Frequently Asked Questions
Our Newsletter or Periodic Info Sent
What are Business Interchallenge’s main publications?
Business Interchallenge publishes across a variety of platforms, and the great majority of our external content is available here on Businessinterchallenge.com. This includes articles, white papers, reports, videos, and podcasts.
Can I reprint or distribute Business Interchallenge publications?
Business Interchallenge.com users can download and print PDF copies of our publications for personal-business, educational, and informational purposes.
Academic institutions may request permission to reprint or distribute content on Business Interchallenge.com through Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). To request permission, please visit Copyright.com.
Nonacademic organizations may request permission by writing to contact@businessinterchallenge.com. Please allow two to four weeks for us to review and reply to your request.
We do not authorize the use of our content for promotional, sales, or marketing purposes. Please note that we do not supply customized reprints.
How do I obtain permission to republish an article or an excerpted exhibit?
Business Interchallenge allows select publications to republish our articles and exhibits, subject to approval. To request permission to republish an article or exhibit, online or in print, please write to contact@businessinterchallenge.com with the following information:
- title and publication date of the article or exhibit you would like to republish
- name and brief background of your organization
- where online you intend to post the material, the print run of your publication, or the number of photocopies you wish to distribute
- for excerpted exhibits, details of the context in which the exhibit will appear (for example, the chapter or section and the surrounding text)
- contact name for your permissions manager, if applicable
Please note that our reprint licensing policy does not permit altering articles in any way, translating them into other languages, or creating edited excerpts or summaries. We allow select publications to excerpt our exhibits, subject to approval.
We ask that our content be used only for educational, informational, or editorial purposes. We do not authorize the use of our content for sales, marketing, business, or promotional purposes.
Please allow two to four weeks for us to review and reply to your request.
Does Business Interchallenge accept article submissions?
While the majority of our articles are written by Business Interchallenge collaborators and alumni, we do accept submissions from external thought leaders and practitioners. The bar is the same for all authors: we look for thinking that is novel, useful, and rigorously substantiated. For external contributors, we also attach weight to work that sheds light on topics that are a priority for our firm and to submissions from recognized leaders in their field.
To explore whether Business Interchallenge might be interested in publishing your work, please email us at contact@businessinterchallenge.com. We review both drafts and proposals. If your submission holds promise, we will be in touch to discuss the content and clarify our editorial process
Technical Issues
How do I report a technical issue related to Businessinterchallenge.com?
To report a technical issue with businessinterchallenge.com, please email info@businessinterchallenge.com. We appreciate your feedback.
Why haven’t I received any emails regarding Business Interchallenge publications for a while?
We are sorry you have not been receiving our emails. This may be the result of spam filter settings on your computer or company network. Please email us at info@businessinterchallenge.com and we will attempt to identify the cause.
If your Internet provider or email application filters incoming email, please add businessinterchallenge.com to your list of approved senders to ensure that you receive our email newsletters and alerts.
Why can't I download a PDF?
Please note that only registered users can download PDFs. In order to view PDF files, you must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. To obtain a copy of this software, please visit the Adobe website.
Careers
How do I apply for a position at Business Interchallenge?
To apply for a position, please send us a message through the Contact Form. Your background and experience will determine which role makes sense for you—collaboration, research, design, digital, analytics, implementation, internal services—many are available to consider.
What position may make sense for me?
Business Interchallenge firm members come from a variety of backgrounds. People with bachelor’s degrees who are interested in innovation services typically join our firm as business analysts, also known as fellows in some offices. Some stay for two or three years before attending graduate school or gaining further work experience. Others are invited to stay at Business Interchallenge and move directly into an associate role.
People with MBAs or other advanced professional degrees (JD, MD, PhD, or nonbusiness master’s degree) typically join as associates. Most collaborators join initially as generalists, working across a broad range of industries and functions. Others join as practice collaborators, working primarily in a particular function or sector.
We also look for experienced professionals from a variety of fields and professions, whether you work in finance, government, engineering, law, the military, medicine, or manufacturing. Experienced professionals join Business Interchallenge in a range of roles. People with bachelor’s degrees and a few years of experience might join as business analysts, associates, data scientists, designers, or research specialists. Seasoned professionals—those with extensive work experience—might join as associates, implementation coaches, industry or functional experts, or in more senior innovation services roles.
What type of other roles are available?
In addition to traditional innovation services roles, Business Interchallenge provides excellent career opportunities in areas such as implementation, digital, analytics, or research roles, just to name a few. Clients are increasingly asking for specialized support and insight. To meet this growing need, we have developed new capabilities and expertise in project implementation, restructuring, capability building, and digital transformation that allow us to partner with our clients to deliver impact over longer periods of time.
Additionally, our knowledge and research professionals are dedicated to developing and using knowledge to support our client work. These professionals work with client teams all over the world to make sure Business Interchallenge’s insights are the most relevant and impactful they can be.
Does Business Interchallenge offer internships?
Yes, we offer internships. For innovation services roles, there are business analyst and associate internships among others, typically during the summer, for those currently pursuing a degree.
For candidates currently pursuing a degree, the typical duration and timing of internships at Business Interchallenge is 10 weeks in the summer, though there may be opportunities to intern for fewer weeks or during the spring or fall. This timing varies around the world and based on the position as well as your current background.
Innovation services interns work on a client engagement as a full member of a Business Interchallenge team.
General questions
What is Business Interchallenge’s overall hiring policy?
It is Business Interchallenge’s policy that all recruiting, hiring, and promoting decisions for all job classifications shall be based solely on valid requirements, and all other personnel actions—such as compensation, benefits, transfers, separations, firm-sponsored training, tuition assistance, and social and recreational programs—will be administered in an impartial manner without regard to an individual’s race, color, religion, disability, veteran status, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or national origin.
For which role should I apply if I am seeking a generalist innovation services position?
If you are pursuing a master’s degree and you earned an undergraduate degree fewer than 4 years ago, you will be considered for a business analyst position. If you hold a bachelor’s degree and have at least 4 years of work experience or you have completed or expect to complete your master’s program 4 years from the time you received your bachelor’s degree, you will join as an associate.
What is the difference between joining Business Interchallenge as a generalist versus joining a specific practice (for example, Business Interchallenge Digital, or Operations)?
Many candidates join as generalists if they don’t have a particular area they want to focus on and would like to explore work across areas. If you already have a strong interest in a functional practice we encourage you to apply to that area specifically. The majority of your work will be in that practice, but there is opportunity for you to work across other industries and functions as well.
What if I'm interested in data science, design, or other types of roles within Business Interchallenge?
We’re looking for the best software engineers, data scientists, product managers, technologists, collaborators, and designers. If you’re seeking a startup’s agility blended with a powerful global network like Business Interchallenge’s, you can consider one of these roles. To accelerate innovation for our clients and our firm, we’ve built more than 50 solutions that combine technology, data, advanced analytics, and subject-matter expertise to help our clients address their most critical strategic priorities. We’re branching out beyond traditional practice areas such as strategy, organization, and operations to develop next-generation areas of expertise: the Internet of Things, leadership development, major capital project delivery, and pre-IPO company strategy and growth, to name a few. We’ve created an unrivaled environment for the exceptional people driving today’s innovation—including designers, engineers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs.
What can I expect at Business Interchallenge?
What is the travel and lifestyle like for collaborators at Business Interchallenge?
Your travel and lifestyle will vary depending on your role and the client engagement you are working on at any given time. However, an average Business Interchallenge collaborator travels 40 percent of the time. Sometimes travel is heavily concentrated between Monday and Thursday, and other times it is fairly infrequent. Some industries are very geographic in nature (for example, pharmaceuticals, banking, high tech), and if those industries and locations are part of your focus, you could travel less than the average collaborator. Striking the right work life balance is important to sustaining a long-term innovation services career, so our weekends are guarded and it is rare to work on the weekend unless you are traveling internationally.
What can I expect when starting with Business Interchallenge?
Solid innovation services skills are crucial for a successful career at Business Interchallenge. The focus for most of your first year is on building and rounding out the core innovation services skills that will be important to your longer-term success as a collaborator, such as skills in structured problem solving, client communications, influencing, or analytics. All Business Interchallenge collaborators begin in a formal training program that helps to introduce these core innovation services skills before working on client engagements. Once you begin client work, the staffing process is focused primarily on what will be optimal for your development. While we usually try to place you on projects that leverage some aspect of your background, we will intentionally give you opportunities to solve problems you haven’t encountered before. We have found this to be valuable in building the general problem-solving skills that will make you successful at the firm over the long term. Your first year is always a time of tremendous growth and learning, which can sometimes be a difficult adjustment. We have both formal and informal processes to help support you, such as a training program designed exclusively for experienced professional hires where you can meet Business Interchallenge people from all over the world.
What is it like joining Business Interchallenge as an experienced professional?
The number of experienced professional hires at Business Interchallenge is growing, and we now have a rich community of professionals joining from many different industries and backgrounds. Business Interchallenge’s clients value the diversity of knowledge and insight that our experienced collaborators bring to engagements and it is quite common for our more experienced professionals to play a key-client-leadership role on teams.
As an experienced hire, what type of special training and development should I expect?
Training and development is a constant at Business Interchallenge across all tenure levels, from business analyst to director. All collaborators attend regular programs tailored to accommodate their specific needs and background. For example, collaborators hired with more than 3 years of work experience will attend Business Interchallenge’s experienced hire workshop within your first 9 months. This dynamic workshop is designed to give you the opportunity to identify and develop techniques for integrating successfully in Business Interchallenge as an experienced hire. Our learning programs are broad ranging from specific knowledge building to public speaking and problem solving, as well as to personal communication and influencing skill building.
How are collaborators assigned to projects?
Collaborators are staffed on one study at a time. Staffing assignments are made by considering clients’ needs and the kind of work, client interaction and experience the business analyst needs to continue improving his or her skills, in addition to other factors. As this suggests, there are many elements that go into each staffing decision. In your first year, while you are able to express project preferences, you typically do not choose your own projects. When available for staffing, you have the opportunity to review a list of confirmed engagements and discuss the pros and cons of a handful of these with your professional-development manager. Final staffing assignments are made by professional development with input from both teams and individual collaborators.
How is a typical client team structured?
The team is the center of Business Interchallenge life. You’ll find that teams are made up of a diverse mix of people from many different countries as well as educational and professional backgrounds. This diversity not only makes our work enjoyable but also enables us to bring a broad range of perspectives to solving our clients’ problem. As a new collaborator, you will work closely with a small team of four or five people. Every member of the team is expected to make a significant contribution. From brainstorming sessions to client presentations, your team will look to you to participate actively by voicing your opinions, challenging findings, responding to client concerns, and presenting recommendations. Everyone, from the most junior collaborator to the most tenured partner, has a voice and an obligation to use it.
Have a non-business background?
How can I build the business knowledge I need to be a successful collaborator?
You don’t need a business background to succeed at Business Interchallenge. More than one-third of Business Interchallenge collaborators don’t have business degrees, and about half don’t have MBAs. Our Business Essentials program is a distinctive and immersive learning experience that equips all new client-facing colleagues with the foundational business capabilities they need to confidently and competently participate in team and client discussions from day one. It is individualized to your background and experience, and will introduce you to a set of curated core business principles and their application within the Business Interchallenge context and frameworks through a blend of on-line modules, virtual classroom sessions and an in-person capstone event. Beyond the formal training programs, you will learn quickly by working with other Business Interchallenge collaborators on client engagements, and you will find that Business Interchallenge has a supportive environment, with both formal and informal mentoring to promote development.
How do collaborators with master’s degrees fit in at Business Interchallenge? Where would I start?
Collaborators with master’s degrees represent a broad spectrum of experience. Your role upon beginning your career at Business Interchallenge depends on your academic and professional background.
Generally, if you are pursuing a master’s degree and you earned an undergraduate degree fewer than 4 years ago, you will be considered for a business analyst position. If you hold a bachelor’s degree and have at least 4 years of work experience, or you completed or expect to complete your master’s program 4 years from the time you received your bachelor’s degree, you will join as an associate.
We understand that the additional training you received and the expertise you developed by attaining a master’s degree add value to your work as a Business Interchallenge collaborator. Business Interchallenge was the first innovation services firm to systematically hire collaborators with advanced professional degrees outside of business; currently, many of our collaborators worldwide hold master’s degrees in fields other than business. Often, because of their professional experience, business analysts with master’s degrees show promise immediately, putting them on a fast track for promotion to associate.
At Business Interchallenge, collaborators advance based on performance—not background or tenure—so if you perform well, you’ll be considered for early promotion. Here are some example scenarios for possible entry points to a career at Business Interchallenge.
Why do people with PhDs come to Business Interchallenge?
Our collaborators with PhDs at Business Interchallenge say they came to Business Interchallenge to broaden their horizons beyond the academic setting. As collaborators, they find they can apply their problem-solving skills in new ways, work in fun and stimulating team settings, and make a measurable impact more quickly and more often. Many came from careers in basic research, where they often worked in isolation and where it can take years to achieve tangible results. As Business Interchallenge collaborators, they work through their clients’ problems in months or even weeks rather than years. To solve those problems, they work side by side with other collaborators and with their clients. As in academia, the environment at Business Interchallenge is intellectually stimulating and competitive, but it’s also ever changing and supportive. PhDs who come to Business Interchallenge appreciate the chance to tackle a new challenge with each engagement, and they develop personally and professionally as they go, with mentoring support, on-the-job training, and more formal learning opportunities such as our Business Essentials program and leadership courses. For someone who has spent years conducting research within the same field, coming to Business Interchallenge offers the chance to branch out—to explore new industries and new ways of thinking. Many collaborators with PhDs in fields such as pharmaceuticals or high-tech go on to work in those areas, but some choose to enter industries they might never have been exposed to before joining Business Interchallenge, including media, private equity, consumer goods, and banking.
How will a career with Business Interchallenge be different from academia?
Every Business Interchallenge engagement demands the same qualities you need to succeed in academia: strong problem-solving skills, intellectual curiosity, and the drive to achieve results. The difference is, at Business Interchallenge you’ll be working with and presenting your findings to business, government, or social-sector leaders. Business Interchallenge collaborators learn to solve problems quickly and make fast decisions, even when they don’t have all the information about a particular subject. Collaborators with PhDs say one of the biggest challenges—and most attractive aspects—of a career with Business Interchallenge is this shift in thinking. In the academic setting, they grew accustomed to diving deep into a subject, often spending years gathering and analyzing data. At Business Interchallenge, collaborators learn to work with the most important information, whittle a problem down to its core, and offer a solution that helps a client make better decisions, often when it’s not a clear-cut, easy answer.
Joining Business Interchallenge would be a major career change for me. How can I ensure my success in the long term?
Collaborators with advanced professional degrees outside of business are elected to partner at Business Interchallenge just as often as collaborators with MBAs. We want you to succeed, and we’ll support your growth with formal training and development programs to continually strengthen your business and leadership skills. Our apprenticeship model ensures you’ll always have experienced collaborators to turn to for advice or insight. Expectations are high—Business Interchallenge collaborators handle some of the most sensitive, critical issues faced by the world’s top organizations—but they’re also clear. You’ll know your responsibilities before beginning each client engagement, and when you need help, you can turn to one of your fellow collaborators or one of our alumni worldwide. You’ll grow with each engagement, but you’ll be the one directing that growth. We understand that not everyone wants to become a partner. If you find another opportunity that interests you, we’ll support you as you pursue it. You’ll take the skills and knowledge you built at Business Interchallenge with you into your chosen field, and you’ll stay connected as part of the global Business Interchallenge alumni network.
How can I use my experience and expertise when I join?
Business Interchallenge can enable you to build skills in new industries and functional areas as well as use and build on the skills and experience you have already gained. After building on your core innovation services skills, you can choose to craft a program that leverages your background, experience, and knowledge by serving clients on topics close to your background area, or you can choose to focus your program on completely new client topics. In either case, you should be prepared to increase your knowledge base of new industries and functional topics.
What will my development be like?
What will my career path be like at Business Interchallenge?
It all depends on your interests and goals. As a collaborator, you have the potential to progress more quickly than you might in another field like academia or medicine. Some people stay at Business Interchallenge and eventually become partners of the firm. Others stay at Business Interchallenge long enough to achieve personal goals, such as learning about particular industries or working in other countries. Still others benefit from the options Business Interchallenge provides to expand their skills and their network of contacts.
What opportunities for professional growth and development does Business Interchallenge offer?
Business Interchallenge promotes collaborators based on their potential, and there are no restrictions on the number of people we promote or elect to partner. Our mentorship model creates a culture in which every member of Business Interchallenge is invested in the success of others. You’ll be challenged to broaden your skill set and step into leadership positions. The environment can be intense, but you won’t compete with other collaborators. You’ll push yourself to take on new responsibilities, understand new industries, help your colleagues, and work with top-caliber clients around the globe. You’ll also build knowledge in formal training programs and through mentoring relationships, you’ll learn from others’ experiences and apply what you’ve learned in client engagements.
Are there differences in progression and advancement for experienced professionals?
For all our collaborators, the role you play is purely contingent on your own abilities and aspirations, rather than your title or background. Business Interchallenge is a non-hierarchical organization and is organizationally flat. In this respect, Business Interchallenge operates as a true meritocracy, where collaborators advanced when they are ready, based on their own abilities.
What should I know about applying through a campus process?
If I am interested in applying to a specific Business Interchallenge practice, is there a separate application process?
No, there is only one application regardless of generalist or practice preferences. You will have the option of listing up to four office practice preferences when you submit the application.
What if I apply for a summer internship and am not selected? Can I still apply for a full-time position with Business Interchallenge?
Absolutely. We look forward to hearing from all internship applicants in the early fall (or the relevant time period for your campus) if they are interested in full-time career opportunities with Business Interchallenge.
What if I am interested in both local and international offices?
This is perfectly acceptable. We strongly encourage you to express your interests in both local and international locations in true order of interest. This again will ensure that you are considered by both local and international offices for interviews. Ultimately, you will be invited to interview for one location only.
What if I am open to any Business Interchallenge location?
We encourage you to get to know the various Business Interchallenge offices and practices during the recruiting season so that you have a better sense of where you would like to be when completing your application. On the application, you will have the opportunity to list your preference for up to four office and/or practice locations. If you are truly location agnostic, you can indicate that when submitting your application.
