| | The consultancy
recruitment juggernaut
seems to be rolling
again, with firms such
as Ernst & Young and
KPMG announcing hiring
targets reaching into
the hundreds, and, most
encouragingly, talking
about boosting their
graduate intake.
That’s good news, not
just for an industry
that tends to
overstretch the
just-in-time principle
when it comes to
recruiting, but also
some respite for
graduates still
wondering why they ever
accepted the comedy
exploding cigar known as
a UK degree course.
One hopes they are
met with more than a
slap round the head and
a lecture on how they
should be grateful to
even have a job. This is
after all an industry
that only recently was
wondering how to court
the coquettish
Generation Y and was
finding increasing
difficulty in persuading
them that being offered
a junior role at a top
consultancy is winning
the great lottery of
life.
Nevertheless, firms
such as PwC and Deloitte
remain top destinations
for graduates looking
for a start in life. But
where will they end up?
Let’s face it, we’re
never going to turn the
clock back to the Wild
West days of the 1980s
and 90s. You’re never
going to find yourself
sitting round a
boardroom table at
Accenture with half your
mates from the
University rugby club.
But Big Four
consulting has undergone
a rather satisfying
reboot since its
over-expansion in the
1990s, with firms such
as Ernst & Young and
KPMG, and to a lesser
extent PwC, rebuilding
their practices from
scratch. Anyone joining
those firms today would
have a chance to get
close not just to the
leadership of today, but
that of tomorrow. And
today’s youth are –
often only too painfully
– aware of the power of
networking in a way my
generation never was.
So Big Four is a
great place to start –
but is it somewhere to
finish? Even today I
meet a lot of top bods
who started their
careers as Big Four
graduate entrants, but
what is interesting is
that more and more of
them started somewhere
else, even perhaps
leaving the industry
altogether for a while
on the way. I’m sure one
or two of this year’s
intakes will make it all
the way to the line with
the ball they are first
handed, but it is an
unlikely ambition to
entertain these days,
particularly with firms
that still operate at
scale, such as
Accenture. There you’re
looking not so much at a
pyramid as a colossal
ziggurat, and one which
you are more likely to
end up descending via | |
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| | the stairs minus several
vital organs than
sitting on top wielding
the obsidian knife.
Moving on is no
longer seen as a failure
on either a corporate or
personal level, and
canny students will have
noted that even as the
consultancy industry is
hiring, parts of it are
still rapidly deflating,
and those firms and
individuals that put all
their eggs in the public
sector basket have fared
very badly indeed. We
all need a plan B these
days – even the most
loyal spies have a false
passport or two around.
Indeed, “ex-Big Four”
is getting dangerously
close to becoming a
brand in its own right.
I’ve lost track of the
number of smaller
consultancies that use
it as shorthand to
express the quality of
their people and their
approach. In fact, they
are all beginning to
merge into a generic
consultancy in my head –
let’s call it XB4.
Now, XB4 has a number
of problems, in my view.
For one thing, it’s not
much of a brand – it’s a
bit like explaining your
restaurant only serves
Waitrose ready-meals.
Why use your face-time
to endorse your rivals,
“Ah, but we offer the
same service at a much
lower price”.
Great, but – and here
I must ask you to lean
closer to the screen so
I can poke you
repeatedly in the
forehead while I say
this – no one ever pays
too much for
consultancy.
Let’s say you’re a
COO locked in deadly
rivalry with another
alpha CxO type. He or
she has decided to take
a leaf out of the
politician’s book and
attack your consultancy
spend. This project:
saved £2m, but cost
£250K. XB4 would have
done it for £150K.
OK, you respond, but
I’ve got my £2m and
yours is hypothetical.
And mine came with a lot
of guarantees– who know
what risks XB4 comes
with?
It works if the
project was a failure.
What’s that you say –
you know a cheaper way
we could have gotten
into this mess? That’s
really, really helpful.
But XB4 is lacking in
another respect –
diversity.
The Big Four may not
be recruiting on
anything like the scale
they used to be, but at
least they know some
young people. It’s a
powerful story to be
able to tell, when many
of your clients are now
managing
multigenerational
workforces (for example,
the age spread at B&Q,
one of Britain’s most
age-positive employers,
is now 80 years).
So, smaller
consultancies owe it to
themselves as much as
the world at large to | |
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| | start taking on at least
the odd young person. I
believe it would have a
transformative effect,
not least on their
training programmes. If
you have to add a
“ground-up” element to
your training programme,
then it might well cause
you to rethink it from
the ground up, exposing
all sorts of assumptions
and lacunae along the
way.
But hang on, I hear
you say. How can an XB4
firm hope to compete
with the training
programmes offered by
the Big Four
themselves?
Let me stand back
here, like Rolf Harris
in front of a wall
apparently covered with
random splashes of
emulsion, and add the
few streaks of white
that will make the
picture I’m painting
appear. We’ve been
conducting this
discussion all along on
the basis that “Big
Four” training is the
cat’s pyjamas – and so,
I am sure, it is. But
says who?
A few weeks ago I was
intrigued to learn that
the Institute of
Consultancy is to use
the accreditation
ability of its “sister”
organisation the
Chartered Management
Institute (think larger
conjoined twin) to align
its own qualifications
with the National
Qualifications
Framework. That to me is
a massive step forward
for the industry and
well worth mentioning
twice. Now, the
Institute is not
expecting the big firms
with their own in-house
training schemes to
start jumping through
any hoops it holds out
any day soon. But for
smaller firms it’s a
massive opportunity not
just to improve the
quality of their
training but to really
offer something
different to new
entrants. “We believe in
developing our people” –
that’s just words on
paper. “We will support
all our consultants to
work towards a Level 7
qualification within
three years” – that’s a
commitment to deliver a
tangible and portable
asset.
At which point the
in-house, proprietary
approach begins to look
a little bit
wishy-washy,
particularly if you’re
talking to clients with
MBAs or other accredited
professional
qualifications. You did
a project management
course with a Big Firm?
Was it any good? What
level was it pitched
at?
That is of course,
assuming you accept the
need to recruit and
train young people in
the first place. But it
seems like there will
never again be so many
well-educated young folk
to choose from as there
are today. So if not
now, when? | |
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