By, Krunal Barabde
In today’s ever confusing, complicated and highly competitive world a small mistake in business eradicate or complacency can eradicate you from the competition, additionally if a company or an organization needs to build or identify competitive edge they don’t look within the organization but turn to third person preferably an expert. Historically, it has been human nature to take advice from third persons, earlier it used is from Family Members or Friends, but in today’s world with shrinking families and increased competition, experts are sought most.
Who are these experts? Many occupational names classify them but generally, in US Business environment they are recognized as Management Analyst / Consultant. As per a report in the observer.com in past few years more than 70 of McKinsey Consultants have become CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies(Macdonald). As per BLS report employment of management analyst is projected to grow by 19% from 2012 to 2022 (htt). This clearly indicates the importance of the role and its importance in current business environment. But the most important fact is that it is ranked 6 and ranked 1 for business category in the H1B visa filing list, as per 2014 report 9,826 H1B Visa application have been filed, with an average salary of $87,756, top 5 companies have been E&Y(906 Applications) IBM (666 Applications) Infosys(484 applications) Deloitte Consulting (368 Applications) Mu Sigma(313 Applications).
Pay Scale Comparison
Courtesy: www.bls.gov
Academically, somebody with bachelors degree in business management can be hired for entry level position and is later trained and coached to face clients and handle complicated assignments. However, most preferred for this job are Masters in Business Administration degree, in order to obtain a Senior Level position in a consultancy firm it is near to mandatory to have MBA degree, additionally domain/industry is highly preferred by the industry specific analyst, many analyst come from different academical background bachelors degree of marketing, engineering, economics etc. (htt1). Apart from the academic and professional background, you can obtain certification of Certified Management Consultant which can help you earn an edge over others in the recruitment process.
In 2012 following industries required management analyst.
Courtesy: www.bls.gov
A job responsibilities of a Management Analyst do vary from industry to industry and project to project. But typically an analyst is expected to deliver on process, product and cost efficiency parameters. Typically following are the duties of a management analyst.
- Getting complete understanding of the existing business model or analyzing new business plan/proposal
- Understanding the competitive landscape, current industrial situation and future industry outlook
- Requirement gathering and organizing all relevant information to the business
- Consultation with important level in organization and gathering a third party perspective
- Analyze financial data and marketing projections
- Identify gaps in the service/product/process and develop long term solutions
- Recommend Solutions to management
To deliver on these responsibilities an Analyst is sought to have some functional skills and management skills such as following
- Strong Analytical skills
- Decision-making capabilities
- Problem Solving
- Strong Interpersonal skills
- Motivational and Influential ability
- Attention to detail and ability to meet the deadlines
- Ability to think creatively
- High convincing and negotiating capabilities.
- Time Management Skills
Some management analyst with particular industry background are sought to have skills pertaining to the industy.
A Management Analyst has to be mentally and physically prepared to work in high intensity environment, because most of the time Analyst are actively involved in turn-around or in the developing something completely new. Work life balance in such situation may go for toss as an Analyst is bound to travel to multiple location based on clients/companies business. Some of the top consultant companies have international assignments which require a consultant to spend considerable amount of time in foreign country. However, all analysts are compensated heavily and are taken care by the companies for comfort.
Consultants/Analyst typcially are promoted to Senior Analyst / Consultant position and top end of the ladder normally ends at CEO level of positions. A famous example has been lego CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp a Mckinsey Consultant who became CEO of a family owned business. A management analyst is evaluated on 1. Cost efficiency 2. Industry reputation/Completed Projects 3. Business Network 4. Academic and Professional portfolio.
Bibliography
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://resources.alljobopenings.com/management-analyst-jobs
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm#tab-3
Macdonald, D. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://observer.com/2013/09/the-ceo-factory-ex-mckinsey-consultants-get-hired-to-run-the-biggest-companies/