The BCG Bench: How a Self-Made Pitch Deck Ended a Consulting Stagnation

The deck functioned as a visual résumé, highlighting Chan’s proficiency in financial modeling, driver trees, and complex analysis. Rather than mass-distributing the document, he sent it strategically to partners and project leaders he had already engaged. While the immediate result was not an instant placement, the exercise forced him to articulate his value proposition and deepened his internal network. He spent three months unstaffed in total, eventually realizing that the downtime was less a professional failure and more a brief window of respite before the relentless pace of consulting projects took over.

Chan’s experience underscores the reality that staffing decisions often hinge on human connections and familiarity rather than just raw capability. He advises consultants facing similar lulls to utilize the time for training, deep dives into firm knowledge bases, and building relationships through coffee chats. His pivot from that period of uncertainty eventually inspired his current role as cofounder of Pear, an AI platform designed to help independent consultants secure strategy work. By automating the creation of the very deck he once hand-crafted, his company now aims to solve the visibility challenge that once kept him waiting on the sidelines.