I'm fed up with hearing about how good MBB are/how good their reputation is. In the company i worked for they had a lousy reputation for actually doing anything useful, lots of reports tossed into drawers, creating a mess if anything was ever followed....it was really a case of 'no one got fired for buying IBM' and if you used MBB you weren't seen as wasting money whereas it was difficult to get other (better but less well known) companies in. Sure they had lots of bright people, but so did Wall St and look where it is now.

The reputation of MBB is strongest among impressionable 20 year-olds. Among experienced professional consultants and clients, it is somewhat more realistic.

I have been with MBBB for almost 8 years.Yes it is all over-hyped.It's basically an art of creating a problem and then convincing everyone (including yourself) that the problem exists and that you have a strategic solution.Also remembering to apply that gloss of 'best minds' i.e. academic nerds.

I've worked in an M and a B and have to say that the problem solving abilities and general intelligence of a number of consultants there was, well.....it raised my left eyebrow more than once an hour. An Oxbridge degree does not equal intellignce nor ability to be good at business, consulting or strategy. It is though a ticket in whether or not you're a duffer. Maybe this is where spin doctors come from...

As a 20 something, I have learned earlier than most the following...if your better at what your not MBB consulting company does, you have a much better shot of making the $$$$$$$ than a moron at an MBB...

I agree completely. What I really need is for my team to execute--not draft useless reports and all that sort of nonsense. There are better solutions out there, depending on your situation, if you know where to look.

What does MBB stand for?

Mckinsey, Boston consulting group and Bain & co... "the top three pure strategy consulting firms" (quotation from Wikipedia).. it's pretty much like the "magic circle" for law firms..