AIAP Topic Courses·Management Consulting·13:36

Part 2: A Day in the Life, the Firm Taxonomy, and the Four Project Types

Course instructor (unnamed, ex-McKinsey) Main trainer - IIT Madras engineer, ISB MBA; ITC, Boston Scientific, Paytm, ~4.5 years at McKinsey, now product partnerships at LinkedIn

▶LMS lesson

The short version

An industry-by-function grid places firms, consultants and your own career. A Monday for an MBB associate: flight, team room, work plan, feedback call with the engagement manager and partner, evening steering-committee slides (0:00-0:05).
Firm types: MBB generalists; accounting and professional-services firms (Accenture, EY, Deloitte, KPMG); mid-size specialists (A.T. Kearney, Booz); turnaround and HR specialists (Alvarez & Marsal); boutiques (Oliver Wyman); technology arms (TCS, Infosys, IBM) (0:05-0:08).
Projects: strategy (market entry, transformation), M&A (diligence, value creation, integration), performance improvement and turnaround, implementation/PMO - each with a personal example (0:09-0:13).

At a glance, three clicks deep

Skim here first: the closed row is the glance, open is the study card with the key points and timestamps, and the ↓ link drops to that concept's full write-up below.

01The industry-by-function grid and the firm taxonomyGrid of industry x function;›

Grid of industry x function; six firm types.

Grid and day (0:00-0:05)

Firm types (0:05-0:08)

↓ Full write-up of this concept

02The four project typesStrategy / M&A / turnaround / PMO.›

Strategy / M&A / turnaround / PMO.

Project types (0:09-0:13)

↓ Full write-up of this concept

The concepts in full

The industry-by-function grid and the firm taxonomy

Draw industries down the side and functions across the top. Every firm, every consultant and your own career sits in one cell.

Grid: industries (healthcare, telecom, manufacturing, financial services, technology) by functions (HR, finance, growth, operations, M&A). A day in the life: Monday flight, team room, work plan, EM/partner feedback, SteerCo slides by evening. Firm types: MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG); professional-services and audit firms (Accenture, EY, Deloitte, KPMG); mid-size with specialties (A.T. Kearney sales and marketing, Booz financial structuring); specialists (HR consultancies, Alvarez & Marsal turnaround); boutiques (Oliver Wyman finance); technology arms (TCS, Infosys, IBM) by vertical.

Why it matters

A map for choosing where to apply.

The four project types

Strategy, M&A, turnaround, implementation. Same firm, four different jobs.

Strategy: new-market entry and GTM (India to US), transformation (a more innovative culture), supply-chain or sales strategy. M&A: due diligence on operations, teams and P&L; a value-creation plan (cut cost or raise revenue); post-merger integration. Performance improvement and turnaround: rapid financial analysis when 'we are bleeding money' (his pharma factory-efficiency project). Implementation: a PMO that guides or runs delivery (his rural Tamil Nadu truck-company rollout).

Why it matters

Lets a candidate ask which kind of work a role actually is.

This idea elsewherecontinuesTurnaround in depth, Part 5

Tools referenced

Tool	Coverage	Moment	Context
McKinsey	explained
Accenture	mentioned
Deloitte	mentioned

Action items

Resources mentioned

Resources

docLesson page on the platform

Extraction notes

This page was built from an auto-generated transcript, which garbles product and people's names. Those were corrected silently in everything above and logged here for transparency. The warnings flag claims that were true on the recording day but change fast.

Transcript corrections applied

The transcript says	The trainer actually means
ENY	EY
Teloid	Deloitte
Carney	A.T. Kearney
Elvis and Marcell	Alvarez & Marsal
steer code	SteerCo
forms	firms
me see / messy	MECE
PNL	P&L

True on recording day — verify before relying

Recorded about 2022-23, before generative AI reached consulting; the craft and career content is evergreen, firm facts and named executives are not