Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril.  Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril.  Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril.  Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with Gaurav Gupta, the Director at change management and strategy execution firm Kotter. Get Gaurav’s book here: https://amzn.to/3ApxT5J The level of complexity and the pace at which things are changing in modern society requires leaders and organizations to be more reactive to change. Companies can no longer depend on a linear, methodical, deliberate approach to change. Instead, the key is to rely on a more agile, organic approach where employees are engaged and motivated to participate. As Gaurav mentioned in this episode, “The more organizations, individuals, teams, and leaders can start to frame change as an opportunity, the more people are going to run towards it because there are changes we embrace.” In this episode, we discussed the level of change that organizations face today and how they can effectively manage, adapt, and embrace the shifts required in the business. We discussed the kind of leader who thrives in situations where the organization goes through a fast-paced change. Gaurav Gupta worked with clients in industries as diverse as food and beverage, oil and energy, healthcare, chemicals, and finance. Gaurav draws on his extensive global (having worked in over 10 countries) and diverse functional experience in collaborating with business leaders to develop and implement effective transformation efforts.  Prior to joining Kotter, Gaurav led the operations for the European office of Stroud International, a management and operations consulting firm. Gaurav combines his passion for international development and education by serving as an executive board member for a non-profit, Medic to Medic, that sponsors medical students in Uganda and Malawi.  Gaurav holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Middlebury College and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University. Get Gaurav’s book here: Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times. John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, Gaurav Gupta. https://amzn.to/3ApxT5J Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with an attorney and the host of the No Straight Path Podcast, Ashley Menzies Babatunde. The pressure of keeping up with today’s competitive world is undeniably haunting. Most people spend a considerable amount of time at work and struggle to maintain their wellness and wellbeing. Many people are unhappy because they try to achieve too many things in life and lose track of the simple things that truly matter. In this episode, we speak about the gravity of maintaining wellness, prioritizing the time for taking care of yourself, finding your purpose, and living a life with a sense of completeness. We discussed how we can create a healthier and happier society while being successful in our careers and life. Ashley Menzies Babatunde was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Ashley is a litigation associate in O’Melveny’s Los Angeles office. Her practice focuses on Health Care and White Collar Defense & Corporate Investigations.  Ashley is a storyteller, optimist, professional heart-warmer, and hopeful romantic. She is passionate about the intersection of humanity and career. She has realized that her achievements or her failures do not define her. Instead, she is defined by the human qualities that have allowed her to achieve success and overcome challenges.  Check out Ashley’s podcast: No Straight Path aims to humanize success from the millennial perspective. The world often sees the shiny resumes, highlights shared on social media, and job titles associated with a person's LinkedIn profile. We rarely see the story behind it. And when we do, it's often in a memoir towards the end of someone's journey. The podcast aims to delve into the story behind the success with a closer to real-time approach.  Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with an award-winning advisor, speaker, and author, Christie Hunter Arscott. Get Christie’s book here: https://amzn.to/3Qia05S Most of the time, the word risk is associated with fear and uncertainty. We tend to struggle with harnessing the power of risk-taking. But the first bold step sheds light on that. As Christie mentioned in this episode, “An intentional and strategic risk, even when the output is not what you desired, still can propel you further than if you made the consistent choice to play it safe.” In this episode, we discussed the power of intentional risk-taking in building one’s career. We spoke about how to encourage women to take chances on themselves to face intentional, intelligent, and strategic risks.  Christie Hunter Arscott is a leading expert on how we can harness the power of intentional risk-taking to create more dynamic and vibrant careers and organizations. A Rhodes Scholar, Christie has been named by Thinkers50 as one of the top management thinkers likely to shape the future of business. Christie was also selected for the biannual Thinkers50 Talent Award shortlist of the top global thought leaders in the field of talent management. Christie’s research and writing have been featured across international publications, including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fortune, European Business Review, TIME, Fast Company, Business Insider, and more. Her article "Why So Many Thirtysomething Women Are Leaving Your Company" was selected for the Harvard Business Review collection of the top articles on diversity. Christie has spoken worldwide to organizations and institutions, including the World Economic Forum, Harvard Business School, the University of Oxford, and the Global Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. Her corporate clients include Bacardi, Deloitte, PWC, HSBC, and more. Christie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Brown University, a certificate of Distinction in General Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and two Master’s degrees with a focus on gender research from the University of Oxford. She currently serves on the Women’s Leadership Board of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Get Christie’s book here: Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty, and Launch a Brilliant Career. Christie Hunter Arscott. https://amzn.to/3Qia05S Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we look at the profile of an older MBA candidate who has extensive oil and gas expertise. We offer some counter-intuitive advice to this candidate for their career and planning. While we use an oil and gas profile, this advice is relevant to any experienced hire and we caution candidates to think very carefully about the quality of their backgrounds when applying this advice to their own needs. The quality is what matters - not the time spent in a sector. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with a veteran Silicon Valley dealmaker, Touraj Parang. Get Touraj’s book here: https://amzn.to/3bmsDGj In this episode, Touraj takes us through his unique, decades-long experiences as an entrepreneur and investor. He shares the lessons he learned when he sold his first startup – with no exit plan – for pennies on the dollar. It was then followed by great success with his next startup as he applied his learnings and prioritized executing an exit strategy. Touraj discussed the key things to consider and the red flags to avoid when selecting investors and co-founders.  Touraj Parang is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and M&A expert who has sat in every seat around the table, structuring and negotiating strategic transactions since the late 1990s, including as a corporate attorney at legal powerhouses WSGR and O’Melveny & Myers. Touraj has been a founder, executive, and trusted advisor to several fast-growing technology startups with exits to LinkedIn, Instacart, Vistaprint, Postmates, and Amplify, among others. He has also spent nearly a decade on the acquirer side of M&A deals as a corporate development executive at Webs and GoDaddy. Exit Path draws on Touraj’s unique, decades-long experience involving hundreds of M&A transactions, strategic partnerships, and venture capital investments totaling billions of dollars in aggregate value. He is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer at Serve Robotics, a startup shaping the future of sustainable, self-driving delivery that he helped spin out of Uber, and an Operating Advisor at Pear VC, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he enjoys collaborating with and providing strategic guidance to mission-driven entrepreneurs. He earned his JD from Yale Law School and his BA in Philosophy and Economics from Stanford University. Get Touraj’s book here:  Exit Path: How to Win the Startup End Game. Touraj Parang. https://amzn.to/3bmsDGj Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with startup entrepreneurs Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba. Get Ash and Hasan’s book here: https://amzn.to/3Q8ctPD In this episode, we speak about the concept of unfair advantage and the process of identifying and managing it so it’s your edge over any competition. Many people have the limiting belief that they don’t have something authentic to offer, but what they don’t realize is that we all have unique skill sets and talents. It only takes self-awareness to realize that the ingredients to success are already within you.  Ash Ali is an award-winning serial tech entrepreneur and angel investor. Ash sold his first internet business at just 19 years old (and most recently, his Dubai-based on-demand mobile app startup in 2018). As the first marketing director of Just Eat UK, which IPO’d for £1.5 billion, he was included in the Top 250 Growth Hackers, as well as the Top 100 Asian Tech Stars in the UK. With over 20 years of hands-on experience creating and growing startups, he has consulted, advised, and invested in hundreds of startups at various funding stages. Ash is a highly sought-after international speaker and expert on digital disruption and tech transformation, and has spoken at numerous global organizations and conferences, including Salesforce, Ernst & Young, and TEDx. He is currently co-founder of Uhubs, a new skills training platform that helps entrepreneurs and professionals upskill.   Hasan Kubba is an author, entrepreneur, and startup strategist. Hasan is a specialist in technology startups, marketing, and fundraising. With his own London-based digital marketing business and startup investment experience, Hasan is particularly strong at breaking down complex business concepts into simple and effective strategies and tactics. His recent TEDx talk titled Startups, Entrepreneurship, and Unfair Advantages was voted the highest ever on the official TED subreddit. He is passionate about the future of entrepreneurship and digital disruption globally and is an in-demand startup mentor to early-stage entrepreneurs, workshop trainer, and international speaker.  Get Ash & Hasan’s book here:  The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed. Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba: https://amzn.to/3Q8ctPD Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with an artist, researcher, author, and educator at Northwestern University, Julio Mario Ottino. Get Julio’s book here: https://amzn.to/3spt2Nn Individuals and organizations face complex problems and challenges today that demand a new way of thinking to grasp underlying solutions and opportunities. In this episode, Julio shares the beauty of the coexistence of art, science, and technology – rather than being separate disciplines – to navigate the complex world. Julio was born in Argentina and grew up with twin interests in physical sciences and visual arts, finding beauty in math and art, and seeing creativity as being one thing, rather than something that lives in compartments. Art provided a cathartic means of expression while he grew up in turbulent times. He managed to create a solo art exhibit while drafted as an officer in the Argentinian Navy. When he moved to the United States to pursue a doctorate, his research achievements followed.   Most of the early attention Ottino received stemmed from pioneering work in chaos theory and a combination of scientific insight and visualization. His research work has been featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Scientific American, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and other publications. He has supervised more than 65 Ph.D. theses, written over 250 papers and two books, and has given invited presentations at over 200 universities in the United States and around the world, as well as at organizations such as Accenture, Boeing, Google, 3M, and Unilever.  An academic entrepreneur, Ottino was the founding co-director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and educational and research initiatives in design, entrepreneurship, and energy and sustainability. As dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, he founded educational and research partnerships with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Pritzker School of Law, Medill School of Journalism, Feinberg School of Medicine, School of Communication, and School of Education and Social Policy, as well as with external partners ranging from the Art Institute of Chicago to Argonne National Lab. In 2008, he was selected by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as one of the “One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era.” In 2017, Ottino was awarded the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education from the National Academy of Engineering for the concept of whole-brain engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Get Julio’s book here:  The Nexus: Augmented Thinking for a Complex World–The New Convergence of Art, Technology, and Science. Julio Mario Ottino. https://amzn.to/3spt2Nn Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo