Lancaster MBA 2017 alumnus, Raghuveer Ramkumar (Raghu) currently works as a Strategy Advisor and Senior Project Manager at Arup Group in the UK. He recently achieved Chartered Status as a Management Consultant (ChMC); the first person from Arup and among the first 0.5% of Management Consultants in the UK to have achieved this status.

Raghu explains more about the award and what the achievement means:

What is ChMC?

The award has been created in a partnership between the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), the trade association for the UK’s leading consulting firms, and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Supported and managed by both CMI and MCA, this award ensures that Chartered status is relevant to both the individual and industry and provides a benchmark for career excellence for management consultants to aspire to. Read more about the award here.

Why did you choose to go down this professional route?

Here were two well-recognised brands – the Chartered Management Institute and the Management Consultancies Association – coming together to develop this first ever Chartership for Management Consultants. Without doubt I knew this would benefit my career development and enhance my personal brand, with recognition of consistent, high levels of professional competency and achievement.

ChMC is helping me take more pride in the work I do and making me feel more committed to the Management Consulting profession. The continuous learning aspect of the accreditation is helping me take personal responsibility of my professional development. The competency framework provides me with a good reference point to reflect on gaps to fill and ends to sharpen, thus helping me own and take control of my career.

How did you find out about the chartership?

In the first instance, I led Arup’s efforts to achieve the ChMC accreditation. This initial mapping exercise for the whole firm gave me confidence and motivated me to personally embark on the chartership journey. Arup’s application was successful and within a couple of months, I was able to use my learning from that exercise to gain chartership. I received sponsorship from Arup to go through the experienced route and I also received mentoring support from colleagues as I was developing my submission.

How does this award enhance what you gained through your MBA?

The MBA at Lancaster provided me with the necessary tools and techniques to be a successful consultant. The ChMC complements this by benchmarking those attributes against industry standards.

To be honest, having been through a triple-accredited MBA programme at LUMS, the entire journey of going through both the organisational accreditation and my personal chartership was to a great extent made simple and seamless. This was because I had a good understanding of how management competencies were linked, the importance of underpinning aspects such as mindfulness and introspection to the core consulting skills, and knowledge of associated learning to develop those competencies.

My AMBA membership, gained through Lancaster, was good evidence to demonstrate that I am continuously keeping myself abreast of industry requirements. Being an active part of the alumni group at LUMS meant that I could show the presence of an active professional network that I am linked with and can access to broaden my capabilities and market knowledge.

Would you recommend this chartership to others?

Being Chartered means being valued for the experience, expertise, and skills we bring to the table. It holds the individual, the industry and the affiliated organisation at a high standard and most importantly instils trust and gives confidence to our clients in our capabilities to offer services in this field.

I would highly recommend this chartership to individuals aspiring to develop their career in Management Consultancy. The ChMC competency framework provides a holistic view of the capabilities required to develop as a fully rounded professional while providing a pathway to go about achieving it.

You can read more about the chartership on the CMI website. You can also register to attend one of the CMI masterclasses. A recording of the April Masterclass where Raghu shares some tips and advice can be accessed here.

Related Blogs

• 

  The first term is over. What does the MBA program feel like?

• 

  MBA Consultancy Challenge 2020

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by our bloggers and those providing comments are personal, and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lancaster University. Responsibility for the accuracy of any of the information contained within blog posts belongs to the blogger.