Oliver Wyman Reviews in London, UK Area

Pros

- Competitive compensation
- Strong brand in financial services
- Great colleagues

Cons

- Exit opps more limited relative to top-tier GMC firms
- Extensive amounts of travel
- Flat hierarchy may not be for everyone

Advice to Senior Management

- More aggressive brand-building efforts
- Consider implementing at least a rough hierarchical ladder. Structure is important to get a sense of career progression (nobody wants to feel like they are stuck in "limbo" between consultant and partner)

Pros

- Strong sector focus allowing for early specialization
- Very rapid career growth. If you're good, you should be looking at managing projects by the end of your 3rd year at the firm if you join as an analyst
- Fast path to partnership - average duration is 8 years
- Good compensation
- Decent work life balance

Cons

- Somewhat weak infrastructure support in terms of support functions
- Processes not very well entrenched

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work - we're going in the right direction

Pros

Many advantages in OW Financial Services. Key ones for me:
Fast improving brand
Lots of upside
Great people, great fun
Excellent compensation all-in
Many opportunities to get involved in improving the firm

Cons

Parent company confusion - Oliver Wyman is a great brand in financial services, but what does Marsh and McLennan want?

Advice to Senior Management

More passionately target improving the firms reputation and brand
Sort out the MMC confusion
Accelerate the push into th CEOs office

Pros

Entrepreneurial environment that encourages people to be proactive and take responsibility
Strong comraderie between colleagues
Non-hierarchical organisation - access to senior management is good

Cons

Does not have the same level of infrastructure of the other more established consulting firms which doesn't always support consultant development
Work lifestyle is demanding
Brand name does not equate to high profile-impact project work

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on projects that address core value/strategic issues of clients
More formalised training programs to address specific skill sets to complement on the job training

Pros

- Very informal / casual atmosphere - Partners share offices and all non-partner titles are "unofficial"
- Bright, friendly colleagues
- If you want it, opportunity for near limitless travel
- Great expense policy means you can live well while travelling
- Work is interesting & becoming moreso as build relations at higher levels of the company. Lots more true "strategy" work
- Good brand name within FS. We regularly win business away from Mckinsey & Bain in the top tier clients.

Cons

- Time to partner is increasing (last year's promotes all ~9 years experience). Compensation at partner level is higher than other firms, but lower for non-partners. You will be underpaid relative to your peers at all levels until partner. Hence if you do not intend to become partner (and there are no promotions to track your progress to partner), financially it makes less sense.
- Very "eat what you kill" approach to partnership. Must bring new new clients and revenue to be considered.
- Travel is constant - assume 4 days a week. Potentially three weeks at a time if further away. Difficult to balance with a home life.
- Poor communication from management and general sense of distrust between management and consultants (although consultants & partners generally get on very well)
- Note: All these comments are for Oliver Wyman FS - there is little / no interaction with the other OW businesses.

Advice to Senior Management

Speak to your staff more. Fix the issues with compensation and work life balance. Work out a way to make it a viable long term career

Pros

- Extremely bright, friendly people
- Senior management approachable and competent
- Cooperative culture
- Interesting work, lots of client contact

Cons

- Travel requirement can't be balanced with family life
- Long hours (often) though not as long as some other consulting firms
- Cuts in staff affecting morale

Advice to Senior Management

Rebuild the talent pool with care when Financial Services recover.

Pros

- Challenging and intellectually stimulating case work
- Work with top flight talent from all over the world
- International casework experience very common
- Meritocratic career review and promotion system

Cons

- Quality of work/life balance varies greatly from one case / partner to the next; sometimes it's great, other times, you can't wait for the case to be over
- Difficult (though not impossible) to join and progress midway through career progression model; most successful partners are either direct hires or promoted up through the ranks from analyst

Advice to Senior Management

- Make sure to look for mentoring opportunities
- Be specific and clear about expectations up front
- Be honest about whether projects are over- or under-resourced and re-evaluate whether additional staff are needed as the case progresses. Sometimes what starts out as a manageable work load quickly becomes unmanageable as you discover new challenges throughout the case (or as the client or partner adds requests that aren't necessarily scope-changing, but that require additional effort on the part of the case team)

Pros

London office has a pretty good office spirit, and the entertainment budget is generous on most projects so there are plenty of opportunities for bonding with team members. Oliver Wyman brand name is also pretty respected, so exit opps are favourable, especially in non-profit and private equity. Long-term nature of most of the projects done out of the London office mean that the office is relatively immune to short-term fluctuations in the economy.

Cons

London office is till pretty small so there isn't that much by way of diversity in terms of projects that you can be staffed onto - mostly in retail, and mostly outside of London in England.

Advice to Senior Management

Try getting more work in other fields and industries to ensure a diversity of projects.

Pros

Community spirit, I have the good fortune to work with intelligent, down to earth and unpretentious colleagues. The potential to make a real difference to the way clients operate. Working for a firm that solves problems with our clients as partners and doesn't tell them what to do from afar.

Cons

Tough work can mean long hours, requirement to rely on excellent work compared to others with more established brands e.g. BCG, McKinsey.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on maintaining the small firm feel that has so far survived several years of very strong growth

Pros

Great people to work with - super smart, yet down to earth and friendly. Great opportunities for professional development, it's a complete meritocracy and you are given as much responsibility as you can handle from a very early stage. Good opportunities to travel if you want to as well.

Cons

As with any consultancy the hours can be somewhat unpredictable and long at times. If you don't like to travel it can be difficult getting used to being away from home three nights a week for long stretches.

Advice to Senior Management

Less 'standardisation' across the world - let each office keep it's local feel and nuances.