Advancy

Advancy is a leading global management consulting firm with more than 300 consultants who work on high-stake issues in partnership with the C-Suite of multinational corporations. As a pure-play strategy consultancy, Advancy is a thought leader in shaping innovative and sustainable strategies for its clients and in driving impactful corporate decisions.

Advancy is known for its result-driven approach that is based on quantitative, fact-based analyses and results in simple recommendations supported by impactful action plans. The firm’s small and nimble consulting project teams deliver in-depth industry insights (aided by the firm’s focus on just three sectors of the economy), detailed action plans, and innovative solutions to global clients. Advancy’s goal? To help tackle the most complex business challenges faced by global corporations and leaders.

But should your goal be to land a role at this small but mighty firm? Let’s dive in to find out.

Table of Contents:

1. Advancy Key Stats
2. Advancy History
3. Advancy Careers & Organization
4. Industries and Practice Areas
5. Office Locations
6. Exit Opportunities
7. Notable Alumni
8. Advancy Culture
9. Advancy Interview Tips & Recruiting
10. Target Schools
11. Diversity Programs
12. Advancy Salary

Advancy Key Stats

• Website: https://www.advancy.com/en/
• Headquarters: Paris, France
• Employees: 300
• Locations: New York, Boston, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Sydney, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, Singapore
• Chief Executive: Eric de Bettignies
• Revenue: >$90M

Advancy History

Advancy was founded in 1999 by Eric de Bettignies, who still runs the firm today. Eric was a veteran consultant who had stints at Arthur Anderson (now Accenture), PwC, and Kearney. Still, he longed for a new expression of management consulting that more explicitly tied strategy to results. He felt that clients had matured beyond the point of packaged advice and “copy/paste consultancy” and needed more tailored strategy and implementation plans as they entered the 21st century.

Since 1999, the firm has grown rapidly and organically. In recent years, the firm has achieved growth rates of 30-50% per year, opening 5 new international offices in just the past 5 years. Throughout its history, the firm has doubled in size every 5 years! It’s clear that Advancy’s approach – which emphasizes discipline and professionalism across small, accountable teams – is working!

Advancy Careers & Organization

Career Path

If you land a role at Advancy, here’s what you can expect the career path to look like.

Junior Consultant > Consultant > Senior Consultant > Manager > Principal > Partner

Undergraduate hires enter the firm at the JC level, while post-MBA hires enter the firm at the Senior Consultant level. You can expect to hit a promotion point at Advancy every 2 years. Unlike large consulting firms with rigid progression timelines, fast track promotions are common at Advancy (e.g., a junior consultant can get promoted to consultant within 1 year). Advancy also does not employ an “up or out” model, meaning that you won’t be forced out if you don’t receive or accept a promotion.

This lends itself to the tight-knit culture of collaboration at the firm. Despite the 6 layers of hierarchy at the firm, senior leaders are accessible and staffed on every project. It is easy (and expected) for professionals at all levels to contribute new ideas, suggestions, and insights.

Industries and Practice Areas

While Advancy primarily focuses on strategy engagements, it does not deliver them across every sector like the MBB do. In contrast, the firm focuses its efforts on 3 sectors:

• Consumer Goods & Ingredients
• Life Sciences
• Specialty Materials & Chemicals

This means that the firm has built up considerable institutional knowledge stemming from its work in these industries, and also means that your exit opportunities will be strongest in these sectors.

Office Locations

The firm has office locations in New York, Paris, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, London, Boston, New Delhi, Frankfurt, and Singapore. Advancy has been growing especially quickly in North America – we have it on good authority that the New York office is actively hiring!

Exit Opportunities

Advancy strives to promote consultants internally, with an extraordinary number of Partners having started their careers at the firm. That said, not everyone stays and exit opportunities from Advancy are plentiful. 1/3 of consultants who leave the firm leave for a role in corporate strategy (typically within either Life Sciences, Chemicals, or Consumer Goods).

However, there are additional exit opportunities beyond just corporate strategy. Consulting at Advancy gives you the skills to pursue your entrepreneurial dreams, and 1/3 of the consultants who leave Advancy do so for a role as a Founder or at an early-stage startup.

Finally, Private Equity is a manageable leap from a consulting role at Advancy. In addition, we’ve seen consultants leave the firm for roles in finance, education, and the public sector. In short, a consulting role at Advancy doesn’t close many (if any) doors for you. Close to 1/3 of the consultants who move on from the firm do so for these “other” roles.

Notable Alumni

Now that we’ve discussed exit opportunities at Advancy, it only seems right to spotlight some Advancy alumni who are making waves in the world.

• Corporate Strategy Director, Global auto manufacturer
• VP Strategy and M&A, Global healthcare company
• Global Director of Sustainability, Leading video game developer
• Regional Head of Operations, Airbnb
• Chief of Staff, Leading luxury retail brand
• Chief Development Officer, Global hotel group
• Head of Business Development, Leading movie production studio
• Strategy Director, Global supermarket chain

Advancy Culture

Here’s all you need to know about the firm’s culture – every year, the firm’s leadership plans an international trip to a secret location for the entire global team. Teams meet in Paris, board a plane, and do not know the destination until they land at the airport. How cool is that?

In short, Advancy boasts a laid back yet driven culture with the core values of Excellence, Innovation, and Impact as its bedrock.

Because of its deep and long-lasting relationships with its clients, the firm keeps a laser-focus during projects on tying the work its doing to meaningful client impact. This means that, unlike at some other firms, there is no focus on fulfilling a quota of billable hours. The focus is on conducting the research and analysis necessary to solve the problem. This is an important cultural consideration that all applicants comparing consulting firms should be aware of.

Still, this does not mean that you won’t work hard – this is consulting, after all! Advancy provides differentiation through providing industry expertise to clients and going the extra mile to deliver highest quality work and detailed insights to high level management. As a consultant, you’re also pushed to provide new ideas to clients to stimulate thinking and create value while delivering long-term impact.

Add it all up, and you’ve got a supportive working environment with a myriad of opportunities for fast-paced growth and personal development through corporate strategy, market entry strategy, and commercial due diligence projects.

However, the firm does a nice job of balancing the need to drive client impact and develop its consultants with work-life balance. There is a strong focus on the long-term sustainability of your career, with an emphasis on the fact that no “face-time” is required to be promoted. In addition, your weekends at Advancy are strongly protected – not always a given in the industry.

One of the things that contributes to the great work-life balance and tight-knit culture is the low travel that Advancy consultants do. You can expect to travel <5% of the time, and almost all of your travel will be domestic. Now, if you were hoping that a career in consulting would be your ticket to lifetime hotel and airline status, this may not be the news you were hoping to read. But in this new world, Advancy’s model is refreshing – it is possible to deliver quality work without always being at the client site.

To scratch that international itch, Advancy does offer internal transfers between its offices, as well as group training in Paris.

Since you’ll be at the office ~90% of the time, the firm makes sure that Junior Consultants are formally mentored by Senior Consultants. In addition, the accessibility to senior leaders means that informal mentorship and help are also never far away.

To build on this theme, Advancy has a well-developed training program which provides new professionals systematic training on quantitative analysis and qualitative reasoning. However, as with all consulting firms, you’ll get the best training on-the-job through a robust flow of high-quality projects.

Advancy Interview Tips & Recruiting

Advancy hires from a diverse pool of candidates with different backgrounds. Still, the common denominator amongst candidates is that the firm focuses on identifying strong logical thinking capabilities and good quantitative analysis skills.

Candidates are encouraged to network with Junior Consultants and Consultants to learn more about the culture and career development path. This will help the firm identify you as a prospective candidate who demonstrates career readiness and motivation.

You’ll build on these themes in your resume and cover letter, and you’ll need to do a bang-up job to be considered for a role. Only ~30% of applicants are granted an interview – though Advancy is growing quickly, it hasn’t sacrificed its standards to accommodate that growth.

Out of the applicants who are interviewed, only ~5% are granted an offer. This means that the quality of your case interview preparation is tantamount to your success.

Interview Process

Here’s the sequence of events you can expect as you go through the Advancy interview process:

Resume screening -> Online assessment -> 1^st round behavioral interview (15min) -> 1^st round case interview (90min) -> 2^nd round case interview (120min)

Whether you’re an undergrad, MBA, or experienced candidate, the process will look the same. The good news? While you do have to navigate an online assessment, you won’t have to worry about navigating a group or presentation case interview.

You can expect a Consultant to conduct your 1^st round behavioral interview, while a Senior Consultant or Manager will conduct your 1st round case interview. The firm’s North America CEO himself will conduct the final round case interview – remember what we mentioned about not letting standards slip?

Here’s an interesting twist – your first round case will be interviewer-led (see our best tips here) while your final round case will be interviewee-led. It’s critical to prepare for both styles as you prepare for the Advancy interview. Overall, you can expect 1-2 weeks of prep time between each round of interviews.

Target Schools

Here is a list of schools that Advancy actively recruits from. If you don’t attend one of these schools, don’t worry! Just be sure to network before you apply.

• Brown
• Cal Berkeley
• Cal Tech
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Dartmouth
• Duke
• Emory
• Harvard
• MIT
• NYU
• Northwestern
• Princeton
• Stanford
• U Chicago
• U Michigan
• UCLA
• UPenn

Diversity Programs

As a truly global firm, Advancy prides itself on its diverse and inclusive company culture. The firm’s motto is to ‘Bring everyone in, lift everyone up’, and it has made strides in creating a more gender-balanced group. In the NYC office, women comprise 55% of the consultant team and 50% of the management team.

Advancy Salary

Compensation at Advancy is in line with MBB and higher than other top boutiques. For more detailed information on Advancy Salary and other firms’ compensation, see our Salary Report.

Conclusion

If you’re considering a role in consulting, why would you choose Advancy? In short, the firm maintains a leading position in the consumer and industrial space, giving you the opportunity to work on high quality strategy projects. In addition, Advancy boasts a supportive work environment and the chance to work with management, not for them. Finally, the firm’s boutique size leads to faster-paced development, and the opportunity to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

However, it’s important to note that Advancy may not be the right fit for everyone. The firm is strictly focused on strategy projects, so if you like to see the impact of your work all the way through, a role at the firm may not be the most fulfilling for you. In addition, if the stereotypical life of a consultant appeals to you, you may want to target a larger firm, as you won’t be on the road much. Finally, if you’re looking for the backing or branding of a behemoth firm, Advancy isn’t for you. The firm is actively looking for those who are ready to own their career and part of the firm to continue to drive outsized growth.

More on Advancy:

• Recruiting Process Overview
• The Future of Advancy
• Advancy’s Life Sciences Work
• Advancy Case Interview Guide

• Top Consulting Firms
• Top 10 Boutique Consulting Firms in US
• Consulting Resume: Complete Guide
• Case Interview: Complete Prep Guide