Michael and Tom discuss another concerning change within McKinsey: an adjustment to McKinsey salaries, which is very subtle but interesting.
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Michael and Tom talk about a major and troubling change in the language McKinsey has started using in their performance evaluations. We discuss what it indicates for McKinsey's future.
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Michael and Tom talk about a new concerning change in up or out procedures in one of McKinsey's North American offices, which was unfolding over the last 6 months. We discuss what impact will this have if action is not taken to stop this practice.
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The story Michael and Tom will talk about today, a major consulting firm suing McKinsey, is a real life example of how firms compete behind the scenes.
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Michael and Tom discuss how to manage extreme fatigue and stress.
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Michael and Tom discuss the new policy change introduced by McKinsey related to selection of McKinsey office leaders. We discuss why it could have been introduced and how it may impact McKinsey.
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In this podcast Michael and Tom, Darden EMBA, talk about Sizan and her one of a kind story. Sizan is a participant in TCO IV.
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In this podcast we continue to experiment with a new format. Meet Tom, Darden EMBA, who is going to co-host the next few Case Interview podcasts with us.
In this podcast we discuss the subtle but very important reason Zach’s presence in TCO III ended. Zach is the 2nd participant in The Consulting Offer III.
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In this podcast we discuss how interviewers judge candidates during case interviews. Specifically we look at how they determine whom are the top candidates.
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This podcast, and related article, explains how to put the client first the right way.
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In this podcast we talk about one critical lesson from TCO III / IV: how being likeable effects one's performance during consulting case interviews.
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In this podcast, and related article, we are going to talk about value-based fees. And I am going to explain to you why value-based fees seldom work. We will also explain why value-based fees are misunderstood. And they are misunderstood in a very fundamental way.
Value-based fees can only work if certain supply and demand conditions in the market are met, or if your client is naïve. If a consulting firm understands this concept, they have a higher probability of securing higher-margin value-based fees.
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A very common strategy for a management consulting firm to displace an incumbent and serve a client is to show an problem / insight / opportunity that the client has not realized before. Unfortunately, this does not work that well in building client relationships and driving sales. In fact, a brilliant insight by itself may even lead to more work for the competition.
In this podcast, and related article, we discuss this issue and address how to fix it.
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In this podcast, and related article, we discuss how to manage failure.
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In this podcast, and related article, I discuss how to resign, and especially how to resign if you are part of the inner circle of the firm and office.
The business model of McKinsey, BCG and that of other firms expects this. When not expected at your firm, it is even more important you handle this correctly.
If you are part of the inner circle most of the best practices you read about will not apply to you. Most of the company rules and guidelines will certainly not apply to you.
I also discuss some ways in which members of my inner circle resigned. Never ever repeat their mistakes.
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The importance of gaining a client's trust via a solid reputation in the market places a premium on leaders who are skillful in building client relationships. No one would expect a consulting firm with poor reputation to thrive. After all, any firm's future is only as bright as its reputation in the market.
It takes a strategic eye to focus on building client relationships for the long-term, even if it means sacrificing some revenue, and individual compensation, in the short-term. In this podcast we talk about how we approach building client relationships. More specifically, we discuss how we handle negotiating fees with clients. We dive into:
- Should you consider competing on price?
- What competing on price does to your firm?
- If you compete on price what signal are you sending to the client?
Competing on price may bring in some extra revenue in the short-term, but will be damaging to the health of your business in the medium and long-term. Hence, competing on price actually destroys value and should be avoided.
However, if you are a small boutique consulting firm and you choose not to compete on price, how should you compete? In this podcast we also share with you an alternative to competing on price that works for us.
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The Emerging Leaders Program (also called Emerging Fellows Program) is a scholarship we award to promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We help them plan their studies, select schools and map out their entire path to elite consulting firms, and beyond. We carefully train and groom them. This is a significant scholarship and we have high expectations.
In this podcast (and related article), using Sveta’s story, we discuss what we expect of scholarship recipients and why we have this expectation. We also discuss how we develop young people with tremendous potential.
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In every single season of The Consulting Offer female PhDs have dominated the show through their skills, learning pace and performance.
And they have all been foreign. Two are Chinese and one is Nigerian.
In this podcast we discuss why this may be the case. Why does this one group do so well over MBAs and undergraduates despite the general consensus that PhDs are weaker in cases.
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This is a frustrating topic for many reasons. You will see it cropping up in TCO III a lot, and hurting one participant significantly.
Therefore, we want to address this topic via a podcast and hope it never comes up again.
Too many clients want to use a resume format because it (1) looks good, (2) was recommended by the school, (3) they spent a lot of time on it, (4) it is a better use of space or (5) they cannot understand why it should change. In this podcast we explain why a bad (in your opinion) resume format needs to be evaluated using very different metrics.
This is an important podcast. Listen to it.
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Most firms only talk about their successful clients. They talk about clients who end up joining McKinsey, BCG and Bain (MBB).
We are different.
We believe it is important to talk about those case interview coaching clients who did not make it. 29.9% of our clients wanted to join McKinsey, BCG and Bain but ended up in industry, other consulting firms or government.
What happened?
Who is accountable for this result?
Is it an error?
What could we have done better?
Is a 100% placement rate for MBB even possible, while brining in development candidates?
We discuss all of the above and more in this brutally honest podcast.
Note: Our placement rate fluctuates all the time as we have case interview coaching clients going through case interview process with MBB on a continuous basis. So at various points of time, even within the same week, you may see a different placement rate being reported. However, the placement rate for MBB is hovering around 70%, which is the highest in the industry.
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In this podcast I relate an experience I had with a young partner we have in China, Amy. This may seem like a small incident but to me it explains the reason why older partners need to bring in younger partners with a different worldview, different skills and different definition of what is normal.
The true mark of an effective partnership is trust. And trust explicitly at the time when you have no idea what will happen but you believe in the judgment of a fellow partner. And the key to trust is finding people who share the same values and intellect.
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Most applicants have the wrong impression of McKinsey BTO. And through this wrong impression they are missing an opportunity to pursue a wonderful consulting career.
In this podcast, and related article, we discuss how McKinsey BTO is similar to the generalist role, how the market values a McKinsey BTO background and how the future of business will impact the value of a McKinsey BTO background.
Where it matters, McKinsey BTO is no different from strategy and operations.
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We have worked with over 700 case interview coaching clients and that rises to over 800 if you include active clients. We have kept meticulous records on each client. Searching for correlations/patterns/trends within that database has opened up an entirely new way to assess and guide clients.
Client behaviour and attributes we had previously considered unimportant takes on a whole new meaning when run through the model. We use this model extensively at Firmsconsulting.
In this podcast we discuss just a few insights from the database. We wonder why consulting firms are not doing the same?
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In this podcast, and related article, we discuss a common mistake candidates make. They assume because a consultant has a reputation for being a good consultant they will make a great case interview practice partner or an effective case interview coach. This is very far from the truth.
Teaching is a skill. Great expertise at doing x does not at all imply great teaching skills for x.
We see this most clearly in sports and even universities. The greatest sports coaches may have been good at the sport in their youth, but they were rarely the stars. The same applies in universities, the greatest researchers are often poor teachers.
Picking a good consultant to be your case interview coach offers superficial comfort, but often does not help you much.
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This podcast is based on an interaction I had recently, over email, with a student. The student made critical mistakes in handling the interaction. By listening to this podcast you can avoid them and network better with partners.
This is a great example of how to not ask a partner for help. The reality is that if he were simply less pushy, more attentive and respectful, I would have certainly have helped him.
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