Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

In our ongoing series of podcasts, we again introduce new advice about case interviews or sometimes view an old topic in a different manner. The objective of these podcasts is to explain concepts like MECE, 80/20, brainstorming, hypotheses etc in different ways so that as many listeners as possible will understand these concepts. We have seen some listeners obtain McKinsey offers merely by using the podcasts to prepare and we therefore want to increase the amount of material we generate - in the hope of helping more listeners.   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

This general podcast describes some of the common misconceptions applicants and even practicing McKinsey/BCG consultants have about their own firms. It will be useful to anyone who wants to understand some of the broad themes and misunderstandings about the profession.   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 Business on the Edge: How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World’s Toughest Places, Viva Ona Bartkus. In this book, they argue that by entering markets in the world’s frontline regions—areas stuck in cycles of violence and extreme poverty—businesses can actually create stability and expand opportunity for communities and corporations alike. Business on the Edge shows how businesses can reduce risks, cut costs, and increase profits, all while creating economic opportunities that transform communities.   Viva Ona Bartkus is Paul E. Purcell Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She is a former partner at McKinsey & Company and the founder of the revolutionary course Business on the Frontlines.   Get Business on the Edge here: https://rb.gy/a505d2   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

Networking calls/coffee chats are tricky. You should not be following the advice found for general recruitment. We insist our clients network with partners so most of the advice we provide is for networking with McKinsey and BCG partners. The reality is that partners are best equipped, and most influential, to assess a unique profile and make a judgement call on the spot. The danger is that if you do not impress the partner, you are very unlikely to go anywhere with further networking. The more atypical your profile, though, the greater the need to network with a partner, and the benefits far outweigh the risks.   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

Many candidates forget to sanity-check their calculations in a case. That is a bad idea. Without a sanity-check there is no way to meaningfully assess the accuracy of your answer. More important, how you perform the sanity check is the key. All sanity-checks must involve the reduction of the answer to a number that you can intuitively compare to your own experiences. Unless you do this, you can never defend your answer.   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 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.   In this episode, continuing the discussion from her first interview, we delved deeper into the conventional marketing wisdom and instinctive behaviors that drive people to buy your product.   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 author of Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future, Mike Maples, Jr. In this book, Maples and coauthor Peter Ziebelman set out to discover the hidden forces that drive extraordinary start-up success. Pattern-breaking success, they reveal, demands a different mindset and actions to harness developments others miss or that may, at first, seem crazy.   Mike Maples, Jr is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and the co-founder of FLOODGATE, a leading seed stage fund in Silicon Valley that invested in companies like Twitter, Twitch, Okta, and Outreach at the very beginning of their startup journeys.    An eight-time member of the Forbes Midas List of Top Venture Capital investors, he was one of the pioneers of the seed investing movement, which started in the mid-2000s and now is a mainstream part of startup funding.   Get Pattern Breakers here: https://rb.gy/z4l4i7   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 golf coach, entrepreneur, and personal development enthusiast Eric Cogorno. In this episode, Eric shares the most effective tips and techniques that he uses to grow his business and followers.   Eric took his business from $80K to $1.5 million revenue a year -- in less than five years. He has grown an audience of 500K+ followers (and 3-5 million views every month) from zero.  All the while, he decreased his work time from 60 hours a week to 10-15 hours!   In 2017, Eric Cogorno took to YouTube the experience he gleaned from giving more than 20,000 in-person golf lessons.  His distinct style of clear language and simplified concepts have attracted close to 400,000 followers across his channels and many millions of view from all across the globe.  He’s on a mission to make world-class golf instruction available to everyone and, through the process, create the biggest and best online golf school in the world.    Born and raised in the Lehigh Valley, PA, Eric was a scratch golfer by the age of 15. He golfed through high school and at Lehigh University.  He has been featured on Forbes.com and was voted as a Golf Digest Best in State Teacher.    Eric is a golf teaching professional who took his business from $80K/year teaching one-on-one lessons by the hour to a multimillion dollar golf instruction brand utilizing these same skills (and strategies). In the process, he was able to also transform his entire lifestyle – from working on the lesson tee 7 full days a week, to having freedom to work when/where he chooses – splitting his time between Pennsylvania and Florida.   Learn more about Eric Cogorno Golf here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ericcogornogolf 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 Intentionality: A Groundbreaking Guide to Breath, Consciousness, and Radical Self-Transformation, Finnian Kelly. In this book, Finnian Kelly shares his step-by-step process for manifesting Intentionality into success. Through combining both scientific and spiritual principles, Finnian leads you through the five key intentions, including actionable steps and targeted breathing exercises you can incorporate into your everyday life.   Finnian Kelly is the founder of Intentionality Inc., a sought-after speaker and high-performance coach, and a master breathwork facilitator. He helps world-changing leaders implement his Intentionality® methodology to find new levels of fulfillment and growth in their creative endeavors, relationships, and overall well-being. As a successful entrepreneur and a retired officer in the Australian military, Finnian has been dubbed "the Business Mystic'' because of his unique ability to awaken consciousness in business and inspire CEOs and leadership teams to have a more expansive human experience.   Get Finnian’s book here: https://www.intentionality.com/   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 Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times, Dr. Rebecca Homkes.   How would you stabilize your business to withstand and grow through market shocks, reset your strategy to take account of new realities and thrive through uncertainty?   Survive, Reset, Thrive is a playbook for leaders derived from the author's first-hand experience working with executive teams across industries from software, technology, retail, fashion, and construction through to manufacturing. Drawing from over a decade of rich real-world experience, the author illustrates how to navigate the most complex strategic situations with a simple, executable approach.   Rebecca Homkes is a high-growth strategy specialist and CEO and executive advisor. She is a Lecturer at  The London Business School, Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Advisor and Faculty at the Boston Consulting Group focused on AI and Climate and Sustainability, and a former fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance. A global keynote speaker and recognized thought leader, she is also the global Faculty Director of the Active Learning Program with the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), leads several fintech accelerators, and serves on the boards of many high-growth companies. She earned her doctorate at the London School of Economics as a Marshall Scholar and is now based in Miami, the Bay Area, and London, UK.   Get Rebecca’s book here: https://rb.gy/aq85ee Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times   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