Career Options for MBAs - Real World Advice From Industry Veterans on Investment Banking, Consulting, Global 500 Companies, Entrepreneurship and Choosing the Right Career (Bigwig Briefs)

103 Pages·2002·0.8 MB·English

by  Aspatore Books Staff

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B I G W I G B R I E F S
BIGWIG BRIEFS:
CAREER OPTIONS
FOR MBAS
Real World Advice from Industry Veterans on
Choosing the Right Career
Published by Aspatore Books, Inc.
For information on bulk orders, sponsorship opportunities or any other questions
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First Printing, 2002
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © 2001 by Aspatore Books, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the
United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval
system, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the United States
Copyright Act, without prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 1-58762-102-9
Library of Congress Card Number: 2001119820
Edited By Ginger Conlon
Cover design by Rachel Kashon, Kara Yates
Material in this book is for educational purposes only. This book is sold with the
understanding that neither any of the interviewees or the publisher is engaged in
rendering legal, accounting, investment, or any other professional service.
This book is printed on acid free paper.
The views expressed by the individuals in this book do not necessarily reflect the
views shared by the companies they are employed by (or the companies mentioned
in this book). The companies referenced may not be the same company that the
individual works for since the publishing of this book.
The views expressed by the endorsements on the cover of this book are from the
book the original content appeared in and do not necessarily reflect the views
shared by the companies they are employed by.
BIGWIG BRIEFS:
C O MBA
AREER PTIONS FOR S
C
ONTENTS
Frank Roney, IBM, General Manager, Worldwide Business
Innovation Services
The Consulting Path 7
Randolph C. Blazer, KPMG Consulting, Inc., Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer
The Art of Consulting 11
·
Dr. Chuck Lucier, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Chief Growth
Officer, Senior Vice President
Should You Become a Consultant? 18
Heidi Roizen, SOFTBANK Venture Capital, Partner
The Best Reasons to Become a Venture Capitalist 32
Sam Colella, Versant Ventures, Managing Director
Winning the Venture Capital Game 34
David Cone, Camstar, Founder and Chief Executive
Officer
Are You an Entrepreneur? 49
Oliver D. Cromwell, Bentley Associates L.P., Senior
Managing Director
The Art of Investment Banking 68
Jimmy Dunne, III, Sandler O’Neill & Partners, L.P.
The Elements of a Good Investment Banker 70
Eduardo G. Mestre, Salomon Smith Barney, Vice
Chairman, Chairman Investment Banking Division
Successful Investment Banking 74
BIGWIG BRIEFS:
CAREER OPTIONS
FOR MBAS
CAREER OPTIONS FOR MBAS 7
Frank Roney, IBM, General Manager, Worldwide
Business Innovation Services
The Consulting Path
I’ve been in professional services for 24 years. It’s an
intoxicating profession. IBM’s consultants live at the
intersection of business strategy and technology execution,
and it’s constantly changing in both areas. There’s never a
boring day, a boring assignment, or a boring engagement.
Our customers’ business designs are evolving as new
applications of technologies emerge.
At the core, the consulting industry is all about creating
value for our customers, and ultimately for their customers.
But it’s also about hard work and staying on the leading
edge of change while being practical about what can and
cannot be done. Today, creating value has everything to do
with the transformation to e-business.
In the early 1990s, as technology became a key enabler for
business strategy, we saw a real acceleration of consulting
around technology. It was driven by ERP systems and by
the opportunity to reengineer businesses, to take out costs
and become more productive and efficient. That increased
throughout the 1990s, particularly around the Y2K
technology changeover.
With the initial emergence of the Internet and the first wave
of e-business, we saw an insatiable demand for leading
consulting talent – talent that could develop strategies,
8 BIGWIG BRIEFS
create new business models, and implement technologies
that drive a company’s growth, increase their competitive
advantage, save money, or all of the above.
Then, in the past two years, we saw a surge around some
very big ideas propelled by the business designs of the dot-
coms. As we now know, it was short lived. The dot-coms
learned the hard lesson that ideas and innovation without
tangible business results isn’t going to cut it. The best
consultants know how to deliver on the promise of big
ideas. You have to execute. You have to marry innovation
with maximizing shareholder value. The second wave of e-
business is all about the hard work of both business
innovation and technology integration.
The Art of Consulting
I think the art of consulting starts with the ability to
understand our customers in the context of their business in
their industry. I think of every customer’s enterprise as a
puzzle. Our job is to both listen to the customer and to be
very thoughtful. We need to decompose what we hear,
assess the parts, and then reassemble them using our insight
and our knowledge to help them develop their business
strategy. The art is really about both good listening and
having a point of view on what to do and how to do it.
However, consulting must be about both ideas and
execution. Because of the demand for time-to-market,
consultants who can get customers into the market with
fresh ideas and workable strategies faster than the
competition will lead in the marketplace.
CAREER OPTIONS FOR MBAS 9
The Need for Consultants
Consultants work with clients for many different reasons.
Most of our customers are looking for innovation, fresh
insight into their business strategies, and ways to leverage
technology. They know the hot topics, and they know a
number of different directions they could take, but they’re
looking for specific industry thought leadership and a point
of view. Wireless is a great example. They understand
wireless, but they come to us to help them think through the
right alternatives that will drive business results. In this
sense, customers come to a consultant because they are
looking for both insight and capability – whether it’s for
business strategy, managing change, or implementing
technologies.
The ideal customer/consultant relationship is when the
change agent becomes the trusted business advisor. This
requires having the customer’s best interests in mind at all
times. Sometimes that means saying no to the customer.
Sometimes that means changing the direction of critical
customer projects. Objectivity is crucial. Consultants
operate best when they are held accountable for delivering
on their ideas. Increasingly, our customers are saying they
want not only the ideas but also the execution. Often our
best customer relationships have a healthy dose of creative
tension, where ideas are challenged and accountability is
held paramount. We think that’s about right.