The strategy consultant career
Every autumn, strategy consulting attracts many students, often before they know what an assignment looks like. This article describes an assignment from the inside, then explains what the market pays and by what route you get in.
In brief
A strategy consultant helps a company's management decide on its trajectory, whether growth or transformation: they carry out a diagnosis, make recommendations, then support their implementation.
It is one of the three main families of consulting, alongside management and organisation consulting and project owner assistance (methodological support for the client who steers its project), a useful distinction before choosing your pathway at Excelia Business School.
What is a strategy consultant?
A strategy consultant advises the management of a client company on its trajectory and gives it recommendations. This article from Excelia Business School draws on the “business management consultant” profile from APEC (Association pour l'emploi des cadres), which lists “strategy consultant” among its job titles. According to this profile, these recommendations serve to optimise performance, improve organisation or transform a department or a process.
The topics range from growth to governance, and the consultant then steers the project with the managers and the operational teams.
How does a strategy consulting assignment unfold?
A strategy consulting assignment unfolds in four stages: the launch, the diagnosis and recommendations, the steering of the roll-out, then the close. It all begins with interviews with the people in the company, a project committee and monitoring of its market and competitors: you listen before you propose.
The diagnosis comes next, bringing out the issues, the levers of performance and the obstacles to change, then leads to recommendations presented as scenarios. The work does not end with the report: the consultant coordinates the contributors, runs workshops with the client's teams, monitors the risks to quality, deadlines and cost, then closes the assignment with a review.
You therefore work with the existing teams at every stage, a theme that Excelia Business School's article on change management takes further.
Strategy, management, organisation consulting: what are the differences?
Strategy consulting is set apart by its subject: the company's trajectory. APEC distinguishes three types of consulting:
- Strategy consulting: it carries growth or transformation projects
- Project owner assistance: it strengthens method in the steering of an often technical project
- Management and organisation consulting: it solves an identified organisational or business problem, and dominates the consulting market
The firm is not the only route. The consultant can be employed by a firm, work independently or be an interim manager, who steps in on a temporary basis for the length of an assignment, and some large groups have their own in-house firm.
In a strategy consulting firm, the grades run from junior to senior, then to manager and partner, with sometimes considerable geographical mobility depending on the assignments. If steering performance appeals to you more, Excelia Business School also describes the management controller career.
What qualities do you need to become a strategy consultant?
Two kinds of qualities are combined in this career:
- Analysis and synthesis: the ability to step back and a vision that is both strategic and operational, which make it possible to move from a diagnosis to scenarios
- Listening and diplomacy: open-mindedness, teaching skills and a sense of negotiation, useful when you lead people with varied interests
Professional English completes this profile. What remains is to find out whether you like structuring a fuzzy problem as much as listening to those who live with it.
How much does a strategy consultant earn?
Remuneration depends on the grade, on the firm or company that employs you and on your experience. For a rough idea, Excelia Business School points to APEC, which publishes figures for the business management consulting family. In this family, of which strategy consulting is one branch, 80% of offers of gross annual remuneration (fixed and variable) fall between €31,000 and €60,000, for an average of €44,000.
This figure therefore does not cover strategy consulting alone, and the profile generally asks for five years' experience: it should not be read as a starting salary on graduating. Beginners, for their part, get in through internships.
What path leads to becoming a strategy consultant?
The expected level is Bac+5. According to APEC, this means a master's degree with a specialisation in strategy, organisation or project management, or a qualification from a business school or an Institut d'études politiques. Experience is generally required, but the profile opens the role to young graduates who have completed significant internships in companies: you get in through internships, which makes the career demanding, but not closed.
These studies can begin as early as secondary school: the Master in Management (Programme Grande École) is open to secondary school pupils as well as students, and undergraduate entry presents how to enter this programme.
At Excelia Business School, two routes lead to consulting at Bac+5. The Master in Management is a State-accredited qualification, and so officially recognised, leading to a Grade de Master (a State grade that employers in France recognise). In the master cycle, it offers a major devoted to consulting. It combines strategy, finance, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and digital transformation, and opens onto management consulting and information systems. The MSc in Audit, Advisory and Control, a State-accredited Master of Science leading to the same grade, trains for the careers of financial audit, strategic consulting and management control.
Which one should you choose to aim for consulting? It depends on your level of study and your plans: book an appointment with an adviser to compare these two routes.
Discover the Master in Management
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between a strategy consultant and a management consultant?
The strategy consultant supports the company's growth or transformation projects. The management and organisation consultant helps to solve an identified organisational or business problem, and this type of consulting dominates the market.
- Can you become a strategy consultant on graduating?
Yes, provided you have completed significant internships in companies: the role is open to young graduates, even though five years' experience is generally asked for.
- What qualification do you need to become a strategy consultant?
The expected level is Bac+5: a master's degree with a specialisation in strategy, organisation or project management, or a qualification from a business school or an Institut d'études politiques.
- Does a strategy consultant necessarily work in a firm?
No. The consultant can be employed by a firm, work independently or be an interim manager, and some groups have their own in-house firm.
- Does strategy consulting require speaking English?
Yes, professional English is one of the skills expected, alongside analytical and synthesis skills, listening and diplomacy.
