Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy

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310: Sales and Client Relationships May 13, 2016

Show notes

A very common strategy for a management consulting firm to displace an incumbent and serve a client is to show an problem / insight / opportunity that the client has not realized before. Unfortunately, this does not work that well in building client relationships and driving sales. In fact, a brilliant insight by itself may even lead to more work for the competition.

In this podcast, and related article, we discuss this issue and address how to fix it.

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FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

309: How to Manage Failure May 07, 2016

Show notes

In this podcast, and related article, we discuss how to manage failure.

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FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

308: How to Resign Apr 20, 2016

Show notes

In this podcast, and related article, I discuss how to resign, and especially how to resign if you are part of the inner circle of the firm and office.

The business model of McKinsey, BCG and that of other firms expects this. When not expected at your firm, it is even more important you handle this correctly.

If you are part of the inner circle most of the best practices you read about will not apply to you. Most of the company rules and guidelines will certainly not apply to you.

I also discuss some ways in which members of my inner circle resigned. Never ever repeat their mistakes.

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FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

307: Building Client Relationships Apr 08, 2016

Show notes

The importance of gaining a client's trust via a solid reputation in the market places a premium on leaders who are skillful in building client relationships. No one would expect a consulting firm with poor reputation to thrive. After all, any firm's future is only as bright as its reputation in the market.

It takes a strategic eye to focus on building client relationships for the long-term, even if it means sacrificing some revenue, and individual compensation, in the short-term. In this podcast we talk about how we approach building client relationships. More specifically, we discuss how we handle negotiating fees with clients. We dive into:

Should you consider competing on price?
What competing on price does to your firm?
If you compete on price what signal are you sending to the client?

Competing on price may bring in some extra revenue in the short-term, but will be damaging to the health of your business in the medium and long-term. Hence, competing on price actually destroys value and should be avoided.

However, if you are a small boutique consulting firm and you choose not to compete on price, how should you compete? In this podcast we also share with you an alternative to competing on price that works for us.

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FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

306: Developing Emerging Leaders Apr 01, 2016

Show notes

The Emerging Leaders Program (also called Emerging Fellows Program) is a scholarship we award to promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We help them plan their studies, select schools and map out their entire path to elite consulting firms, and beyond. We carefully train and groom them. This is a significant scholarship and we have high expectations.

In this podcast (and related article), using Sveta’s story, we discuss what we expect of scholarship recipients and why we have this expectation. We also discuss how we develop young people with tremendous potential.

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FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

305: Why Female PhDs dominate The Consulting Offer Mar 24, 2016

Show notes

In every single season of The Consulting Offer female PhDs have dominated the show through their skills, learning pace and performance.

And they have all been foreign. Two are Chinese and one is Nigerian.

In this podcast we discuss why this may be the case. Why does this one group do so well over MBAs and undergraduates despite the general consensus that PhDs are weaker in cases.

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FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

304: What is the right resume format? Mar 17, 2016

Show notes

This is a frustrating topic for many reasons. You will see it cropping up in TCO III a lot, and hurting one participant significantly.

Therefore, we want to address this topic via a podcast and hope it never comes up again.

Too many clients want to use a resume format because it (1) looks good, (2) was recommended by the school, (3) they spent a lot of time on it, (4) it is a better use of space or (5) they cannot understand why it should change. In this podcast we explain why a bad (in your opinion) resume format needs to be evaluated using very different metrics.

This is an important podcast. Listen to it.

COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn

FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

303: 29.9% of clients who did not join MBB Mar 11, 2016

Show notes

Most firms only talk about their successful clients. They talk about clients who end up joining McKinsey, BCG and Bain (MBB).

We are different.

We believe it is important to talk about those case interview coaching clients who did not make it. 29.9% of our clients wanted to join McKinsey, BCG and Bain but ended up in industry, other consulting firms or government.

What happened?Who is accountable for this result?Is it an error?What could we have done better?Is a 100% placement rate for MBB even possible, while brining in development candidates?

We discuss all of the above and more in this brutally honest podcast.

Note: Our placement rate fluctuates all the time as we have case interview coaching clients going through case interview process with MBB on a continuous basis. So at various points of time, even within the same week, you may see a different placement rate being reported. However, the placement rate for MBB is hovering around 70%, which is the highest in the industry.

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FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR ON HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

302: The Next Generation of Partners Feb 16, 2016

Show notes

In this podcast I relate an experience I had with a young partner we have in China, Amy. This may seem like a small incident but to me it explains the reason why older partners need to bring in younger partners with a different worldview, different skills and different definition of what is normal.

The true mark of an effective partnership is trust. And trust explicitly at the time when you have no idea what will happen but you believe in the judgment of a fellow partner. And the key to trust is finding people who share the same values and intellect.

COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn

FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

301: Many Applicants Misunderstand McKinsey BTO Feb 12, 2016

Show notes

Most applicants have the wrong impression of McKinsey BTO. And through this wrong impression they are missing an opportunity to pursue a wonderful consulting career.

In this podcast, and related article, we discuss how McKinsey BTO is similar to the generalist role, how the market values a McKinsey BTO background and how the future of business will impact the value of a McKinsey BTO background.

Where it matters, McKinsey BTO is no different from strategy and operations.

COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn

FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR CASE INTERVIEWS OR HOW TO CONDUCT STRATEGY, OPERATIONS OR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING STUDIES REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

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