Consulting

The consulting industry is one of the top employers of MBAs - on average, 30 percent of graduates of top schools head for life on the road after graduation. (It's also a big feeder industry for business schools.) Companies struggling to keep up with the booming economy tap consultants to help them change their strategic plans and implement the technology needed to keep up with competitors - thought there were early indications that the industry may be contracting.

Consulting is one of the best-paid professions for recent grads, but long hours, high pressure, and frequent travel are a given, making startups a potentially more appealing option.

Q&A: Clint Grimes, A.T. Kearney

Is there still a need for affirmative action programs at the MBA level? What about at the undergraduate level?
I think there is. I was a little lucky. I got my [undergraduate] degree from MIT. I believe that there are incredibly talented and valuable candidates out there that are being overlooked simply because they don't have the credentials needed to get over the hurdle.

Aside from affiliation with a club or organization, do you align yourself with a particular minority group? In general, there are two kinds of minorities. There are the visible minorities, and those who are invisible, like gays and lesbians. As an African-American, it's kind of hard for me not to stand out.

As a member of a minority group, do you have special advantages and disadvantages?
Advantages? No. But there are disadvantages. The consulting business is all reputation-driven. There are expectations when you give a presentation of what you can do, what you know, or how you're going to carry yourself. Sometimes you have to be very cogent of what you're saying and how you're saying it, just to get over the expectations and get through.

~ Do you consider yourself as a role model to other members of your minority group? Do you think you are perceived as a role model?
I think I have to be because in the position that I'm in, I'm very, very visible. Visibility by itself makes you someone to be emulated. If you know that going in, you have to be careful because there are people who are looking at you as someone to emulate.

Who are your role models?
I think my role models are my parents. I grew up in rural Arkansas, and having my parents stress the value of an education and the importance of achieving it and not letting road blocks hinder you.

What advice would you give a first-year minority MBA? What would you warn them about?
Put your head down and plow through. One of the issues in any MBA program is the value of a peer group with people who look like you and share your issues. You're able to learn from them. Even if you don't have that network, understand that you're sort of a pioneer and blazing a trail for people who will be coming after you. Take the good with the bad.

Reach out to the people that help you find your way through. Most of the programs are difficult. Having someone to lean on, as a mentor of some sort, can help you through that.

How would you categorize the importance of diversity to your company?
I think diversity is incredibly important because Kearney and companies like ours are intellectually capital driven. It's the collective brain trust, the collective learning that we have accumulated over time. The value of that intellectual capital is increased by having a diverse set of opinions. I think without that, very quickly, you lose the creativity.

What do you see in the future of A.T. Kearney?
We're going the right way, looking at the right things. There's definitely not a notion of just increasing in numbers, I think there's a notion of increasing value. I appreciate that. It's much more than lip service.

~ Q&A: Bonita Powell, A.T. Kearney

What kind of diversity programs do you have at A.T. Kearney? How do you define diversity?
We define diversity by ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. We focus on diversity recruiting at the national and local school levels. At the national level, we sponsor and participate in national recruiting conferences such as National Hispanic MBA conference, National Black MBA conference, the Consortium, etc.

In addition, we have activities driven specifically at the school level. We focus on diversity clubs on campus through designated diversity liaisons. The intent is to identify high potential diversity candidates, support diversity activities, and present A.T. Kearney as a place for diversity candidates. We have also begun recruiting on additional college campuses such as Spelman, Morehouse, and Wellesley to recruit diversity candidates.

A.T. Kearney, has developed programs such as ombudspersons at the senior level. These individuals can cover broad diversity issues, though most focus on issues within a targeted group. Candidates appreciate having this focal point available to address questions and in some cases have cited this as a factor in coming to Kearney.

Why is diversity important to A.T. Kearney?
As our clients become more diverse and launch their own diversity initiatives, they look to us to mirror their commitment to a diverse workplace. Increasingly we are seeing specific requests from clients as a part of engagement staffing for us to field a diverse team of consultants. In order to do this, we need to create an environment that actively attracts and retains a diverse workforce.

The firm established a Diversity Task Force about three years ago. The Task Force made a number of recommendations that were implemented immediately including domestic partner benefits, diversity recruiting liaisons and other programs which are being implemented over time including the sabbatical program and diversity training.

~ Many women MBAs say that consulting is a challenging field because of the hours and travel. How do you handle these issues at A.T. Kearney?
Consulting is a very fast-paced, and challenging environment. And while the career field is rewarding, it also presents some challenges in managing the lifestyle particularly the travel.

A.T. Kearney has created options which allow consultants to manage some of the lifestyle issues better. For example, proactively engaging consultants on in-town client assignments or putting them on internal assignments to minimize travel.

We have a number of working mothers. It's really a function of your client base and business. Some don't have to travel as much. Some take children with them. Everybody finds their own personal way to manage their lifestyles and choices. A.T. Kearney is trying to create options, but at some point it becomes a personal lifestyle decision.

How do consultants handle family responsibilities?
I get this question all the time. It applies to men, but it applies to women a little more. Leaving children at home is still more of a women's issue, and as a long-term career issue it needs to be looked at. A.T. Kearney has been supportive in a number of ways including evaluating in-town client opportunities, which I mentioned earlier. We also have paid maternity and paternity leave.

Kearney has tried to make a more concerted effort in recruiting women at more senior levels outside of the firm. In addition, more women are progressing up through the firm. This has been supported by other female and male officers taking an active role in mentoring. There are certainly more women in senior roles getting promotions.

How do you recruit African-Americans?
We have done several things to recruit African Americans. One, we have made a concerted effort to have a presence and cast a wider net to create a larger pool of high potential candidates by attending national events such as National Black MBA Association conference, recruit at a few historically black colleges and universities such a Spelman and Morehouse, and corporate sponsorship of the INROADS and SEO internships programs.

~ Secondly, a Professional Development Forum was created three years ago. The intent is to bring together all of the African-American consultants in the firm to discuss the general direction of the firm but, also issues which are more related to African-Americans. The event is generally attended by over 90 percent of the targeted group and senior leaders of the firm. This is an event which can be beneficial on the recruiting and retention side.

What kind of diversity training programs do you have internally?
We're in the process of piloting a new Diversity Awareness Training program now. We have retained an outside firm to help develop the course material along with A.T. Kearney. Everyone - no matter their race, gender or orientation - has a bias toward people that are similar to them. The objective of the Diversity Awareness Training is to create awareness of these biases and how they manifest themselves in our work, and to provide an introduction to tools and techniques that allow us to work more effectively together.

This training is being launched to improve A.T. Kearney, not to fix a problem. We are having the first pilot test in September, and I hope we will have it tested to the extent that it can be part of the core training process in 2000.

Q&A: Helen Herrador, PricewaterhouseCoopers

What's the best advice would you give a women of color who is starting business school?
Don't be afraid. Try to take the initiative. There's a lot of scary stuff - being away from home. I needed my parents and their encouragement. And I knew I could do it.

It took me a long time to decide to go to business school because I never thought about it. Not because it's male-oriented, but because it seemed so far removed. I subscribe to BusinessWeek, and [men are] mostly what you see. It all comes down to perception.

Were there a lot of minorities at your school?
There weren't a lot. It's still a huge monetary investment, which makes it tougher for minorities on the average.

Did that make it more difficult?
I knew that business school was where I wanted to go. Also, I had to overcome some personal issues - learning to build my self-confidence and learning how to work well with co-workers. I thought that program did a good job in team building. In those small teams you can't be afraid to speak, because it affects your grade. It's the same in the business world - you can't be afraid to say what you think. I think that's what I liked when I joined PricewaterhouseCoopers was the number of women. There's not a lot of Hispanic women, but a lot of women.

~ Is that something you looked for when searching for a firm?
It's a very male-oriented world. I wanted a firm that was woman-friendly It was definitely a criteria I was looking out for. In the interview, I noticed all the diverse people working here.

How has your identity affected your career? Do you feel you need to work harder because of your gender or race?
Your identity is evident to people who don't necessarily know you. So you feel that you need to show them that you're capable.

Do you consider yourself a role model for other women of color?
For Hispanic women, most definitely. I haven't run into too many in the business world, and it would be nice to meet up with a lot more. When I talk to my cousins and tell them what I've been doing, I hope they see that and know that there's so much they can strive for.

Why do you feel there are not as many MBA women minorities?
There were a lot of women in my class, but not many Hispanic women. I'm not sure if that was because of recruiting. It's the business world in general that intimidates Hispanic women are because of the perception in the media that it's a very male- oriented world. V

Financial Services

>From investment banking to insurance to the commercial banking world, MBAs continually rush to the high-stakes, highly-paid world of finance. MBAs tend to seek out careers in the more prestigious fields of finance such as investment banking, venture capital, or commercial banking. Finance is high-stress, with very long hours - and has, at least traditionally, been considered the most "old boy's" of industries, with an atmosphere not particularly hospitable to women, minorities and gays and lesbians. Does this still hold true?

Q&A: Donna C. Peterman, PaineWebber

How does your company identify and recruit MBA-level members of minority groups, women and gays and lesbians?
PaineWebber identifies and recruits women and minority MBAs in a number of ways. We target the top business schools in the country, such as New York University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, Harvard University, and Yale University. While on campus we host workshops and seminars for affinity groups on topics such as the MBA offering process. PaineWebber partners with campus affinity groups to recruit diverse MBA candidates. For example, the firm hosts the Wharton Women in Business conference each year.

~ We also participate in the Columbia Business School Black Business Students Association MBA Conference, the Columbia Women in Business conference and NYU's Stern Women in Business Conference. We also have relationships with the Multicultural Business Society, the National Hispanic Business Association and the Black MBA Club.

How about on campus?
Recruiters work to build relationships with these groups by participating in their meetings on an ongoing basis.

PaineWebber also coordinates "A Day in the Life" presentations at its New York headquarters for New York University and Columbia University business school students. These daylong sessions give prospective employees a quick glance at the numerous projects they can expect to be involved in should they decide to join the firm.

What specific benefits do you have aimed at promoting diversity at PaineWebber?
PaineWebber provides a number of employee benefits that promote the advancement and retention of a diverse workforce. For example, we offer formal flexible-work arrangements that permit employees to balance their work and personal commitments. In addition we provide backup child care programs, for employees in New York City and Weehawken, N.J., locations, to ensure that working parents can tap reliable childcare resources, should there be problems with their usual arrangements. We also have resource and referral hotlines, which offer guidance to employees on topics ranging from parenting issues to physical and mental health. In addition to these programs, PaineWebber is constantly evaluating its career development and benefits programs to ensure that we remain an employer of choice.

What outside programs or organizations devoted to diversity issues is your company associated with?
PaineWebber is affiliated with a number of organizations that promote diversity. The firm's commitment ranges from national partnerships to conference participation to financial support for program development. For example, PaineWebber has established a partnership with the 100 Black Men of America and Joseph J. Grano, Jr., president of PaineWebber Incorporated, currently co-chairs the organization's Miracles of Mentoring campaign along with the chairmen of Nike, United Parcel Service and General Motors.

~ Another partnership the firm has established is with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. PaineWebber's "Beyond the Basics" investment education program serves as a foundation for building relationships with the sorority's members. In addition, prominent PaineWebber female executives participate as speakers at Alpha Kappa Alpha's national and regional conferences.

What is the importance of diversity to PaineWebber?
PaineWebber established a firm-wide diversity initiative in 1997. The firm previously had been involved for more than a decade in various programs that addressed diversity, particularly related to recruiting. By creating a centralized focus, PaineWebber can now capitalize on the opportunities created by the demographic and social changes taking place within the workforce and the marketplace.

The objectives of PaineWebber's diversity initiative are to create a corporate culture that values and leverages the contribution of each employee, recruit and retain the best qualified employees from an increasingly diverse workforce, and reach out to and serve an expanding pool of investors.

Q&A: Christine Wartella, The Chubb Group

Does your school actively recruit, retain, and/or encourage members of minority groups? How so?
It was tough - I was a part-time MBA student, so I wasn't involved in a lot of the things that were more for full-time students.

Do you align yourself with a particular minority group? Do you think your minority status affects your day-to-day work?
I prefer to be inclusive in my affiliations. Does my being a woman affect my work? No. Things like desire for achievement and success are the biggest determinants of work ethic.

Do you consider yourself as a role model to other members of your minority group? Do you think you are perceived as a role model?
Role model is a term I'm not sure I'm comfortable with. I'm often sought out for advice on different things. A lot of people who are considering getting their MBA ask me about the degree. I am also sought out for career advice. Whether that makes me a role model, I'm not sure.

~ Is there still a need for affirmative action programs at the MBA level? What about at the undergraduate level?
What MBA programs can best do in that regard is to make sure the diversity of population understands the opportunities out there. I mean opportunities in terms of potential prospects. Knowing what an MBA can get you. Admissions standards have to be purely merit-based, but I don't believe this will inhibit diversity. I think that once the possibilities are known, then merit-based candidates that reflect all segments of the diverse population will naturally emerge. We have to concentrate on informing segments of the population where the opportunities are least understood.

What advice would you give a first-year minority MBA?
I would give the same advice to any MBA candidate, regardless of minority status. Strive for your own definition of success, because that's what matters to you. Understand your own values and what you want out of a career. It's easy to get caught up in what others think is the best job, but those jobs aren't right for everyone. Following your own course will give you the most satisfaction over time. I didn't get it right out of school; it took me a few years. V Q&A: Carla Arnold, Charles Schwab

How many MBAs are employed at Schwab?
We've hired 20 so far in 1999. Ten percent of our employees have advanced degrees, such as MBAs, PhDs or MAs. Most of our MBAs go into strategic planning or finance. Our e-brokerage arm is an increasingly popular draw.

What are the starting salaries for these positions?
It really depends on the area that the person is in. We have what we call our MAP (Management Associate Program) rotational program. We have put roughly 65-70 people through this program, though not all MBA's participate. Each hire spends three months in a different area and at the end of the year he or she can interview for placement in the appropriate area of interest. The salaries also vary based on experience of the individual in question.

What is the career path for MBAs?
Schwab has so many different opportunities with capability to changes between disciplines that this can also vary greatly. After exiting MAP, there are six possible job tracks; marketing, finance, business development, technology, operations, and human resources. Changing tracks is very common and sometimes the various fields change or merge. In marketing, people work their way up to manager then to director then to vice president. There are a few sub-levels at each step of the way.

~ Tell us about minority representation in the upper ranks at Schwab.
Twenty percent of our managers are minorities. At the officer level, 14 percent are minorities and 38 percent our women. Two of our five vice-chairs are women. One, Dawn Lepore, is our CIO; she was termed "One of the Bay Area's Most Powerful Corporate Women" by the San Francisco Chrnoicle. The other vice-chair is Linnet Deily, who's President of the Schwab Retail Group. 75 percent of Schwab employees report to women - a very high percentage.

In general, Charles Schwab has an impressive variety of high-ranking official from many different backgrounds.

What specific benefits do you have aimed at promoting diversity at your company?
One unusually generous perk that Schwab provides is our employee donation matching program. Schwab matches charitable donations two-for-one, which is a very generous ratio. There are many employee resource gorups at Schwab, which include Black Professionals at Charles Schwab, Gay, Lesbian or Bi Employees of Charles Schwab (GLOBES), the Hispanic Organization of Professional Employees at Schwab (HOPES), Promoting Acceptance and Education of the Physically Challenged (PACE), the Women's Interactive Network at Schwab (WINS) and the Working Parents Association. We've also recently hired a diversity coordinator to lead diversity efforts at Schwab.

I would say that all kind of people feel comfortable at Schwab. We have a large gay and lesbian population because Schwab offers a friendly and tolerant environment. All kinds of people feel comfortable working here. We have a large gay and lesbian population not only because of our San Francisco location but also because Schwab has offers a friendly and tolerant environment.

What is the importance of diversity to your company?
Diversity is important for several reasons. One is that Schwab is operating in a dynamic and competitive marketplace where products are easily duplicated. People make the difference in the quality of the service, so it is critically important for us to have the talents and minds of all of our employees fully engaged. It is also critically important to have a diversity of viewpoints in order to create the innovation that will keep us ahead. Innovation comes from thinking differently and diverse viewpoints lead to new types of thinking. In addition ,the demographics of marketplace are changing rapidly, and businesses need to understand the consumers that make up this marketplace. V

~ Brand Management

Brand is the creation of emotion attached to marketing. With the overflow of advertising and status symbols, we all live in a world of brands, from our breakfast cereal to the clothes we wear to the car we drive. Brand managers manipulate packaging, prices and marketing to win the wars of the supermarket and the showroom. Brand marketing is an area where women MBAs have traditionally found a stronghold. The Midwestern locales of many brand and consumer products companies, however, are said to be not particularly welcoming to gay and lesbian MBAs. Vault.com takes a look inside the world of brand management.

Q&A: Louis Montgomery, Kraft Foods

How does your company identify and recruit MBA-level members of minority groups, women and gays and lesbians?
For MBA recruiting, we focus on key school relationships to reach a broad base of diverse candidates. We recruit primarily at key campuses, including, but not limited to, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Harvard, Duke, Wharton, Columbia, and the Universities of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Texas. We also attend conferences for the Black Management and Hispanic Associations, the Hispanic Alliance for Career Advancement, the Industrial Relations council, and the Society of Women Engineers, in addition to a number of other organizations.

Do you have a gay/lesbian/bisexual group within Kraft Foods?
There are no formal gay/lesbian/bisexual organizations at this time. We do have, however, a number of diversity councils, including the Hispanic Sales Council, Asian-American Sales Council, Women Sales Council, and Women in Operations Council. These councils all began as grass-roots efforts by employees. The company has supported their efforts and recognized the benefits to Kraft and to the specific employee groups.

These organizations participate in meetings with the overall diversity steering team chaired by our CEO, Bob Eckert. These meetings include discussion of ways to advance diversity within the company. These groups all have formal mentoring networks to assist in the recruitment and development of diverse employees. They have also sponsored recruitment nights where members of their groups and Kraft staffing representatives conduct networking sessions with prospective employees.

~ What specific MBA diversity recruiting programs does your company have on campus? Do you also target job fairs and other off-campus recruiting events?
We mainly work through key schools to reach out to a variety of minority organizations. Those organizations have events that Kraft will attend in addition to the events at the key schools. Kraft recruiting teams will attend the events to reach out to minority students. For the schools that we don't visit, we reach out to minority students through the national conferences that we attend.

What specific benefits do you have aimed at promoting diversity at Kraft?
We certainly have mentoring programs. Just about all the diversity councils have them, and they hold networking and career development sessions. This is important because Kraft feels very strongly about employee development. We offer feedback on job performance through our development programs, mid-year performance discussions, and formal career discussions. We offer an array of internal development opportunities, including classroom training to improve computer, presentation and negotiation skills, for example. We also have a tuition reimbursement program to support external development opportunities.

We offer an extensive menu of benefits and services for our employees. Plus, Kraft offers programs that help employees balance their professional and personal lives. We call these programs WorkLife Solutions. Through these programs we offer a number of benefits to our employees including a contact for a referral on anything from finding a child care provider to making repairs on their homes. We will reimburse an employee for qualified adoption fees up to $3,000. We'll also reimburse families for emergency child care.

What is the importance of diversity to your company?
For Kraft, diversity is an integral part of our business mission. We understand and recognize that in order to continue to be a leading company within the food industry, or to attain our goal of becoming the undisputed leader, we need people of all backgrounds to participate in the effort. Much work is accomplished by teams at Kraft, and the best teams are diverse. We recognize the need to develop the talent that will help us to become the undisputed leader in the food industry.

~ >From the consumer side, we market to all segments of society. In order to be successful, we need a representative workforce. I'd say diversity is a critical issue for Kraft.

What kind of minority representation does your company have at the MBA level?
Our marketing department - where an MBA is typical - has the most diverse group of MBA-level employees within the company. More than 20 percent of the department consists of people of color, 60 percent are women. On a broader scope, within the total workforce at Kraft, one out of every three employees is female, and one out of four is a person of color.

Q&A: Jeneane Kee, Colgate-Palmolive

Why did you want to obtain your MBA?
I have an undergraduate degree in finance math and statistics, but I wanted to make a career change, and I wanted to get into marketing, and a MBA will help you do that.

What were the organizations like at Kellogg?
The school does a great job in helping students financially and academically. As soon as you walk in the door there the BMA (Black Management Association) kind of takes your hand. The BMA does a great job in helping you academically, with class work, studying, as well as career wise. There's also a social aspect in terms of having an outlet. They do this before you even get to school. From day one, you connect.

How did these organizations help you prepare for your career?
I think that the BMA helped me in preparing for interviews. They sat down with me and tore my resume apart and made it outstanding. They went over interviews over and over again, as much as possible, into the wee hours of the morning.

There's no way I would have been prepared to get the jobs I got if they wouldn't have been there.

Did you find that corporate America reflected life at school?
No. I don't think that's the case. Business schools are somewhat of an artificial setting. In reality, the percentages of minority representation are weak.