Inside BCG’s New Raleigh-Durham Office (Podcast)

We brought BCG Managing Director/Partner Paul Poduri onto the podcast to share about the firm’s latest addition to its office portfolio – Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. The discussion covers:

• Why Raleigh-Durham – and why now?
• BCG’s approach to selecting new office locations
• Sectors of focus for BCG Raleigh-Durham
• Top skills/qualities BCG looks for in candidates
• Killer advice for case interview prep
• Paul’s top memory from his BCG career

Listen in to understand how one of the world’s top consulting firms thinks about expansion!

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• Learn more about BCG’s Raleigh-Durham office
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Transcription

MC 

Paul, welcome to Strategy Simplified.

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Thanks so much for having me, really excited to to take part in this.

MC 

Yeah, excited to chat. I shared a brief bio, is there anything else you’d like folks to know about your background? How you got to BCG, that you’d like most folks know about before we dive into BCG’s newest office?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Yeah, of course. So maybe just to answer your question how I ended up at BCG. So I spent a number of years after college primarily in the world of finance. And when I actually went to Duke for business school, I thought I wanted to go back into finance. And I did a number of internships while I was in business school, frankly, because it was like the one time I could actually take to really try and explore various industries that I had never seen before, so I worked in Private Equity, I worked actually, the Duke Endowment, I worked at an interest rate derivatives hedging trading floor. And I liked all of those things, but it was one of those things where I didn’t feel like any of them were my calling.

And so part of my, you know, exploration into consulting was to try and figure out if it was the type of career that I would like. And so I really liked the process of interviewing and engaging with the consulting firms. And so that’s how I ended up at BCG. I will tell you full disclosure, I think at the time, I probably thought I would be at BCG for a year or two. And, you know, I’m a little bit over a decade past my expiration point now, because I did figure out a job that I really loved. But that’s kind of how I ended up in the in the in the career that I do now.

MC 

Okay, well, you have a really interest interesting story. And I’ll have to pick your brain offline about how to find your calling, because I need help there. That’s a topic we’re all seeking to address. Well, thanks for a little more context, about your journey and congrats on the new office. You know, can you just share with our listeners, you know, why? Raleigh-Durham and why did it make sense for BCG to launch a new office there?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Yeah, of course, happy to, and as you might imagine, I’m pretty excited about this one. So I will tell you I spent the first couple of years with BCG trying to convince anyone that would listen that we needed at office in Raleigh-Durham because I really loved living down there and moved up to Philly for BCG after business school, but when it is all said and done, there are really three primary reasons why BCG decided to open an office in Raleigh-Durham. The first is people and where people will want to live. And if you think about our model, you know, I think maybe 10, 20 years ago, we opened offices in big cities, right? All the ones you think about North America, New York, San Francisco, etc. And what we’ve realized over time is, we need cities and communities where people really want to live. And that’s where they want to spend their time.

And so if you look over the last couple of years, particularly during COVID, a lot of people ended up relocating and/or staying in the Raleigh Durham area when you know, remote work was much more common. So the first is just truly the indicator of, you look at our HR system. And there’s a lot of people that already live there and that tells us, that’s a place where people want to be. Really the same thing happened, by the way, in Nashville where we just opened an office. But the first reason is just people and people want to be there. The second is our talent pool. So if you think about the various local schools, whether it’s Duke or UNC, or NC State, or many others in the area, they are already a very large source of talent for BCG in North America and globally, so being closer to that is a big, big thing for us, we want to be as close to our talent pools as we possibly can.

And so that’s kind of the second. And then the third is, we have an existing, pretty significant base of clients that we partner with that are in the area, frankly, more so than I thought when I, you know, started looking into this in more detail. And so the area is growing, there are a tremendous amount of clients that we already partner with day to day. And that’s kind of the third reason, which is we actually want to be part of the community where we serve. And without an office, it’s hard to do that. And we have people flying in and whatnot. So it’s all three of those reasons. And they all feel like very natural. And there are all, you know, frankly, coming together in one in a lot of ways.

MC 

Yeah, that’s awesome. So now I don’t have to go to New York or Philly, I can stay.

BCG: Paul Poduri 

You got it.

MC 

So you go into where the people are and where the talent is. So the the the triangle, it’s known for high concentration of sife sciences, tech, is it fair to assume that for folks working in the Raleigh-Durham office that projects will kind of be over-indexed in these industries?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

So it’s interesting, because I would say, if you asked me that question, nine months ago, when I wasn’t, you know, full-time, trying to figure this out, I would have actually said, Yeah, of course, it’s, you know, by contract research organizations, or tech companies, of course, what we’ve actually found is, it is much broader than that. There are a really wide range of companies both in the triangle, but also, frankly, in North Carolina, that span beyond healthcare and tech. So if I actually think about, you know, three years from now, one of the clients that we are serving and partnering with, I think it’s going to look like most other cities that we’re in, actually, which is surprising me, because in my box was, you know, you look at RTP, and you see a bunch of health care and tech companies there. But you know, I won’t name all of them, but there are many companies outside those two industries that we already serve, and will likely serve in the future. The other way to think about that is what the makeup of our offices in terms of backgrounds, and right now we have folks that are healthcare folks like myself and tech folks, but we also have many people that are serving a lot of other industries that are already in the office and that typically helps with the spread across what we’re doing. So it’s a long way of saying yes, but there’s probably a lot more actually that will come.

MC 

Yeah, you’re not limiting yourself to these industries. Absolutely. So for you personally, what was the allure of moving over from Philly and helping to establish this new office?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

So two reasons. One is just personally, my wife and I love the area when we lived there, we’re both from smaller cities growing up, it’s a smaller city that’s growing, it has a really nice feel to it. We just had our grand opening party in our office, and, you know, I feel like I’m new to the area, we have over 100 people there and I felt like I knew two thirds of the people already, which is pretty remarkable for a place I’m moving. So that’s the first. The second is when I joined the BCG Philly office, it was brand new. So when I graduated business school, we had just opened Philly and it was a small office, it no longer is a small office.

It’s grown quite a bit, but I really loved the feeling of knowing everyone, engaging with everyone. It’s just a small office feel, we’re in that period now. You know, unfortunately, I think we’re gonna go from a small to medium sized office pretty quickly, but regardless, I just really like the feel of having an office where it’s like, you know, to use the cliche, everyone knows your name. And so there’s just a lot of entrepreneurialism, as a part of that. We do a lot of work that, you know, because we think we should, we just go do, right. And that’s just a very liberating feeling to be able to open an office in that way.

MC 

Is that kind of small office feel part of the appeal for, say, folks are thinking about, you know, a big office like New York, like, what would you tell them about the benefits of coming to a place like Raleigh-Durham?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Sure, so I have to be careful here, right, because my, like colleagues in New York are listening, and they’re gonna tell me to not be negative about their office. But I mean, in all seriousness, I’ll give you an example that will play through also in Raleigh-Durham. So we typically have folks become career advisors for other consultants and associates at the principal or partner level. When I joined Philadelphia, we had 20, or so odd people. And as a result of that, I became a career advisor when I was a first year PL, slightly too big for my britches to do something like that, but it was an amazing experience at the time, and it’s one that was fostered by the fact that we were small and growing have to solve things like that within our office.

Now, of course, we were partnered with DC, we had other senior folks involved, but it’s one of those things where I think about things like that. And when you were in a smaller office, you have to and get the opportunity to do more things like that, because frankly, when you look left and right, there’s only two people instead of 10, right. Now, the flip side of that is when you’re in New York, they you know, as an example, right, you can basically do everything, right, they have every every practice area, everything else.

So the opportunity is going to be probably wider there. But I think for folks that are looking for growth and entrepreneurship, it’s nice to be in a smaller office. But I will tell you if and you probably know this, but if you step into any one of our offices, the feeling is going to be very similar, because we really do team across our regions and our systems in a way that—I don’t think about it as like one office fighting with the other, right. It’s pretty fluid and you know, frankly, from staffing and teaming and everything else, it’s really across everything.

MC 

Sounds like you really can’t lose it no matter where you’re at.

BCG: Paul Poduri 

So the simple piece of advice that someone told me and I’ve told others is pick an office based on where you want to live personally. That’s nice, because our offices are relatively ubiquitous, and there’s not a huge difference between them really matters more just like where do you want to live? And where does your family want to be and all that sort of stuff and that seems like the best advice. Yeah, no, absolutely.

MC 

Well, Paul, I know we’re gonna get 100 messages asking, you know, is this office hiring? Can I how do I apply? So I’ll just leave that open ended to you and, you know, maybe in addition to that, a follow on like, what kind of people tend to thrive in a in a brand new office like this? You mentioned that kind of that self-starter entrepreneurial spirit. Is there anything else?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Yeah. So I’ll answer that in reverse order. So yeah, self-starter, someone that’s open to growth, entrepreneurial. And then for us, it’s someone that wants to live there, right. That’s excited by the area and engaged there. On the recruiting front. Yes, we’re hiring. I would say that the standard response is, you know, for those of you that have mechanisms within your schools, to go through the kind of the protocol that I went through when I was at Duke and whatnot, which is just, that’s the simplest and easiest way to do it. For those that are at schools that don’t necessarily have a major presence of management or strategy consulting firms. And the best way to do that is to network with alums that are at BCG or elsewhere, because they can typically kind of connect some of the dots for you. We are equal opportunity across every different way. But that includes different types of schools. So just because we don’t have a Career Services person, that’s there doesn’t mean that we’re not hiring. It just about kind of connecting some dots or whatnot.

MC 

Yeah, folks at a, you know, quote, unquote, nontarget, just might, need to do a little more legwork to get their foot in the door for opportunities.

BCG: Paul Poduri 

So if I think maybe set a different way, if you think about BCG alums globally, I’m fairly sure we have an alum at almost most universities in the US, right? You just have to find that person. Explain why you’re thinking about it. And ask, you know, so go grab coffee or whatnot, right? Like, that’s the legwork that you might have to do, which is doable, right? It just takes a little bit of work as you say.

MC 

It’s not like you’re climbing Mount Everest, it’s just a little bit of initiative. That’s a great piece of networking and career advice, and what we tell our community all the time, of course, networking is important. So you mentioned offices are fairly ubiquitous. But for Raleigh-Durham, are there any fun, unique features or quirks of the office that are maybe unique to the area?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Yeah. So a couple things. One is if you think about the folks that are part of our office right now, there are a lot of connections within the community already that are really interesting, both in terms of not for profits, and other kind of social impact organizations where people already are involved. And then as you might imagine, there’s quite a lot of athletic allegiance between the two schools left and right of our office. And so you have a lot of folks that are involved, there in in various ways.

But I think what’s been remarkable to me is, almost everyone in our office has a tie to something else, some other organization or some other thing that’s going on in the area, a lot of which are not for profits and things like that, which I think makes things, now that’s not to say that we don’t do that in other offices, but  it’s been really cool to be able to understand what everybody does outside the office and outside of BCG, and it feels like from a community perspective, people really think about the community in a way that’s different than other cities that I’ve seen.

MC 

That’s awesome. So it’s got a unique feel kind of based on just the dynamics of what’s going on in the city. Alright, going back to to kind of the candidate focus for for people who may be BCG as a target firm. Can you just share, like, what are two or three skills or attributes that you really look for when you’re evaluating candidates?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Yep. Yeah, of course. So one way to think about this job, which also translates to how you think about interviewing and engaging with folks as part of that process. This job is about helping our clients get from point A to point B. And if you think if you unpack that, right, there’s kind of three parts of that. there’s one, which is figure out what point A is, understand their context and the problem they’re trying to solve. There’s then B, which is like, what is the answer? How to actually figure out something that’s good. And then the third part is actually how do you get people from A to B. And if you think about every project we do, whether it is like a traditional strategy project, or you know, a post merger integration, all of them have an A and a B and a path from A to B. Right?

And so when you think about if you translate that to okay, I’m a candidate, and I’m trying to land a job or an offer, part of it is really trying to understand in a very structured way, how you what A is, and what B is and how you get to an answer. You know when I was interviewing, I looked at case in point and that was like, the thing that I studied the most and all that’s teaching you is structure. It’s just how do you get very, very structured at solving a problem and getting to an answer. So part of it, and a lot of what we’re looking at is do people think about things in a really structured way? The second part, which is equally as important, is this concept of getting from A to B, which is the communication and the stuff I’ll and the cadence in which you engage, right?

And so, a lot of times you find that folks figure out the answer, but they can’t get people there, right. They’re, you know, too direct with the answer. They’re too indirect with the answer, all the things in between etc. So we’re really looking for the combination of people that are structured and insightful, but also have a way of engaging with people where you could see them working with clients shoulder to shoulder to help them the place they’re trying to go, right. And it’s that combination, by the way, that helps you not only land a job, but it’s that is also what we’re looking for, for people, just generally in your career at BCG. I say this, no one believes me. But the same thing we’re looking for in people that are interviewing is what we’re looking for, as people progress at BCG, it’s like exactly the same set of capabilities.

MC 

Yeah, and it’s the combination, it’s the both. If you had just one part of the like structured ability or the the analytical power, right, but you can’t communicate effectively, then,

BCG: Paul Poduri 

It doesn’t work. Not in this job. There are a lot of other jobs where that works, but in this, it really is the combination and the balance between the two that makes things work.

MC 

Absolutely. Can I ask a throwback question, throwing it back to when you were recruiting for consulting. What’s one thing you wish that you would have done differently, or one thing you wish you would have known as you go through the recruiting process?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

So maybe two things, one on the one on prep, and the other is on, call it like selection of offers, if you’re so fortunate to be selecting. On the prep side, I probably, well, I did mock interviews, let’s say I did 100, I would say I took about two thirds of that. And that I gave a third, I would change that balance to giving more than half. Because when you actually give someone a case interview, you see all the great stuff they do. And then you see all the not so good stuff. And it was incredibly helpful to do that. And I wish I actually had done more of that. Because I actually think I learned more from doing that than I did from actually getting people to give me cases. So that is something that, you know, when I help people prep now I tell them—like I actually sometimes have people give me interviews.

And then I’ll show them and I’ll walk them through how I do it. Because that I think is really helpful. On the selection side, I will spare you the why is BCG the best speech, but the thing I would tell anyone is just really get to know the people. Because at the end of the day, the reason you’re gonna stay at any job, whether it is consulting, or BCG, or anything else is going to be because you like teaming with the people around you. That’s particularly acute in consulting because we work in teams, and that’s our model. But you have to really get to know the people and ask yourself, are these the kind of people that I want to work with day in and day out?

I think that is ultimately way more important than anything else you’re going to find on the statistics or the brands or anything else about the companies. It’s just you get a really good feel from the people around you. Yeah, I love both of those answers. And I think we’ve had hundreds of guests on the podcast, but I don’t think I’ve heard that specific piece of feedback about the case interview about giving more than you’re getting. So that’s really unique and spot on. Thank you for sharing that. All right, Paul, it’s been really great to learn about your journey, learn about BCG office and just office selection and all that good stuff you shared. Love to transition to the last portion of the show where I asked you a couple rapid fire questions. Okay, ready?  Go for it.

MC 

Do you have a favorite piece of media, whether it’s a it’s a book or a movie, or a show that you can send me right now?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

I would say, so I have to be careful here because I’m reading a book directly about a client so I can’t reveal that because that’s, that’s too sensitive. So I find Ray Dalio’s book Principles to be really interesting. It’s one that I reference quite often, just to kind of think things through, but that’s probably a stock answer that anybody in business would say. I really like to read fictionalized books about real events in business or finance, smartest guys in the room type books, like any of those can be really fascinating, which you know, I’m probably like a business nerd about it, but anything in that genre I find to be interesting.

MC 

Okay, awesome. What do you have favorite activity hobby hike, bar, restaurant, something like to do you know in the Triangle, something you’d recommend to, you know, maybe a first time visitor?

BCG: Paul Poduri 

So, I will give you my stock answer which is go to a basketball game at Cameron and I will say, the thing I love about the area is, there’s just a ton of things to do outdoors, whether it’s there’s trails or hiking or things like that. So all the above. The small town, college town feel, whether it is in Durham, or Chapel Hill or Raleigh, I love the schools and walking around and I just really liked that feel a lot.

MC 

Amazing. Alright, final question for you, before we let you go and this one may be a little bit out of left field but favorite or memorable moment from your your decade+ at BCG.

BCG: Paul Poduri 

So, I would say this is like kind of personal on the client side, which is, I’ve helped a number of my clients with career journeys and searches and changes. And in particular, I’ve spent quite a bit of time actually with one client through a number of jobs at different companies, help him land the right job for him. And it’s one of those ones where I look back at like all the work I do and that’s one where I just feel really proud because I helped somebody find a career and a job that they really love that required a lot of work, actually, to find and to figure out and you know, a lot of people don’t think of us as career counselors, but the reality is we’re sitting across from clients every day and we get a little bit of understanding of what they want to do and how they want to do it. And so that part of the job is something that I really liked and then that specific occasion, I feel really good about where things landed.

MC 

That’s amazing. Well, Strategy Simplified, you’ve been listening to Paul Kaduri. Paul, thank you for your time today. Wish you the best of luck and Raleigh-Durham.

BCG: Paul Poduri 

Thanks so much, appreciate it.