About Daniel Ledin
What skills do you need to make it in consulting?
In management consulting, it is often beneficial to be a generalist – you need the hard skills as well as the soft skills.
As for the hard skills, it’s all about understanding data and how you can work with it to create insights. When applying for an entry-level position, you don’t need to be an expert at Excel. You will learn this through Efficio trainings and projects. However, a strong understanding of data and calculus is likely to get you very far in the recruiting process.
However, just sitting behind your computer screen is not enough. When you work with clients to solve their problems, you need to be able to interact with people, understand them, and show empathy.
➔ Hiring! Efficio are hiring new consultants right now. Click here for more details on the role
How did you land the job at Efficio?
When you study business, you get exposure to people working in consulting and you hear stories about how consultants work across companies, industries, and countries. I realized this was something I needed to push for and make happen for myself.
Before graduating, I looked for a company that could provide me with international opportunities, and Efficio was just a strong match with its offices around the world. Plus, through Efficio, I could get so much exposure to cost reduction and performance improvements – both how you build strategies but also how you implement these in practice in close collaboration with the clients.
My entry to Efficio was based on a reference. I met a Consultant from Efficio at a party while I was still studying and his stories about life at Efficio and the nature of the projects inspired me. Based on that conversation, I did some more research on procurement to understand if it was a match for me and to prepare for the interviews. During the various interview rounds, I met seven or eight consultants and even went to lunch with some of them. You get a good overview of what kind of company culture there is – and I was not in doubt on what to answer when I was fortunate enough to receive an offer from them.
What is your current role?
As a Management Consultant, I have worked for companies across different industries (e.g. oil & gas, port operations, and financial services) as well as different countries (Denmark, Finland, UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia). The clients are typically large companies, as that’s where it really makes sense to bring in consultants to improve costs and performance. In the Nordics, that would typically be C20 companies and private equity portfolio companies.
The bread and butter of what we do is strategic sourcing – in essence optimizing the external spend of a company and the way the client collaborates with the suppliers. We work with selecting the right suppliers, negotiating the right commercials, but also ensuring that they are delivering the right products and services. It’s both about cost reduction and performance improvement.
Right now, I am working in Saudi Arabia for a petrochemical company, which is a unique opportunity to work in a very different context than home in the Nordics. But believe it or not, the most exciting project I’ve been on was for an insurance company in lovely Ballerup outside of Copenhagen. I was there for a year and got to go through the entire cycle in close collaboration with the client – from building the strategy and negotiating with the suppliers to implementing the strategy in practice. All decisions in the project were supported with detailed data analysis that ensured that all our recommendations were fact-based. This created a strong sense of reliability when you transform processes that impact both the employees’ and the suppliers’ daily lives. I really enjoyed the project, and it felt like we were part of the client company.
Although there are many pros of working in consulting, it is definitely not for everybody. The lifestyle and long hours can be difficult at times, and you get a lot of responsibility, which translates to pressure to perform. You need to become very good at planning your workload and balancing it to maintain a somewhat normal life. New projects can be hard as you go into an industry you don’t necessarily know much about. You have to learn very fast from both internal experts, your own research, and the client who typically knows where the pain points are but lacks the right tools and structured approach necessary to solve them. But this pressure can also be rewarding – when you crack the code and deliver data-driven solutions for the better.
Before graduating, I looked for a company that could provide me with international opportunities, and Efficio was just a strong match with its offices around the world. Plus, through Efficio, I could get so much exposure to cost reduction and performance improvements - both how you build strategies but also how you implement these in practice in close collaboration with the clients.
Is it easy to get on an international project, like your current one in Saudi Arabia?
In my case, my typical cycle would be a project in Denmark and a project abroad to maintain balance – to go abroad, but still be a part of the Copenhagen office. I am currently in the Middle East because I requested it and because it made sense for Efficio to pull resources from other offices.
There are no guarantees, but you do have a say in where you want to go. Efficio is trying to be flexible. We have some people who may just have had a baby, and Efficio tries to accommodate them and assign them to local projects or projects with more flexibility. It’s always a case-by-case situation.
What is the company culture like at Efficio?
People at the company are sharp, open-minded, and friendly. When you work so many hours, it’s good to be surrounded by people who can lift you up and help you manage your work.
They will not give you less workload – they would rather teach and mentor you on how you can make it happen through better planning, management, or delegation of tasks. They want you to succeed. It’s not a pointy-elbows type of culture, it’s more collaborative.
For the Copenhagen office specifically, we have a strong, young, and open culture. Everybody interacts – from the most junior to the most senior – and by interact, I also refer to drinks, dining, and great events. If you join us, I will be happy to share the details from the famous night at Kultorvet!
How hard is it to progress through the company?
You get a chance to be promoted every single year, provided that you are performing well and are ready for the next step. It’s very quick and that, of course, means we have more levels, but it is a motivating factor.
When you are on a certain level, you can get some tasks or responsibilities that would be assigned for someone above your level to see if you are ready to take the step up. It’s challenging, but it’s the best way to prove your worth.
People at Efficio will not give you less workload - they would rather teach and mentor you on how you can make it happen through better planning, management, or delegation of tasks. They want you to succeed. It’s not a pointy-elbows type of culture, it’s more collaborative.
Do you have any advice for graduates who would like to work at Efficio?
The best thing to do is to reach out to Consultants and ask questions about their experience. That way, you can understand if consulting is something for you and what the lifestyle or culture in that specific company is.
From a recruiting perspective, it’s convincing when I feel that candidates have spoken to someone in the company and they know what kind of projects we are doing. Candidates don’t need to be experts and entry-level candidates don’t necessarily need any prior experience in procurement. It’s all about having the right attitude, analytical and interpersonal skills – then Efficio will teach you the rest.
➔ Hiring! Efficio are hiring new consultants right now. Click here for more details on the role
