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Consultants - people who help organizations improve their organizational performance in terms of achieving their business goals. How do they help these organizations? What advice and opportunities are there for aspiring consultants? To address these questions, the Business Career Development Committee (BizCare) invited panellists Jeslin Bay (BlackStorm Consulting) and Samir Bedi (Ernst & Young) to The Future of Consulting – Lessons from Industry Veterans Panel Discussion held on 30 March 2022. At BlackStorm Consulting, Jeslin conducts deep analytical dives to help clients with corporate positioning and strategising, business structuring and digital marketing. Meanwhile, Samir possesses extensive human resources consulting experience across public, private and third-sector clients’ projects.
Consultants’ day-to-day lives require them to put on different hats as they are involved in various activities such as meeting with clients, brainstorming solutions and for senior positions, coaching and mentoring. Both speakers also shared that their work involves people and process (e.g. adoption of technology).
When asked about how one can prepare oneself in consulting, Samir highlighted that domain expertise is not required, but one should focus on showcasing one’s abilities to think, collaborate and learn. No two clients’ problems are the same, and no individual will fully be able to address the complexities that clients are faced with alone. Jeslin also pointed out that the scope of consultancy can be very broad, so being able to think out of the box and being flexible are important traits as clients’ situations are dynamic. One should understand one’s strengths and play to the skills one possesses.
On the topic of mentorship and progress, Jeslin and Samir stressed that a mentor or other senior people whom one can seek support and guidance from can only help one to progress to the next level to a certain extent. It is ultimately up to the mentee to drive the relationship forward and achieve personal growth.
An interesting point that Samir raised was that one should also consider the value that one’s job can bring upon exiting the industry - one’s existing job should make one more marketable to the external market.
At the end of the panel discussion, our student participants learned that there are various types of consultancies such as Strategy, Financial Consultancy, Technology, Risk Management, and even Valuation and Modelling. Independent of the type of industry, one should be able to exercise teamwork and the ability to learn and stay flexible. Undergraduates who are interested in joining the consulting industry could also consider applying for internships with these consulting firms.
