Young consultants from over 20 firms were present at this year’s Young MCA AGM as the network met to reflect on its successes to date and showcase its plans for the year ahead.
Des O’Connor, the outgoing Young MCA chair and a consultant at Mott MacDonald, began by giving an overview of the network’s achievements over the past year. Highlights included the launch of the Young MCA Newsletter, numerous university engagements and the hosting of a record number of events. A key success for the network was being asked for advice by a number of young professional networks from other industries on how to grow their membership and to emulate some the professionalism of the Young MCA.
Claire Kennedy, Co-Founder & Managing Director of PPL and MCA Board Member was asked to speak to the AGM on her view of the role of young consultants can play in the industry. Claire explained that her view of management consulting related to people and “making the environment around us that bit better”. For the MCA’s young consultants that means harnessing their creativity and enthusiasm. She noted this as a key focus for MCA and explained that the feedback from the AGM would feed into the MCA’s work on its next three year strategy.
The AGM breakout session saw four areas of discussion, each theme sparked good ideas and debate which sets a strong foundation for the year ahead:
Becoming part of the Voice of the Industry
The first theme looked how the Young MCA could become more involved in the MCA aim of being ‘The Voice of the Consulting Industry’. The network agreed to focus on producing credible content that will engage young consultants. The network also agreed to make better use of its contacts to provide expert perspectives and to promote their content through different channels.
Promoting a professional & credible industry
The Young MCA believes they can play a leading role in co-ordinating industry and client-specific training, advice and networking opportunities for young consultants. The network considers a balance of broad sector knowledge, the ability to deploy experience from previous projects, strong soft skills and relevant qualifications to be central to a consultant being considered professional and credible by their firm, peers and clients.
Creating better engagement within and between member firms.
The network as a whole enjoyed the variety of topics covered and quality of speakers at events throughout 2013. Informal events were identified as an opportunity for development in the coming year include holding more.
CSR
When looking at the Young MCA’s involvement in CSR activities, there were two key focuses that came out of the discussions. Firstly helping consultants in the network development specific skills that will help them progress in their consulting career and secondly to run a fundraising/ celebration event for people in voluntary/care sector.
Looking ahead to next steps, incoming Chair Jer Lau, a consultant at PwC will be discussing the network’s priorities with the MCA Board with a view to building on the Young MCA successes to develop the capability of this network for the industry, consultants and our communities.
For further detail on each of the four sessions please email youngmca@mca.org.uk
About the Young MCA
The Young MCA is a network with consultants with 0-5 years consulting experience. It has over 1700 members across 38 member firms. The Young MCA provides training, networking opportunities and charity events to develop critical industry talent.
Written by Laura Finnigan, Consultant at Deloitte and Young MCA Steering Committee Member.