Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

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 consultants are almost always shielded from it.