Management Consulting

Program Information

The Management Consulting programme has the following learning goals.

Have the Advanced and Original Academic and Research Skills to Contribute to the Body of Knowledge

Students have to apply and develop theory about consultants as well as carry out empirical research to solve client problems. The Research Seminar provides a methodological background, the other courses a theoretical background.

Have Thorough Knowledge of Relevant Theory and Methods

The theoretical learning line in the programme provides students with theories about consulting relating to career issues, consultant roles, change, thought leadership, professional service firms, consulting business modelling and the key skills, norms and values of consultants. To deepen their knowledge, students can additionally choose from several electives that each are strongly based on fostering student's ability to act in response to strategic and organizational challenges. To broaden your horizon beyond the core of strategy and organization, you can also choose electives from other programmes such as International Management, Leadership & Change Management, Strategy & Organization, and Human Resource Management. Several interdisciplinary electives offer an additional opportunity to deepen your knowledge of a topical issue in business and management beyond the boundaries of the Management Consulting programme.

Have an Academic Approach to Solving Complex [Business/Economics] Problems

Each course offers unstructured assignments, just like actual clients could give them. Students have to solve them based on research and theory by applying abductive methods. Assignments include reviewing a consultancy report and developing a new business model for a real consultancy. A consultancy project will be carried out in period 3 and there are possibilities for doing an internship.

Have the Professional Social Skills to Interact with Other Professionals

The learning line on skills includes groupwork and presentation skills, exercises on solving unstructured problems, evaluation skills, and creative skills necessary to develop advice.

Have a Horizon Beyond the Professional Area

Students are sent out into the world and will experience the tensions between theory and practice, plans and implementation, reflection and action, what is good for a client company vs what is good for society. They will be challenged to define their own position in this. Are self-reflective professionals

Students experience many peer-feedback moments and obligatory self-reflections after each course. Team feedback (360 degrees or similar) in the consulting project also challenges students to better self-reflect. All self and peer-reflections will be integrated in a portfolio.

Career Prospects

Aspirational Job (far future)

For many participants in the program their consultant career will aim at becoming: partner, principal or senior consultant in a consultancy firm, senior consultant in internal consulting departments or large firms, policy analyst, or independent consultant

However, consultant can also be only your first job. Based on your experience as consultant you find out much about other sectors, firms and professions. It often happens that consultants move over to their clients in a management role in order to become more actively involved. Or the seek a more reflexive profession and the become researcher. Or they discover their entrepreneurial talents. As orientation on your future career being consultant is the best first job you can have.

Actual Placement (near future)

The actual placement of students depends critically on the programme students have followed. A program in Management Consulting prepares for professional management consultant in IT, HR or strategy prepares for more specialized jobs.

Entry Requirements

The target group for the Management Consulting programme is as broad as the world of management consulting itself. Consultants focus on giving advice on such diverse areas as technology, human resource, organization design, strategy, IT, finance, quality management etc. Therefore, the programme is open to students with a BSc degree in all these areas. In the past students with backgrounds like the following have entered our programme: Business administration, Economics, Public management, Psychology, Sociology, Engineering. More important than the background is that students have to be ambitious and that they are willing and able to work with unstructured problems, and that they can imagine there might be different futures possible.

Community

The Management Consulting programme offers many ways to network. Our alumni are member of our LinkedIn group and are always open to talk to students and to help them further in their assignments. The programme also offers various opportunities to meet informally over drinks, during poster presentations or in extra-curricular activities. During the programme students will be exposed to practitioners, enabling them to learn and to network with consultancy organizations. Guest speakers from very diverse consultancies will help you to determine which type of consulting fits best for you.

Widen Your Perspective

In-Depth Research Methods

In many courses you will be expected to conduct interviews with consultants. This is the best way to gain a real understanding of what consultants do, how they have built their careers, where they work and the kinds of projects, they are involved in. In the first course we will work with the journal Management & Consulting. Each student must write an article for submission to the journal. Generally, the best article will be published. This is a real incentive for you to polish your writing skills: you will need them as a consultant.

A key programme element is learning how to write an advisory report. During the course on policy evaluation and advice, you will be asked to write a second opinion on an actual public report that you may choose yourself. You will be expected to evaluate the argumentation in the report using rhetorical and economic insights. You will present your own advice as consultants do, emphasizing your own conclusions and recommendations.

You will also learn what tools and methods consultants use in their work. During the course on organizational development and change, you will focus on change processes themselves.