| Topic Name: |
Consulting long-term |
| Message Name: |
Still strong |
| Date Posted: |
09/19/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
I did my summer with one of the Bain/BCG/McKinsey. Now I'm back at school trying to figure out if this is really what I want to do afterwards. I saw an interesting thread on the McKinsey Board about the long term viability of these sterling firms. An ex-BA from McKinsey made a pretty good case for them.
The rest of the arguments there are really stupid however. Does anyone have a strong conviction that these guys' business models are under threat? Or not? |
| Message: |
I haven't seen the McKinsey thread, but to me the answer is fairly simple: B/B/Ms' reputations are a barrier to entry, and so as long as they maintain their reputations they will remain strong. A parallel: there are essentially 6 big i-banking houses on Wall Street, and there have been since the time of J.P. Morgan, because those 6 firms have sterling reputations. Reputation solves for moral hazard. A firm puts its reputation on the line with each project. We work insane hours to avoid delivering poor work, which would harm our reputation and impair our ability to get clients. There was perhaps a threat generated by the e-consultancies, but if anyone thinks marchFIRST, Razorfish, or any other bankrupt company is going to threaten firms like BCG, they ought to have their head examined. On Wall Street and in consulting, it's all about reputation.
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