Biggest Challenges Faced By A Strategy Consultant At Accenture LLP
A significant challenge in Audrey's strategy consulting role at Accenture is adapting to unexpected complexities; initial project scopes, sold by the managing director, often underestimate the true scale of the problem, requiring Audrey and their team to "adapt to new information" and still deliver on time despite this "uncertainty".
Problem-Solving, Project Management, Adaptability, Uncertainty Management, Client Communication
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Audrey DeVaughn
Strategy Consultant
Accenture LLP
Yale University, 2017
UCLA Anderson, MBA, 2023
Economics
Consulting & Related Professional Services
Consulting
Scholarship Recipient
Video Highlights
1. Adapting to uncertainty and evolving project scope is a key challenge in consulting. Projects often begin with initial assumptions that change once deeper research is conducted.
2. The ability to adapt to new information and still deliver on time and within scope is crucial for success.
3. Managing director's initial assumptions about project timelines and deliverables may not always align with the reality discovered after in-depth research.
Transcript
What are the biggest challenges within being a strategy consultant?
The biggest challenge, I would say, is dealing with uncertainty. Consulting usually works the way that the MD, or the managing director, sells a project to a client based on what they think the project will take and what the deliverables will be.
However, it isn't until you actually dig into the data, get on client site, and do all that research that you truly understand what the problem is and how we can solve it. Sometimes the problem is a lot bigger than the managing director initially assumed, or sometimes it's just a lot more complex.
Therefore, I think the most challenging part is being able to adapt to new information you receive and still deliver on what we initially promised, within the same timeframe, even though there's a lot of uncertainty.