Beyond the ‘Big Four’: What are the Other Major Consulting Firms You Should Know?
Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, and E&Y: Together these firms make up the “Big Four”—the four biggest professional services firms in the world. The companies offer auditing, assurance services, management consulting, corporate finance, legal services and more. It’s no surprise, that many of these companies are also ideal destinations for many MBAs. Continue reading…
The Best Energy Industry MBA Programs in the U.S.
With the current shift in global economics that coincides with climate change, business schools have seen the benefit of educating students toward a sustainable future. Whether through influencing public policy, investing wisely in carbon reduction technologies, or developing businesses that serve to adjust to global warming, MBA grads with a focus within the energy industry have limitless career prospects.
The Best Energy Industry MBA Programs in the U.S.
The University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business‘ Bay Area location (a center for innovation in sustainability) make it a clean energy industry leader. With an interdisciplinary approach that combines engineering, public policy, and law, Berkeley Haas MBA students have access to such initiatives as Cleantech to Market (C2M). This partnership between grad students, industry professionals, and researchers offers an annual symposium presenting the newest trends in clean technologies.
In C2M, professionals in such arenas as energy generation, storage, grid technology, and water purification guide students through past solutions. Students integrate their curriculum into real world solutions with the help of these professionals and leading researchers.
Cornell’s SC Johnson Graduate School of Management also offers a wealth of opportunities in the development of sustainable solutions for MBAs with the school’s immersion program, the Center for Social Enterprise. After receiving a sizable endowment in 2002, researchers and business leaders formed the SC Johnson Professorship in Sustainable Global Enterprise. Recently ranked 2nd overall by Bloomberg Businessweek, the sustainability curriculum at Johnson has achieved wide acclaim.
In addition, Johnson offers an Environmental Finance and Impact Investing Fellowship. With projects sponsored by corporate and government entities, students receive opportunities to work with the World Bank, Barclays, and The Water Initiative to address pressing issues in development and the increasing demand to find alternative energy sources.
UNC’s Kenan Flagler Business School offers an MBA that they consider “unique among major business schools.” The program, which exhibits a marked emphasis upon ROI, focuses on the energy value chain, and the intersection of oil and gas usage, renewables, and petrochemicals.
This degree focuses primarily on training future leaders in corporate sectors, power generation, renewable energy, investing firms, and consulting firms specializing in energy.
MIT’s Sloan School of Management takes an exemplary role in leadership development for the sustainable energy industry. According to Sloan’s Sustainability Initiative, the school “empowers leaders to act so that humans and nature can thrive for generations to come.” With a mission that includes a sustainability certificate, partnerships with NGOs and government agencies, and an ongoing lecture series, MIT Sloan offers a strong foundation in cleantech development.
In a recent roundtable, experts in renewable energy supply chain discussed potential solutions. These include wind farms and solar power for underserved populations.
“When you’re inside a startup and talking to your colleagues all the time, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture,” says Sandhya Murali, a recipient of the Sustainability Certificate. “Being able to talk with experts in the field and share ideas with veterans in the industry was extremely helpful.”
Murali, ’15, is the CEO of the Solstice Initiative, which provides solar energy to communities in every economic strata.
Finally, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business is at the forefront of energy efficiency, offering an MBA major in Business, Energy, Environment and Sustainability. Combining a focus in tech, regulation, finance, and business modeling trends, this degree prepares MBAs for leadership roles in energy, clean-tech investment, energy banking, consulting, government, and the sustainable non-profit industry.
Courses include Energy Markets and Policy, Energy Finance, Environmental Management, Law and Policy, Social Impact Marketing and Energy Law.
In addition, there is a dual degree option for Wharton MBAs. In which, students can combine an MBA with a Master in Environmental Studies for career opportunities in energy management.
New MBA Jobs: BCG, Merck, Adobe and More
There are hot new MBA jobs that need to get filled each and every week all over the world. Here are a few new openings for entry level and advance positions at a range of companies, and don’t forget to check out the best new MBA jobs right here on MetroMBA every week.
Harvard Faculty Discuss Recent Chinese Tariffs, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Trade War or War of Words? – Harvard Business School Blog
Following the Trump administration’s recent announcement of 25 percent tariffs on 1,000 Chinese exports, Bill Kirby and Willy Shih, Harvard Business School faculty experts on China, took to the HBS blog to “trade theories on the best path forward for the world’s two largest economies.”
Both experts point to economic shifts in the 1980s, which, not incidentally, was the decade in which Donald Trump started to become a household name. Kirby notes that the major trade distinctions between the United States and Japan, specifically regarding the auto-manufacturing industry, set a precedent. In that, the United States began to firmly invest in Japanese car companies like Honda and Toyota, building their own domestic manufacturing plants. Kirby suspects, however, that the Trump administration may not be as open to that kind of investment. “If Chinese companies wanted to improve access to American markets by investing in the US, would the administration be open to it?” he asks. “They ought to be, in my view. But my suspicion is that that’s not the outcome that this administration is looking for. They’re looking for a miraculous recovery of American-based manufacturing exporting to a Chinese market, not a particularly good match.”
Shih, staying on the topic of the ’80s, offers a different opinion, saying; “I think the real issue is industrial policy on the Chinese side competing with a lack of industrial policy on the U.S. side and the consequences of that. Going back to the mid-1980s, the Chinese government has been mapping a pathway for the country to become a modern country (just as the Koreans, Taiwanese, and the Japanese did before, except on a much larger scale). The Chinese have identified core capabilities that they want to see inside the country, and they’ve been methodically working on that over the last 30-plus years. I’d argue the positive trade balance with the US reflects the progress they’ve made.”
You can read the full conversation between Kirby and Shih here.
An Easy Internship Trick from Kayla Humel ’18 – Simmons Blog
Current Simmons School of Management student body president Kayla Humel, ’18, wrote candidly about the impact of the Student Government Association (SGA) on her recent internship at Puma and future career plans.
“First and foremost, [SGA has taught me] the power of good communication. When the e-board is communicating with one another, event planning is exponentially easier. When SGA is communicating with organizations, processes like budgets occur seamlessly. Good communication is crucial to success in any organization.”
Humel threw her hat in the presidential race because she “saw opportunities to improve processes between SGA and the other organizations on campus. I knew that SGA could create change on campus and I wanted to play a major part in that.”
You ca check out more about her Simmons experience here and watch an interview with Humel about her internship below.
Wield Polarization to Build Positive Change – MIT Sloan Newsroom
MIT Sloan School of Management sustainability initiative director Jason Jay used his recent TEDx talk as an opportunity to share some strategic advice on how to more effectively spark difficult conversations. “The voltage feels so high that we simply avoid conversations out of fear of getting shocked. But I like to think about that polarization as a kind of energy.”
- Draw a contrast between what others might expect you to do and what you’re really trying to do.
- Clarify the values underlying your positions, and do the same with the people you’re talking to.
- Make it clear that you aren’t meeting simply to bargain over these values, but to embrace tension and find new ideas.”
You can check out Jay’s TEDx talk at Hofstra University below and learn more about his work here.
Where Toys R Us Went Wrong, Sawyer International Business Etiquette, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Here’s What Sunk Toys R Us – MIT Sloan Newsroom
Experts from MIT Sloan offered a few choice insights into what Toys “R” Us, whose future currently remains in flux, could learn from the hiccups along its 70 year-long history.
Senior lecturer in work and organization studies Peter Kurzina writes that Toys “R” Us “ignored Amazon eating their lunch, thus failed to prepare and meet the challenge of competition.”
Associate professor of finance Andrey Malenko, a fellow MIT Sloan colleague, also critiqued the toy giant’s enormous debt burden. “If you’re running a business that might be sensitive to e-commerce, to the recession, then loading up on debt as much as [Toys “R” Us] did, it’s very risky and you probably shouldn’t do it.”
In March 2018, Toys “R” Us announced it would be closing all US and UK locations.
Read more of the duo’s analysis here.
International Business Basics – Sawyer Business Blog
The act of doing business across cultures often entails unexpected byproducts that Sawyer addressed in its recent “Business Protocol Across the Globe” forum, organized by Colombian native Laura Reales, BSBA ‘18.
“What if I wanted to move to another part of the world, like Saudi Arabia or France or China? How could I make connections with people so that I don’t look ignorant of their culture? So I decided to create a space where it was ok to talk about those differences.”
Read here to learn the answers to questions like, “What’s the proper way to present a business card in China?” and “What’s a good way to begin a negotiation in Turkey?”
Alumnus’ Company serves the Housing Needs of a Vulnerable Community – D’Amore-McKim Blog
The Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business profiled alum Andy Rosenthal, a 2007 alum who abandoned a lucrative career in hedge fund software to co-found the Terenbinth Group, which has become the “largest, family-owned provider of housing to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.” Rosenthal explains his company’s model.
“We’re a real estate company focused on providing quality, safe, affordable housing to a vulnerable community,” Rosethal said in the interview. “In short, we find homes, fix them up, customize them to suit the tenants—think wheelchair accessibility, replacing door knobs with door levers, waterproof flooring, installing roll-in showers, etc.—and then rent them directly to the individuals.”
The company’s 68 homes currently accommodate more than 225 people across the state of Indiana and it’s looking to expand. You can learn more about the Terebinth Group’s plans here.
What are the Best Real Estate MBAs in Boston? – MetroMBA
Earlier this week we highlighted the three strongest Boston metro schools that can help you earn your way into the real estate industry: Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, and the Babson College F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.
Regarding Babson, writer Jillan Markowitz writes:
“At Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, MBA students can pursue the finance concentration, which offers several courses in real estate. Students can rake courses like Real Estate Financial Modeling, Real Estate Fundamentals, or Real Estate Development. According to recent Olin graduate employment statistics, 10 percent of the 2017 MBA class landed jobs in real estate. This number may not seem overwhelming, but it dwarfs the percentage seen in many MBA programs (usually about two to three percent).”
Learn more about the best real estate programs in Boston here.
How Can You Get a Job at Boston Consulting Group in 2018?
Boston Consulting Company—a global management consulting firm— has offices across more than 90 cities and 50 countries, advising clients in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, including a healthy chunk of Fortune 500 companies. Considered one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world, BCG was ranked fourth in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2018.
But, how can an MBA help you land a BCG job?
Working for BCG
According to Management Consulted, BCG has a demanding recruiting and hiring system. The firm hires undergrads as associates who work for two to three years before moving on or pursuing an MBA. However, it is very difficult and highly unlikely for an associate to make the leap to consultant without an MBA. If you’re hired as an MBA, you enter as a consultant with plenty of room for growth—to project team leader, principal, and then, finally, as a partner partner.
According to former BCG senior partner Lucy Brady, the company looks for a candidate’s record of academic and professional success, but also want to hire candidates who have overcome setbacks.
“We look for resiliency and adaptability, and the ability to learn from your mistakes and grow from them,” she said in a previous interview.
CNN revealed that 11.72 percent of MBAs want to work for BCG. However, BCG’s recruiting process is demanding, with Glassdoor previously ranking the firm among the most difficult companies to interview with.
The high job demand and lengthy interview process isn’t without reason: MBAs typically thrive at BCG due to the companies the emphasis on career development. BCG’s PTO (predictability, teaming, and open communication) policies allow for a healthy work-life balance for employees, which has paid numerous dividends. Internal surveys have shown that the program has led to a 74 percent increase in reported intentions to stay with the company for the long term. BCG was also among the companies that signed the 2016 White House Equal Pay Pledge.
BCG Recruiting on Campus
BCG actively recruits students on college and university campuses around the world. Campus visits are a way for students to connect with BCG, learn more about potential job opportunities, and feel out whether a career at BCG is a good fit.
“We have a presence at many of the top universities across the U.S., including Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, University of Michigan, Duke, and the University of Texas,” Tina Gao, BCG recruiting director, said in a previous interview. “We come to campus and hold a presentation to introduce the company and then are available for Q&A sessions. We also come back to help people train for our interviews and learn more about the company. We’ll come back to campus to interview the candidates we choose.”
You can see more upcoming BCG on campus events here. However, if your campus does not have a dedicated page, BCG encourage students to complete an online application for consulting internships.
BCG Internships
BCG’s consulting internship programs can be a great opportunity for students to get a feel for the the life of a consultant. BCG Associate and Consultant interns work with current BCG consultants, and are expected to contribute to a real client project. Interns are considered as true case team members and are tasked with everything from working on client projects to socializing with colleagues.
According to BCG, internships vary depending on the project or location. Some interns are expected to travel, but do return to their home offices at the end of each week for special events and social activities. Orientation and training sessions ease interns int their roles before being assigned to a case that aligns with their personal and professional goals, as well as the firm’s business needs.
BCG accepts online applications from exceptional business school, engineering, science, law, and humanities students who are nearing the completion of their undergraduate or graduate studies.
BCG MBA Fellows
If you’re an MBA who wants to get your foot in the door at BCG, it’s worth looking into the BCG Fellows MBA Program, which provides top applicants with monetary awards and individual mentorship by BCG consultants.
The fellow program is only available to full-time MBAs studying at the following business programs: Columbia Business School, Fuqua School of Business, Kellogg School of Management, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stern School of Business, Tuck School of Business, Anderson School of Management, Booth School of Business, Ross School of Business, Darden School of Business, The Wharton School and Yale School of Management.
BCG MBA Salaries
If you score a job at BCG, you’ll also be earning a big paycheck—well worth the hours of MBA studies and the rigorous recruiting process. According to Management Consulted, MBAs hired a BCG make earn the following within their first year of employment:
- Signing Bonus: Up to $30,000
- Base: $147,000
- Relocation: $2,000-8,000
- Performance Bonus: up to $44,100
- Retirement: Profit-sharing into a 401k
