Can anyone advise on the likely long term career of moving into an internal strategy/corporate development role? I work in consulting just now and have been contacted about a few such roles. On the face of it they seem good in that it's more money than i'm currently on and better hours, but where would such a role take someone in 5, 10, 15 years time as if i stay in consulting, asusming career progression, the end point is beocming a partner? I'm looking at financial services but keen for insight on any sector.Thank you.

Apologies for the spelling, was a bit trigger happy there.

In some businesses strategy is seen as a springboard for senior positions. The CEO or Strategy Director will make a positive effort to ensure you move into a line role in say 2 years.In other businesses it is a dead end. Vacancies are filled based on most experienced candidate and as a strategy person you have potential but not real experience.A lot depends on how heavyweight the strategy director is and on the culture of the business.

Obviously it's very company & sector dependant, but in MANY cases internal Group Strategy / Corporate Development teams within Industry are seen as the internal talent pools of the business and are seen as a springboard into more commercial / p&l orientated roles with a company. The hours and work/life balance will almost always be MUCH better than a consulting environment and the travel element will probably / certainly be reduced. Generally it's still Project orientated work, but you'll have the chance to see projects fully through to completion as opposed to stepping away at the crucial moment. It's also a fairly common misconception that you have to take a drop in package to move from consulting to an industry strategy role. I left a leading a Strat consultancy 2 yrs ago to move to an internal Strategy (Energy sector) role and received roughly a 20% uplift in total compensation and get to spend significantly more time with my wife and kids. I'm also able to plan social events with my work schedule being much more predictable and uk based. I also have a significantly greater sense of pride and ownership of my work and enjoy seeing the fruits of my labour first hand.Many Industry CEO's and business heads have come through the internal strategy route of a business and this generally stands them in very good stead going forwards. It should be a route you certainly consider.

This can be a very effective route in to corporate line and commercial roles for companies where, as previous posters have said, the strategy team is seen by the business as a talent pool and where the strategy director (and strategy team as well) has a strong 'brand' within the business. The acid test to discriminate between this sort of set up and the situations where strategy teams are dead ends is to ask what the track record of the team has been in achieving moves and particularly promotions out of the team into line over, say, a 3 year period. If a benchmark is helpful, there've been 5 promotions out of my team into business roles in the last 18 months (about 30% of individuals at this grade, roughly equating to manager level in a consultancy). So look for units where this track record can be demonstrated and you may be headed somewhere with good prospects.