How to build a strategy team - The ultimate guide

In-house strategy jobs are a natural destination for candidates leaving top tier strategy consulting firms (like McKinsey, Bain and BCG). But as a leader of an in-house strategy team, how do you attract, recruit and retain the best strategy candidates?

In this ultimate “how to” guide to recruiting and retaining the best strategy candidates and building an in-house strategy function, we collate all of our data-driven insights gained from:

• Partnering with 100s of strategy teams worldwide to help them hire better
• Regular conversations with Chief Strategy Officers in our global network and
• Data collected via our hiring platform - movemeon.com and regular user surveys

Below you will find practical tips that will help shape your strategy team and recruitment approach. We hope you find them useful. 

If you would value a more in depth discussion about any of these insights or how movemeon.com applies ground breaking technology to strategy recruitment, please get in touch so we can schedule a time to say hello and answer your questions.

What candidates are looking for when leaving strategy consulting 

Insight - “work-life balance & impact”

Our survey data clearly shows that there are 2 main reasons that people leave strategy consulting firms. When asked for the main reason they left / would leave, 87% of candidates cite one of:

1. Better work-life balance / control (55%)
2. More impact (32%)

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When it comes to work-life balance, our data shows that job satisfaction remains stable between 35-55 working hours per week. Above 55 hours, job satisfaction falls sharply because working more than 11 hours per day, requires routinely working in the evenings or putting in hours over the weekend.

Pay was the main reason to leave consulting for just 8% of professionals. When it comes to compensation, the vast majority of consultants are happy with a sideways move (i.e, maintaining but not significantly increasing their take-home) when considering in-house strategy roles.

Practical tip: work-life balance

CONTROL is what's really valued (e.g, weekends back; committing to mid-week evening hobbies / family time - rather than receiving a call from a Senior at 6pm and given 5 hours work).

Build your team culture around (1) delivering results rather than face-time and (2) a genuine belief that people do their best work when their fresh and have a balanced life. Don't worry if you do work the occasional evening or weekend - strategy professionals understand exceptions happen and typically aren't set on a 9 to 5!

Here's some text you can use - in job descriptions or to frame an answer to a question about work-life balance:

"We focus on outcomes, not hours worked. We believe people do their best work when they're feeling fresh and able to keep their commitments outside work. So you are in control of your hours.

We're an ambitious & high-performing team, but that doesn't mean we routinely work very late into the evening or on the weekend.

Ultimately we trust everyone to deliver in their job in a way that is sustainable for them."

Practical tip: impact

The majority of strategy consultants miss being able to see the results of the work they do. Typically, they come up with recommendations but the project ends before those recommendations are acted upon.

Build your team responsibilities to include partnering colleagues through the “delivery phase”. Enable your team to help turn recommendations into reality and learn to adjust those recommendations in the “real world” based on what’s working / not working.

Common candidate questions to prepare for:

• What are the 3 most impactful things the team has delivered in the past 2 years?
• Are there common roadblocks to adding value? How do you overcome these?
• How is team success measured (beyond “running a successful strategic planning process”)?

Click here to view our best success stories for strategy hires!

What candidates look for in an in-house strategy team - the “stepping stone”

Insight - “the stepping stone”

Our survey data shows strong demand for strategy roles in all sizes of organisations. Whether you are a start-up or a long established multinational, there is strong candidate interest in joining your in-house strategy or transformation team.

However, the most popular strategy teams are set up as a stepping stone. Candidates are able to join for a defined period of time (typically 1.5-3 years) before moving into commercial or operational roles within the business. In fact, 62% of candidates aim for their career to move towards a CEO/COO/General Manager position. Whereas only 21% aim to stay within a strategy or transformation function (and become a leader there).

Practical tip - “the stepping stone”

Mindset: Leaders of the most sought after in-house strategy teams accept that they will constantly lose talent as those people move internally. They view seeding the business with talent as a key factor that defines their success. 

Job description: Reference the team as a “pipeline” and evidence that by showcasing 2 or 3 people who have moved out of the team and been successful in non-strategy roles across the company. 

Equally, make it clear that progress in the team (either to take on more responsibility / a more senior role) is also a possibility and the approach to progression is meritocratic (i.e, high performers can take on more responsibility, quickly) - after all, 1 in 4 candidates do envisage staying and progressing within the team.

Common candidate questions to prepare for:

• How quickly do high performers progress & how does their role change in the team?
• What teams and roles can people move into from the strategy team? Can you share 2 or 3 recent examples?
• How many years do people typically stay in the team?

https://www.movemeon.com/success-stories/

What candidates look for in an in-house strategy team - “impact enabling reporting lines”

Insight - reporting lines

You’ll recall that at the start of this guide, “impact” was shown as the 2nd most important thing candidates are looking for in an in-house strategy  team / role. Candidates perceive that the team is likely to be more impactful if the organisation structure places importance on the strategy team. The most common things that candidates look for are:

• Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) (i.e, the team leader) being a full member of the Executive team
• CSO reporting to the CEO (as a first preference)
• A central strategy team as opposed to a decentralised structure where 1 or 2 strategy professionals sit in each business unit
  • Where a decentralised structure makes sense, a clear structure for collaboration and clear delineation of ownership areas
• A clear - and preferably relatively flat - structure within the strategy team

Practical tip - reporting lines

Whatever reporting line you currently have, you must be able to evidence that it empowers the team to have maximum impact. In your job descriptions and/or initial discussions with prospective candidates we recommend:

• Describing the team i.e,
  • Size
  • Hierarchy / structure
  • Common backgrounds
  • Way of working
    
• Describing the main enablers of team impact
  • Reporting line
  • Regularity of time with the CEO/ COO/ CFO
  • Regularity of exposure to the wider Executive team

Common candidate questions to prepare for:

• Who does the CSO report to?
• Is the CSO a full member of the Executive team?
• How often do strategy team members meet with the CEO/COO/CFO/Exec?
• Is there 1 group strategy team? Or a team for each region / business? Or both?
• If multiple teams, how do the different teams collaborate? Is there a hierarchy?

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Movemeon was founded by two MBB alumni, but works with consultants from a comprehensive range of firms. Find out how we can help hire a specialised strategist for your team.

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