Event: Young MCA Annual General Meeting
Presenter: Rahoul Bhansali, Hudson & Yorke and Rebecca Lloyd, PwC
Location: Mott MacDonald, Fleet Place, London
Date: 21st June 2013
Time: 17:30 – 20:00
After a warm welcome to the AGM, Des O’Connor, Young MCA Chair, talked through the achievements and growth of the Young MCA in the past year. With over 1000 members, the network continues to strengthen. The suggestions, ideas, connections and abilities of all the consultants in the network will provide guidance on how to ensure the Young MCA offers the best opportunities for its members.
Two guest speakers spoke about their perspective of the consulting industry and their career journey. Rahoul Bhansali, Head of Government, Energy & Utilities Practice at Hudson & Yorke, highlighted the opportunities we have in consulting to make a real difference and drive change. Working with clients and industries that face huge challenges, we are positioned to contribute to their success and encourage resilience.
As the 2013 MCA Young Consultant of the Year, Rebecca Lloyd (Manager, PwC) gave an insight into the strengths which contributed to her success. Her creativity and desire to engage with clients has set her apart, whether this is by making meetings more interactive and productive or by creating a fun memory for her clients to take away – one client received group photos of them ‘skiing’ through the office! Rebecca’s advice was to identify what you do well, and develop this into your selling point.
Key takeaways from guest speakers
- Network and be nice! The people you meet now might be the people you’re trying to sell to in the future. And if you don’t make an effort to be friendly, they’ll definitely remember it.
- Disregard the stereotype – it’s not about stealing someone’s watch to tell them the time. The industry you work in makes real change and progress; you can be proud of doing work that makes a difference.
- Try to identify and understand what your strengths are, whether that is creativity, engaging stakeholders, managing projects or anything in between.
- Use your strengths to develop your niche – you’ll get more satisfaction and success from your career if you recognise and exploit them.
Following the speakers, four breakout sessions were held covering some of the key themes on the Young MCA’s agenda: Events, Networks, Communications and the new Managers Network. The sessions sparked off a lot of debate, resulting in some great suggestions and feedback to help shape the offering of the network for the coming year: For further detail on each of the four sessions please email youngmca@mca.org.uk
Written by Laura Cruickshank, Analyst at Capita Consulting & Young MCA Steering Committee Member.