Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we discuss speed. Far too many candidates focus on being faster. That is another myth. Speed is an outcome of having good technique. So if you are slow, deconstruct your technique, analyze weaknesses and develop a new way to solve arithmetic. That is key. Unless your technique improves aka "your process to solve math," you will never improve. We explain how in this podcast. Moreover, if an interviewer or practice partner indicates you are slow, think carefully if your technique can be improved, versus merely trying to speak faster. Note, there are many different techniques to solve arithmetic problems so do not search for the "best" technique. Find one that works for you. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with Catherine Mattiske, a leading training professional, author, and publisher, with an internationally acclaimed career spanning 30 years across an array of industries including banking, insurance, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and retail.  In this episode, Catherine speaks about her journey of becoming a successful entrepreneur and how she broke out of trading time for money. Catherine shares her advice to people who are trying to build a company from the ground up and also build a passive income. She highlighted the value of communication in forming and strengthening client relationships, leading to business success. Catherine Mattiske established ‘The Performance Company,’ a leading-edge training and consulting organization, in 1994. The Performance Company has offices in Sydney, Los Angeles, New York, and London. Catherine has earned a reputation for helping clients achieve their personal and business goals across Australia, the USA, United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, New Zealand, an

Welcome to an episode with CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech Correspondent, Julia Boorstin. Get Julia’s Book here: https://amzn.to/3ekjT4Y In this episode, Julia speaks about female leaders and their struggles in facing gender bias and “pattern matching” in largely male-dominated industries. She discusses the key commonalities of female leaders who thrived in spite of the challenges that made them uniquely equipped to lead and grow successful businesses.  Julia also shared her journey of becoming a CNBC senior media and tech correspondent. As an expert, she shares tips on how to prepare for interviews, how to become a better communicator, and how to respond to opportunities. Julia Boorstin is CNBC’s Senior Media & Tech Correspondent and has been an on-air reporter for the network since 2006. She also plays a central role in CNBC’s bicoastal tech-focused program “TechCheck” delivering reporting, analysis, and CEO interviews with a focus on social media and the intersection of media and technology.  In 2013, B

Welcome to an episode with an expert on organizational paradoxes, Wendy Smith. Get Wendy’s Book here: https://amzn.to/3fF1b8C When faced with a tough decision-making situation, it is common for us to assess and select what we believe is the best deal and then move on. We tend to assume that we need to pick one option and eliminate the other. But what if we could actually succeed in pursuing both options?  In this episode with Wendy Smith, we discuss how leaders and individuals can effectively respond to contradictory yet interdependent demands and have the mindset shift needed to successfully navigate a paradox. Wendy Smith is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management and faculty director of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware. She earned her PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, where she began her intensive research on strategic paradoxes—how leaders and senior teams effectively respond to contradictory yet interdep

Welcome to an episode with a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Sean McLain. Get Sean’s book here. This episode with Sean McLain revolves around the story of Carlos Ghosn, one of the world’s most feared and admired business executives who had remarkable success, yet faced a catastrophic fall. He was accused of financial misconduct and arrested for a bevy of alleged crimes—all of which he vehemently denied. Sean is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Los Angeles, covering EV startups like Rivian, Lucid, and Japanese and Korean automakers. Since 2016, Sean McLain has overseen The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the largest automakers in Japan, including Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, and received the Malcolm Forbes Award by the Overseas Press Club of America for his coverage of the former Nissan and Renault executive's arrest and detention. Sean graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, and lives in Tokyo. Get Sean’s book here: Boundless: The Rise, Fall, and Escape of Carlos Ghosn. 

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we discuss about the typical errors candidates make in trying to read too much into the behavior of interviewers: quiet, asking questions, rude, etc. One thing we always caution candidates is to be wary of assuming the friendly person likes them or that the unfriendly person does not like them. Friendliness does not equate to "like" and people display their emotions in very different ways. So, if the interviewer is very friendly, it could go either way. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an episode with a sought-after business leader and an expert in finance and investing, Candy Valentino. How do you create wealth and financial freedom? This question roams around almost anyone’s mind. Yet, not everyone has achieved the “financial freedom” level. In this episode, Candy shares the most effective tips to build wealth through investment, sustainable and long-term business, and how to earn and save more. She discussed the right mindset about money and covered the six ordinary steps to achieve extraordinary financial freedom. Candy Valentino has over 24 years of business experience building and exiting companies in service, retail, product manufacturing, and real estate investing. During her two-and-a-half decades as an entrepreneur, Candy Valentino has been named to Top Business Leaders 40 Under 40, Top 50 Women In Business, 10 People Making a Difference, Top 10 Business Consultants by Yahoo Finance, and was the youngest female to receive the Governor’s Award in Entrepreneurship in Penn

Welcome to an episode with Jennifer Smith, the CEO and co-founder of Scribe, Jennifer Smith. In this episode, Jennifer shared her career journey and how she came up with the ideas that led her to founding Scribe. We discuss the value of institutionalizing knowledge and unleashing know-how from a single person into an asset that’s available across the company. We also speak about the massive possibilities that a knowledge management system can have for a company and the impact it can have on a business. Jennifer Smith is a former VC and McKinsey consultant turned accidental CEO. She interviewed more than 1,200 business leaders on a quest to understand everything there is to know about processes, best practices, and productivity. Now, with her startup Scribe, she’s empowering people to own their processes by building the world’s first operating system for know-how. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Welcome to an interview with a leadership coaching legend, David Noble. Most leaders experience a lack of motivation to continue the things they once had a passion for. So, how do you rekindle the fire of motivation when it starts to die? The key is to know your “why” and assess if your reason is strong enough to continue the journey. In this episode, David shares the role he plays in reframing things and bringing the best out of leaders, executives, and CEOs. David shares a powerful new framework called MOVE that characterizes great and extraordinary leaders. Most of us dislike having only one strategy to win. In David's framework, he discusses the four simple yet powerful options that will take you to the same goal: lean in, lean back, lean with, and don’t lean. David Noble has more than twenty years of global experience advising CEOs, their teams, and major investors on leadership and strategy, and an additional fifteen years as a top executive. He was named by Thinkers50 as one of the world's top coaches.

Welcome to an episode with a renowned digital entrepreneur and founder of ENTRE institute, Jeff Lerner. Get Jeff's book here. In this episode, Jeff discussed how he was able to build a multi-million dollar company from scratch and the key elements behind his success. At the age of 18, Jeff started his first business after dropping out of high school and becoming a musician. After the first one failed, Jeff continued starting more businesses and failed at them too. Despite years of trying and numerous unsuccessful businesses, one of which had left him $500,000 in dept, he chose to keep going and eventually built multiple successful businesses. Instead of retiring early, Jeff chose to spend his time inspiring and helping others build their businesses. After becoming an authority in startups, he established ENTRE institute, an online education company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs how they could start their own businesses. To date, ENTRE Institute has taught over 150,000 across the world. Get Jeff's book h

Welcome to an episode with a practicing emergency physician at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Richard Winters. Get Dr. Richard’s book here. As a physician, Dr. Richard shares how he managed, adapted, and remained calm during times of covid. He discussed some of the best practices that can be adapted from the medical field into the space of business. We speak about leadership, administration, and leveraging your expertise to be effective in your career.  In this episode, we also discussed one of the traps that most leaders face today where they strive to become successful in their career, and groom and develop new leaders while taking into account the fear of being replaced.  As director of Leadership Development for the Mayo Clinic Care Network, Dr. Winters facilitates retreats and delivers programs that train leaders at healthcare organizations worldwide. Dr. Winters graduated from the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in 1994. He is board certified and residency trained in Emergency Medicine from the University of Cali

Welcome to an episode with Cassie Holmes, a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and an award-winning teacher and researcher of time and happiness. In society today, we generally equate productivity with the number of activities we do, regardless of the value it brings us and how it contributes to our well-being and happiness. We often feel “time-poor” for having too much to do and not having enough time to do it. As a result, we feel less happy and less fulfilled. On the contrary, people with too much free time feel unproductive and lack a sense of purpose. So how should we think about time and happiness? In this episode, Cassie discusses how we can recreate our approach to time and transform every moment into a happier hour. She shares how we can spend time optimally, create moments of gratitude and fulfillment, and live life with no regrets. Cassie earned her PhD at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and her BA at Columbia as a psychology major. Cassie’s research has been widely published

Welcome to an episode with Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and currently a professor at Harvard Business School. He has written two of the most enduring leadership classics of all time: Authentic Leadership and True North. Now, Bill has written a new book aimed at the next generation of leaders, the Emerging Leaders Edition of True North, coauthored with millennial entrepreneur Zach Clayton. Get Bill’s new book here. This book is a clarion call to emerging leaders to step up to lead their organizations with their hearts, not just their heads, as authentic leaders who lead with purpose by inspiring and coaching their teammates. It heralds the end of the baby boomer era of Jack Welch, when too many leaders focused on maximizing shareholder value and taking shortcuts rather than building sustainable enterprises to serve all of their stakeholders. Our best hope for a better world is to empower the next generation of emerging leaders – not just those on top – to follow their True North to make th

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we discuss religion, politics, culture, etc. When interviewing with a partner or associate from a different culture, it is very easy to say something which can offend a person. Our very own clients have said seemly innocent things only to have it blow up in their face much later, and sometimes in the interview. We have a strict rule of never discussing religion, politics, culture and ethnicity with clients. This avoids topics which can offend people if the wrong things are said. The issue is not about who right, since this is an issue of personal faith and rationality does not always work. It is best to avoid these topics. 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. The reality is that McKinsey will rarely ask this question directly. They will ask a simple question, not referring to leadership, but expect you to always draw out leadership, analytic, teamwork and "can-do" attributes. 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

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