Gilbert
Lee

Victoria
Jiao

Senior Associate
Hong Kong

Associate
Shanghai

I usually begin my week at the client's office, where we spend Monday to Thursday when we are on client projects, to plan for the week.  This is an important moment of the week to develop work plan, set internal milestones and plan target deliverables for the week to come to ensure our project proceeds well according to master work plan. 

This often follows by a catch up with clients on where the project stands to ensure we are synchronized.  I then conduct interviews with the client from different departments and at all levels to collect both specific data we need and their points of view or concerns. The rest of the day may involve synthesizing the data on hand and drawing conclusions from the synthesis to test some previous hypothesis we have on the issues.

Another day may begin with a brainstorming session with the Partner, the project manager and other team members on our current findings.  In the meeting we decide to meet with some key executives of our client to strengthen our baseline understanding.  In the afternoon, I visit some of the industry players, including suppliers, distributors, competitors and consumers, in the client's industry to further understand dynamics of the value chain.  In the evening when Europe opens, I call up our associates in the London office to share their experience on their previous work on benchmarking best practice for our client's industry.

On another day of the week, I sit down to work with two consultants on the team to pull together financial modeling analysis we need.  We walk through the financial model and try to calculate the financial projection for the industry and the impact of our work based on various scenarios.  We then continue to put down our thinking and initial recommendations in a presentation for a weekly client workshop.  In the evening we have a call with the Partner and the project manager to review and refine the presentation.

Apart from the current project, I attend a conference call involving associates from all of our Asian offices to share the Greater China team's experience in a previous organization restructure project.  We exchange ideas on how this piece of work may have different implications in different cultural contexts and investigate how our team can support  a project being conducted in Soul.  I also interview two candidates applying to Booz & Company for a summer consultant position.  I give the candidates a case to test their problem-solving skills, and I talk with them to understand their motivation, career aspiration and  teamwork experiences.

Friday is our Home Office Day where we return to our home office and get the chance to meet with associates working in different projects.  We attend the office update session hosted by our Managing Partner to keep abreast of latest news and development of Booz & Company and the Greater China Team.  The afternoon often involves different training sessions to further strengthen our functional competencies and analytical skills.  The week then ends with an evening happy hour get-together where everyone have an enjoyable and relaxing time.

Unlike some of my colleagues who begin their weeks on client site, most of my Monday mornings start in the Shanghai office, as those of us based here occasionally have a higher chance of working from the home office due to many multinational corporations being headquartered in Shanghai.  After the obligatory consumption of coffee/tea and pastries, followed by a few warm chats with colleagues/teammates to catch up on our respective weekends, we start our team meeting to determine weekly agenda, discuss project progress, and set key deliverables for the week.

Following the discussion, the team then splits up, and I’m off to work on my individual module, which might include working with the research team to gather the necessary data for further analysis and synthesis to support my initial hypothesis, conducting primary research via industry experts interviews, and validating data with the client counterparts. 

The next day may begin with an early morning conference call with three partners, one from Beijing, one from Mumbai, and one from New York, who are subject matter experts in a particular area to brainstorm an approach to address my current client’s key issue.  After the call, I quickly summarize the key findings and list any action items that require follow-ups and distribute them out to the attendees.  The rest of the day is spent on synthesis of the data collected earlier, and following up on the action items from the call in the morning. 
I spend the following morning fine-tuning the deck in preparation for the team progress update meeting in the afternoon.  During the meeting, we walk through the key issues that the client is facing and what our initial proposed approach would be to help them address said questions.  We then discuss what data we have vs. what data we still need in order to complete our analysis and determine next steps of following up with the client.  In the evening we have another call with a principal from Paris to solicit his thoughts on our approach and refine the presentation.

In addition to the project work, I have a meeting scheduled with our Greater China Managing Director to discuss our “Women @ Booz” initiative and put together some initial thoughts about our inaugural event in Asia.  Based on her input, I start to draft a survey which will go out to female professional staff to get their inputs on how the event should run.  In the evening I have a call with an associate based in Paris to help answer his questions regarding a global client whom we’re both serving at the moment. 

Our Home Office Day takes place on Fridays when we’d typically get to see our colleagues who have been out on the road all week.  Once a month we have office update sessions followed by a training session on a specific topic.  The week will end with our office Happy Hour where snacks and beverages are brought in for the entire office to enjoy and get ready to kick off the weekend after a week of hard work.