Career Development - Case Study Example

?Case Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 0.BCG’s Career Development and Mentorship Processes: Strengths and Weakness 3 1.Strength of the Career Development and Mentorship Process 3 1.2.Weaknesses of Career Development and Mentorship Process 5 2.0.Analysis of the Action of Consultants and Mentors 6 2.1. Analysis of the Actions of Madeleine Lagarde and Her Mentor 6 2.2. Analysis of the Actions of Eric Wong and His Mentor 7 3.0. Ways to Make Mentorship More Different 8 Bibliography 9 1.0. BCG’s Career Development and Mentorship Processes: Strengths and Weakness Boston Consulting Group is considered as the ideal place for strategy consulting as an organisation. The main objective of the organisation is to attract, develop and retain the best of the candidates in the organisation. The career development process for the professionals and mentorship program in the organisation is the best. The strengths and weaknesses of these processes are discussed in the below paragraphs. 1.1. Strength of the Career Development and Mentorship Process The career development in BCG is quite remarkable. There is a good scope for career building in the organisation, ranging from associates to officers. The associates and consultants in the firm are primarily focused on the organisational module. The project leader handles various projects in the organisation. The managers have the responsibility to handle both the project and the clients of the organisation as both are termed essential for the success of the business. The officers of BCG give much emphasis on clients and the success of the organisation. The promotion in the organisation is opted based on the relevant skills of the employees in the present position and their capability to operate in the subsequent position. The managers after acquiring the skills for almost 36 months are then promoted to the officer level. The promotion is conducted depending on the quality of employees rather than on time period. Furthermore, the work experience in BCG for a minimum of 3 yrs is termed to be valuable. Thus, the professionals can develop enough scope in their future career prospect. The organisation provides good position to the employees after they gain sufficient amount of knowledge in several fields which include helping clients, personal learning and solving challenging problems. The incoming consultants are assigned a Career Development Consultant (CDC) advisor, as they provide guidance to the clients in their project work and help them in their success. They also provide positive and/or negative feedback to the incumbents for their improvement. Therefore, the employees can grow skills by the opportunities from staffing. Consequently, the employees need to be proactive in building their skills. The training is also conducted for the professionals for qualitative and administrative purpose. The formal training helps the employees to improve their social skills, networking skills and becoming more familiar with the working environment of BCG. With an overall point of view, the on-job training is quite productive for the professionals. The BCG officers are assigned as informal mentors for incoming consultants and CDC advisors are the formal mentors. The mentors, who are selected for the incumbents, assist them to deal with several issues and stimulate their skills. There is no structured time for the mentors to talk to the consultants. From the first month of their joining up to 24th month, mentors discuss and try to explore various problems that may arise with the consultants in their work and workplace. 1.2. Weaknesses of Career Development and Mentorship Process BCG gives primary focus on handling the clients rather than the growth of the people. The promotion in the organisation is decided by the senior persons depending on the skills of the professionals and not by their time period in the job. Thus, biasness is most likely to arise in the workplace. There is a criterion of voluntary exit for the professionals during their on-job training period due to poor performance in their work. According to the career development process followed in the company, the experience will have no value in their career prospects if the employees after attaining the experience of two years leave the job. In spite of having skills and experiences in their position, the employees need to pass three tests to be promoted as a project leader. The first test is conducted to examine the ability of analytical problem solving; second test is about their capability to interact with colleagues along with clients by exchanging ideas and views. The last test is about the capability to fit between the organisational culture of BCG and the personal values. The employees will lose the job and may create bad impression in the work place if the skills and capabilities are not developed properly. The major role of CDC advisor is to guide the incumbents. The informal training can play vital role than formal training in this case. With the informal training sessions, the employees are most likely to feel comfortable in the workplace and with their respective mentors. Suggestively, the employees instead of being specialized in all the fields need to develop business judgement as it will increase their learning ability through observation. The consultants have an informal interaction with CDC advisors. Thus, along with the officers, the interaction of the CDC advisors can be made informal with the employees. 2.0. Analysis of the Action of Consultants and Mentors 2.1. Analysis of the Actions of Madeleine Lagarde and Her Mentor Madeleine Lagarde was a management student with a degree in economics and engineering. She joined BCG as a consultant. With her career in BCG, she could have learnt and attained skills from this profession which would have been beneficial for her in future. For her, mentoring guide Eric Perel had been assigned. Lagarde’s first project had been completed efficiently with other members. From her first project work she received positive feedback for her dedication, team spirit, success and humility from CDC advisors. She had an informal meeting with her mentor discussing about the various issues of work. But she never disclosed her problems in to him. When she completed her second project, she had received universal admiration from CDC advisors. Such admiration and her tremendous performance made other professionals depend upon her. In order to divert such dependence, she tried to engage herself in the work. Eric Peret joined BCG as a consultant and then he was promoted as Vice President of the organisation in 1998. He was assigned as the mentor of Madeleine Lagarde. During the mentorship for first 18 months, he observed that she was efficient and bright to work in BCG but was dissatisfied for a certain reason. Being a good mentor, he wanted to make her comfortable by arranging several meetings and delivered advices besides sharing his own experience. But as Eric was totally different from Lagarde, she never exposed her details to him. As a result, Eric as a mentor, failed to give proper assistance and guidance to her. 2.2. Analysis of the Actions of Eric Wong and His Mentor Eric Wong joined Boston Consulting Group in Hong Kong. He was interested to join the organisation as a consultant as he could learn and gather information related to different industries. Mr. Lao, the Vice President, had been informally assigned as his mentor. Wong got his first project in Automobile manufacturer with other members. But after the completion of project he received negative feedback as he was unwilling to follow the suggestion and ideas of the team members. CDC advisor had emphasized for the development of his presentation and client handling skills. Wong could not disclose his problems to his mentor as Mr. Lao rarely visited the office. He was dedicated to his work and wanted to give his best in the next project. He received compliments from the CDC advisors for hard work but his presentation skills needed to be improved further. Though he had pressure from both of his personal and professional life but he was trying balance the both. Michael Lao was working as Vice President in BCG Hong Kong for five years. He had been chosen as the mentor of Wong. The strangers or the new employees might get frightened from his rigid and harsh nature. He rarely visited the office to guide his consultant thus Wong faced problems while working with his mentor. According to Lao, Wong was a proud individual. Though he was facing problems in his job but was trying hard to overcome all the difficulties. 3.0. Ways to Make Mentorship More Different The proper way of mentoring the professionals will lead to productive and positive results for both the individual and the organisation. The informal mentorship is a fruitful way to guide the consultants for their success. The guidance from the mentor during the first few months of the professional period of an individual should be provided in an efficient manner. Thus, they can develop all the skills related to the work and the issues of the organisation. The mentor must be attentive and responsible to the incoming consultants for guidance in their career path. To make effective mentorship the mentor should arrange for informal meetings and discus all the issues interrelated with the consultants, his work, problems in the organisation and career development. Bibliography Nanda, Ashish. & Morrell, Kelley. Developing Professionals Harvard Business School, 2006. Read More