| | By Mick James
Who wants to be a
management consultant?
is sadly not the latest
TV reality show but the
latest research from the
Management Consultancies
Association (MCA),
looking at the attitudes
and experiences of
recent entrants to the
profession. Organised
through the MCA’s
excellent Young MCA
programme, the report
paints a positive
picture, of people who
are, overall, really
happy with their jobs
and have high levels of
satisfaction.
I do have a slight
caveat, in that you
would hope for a
reasonable level of
positivity from young
people who have only
recently elbowed their
way into some of the
most desirable jobs on
the graduate milkround,
but also feel strongly
enough to join an
organisation called
“Young MCA”. It seems
though, as Lynsey
Brooks, the MCA’s policy
manager said at the
launch event, that while
“their expectations were
sky-high, the experience
not so good”. Yet the
young consultants were
managing to contain
their disappointment.
This might have to do
with the fact that the
only area where
consultancy exceeded
their expectations was
in work/life balance,
which was better than
they had feared. And
this was despite nearly
20% having spent more
than five months away
from home. Of course,
this may have been what
they wanted, travel
being one of the main
reasons young people
want to enter
consultancy (as opposed
to one of the main
reasons older people
want to leave).
Nevertheless, the
work/life balance issue
is still clearly a major
factor affecting the
industry. There was a
near parity between men
and women in the survey,
but women were far more
likely to say they would
be likely to leave
consultancy within three
years, with work life
balance cited as the
most likely reason.
This took me back to
a survey I carried out
with the now defunct
Management Consultancy
magazine, which revealed
a major gender imbalance
in the industry. But
when we looked more
closely at the figures,
we found that there was,
even back then, parity
at entry level, with a
steady attrition as you
went through the age
brackets. Back then we
could attribute at least
part of this to sexism,
but even so, it seemed
that lots of it was
simply women being faced
with difficult choices,
not so much about | |
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| | work/life balance as
such but what their own
priorities were, and
opting out.
It’s fascinating that
20 years later, in a
world garlanded by
advanced communications,
and after many happy
afternoons spent with
consultants talking
about their
family-friendly
policies, so little has
changed.
There were other
concerns. Young MCA were
in many ways a typical
group of young
professionals, 99%
graduate, 64% from
Russell Group
universities, a third
with post-graduate
qualifications, a third
from private schools,
and a quarter having
eased the path into the
industry with
internships sourced
through personal
contacts. So at the
launch event there was a
lot of discussion about
the implications of this
for diversity in the
industry.
Fascinatingly, there
seems to be an intense
and growing interest in
the industry in
developing
apprenticeships, in
recognition not just of
the hurdles many young
people feel they face in
getting into higher
education, but also a
feeling that perhaps the
best consultants cannot
always be identified by
academic prowess alone.
I’m in two minds
about this. I love the
fact I’ve been to
university, and the
perspective and
hinterland I gained from
a completely
non-vocational course.
On the other hand, I
would hate to think that
anyone who didn’t really
enjoy studying would
feel forced or
constrained to do a
degree because not doing
so would blight their
career chances. Yet, I
feel many do just that
today. When I was young
several of my
contemporaries who just
wanted to get out there
headed straight for the
City and never looked
back. I’d like to think
those days could come
back.
Would clients accept
a 19-year old
consultant? People at
the event felt they
would, properly
positioned, and spoke of
the tremendous energy
that was gained from
having a broader range
of age and experience on
teams. I’m not averse to
the idea either. I
certainly felt I knew
the answer to everything
when I was 19, and
definitely had mental
capacity, at least in
the areas of calculation
and visualisation that
simply left me as I grew
older. I do feel, | |
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| | however, that firms
which bring people in so
very young will at some
point have to send them
off to “see the world”.
Or will we see people
retiring at 67 after 50
years with the same
firm?
The gender issue
does, however, seem more
intractable. People
seemed agreed at the
event that this was not
simply a numbers game
and I take the same
view. The industry
should tackle this as
first and foremost a
talent management issue
– we simply can’t afford
to lose these people.
And yet we do.
Work/life balance is
definitely an issue:
even though I’ve seen so
much noise around
flexible working and
family-friendly policies
to convince me that HR
departments have
imperilled their own
work/life balance trying
to crack this one with
policies. So it must be
cultural. On a positive
note, we can put it down
to consultants’ utter
devotion to their
clients, their inability
to say no. But you can
say no, and maybe you
will be more respected
for keeping things in
perspective rather than
simply reflecting a
client’s stress back at
them.
One thing that did
occur to me, though, was
that consultancy is an
intensely competitive
career and never more so
than when the roughly
three-quarters of the
Young MCA – women as
much as men – who want
to be partners, get
nearer to serious
contention for the role.
At that point it must
surely be up to the
firms to stop those who
are in a position to
simply raise the stakes
to a point where people
whose lives are still
this side of sanity
can’t compete.
The negative effects
of this culture are
evident everywhere.
Already I know people
from my own age group
who’ve theoretically won
the glittering prizes
but can’t cope with the
fruits of victory. They
have plenty left to
offer but have simply
had enough, and because
they can’t negotiate to
make their expertise
available less than 24/7
they are withdrawing it
all together. It’s an
incredible waste.
Hopefully, I won’t be
around, at least in a
professional sense, to
see what becomes of the
Young MCAers 20 years
down the line. I’d like
to think it will all be
very different. But then
I thought that 20 years
ago. | |
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