Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

This detailed podcast, by the engagement senior-partner, discusses the most challenging assignment Firmsconsulting took on to advise a client in preparing one of the Succeeding as a Management Consultant books. The client was a state-run electricity utility in Latin America which was undergoing a significant build program to add capacity for a burgeoning economy while dealing with an aging asset base causing power outages, impacting foreign-direct-investment and decimating national productivity.

This detailed podcast, by the engagement partner, discusses the difficulties faced by many European State-Owned-Enterprises during the 2008-2011 recession when many simultaneously saw a drop in revenue and state subsidies. The engagement team in this book led the work to develop a strategy for the courier business of a heavily-indebted European Postal service.

This detailed podcast, by the engagement senior-partner, discusses the challenges and complexities of running an engagement to advise on the economics and strategy of a large micro-finance enterprise.

In this podcast we discuss the detailed effort which goes into preparing the multimedia/premium management consulting books. We discuss the engagements we run and the client issues faced, the development of hypotheses, data collection, analyses, model building, client management and preparation of the final recommendation. We thereafter discuss how all of this, including the extensive video footage, is brought together to produce each of the 4 multimedia books.

In this podcast we isolate the 5 most important and counter-intuitive lessons from the popular book.

In this podcast we introduce one of our most popular books, Partnership. This is a memoir written by partner who served in that position at 2 of the big-3 firms.

This detailed podcast introduces Firmsconsulting and our distinctive heritage which is best exemplified by these three quotes: "Business properly conducted could be as high a calling as anything." Marvin Bower "If you are not willing to take pain to live by your principles, there is no point in having principles." Marvin Bower “Management consulting is no individual's right as a career. It is the single greatest privilege of a business professional to earn the trust required to advise a client on his/her most pressing issues.” Michael Boricki

Peter is a PhD candidate from the USA who joined McKinsey Middle East a year ago. The striking thing about Peter is his level of confidence and the fact that he does not sound like a PhD. He is a candidate who initially pursued the USA and thereafter opened interviews at another highly competitive office where he was successful. Peters interview is more for the journey he goes through to build his confidence and learn about his potential. I have personally admired this candidate because he seems to closely follow the strong values-based path Firmsconsulting expects of our alums.

Edward is one of the most effective networking clients in our program. Although a relatively-older candidate from a non-target school, he was able to meticulously follow our advice on networking to eventually build a very effective support network of partners and consultants at his preferred offices. This wide-ranging interview is important because it demonstrates the primacy of our networking approach. Firmsconsulting believes that if you take the time to do the appropriate due-diligence and build sincere reasons for joining an office, this sincerity will come through in any discussions. It is interesting to see how Edward developed this approach over a 5 month period through trial and error to eventually secure strong endorsements from very senior partners. On a personal note, I do believe Edward is one of the most impressive alums of our program. He is steeped in our tradition of values and ethics before all else and to us, that is what matters the most.

Sanda is a brilliant commerce graduate from South-East Asia. She is the first person in her entire family to attend university. She taught herself English at university by watching "Friends" and "The Good Wife" among other shows, especially in-depth business media, and is the very first person from her university to ever join MBB. In this extensive interview, Sanda describes her tough background and experiences as well as her smart strategy for joining the elite consulting firms.

One of the great myths among aspiring consultants, is that strategy consultants go in and basically take over and run the entire strategy and direction of a company. That does happen at times, but is more the exception than the norm. In fact, there are dangers to this outsourcing of thinking. Yet, the danger is not the outsourcing itself, but rather who is doing the outsourcing: a strong and accountable CEO or a weak CEO. The greatest risk to a company is a weak CEO who outsources accountability to consultants. In this podcast, I discuss my own personal experiencing of advising such a CEO and the chaos which ensued.

At least 90% of aspiring management consultants assume that all McKinsey et al cases MUST be solved with frameworks. That is a dangerous myth. At least 60% of all McKinsey full cases (we are not referring to brainstorming, estimates etc) cannot be solved with structures and you will fail if you used structures to solve them. In this podcast, we use the experiences of a client, Felix, to explain how to identify this second group of cases and what you can do to solve them. We particularly look at Felix's coaching session with Kevin Coyne, ex-McKinsey Worldwide Strategy Co-Leader, in Season One of The Consulting Offer.

This podcast describes the journeys of two people and where they ended up in life. The first is one of Harvard’s most distinguished MBA graduates ever who was not even invited to a McKinsey internship interview. The second is a McKinsey Principal from humble beginnings who is rejected the partnership, not once, but twice. Who they are and what they eventually achieve professionally is a lesson in perseverance, confidence and being analytic.

In early 2013, we were invited by the chairman of a major IT/Outsourcing provider to analyze their business and determine why their significant acquisitions of strategy/operations/general consulting skills had not created a “McKinsey-Killer”.

After 11 years of corporate strategy consulting with the firm, 3 of them as principal, I have tended to take for granted that everyone knows the difference between corporate strategy and other types of strategy engagements like developing a market entry strategy or a pricing strategy. Yet, that is not true.

An hour ago I ran a screening call for case coaching with a candidate I will call Hector from Deloitte, let’s assume the Santiago office. The student was at a very élite school, I will call Wharton. This tiny Deloitte office had for the first time offered to pay for an employee’s MBA studies – a huge investment for them. McKinsey was now aggressively trying to recruit the candidate and he was on the brink of pursuing this. I was extremely proud of the way Hector reacted when, upon learning of the source of his funding and obligations, I immediately refused to conduct the screening call because it was not in his best interest. In these moments, we get to see tomorrow’s leaders forged.

Far too many candidates demonstrate poor knowledge of consulting by insisting that they want to work for McKinsey strategy and not operations or BTO. This is a flawed strategy which will only hurt their chances in the short, medium and long-term. This podcast explains why and how to compensate for this misunderstanding.

Many candidates are declined with the suggestion to gain more work experience. Unfortunately, candidates take this feedback at face value. This podcast explains what this feedback means and suggests a vital shortcut to fix this problem. Hint, it does not require work experience at all.

This is an important podcast. Many Indian MBA candidates, those without permits to remain in the US post their studies, follow a dangerous strategy for their internship interviews. This podcast offers a very simple but highly effective strategy to ensure candidates keep themselves in the running for consulting offers. Moreover, keeping residency in the US is a vital prerequisite to maintain a candidates “risk profile” and this podcast again offers some ideas.

It is indeed a rare moment when the Worldwide Managing Partner of Bain calls a client to encourage him/her to accept an offer. We have had similar situations happen on a handful of occasions to clients. It is an accomplishment and should be celebrated. That does not mean the offer should be accepted.