Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

Welcome to an interview with an award-winning marketer, TEDx speaker and authority in harnessing the instinctive mind to accelerate brand and business growth,  founder and CEO of Triggers, Leslie Zane. Leslie is the author of The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion in Business and Life. In her book, Leslie shows that to grow a brand, business, or even a social movement, traditional persuasion tactics fall short. Instead, you must connect to the instinctive mind. And to do this, you need to understand the science of consumer choice and employ techniques that work with a person's brain, not against it.   Leslie Zane is an award-winning marketer, TEDx speaker and the foremost authority in harnessing the instinctive mind to accelerate brand and business growth.      In her early career at P&G and Johnson & Johnson, Zane championed the position that what people say is unreliable and that telegraphic cues are more powerful than direct communication, but her unconventional thinking was often disregarded. In 1995, she founded Triggers®, the first brand consulting firm rooted in behavioral science, where she continued to champion the primacy of the instinctive mind in brand decisions.   With her groundbreaking discoveries in boosting salience, the Brand Connectome® and Growth Triggers®, Zane and her team have delivered over $20 billion in incremental revenue for Fortune 100 clients.    Today Triggers’ strategies are evident in diverse fields from consumer-packaged goods, health care and insurance to fighting anti-Semitism, showcasing its versatility.    An alumna of Yale, Harvard Business School and Bain & Company, Zane is a recipient of the Congressional Women of Distinction and the Ogilvy Award. In 2021, she coined the term “Covid-stasis” forecasting the pandemic’s lasting psychological and behavioral effects.  Zane has been published in prestigious publications including Knowledge@Wharton, Harvard Business Review, World Economic Forum, Newsweek and Ad Age. Zane is a board member of El Centro Hispano, the leading non-profit empowering Hispanic immigrants with skills to thrive in the United States.   Get The Power of Instinct here: https://rb.gy/l3ofdo   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with the coauthor of The Venture Mindset: How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth, Ilya Strebulaev. This book offers a transformative playbook for delivering results in a rapidly changing world from a top Stanford professor and a technology executive. Packed with entertaining stories and scientific precision, The Venture Mindset is a must-read for anyone who wants to be better equipped for the era of uncertainty when industry, company, and career can be disrupted overnight. It will teach you more than how to simply survive. It’ll teach you how to win big.   Ilya Strebulaev is the foremost academic expert on venture capital. He is the founder of the Venture Capital Initiative and David S. Lobel Professor of Private Equity and Professor of Finance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he teaches a popular class on venture capital. Ilya’s research has been widely published in leading academic journals and featured by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Bloomberg and the Harvard Business Review. He frequently leads executive sessions for senior business and government leaders around the world and has consulted for companies and investors on venture industry trends and corporate innovation. In 2023, he was named a Top Voice on LinkedIn. Get The Venture Mindset here: https://rb.gy/pcvoqr   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo  

Welcome to an interview with the coauthor of Data Rules: Reinventing the Market Economy (Acting with Technology), Cristina Alaimo. In Data Rules, Cristina Alaimo and Jannis Kallinikos establish a social science framework for analyzing the unprecedented social and economic restructuring brought about by data. Working at the intersection of information systems and organizational studies, they draw extensively on intellectual currents in sociology, semiotics, cognitive science and technology, and social theory. Making the case for turning “data-making” into an area of inquiry of its own, the authors uncover how data are deeply implicated in rewiring the institutions of the market economy.   Cristina Alaimo is an Assistant Professor (Research) of Digital Economy and Society at LUISS University, Rome. She holds a Ph.D. in Management, Information Systems and Innovation from LSE–The London School of Economics and Political Science, London. Her research focuses on the innovation brought about by data-based services and their consequences for organizations and society.   Cristina’s work has been published in journals such as The Information Society, Journal of Information Technology and Research in the Sociology of Organizations. Cristina is currently Visiting Research Fellow at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey, UK. Get Data Rules here: https://rb.gy/uxjr0k   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with Martin Gonzalez and Josh Yellin. Martin is the creator of Google’s Effective Founders Project and a frequent lecturer at Stanford, Wharton and INSEAD. Josh co-founded Google's first Startup Accelerator and is presently an organizational leader at Google DeepMind.   Josh and Martin are the authors of The Bonfire Moment: Bring Your Team Together to Solve the Hardest Problems Startups Face. In this book Martin Gonzalez and Josh Yellin outline the common traps startup teams fall into, and share their powerful one-day workshop that helps teams escape those traps. The unique process of The Bonfire Moment brings colleagues together for a full day of facing hard truths, noticing hidden dynamics, and gearing up for the intense challenges of startup life. When the constant hustle feels overwhelming, a team’s Bonfire Moment pulls them out of the day-to-day intensity to reflect and reboot.   Martin Gonzalez is the creator of Google’s Effective Founders Project, a global research program that decodes the factors that enable startup founders to succeed. He also works closely with Google’s engineering and research leaders on org design, leadership and culture challenges. Martin is a frequent lecturer at Stanford, Wharton and INSEAD, and has advised leaders across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been recognized as a Fellow by the Aspen Institute's First Movers Program and as a Thinkers50 Radar awardee, both for his contributions to shaping the future of management and leadership. He studied organizational psychology and behavioral science at Columbia University and the London School of Economics.   Josh Yellin co-founded Google's first Startup Accelerator and spearheaded its growth, reaching founders in 70 countries. Along with Martin, he co-founded Google’s Effective Founders Project. Josh recently spent four years as the Chief of Staff at Google Brain, and is presently an organizational leader at Google DeepMind. Josh studied biology at the University of Illinois and business at the Wharton School.   Get The Bonfire Moment here: https://rb.gy/lz7vud   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with the author of The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning, AJ Jacobs. In The Year of Living Constitutionally, A.J. Jacobs tries to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution. He asserts his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment with a quill and handing them out to strangers in Times Square. He consents to quartering a soldier, as is his Third Amendment right. He turns his home into a traditional 1790s household by lighting candles instead of using electricity, boiling mutton, and—because women were not allowed to sign contracts— feebly attempting to take over his wife’s day job, which involves a lot of contract negotiations.   A.J. Jacobs is a journalist, lecturer, and human guinea pig whose books include Drop Dead Healthy, The Year of Living Biblically, and The Puzzler. He is host of the podcast The Puzzler. A contributor to NPR, The New York Times, and Esquire, among other media outlets, Jacobs lives in New York City with his family.   Get AJ’s new book here: https://rb.gy/wir520 The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with the author of Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs In Leadership and Life, Jeff Wetzler. In this book, Jeff offers a hands-on, surprisingly effective way to find out what others really think, know, and feel. Jeff brings you a powerful method called The Ask Approach™, based on a simple premise that tapping into what other people truly think, know, and feel is a game-changing superpower. Ask leads to smarter decisions, more creative solutions, and deeper relationships.    Jeff Wetzler is co-CEO of Transcend, a nationally recognized innovation organization, and an expert in learning and human potential. Wetzler combines unique leadership experiences spanning more than 25 years in business and education, as a management consultant to the world’s top corporations, a learning facilitator for leaders around the world, and as Chief Learning Officer at Teach For America. Jeff earned a Doctorate in Adult Learning and Leadership from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in psychology from Brown University. Based in New York, he is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and is an Edmund Hillary Fellow.   Get Jeff’s new book here: https://rb.gy/6i05b7 Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs In Leadership and Life   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with the author of Leadership Shock: Using Authenticity to Navigate the Hidden Dangers of Career Success, Pete Steinberg. Leadership Shock teaches readers to view leadership as an adaptive, continuous process rather than a fixed set of behaviors. By regularly re-evaluating their leadership models, professionals at any level can evolve their principles and actions to lead with authenticity as they navigate new challenges.   Pete Steinberg is a leadership and innovation expert with extensive experience consulting with top Fortune 500 professionals. He also has more than 20 years of experience as an elite rugby coach, coaching the USA Women’s Rugby Team at two World Cups and the Rio Olympics. As a former U.S., international, and Olympic sports coach and commentator for major outlets such as CBS, ESPN, and Fox Sports, Pete has a track record of bringing teams to victory. He has won 11 National Championships with the Penn State Women, MARFU Men, and Temple Women rugby teams. He has also worked with the Men’s Eagles and other age-grade programs within the U.S. National team pathway. Pete was the Head of Coach Development for USA Rugby, leading the program as it became integrated into the World Rugby programs. Pete is also the President of Innovative Thought, a business consultancy focused on leadership and organizational development. He supports clients in the areas of innovation, leadership, strategic planning, marketing, recruiting and organizational development. Pete works regularly as an executive coach for senior executives of global companies.   Get Pete’s new book here: https://www.petesteinberg.com/book Leadership Shock: Using Authenticity to Navigate the Hidden Dangers of Career Success   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with the author of Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work, Kandi Wiens. In her book, Kandi shares her research and discoveries about burnout immunity. After extreme stress caused a life-threatening health cri­sis in her own life, Dr. Kandi Wiens dedicated herself to understand why work was leaving millions of us sick, exhausted, unmoti­vated, and feeling stuck and ineffective. In her research, she discovered something remarkable: Despite dangerous levels of work-related stress, some people seemed to be naturally “immune” to burnout.   Kandi Wiens, EdD, MSEd, MBA is a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Master’s in Medical Education Program and the Penn Health Professions Education Certificate Program, and Academic Director of the PennCLO Master’s Program. She often teaches in various graduate-level programs across the University of Pennsylvania. She is a researcher, national speaker, and executive coach whose work focuses on helping leaders hone and use their emotional and social intelligence to amplify their positive impact and protect themselves from burnout.   Get Kandi’s new book here: https://rb.gy/5ur5qq Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with the co-author of Persuade: The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions, Andres Lares. This book deliver a concise and insightful take on how to transform your ability to persuade others regardless of the setting. Persuade is perfect for executives, managers, entrepreneurs, and other business leaders who negotiate or influence regularly. It is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to improve their persuasion or deal-making abilities.   Andres Lares is the Managing Partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute. Lares' expertise ranges from coaching live negotiations for sports clients, including the Cleveland Browns, Brooklyn Nets, and more, to developing online content for facilitating real estate, advisory, media, banking, and pharmaceutical programs. He is a guest lecturer on negotiation and influencing at various universities, including Ohio University, and annually teaches a sports negotiation course at Johns Hopkins University. Lares is a recognized contributor to numerous national media outlets, including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Selling Power, Sales and Marketing Management, Training Mag, and many more. He is quoted in Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Company, MarketWatch, and Huffington Post.    Get Andres’s new book here: https://www.shapironegotiations.com/resources/books/persuade/ Persuade: The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Listen to Elliott Parker, CEO of High Alpha Innovation, discuss how innovation can be hindered by a focus on efficiency in big companies. Learn how startups can drive radical change through systematic experimentation and why embracing deliberate inefficiency can lead to meaningful innovation. Parker shares valuable insights on navigating corporate challenges, categorization errors in innovation, and the importance of challenging assumptions to avoid the illusion of innovation.