MSc in Business Strategy and Consulting
Course Overview
The MSc in Business Strategy and Consulting at the London School of International Business and Management (LSIBM) is a one-year UK Master's for candidates targeting strategy consultancies, in-house corporate strategy teams and boutique advisory firms — a case-team consultant at a City strategy house, a strategy manager at a UK plc, or an independent adviser building a consulting practice. Sitting in the Entrepreneurship & Executive Studies faculty, the programme combines strategy theory with the working consultant's toolkit — hypothesis-driven frameworks, case cracking, executive storytelling — and closes with a live consulting engagement defended before a working consulting partner.
The MSc is shaped around the Institute of Consulting Certified Management Consultant (CMC) route, CMI Level 7 senior-strategy competencies and IoD director development. Study runs one year full-time (two years part-time on the online or distance routes) and is available on-campus in central London, fully online with UK / APAC cohort calls, or by distance learning. Each student is allocated a working consulting practitioner as dissertation supervisor at cohort start.
Key Features
- Curriculum designed around the Institute of Consulting CMC route, CMI Level 7 senior-strategy competencies and IoD director development.
- Three study modes — central London campus, fully online with UK / APAC cohort calls, or distance learning.
- Live consulting engagement with a UK plc, mid-market firm or scale-up.
- Weekly case-cracking labs — MBB-style structuring, mental-maths drills, executive-summary practice.
- Fortnightly senior-practitioner clinic with a strategy-consulting partner, a corporate-strategy director and a former MBB engagement manager.
- Executive-application coaching for consulting-firm interview processes and in-house strategy roles in the final term.
What You Will Learn
The MSc organises strategy and consulting around the working craft the associate actually practises: structuring an ambiguous problem in ten minutes, defending a hypothesis in front of a partner, and shipping a client-ready deck that survives contact with a CEO on a Friday afternoon.
- Hypothesis-driven strategy — MECE thinking, issue trees, pyramid principle.
- Case cracking — market sizing, profitability, market entry, growth-strategy structures.
- Strategic frameworks in practice — Porter's Five Forces, VRIO, three horizons, blue-ocean.
- Financial strategy for consultants — DCF, unit economics, quality-of-earnings screens.
- Executive storytelling — Minto, deck architecture, board-ready one-pagers.
- Consulting client management — scoping, stakeholder maps, change readiness.
- Digital strategy — platform economics, network effects, ecosystem plays.
- Data-driven strategy — cohort analysis, driver trees, sensitivity modelling.
- Consulting ethics and the Institute of Business Ethics guidance — conflict management, insider information.
- Live client engagement and dissertation research on an original strategy question.
Who This Course Is For
- Graduates targeting analyst tracks at UK strategy consultancies (MBB, Tier-2, Big Four Strategy).
- Working analysts moving into engagement-manager roles.
- Corporate-strategy managers formalising a senior credential.
- Independent advisers building a consulting practice under CMC standards.
- International candidates preparing for a UK strategy-consulting career.
Career Pathways
Graduates typically progress into analyst, associate and engagement-manager roles across UK strategy consultancies, Big Four Strategy practices, in-house corporate strategy teams and boutique advisory firms. The MSc supports applications but does not by itself guarantee interview outcomes at any specific consulting firm.
- Strategy Analyst
- Strategy Manager
- Corporate Strategy Associate
- Business Strategist (independent)
- Engagement Manager (consulting, junior)
- Head of Strategic Planning (small team)
The MSc articulates directly into the Institute of Consulting Certified Management Consultant application and the CMI Chartered Manager route.
Entry Requirements
- A UK 2:2 honours degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent international qualification. Applicants with three years of substantive consulting, strategy or corporate-development experience may apply on a portfolio route; a short structured-thinking sample is encouraged with the application.
- GCSE English Language at grade 5/C (or equivalent) is required for domestic applicants; international applicants meet the language rule below.
- IELTS 6.5 overall (no band below 6.0) for non-native English speakers.
- A short statement of intent (600 words) explaining research or applied interests, plus two references (one academic, one workplace or professional-body).
Why Study at LSIBM
The London School of International Business and Management (LSIBM) is a specialist business-education provider based in central London and part of Harold International College. Postgraduate cohorts run in small tutor-visible groups, are shaped by working senior practitioners (partner-level at a Big Four firm, Fellow-level at CIM or CIPD, CFA charter-holders in investment routes) and close with a substantial dissertation, sponsor consulting project or applied capstone defended in front of a working panel.
London puts the City, Canary Wharf, Whitehall, Companies House, the FCA, the Bank of England, the West End and the major consulting, banking and multinational headquarters within a short tube ride of every classroom. LSIBM postgraduates attend a fortnightly senior-practitioner clinic and a structured executive-application coaching programme in the final term.
Apply for the MSc in Business Strategy and Consulting
Step into the senior track with the MSc in Business Strategy and Consulting. Click Enrol Now and admissions will reply within one working day with intake dates, dissertation supervisor allocation guidance and the current fee schedule. LSIBM postgraduates are supported by dedicated executive-application coaching in the final term.
