Short Answer
Question 1
McKinsey & Co. – I don’t believe this company has been discussed in class, but, in the event that it was, these concepts could easily be applied to any major professional services firm.
(a) The firm’s sources of sustainable competitive advantage are (1) its ability to recruit and retain the best talent, (2) its ability to add value to that talent while with the firm, and (3) its ability to develop and maintain relationships with top industry executives.
With respect to the first, insofar as the firm is able to maintain a solid brand in the marketplace such that high-achieving students from top universities throughout the world desire to work there, it will maintain its competitive advantage over rival firms and continue to retain its position as the leader in that field. However, if top students view the costs of working at such a firm as outweighing the benefits and consequently choose to enter another industry, or, perhaps worse, if students view the work environment as more amiable at another competing firm and choose to work at this firm instead, the company will slowly begin to bleed its intellectual capital and erode its position at the top of the market. Such measures are likely to play out over the period of several years and are difficult to measure in the short-run, but nevertheless have a lasting impact on the
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While there were other management consulting firms at the time, when Marvin Bower began working for McKinsey and company in the early part of the 20th century, the industry was in its infancy and there were relatively few competitors of significance. This allowed the company to build its client base without much competitive pressure and lock in the network advantages that naturally develop from working one-on-one with key managers and helping them solve difficult problems. Over time, the firm began to develop a reputation for doing quality work, and the network benefits were essentially locked-in for that
In order to find an answer to the question stated above, this term paper will draw on the content of course 611 Management Consulting, including lessons learnt from company visits and guest lectures. I will start off by listing the three
Waterhouse, Ernst & Young, as well as, McKinsey, BCG, Booz Allen and CSC Index. Industry-wide,
A company or an organization can create competitive advantage only when it is able to distinguish itself from the rivals by implementing value creating strategy over a longer period of time. It is said to have sustainable competitive advantage when other rival firms are unable to duplicate the value creating strategy of firm which has led to achievement of
Other important linkages can be seen regarding the firm’s ability to attract top talent throughout the value chain. Only with
Ellen Zane had her work cut out for her at Tufts-NEMC. The Tufts University affiliated teaching and research hospital had long been on the decline. It was mired in financial difficulty, was falling behind other teaching and research AMCs, and was not effectively serving its local community. Beginning on the day she accepted her position as CEO, Ellen Zane started on a path of reform. Upon learning that the hospital only had 10 months of cash on hand, she began brainstorming on how to make the hospital financially viable, starting by meeting payroll needs first. She discovered that Tufts-NEMC was being drastically underpaid and began looking for solutions to the problem of reimbursements. One of the more
As a junior, I attended a recruiting event for the Boston Consulting Group. Hardly ten words were out of the BCG representative's mouth before he was compelled to announce that he was a partner at the firm and that he'd gotten his MBA at Harvard. He then delivered a presentation that was fixated on his firm's corporate mantra: "We're Winning." Some of my sharpest classmates ate it up. High achievers who knew little about BCG Consulting before they entered the B-School competed intensely to land one of the select openings there.
Through an internal environment analysis, companies can identify and understand their own unique resources, capabilities, and competencies that are required for their sustainable competitive advantage. Resources, capabilities, and core competencies are the foundation of competitive advantage. There is no competitive advantages are permanently sustainable in any companies, so they have to consist on their current advantages and develop new advantages by internally understanding and analyzing their resources and capabilities. Competitors have their own unique resources, capabilities, and core competencies to create values for their customers. Both tangible and intangible resources, which include individual, social and organizational phenomena, are combined to generate capabilities. In turn, company’s capabilities are used to build core competencies. Also, core competencies are as a source of competitive advantage for a company to win in the competitive market.
Consultancy is central to clients in selecting and retaining right tangent in their respective businesses. The consultancy agencies play a key role in helping organizations achieve their goals, hence promote the ultimate success of the organization, (Charity, 2010). Indeed, there are different law firms that convey their services to the people, however for efficient and effective services based on the law firms, Paris Smith will offer you the maximum quality services needed.
These issues eventually resulted in the loss of skilled employees. In order to combat this vulnerable situation, EP had employed professional consultant, named Martin Griffin. Martin used to consider people or workforce as the biggest strengths of an organisation. His approach has also been verified by the initiative of organising an employee
The following decade, McKinsey experienced slower growth due to competition from BCG as well as the overall economic and social environment in Europe and the US. This led the firm to realize the need for knowledge management, client impact, and developing multiple career paths for the firm's consultants to create growth in the future. As the company made these changes, it increased their capacity to support the strategic objective of changing McKinsey into a firm focused more on clientele services.
1. Evaluate the economics of Gulf's exploration and development program in net present value terms. How do Gulf's outlay for exploration and development compare to cash returns Gulf generates from these activities.
and BCG, niche consulting firms like Accenture and IBM, immediate peers Ernst & Young, PWC and KPMG.
Deloitte Consulting is one of the largest and most diversified consulting services operating in the United States and major metropolitan centers globally. Deloitte's mission statement is to assist is clients and employees excel (Sidney, 2010). Audit & Enterprise Risk Management Services, Financial Advisory Services, Tax, Deloitte Growth Enterprise Services in addition to fourteen other services comprise the company's portfolio (Sidney, 2010). Deloitte is a world leader in enterprise tax management, risk management and regulatory compliance, in addition to strategic planning for operations, technology adoption and human resources as well. Deloitte is also adept at managing outsourcing consulting across its many business units, a core competency that has given the company formidable competitive depth relative to competitors including Accenture, KPMG, McKinsey & Company and PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC). In the last decade Deloitte has practices in twenty different industries, ranging from aerospace and defense, automotive and banking & securities to Oil & Gas, retail and distribution, technology and travel, hospitality and leisure (Sidney, 2010). Deloitte relies on its partners in each of these practice areas to coordinate business-based and technology-related solutions to customers' problems. Often this includes the coordination of large scale project teams where there is the need for extensive cross-functional expertise to solve a
Today McKinsey has over 7,500 consultants in 90 offices across 51 countries. They help solve strategic, organizational, operational and technological problems, for some of
Gap Inc., a leading global specialty apparel retailer, continued to lose market share and revenues as customer loyalty declined across the company’s five brands. Struggling to deliver a consistent product and customer experience, Gap Inc. was challenged to redefine its strategy once again. Going forward, the company is focused on driving long-term growth by expanding its customer base.