Oliver Wyman @ ISB

The students of the consulting club at ISB had an informal session with Oliver Wyman on the 29th of September, 2007. The highlights are as below

ALUMS PRESENT :
Abhishek (Class of 07) - IITD, Dubai Office
Sunil (Class of 05) - REC, Worked with Satyam, ISB, Oliver Wyman – Dubai Office

PREPARATION

FUNDAES FOR MAKING GROUPS
o Start with people you are comfortable with
o Later swap groups, to expose yourself to different styles

Team Size – Ideal 4
Frequency of meeting - Daily or 3 to 4 days / week * 1.5 hours = 8 hours + 3-4 hours study on your own = ~ 15 hours a week
Sources: Michigan, Kelloggs
Typical Time – 30 min per case in a team

TIMELINES
Groups who had started in term 5 were in good shape for interviews
Start PI by end of term 5
Started swapping groups at the beginning of Term 6
Mock interviews
Post shortlist, have mock again

CASE PREPARATION
Step 1 - Start on your own instead of a group. Helps you get familiarize to the cases and have better group interactions.
Step 2 - Individually spend 5 min on structure and share structures amongst the group members
Step 3
One Interviewer, One Interviewee, 2 Observers.
Observers play a very important role – should make exhaustive notes
Make case logs and share your way (structure) of solving
Develop the skill of developing your own structures. Don’t stick on pre-determined structures

TIPS FOR CASE SOLVING
Focus more on structure and rationale than the answers.
Work more on the approach
Structuring means breaking a larger problem into smaller problems. E.g. Use porter’s framework to break the problem not for the sake of using framework. Use frameworks to be comprehensive.
Once you have broken down the problem, prioritize the smaller problems
Here, interviewer helps incase you are off track. Pick up clues here.

Example - One person – very good at structuring but he couldn’t because he went straight to the answer without taking the interviewer through his logic. Hence, try and use MECE (Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive ). Make the interviewer feel that you have complete control over the case.

COURSE KNOWLEDGE
May not be vital. But could make a difference at the last stage
Individually or in group – upto individual style

HOW FAR CONSULTING PREP WILL HELP IN OTHER PREPS
Marketing & Sales – Theory ques could be asked
Finance – Needs a lot of subject knowledge

GRADES

HOW IMPORTANT ARE GRADES
Grades are always a consideration. Though some with low grades got shortlisted, majority of who get shortlisted have good grades.
Why? – Because it tells how consistent a guy has been!
Easiest to compare people
Min grades – avg grades

HOW DO YOU GET AROUND GRADES
Show that you were outstanding in your under-graduate!!!
Show that you have done great acad work like ELP
Diamond gives a lot of weightage to work experience
Last year's shortlist, had non-Dean listers!!

HOW IS AN INTERNATIONAL POSTING DIFFERENT FROM INDIA

DUBAI
All consulting firms – Mck, BCG, AT Kearney, Bain, Oliver present in dubai
More than 85% expats
Cleaner Mumbai with better infrastructure
Though accommodation is a big problem, it shouldn’t be a problem with the salary you get!
Clients don’t know much about consulting
Negatives - No clarity on expectations from consultants; no clear problem statements, Less push back
Positives – Opportunity to start from problem definition; Open to suggestions, respect for consultants

ABOUT THE FIRM - Some basics to know before PPT

No plans to open office in India in near future
Highest revenue per consultant
World Leaders in financial, aviation, retail and value engineering. They work for all large airlines
Lifestyle – possible to be in India once a week?

Related to recruitment
Timing of interviewing is an issue – we don’t want to come early as students are not best prepared. We weren’t happy with the interviews last year.
We visit Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Insead – hence expectations are high
Lot of pressure from IIMs – recruiting from IIMB this year
Last year – 13 shortlisted, 3 were recruited
Positions – Analyst, consultant, SA, Associate
Top payer
3 to 4 rounds – typically 7 interviews – PI + Case