Most Accenture consultants are on the go for the majority of their weeks, with 80-100% of their time spent traveling. This company follows a typical travel schedule from Monday to Thursday, where employees fly to the customer's premises on Mondays and return home on Thursday. It's interesting to note that compared to other companies, Accenture has a more localized business model, which is designed to reduce travel costs and increase profits. Bruce Henderson founded Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1963 after working for 18 years for Westinghouse Corporation (a manufacturing company).
This part of the firm grew mainly through acquisitions of smaller consulting firms in recent decades. In most industries, this schedule is a thing of the past, but for consultants, long hours and frequent travel have always gone with the territory. They earn the highest revenues among strategy consultants and, in general, they are the ones that have existed the longest. Core operational services, such as human resources consulting, supply chain management, finance and risk management, and strategy, saw an increase in startup recommendations or star ratings year over year.
Despite that long history, its president and CEO, Dan Helfrich, says the firm has never had to meet at a time like this. About 85 percent of the consultants at this Philadelphia-based company don't travel at all, while only about 10 percent travel one day a week. However, at boutique firms, travel can be limited and there is a wider variety of average hours that consultants maintain. He says his team is also diverse by design, made up of lifelong consultants, as well as former executives, MBA graduates and psychology majors.
Join for free to get the latest high-level jobs, career growth content and paid consulting engagements delivered straight to your inbox. It's clear that consulting firms have different approaches when it comes to travel. While some companies require their consultants to be on the road most of the time, others have more localized business models that limit travel. Boutique firms also tend to have more flexible schedules when it comes to travel. Ultimately, it's up to each individual consultant to decide how much they want to travel for their job.
