What Georgetown McDonough MBA Students Learn Outside the Classroom
What do Colin Powell, an Indiana dairy farm, the DC Department of Public Works, and a triathalon have in common? They are all part of the fabric that comprises life outside of the classroom for MBA students at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Sure, it makes sense to judge a business school on what takes place inside the classroom. But in skimming three seemingly unrelated recent news briefs from the school, we realized that taken together they help paint a picture of what life outside the classroom can look like.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell Speaks
In September, the former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell visited Georgetown McDonough to speak on the subject of leadership. He discussed his former military and government experience, as well as a turning point in his career: earning his MBA. The event was part of the Stanton Distinguished Leaders Series and was hosted by the McDonough Military Association, an MBA student club for military veterans.
Faculty, staff, alumni, and students were all invited to observe the conversation, which began with Powell touching on his MBA education. He shared with attendees about how his MBA—which he earned from George Washington University in 1971—enabled him to focus “on the more human elements of leadership,” explained the McDonough press release. He also talked about how he improved his management and leadership skills by gaining a better understanding of basic human psychology.
Powell then went on to speak about his career. He shared his experience of being pulled in a variety of different directions, including public service positions, telling audience members: “You serve where you are needed. This is what service is all about.”
Then, he went on to highlight what he views as essential components of effective leadership, namely helping others, stressing the human element of an organization, and building trust. He explained that he never tried to be an authority but to influence others, stating “leadership and followership are completely enmeshed.”
Finally, he touched on the importance of diversity. “We are a vibrant economy because of immigration,” he said. “We shouldn’t demonize anyone.” He talked about how diversity is important for leadership and for building a stronger America. The event ended with questions from audience members and drew praise from many in attendance.
As Prashant Malaviya, an Associate Professor of Marketing at McDonough, said on Twitter: “Honor and privilege to welcome Colin Powel to Georgetown McDonough. Amazing talk! Thank you!”
Hands-On Experience
Outside of learning from presentations and speakers, MBA students at McDonough also learn through hands-on opportunities such as a recent visit to Fair Oaks Farms, a sustainable dairy farm in Indiana, as well as a summer internship with the DC Department of Public Works (DPW).
The farm visit, which included 18 MBA students, was part of the course “Principled Leadership in Business and Society” taught by Associate Professor Ed Soule.
The trip was designed to help students learn more about sustainable business by seeing it in practice. Fair Oaks Farm is the sixth largest dairy cooperative in the nation and an agri-tourism destination owned by Sue and Mike McCloskey. While visiting, MBA students were able to see how the farm employed various practices and technologies to minimize its environmental footprint while maximizing the comfort level of the cows.
“It’s one thing to read a case about a sustainable business, but seeing it and meeting the people adds another dimension,” Soule said in a news release about the trip. “The other objective of the trip was for them to interface casually with the McCloskeys, to pose questions, and get a more nuanced understanding of the business.”
Second-year MBA student Emma Loughman called the farm an “epicenter of innovation” and said she enjoyed learning about the difference between organic and sustainable farming.
As for the internship with the DC DPW, two students—Paul LaCorte (MBA ’18) and Leo Dzidziguri (MBA ’18)—participated in the trial program between the department and Georgetown McDonough. Over the course of the hands-on, three-month experience, the students responded to a request by the city administrator to evaluate two critical areas: light vehicle repair turnaround and citywide compliance and preventative maintenance.
The internship required data collection, analysis, visualization, process mapping, site visits, and audits. “We were involved in projects that required knowledge from multiple fields,” Dzidziguri said in a news release. “For example, I performed statistical analysis on several years of data to identify reasons why the Fleet Management division could not meet its key performance indicators, while at the same time studying the operations and recommending a new map for more efficient processes.”
Extracurricular Fun and Fitness
Finally, no MBA program is complete without a bit of friendly competition. Early in September, three Georgetown MBA students participated in the 12th Annual Nation’s Triathlon. Hall Wang (MBA ’19), Taylor DeVoe (Evening MBA ’20), and James Hesburgh (MBA ’19) signed up for a 1,500-meter swim, 26.2-mile bike ride, and 10k run relay—respectively. This was an opportunity for the MBA students to meet outside the classroom and campus to explore their common interests.
In a short news brief on the school website, Wang described the triathlon as a relationship-building experience. “I like to think we showed what the Georgetown MBA experience is all about,” he said. “Regardless of cohort or program, we build relationships and partake in our community, one fun adventure at a time. Ours just started with a really early alarm clock and ended with some sore body parts, but now we have an exciting story to tell.”
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
Your Search for Atlanta’s Best Accelerated MBA Programs
Most folks pursuing an accelerated MBA know which industry or area of concentration they want to pursue. They are MBA candidates who want to advance their current careers, not switch them. Others choose the accelerated route because it can be difficult to leave two years of work and salary. Continue reading…
Advice for Entrepreneurial MBA Students from a Successful Goizueta Alum
Over the last few years, interest in entrepreneurship has increased among MBA students at many leading business schools. According to the 2017 GMAC Alumni Perspectives Survey Report, more than one in 10 alumni run their own businesses (11 percent)—the same percentage as those choosing to work in finance and accounting.
So, it’s not surprising that many top programs are increasing their focus on providing entrepreneurial learning opportunities within their MBA programs. At Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, for example, there are many opportunities to explore entrepreneurship through classes such as “Applied Entrepreneurship,” “Entrepreneurial Practicum,” and “Appcology,” which focuses on emerging forms of applications and services and how they are altering software ecosystems and commerce interactions. There’s an annual Emory Entrepreneurship Summit that is designed to encourage and support entrepreneurs across the university with pitch competitions, keynote speakers, and valuable networking opportunities. And recently, the one-year MBA class class also had an opportunity to hear directly from a successful alumnus about his journey as an entrepreneur.
Matt Fishman, a ’13 MBA and CEO and co-owner of Barking Hound Village, visited campus to talk about how MBA students can make the most of their time in school with an eye toward maximizing the success of their ventures down the road. Barking Hound Village, which Fishman and a fellow Goizueta alumnus purchased in April 2017, is Georgia’s largest dog daycare, boarding, and grooming business with six locations throughout Atlanta.
Inside Barking Hound Village
In addressing students at his alma mater, Fishman’s advice was wide ranging but coalesced around a few key tenets:
Focus on Your MBA Connections
After graduating from Goizueta, Fishman stayed in touch with his MBA classmates. He regularly met up with a group of five alums to discuss opportunities and ideas. It was from these discussions that the thought of purchasing Barking Hound Village came about. “One day, we started to run with the idea, and one thing led to another,” Fishman said in the question-and-answer session with current students.
Fishman’s Goizueta connections proved invaluable throughout the process. He purchased Barking Hound Village with a fellow Emory classmate, Matt Gryder, and since that day has had to protect that connection by putting their “friendship above all of it.” That’s meant a clear division of responsibilities. “We have an operating agreement that’s 50, 60 pages that divvies out duties, equity, all sorts of things,” said Fishman. “It’s constant checks and balances. It’s probably one of the most difficult things.”
Because the connections he made at Goizueta proved to be one of the most important aspects of his MBA experience, he encouraged current students to take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people in the program. “The most valuable thing that you’re going to get out of this place is the network,” he said. “You have to make yourself uncomfortable and sit next to different people, get in different groups, put yourself out there, meet people.”
Don’t Forget to Network
Alumni connections aren’t the only relationships that have been helpful for Fishman. Networking, in general, has been important to his success. For example, it was while Fishman was working as an analyst before business school at security and investment advisory firm Voya and dealing with investments in the pet space, veterinary roll-ups, and retail that he discovered Barking Hound.
As for Fishman’s advice to MBA students, “With networking, get outside your comfort zone.” He continued, saying: “Networking’s tough. Things don’t always come of it, but it’s a game of odds. For maybe 800 people, you get a few back. Be persistent. It gets competitive because everybody’s trying to distinguish themselves. You have to be real, be yourself.”
Understand Your Business
You need to understand your business before you jump into it. For Fishman, he learned a lot of what he needed to know about owning and running a pet business while he was at Voya. “I got access to the books, learned the layout of the land, and built a thesis,” he said. “It’s happenstance, and then you try to line up your cards as much as you can.”
But that was only the beginning. Fishman also took time to understand how to value a dog daycare company before they made any decisions to move forward with a purchase. “The equity side, you have to knock it out in the beginning. So that’s what we did,” said Fishman.
Then, from there, it was all about learning the business. Fishman considers himself a numbers guy, so he had to learn persistence and human capital. He also had to learn about the challenges of being in a service-based business. “You have HR issues,” Fishman stated. “You have leases. For every aspect of it, there’s a legal side that you have to think through.”
Cross Things Off Your Bucket List
For Fishman, starting a business was an item on his bucket list. “It was an itch,” he said. “ I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.” So, he decided to go after it at a time when failure would have relatively little long-term impact. This is the same advice he offers MBA students.
“If you have an idea, or you want to try something new and crazy, whatever, do it,” said Fishman. “If you have ideas, entrepreneurial ideas, take advantage of the fact that you have more time now,” he continued. “Think through or outline some ideas that you might have and chase after them. Look at everything from a downside case. If I’m going to do something entrepreneurial, I don’t yet have a family, so my downside was falling about as low as it’s going to be from here on out.”
So far it has all come together for Fishman since his ’13 MBA, and he encouraged students to take the same risks he did. “There’s nothing to lose with trying to do something and failing in the next nine months. So if there’s a bucket list, it’s to take advantage of your time.”
For more of Fishman’s advice, view the full story at EmoryBusiness.com.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit
Admissions Tip: Word Limits and Character Counts
MBA candidates naturally have a good deal of information they want—and need—to convey in their materials, and getting the important ideas down under restrictive word counts is a difficult task. While it might be tempting to run a bit beyond the guidelines to slip in that one extra thought, it’s important to keep the reasons for these limits in mind.
Essay Word Limits
In addition to being a medium for explaining your goals and sharing your story, the essays and short answers also serve as a test of the applicant’s ability to communicate clearly and concisely, not to mention follow directions and answer a question. Because business schools and post-MBA employers place a premium on all of these elements, adhering to word and character counts ultimately works to the candidate’s advantage.
Another important consideration is the reader’s time. Because of high application volume and the need to give every applicant fair and thorough consideration, schools are forced to limit the amount of information in each file. If you consistently extend your answers beyond the suggested limits, you are essentially asking the reader to give you more time than they are devoting to the other applicants. In other words, if you were to ignore the limits and overshoot by 30 percent throughout, this might imply that you consider yourself to be 30 percent more interesting than everyone else who applied – which could create concerns for your own lack of self-awareness.
That being said, there can be some leeway. For the vast majority of programs, it’s generally acceptable to exceed the word limit by 5 percent. There are, of course, a few exceptions:
- Caveat #1: If a school gives you a range (e.g., 250-750 words), you should ideally stay within that range.
- Caveat #2: If a school gives you a page limit (e.g., 2 pages), you should stay within that limit – without excessive margin manipulation or font size reduction.
- Caveat #3: In the rare case that a school’s application system truncates the answer once the limit is exceeded, then it is absolutely important to remain under the limit.
In terms of the other end of the length issue, it is unwise to consistently fall more than 5 percent below the limits; this is valuable room in which to share further relevant information about your candidacy. By falling short, it might signal a lack of effort on your part for developing your best application, or a lack of experiences or accomplishments for you to share with the admissions committee. There is one exception to this, the schools’ optional essays. While some of these essays include word count limits, brevity is typically the rule when choosing to include additional information; the word limit should not be the target.
Beyond the long-form essays that most schools require, many programs also include what are commonly referred to as ‘short answer’ questions in their application data forms. These range from schools asking candidates to describe their post-MBA career plans in a sentence or two to broader queries about how a candidate first learned of a given MBA program. In these ‘short answers’ schools often use character limits instead of word count, and their online systems often truncate responses that run long. As such, we advise a more strict adherence to the word count or character limits associated with ‘short answers’
Best of luck to all those fine tuning their applications!
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
U.S. Small School MBA Programs are Shrinking
Large U.S. graduate business programs—those with more than 200 students—report that times are good. In fact, three in four (73 percent) of these programs saw application volume increase this year, according to the 2017 Application Trends Survey, released yesterday by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).
But the news is not as rosy for smaller programs. For programs that count 50 students or fewer, only 39 percent saw growth in application volume, while 7 percent remained steady, and 55 percent lost applicants year over year. Overall, among full-time, two-year MBA programs, less than a third (32 percent) of U.S. programs reported application volume gains this year, whereas 64 percent saw application volume decreases. The results mark the third consecutive year in which the majority of U.S. full-time, two-year MBA programs experienced application volume declines. Just three short years ago, those numbers were almost reversed, with 61 percent of U.S. programs reporting application volume increases in 2014.
Elsewhere in the world—including in Europe, East and Southeast Asia, and India—business schools had a very different story to tell. In each of these regions, the vast majority of programs saw application volume increases. In Europe, 76 percent of one-year, full-time MBA programs saw growth; in East and Southeast Asia, 77 percent of full-time, two-year MBA programs saw growth; and in India, 85 percent of full-time, two-year MBA programs reported increased application volume.
Source: 2017 GMAC Application Trends Survey
A Combination of Factors Chills Overall Demand for U.S. Graduate Business Programs
What gives? Why are business schools around the world seeing such demand for their programs while U.S. schools—with the exception of the largest, best-known schools—faltering?
“Demand for graduate business education remains strong, especially among the largest programs, which also tend to be the most well-known programs with brand recognition,” Sangeet Chowfla, GMAC President and CEO, said in a press release. “While non-U.S. programs are thriving, a strong economy and a disruptive political climate are likely contributing to the downward trend in application volumes among smaller U.S. programs this year.”
Strong Economy Hurts Domestic Application Volume
Citing past GMAC research, the current GMAC report notes that application volume to U.S. graduate business programs frequently runs counter-cyclical to the labor market. When jobs are plentiful, fewer see the need or can justify the opportunity cost of taking time out of the workforce to pursue an advanced degree. This could help explain why only 42 percent of U.S. programs reported growth in the domestic market this year, down from 61 percent in 2016. Exceptions to this trend can be seen in two degree programs, though, according to GMAC. Domestic application volumes grew for more than half of all full-time, one-year MBA programs (54 percent) and Master’s in Data Analytics programs (58 percent).
Trump Rhetoric Takes a Toll on International Applicant Volume
More notable than the decline in domestic applicant volume was the decline in international applicant volume for U.S. programs. Less than a third (32 percent) of U.S. programs saw more international applicants this year than last—down from 49 percent the year before. Master in Data Analytics programs proved the only exception—67 percent of these in-demand programs saw international applications increase.
In fact, for the bigger, better-known U.S. schools that have been largely buffered from overall application volume decline, it’s because domestic applicants have applied in increasing numbers at those schools, offsetting declines in international applicants. According to GMAC, there has been a resurgence of domestic applicants at large programs, with 69 percent reporting increases in this applicant pool this year over last. Of these same programs, only 38 percent saw international application volume increase.
READ MORE: What are the Most Common Application Mistakes?
Other regions of the world, meanwhile, may be attracting some of the international applicants that have been giving U.S. programs a wider berth given concerns about potential changes to immigration policies and their impact on visas both for study and for work. According to this latest GMAC survey, twice as many graduate business programs in Europe and Canada saw international application volume increases as did programs in the United States. In Canada, 77 percent of programs reported upticks in international applicants, up from 46 percent in 2016. In Europe, 67 percent of programs saw international application volume growth, a more modest rise over the 65 percent reported there the year before. But even in the United Kingdom, where there was concern that the 2016 Brexit referendum could adversely impact international applicants in some of the same ways that Trump’s election and proposed changes to immigration policy did in the United States, almost two-thirds of programs have wooed more international applicants, not fewer. Notably, graduate business programs depend more heavily on international applicants than on domestic applicants, In Canada, domestic applicants comprised 30 percent of overall applicant volume, and in Europe, just 11 percent.
Women Are Applying to Graduate Business Programs at Record Levels
Another significant finding from the 2017 Application Trends Survey was an increase in women applicants. Women now represent 42 percent of all applications received by the participating programs, up from 37 percent from four years ago. Looking specifically at MBA programs, women accounted for 39 percent of applications, a six-point percentage gain since 2013.
Growth in female application volume was most widespread among MBA programs—44 percent saw increases this year over last. Fewer business master’s programs—39 percent—reported increased female applicant volume.
Additional Key Findings
A few other interesting statistics revealed by the most recent survey:
- Overall part-time MBA volume has declined or remained stagnant since the Great Recession. The only exception is part-time lockstep programs, which enroll students in cohorts and provide more of a consistent set of classmates. Of these, 54 percent reported a growth in applications.
- Employer sponsorship remained stable, with approximately 52 percent of part-time students expecting to receive support.
- The experience level of applicants also remained consistent, with the majority of full-time MBA applicants having between three and 10 years of prior work experience.
The Application Trends Survey 2017 reviewed a total of 351 business schools around the global and 965 total graduate business programs—a record for the survey. To see the full results, download the 41-page report.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
Choosing the Best Business School for Consulting
If you are a prospective MBA applicant looking to business school as a way to enter or accelerate your career in the consulting industry, you are certainly not alone. According to the 2017 Prospective Student Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), consulting is once again the most sought-after postgraduate industry, with 33 percent of applicants surveyed citing consulting firms as their destination of choice. The consulting function, too, is a top draw. One in four indicated it as their chosen job function, after just marketing/sales (30 percent) and finance/accounting (28 percent).
With so many MBA graduates vying for roles in the consulting field, one of the best ways to distinguish yourself is by going to one of the business schools best known for training top-notch consultants. Of course, this requires thorough research and a deep knowledge of individual school programs. Lucky for you, Clear Admit has done some of the legwork.
Consulting Continues to Be a Top Draw for MBAs
Finance—and investment banking in particular—took a hit following the financial crash of 2008. And the tech sector has been gaining ground as a top destination for MBA grads. But along the way, the consulting industry has held its own, with MBAs clamoring to work for both towering giants in the field as well as at an increasing number of boutique firms now in the marketplace.
What’s the allure? Part of it is the diverse work. Consultants get to think creatively and solve problems, analyze both the big picture and the details, and work on teams juggling multiple assignments. Top salaries don’t hurt either. Recent MBA graduates taking jobs at firms like McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Bain & Company—known as ‘the MBB firms’ in industry parlance—reported base salaries in 2017 of between $147,000 to $152,500, with additional signing bonuses of $25,000, according to managementconsulted.com, an online resource for the consulting industry.
Choosing the Best Business School for Consulting
Determining which leading business school will best prepare you for a career in consulting requires looking at a range of factors. A logical place to start is by examining career outcomes at individual schools, both in terms of summer internships and full-time jobs. If possible with the available data, you also want to get a sense of how well a school has done placing career-switchers, namely those without prior consulting experience, in coveted consulting roles, since barriers for entry for these grads are understandably higher than for their counterparts who have already worked in the field.
It can also be instructive to see which of the powerhouse consulting firms donate to which leading business schools. Finally, it helps to understand how a given school goes about teaching its students to be consultants, what role experiential learning plays, whether you can hope to learn directly from superstar professors in the field, and what extracurricular resources are in place to help you land your dream consulting gig.
Consulting at UVA Darden
The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business sent more of its MBA graduates into consulting than any other U.S. school, with 38 percent of the Class of 2016 pursuing work in the consulting industry and 38 percent choosing a consulting function. By comparison, Harvard Business School (HBS) sent 25 percent of its 2016 graduates into consulting, and Stanford Graduate School of Business sent just 16 percent.
As for the top recruiting companies at Darden, Boston Consulting Group snapped up 18 members of the Class of 2016, followed by McKinsey & Company (14), PwC (13), and Accenture (10).
In terms of pay, the average base salary for a Darden MBA heading into consulting was $135,771 with a signing bonus of $26,927. While this isn’t the highest salary in the industry—it falls a few thousand dollars short of offers reported by students at schools like Kellogg School of Management—it is the highest average salary for all Darden MBAs.
Darden’s Classroom, Curriculum, and Professors
As for how Darden trains its MBAs to enter a career in consulting, the school offers a career track concentration in strategy consulting. This concentration is designed to immerse MBA students into the consulting process by helping them identify and deepen their consulting skill sets.
Darden is also known for its case study method of teaching and learning. This method confronts Darden MBA students with challenging, real-life business situations and teaches them how to analyze each situation to come up with a solution—just as they will be called upon to do in a consulting career. Over the course of MBA students’ two years at Darden, they’ll complete in more than 500 case studies on a variety of topics, industries, and diverse environments.
As for Darden’s faculty, many of the school’s professors have an in-depth knowledge of consulting with a breadth of research dedicated to all facets of the field. For example, Samuel E. Bodily, a professor of business administration, teaches “Decision Analysis” to first-year students and “Management Decision Models” to second-year students while also consulting with many corporations, utilities, and government agencies. And Scott. C. Beardsley, Darden dean since 2015, spent 26 years at McKinsey & Company before joining the school.
Outside the Classroom
Darden is home to the Consulting Club, a student organization designed to support students interested in the consulting industry. The club regularly holds events such as consulting industry panels, networking 101, consulting conferences, case competitions, mock interview sessions, internship preparation workshops, and more. And many large consulting companies are club sponsors, including Deloitte, AT Kearney, Bain & Company, EY, and Accenture.
In addition, there are also a variety of consulting projects for MBAs to participate in. These projects help MBAs learn how to develop business plans, create financial forecasts, and perform marketing analysis. For each project, teams of three to six students will work with corporations, global businesses, or non-profit organizations to provide strategy evaluation and planning services.
INSEAD For Consulting
In terms of sheer numbers, no school sends more students into consulting jobs than INSEAD. According to the school’s latest 2016 MBA employment report, 46 percent of INSEAD MBAs took a job in the consulting sector and 48 percent assumed a consulting function. That’s a whopping 479 students accepting a position as a consultant—almost half of the 999 students who filled out the employment report.
INSEAD’s MBA graduates took jobs with such companies as McKinsey (which hired 125 INSEAD grads in 2016), BCG (67), Bain (48), Strategy& (24), and Accenture (16). And it’s no wonder the major players like INSEAD. Many alumni hold prominent positions such as chairmen, CEO, or senior leader at these same top consulting firms.
As for where these consulting grads work, they’re spread out around the world. More than 100 consulting graduates took jobs in Western Europe, 41 of those in the United Kingdom. Another 83 graduates headed off to consulting offices in Asia Pacific, including 23 each in Singapore and Australia. But the single most attractive country for INSEAD consulting grads was the United Arab Emirates, which drew 42.
INSEAD also features an alliance with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, allowing INSEAD students to spend one of their five periods studying at the U.S. school. INSEAD has a similar campus exchange with Kellogg as well. These exchanges afford INSEAD students access to those schools’ career management centers as well, which can be especially valuable in terms of making connections to U.S. recruiters for students who are interested in working in consulting in the United States after graduation.
In terms of what its consulting grads command in salary, INSEAD also shows strong numbers, albeit lower than Kellogg and Darden. For 2016, the overall mean salary in consulting was $107,300 USD, the overall median salary was $109,500 USD, and the overall annual median sign-on bonus was $25,000, with 76 percent of salaries coming with a sign-on bonus and 83 percent with a performance bonus around $24,500.
Proud of its success in helping career switchers enter new industries, INSEAD shares data about how many of its graduates heading into consulting started out there and how many used business school to make a pivot. Of those graduates taking jobs in consulting after INSEAD, 67 percent held pre-MBA roles in consulting. But 34 percent of those who were financial services professionals also successfully switched to consulting, as did 56 percent of former technology, media, and telecommunications professionals and 38 percent of former corporate sector professionals.
How Consulting Is Taught at INSEAD
INSEAD’s accelerated 10-month MBA is composed of five, eight-week periods built around core courses and electives and concluding with an exam, essay, and/or project. There is no preferred teaching method at INSEAD; instead, individual professors choose the method they feel is best. However, no matter the teaching style or technique, each class is sure to have lively exchange opportunities and diverse study groups.
In terms of core courses, students will start out their first eight weeks with an “Introduction to Strategy” course and will continue their learning into the next period with “Process & Operations Management.” As for electives, over a dozen courses are offered under the Strategy heading including the “Strategy Lab,” which provides MBA students with a practitioner’s view of how consultants tackle projects.
Who Trains Consultants at INSEAD
There are more than 25 resident strategy professors across INSEAD’s three campuses, as well as around a dozen visiting faculty members. Of these, several are former consultants, bringing experience straight from the trenches at McKinsey, Monitor Group, and Accenture, among other leading firms.
Two INSEAD professors, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, authored a best-selling book called Blue Ocean Strategy, which spawned the 2007 launch of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. The institute offers several programs and electives that support the development of aspiring consultants, including a mini-elective, “Blue Ocean Strategy Simulation,” that lets students apply the trademark Blue Ocean Strategy toward managing a fictional company.
Beyond the Classroom at INSEAD
INSEAD’s accelerated 10-month program can make it hard for some student groups to gel, but despite this obstacle, the INSEAD Consulting Club seems to have an active campus presence. Much like at Darden, the Consulting Club at INSEAD provides resources to help INSEAD students prepare for consulting interviews and careers, including workshops, networking, and recruiting events with consulting firms. It also publishes the INSEAD Consulting Club Handbook, free to Consulting Club members, which offers an overview of the industry, profiles of individual firms, and sample cover letters, résumés, interview tips, and practice case questions.
INSEAD also features regular consulting case competitions, including the A.T. Kearney Global Prize Competition. As many as 15 teams from INSEAD compete against each other, with winners advancing to represent INSEAD in a regional competition against seven other European business schools. The winning European school then battles the winning North American school for the Global Prize.
