Matt McCabe is a director at EY who has fourteen years under his belt as a management consultant. But as befits a finalist for the MCA Chartered Management Consultant of the Year Award, it is gaining the Chartered Award that stands out for him. Matt said:
“Being chartered represents being at the pinnacle of the consulting industry. Both outward facing in the market and internally for me as an individual, it is proof I’ve achieved high standards repeatedly with my consulting engagements and that I’ve invested in my personal development to become a high performing consultant, and that’s been recognised by an industry body and my peers. It’s special.”
And Matt has no doubt that where he has been lucky enough to lead, others in EY and throughout the profession should follow. He said:
“My advice to anyone starting their chartered journey is to go for it. I think it’s a really positive step within the industry, and I’m delighted that as an industry we’ve taken the step to put the chartered process in place. I think using that framework to think about what you want to get out of being a consultant is something really powerful and something I wish I’d had when I started on my consulting journey.”
For Matt the competency framework, with its emphasis on standards and ethics, was not a barrier to be crossed to get the award but is a tool which lives with him and is useful every day. He said:
“When you are in challenging situations, either with your teams or with your clients, I think going back to that framework and thinking really hard about the values that we want to display as an industry is really, really important. The clients I work with on a day to day basis have benefited from me achieving chartered status.”
The Chartered Award he believes is of particular importance as the industry’s biggest single client is the Government. He said:
“When they are spending what is public money, taxpayers’ money on consulting services it is vital that there is a benchmark for the sorts of individuals that they’re bringing in, that is demonstrable back to the people who pay the bills. And I think that’s very important when working within the public sector.”
He added: “I think the future for the chartered award is very bright. When I look at other industries, chartered status is sort of ubiquitous and is expected. You wouldn’t get an accountant to do your accounts if they were not chartered. You wouldn’t get an architect to build your house if they were not chartered. And I see that prevailing in consulting.”