In our last article, Is Product the new Strategy? WE discovered that Product, with only 5% of ex-consultants in this arena, is not the new Strategy, well not yet anyway.

One interesting fact we did discover was that nearly one-third (32%) of ex-consultants have made it to C-suite, MD, Head of, and GM level leadership roles in industry - not leading a Strategy, Marketing or Product function that is, but actually leading a business unit or business, as in being the MD or CEO, itself. We wanted to take a deeper-dive into this further here, by seeing which consulting brands might give individuals the best springboard into such roles. As we know, the past does not always predict the future but over time we might just see history repeating itself.

Before we go any further, as was done last time, I should explain my data set, being Australia-based (A) former consultants from the MBB (McKinsey, Bain and BCG) firms; together with (B) other global consulting firms, such as LEK, Kearney, Strategy&, Roland Berger, Oliver Wyman, etc; and; (C) boutique consulting firms, such as Port Jackson Partners, etc, who are now in industry and are working for companies with more than 10 employees.

Here are our findings, based on a total of 565 professional profiles from LinkedIn:

BCG, McKinsey, Bain, Kearney and Strategy& take the lead in leadership

There are many variables that feed into this data, such as the quality and volume of hiring by the consulting firms historically of course, plus an individual's performance in their role once in industry, but, with taking some liberty, what can we make of this? I think it shows us a few things, namely:

McKinsey, Bain and BCG (the MBB firms) are, as expected, the dominant firms with the most (c65% combined) alumni in leadership roles in industry, with McKinsey at 25.3% slightly ahead of BCG at 24.6% and Bain at 15.2%. This, no doubt, will be a by-product of them having large numbers of consultants combined with the fact they have been around for a long time
Consulting firm numbers do change over time of course but when compared to the number of Australian-based client-facing consultants each firm has as of May 2020, it appears that, of the MBB firms, BCG is fighting above its weight with a 26% increased likelihood in making it to a leadership role compared to other brands (McKinsey is at +8% and Bain at -3%)
Kearney is a strong performer here, with nearly 12% of leaders in industry coming from the firm, giving it a 55% increase likelihood compared to others. LEK and Port Jackson Partners (now part of EY) also provide strong leverage with an 11% and 12% increased likelihood respectively
Strategy& (-20%), Oliver Wyman (-28%) and Partners In Performance (-69%) suffer the largest negative scores here but these will most likely be linked to Strategy& (including Booz & Company and Booz Allen Hamilton) being a relatively new brand, Oliver Wyman being heavily financial services orientated until recent years at which point it has boosted its number of consultants, and Partners In Performance being a relatively new player compared to others (it was founded in 1996 versus McKinsey being founded in 1926) and a firm that has grown its numbers significantly in recent years
Niche boutique firms, such as Advancy, can give individuals terrific leverage to leadership roles in the specific industry they serve
It is too early to tell how the EY-Parthenon and Monitor Deloitte brands leverage into leadership, although it will be interesting to see what happens in the future once EY and Port Jackson Partners join forces

As with the study of Product versus Strategy, given this is the first time I have explored this data, I am unable to tell you how these numbers have or will change over time. Nevertheless, I still think there are some interesting takeaways, the most obvious one confirming that the MBB firms have, at a simplistic level, been the most well-trodden path for consultants to leverage into leadership roles in industry.

As last time, I will run these numbers again in a few years from now, so watch this space!

Want to lead? Here are the brands that will help you get there.

In our last article, Is Product the new Strategy? WE discovered that Product, with only 5% of ex-consultants in this arena, is not the new Strategy, well not yet anyway.