I have been a quickie in Stockholm after applying for a scholarship at the Boston Consulting Group. I was then called a week ago and was told that I was in the "final". Me and a few other students from Chalmers would be telephone interviewed and a winner was chosen for the scholarship of 25,000 SEK which BCG offers an ambitious student who will study abroad. The interview went very badly and I remember that I started answering the question who I am with "yes, they are not so much to tell ...". I did however say that I am an ambitious student, with great ratings that make classic, hunting, playing golf and so on.
My girlfriend Sofia was also one of the candidates who went to the finals of the girls' scholarship. We sat on the train to Stockholm tense with anticipation the day before May Day. We had been told that there were three boys and three girls competing for Chalmers scholarships. The chance was 1/3 for me to get to 5/9 that I or Sophia would have.
The night was really great. It began with a presentation on BCG's office next to the castle, which explained the BCG was, a company that helps decision makers to make difficult decisions, which of course is that to charge a lot for. One of the latest projects that were declared were stretegin for next year's Volvo Ocean Race. Much of what will change, I think made sense, except that it will set an age limit for the contestants since the elderly are more expensive for the teams. For me, it takes away some of the charm of the sport.
After the presentation, where there was champagne, we jumped on a big special chartered boat against Lidingö. On the boat were treated to champagne and also at the forefront of the restaurant drinks. The dinner consisted of a starter, including scallops, a main course of pheasant and morels, and a dessert with any cocoa thing. Afterwards there was free at the bar and the evening ended for those who wanted to Stureplan.
The business idea for a managementkonsultfrima
The big question I asked myself during the evening was how these consultants worked to become so terribly well paid. How do you make your customers happy? The answer is that they provide independent thoughts from extremely well educated and sympathetic people who will hopefully solve customer problems. To me that reads Industrial Economics and is currently the Software Engineering will then a corollary question. For IT projects, it is delivered to the customer okonkret (U.S. intangible). If a customer orders a program, it is very difficult to say what will be delivered in terms of reliability, performance, design and so on. All of this is subjective and it can not really say how much resources should be spent to make the customer happy. Two software engineers often perform very different results and solutions to the same problem. How do you know what is the best solution? Within the software engineering work with the standard processes of development and detailed specification for solving this problem.Trots this fails over 50% of all IT projects and 80% go over budget. A statistics remained relatively constant since the first transistor came out of production.
How then does a consulting firm BCG, which I believe are facing the same problem with clients to control their projects and to define the outcome with the customer? According to my research among the consultants, I do not you think so hard about this (please let me know if I'm wrong here). There exist no standardized processes but the project leader who has much experience is the governing each individual project with his gut feeling. Of course this can work if the project is right and competent, but what happens when the consulting firm grows so large that you can not control how each individual is? People do not want to work will always happen in my business, whether they are consultants with extreme admission requirements. There is a problem! Another problem is that clients (CEOs) often give the consultants an extremely free hand and, in my hypothesis for the poor to make demands. Often they just tosses out a few million and pray consulting work until they are final and then present the solution. But when we know that the solution is reached? Is it always a link between earnings and money invested in the project? How can you actually recoup a management consulting job? In my opinion, it is difficult to know what would happen if no solution is presented and thus have nothing to compare with in order to ensure that the investment is wisely made.
Paradox are plenty, but somehow it is better than ever for our consulting firms. BCG hires despite the financial crisis. Maybe this is just another fuel. The only question is when the consultant's financial crisis comes. When policy-makers will think for themselves and make reasonable demands?
Another paradox is the consultants' informal recruitment policy that is about to find people more ability to solve problems. This can be expressed consist of composers, engineers, economists or doctors. To have a theoretical background does not seem to be the determining factor only personality is enough "konsultig". I can partly agree with this in view of much of what is being taught yet forgotten. However, it is basically a very strange recruitment strategy if there is any rationality in the education system.
The constant number two
How did it go for me the scholarship? As the title suggests, it was not as I had hoped and wanted to believe. As usual, I fell at the finish line and saw two classmates to receive all the applause. None of them was Sophia, which was not made things more fun. The immediate thought was to say goodbye to the consultants and go home. I was stopped, however, of Sofia, and my question about the management consultant's business, which at that time has not yet been answered.
Despite my very good grades, work experience (at ABB, Ica and of a Chalmersproffessor), involvement in Intize, care management experience and classic results (for 23 hours), I was once again runner-up. I have always been second in terms of grants and not actually received any of those I sought. To become more attractive in the future, it is not grades or work that I must improve my CV. Travel experience is very important, making my exchange year in Australia to a strategic gem.
To end this post there, I would say that the runner always learn something and become even more motivated to continue. I go stronger from this and hopefully better from me at the next trial. Now I know how consultants work and is not nervous about it! Future consulting company, if I ever get to decide, have a clearer business model. Thanks to me.
