Today's talk by McKinsey's Herman De Bode confirmed all that I had in mind about what global management and strategy consulting is all about. De Bode has a stellar track record to say the least. He's a HBS MBA graduate and has been with McKinsey for 30 years or so, opening three global offices with the firm in Luxembourg, Antwerp, and Riyadh.
What does it take to be a consultant?
I'd been looking forward to his talk for a while, considering that it dealt with two things related to my career aspirations: consulting and the Middle East. So what is this consulting I want to get myself into? Well, as De Bode put it: its a profession that lies at the intersection of solving problems and having an impact. There are many ways to solve a problem, and it doesn't matter which solution you pick as long as it has the right impact. From what I gathered, having an impact means altering people's motives for the better. I'm passionate about making a difference in the Egypt and the Middle East. The only way to make that happen will be to create the energy and motivation required for decision makers to take risks. As a consultant, you put your expertise and problem solving skills by advising world leaders to take decisions while being frank about the advantages and disadvantages these decisions entail.
Consulting firms like Booz and McKinsey aren't just interested in growing shareholders' profits, but are really keen on delivering results that have an impact on their clients. Both consulting firms are modelled after the old American legal firms, i.e. they are partnerships owned by their partners. So instead of being assessed on how much money you could bring in, you're assessed on how helpful you are towards to colleagues and clients as a consultant. The other advantage of these global partnerships is that they can leverage their intellectual capital by calling up any consultant worldwide to come and work on a specific project, which allows top tier consultancies to bring the best of the firm to any client.
Another crucial element of successful consulting is to pinpoint the relevant issues of the country in which you are operating and tackling them. There's nothing more important in consulting that becoming a relevant player. Not only does this allow you to have influence on your clients, but it allows your work to have a visible impact.
Consulting in the Middle East
Next, De Bone delved into his consulting experience in the Middle East. He reaffirmed my view that the region is rapidly changing in terms of its politics, economics, and societies. It is a growing and dynamic region, as opposed to the mature societies of the West. For example, the population growth rate of Middle Eastern countries is three times that of the global population growth rate. Countries in the GCC are realizing that to sustain this growth, they need to invest in education. Currently, Saudi Arabia has 100,000 students studying abroad. Although this is excellent for its future generation, in essence the country is just outsourcing its higher education. To continue to cater to the growing demands of its young population, Saudi Arabia will need to create opportunities of employment and education. This is when consultancies come in.
De Bode recounted his experience working on a project for the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a member of the G20 and with an aspiration to become of the top 10 financial hubs worldwide, Saudi Arabia has to make leaps to catch up with the world. By analyzing everything from its embassy's efficiencies to how to foster a more attractive business environment, McKinsey designed Saudi Arabia's strategy to improve its international image, attract foreign investment, and make the country more economically competitive.
So who are the main players in the Middle Eastern consulting scene? De Bone acknowledged that McKinsey and Booz were the two major competitors. Both firms take a very different approach to how they orient their practices. Booz benefits from its first-to-market approach having accessed the region before any other consultancy. As a result, Booz's consulting force is almost twice as large as that of McKinsey. Unlike McKinsey, Booz relies primarily on a consulting force recruited from the region. Based out of Beirut, Booz benefits from a worldly and well-educated recruitment base, spotting and recruiting intelligent, Arabic speaking consultants. To Booz's advantage, its predominant Lebanese corporate culture makes it flexible, pragmatic, and entrepreneurial, all of which have made it hugely successful. Having interviewed with both Booz and McKinsey, I felt the former was a better fit for me due to the aforementioned reasons.
So could consultancies solve all the world's problems?
According to De Bone, the wave of recent revolutions that has swept the Middle East is mainly due to economic reasons. High income inequality levels coupled with high unemployment rates among the youth have driven the future generation to the edge. He cited the Tunisian martyr who set himself on fire as an example of the hopeless amongst the Middle East's youth who have nothing to lose. Moreover, he mentioned that phenomena like Iran's 1979 Revolution and the Arab revolutions of 2011 are primarily due to economic, and not idealogical, culprits.
Countries like Egypt, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia can ensure stability by attracting foreign investment, which will create jobs, which will encourage education to upgrade workers' skills, which will in turn raise these countries' standards of living. Moreover, this FDI will connect these countries to the world, leading to an exchange of ideas, technology, and best practices that could potentially put Middle Eastern countries on par with their Western counterparts.
Hence, the crux of what consulting is all about is tapping into the opportunity to help governments and business to address their people's needs. Its about advising policy makers on how to improve the quality of their nation's education, how to make their business environment more investment-friendly, its about how to ensure an equitable distribution of wealth in society, its about job creation and efficient allocation of resources. A consultant's project aims at tackling each of these economic/societal problems.
Final words of wisdom
De Bone ended his talk with some gems of wisdom:
First, he advised us to change it up every now and then. In one's career, one must have a new horizon with new challenges to feel like he or she is developing. Don't be on a treadmill to nowhere, he advised. One should always seek new challenges to give it his or her best. In a word, he cited a quote, which ran something like this, "Those who are not busy being born, are busy dying." Hence, in order to progress in life, one most continually renew his or herself.
Second, always do what you want to do. Although it sounds cliche, if you're being told what to do and not enjoying it, you'll never be happy or successful doing it. Hence, its essential to choose a profession that motivates you to get out of bed each morning excited to go to work. Although this might seem difficult in today's mundane work environment, a catch to this advice is that you can always learn to love what you do in order to love what you're doing.
Third, at the heart of it all, consultants are serving the core needs of the societies in which they operate. When a student asked de Bode if working in Saudi Arabia was drastically different that in Europe, he replied that there is much more that is similar between the Middle East and the West that what is different. The fundamental underlying drivers, sensitivities, and needs may present themselves in different forms, but are essentially the same. I really appreciated his universal outlook, because when I look at the Arab Revolutions of 2011, it showed that all people value the same things, i.e. freedom, dignity, and justice. And the way I look at it, there is no way of achieving these universal values in the Middle East without addressing and solving the region's various socio-economic problems.
Lastly, the most important characteristics of a consultant are his respect for others and humility. Working with various clients and in different cultures require the consultant to show a genuine sense of concern to his client's problems. Not only must the consultant imbibe the client's problem, but he or she must show a deep sense of commitment to follow through with the client until the project's success.
Overall, it is always humbling and inspiring to sit and listen to someone like de Bode. Attending his talk was one of those God-sent moments that confirmed that what I want to do in life is worthwhile and fulfilling. I just hope and aspire that someday I can have as much of an impact as he had and gain as much wisdom.
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