Prepare Your Career at BCG
This article is a continuation of the career preparation series which aim at giving a comprehensive knowledge of world’s top management consulting companies. The more you know about these top companies, the less nervous and more confident you will be. Read more in this article…
BCG Overview
BCG, namely, The Boston Consulting Group or, is a top management consulting firm with business presence in 41 countries around the globe. It stayed on Fortune Magazine list “Best Companies to Work For” for 5 consecutive years. BCG is considered as one of the elite management consulting firms and a key player in management strategy industry. It is ranked 2nd in the most recent Fortune list.
BCG was founded by Bruce D. Henderson who graduated from Vanderbilt and Harvard Business School. When BCG was formed, it is a one-man consulting corporation with one-telephone. Henderson scheduled an employee stock ownership plan in 1975, and employees took the company independent from The Boston Company. The process of share buyout was completed in 1979.
Noted Consulting Tools
Over decades, BCG elites have developed numerous models and approaches for business strategy formation and case analysis. Among these tools, Growth Share Matrix and Advantage Matrix perhaps are the most famous ones.
Growth Share Matrix is used to figure out which SBUs (strategic business units) has potential to bring high ROI and which ones need strategic adjustment for better capital allocation. The Matrix summarizes business units as “Stars”, “Cash Cows”, “Question Marks”, and “Dogs”. According to different category, business leaders can allocate different amount of cash to obtain an optimized investment portfolio.
Competitive Advantage Matrix is a new version of Growth Share Matrix. In the 1970s, BCG realized that growth share matrix was very much limited. It failed to take into consideration of a number of factors such as outside financing and business unit intercourse. The Advantage Matrix was then developed, consisting of two dimensions: competitive differentiation and unique competitive advantage.
Interview Process
BCG specific interview processes may vary by location but in general the process is divided into 3 parts: personal background check, case study interview and a Q&A session. There are usually two rounds of case interviews, with three separate interviews in the first round and two additional ones in the second, according to BCG official career guide.
Throughout the interview, BCG aims to find out whether you can fit in the corporation and how you would fit in.
The personal background check is done by experience interview. For instance, BCG might ask you to describe past experience about how and how much you impact in teamwork. Interviewers might also ask you to say something about how you tackle difficulties in tasks to check your problem solving skills. Also you might be queried about why you want to work at BCG etc.
In case study interview, you will be given a case to demonstrate your problem solving ability. Most cases are very much like a real project that requires your unique insight for solutions. You might be doing this interview together with the interviewer. Remember, BCG does not expect you to give an exact answer but a well-grounded solving process because there’s no single best answer to these case studies.
In the last section, you will have the opportunity to ask questions about BCG, i.e. working environment or anything you are interested in. This section shows BCG’s openness and sharing spirit. If you are the one BCG looking for, it would like you to know as much as you want and their interviewer will be more than happy to explain.
If you want more tips on how to prepare for consulting interviews,then download a free guide. ConsultingFact.com offers guides for resumes, cover letters, case interviews, case frameworks, and othermaterial that will help you land a consulting job.