Sally Yue - Kearney
About Kearney
Kearney is a global management consulting firm, working with organisations all around the world to enhance the strategic and operational issues businesses face. At the core of what they do is Kearney’s commitment in making a positive social impact through both client engagements and their pro-bono projects, and ultimately, create lasting benefits to the world we live in.
About Sally Yue
Sally Yue is an Associate at Kearney, one of the top strategy consulting firms in the world. Sally joined Kearney in 2016 as a Business Analyst before starting her role as an Associate in 2018. Prior to a career in consulting, Sally pursued undergraduate studies in Engineering and Pharmaceutical Science and completed her Master’s thesis in Chemical Engineering. With an academic background in science and engineering and passion for sustainability, Sally’s experience and insights present a unique and socially conscious outlook to management consulting.
Q1. Can you please tell us about your journey and your current position at Kearney?
“I started up the social impact team in 2018 with another colleague in Melbourne and we’ve since grown the team to have a bigger footprint in Sydney too.”
I’ve been with Kearney for around four and a half years, starting as a BA (part of the graduate intake) in 2016 and am now an Associate at Kearney. Had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects across many industries. I started up the social impact team in 2018 with another colleague in Melbourne and we’ve since grown the team to have a bigger footprint in Sydney too.
Q2. What is the most rewarding aspect of working within the social impact team?
“The challenges are unique…”
There are a couple of really rewarding aspects of working within the social impact space:
Ability to pursue areas which you are interested in and being able to make a tangible difference
Working with like-minded individuals and passionate people (both client side and internal team)
The challenges are unique (i.e. the issues we face with NFP and charities is often very different from our usual clients often due to scale of operations and funding constraints, and so need to be quite creative on the solution)
Q3. Can you tell us about a particularly memorable/enriching social impact initiative or partnership project that you have worked on?
“I found organising this event super powerful as it helped raise significant awareness across both offices and encouraged more people to do more within their community”
We ran a half day social impact themed event across Melbourne and Sydney. In Melbourne, we went on a tour around Melbourne and talked about homelessness and then had an organisation called Free to Feed which supports new immigrants and refugees by giving them a job teaching and running cooking classes. In Sydney, they did a walk around tour with Wayside city mission which talked about many of the social issues which lead to homelessness.
I found organising this event super powerful as it helped raise significant awareness across both offices and encouraged more people to do more within their community (it was also a fantastic day where everyone had a wonderful time). Off the back of these days, we’ve worked to deepen our partnership with these organisations (ran a free workshop with Free to Feed to help them identify and refine their processes to improve operational efficiency) and now working on a project with Wayside.
Q4. With a background in science and engineering, have you always strived to make an impact through consulting? Is there anything you wish you knew during your degree?
“If I had to go back and tell my 20 year old self something it’ll probably be “you’ll never stop learning so just embrace the challenge of whatever comes your way.”
I think most people go into consulting wanting to make an impact on our clients. I have loved learning new skills and gaining knowledge throughout my consulting career and I don’t think I would have appreciated the journey as much if I learnt more during my degree. If I had to go back and tell my 20 year old self something it’ll probably be “you’ll never stop learning so just embrace the challenge of whatever comes your way.”
Q5. What social issues are you particularly passionate about and how has working as a consultant allowed you to pursue these passions?
I’m really passionate about mental health and sustainability. We are very lucky at Kearney that we have a leadership team who are very passionate about social impact and social responsibility and have always supported our initiatives (whether to enable us to take a couple of weeks to do a pro-bono project or run an event to support a fund-raising initiative).
Q6. How do you think the rise of CSR and sustainability has changed the way companies operate?
“… there is still more that companies can do in this space and challenge the existing status quo to target issues that lie at the heart of social and environmental problems.”
I think companies definitely have put greater emphasis on sustainability and CSR in their operations. Another aspect to consider is partnerships between the NFP and business/ government/ other NFPS/ and social entrepreneurs which I think more companies have been embracing. However, I think there is still more that companies can do in this space and challenge the existing status quo to target issues that lie at the heart of social and environmental problems.
Q7. How has COVID-19 changed the scope of your work and how you liaise with your team and clients?
We have definitely had to explore more creative ways of working with digital (e.g. shifting to more video calls and group based chat platforms) both within the team and with clients. In addition, keeping connected through virtual team events has also changed the scope of what we can do (e.g. previously we’d have team dinners, recently had a team games night instead). I think what we do is still the same, we still support our clients in the best way we can by delivering impactful and insightful change. We’ve also strived to be a leader in this industry and help our clients think through what COVID-19 will mean for their business and what the road to recovery looks like.
Sally Yue - Associate at Kearney
Big thank you to Sally Yue from Kearney for taking the time to answer our questions.