Alice

Engagement Manager

Tell us about yourself.

Outside of work I run after my two-year-old, Harriet, and try to put in an appearance as an ‘Army Wife’ for my husband, who seems always to be stationed as far away from London as possible. I work full time, so my time with Harriet is limited during the week (usually I leave before breakfast, but mostly get home in time for bath and bed). During the weekend she wears out both her parents in the local swimming pool, or we just go visit the ducks. I like the change of pace that my weekends bring.

Tell is a bit about your career at Diageo.

I joined Diageo as a member of the commercial planning team in 2001. The role was to support a U.K. grocery sales team (the ‘off trade’), and I learned an awful lot about how tough it is to sell—even if you are a large, high-visibility supplier, U.K. grocery is a hard environment.

I spent my second year with Diageo in the Guinness marketing team. It was a fantastic experience, working with one of the best brands in the world and getting experience in the ‘on trade’ (bars and clubs to you and me). I had responsibility for Guinness’s online marketing. I learned from experience how to plan e-mail campaigns, monitor Website statistics, and brief creatives (without being intimidated).

What made you decide to return to McKinsey?

I loved my time with Diageo but missed the intellectual challenge and the variety that McKinsey gave me every day (I had been a business analyst before going to Diageo). I realised I had a lot more to learn about how to manage the biggest issues that companies face—and that McKinsey would be the best place to keep learning.

How has your experience there benefited you on returning to McKinsey?

It’s been a huge help. I left McKinsey for Diageo knowing quite a lot about problem solving, but not much at all about what it was like to work in the kinds of companies my clients work in. Diageo taught me about managing a budget, working with the same group of colleagues on an ongoing basis, handling buyers and agencies and sales teams, and how it felt to watch our stock price every day. Those are experiences that help me understand what my clients are going through, even though they’re not experiences commonly available to us within McKinsey. This has really helped me put myself on my client’s side and see things from their perspective.

What made McKinsey seem like a good fit for you?

I love the people—an incredible mix of sharp intelligence, pragmatism, and a lot of loyalty and support. Also a great desire to make a difference for our clients. It’s amazing to work every day with such motivated people.

The work remains just as challenging as when I joined, and I enjoy the feeling that I’m always being given the chance to improve. McKinsey is great at pitching another challenge at you just as you think you’ve mastered the last one. I’m always encouraged to take on more, think more deeply, and support my teams more. There is no time to get bored, and that really keeps me going.

Describe your experiences with mentorship at the firm.

McKinsey is a great culture for finding and developing mentors. You meet a lot of people, from all levels, during the course of your work, and those that are a good fit with you and the way you work often end up being mentors to some degree. How much you make of the mentoring relationship beyond that is completely up to you. McKinsey folk are always very busy, but I’ve found that people, of whatever tenure, are really good about freeing up time for chats about development.

It’s also a great place to start learning how to coach others. Some of my most effective coaches have been peers of mine, and analysts or associates on my team. Equally, I’m enjoying starting to mentor people I’ve worked with beyond the life span of the study we’ve done together. It’s a great way of building a real community that you care about within the office, and it’s a very rewarding experience.