The Consulting Experience – Session by McKinsey & Co

The much awaited session by McKinsey happened on Aug 19, 2009. The Session was attended by Mr Rajiv Lochan (Partner) along with several ISB alums who are working in McKinsey & Co. There was Ashish (Associate) from class of 2006, Ruchi (Associate) from class of 2007 and Sudipto (Associate)  from class of 2008 along with Sumit, Rakesh and Chandra who are from class of 2009.

ISB Alums from McKinsey

Mr Rajiv Lochan is a McKinsey Partner based in Chennai. He has extensive consulting experience both in US and India. He has been involved with ISB since the very beginning. It was a delight to listen to him.

Rajiv Lochan on the Art of Consulting.

He described consulting as the art and science of pattern recognition and application of these patterns to solve practical problems. The workday of a consultant revolves around the following four activities -

1. Interacting with senior executives on client site.
2. Engaging in problem solving/brainstorming sessions with internal teams or clients.
3. Trying to secure buy in on a project from the client.
4. Leveraging on internal expertise through knowledge sharing to the bring the best of the services to the client.

He then touched upon what makes a good consultant. That is, what McKinsey looks for in ISB graduates. The criterion stands on the pillars of leadership, problem solving abilities, interpersonal skills and drive. A spike on any of them with good quantities of others will be able to get you through.

Sudipto then took the stage to discuss about his induction into consulting and his first project.  He discussed McKinsey’s Urbanization Project for India. He emphasized that the projects can be very broadly scoped and challenging. It doesn’t matter if you have limited experience in the related area., the team is always very knowledgeable and diverse. That allows you to traverse the learning curve quickly. Sudipto described this project as a thoroughly enjoyable assignment, which took him to several  cities in India and abroad to explore their growth and development.

Students loved Rajiv Lochan's presentation.

Mr Rajiv Lochan then came back to stage and gave use a brief overview of his continuous involvement with ISB. He is part of the team that conceived and executed the the project that led to ISB. He ended by promising many more McKinsey events in future.

This was followed by tea and informal discussions with Alums.

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