Recap: Management Consulting: Using Your Scientific Mind to Solve Business Problems

The Science Alliance fall season kicked off last Monday, September 20 with an event highlighting an exciting career option for scientists outside academia. Management Consulting: Using Your Scientific Mind to Solve Business Problems, led by McKinsey & Company, aimed to demystify the profession through a series of talks and a hands-on case that simulates what consultants do. The three speakers from McKinsey also addressed how a PhD can transition into the field and why a science background is good preparation, and were able to speak from personal experience as all three obtained their doctorates in science before joining the firm as Associates.

This was my second collaboration with McKinsey; the first was when I was organizing career and professional development events at Harvard Medical School and I worked with McKinsey to offer the two-part “nanocourse” Consulting in the Life Sciences and Healthcare. My goal for the nanocourse was to provide field specific content and a hands-on experience that would (a) expose scientists to the kind of work professionals do outside of bench research and (b) help them make better-informed career decisions.

The nanocourse at HMS was very well-received and so I was delighted when they were willing to give a repeat performance for Science Alliance (I even snagged one of the consultants for a future career path video). The event at the Academy was equally successful, drawing over 100 students and postdocs from institutions across New York City. So what exactly did the attendees learn in the three hour workshop with McKinsey?

They, of course, heard what management consulting firms like McKinsey do: work with clients to solve complex business problems and devise innovative strategies for improvement. In the past century, organizations and industries have grown to the point that it is often necessary to seek outside counsel to understand questions like why a company is experiencing a profit loss or where the opportunities for growth lie. To help these companies, a team of consultants are tasked with gathering and analyzing information, prioritizing issues, and developing a set of recommendations, often in a short window of time.

Sound vague? That’s okay- it’s often difficult to grasp the concept of a profession so drastically different from what we have experienced. The best way to gain a clearer picture of management consulting is to try tackling a business case on your own. You can find practice cases on the internet and in bookstores, along with guides on how to crack them (a popular one is here). Business cases are the crux of the consulting interview so if you are serious about applying for positions, it is advisable to practice with others and to seek out student-run consulting clubs.

What about some examples? The following scenarios were presented during the workshop to get the attendees’ minds thinking like consultants. I. A coffee shop comes to you because it has started losing money about three months ago. What would you explore to get to the root of the problem? II. A pharmaceutical company wants to optimize their disease targets and needs a comprehensive analysis of the market. What are all the facets you might consider to be able to rank or categorize diseases in terms of their attractiveness as drug targets?

Seems interesting, but why do they want scientists? According to the consultants from McKinsey, scientists possess the top four skills that make a successful consultant: problem solving skills, communications skills, analytical and quantitative abilities, and scientific knowledge (particularly for dealing with cases in life sciences and healthcare). In most cases, though, you will not be applying the specific subject matter that engrossed your life for years while doing research; rather you will be using all of these other transferrable skills you developed in your training as a scientist.

Your interest has been piqued, now how do you get the job? Consulting positions are highly coveted and so the interview process is very competitive. In order to be a strong candidate for consideration, firms are looking for individuals who, aside from having the PhD after their name, can also demonstrate examples of achievement, leadership, initiative, and team work. Having these on your resume will help you get an interview; the rest lies in how well you perform on the case interviews and your “fit” with the company.

For more information about careers in business, click here.

Recap: Scientific Mindset in the Business World

Business is an intriguing career path for many freshly minted PhDs and it is not uncommon now to find scientists who have made the transition into management, consulting, finance, venture capital, market research, intellectual property law, and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, some of you might be wondering what about a background in scientific research lends itself to a career in business and how one breaks into the field without doing an MBA. Paul Tumpowsky, chairman of the board of InSITE and CEO of Square Zero, addressed these questions when he came to the Academy on May 13 for the Science Alliance event Leveraging the Scientific Mindset in the Business World.

Paul started his presentation by citing the many reasons why the scientific training is valued in business. For those regarding themselves as only being equipped for bench research or pipetting, you will find it reassuring to hear that the skills acquired in pursuit of a PhD are desirable outside of science, as well. For business, in particular, he highlighted the strengths of scientists in dealing with complex problems and in possessing analytical skills that have been cultivated by the scientific method. I think we scientists take these skills for granted not appreciating the uniqueness of our scholastic pursuits- i.e. years spent engaging in deep intellectual thought and regular problem solving- when, indeed, these talents are coveted in the "real world" for handling tough business questions and devising innovative solutions and can be leveraged when applying for business-type positions.

Paul also discussed the differences in mindsets and approaches that scientists can expect to encounter in the business world. He noted that while attention to detail is good in science, much of business is focused at the macro level and analyses tend to be more qualitative than quantitative in nature; therefore scientists, in order to be successful, often need to adapt to making decisions with incomplete data and on shorter timescales, not having the luxury to exhaustively research every topic. Paul also emphasized the collaborative nature of business, pointing out that projects rely heavily on team efforts and are not solitary endeavors like science can be at times. It is important then, to be a good team player and, for the budding entrepreneur, to be especially thoughtful when assembling a group for a start-up venture.

For scientists eager to make the transition into business, one hurdle is that it can be difficult to gain experience and training before applying for jobs; the second portion of Paul's talk introduced one potential avenue, through the NYC-based InSITE entrepreneurship fellowship program. The two-year program trains graduate students through a series of workshops and real-world consulting cases. Although their fellows have historically all been business and law students, they are opening their doors for the first time to accept applications from doctoral students and postdocs in NYC this fall. Given the sixty-plus scientists who turned out for this event, there is definitely signficant interest in this kind of opportunity and business careers, in general.

More information about their program and the application process can be found on their website: http://insiteny.org. You can also read a blog entry from one of the InSITE fellows who attended this event here.

In addition, I would recommend checking out the Business and Law section of this website for additional resources and references on this topic.