The day of a strategy consultant can be long, starting at seven a.m. or earlier and not ending until midnight (if not later.) A given day for a strategy consultant may contain many different activities. Below is a sample day in the life for a strategy consultant, Dianne.
8 a.m. -Dianne leaves the house to meet with a client executive. She hopes to convince the client to drop some of the product lines that are not profiting his company. Because Diane was expecting there to be a confrontation when this idea was brought up, she is not surprised when he disagrees with her. Two hours later, he finally concedes that it is time to create a more marketable product line and agrees to discontinue product lines that are no longer selling.
11:00 a.m. – Dianne is at her desk and calls in for a team conference call discussing a shared document to be presented at a committee meeting later in the week. They made sure the structure and presentation of the document was satisfactory to all on the team.
12:15 p.m. -Dianne replies to her missed phone calls and emails received while in morning activities. Once she has caught up on communication, she brings out her lunch to eat.
1:00 p.m. -Dianne meets with the vice president of strategy. She goes over current projects with him, and she wanted to talk about strategies that can be used for a new client she is meeting with tomorrow. This client wants to change the way he does global manufacturing, and Dianne wants to discuss ways to have a productive conversation on this topic, and goals for her consulting company.
2:00 p.m. -Dianne spends time checking her email, returning calls, and responding to client inquiries. During this time, she makes sure to take care of the concerns from her client executive. During her other activities, he sent many emails expressing concerns over discontinuing a product line that wasn’t profitable, but was quite popular among a certain market.
4:00 p.m.-Dianne meets with a partner and works on a document for a recruiting presentation about what strategy consultants do.
6:15 p.m. -Dianne returns home, but only briefly. She has a dinner meeting with a client and team members to discuss informally the status of one of their projects.
9:00 p.m. -Dianne returns home after the dinner to discuss a design project with an expert on the West Coast. After an hour-long conversation, Dianne begins to wind down for the evening and prepare for another long day of work. Tomorrow her and her team will present their document, she has a meeting with a client vice president, and she will be interviewing candidates.