Majari Magazine

Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Company

by Michael Hutagalung on 03/11/07 at 12:06 am | 7 Comments | Print article | Email article

For those who want to work in a consultant company, you may find this article interesting. Here is the company profile, a bit about the interview process, and the office location in Jakarta of two greatest consultant company in the world: The Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Company.

The Boston Consulting Group

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a prestigious management consulting firm founded in 1963 by Bruce Henderson, a Harvard Business School alumnus. BCG typically hires for an Associate or a Consultant position. BCG recruits MBA graduates to join as Consultants from the world’s top business schools, and focuses the majority of their recruiting effort to schools such as Harvard Business School, Wharton School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, INSEAD, Darden, Dartmouth College, Kellogg School of Management, MIT Sloan, University of Chicago, Haas School of Business, Duke University, and Columbia. Additionally, increasing effort is place on hiring advanced non-business degree holders. Graduates holding degrees in disciplines like engineering, science, and liberal arts receive training in business fundamentals and then typically join the firm as Consultants. There is also an opportunity to join as a Summer Associate or Summer Consultant (internship) position for 10 weeks, which for the majority of interns will result in an offer for full-time position.

The Interview
BCG uses the case method to conduct interviews, which is an interview technique designed to simulate the types of problems inherent in management consulting and to test the qualitative and quantitative skills deemed important for abstract thinking in a business setting. The first round of interviews consists of two 45 minute case interviews with BCG consultants. Successful candidates may be passed onto the second round corresponding with a regional office. The second round consists of three 30-45 minute interviews with partners from that office in a similar format to the first round interviews.

BCG Indonesia
BCG opened its Jakarta office in 1995 after several years of serving clients through other offices in the region. Like many of its clients, BCG Jakarta has grown rapidly and built a strong team of local and foreign consultants during the past several years. Today, the office is home to consultants from around the world, including Indonesians, Indians, Americans, Germans, Norwegians, and New Zealanders. Primary industries which are served by BCG Jakarta are energy, utilities, financial services, industrial goods, telecommunications, and health cares.

Over the years, BCG Jakarta has performed strategy and portfolio analysis for local conglomerates and banks, completed market entry and acquisition searches for multinationals, and consulted in the restructuring of a number of state-owned enterprises. In spite of its relatively small size, BCG Jakarta features a particularly diverse client base that includes companies in the energy, utilities, financial services, industrial goods, telecommunications, and health care industries.

The Boston Consulting Group Jakarta
Sampoerna Strategic Square Tower A, 19th Floor
Jl. Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 45-46
Jakarta 12930, INDONESIA
Phone: +62 21 3006 2888
Fax: +62 21 3006 2889
http://www.bcgsea.com

McKinsey&Company

Known among its employees simply as “The Firm”, James O. McKinsey & Company was founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. (”Mac”) McKinsey. McKinsey was a professor at the University of Chicago who pioneered budgeting as a management tool. Recently, McKinsey has diversified by soliciting candidates from graduate programs in law, medicine, engineering, science, and the liberal arts as well as by recruiting “experienced hires” from a variety of professional backgrounds including the military, law and medicine. Today, roughly half of McKinsey consultants with a graduate degree are not MBAs. These Advanced Professional Degree candidates (APDs) attend a training program before starting their careers at McKinsey.

The Interview
McKinsey’s interviews are notorious for their difficulty and rigor. MBA-level interviews usually take place on-campus and follow a two round process. Since summer 2007, the first round starts with a 60 minute test, consisting of 26 multiple choice questions on 3 to 4 strategy cases; the intensity and difficulty levels are beyond those of GMAT’s. Sample questions of milder level are found on the company’s website.

The first round typically continues with two or three 45-minute interviews. Each interview consists of two parts. The first part, usually referred to as the “FIT” portion, is designed to test the interviewees skills in 4 key areas: Problem Solving, Achieving, Personal Impact, and Leadership. Common questions during this portion of the interview include: “Tell me about a time you had to convince someone of something” and “Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team through a challenging situation.” Interviewers will often push the interviewee in certain directions to verify truthfulness, as well as gain further insight into the interviewee’s thought process.

The second part of the interview consists of a formal business case. This part of the interview is designed to test a candidates problem solving skills. Typically a business problem, often resembling prior work done by the interviewer, is presented to the candidate. The interviewer then asks the candidate a series of focused questions that test basic math skills, business sense, and communication/presentation skills.

Candidates who are successful in the first round will be asked to come back for a second round of interviewing, usually taking place in the actual McKinsey office. These rounds usually consist of two or three interviews, typically conducted by McKinsey partners, or other senior firm members. The interviews themselves are largely similar to those of the first round, albeit slightly more informal and high-level. Candidates who succeed in their second round interviews are made an offer to join the firm.

McKinsey & Company Indonesia
Situated in a region of unique economic, religious, and cultural diversity, ours is one of the fastest growing McKinsey complexes in the world. Since we established Jakarta as our first local office in 1995, we have successfully tackled diverse business issues for domestic, regional, and multinational corporations: from developing companies into regional or even global “champions” to ensuring long-term survival; from mobilizing frontline employees to building strong leadership. Explore this site to find out more about who we are and how we go about helping corporations in Asia achieve their performance objectives.

McKinsey & Company Jakarta
Wisma GKBI 40th Floor
Jl. Jend. Sudirman 28
Jakarta 10210 – Indonesia
Voice : 62 (21) 5798 6600
Fax : 62 (21) 574 1540
http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/southeastasia/index.asp

Reference(s): Wikipedia, McKinsey.com, BCGsea.com