Developing Professionals: BCG's Career Development and Mentorship Processes - Case Study Example

Developing Professionals- the BCG Way BCG's Career Development and Mentorship Processes BCGs career development and mentorship involves staffing, training and helping consultants to develop professionally through appropriate nurturing after recruitment. They are also helped to progress along the BCG’s career path through promotion (Nanda and Morrell 6). Staffing. After successful recruitment, the consultants are staffed appropriately so as to give them an opportunity to build their analytical abilities and insights. Staffing depends on projects available and client demands. A managed market with choices on either side is used in staffing of professionals on projects. Projects alongside their staffing needs are enlisted in a database which the consultants can access after which they could forward their requests to the staffing managers. The career development goals of the consultant are also put into consideration while conducting staffing. These goals are identified through the CDC performance review done semiannually. Nanda and Morrell (8) reveal that BCG consultants are not passive receivers of knowledge. They participate actively in building the skills they want to have. The BCG team will staff the consultant by default in line with what they can do better, for example, pricing instead of sales which the consultant is poor at. The consultant is then handed over to the sales management once they express their desire get better at sales. This makes the BCG team know the skills the consultant wishes to develop, the people they would like to work with and the projects they want to work on. The staffing pattern helps the consultants to know if they are specialists or generalists. Training Professionals are frequently given formal training about administrative and qualitative topics during their tenure at BCG. This helps them to pick up skills, build a network and socialize. It also helps them to develop a perception of BCG as a firm. As much as formal training is valued at BCG, most of the training, about 90%-99%, occurs in the field. Learning through apprenticeship is the primary mode of learning for the professionals. This is because BCG holds to the belief that the best teacher is experience. He professionals have been taught on how to consult in an apprenticeship setting. A performance review is conducted for the consultant six moths after joining BCG and continues biannually. This gives an overview of their progress. Mentorship Mentorship is provided to make the consultation process fun though challenging. The consultants are assigned to mentors as they come in. These mentors are BCG officers who informally act as counselors. Basing on interests and experiences, the consultants can also be formally assigned to mentors. This happens in large offices. In smaller offices, consultants chose which senior colleague to confide in. Mentorship is done informally with mentors compared to consultancy with CDC officers. It is done over lunch or coffee monthly or bimonthly. It varies among the consultants. It is over this lunch or coffee free interaction that the consultants ask their mentors questions and the mentors advice them accordingly (Nanda and Morrell 12). At six moths, after the first performance review, the mentors and the consultant discuss on matters such as how they are adjusting with BCG and work. It also gives the consultant a chance to highlight issues that need urgent addressing. After 12 moths, developmental strengths and weaknesses are discussed. The mentor guides the consultant on how to develop their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. During the 18th month, they analyze the accuracy of the consultant’s feelings about career progression and how the consultant has improved professionally. Interaction increases if the consultant is not promoted after 24 moths. Strengths It is designed to meet client not company needs. Consultants participate actively in building the skills they want to have. They choose the skills they want to learn. This increases their morale and retention rates of the skills learned. Combining consultation and mentorship provides higher chances of developing the consultant’s career. Any challenges faced can be dealt with by the CBG officers and mentors. By using experience as the best teacher, skills learned are bound to be long term and directly transferrable to the work setting. Learning in the field helps consultants pick up skills they could never have learned in formal lessons (Nanda and Morrell 14) Weaknesses It is demanding on the part of the consultant. Some end up working themselves out to meet the BCG standards. There are no formal times for consultant–mentor interaction. Meeting over lunch or coffee may be too little time to allow for qualitative interaction between mentor and consultant. No rules govern this interaction hence deviancy can easily arise from either party. No review is made in consultant-mentor pairing so consultants suffer incase they do not get along with their Mentors. Josh Coppersmith Josh Coppersmith enrolled at BCG from June 2000 with Matthew Glassman as his mentor. He was staffed two weeks after joining BCG to post-merge integration project as his first case. Josh believed in himself so much that he did little consultation with his mentor. He felt he was experienced and needed not to consult with the manager or his mentor. This earned him a three in his performance review. The manager remarked about him being arrogant and his need to improve in team playing. According to Nanda and Morrell (18) Josh and Mathew met monthly basis at the beginning and later less frequently in the course of the first year. This angered Mathew because he felt that Josh either hated him or did not need him. Josh wanted to apply for the very competitive ambassador program but was concerned of whether he will get a good post and promotion when he gets back. He sought consultancy concerning it but he was mean and in his reasons for seeking consultancy. He wanted to differentiate himself from fellow consultants through the ambassador program instead of just learning and being enriched. He was working against his colleagues. The responses he received from Mathew could not encourage him to see him (Mathew) again. He became bitter with Mathew because he never wanted to be told the truth about himself. Eric Wong Wong BCG joined in June 2000 and was chosen by Mr. Michael Lao so he could mentor him. At first sight, Wong developed an attitude and made a conclusion that Lao was not going to help him a lot right at the start because he saw him as cold and rigid. He worked on his first project without consultation. Wong felt he did not want to bother Lao at all for mentorship. Whenever Lao went to check on his progress, Wong would dismiss him by claiming that all was well. He never wanted to reveal the truth that he could not make it alone. This caused him to be recommended as lacking polish and resistant to suggestions and feedback from team members. Wong knew well that he needed to do something about his presentation and client skills yet he never sought help. Lack of consultancy and dismiss caused Lao not to offer directions not asked as he felt it would look like he his interfering aggressively. With time Wong improved in performance reviews but his presentation skills were still poor. Wong’s hard work had threatened his marriage. In his distress he did not turn to Lao for help. He felt this would make people think he could not handle hard work. Wong was disadvantaged by his pride and wanting to be mollycoddled even when very necessary (Nanda and Morrell 20). How to make mentorship more effective Interaction should more frequent to allow the client raise any upcoming challenges immediately and to allow the mentor monitor he consultant progress effectively. The clients should always seek help immediately they not or encounter difficulty instead of waiting till they get poor recommendations or performance. The consultant-mentor interaction should be qualitative not just quantitative. More time should be devoted to solve consultant issues during interactions instead of just talking generally. Consultants should be very attentive so as to take in much intellectual and emotional energy from the mentor. The client and the mentor should stick to their initial meeting arrangements and maintain constant communication. They should have a health professional relationship so as to encourage trust and consultancy. None of them should make a pre-judgment of the other before they can interact because it may yield a negative attitude that discourages frequent, healthy interaction and communication. Works Cited Nanda Ashish and Morrell, Kelle. Developing Professionals- the BCG Way (A). Boston. Harvard Business Publishing.2003 Read More