Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
While I agree that calling big 4 fake consultants is sweeping and going overboard, neither is hyping or over-seliing them any better.
Sure, go out into the job market & tell ppl a Deloitte or PWC consultant is more "prestigious" than Oliver Wyman and see how many ppl out there are gonna be impressed.
All these rankings will just show whatever they want depending on what methdology they use. Heck even the likes of SIA/Keppel/Singtel gets ranked top employer of choice in some surveys, but go out into the job market and see who really if get offered by investment banks, o&g majors, top IT firms etc will give up and join SIA/Keppel/Singtel
The fact that these Big 4 even get questioned and ppl need to jump in to "defend" already shows they are far from being prestigious. You make it sound as if PWC & Deloitte is just ranked slightly lower than MBB, that is an understatment of the year.
A typical MBB freshie is usually a dean's list type top student from a world renowned business school with an illustrious internship experience or gets involved in other activities like NGOs/foundations/activism etc. A typical Big 4 managment consultant freshie is more likely a local university 2nd upper student. The difference cannot be starker. |
1. A lot of these rankings are independent and have a host of different methodologies used that rank them based on market perception as well as current/past employees, so they are different to 'top employer of choice' surveys, which themselves are completely different to prestige rankings. Also, the comparisons of local corporations (
SIA/Keppel) to the biggest MNCs have no relation whatsoever when comparing global firms in the consulting landscape. You wouldn't compare our local
NTUC Fairprice with Walmart, would you? All of the firms I mentioned above are globally known.
2. The consulting space hosts a wide spectrum of functions such as strategy, operations, human capital, IT, etc. To lump management consulting as one industry and compare all firms without exception is one-dimensional. For example, Accenture is largely associated with the IT landscape, while Oliver Wyman is known for financial services consulting. The
MBB boys deal with C-level execs (strategy consulting) while Deloitte is known for their S&O (strategy and ops) function. So, while you can preach about
MBB being way above the rest (they are, I don't dispute that), there are major differences in terms of how these consulting firms compete. Bain and BCG were set up to compete with McK in the strategy space, and the others set up to fill the market gap for operations (lower level) consulting (HR, Finance, IT consulting).
3. I know of local grads who were recruited into
MBB just this hiring season in Singapore, so.. they do not just hire from iveys, let alone the dean's listers from iveys.
At the end of the day, I responded to the claim that the Big 4 consulting firms were oceans apart from
MBB and way easier to get into. I am defending the others because I feel that the original statement made is miles off the truth, and the purpose of this forum is to provide meaningful information to those who request it for the benefit of the community. While I never disputed that
MBB will always be the big 3, I don't believe that just because that is so means that the other firms are not good companies or worthy to note. Take a look at managementconsulted.com, there are some very good articles and insights into the industry with various current/past consultants from
MBB, Deloitte, O.W, etc that offer an in-depth look into consulting.