Having searched the threads here I have only found a little information on OC&C. As a smaller boutique strategy firm I am interested in understanding a little more on the difference between them and the larger B's and McK's of this world, in particular the type of business that they attract.How is their perceived standing in the strategy they actually advise?Are they viewed as a firm that is growing its business (I gather they are getting strong in the US)?Has anyone heard any titbits about them in the general business world?Do they have a reputation on being specialists in any particular sector, or good general strategy overall?What sort of people do they attract as employees?Many thanks, D

Does nobody know anything about them?Tony, or anyone else at Top-Consultant: Do you have any information?

Firstly they are very much an elite firm focussed on high fee rate work. They have a UK focus with probably about half the directors based in the UK. However they have managed to build satellite businesses outside of the UK, mainly in continental Europe, and I believe these are independent businesses.One of the founders is still with the company in the UK and I believe that they are very well regarded in the UK in retail and consumer goods.

Thank you, very helpful!Have any of you consultants working in other firms heard good/bad things about them?

OC&C is a network of legally independent strategy consulting firms. The largest Offices are in the UK, Netherlands/Belgium, Germany and France. They also cooperate with "Value Partners" in Italy.The country offices were originally started as spin-off of either McKinsey or Bain and started to cooperate in the late 1990ies in order to create more international visibilty and to serve international clients better. They have a very strong focus on Retail, FMCG and Technology / Media / Telekom. On top of that the different offices have their own specific areas of expertise. Netherlands and Germany for instance have done a lot of work in the Travel / Transport / Logistics sector. Real Estate / Construction industry is a core competency of the German office and the London office does a lot of Private Equity / M&A Advisory.Currently OC&C has approximately 250 professional staff (in UK, Netherlands/Belgium, France and Germany).The client list comprises many of the EUROSTOXX Top 100 companies as well as the top names in private equity. Rates charged are comparable to McKinsey, Bain, BCG & Co.OC&C sees itself as a "strategy consulting boutique".In the last two years, the company has embarked to grow beyond their European home market and have found suitable partners in India, China, USA and the Middle East.Personally, I have worked with OC&C for several years and enjoyed my time with them very much. The work life balance is very good compared to what I heard from friends working at the "bigger" consultancies.

I like the fact they post their average weekly working hours (55) on the FAQ's section of their website and are upfront about it.

They also have just teamed up with a company in the Middle East

I did mention the middle east, didn't I? anyway @anon regarding the 55h working week. I would say on average it is more around 60h, but that would include the M&A projects which tend to be rather draining in terms of working hours. If you are not staffed on a M&A project, the 55h are a good estimate. It also depends a bit on your position and the office - as in any other company :-)

Hi,Im quite interested in OC&C.Does anyone know what aprox. salary an Associate Consultant would get in the London office?Is the training on offer, coming from an engineering background, comparable/better than the bigger consultancies?Thanks in advance.

Oh and one more thing:If one was to make the final round with OC&C, how many people would be taking part and what percentage would be hired?Cheers again.

Haha. I found your hypothetical construct quite amusing. 'If one was to make the final round at OC&C' (read: I have a final round interview and want to know my chances of going in). By the final round you should be looking at two applicants per place, three max.

Me thinks that you are quite the detective Anon :)Thanks for your help.

Regarding your question about training for ACs, I would say that the training is on par with any of the more visible names in the consulting realm.You will have internal trainings (the whole excel and powerpoint stuff) staged by your local office, as well as international training events once a year (e.g. finance training).

Regarding your question about training for ACs, I would say that the training is on par with any of the more visible names in the consulting realm.You will have internal trainings (the whole excel and powerpoint stuff) staged by your local office, as well as international training events once a year (e.g. finance training).

Peter,Can you tell us a little more about OC&C's partners? I have gathered from another thread that MESA is one - how about in the Far East? Is there much opportunity to transfer to these firms for a period/project or is this restricted to just the actual OC&C offices?Thanks, D

My friend recently got a job there. Apparently they are actively looking to promote the international aspect by offering either guaranteed placements abroad for e.g. 1 year and also making it easier to transfer permanently.One issue of the partnership structure is that some companies seem to work still quite independently under the same brand, but he seems confident that will get better.

D and hi,The 'core' of OC&C are the offices in the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. These country offices are quite similar in culture and working style and there is quite a lot of exchange of staff on a project basis going on. If you join the UK office, there is a good chance that you will be staffed on projects led by another European office. Getting a 'guaranteed placements abroad' for a longer term is also possible, but your performance has to justify such a 'treat'. From what I am hearing from my ex-colleagues, the problem is, that more people from Rotterdam and Dusseldorf want to spend a year in London or Paris, than there are people from London willing to spend a year in Rotterdam (even though the city is not that bad) and this is not even taking into account the language issue (how fluent is your dutch?).The Italian partner company is called Value Partners http://www.valuepartnersgroup.com/vpmc/en/ they do not use the OCC brand, mainly because their own Value Partners brand is well established in the Italian market and they are quite a big company down there.The Indian partner company is called Avalon Consulting http://www.consultavalon.com/index.php From what I hear they are also quite well established in India.

John,Quoting from the Vault:"We are now the highest paying top-tier consultancy - we pay more than McKinsey, BCG and Bain."The salaries quoted there range from 37k to 45k for AC's, very generous if that is the starting range but perhaps the higher figures are for the second year...

hidid anyone write the tests for OC&C Ac position london office? how are they? the math is standard shl I believe. any idea where I could practice some. as for the critical reasoning part, I have no clue what that is about.please help if you know anything about it. thanks

Hi there - I was just wondering if anyone knows much about the undergraduate internships at OC&C - is it as competitive as for graduate places? Is they recruitment process the same / similar to that for graduates? What kind of work will you be doing as an intern compared to that of ACs? Many thanks in advance it's much appreciated Will