BCG - Boston Consulting Group

Digital technologies are fundamentally reshaping both consumer demand and competitive dynamics at unprecedented rates within the consumer industry. BCG’s consumer practice helps clients respond to industry disruption by redefining their channel strategies, transforming their organizations, and seizing competitive advantage. The practice serves clients across four main sectors - Consumer Products, Retail, Travel & Tourism, and Fashion & Luxury - and each of the four sectors covers a range of sub-industries and functional topics.

Your expertise is of vital importance to BCG and our clients. As an Expert Associate Director (AD) affiliated to the Consumer sector, you will be a core member of BCG’s Consumer Practice working alongside some of the world’s top minds in the industry. You will also significantly contribute to the development of our Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB) topic, and support our ambitious growth targets. The majority of your time will be spent leading and developing BCG ZBB related project teams composed of members of different backgrounds collaborating with you on those projects. You will also dedicate time to further develop and deepen BCG’s expertise in these areas, and to support BCG Partners in business development initiatives.

An Associate Director position is a mark of significant achievement with considerable leadership and performance expectations. Senior experts work closely with Partner teams to help leverage their expertise to support commercial opportunities and drive growth; as an Associate Director (AD), experts take a larger more proactive role in shaping the plan for the commercial agenda and how to support the strategy of the practice.

Like other experts, ADs continue to play important roles supporting and executing client service engagements in a variety of roles depending on the specific context. Over time, there is an expectation that their footprint will expand, supporting a broader set of Partners across either multiple geographies or practice areas (depending on the area of expertise).

What will be expected of you in this role is to:

• Play a leading role in the growth of our Consumer Practice and the ZBB topic through case execution, client development, and intellectual property & product creation
• Execute, or provide expertise and support to, ZBB projects within the Consumer sector for our key clients Globally
• Desire to build and spread ZBB expertise within BCG and serving as a ZBB-hub for the firm to develop new techniques and/or capture new ideas as well as casework experience. Both within the Consumer Goods Sector as well as in other industries.
• Ability to contribute to BCG’s practice area publications and to BCG’s ZBB approach and toolkit, benchmarks, templates, processes, incl. responsibility for managing and developing 3rd party cooperation (e.g. budgeting tool)
• Work jointly with BCG and client project teams, bringing expertise to the team and to the client on site
• Provide intellectual leadership for the project teams by generating key ideas and conceptual frameworks to guide research and analysis
• Actively support our business development efforts: client meetings, industry conferences
• Contribute to the creation of BCG’s intellectual capital on the ZBB topic : position papers, studies, insights from case experience, tools and products
• Dedicate time to develop own and BCG’s expertise – developing and driving the content agenda to the next level
• Provide mentorship and support to consultants ensuring continuous individual development
• Developing the next wave of ZBB thought leadership

• At least 10 years of work experience in top level advisory or consulting firm although candidates with excellent industry backgrounds would also be considered
• It is essential, that you have already earned an outstanding market reputation in the field of ZBB and have achieved significant and proven results at prior clients
• Knowledge challenging the “status quo”, creating transparency for clients, helping them understand the implications of their costs, synthesising & advising how to improve
• Proven track record of delivering all elements of ZBB
• Experience presenting key findings to C-level executives
• A track record of project/team leadership and related achievements
• Willingness to travel internationally and to work remotely on client sites

Education

• Strong academics from a top-tier institution
• An MBA is desirable but not essential

Professional Skills

• Analytical and structured with excellent problem solving skills (hypothesis-driven approach etc.)
• Advanced quantitative analysis
• Solid business acumen and commercial capabilities
• Excellent communication and persuasion skills
• Excellent written and spoken English

Personal Attributes

• Flexible, curious and creative, open for new things and able to propose innovative ideas
• Independent and autonomous judgment
• Collaborative team player and positive attitude
• Intercultural competence and experience of working in more than one country and/or multi-cultural teams
• Driven, hard-working, entrepreneurial, proactive and productive
• Highest ethical standards