Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

In this podcast we extract the most important mistakes, best-practices and lessons learned from our clients who interviewed and are still interviewing through the January 2012 US MBA internships.

Far too many candidates think public sector work is boring. In fact, just the opposite is true. Public sector work typically falls into 4 categories: national government, regional government, state-owned-enterprises and state initiatives. This podcast focuses on national government and state-owned-enterprises, and we want to show you that these engagements are among the most eminent, significant, challenging and career enhancing. We will discuss specific engagements (scrubbed for detail) and why they are in many ways more exciting than private sector projects.

We have responded to the bolded out part of the question below: “As a person from a big emerging market interested in the long term career in my region, I am thinking about which strategy makes more sense for a person like me: 1) start at BBM in his own country 2) start at BBM in the US, transferring after some time back to his country (to BBM or directly to industry). I can think of the following pros of the first option: a) better chances for success at BBM due to the absence of cultural barriers, higher growth of BBM in that country b) better exit opportunities c) the earlier opportunity to start building professional network in that country d) better experience at BBM due to higher chance of being staffed on “crown-jewel” clients. Pros of the second option: a) the prestige of the US experience b) better training c) better experience due to exposure to the American companies which on average are higher quality organizations than emerging market companies. I think many people would be interested in your opi

We have responded to the bolded out part of the question below: “As a person from a big emerging market interested in the long term career in my region, I am thinking about which strategy makes more sense for a person like me: 1) start at BBM in his own country 2) start at BBM in the US, transferring after some time back to his country (to BBM or directly to industry). I can think of the following pros of the first option: a) better chances for success at BBM due to the absence of cultural barriers, higher growth of BBM in that country b) better exit opportunities c) the earlier opportunity to start building professional network in that country d) better experience at BBM due to higher chance of being staffed on “crown-jewel” clients. Pros of the second option: a) the prestige of the US experience b) better training c) better experience due to exposure to the American companies which on average are higher quality organizations than emerging market companies. I think many people would be interested in your opi

We get a variety of queries from all levels of consultants: analysts up to principal. This question came from a female engagement manager in the USA. She was distraught after having worked very hard to build her career, and not sure how to handle this ultimatum from her husband. She was afraid that any changes to her work schedule would affect her partner track. We offer some helpful considerations for managing this delicate situation. Should you have a colleague in a similar situations it is essential not to judge either partner and NEVER offer the solution. Always offer options and discuss the considerations. In personal matters, the person in question must always make the decision. If you make it for them, they become reliant on your and that is not appropriate nor healthy for any relationship, personal or professional.

Unfortunately, in management consulting this is something everyone should plan for. Performance or economic conditions can lead to the up-or-out policy being applied. We have had several requests to help mainly associate (MBA-level) admits. The key thing is not to panic. Not to lose any leverage. Not to make rash decisions and rush off resumes. Not to do anything until this has settled in and a strategy has been developed. The decision should not affect your self worth in any way. In all fairness, consulting firms do treat candidates well during this painful transition. Full disclosure, I was the architect of many such decisions and can understand the difficulty for candidates. Here I present a blue-print to follow which worked very well when I released candidates. With the economy already softening , recruitment down worldwide for 2012 and fees down in several major offices, this podcast is timely.

This is such a great dilemma. The answer is going to surprise many people. Therefore, pay attention to the logic we apply to answer this question, as well as the real examples we will offer. The options are a) going back to Deloitte as a manager, or potentially a lateral move as senior consultant in another country, b) going to industry or c) moving to BCG. The path you want to take is important, and leads to some surprising conclusions. Far too many applicants simply assume BCG or McKinsey are better than Deloitte S&O. All other things being equal, they are if you are pursuing corporate strategy and particularly their training and value systems. However, things are rarely equal and you have to isolate those things which are not and understand their impact on the attractive of each firm to you and only you.

Many of our candidates are still interviewing, but we can, with a fair degree of accuracy, determine how they will do. We project a 60%-65% placement rate, which considering that internships slots are far fewer than full-time slots, is expected. In this podcast we segment our candidates and present some important lessons for those who want to pursue the full-time cycle in September 2012, as well as candidates in other countries and US undergrads.

Most readers have a vague understanding of the lifestyle of a management consultant. It is cultivated by the images consulting firms work very hard to keep up. In this podcast we explain the issues found on a typical engagement, and most importantly, why the lifestyle is tough.

The problem with advice for female management consultants is that most of that advice is centered on telling females consultants they need to change to fit into consulting firms. That is bad advice, because you can never be happy if you change into something you are not. In the short-term, you may need to compromise, but you should always, always be trying to get the organization to adjust and accept you for who you are. That is essential.

Oddly enough, very few candidates critically evaluate their learning styles before embarking on case training. To be fair, those who are weak at learning, present the most challenging cases for us. This podcast looks at the different stages of learning: 0 – learning how to receive, capture and apply feedback, 1 – learning the hard skills, 2 – learning the communication skills, 3 – learning to apply both, and 4 – application of both in successively more complex environments.

The power and privilege of management consulting:I was in my lower 20′s when I was given my first engagement to interact directly with the COO of a major European multinational. There is no greater privilege in the world than gaining permission to sit across the table of an executive officer of a firm, and have a discussion about his operating model and its cost implications.

Unfortunately, this is a common question and dilemma for many candidates. They try desperately to gain experience at Deloitte or LEK, hoping this will offer an advantage when applying to the big three. In fact, this strategy is encouraged by many misguided MBA counselors and well-meaning friends who do not know any better – but should.

Our book, focuses on the day-in-the-life view on management consulting. There are two other books I would strongly urge you to read. “McKinsey’s Marvin Bower” by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim is the single most important book to read. In fact, many McKinsey consultants should read this book as well.“The Mind of the Strategist” by Kenichi Ohmae is the other. Both these books are with me all the time. In this podcast we discuss why you should read these books, and avoid the McKinsey Mind, Way series.

Most people have a romanticized view of management consulting work. Usually wrong. I wanted to talk about my typically day/week as an associate (MBA level) consultant, and particularly how that changed as I moved up the ranks to the partnership. It will help you understand why mental math is so useful, as well as the extreme stresses of the job. Keep in mind that I was a very, very driven partner. It was very normal for me to work most of Saturday and Sunday and I typically traveled on a Saturday night so I could arrive in a new city the day before the week began. This allowed me to adjust and prepare adequately for the week ahead. Many partners could, and do travel less. I still maintain an aggressive work and travel schedule and have never formed a family. It all depends on priorities and client demands.

Just about every potential candidate we screen talks about the impact management consulting has on major corporations and governments around the world. Indeed, that remains an alluring reason to join BBM. In this podcast, I wanted to discuss the true impact of management consulting, by reflecting on one of my own projects, and discussing the real power and responsibility of management consulting. This will help you understand why cases are so tough. When thinking about the role and impact of management consultants, you must always remember the law of scarcity. There is never ever enough investment and jobs to go around. Therefore, when we advise on a plant being built in Poland versus Romania or entering Brazil today and Indonesia later, there will be winning families and losing families. There is no way around it. In the short term, someone will suffer. Your job is to make sure the client benefits no matter the emotional fallout. And there is always emotional impact. It cannot be avoided, though junior consu

Podcast: Day 0 with a tough candidate Early this year, we spent a week in Middle East helping a candidate prepare for his case interviews. The son of a former client, this series of podcasts outlines the difficulties of placing someone starting from a zero base of preparation. I mean zero. We have changed some details but all the insights and examples are real. We were brought in to spend an entire week taking this candidate through a crash course in case preparation. In this first podcast we clearly outline the challenges we would need to overcome.

Many candidates are confused between the different types of cases: interviewer led, interviewee led, brainstorming, market entry, market sizing etc. In this podcast we will discuss the different types of cases you will face and where you will likely encounter them.

McKinsey, BCG, Bain and Roland Berger use similar but not the same case styles. Within even one firm, styles may differ. Each firm uses a very different interview style. We discuss the different styles to expect and how to handle the questions you will encounter. We also rank the difficulty of the cases from each firm. Expect some counter-intuitive ordering.

How do you pick the firm to build your career: prestige, ranking, salary, feedback from friends or friendliness of the interviewer? Actually none of these will help you. In this podcast we explain how outstanding consultants build their careers and what you need to consider when choosing a firm.