In a yet another high-profile online event, LC Venture featured on the Consulting Careers Panel that was jointly organised by Department of Management and LSE Careers at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Career Service at Imperial University on the 17th of August. The event was organised as part of the Careers In China 2020, an online event that included a live presentation by the participating 22 companies including the event sponsors Standard Chartered Bank and other companies that included names Midea Group, Bloomberg LP, Beijing ByteDance and Haitong International Securities Group Ltd and others.
There were four panels during the event; Engineering, Technology and Digital, Banking and Finance and Consulting. The consulting panel featured speakers from management consulting giant McKinsey & Co., Intralink, an international business development company with unique expertise in Asia and years of experience supporting local and foreign businesses in Asia and Elite Scholars of China (ESC), one of the leading education consultancy firms in Beijing.
These are very popular events among the graduates of these schools and this year’s panel had to be done virtually due to the ongoing pandemic situation. The panel was jointly moderated by LSE and Imperial event Career support teams and it was heavily attended by senior students and recent graduates from the top universities in the UK that included LSE, Imperial and Cambridge and the University of Chicago and Colombia from the US. In a very engaging and lively webinar, the panellists shared their experience with the almost 300 attendees and offered deep insights into the consulting industry and how students who wish to break into the consulting career should position themselves.
During the course of the Panel, it was highlighted how long-term success in the consulting career depends on a combination of many factors and how basic skills sets like the ability to be an empathic communicator and to develop a novel and industry viable solutions to businesses are key. The panel also discussed how the consulting sector is undergoing rapid changes and disruptions owing new and complex challenges, a shift in client’s demand from the traditional solution of scale production to value addition. The panel also discussed how disruptions from technology and the Covid-19 pandemic also meant that consulting, like any other sector, is experiencing undergoing challenges which are here to remain.
Speaking at the Panel, Michael A. from LC Venture highlighted that there are ample opportunities in Asia but that students considering consulting industry in Asia should be prepared to work in a fast-paced and extremely diversified business environment. Michael also shared his personal journey and the challenges he faced when he first joined LC Venture. He emphasised that with the accelerated rate of change globally and owing to the unique and complex challenges in businesses, adopting an open-mind and being multi-cultural will be key to be able to properly address the issues facing businesses today.
The event concluded with the Panel addressing questions coming from the attendee, whose questions cantered around the required skills for consultancy, industry challenges and career advice on whether to join the industry or start with consultancy.
This was a follow-up the recent webinars that LC Venture has been actively engaged in, including the latest webinar titled The Big Engineering Work Experiencing Week organised by AFBE – UK (Association for Minority Ethnic Engineering in the UK), the OIW (Our Ingenious World) and WomENG, (Women in Engineering) where the CEO of LC Venture, Gaston Chee recently gave an impassionate talk to a select audience of engineering graduates from around the world in a panel that was entrepreneur panel of Engineering that was attended by a select graduate from top universities in the UK and around the world.