

of tracks in consulting the industry track and typical consultant kind of a track. For the industry consulting

usually experienced hires are preferred. They are hired from other industry sources.

What are some common reasons for people joining consulting firms? What are some common reasons

for people leaving the consulting industry?

Typically they get a very great exposure in a consulting from which is definitely not present in any other

firm: a very good package, you get a head start in your career, you can learn a lot right at the beginning of

your career. When you move in a particular track it becomes slightly generic. Either you move into a

particular industry or it becomes more generic. Secondly the lifestyle becomes more different. Sometimes

the hours get long and it can be very frustrating or stressful when you dont come up with answers so

easily. Initially you feel excited because you travel a lot but later on it becomes more hectic. Family is

another reason as it is very difficult to match the work life balance.

Why do you think there has been a rise in recruitments of experienced hires?

This can be reasoned by the way typically the consulting industry is shaping up. They feel the need of

persons who are more involved in analytics of the industry. Experienced hires bring in a lot of skills

regarding the industry problems and their analytical skills of those. There is also a grooming criteria

needed for consultants. As far as industrial hires are concerned this grooming is relatively lesser. But

experienced hires usually tend to have a bias or perceptive which they bring with them rather than the

fresher. So organisations tend to have a balanced mix of both.

What are the pros and cons of a consulting career?

Pros:Higher earnings - Often, you can make more per hour of work as a consultant.

Project variety - It is hard to get bored when you switch projects every three months.

Remote work - If you are a self-starter and can stay motivated, you may be lucky enough to find

opportunities to work at home

Own business - You can work on your own to find projects, so you function as your own boss but still need

to meet the deadlines of the client

Great learning and structured approach to a problem are also pros.

Cons:

Very long hours - You are likely to be in the office long after the full-time company employees leave forthe night.


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Potential for regularly-scheduled travel - Sure, you may be able to find remote work or something in your

geographic location, but consultants must also be prepared to spend Monday-Friday away from home.

What competencies are you supposed to demonstrate as a consultant?

Brightness, analytical skills, problem solving skills, critical thinking, ability to remain calm in stressful

situations, personability and professionalism. Engineers are preferred nowadays as they demonstrate

more analytic skills than others. A person should have the ability to structure a problem.

What are some career options after leaving the consulting industry?

There a lot of options available. Once you leave consulting you can go to certain kinds of profiles in a

corporate set up. The most common is corporate strategic planning. The kind of work pressure is

comparatively less in a corporate set up than in consulting. Some may prefer it while others may not.

How is the work-life balance in the firm?

The career in consulting is kind of a very hectic one. Usually there is a lot of travel. During my initial years

at PwC, I was almost travelling the entire year. This is excellent when you are a bachelor and when you inyour initial part of your career because this is the time when maximum learning takes place in ones

career. But once the family factor sets in maintenance of work-life balance is very difficult.

But now it has changed a lot. In PwC now they very focused on creating a flexible work environment for

our people, one that allows them to maintain work-life balance and offers them the opportunity for a

variety of work-life experiences. For example, they encourage people to have a mobile mind set and take

advantage of the opportunity to experience client assignments in different locations, perhaps just outside

of their local market or in another part of the world. This opens up a wide range of opportunities for the

consultants.

How do you compare a post of Partner in consultancy to a VP in terms of authority, responsibility andinfluence?

There is a lot of difference between a consultant and a VP. When you are a VP you deal with different

kinds of people while a consultant moves most of the time with his own kind. In a consulting set up you

may wield a lot of interest but there is not much operational stuff a person may put in. As a VP there is

more operational stuff to work with. As a consultant you exhibit more knowledge and stuff. In corporate

set up you have a lot of authority rather than a consultant.

Most of the consulting firms are typically entrepreneurial in set up. Typically the partners bring in the new

clients. In a corporate set up you will be looking at yourself as a functional head or a divisional head which

is quite different from that of a consultant. In corporate set up there will be less direct control while in aconsulting firm the control is much higher.

How easy or difficult is it for an entry level associate to become a partner? What skills and attitudes are

relevant to career progression at PwC?

Typically a consultant should have that sales ability. He should be able to put his ideas clearly to the client

and must be able to sell out his propositions. Basically at an entry level they work on lighter projects while

the senior consultants are involved with heavier areas like business development etc. At the entry level

the associate must exhibit the appropriate skills. Usually it takes almost 6 to 7 years to reach the stage of a

partner.


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As for as attitudes and skill sets are concerned, consultant must possess all abilities of team players Even

though they may exhibit interest in individual way of doing things, for a consultant behaviourally team

coordination is very important. Beyond that the ability to build a relationship with the client is very

important. At the end of the day their delivery of information to the clients is what matters most. So they

must possess excellent skill sets to present the deliverables to the client in a better way.

How different is the work for the 3 major pillars of consulting: Technical consultancy, Business

consultancy and HR consultancy?

Technical Consultants provide engineering-related services such as design, supervision, execution, repair,

operation, maintenance, technology, creation of drawings and specifications, and make

recommendations to public, companies, firms and industries. So the usually concentrate on the

operational part rather than the strategy part.

Business Consultants work on the development of and improvements to organisational strategy

alongside Senior Management in many industries. They usually look at the problems in a wholesome

manner.Human Resources or HR Consultants provide expertise around employment practice and people

management. So their style of functioning is more with behavioural aspects rather than the technicalaspects.

How is performance evaluation done at your firm? What rewards are based on it? What are the punitive

measures for poor performance?

Typically the consulting firms have a balanced score card. Evaluation is done using that.

Typical reward is how fast you can move up the career. Monetary rewards are always there.

One can always see a huge difference in the packages of a performer and a non-performer even though

their entry may be at the same time.

Typically I have never seen a person coming from a poor academic background entering into a consulting

career. So I dont think there will be punitive measures, if the consultants feel they are uncomfortable with

the job they themselves switch over to other jobs.

How do you rate the appraisals and perks provided at PWC with that of other consultancy firms and the

Big 4?

Appraisal methods are almost the same. Obviously the salaries are different

What kind of training do fresh recruits undertake when joining your firm? What sort of training do

experienced consultants undergo when leaving some different consultancy and joining yours?

PwC has a standard methodology of training for both freshers and experienced recruits. They have

different levels of training for freshers. Certain amount of days of training is mandatory for consultants

every year. Every year they have training on methodology and framework that is exclusive for a particular

consulting firm

.

How do you describe the culture of PwC? How is the culture of the consulting industry different from

other service sector corporations?

The culture is a very performance driven culture. PwC culture is one of teamwork and trusted relationships

with the colleagues and clients. It is a culture of inclusion, where all work together, within client teams,

across the firm and around the world and to help solve the clients issues and challenges.


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Interview with Yatharth Bhaskar of DeloitteWhat are the routes of entry for a career in consulting?

One starts at associate or senior associate and then move on to being a consultant, senior consultant or

senior manager. One can enter at any of these stages, a person can enter the consulting industry or firm at

any of these points.

Can a person with enough credibility like say a Doctor, enter consulting at any of the senior position or

stages?

In Deloitte there is a qualified doctor who in now a senior manager who takes care of medical and pharma

business of Deloitte. So a person can enter at any of the stages. Basically at a base entry level of

consultant or senior consultant a person is expected to work across industry and so minimum knowledge

in these areas will do. Today it may be a IT based project and tomorrow it may be in a finance domain or

business development. So if you are young in a firm, young in the sense, base level, it is expected for a

diverse industry. At a senior stage you narrow down to one or two industries and hiring also depends onthe same aspect.

How is the career path at Deloitte different from those at BCG, McKinsey, Bain et cetera?

It depends on the type of consulting. BCG, Bain, McKinsey etc are strategy consulting firms while Deloitte

and Accenture are management consulting firms. The type of problem is different for both the firms. So

they dont work on the same kind of problem. Most of the times they are not competitors in the market.

Firms like BCG, McKinsey demand much more agility in the candidate. They should be able to see IT,

Finance, Operations et cetera. Firms like Deloitte, KPMG, Accenture they put the candidate in one or two

areas and expect you to grow in these areas itself. Also the target customers for these firms are differentand target customers are different.

What are some specific reasons for people joining consulting firms?

First and foremost comes the diversity one gets. General project duration is 6-8 weeks and max 3 months

and implies lot of exposure. If you are not sure which industry you want to enter then consulting is a good

option where these firms provide you a flavor of each industry which I think is a very big plus for this

industry. At the end of the day if you are interested in telecom you can choose and go into a different

industry. And people want to keep options open.

Is there a lot of attrition in the consulting industry?

By the time one gets a hang of the industry, you move on to a different one. Attrition is mainly because of

travelling issues and they dont want to travel so often. Start of the week to c lient location and end of the

week to base location.

How common is attrition across firms in the industry?


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For BCG, McK its week based and you travel to client location in the start of the week and come back to

base location by the end of the week. For firms like Deloitte, where client location is very far off (like US)

usually people are sent for some months, year and half to 2 years. People dont want to be away from

family for so long and then they move on.

Over the past few years, a lot of preference is given to experienced people.

There is a paradigm shift in the consulting firms. The business is also including implementation and notjust consulting advice etc. Accenture is leading in here. In many cases recommendations are not

implementable. To make consulting firms more accountable in the future, it becomes important that their

recommendation are implementable. In order for these firms to convince clients that these

recommendations are implementable, these firms need significantly experienced guys in the firm to

convince clients. So this might be the reason that firms are increasingly focusing on experienced

personnel.

This needs established competencies.

It might be so that a previous experience counts. If a person is involved in constructing a bridge, then he

might be hired for a construction based project. In all a person needs to understand intricacies of the

business to be hired.

What are the major pros and cons of joining consulting?

If you want a flavour of different industries, consulting is a industry for you. If you are not sure about what

you want to do in future then consulting is a safe bet. The drawback is that at the end of the day you are a

generalist. So after 2 years your experience is not much counted for.

In case of people with significant previous experience, what happens to them in terms of growth in

expertise and knowledge? (paraphrasing)

For such people, one good thing is network. It connects you very well in the industry. The level of contact

principles have is very different. The partners can start their own business.

However, if you are a senior in a firm but not a partner and you spot a business opportunity, it becomes

difficult for you to convince firm to move in this direction and in such cases, seniors move out to venture

into these opportunities.

What are some of the exit options perceived in these firms?

Different levels have different exit options. At around 3-4 years you get to be acceptable in a major

industry where you have prior experience. In case of specialization, one goes into that industry itself, for

example for promotion to senior position or senior manager you need expertise in that industry to move

on.

What is the level of attrition at Deloitte?

In consulting it is 15 to 18 percent. This is not the same in the risk advisory business.

Where do people who leave go, to competitors or a different industry?


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No clear cut demarcation but it depends whether they go to competitor or a firm in an aligned industry. It

is a mix and it depends.

How would you describe the culture at Deloitte?

Open culture. Support in terms of the work and also feasibility. Especially for married women, you have

work from home option. Deloitte is very supportive in such aspects. In terms of work, freedom of working

from anywhere and not just your desk. Finally, work is important not from where you do it.

How is Deloitte different from other service sector firms?

BCG and Bain operate in India business. And Deloitte India had 2 different entities, Deloitte US and

Deloitte India. It is similar to BCG, Bain et cetera where you are answerable to the client very often.

In Deloitte US, client is far and interactions are pretty low. And work is pretty much relaxed.

So for Deloitte US are projects long term?

Not exactly, Deloitte moves people in different projects on rotation basis. We do catering to a client inMiddle East or Europe, and its like a common pool of team one in Europe, India, US each interact with

client. Itsnot like we have a long term commitment to the client, it might happen when the client may ask

for a specific person in the team which is consulting but otherwise it is pretty flexible with the projects.

Does It seems similar to IT firms?

In a way, yes. At the end of the day we get business from US and Europe. But the difference lies in the

accountability. In the Indian IT firm, you are not really accountable to the client. You have someone on the

top of your head to check your work and deliver it timely. Deloitte has this thing that you need to interact

with your client directly, so it is pretty much increase in the responsibility of the consultant here. Also the

integration is pretty high, and you get to directly talk to the client. It is not there in the Indian IT firms.

How would you compare the post of a partner and VP in terms of power, influence and responsibility?

Consulting managers usually have a Manager, senior manager and a partner. In India, the firms like Bain,

BCG have a Principal, Manager, Sr. Manager and then a Partner. We do have directors, but not partners.

Partner is the one who gets the business Director doesnt have that responsibility.

Partner is like the one who gets the business and is very senior in the firm and is very important for the

firm. So partners usually have equity buyout in the firm and they invest money in the firm. There are

junior partners, senior partners, Management partners and in some cases accounting partner. VP in banks

depend on the type of business that they deal with. One business might have 100-150 VPs also. The

position of VP is not that responsible as compared to the partners in a consulting firm.

How is it easy or difficult for an entry level associate to become a partner?


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We have a concept of MECE- Mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive. Consulting business is about

solving problems. How do you approach a problem? In terms of the selection, you are given a problem

statement and tested on your approach and not on the solution. Case interview as they call it.

Is it different for the experienced candidates?

No, except for the complexity.

How is the work-life balance?

It depends on the type of projects and not just the firm.

Interview with M Guhan of Bain and CompanyWhat are the main routes of entry into Bain?

About 50 people are hired yearly. Out of them, about 40 are recruited fresh from management schools,

while 10 are lateral hires into middle management. On entry into a new market, not a lot of local hires are

made to retain the correct culture. People are brought in from other offices.

Is the career path at Bain different from that in other competing firms?

No. The career progression pattern is pretty much the same across all top four firms. The positions held

are the same, with only minor changes in influences and nomenclature of the positions. One spends

around 2 years at every level before progressing to the next higher one, assuming perfect performance.

We have five levels from analyst to partnet.

What were your reasons for joining consulting?

The reasons were challenging work, variety in work, variety in the network one gains and experience in

overall business strategy, which helps open doors elsewhere as well.

What are some common reasons for people leaving the consulting industry?

In decreasing order of importance: skills not matching the requirements of consulting, a lack of Work-Life

balance and three: that the work is too strenuous.

How much attrition is there at Bain? Do people leaving the firm usually join a competitor or do they

decide to move out of the consulting industry?

The lowest attrition rates across the top four. About 20-30 people leave the firm every year. These can be

divided into two categories. Those who are let go because of performance shortcomings (60%), and those

whom Bain wants to retain but who voluntarily leave (40%). Of the latter group, it is only 10% who leave

to join other consulting firms, the rest leave because they want to venture beyond consulting.


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When it comes to retention, the biggest challenge is sustainability. One enjoys the exposure to new

industries, new environments and regular challenges when in youth. A lot of people lose taste for it later.

What are some options after leaving consultancy?

Entrepreneurship and Executive Strategy position in companies.

How do you compare a post of Partner in a consultancy to a VP in terms of authority, responsibility and

influence?

The role of the partner is much more external-facing than any level below him. He never works in group to

solve the clients problem. Rather, it is he who handles the client and gets more business. Another role of

the partners is HR related, so much so that the bulk of HRM related work is taken on by the partners

themselves.

Please talk about the culture at Bain. How is the culture of the consulting industry different from other

service sector corporations?

The operating model different from the classical model. Every level of the organisation interacts laterally

with client to get them to convince the upper layers. Teams are formed across specialisation to get

heterogenous groups who come up with better, more grilled solutions. Those following the classical

model get good solutions fast because everyone shares expertise.

The structure is very flat at Bain. One can walk into a senior managers' office for advice. However, cultural

differences play a role in curbing this behaviour in locations like India.

One Bain is a set of principles that ensure consistency across every function and level. So much so that

there are detailed codes on office decor and carpet colours. A by product of this is that the company

cannot grow very fast because of so much emphasis on consistency as a culture.

The Bain fit is about: Is this guy cut out to be a partner someday? Left to himself, can this guy handle a

mid-level client by himself?

At-Cost behaviour is encouraged: showing initiative. Dont wait for others to fix things, fix them

yourselves.

Extra 10s are extra work that all executives are expected to put in for the benefit of the company. The

nomenclature derives from the cultural compulsion to go the extra 10% for the company.

Upward feedback is a peer-review system built into appraisals that encourages team building and

teamwork.

What skills and attitudes are relevant to career progression at Bain?

Skill and attitudes beyond the obvious would be having a diverse skill profile, client handling capabilities

and people skills.


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We use metrics for gauging performance. Employee Utilization is the billable hours that the employee

logs in. By itself not a good indicator of performance as it only usually counts for 60% of the effort the

employee has put in. Unbilled work is the next one. This has two components, one, extra 10: work that the

employee has done that is excess to his own requirements and only benefits the firm; two, administrative

work: senior managers participate in admin work more than the junior recruits. Eventually, some partners

might choose to handle only the administrative side of the business.

Upward feedback is a system where peers who have worked in teams with the employee are asked

whether they would work with him or her again in the future. This grading is done one a 1 to 5 scale and

the records are kept anonymous. This encourages one to be a team player and pleasant to work with.

There is no weightage according to one's position, allocated to one's grading for someone.

According to performance in the above metrics, the employee's position in the bell curve is determined.

The top 10% are recognized and stand a chance at promotion. Upward feedback is a hygiene factor thatcould block someone's attempt to get promoted.

The measures of performance are much more team based than at other firms. Things like how many times

one has been asked for advice count when it comes to chances of promotion.

Consultants are given two chances in two cycles to get promoted. The projects are undertaken under

different supervisors. If the employee fails to get promoted in spite of this, he is let go.

If one does really badly on a particular project a senior manager is assigned to him or her as additional

mentor. If there are personal problems, a leave of absence is allowed. The employee is allotted a lowerlevel project. When the employee is back, they are given one more chance with a project. If he or she fails

at that, they are let go.

So there is ample opportunity to correct oneself and every chance is given for one to succeed. There is

one ombudsman's office in India. It sends small questionnaires to employees to fill up. The results of this

exercise go to the managing partners. It has questions like: Last week do you think you added enough

value? Do you think you were able to satisfy the client in your last project? Do you think you met the

sustainability goals for this month?

Annually across the world questionnaires are sent to all clients to check whether they are satisfied andwhether they would forward further business to Bain.



Global training is conducted frequently however it does not focus much on increasing on-the-job

performance, rather career path and culture. Area-specific training is not conducted at junior level but

only for voluntary special interest groups. Every new recruit spends time in the Bain Capability Centre for a

short while. BCC is a group that supports the functioning of all teams in India.


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Everyone is assigned a mentor. Evaluation is done by the immediate supervisor, while the mentor acts in

an advisory capacity. The mentor assists in situations where the employee is stuck, as well as long-term

career planning.

Interview with Rajiv Maitra of Ernst YoungWhat are the main routes of entry into a career in consulting?

It depends. Sometimes it is from Campus recruitment and sometimes from laterals. Generally we seek

MBAs and CAs where percentage of CA in the firm is on the higher side. See for knowing the answer to

this question, you need to know the structure of E&Y. The structure is like this. The firm is divided into 4

divisions: Transaction Management, Advisory, Performance Improvement and IT Advisory. Also generally,

we take MBA recruits mainly for HR operations and HR consulting projects.

How do you think the career paths at E&Y is different from those of your peers in other consulting firms

such as the big four or KPMG, Deloitte et cetera?

Its almost similar. It takes 10-20 years to progress from an analyst to a partner post.

What are some of the Pros and Cons of the consulting firms?

Pros are the ability to switch to any industry and good compensation and benefits etc. The con is that

there is no work life balance.

Which competencies are you supposed to demonstrate as a consultant?

Challenge facing attitude, openness to work in unknown arena, aggressiveness and the appetite to learn

Would you say that the level of attrition of company X is low? Do people leaving the firm usually join a

competitor or do they decide to move out of the consulting industry?

There is 15-20 % attrition in almost all of the consultancy firms. E&Y is at the lower end as far as attrition is

concerned. KPMG and E&Y have low attrition whereas Deloitte stands on the higher side.

What are some options after leaving consultancy?

Majority of the people who leave E&Y go to other consultancy firms such as the big four or KPMG or

Deloitte. Less number of people join some other industry.

How is the work-life balance in the firm?

There is absolutely no work-life balance.

How do you compare a post of Partner in consultancy to a VP interms of authority, responsibility and

influence?

It is not comparable. It is actually comparable to CEO post of other industry firms. The only difference is

that a company has only one CEO but a consulting firm has many partners.


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How easy or difficult is it for an entry level associate to become a partner? What skills and attitudes are

relevant to career progression at E&Y?

It is very subjective. It can take anywhere between 10-20 yrs. Depends on factors such as talent, what level

the recruitment has been made in.



The performance evaluation is done based on performance and perception of other employees. Bottom

5% are generally fired. But this is not a very frequent phenomenon.



Typical inductive training. No industry specific training.

Documents

Project Report - Grp 2