Where do strategy consultants go when they leave?

Nearly 70% of people who leave a leading consulting firm in the Middle East end up in the industry. This is according to an analysis of employment in the industry conducted by Eddy Zreik.

For the analysis, Eddy Zreik (a strategy consultant himself) analyzed data from over 900 advisory activities in the Middle East over the past decade. The movements were tracked among employees at six strategy consulting firms: McKinsey; Boston Consulting Group; Bain & Company; Kearney; Oliver Wyman; and Strategy&.

While almost a third stay in the consulting industry – joining other companies or starting their own – the largest share of people actually move into leadership positions outside the consulting scene.

The largest percentage of people moving into industry went to the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. About 14% went to the financial services and capital management sector.

However, the analysis also showed that there is demand for strategic consulting skills in many other sectors. Most importantly, around 7% of moves involved consultants moving into the consumer and leisure sector or into the government sector.

Most important roles and employers

As you might guess, the lion’s share of consultants leaving industrial strategic brands are moving on to some form of strategy or planning work. Overall, 46% of those leaving are heading for strategic positions – with the largest number of people joining the real estate, logistics, energy and consumer sectors. In each case, more than half of all movers were heading to planning positions.

Popular destinations for consultants include Amazon, Oracle and Google in technology, Public Investment Fund, Visa and Mastercard in financial services and capital management, Noon and Seera Group in consumer markets, Adnoc in energy, Careem in logistics and Neom in urban development.

The attractiveness of strategic consulting

The analysis once again highlights that strategic consulting provides a springboard to a variety of career paths. Early exposure to a wide range of industries and challenges equips consultants with a valuable and transferable skill set.

In the long run, these people often develop and become leaders within the company’s ranks – as has been the case in the US and Europe for decades – in the Middle East. A recent study even called strategy consulting firms “runaway CEO factories,” far outpacing other sectors.

Moreover, some former consultants are forging successful entrepreneurial paths, as exemplified by the founders of Careem, a pioneering unicorn in the Middle East. These trajectories highlight the multi-faceted appeal of strategy consulting, offering not only a platform for skill development, but also a launching pad for impactful careers across a variety of sectors.