How Women in Consulting are Unlocking Potential

Maria Deres is a Senior Strategy Director for BCG BrightHouse, a BCG subsidiary. For nearly 30 years, BCG BrightHouse pioneered Purpose consulting, creating frameworks to help organizations uncover and embed their purpose. As a division of BCG, BrightHouse combines strategic insight, human ingenuity, and creative expression to foster high-performing, purpose-driven cultures and drive transformation success by understanding what moves people to change. 

Previously a consultant for BCG, Maria returned to BrightHouse at the Berlin office in 2021. We connected with Maria to learn more about her career path and what has helped her to unlock her potential to become the leader that she is today. 

.   .   .  

My career path from BCG to BrightHouse 

I joined BCG in Zurich after university. It was my first job post-grad and I was an Associate and then consultant mainly working in transformations in healthcare. What I learned during that 3 years that I spent with BCG is that I'm most interested in the topic of trust, and I could often see that our projects are most impactful when we manage to bring across a powerful spark to an organization. This interest prompted me to pursue a role at another organization that specialized in these topics. 

I returned when BCG had acquired BrightHouse and saw that the firm was putting even more emphasis on topics like purpose, culture change, and creating momentum and mobilizing organizations. Now I get the best of both worlds - I get to work on the topics and initiatives I am most passionate about, and I get to do it within the BCG universe, which has always been my favorite place to work. More specifically at BrightHouse, where we combine strategic and creative expertise, which I love.  

At BCG, I think we have managed to create ways of working that are so universal and compatible that whenever you get to new case teams, you quickly find a good workflow. It is remarkable because it's very efficient and I think that's something to aspire to as an organization. We are always striving for very high quality and aiming for the best outcomes. I love this about BCG and BrightHouse, it makes me grow and I also think it is a lot of fun. 

How BCG has helped me to unlock my potential  

My first experience working at BCG was more than 10 years ago, and upon my return to BrightHouse, I felt that we have progressed a lot as an organization. Today, I have more role models in leadership that I get to work with day-to-day, for example senior women, which has been inspiring. Within BCG and especially at BrightHouse, it is exciting for me to work with many senior women – and senior men who value and drive diversity. 

I think the Women@BCG affiliation is so important because you can often and easily feel alone, especially if you’re the only woman on your team or in client meetings. It’s beneficial to connect with other women and be able to share how we can succeed in this environment. 

Besides being a woman, being a mother adds even more complexity to the role. I value connections with senior women who also have children and hearing about how they make it work. I want to be present for my children, and I also want to be a senior woman at BCG. This is often tricky to combine, and my goal is, with other senior women, to evolve our system for working moms and parents. 

Encouraging others through mentorship 

I was very honored to be recognized as a role model by INvovle. It made me reflect on what is important in a role model and for me, the most important thing is to be authentic and open.  

Being a woman in this business context isn't always easy. Being a mother isn't always easy, and to me it's like a gift when other women and other mothers open up and admit that they're struggling, but then also share how they succeed. That’s my goal - to share openly how hard it sometimes is, but to recognize that it's also very doable, and a lot of fun, without neglecting the difficult parts.  

I strive for role modeling beyond formal relationships. I have mentees, which we call advees at BrightHouse, who I advocate for, but also other colleagues or informal mentees outside of BCG. I think it’s particularly important for young women in consulting, and I try to encourage them not to see it as a steppingstone or a short-term thing, but to see the opportunity for their career here to be much more.  

A piece of advice I like to share with my advees is to be confident in pursuing your own path at BCG and especially follow your interests. I have felt encouraged to pursue my own path here and even though my career path at BCG wasn’t straightforward, I am exactly at the place where I want to be.

.   .   .     

Hear more from Women@BCG.