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It’s Not about the Money

To improve employee morale and productivity, increasing compensation may be precisely the wrong tack.

Pitting Latin Multinationals against Established Giants

To succeed globally, “multilatinas” — and all aspiring international companies from developing nations — must make rapid strides in governance, transparency, and executive appointments.

Rising from the Financial Ruins

“Worst Financial Crisis since the Depression.” Enter that phrase into Google and you get 1,290,000 hits, most of them from the media. Certainly, in the midst of our panic, it’s very easy to draw a parallel to the 30’s. It’s also very easy to lose a sense of perspective. As my friend Jim Sherbloom points out, the U.S. has endured many, many other downturns , some of them very nasty indeed.(Doing a little research myself, I found that downturns in the U.S economy occur with amazing…

Winning the PR Wars

CEOs must learn to manage the media if they want to influence how their stories are told.

The Sum of the Parts

Effective product innovation depends on fast access to critical design and engineering data. At Whirlpool, the challenge turns out to be as much human as it is technological.

Using ‘power curves’ to assess industry dynamics

Plotting the structure of industries across markets and geographies reveals a startling and increasing inequality in size and performance among even the largest companies. What emerges is a “power curve” pattern characterized by a short “head,” comprising a few companies with extremely large incomes, and quickly dropping off to a long “tail” of significantly smaller competitors. These power curves can be a useful diagnostic tool for understanding the structural dynamics of an industry and a…

The Next Empire

What can the U.S. do to maintain its competitive position against the E.U. and China? Foreign policy scholar Parag Khanna believes the answer lies right under our noses.

Interview: Former chief of staff Leon Panetta on transitions

As President-elect Barack Obama assembles his transition team, he is turning to experienced hands like Leon Panetta, who served as chief of staff for President Clinton from 1994 to 1997, to advise him. In this interview conducted with the Quarterly before the election, Panetta shares his views on making things work in the public sector, developing strong leadership, and the challenges confronting the US government. Emphasizing the importance of honest conversation and dialogue in government, Panetta…

The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality

Published: November 13, 2008 Paper Released: September 2008 Author: Zeynep Ton Executive Summary: Determining staffing levels is an important decision in retail operations. In 2006, retailers spent $393 billion on employee wages, more than 10 percent of their revenue that year and more than their inventory holding costs. Hence, staffing levels have a major impact on retailers’ costs. But at the same time, staffing levels affect conformance quality—how well employees execute prescribed…

Wanted: A U.S. Economic Strategy

Frozen financial markets. A rising wave of home foreclosures. Plunging consumer spending. Soaring unemployment. GM, Ford, and Chrysler teetering on the brink. As Washington lurches from crisis to crisis, one thing is clear: The United States needs a coherent strategy that will help it better respond to unforeseen events and long-term challenges in public education, energy, health care, and the environment. In recent weeks, Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter has been an ardent proponent of such a…

Six Keys to a Winning Manufacturing Strategy

How John Deere bucked industrial trends to become an international growth star.

The missed opportunity for US health insurers

US health care insurers are missing an opportunity to convert members when they move between major product classes—for example, when they leave group coverage and move to the individual market. Lessons from a few best-in-class payers offer successful conversion strate Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly >   Topics: Health Care Strategy Update your Quarterly feed preferences

Interview: Tim Brown of IDEO

In this interview, Tim Brown, who has been at the forefront of innovation formore than two decades, distills lessons from a career spent helpingscores of companies, nonprofits, and government agencies to become moreinnovative. Brown doesn’t emphasize a philosophy of design or suggestthat what works at IDEO will work everywhere else. Rather, he focuses onthe importance of leadership and incentives, as well as on understandingthe forces that undermine innovation. Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly >  …

How Much Can You Ask of Your Customers?

Published: November 10, 2008 Author: Jim Heskett The Internet and related technology has freed customers to express their feelings, exchange information, and act in ways that previously were unheard of. Several recent writings suggest that the next phase in the activation of customers will be putting them to work in the service of an organization. Characteristic of this thinking is an article in the October issue of the Harvard Business Review by Scott Cook, Co-Founder and Chair of the Executive…

Does Obama’s Win Extend to Business?

President elect Barack Obama made history Tuesday night, but his gains won’t be replicated in the C-suite until there’s some real shift in the culture of business . Harvard Business School professor David Thomas, an African American scholar who has written extensively on race and diversity, has expressed concern that some executives may assume from Obama’s success that the race problem is solved, while huge disparities persist in corporate world. Of course, some African-American CEOs run large…

Parallel Search, Incentives and Problem Type: Revisiting the Competition and Innovation Link

Published: November 14, 2008 Paper Released: September 2008 Authors: Kevin J. Boudreau, Nicola Lacetera, and Karim R. Lakhani Executive Summary: The innovation process is fraught with uncertainty. Managers often do not know ahead of time the ideal mix of individuals and skills needed to solve innovation-related problems. One way around this uncertainty is to have multiple paths, approaches, or designs explored at once. The “parallel search” principle can be used inside the firm just…

The Life Cycle of Great Business Ideas

With the right support and judgment, the corporate “heretics” of today could become tomorrow’s most effective leaders.

Will Retail Ever Bounce Back?

I have never encountered the phrase “fell off a cliff” with such frequency as I have this month. This week reports on U.S. retail sales are invoking that terrifying metaphor. People are surprised by the suddenness of their decline. As the Wall Street Journal points out, drops in retail sales (and jobs) usually lag other effects of economic downturns. When something shifts too suddenly, it’s usually because other seismic forces are in play, and the shift contains energy that was somehow being…

The Collaboration Game

Although an elusive goal, cooperative relationships between retailers and suppliers can be wildly profitable.

Lessons of Silence

What the deaf can teach us about listening — and making ourselves heard.

Why baby boomers will need to work longer

US baby boomers are not prepared for their retirement, and neither are the US and world economies. Boomers can help mitigate the consequences by remaining in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age. Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly >   Topics: Americas Economic Studies Update your Quarterly feed preferences

Confessions of an Unrepentant BlackBerry Addict

I have a confession: I like my BlackBerry. I like checking my work email at home at all hours. I like reading about what’s happening at work when I’m supposed to be decompressing on vacation . It comforts me somehow. I know what’s happening. I’m not missing something important, delaying my response to something crucial, or walking back into the office unaware of a brewing crisis . Now if I’m being honest, almost never IS there a brewing crisis–certainly not one that I can’t deal…

The Marketing of a President

Published: November 12, 2008 Author: John Quelch Editor’s Note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How , for Harvard Business Online . It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge . When the book is written on this election, it should not be titled The Making of a President but The Marketing of a President . Barack Obama’s campaign is a case study in marketing excellence. True, it was always going to be a Democratic year.…

Narrated chart pack: Value creation in health care

The US health care industry has outperformed the S&P 500 for two decades, creating more than $700 billion in shareholder value creation since 1985. This strong overall growth, however, does not mean the industry’s performance has been uniform across companies and subsectors. In this narrated interactive chart pack, McKinsey expert Susan Nolen Foushee offers a snapshot of the ebb and flow of total returns to shareholders in various health care sectors over the past 20 years. Read more on the McKinsey…

November 18th, 2008 | Tags: consulting articles, consulting news, strategy articles | Category: latest articles |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

If you are a management and strategy consultant, please take 2008/2009 Management and Strategy consulting survey.

This survey is for practicing management and strategy consultants worldwide. We aim to gather your valuable insights and knowledge, distill and redistribute the findings to the participants and the community. We cover important areas for our profession such as 2009 outlook, compensation, travel.

Participants will receive priority access to results including compensation data. We appreciate your input.

November 11th, 2008 | Category: careers |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

In response to popular demand from our readers, here is a sample resume for applying for an post-MBA level management and strategy consulting job. You can see that, this resume follows many of the guidelines in our earlier post on writing killer consulting resumes. This resume is intended to be used for a second year position after a summer intern in a consulting firm. The language used and formatting is very standard and similar to thousand resumes that consultants review in every recruiting season, so following it while writing your own resumes is likely to help your reviewers as well.

October 31st, 2008 | Tags: getting in, jobs, resume advice, resumes, sample resume | Category: careers |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments Off

Given the ever increasing sophistication of business world and client needs, is there still any room for a generalist track in management and strategy consulting?

One of the top reasons to choose a management consulting career is the generalist experience. Many people coming out of an MBA or undergraduate program want to get a broad exposure to many industries and get different types of tools under their belt. Consulting firms have the generalist experience as an important part of their value proposition for recruiting.

However; clients and business world have gotten more sophisticated, business problems that the clients face have both diversified and gotten more complicated. While the management consultants can still cater to the CEO agenda they need to have a better understanding of the issues and have contextual knowledge to serve the clients.

The pressure on delivering results immediately has increased in the last decade. Clients are hesitant to bring smart consultants in with no industry or functional knowledge and pay them to learn about their business first before delivering results. They want consultants who will bring that knowledge and hit the ground running. This means, given the choice, they prefer specialists.

Clients also got smarter about buying consulting, they almost always have multiple firms bidding on a piece of work and look for the qualifications of even the junior team members. They not only want to see the partners with 25 years of experience during the selling process but also the junior team members with significant industry or functional experience.

Many firms react to these changes in the consulting marketplace. They have moved their staff towards specialization earlier and focused on bringing people in with specific expertise for their portfolio of work. This could potentially impact the generalist experience that the students would like to gain as well.

The regional differences play a role whether one can be a generalist. For example in Middle East, many clients are in the process of getting their business fundamentals right. There are many questions around some basic issues: “what should our strategy be?”, “do we have the right people to execute?”, “how do we establish an operating model?”, “how do we build an international brand?”. These kinds of questions can be answered with a generalist background especially if the client has not thought about them before.

Markets such as the US and Europe have a relatively more mature client base, they are used to strategic planning exercises, they usually have teams that work on strategy issues. They will rely on management and strategy consultants in areas where they have not ventured into before (e.g. buying another company, entering a new market) or they sometimes staff their stategy teams leaner and outsource some of their work. In either case, they value knowledge about the industry more than raw intellectual horsepower.

Given the regional differences for specialization and the growth rates these developing markets (India, China, Middle East, South America) have seen, it may be prudent for junior staff to look for staffing opportunities in these regions to gain both generalist and international experience.

You can career advice and ask your questions in the management consulting forum. We will review them periodically and answer your questions.

October 6th, 2008 | Tags: careers, generalist track, MBA, specialists | Category: careers |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

This post will help you write and shape your resume for management and strategy consulting jobs by giving to top ten dos and donts. Your resume is your personal marketing material for landing an interview. You should be thinking of it as one of the tools in your portfolio in addition to networking and recruiting efforts to get you the right interviews.

1. Demonstrate leadership

You may be doing a lot of analysis and report writing in your first several years in management consulting; however, eventually you manage teams of consultants and clients. Also, you will be leading people that do not report to you to help you do many things. Teaming is short term for the projects and client work and you need to have an impact in a relatively short term. Beyond project work, over time you also lead people to build new business, service offerings. Therefore, leadership is valued. Make sure you bring out those kinds of experiences in your resume, whether it is in your job or as team captain of your basketball team.

2. Include your GPA and Test Scores

Not having your GPA and test scores on your resume’s education section is a big red flag. Given high number people apply for these jobs and many with similar backgrounds, these metrics are used as filters. So if you have high GPA and score, make sure you have them in the resume. If they are not good at all, then it may be OK not to include them, but you may not make the cut from the HR filtering before consultants review your resume. If you do make the cut, make sure that you have a good story around why they are not in the resume.

3. Demonstrate your interest in management consulting

Be sure to include your affiliations with management consulting club in your school. Well, if you’re not a member, make sure you join, better yet, actively participate by working on the management committee as club president, social chair, etc. This is great way to network with consultants that come to your campus through event organizations. No consulting club in your school? Take initiate and start one.

4. Highlight your experiences relevant to the profession

When you explain your experiences in any former job, you should be thinking about their relevance to management and strategy consulting. Think about how you interacted with senior management of your company or your clients. When did you present findings? When did you lead a team or contributed to a team? How did you achieve results, what was the impact of your work? For example, “I analyzed customer data, created a presentation, etc.” is not really useful. What was the analysis used for? How did the analysis help management make decisions? What was its impact? Focus on these rather than the mechanics of what you have done.

5. Keep it reader friendly, clean format

Given that the consultant who screens your resume has a couple of minutes at most, make sure your resume can be scanned easily for your best qualities. Use an easily readable format. Do not go below 10pt font (12pt is ideal), choose an easy to read font, e.g. Arial. Have decent margins, so your resume prints fine. Print it before sending via email, read it carefully, check spelling, punctuation and overall look.

6. Keep it short - one page is standard

Your resume is not meant to be autobiography, you only need to include relevant highlights of your career to get an interview. The resume is not going to get you the job, just the interview along with your efforts. Be concise and keep it one page.

7. Include your achievements

You should include any awards in school (scholarships, etc.), in your activies (e.g. sports), military achievements, etc. in your resume. These should be things that relatively few people achieve that show dedication to an endavor.

8. Use action oriented language

When you explain your experiences, use language such as “developed XX”, “improved XX”, “led XX”, be action oriented and use a positive language. Talk about your job experience in terms of things you achieved rather than a list of your responsibilities

9. List your languages and activities

Additional languages, activities you are fond of give the resume a personal touch, it is good to include them. For activities list the original things you are into, such as travel 30 countries, or professional lifeguard. Everyday activities such as eating and reading are interesting only if they are focused on a particular aspect.

10. Tailor the resume for each firm

As you learn more about each firm during the recruiting process, tailor the resume to that firm before you send it out. For example, if you are applying for a high tech practice of a firm, bring out your IT expertise. If you are applying to financial services focused firm (e.g. Oliver Wyman), highlight those kind of experiences.

You can get resume feedback from the consulting junkie admins if you post an anonymous resume to the management consulting forum. We will review these resumes periodically and answer your questions. Good luck!

September 27th, 2008 | Tags: consulting resume, consulting resumes, getting in, jobs, resumes | Category: getting in |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

This will be the first of a series of posts on how to get a job in management consulting. You can find the remainder of this series of posts in the Getting In category. We encourage the readers to submit their question about recruiting in the forum, we review and answer the posts periodically.

There are three typical points of entry to the profession:

1. Undergraduate level
2. MBA or other advanced degree level (JD or PhD)
3. Industry hires

This post will cover undergrad level recruiting:

1. Undergrad level recruiting

In most firms, this would be the entry level analyst position. Depending on the firm, the number of undergrad hires may vary a lot. Some firms rely heavily on the analysts while others have a higher percentage of MBAs.

The firms get more and more selective with their prestige, top firms usually hire a small percentage of their applicants. For example McKinsey receives about 50,000 applications per year. They have about 8,000 consultants worldwide. On average, the industry attrition rate is 20-25%, which means they would need 2,000 consultants per year. Hence, their estimated acceptance rate would be somewhere around 2,000/50,000 = 4%.

Good credentials are key to get interviews: Good school (top 20 program), good grades (3.3+ GPA), top standardized test scores. Any major can apply and it is not a big factor in selection for a generalist track.

Campus Recruiting:

Most firms run an organized recruiting process in the selected campuses. The campuses are chosen based on their ranking, e.g. top firms only run recruiting in top 20 schools. Proximity is a factor as well, since client staff (e.g. consultants themselves, not HR folks) run campus recruiting. So, if a top program is nearby an existing office, it is usually easier to support it. Most big firms have offices in all big cities so, coverage is usually not a big problem. The programs usually start around late fall and end around February. They include several events, such as informational sessions, case workshops, company chats, and of course the interviews themselves.

Make sure you submit your resume for the campus recruiting on time, firms either announce deadlines on their websites or through your school’s career services.

It is also critical to attend all the events of the firms that you are targeting. Make sure you at least go to the firms website to be able to ask intelligent questions and show your knowledge. Going to these events serves two purposes:

- You demonstrate your interest, make sure you sign in to the attendance sheets, talk to consultants, follow up and thank them via email. They will keep track of this data, it is good to show your interest,  it counts in the selection process, although not as much as your interview performance

- You get to know the firms: An inevitable question in interviews is “Why our firm?” and you better have an answer that shows that you know something about their firm that is distinct from other firms. The presentations you go to and the conversations you have in these sessions give you valuable ammunition to play back in the interviews, make sure you take notes. Also, different firms have different cultures, so you may get a sense of the culture in a firm and decide whether it fits you or not

Once you submit your resume, if you get past the filter, you will have one or two round of interviews. Each round will have  two to three interviews. You will meet people at different levels and the interviews will include discussion of your background, some brain teasers and sometime case questions. The case will be simpler than a MBA level case but you are supposed to demonstrate your analytical skills and judgment.

The upside the consulting interviews are more standardized than other interviews, so practice pays off and with enough practice, it is not hard to shine in these. The downside is most of your fellow students are aware of this fact, and they will prepare, so make sure you prepare well.

The decisions are usually pretty fast, some firms decide on the evening of the day of second rounds and calll candidates. Offers are somewhat standard, with little room for negotiation of salaries and perks.

Off-Campus recruiting:

What if your dream firm does not recruit at your campus? Well, then you need to submit your resume through the online systems. It may also make sense to contact the recruiters in the offices that you are interested in and ask what the best way to apply would be.

However, your best bet would be through a referral, find a consultant in that firm (the higher the level the better, a partner would be best). This ensures careful evaluation of your background and makes sure the resume lands in the right person’s desk. It is usually to good have a reason or a distinguishing factor to emphasize for your application. Then the person who refers you can say “I know we do not recruit from XYZ school, but I think we need to consider this person because of such and such” so make sure help them with articulating your value proposition.

If you attempt is successful, you will most likely get a phone intervew, this would be a 30 minute to 1 hour conversation about your background, why you want to join and potentially a simple case or some brain teasers. Second round would be in the office you are applying to, probably three to four interviews. Again, the decisions will likely be shortly after the interviews.

September 21st, 2008 | Tags: campus, consulting, getting in, interviews, job, recruiting, undergraduate | Category: getting in |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

The banking industry is going through a turmoil (WSJ Article on Lehman, Merrill and AIG) with marquee names filing for bankruptcy or being sold at fire sale prices due to the shaky credit practices and the demise of the credit based securities. Many bankers are fleeing to other industries, such as hedge funds and private equity. Any job opening these days in these industries are likely to receive hundreds of applications from bankers. Management and strategy consulting could be another viable and rewarding career path for bankers. Let me explain why:

Your experience as a banker is relevant

Management and strategy consulting firms help executives make critical decisions. The ultimate goal is to increase shareholder value. Bankers typically are value oriented and shrewd about the market reactions to any company decisions such as acquisitions, new product announcements. Hence, having the shareholder value lens is innate to banking profession. This point of view tends to develop later in consultants at higher levels in their firms, so your experience would be valued.

Management consulting is more robust business

Consulting business is more robust to economy cycles. Sure, the business is up when the economy is booming but it does not go down as much as banking during bust times; however, the mix of consulting work changes substantially. When the economy is doing well, most clients are in growth mode, looking for new markets, products. They use management consultants to support to create those strategies. When the economy goes bust, clients are in cost cutting, restructuring mode and guess what, they ask consultants to help with those initiatives. Most large consulting firms have practices and capabilities to do both, so their revenues are not impacted negatively.

You already have the credentials

Credentials to get into management consulting are similar to I-banking. You need top school education, top grades, good analytical judgment, willing to work long hours. Consulting firms value diversity, so your major is not important.

Make sure you have your story right

Consultants are usually suspicious of bankers looking to move to consulting. If you say “I got downsized from Lehman, and want to be able to pay my Manhattan rent”, chances are you won’t go very far. You need to have a good story around why consulting is a good next step for you, and how your background can be relevant. Also, make sure you do due diligence on the particular firm you are interviewing to tailor the answers to them. People do not expect you to commit staying in consulting until you make partner, but they want you to enjoy your stay.

Work-life balance

Consultants usually complain about long hours and lack of work-life balance, but these are things people do not even talk about in I-banking, so you will probably have no issues with the lifestyle.

September 16th, 2008 | Tags: aig, banking, career advice, lehman, merrill | Category: getting in |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Starting out as a consultant? Having the right gear can save you a lot of headache and increase your productivity during travel. Below are my favorites:

1. Roller board bag

If you plan on staying in consulting more than a couple years, it is worthwhile to invest in a good rollerboard bag. You should make sure that the bag fits in overhead bins of the aircrafts. It is recommended to get a rollerboard as opposed to a garment bag, as you will be carrying the bag in the airport, to car rentals, around clients and you are most likely to fill it up. With frequent travel, a heavy garment bag on your shoulder can make a permanent dent on your shoulder.

Also, never check in luggage: it may get lost, you end up waiting ~20mins each way on the baggage claim every week, you may make your team wait for your luggage if traveling together. The saying among consultants is: “Only fools check in luggage!”

2. Laptop bag

You need to lose the rookie bag your firm gives you ASAP. They look bad and do not hold up to the wear and tear of travel very well. Get a light and durable bag, big enough to hold your laptop and all the other things like decks, notepad, bunch of pens, your favorite magazine, vitamins, chargers etc.

3. 3M Privacy filter for laptop

You will find yourself working in public spaces often. This removable plastic screen, prevents prying eyes from seeing your laptop screen. Last thing you’d want to do is to reveal sensitive client info to anyone including, employees of your client or your client’s competitors. New consultants get burned for this kind of  negligence often. Slip it on the screen of your laptop easily and you can take it off whenever you like.

4. Extended battery

Extended battery is a must - usually lasts twice as long as the regular - must have for long flights, airports with few outlets to plug in, long drives from and to client. You never know when you need to fire up the laptop to make last minute changes on your deck.

5. Universal power source

Soon enough you will find yourself carrying chargers for your laptop, cellphone, ipod, etc. Get a universal power source from IGO. You can change the adapter heads to fit all your needs. Comes in handy when you want to plug in to your seat in long flights (some planes have these plug even in economy) and saves a lot of clutter and weight in your laptop bag.

6. Comfortable shoes

You will be wearing the same shoes 12+ hours a day for several days in a row during travel. Get the most comfortable shoes you can find. For guys, Ecco’s are decent. Since you will have carry on only, one pair is all you need, so spend the money for that pair.

7. Smartphone

It is hard to get away from Blackberries or Iphones. They are useful in staying in touch with your team during travel and answering to client emails. The downside is you can get addicted to it and check your email anywhere, anytime annoying people.

8. GPS

If you are going to a new client, either have one of these fitted to your rental car or buy one for yourself. You don’t want to show up late to the client meeting, or worse get lost while driving the partner to the client site.

9. Wireless card

They are still a bit slow for sending large attachments, but sometimes necessary. Some clients have firewalls, so connecting to their network can be an issue. Also useful at airports, much better than running around in the terminal to find a wi-fi spot.

10. Vitamins

You will get exposed to germs all over the place, hotels, cars, flights (air in the flights are recirculated). Boosting the immune system is a good idea, some people swear by Airborne, but any decent multivitamin will do the job.

September 15th, 2008 | Tags: roadwarriors, travel | Category: travel |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

Through networking and applications you landed your interview. Your interview with your dream firm is coming up and you want to crack the case. Here’s an innovative approach to put you in the right mindset. We encourage the readers to submit their question about interviews in the forum, we review and answer the posts periodically.

Case interviews are common to most consulting interviews. You are likely to do at least several for each firm. People encounter them in venture capital or corporate strategy jobs as well.  There are many example case on the net as well as books sold by Wetfeet and Vault.

This is not meant to be a guide to cases but rather, tips and suggestions to put you in the right state of mind for the interview. Here we go:

You are the consultant, so act like one!

The case is meant to simulate a client situation. You are acting as the consultant, so pay attention to how you project your image. You are supposed to bring unbiased perspective, good business judgement and some knowledge of the industry. For example, if the case is about a new product launch, pitch in your two cents about what you know about that industry during the case. Another approach would be talking about parallels about some other industry that you know. You may not have all the answers as a consultant, but you are expected to bring a value to the clients.

Interviewer is the client

Interviewer is not there to give you a sudoku puzzle. They are confused and flustered about their issue and they are paying you large fees to help them. They expect you to engage them in discussion, bring them along a suggested solution. So, treat your interviewer as a client, act mature, draw them into discussion, and ask stimulating/open questions.

No one likes a nay-sayer

In some case interviews, you may be asked “should we invest in this product?” or “should we buy this company?”. Sometimes, your answer may be “No”. If that’s your assessment at the end of the case, tell them the answer with your reasoning. But do not stop there, give them some pointers about how this dud product can be enhanced, or how another company may be a better deal. In the end, clients want solutions and they may not ask the right questions to begin with. Showing initiative to solve clients problem beyond what you are asked is appreciated in an interview.

It is OK to ask for confirmation

Clients know more about their companies and business than consultants. In real client settings, you can ask for data and review findings along the way with the client. Similarly, in an interview, if you are stuck or need confirmation about your assumptions or methodology, you can ask the interviewer. State your opinion first, then look for clues for confirmation. If you are not sure, ask for it. In real engagement, clients will teach you a lot, just as you teach them.

Write a Deck

A deck is a powerpoint presentation in consulting lingo. Write your findings and conclusions during the interview in an organized manner as if writing slides. At the end of a case, you should summarize findings and state the recommendation to the client.

This is supposed to be a recap of the interview, at this stage, think about 2-3 slides that you would want to create to convey this to the interviewer. You can convert your notes to slides easily in a minute by adding headlines to them, if they are organized.

Each slide should start with a headline. Write headlines to Let me give you an example in a hypothetical case for entering in widget markets:

Example Deck:

Slide 1 - Widget market in Asia is expected to grow at a health clip of 10% per year

In this slide, you summarize market size and growth findings

Slide 2 - Major widget players have not penetrated in the Asian widget market

Here, show the competitive landscape in Asia

Slide 3 - We can leverage our existing footprint to capture a large the market growth

The client’s existing footprint, projections about market share and profits

Then present the deck in two - three minutes to the interviewer. Pulling this off may be hard first, so practice with a friend who can give you cases. If you can do this, it will be a very powerful finish and impress your interviewer greatly!

September 12th, 2008 | Tags: case interviews, interviews, recruiting | Category: getting in |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment