Consulting @ ISB

ISB Consulting Club Blog shifted to ISB Official Blog

2008-10-23T22:54:00.003+05:30

Hi All,
ISB Consulting Club blog has been shifted to the Official ISB Blog. Henceforth, all posts will be available on the ISB Blog's Consulting Club page.

The Link to the new webpage is ISB Official Blog

Shadow Alum Initiative - McKinsey Delhi Office visit

2008-10-22T00:29:00.001+05:30

McKinsey’s Delhi office is located in Sector 32, Plot No. 4 in Gurgaon. The office visit was scheduled for 12:30pm to 3pm on the day of our visit. Ours was a small group of just 4 people (Neha, Piyush, Swati and Vaibhav). We were greeted by Ruchi Kalra and Amit Jain. Below is a list of all the alums whom we met.

Amit Jain (Class of 08, HLL 4 yrs)
Neha Kalra (Class of 08, ITC 3 yrs)
Neha Mittal (Class of 08, Deloitte 2 yrs)
Sambit Sathapathy (Class of 03, ITC 11 yrs)
Vikas Chadha (Class of 07, L&T 6 yrs, Sharp 6 yrs)
Lav Agarwal (Class of 2005, HLL 5 yrs)
Raj Kamal (Class of 03, IAS 8 yrs)
Ruchi Kalra (Class of 07, Evalueserve 2 yrs)
Saket Pradhan (IIMA PGPX, 10 yrs)

I feel that the highlight of the visit was getting to know the work culture more closely instead of the usual projects or the life of a consultant at McKinsey.

Life at McKsiney
Our conversation started around trying to understand the work-life balance at Mckinsey. We spoke at length about different support systems available at McKinsey that help employees cope with their work mixed with travel and their personal lives. We got a first person account of this from Bharati, who is the recruiting coordinator at McKinsey. Since joining McKinsey, she had to quit the firm 3 times for personal reasons and was able to join back again. She also told us how flexible McKinsey was, and that the company was willing to work with her and gave her the option of working part time when she had to quit for personal reasons. Our conversation also revolved around the up-or-out policy that most of us are familiar with. It was pleasantly surprising when our alums told us that they know of no one who had been asked to quit. They admitted that on a day to day basis, work does get stressful, but that there are excellent support systems available to help employees to cope with it and the firm makes all possible efforts to retain its people.

Experiences of Alums
The alums shared some of their experiences with us and their motivation for being a part of McKinsey. A theme that resonated across all of them was the opportunity that McKinsey provides for individual development and personal growth. Each of them related a unique memorable experience at McKinsey. Besides this, Ruchi walked us through the different phases involved in a typical client engagement and answered some of the questions we had. The alums also highlighted McKinsey’s role in ensuring implementation of its recommendations after the consulting phase is over in order to ensure the client’s success.
Office tour
We also had a quick office tour where we got to know about the facilities available to employees. The office does not have cubicles for every employee since most people travel often. It instead has team rooms where different consulting teams work together on their projects. The McKinsey office also houses a Gymnasium and a cafeteria. There is also VA (Visual Aids) group dedicated exclusively to the Delhi office. This group provides support to the consulting teams by helping the teams with their PowerPoint and any other form of communication document that they want to present to the client. We also had a quick chat with a partner who shed some light on the clients served out of the Delhi office. The Delhi office serves clients in various sectors including power, healthcare, retail, infrastructure, real estate, technology, government, public sector, non-profit, media, etc.
Life after McKinsey
Towards the end we also talked about some exit options that consultants have. The alums were very open about discussing this topic. Around 20% of people leaving McKinsey go on to become entrepreneurs. Most others go on to join PE firms or some top management position in the industry, depending on the position from which they leave the firm. Quite a few of them also opt to work in the development sector with NGOs.

Case prep by Group - "Crackers"

2008-10-20T01:51:00.009+05:30

Case Prep – Group “Case Crackers (Ankita Gupta, Chandrakanth Chereddi, Manish Lunia, Pragati Lodha and Karthik Chaitanya) has been kind enough to share their insights about case preparation

A. The Problem – Please refer HBS Case Book – Practice Case 9 (Wheeler Dealer) http://atrium:14825/ConsultingClub/Placement%20Prep/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fConsultingClub%2fPlacement%20Prep%2f04%20Casebooks%20of%20Other%20B%2dschools&FolderCTID=&View=%7bBFFFA453%2dEF26%2d4B81%2d8ABC%2d3582A5CEFF76%7d acement%20Prep%2f04%20Casebooks%20of%20Other%20B%2dschools&FolderCTID=&View=%7bBFFFA453%2dEF26%2d4B81%2d8ABC%2d3582A5CEFF76%7d
One approach
1. The first thing to do when you get a case like this is to figure out the kind of structure you need to bring to the problem.

2. We prepared a simple 2x2 without trying to force fit any sort of strategy model. This case is simple and starting with a simple case will help you construct mental models that will help you understand how to break down further complicated cases.

3. You already know that the chain was profitable before the expansion. So the first segregation is temporal. Something has obviously gone wrong with the new sets of stores.
4. The first question to ask could be “are there multiple categories of products sold at the stores?” This will help you build the horizontal axis or the Line of Business segregation.
5. Now you have 4 quadrants to work with and this presents your first structure. Your line of thinking is now immediately channeled into a more productive mode.
6. First set of questions focus on inter-LoB differences. Are quadrants I & III (Services) different from II & IV in terms of their demand model and customer segments served (the revenue drivers), profitability, topline growth etc. etc. You get the drift.
7. The next questions should focus on intra-LoB difference – i.e. between quadrant I and III.
8. The recommended solution in the case book will help you through the questions that could be asked. We felt that drawing a structure like the one above easily stimulates a lot of the questions.
9. Once you understand that quadrants II and IV are traditionally low on margins, you get an indication that the problem probably lies in the quantum of customers from each LoB the new stores are attracting. This will help you question the geographical location since you will get an indication during points 6 and 7 that the customers arriving at the Services LoB are smaller than they should be.

B. The Problem – Please refer Wharton 1996 Case Book –Case 1 (Cable Television) http://atrium:14825/ConsultingClub/Placement%20Prep/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fConsultingClub%2fPlacement%20Prep%2f04%20Casebooks%20of%20Other%20B%2dschools&FolderCTID=&View=%7bBFFFA453%2dEF26%2d4B81%2d8ABC%2d3582A5CEFF76%7d
1. This was also an important case for us from a learning standpoint. We applied a different structure to this

2. Apply a structure that suits you. But force yourself into some sort of structure (not framework). This is what all firms look for.

C. Summary of Kellogg Case Book Tips on Case Preps

USING FRAMEWORKS
1. Usage of Frameworks à Important to help you summarize and synthesize in between and the end of the interview. Should not be relied on completely. Thinking should be flexible since every case is unique.
2. Avoid saying “I’m going to use the 4 Cs framework for this case.” Instead, say.. “In order to understand whether or not the acquisition of Firm B by Firm A is a good idea, I’m going to examine Firms A and B in terms of their competencies and cost structures (Company), get a sense of the existing players in the market (Competitors and Collaborators), and understand who they sell to (Customers).Uncovering this information will help me to determine whether or not enough strategic synergies exist between Firm A and B to justify an acquisition.”
3. Common Frameworks à
a. Porters 5 Forces,
b. 5C,
c. Consonance Analysis – Benefit & Cost Drivers,
d. Profit=Revenue-Cost,
e. Value Chain,
f. 4P,
g. Market Segmentation & SPSG (Size, Profit, Share, Growth),
h. Internal / External,
i. Microeconomics,
j. Cost/Benefit,
k. NPV and Cost of Capital
4. Run through 2-3 frameworks on one case to get a better handle on the frameworks.

ATTACKING THE CASE
1. Cases à Either has very little initial information, meaning it will be vague and open à Lots of information will be given up front à Case given as handout prior to interview itself
2. Listen carefully à Make notes à Summarize problem so that on same page à Will have tons of obscure information, focus on main points à Clarify issues à Take a brief pause (ask interviewer if ok – up to a minute)
3. Once you have clarified and understood à Think of some framework that can be applied (market entry – Porter & Internal/External, profitability – Profit=Rev-Cost etc.) à Don’t obsess over the framework, use it to guide you through to prioritize and ask the right questions
4. Initial information à takes you down certain paths à prioritize the paths using frameworks à ask questions to either accept or deny the paths
5. Formulate the hypothesis or the central problem with the case/firm eg. The firm is selling more low profit, high volume products which has reduced the average profit per SKU
6. Not getting to the right hypothesis at first try is not a disqualification, you can always go back to the central issue and try a new path à However losing track of the available paths could create an issue
7. The question is whether you must form a hypothesis right at the beginning of a case or based on asking some more information à Depends upon the approach interviewing firms take in their real life consulting methodology
8. Articulate in a manner that represents structure thinking à Think aloud and let the interviewer hear your thought process à Also write down your thinking and frameworks à Sketch out your thoughts and let the interviewer see what you are doing, they are graphic thinkers
9. Explain all your calculations to the interviewer à Asking all logical questions will help the interviewer guide you through the interview
10. Rather than saying, “”Could you tell me about the company’s products?”, a better approach is to say:“”I know that product mix can often affect profitability. I’d like to explore this issue with respect to Company A. I’d like to know, for instance, what products the company offers and if this has changed over the last few years”.
11. Keep getting unstuck à Always identify the root problem you are solving in the case and keep homing in back there when you are stuck
12. To that end, if time runs out before you can finish your analysis and can make a recommendation, summarize where you are, what you have learned, where you would go next, and make a preliminary recommendation. For example, “Given that I know X, Y, and Z, I would recommend the firm do [action] at this point. However, I would still want to investigate A, B and C to complete my analysis.” A preliminary recommendation beats no recommendation, and the interviewer may very well ask for one.
13. Reserve a corner of notepad for noting down key findings of the case interview so that it will help you identify summary in case you need to end your case interview quickly

BCG – Demystifying Recruiting and Discussion on Applied Strategic thinking | 13th October 2008

2008-10-15T10:42:00.007+05:30

BCG made its third official visit to the campus. It was represented by very senior people from Mumbai office. The following people came down to ISB for the presentation

- Arvind Subramanian – Partner and MD, Mumbai office
- Ashish Iyer – Principal, Mumbai Office
- Rohit Ramesh – Consultant, Mumbai Office
- Yash Erande (Co2006) – Consultant, Mumbai Office

- Ankush Wadhera (Co2008) – Senior Associate, Mumbai Office

The session was structured around two guiding themes:
- Make the recruiting process completely transparent
- Discuss strategic approaches to dealing with business situations

Arvind informed that BCG looks for three basic qualities when they recruit candidates:
1 Analytics and Insight
2 Effectiveness and Impact
3 Communications and presence

When BCG recruits a candidate they look for Partner potential in a recruit. This means that utmost care is taken while recruiting and long term potential of the candidate is meticulously considered. Arvind then went on to define the role of a CV
- It helps in getting shortlisted
o Does the candidate have the required skills?
o How is the candidate different from others?
- Forms a basis for discussion in the interview
o What can the interviewer expect from this person?
o What topics can be discussed to make the interviewee comfortable?
o Are there aspects the candidate needs to be specifically tested on?
A well written CV is one where the candidate has thought through 2 to 3 key issues that he wants to highlight.

CV short-listing process is rigorous and exhaustive
- Independent short-listing by 3-4 senior people
- CVs are put in 3 categories Definitely in, Maybe and Definitely out
- This process consumes several hours of discussion in order to sort out differences of opinion between different evaluators

CVs are evaluated on 6 factors
- Academic performance
- Work experience
- Extra curricular activities
- Co-curricular performance
- Positions held
Finally BCG looks for the “X Factor” or the USP of the candidate. “X factor” refers to attributes of a person that don’t necessarily get captured in the earlier 5 factors but make the CV “sizzle”. E.g. someone taking an year off from his/her life to launch a rock band / become a trainer in mountaineering in the Himalayas. Such actions go well beyond what normally gets captured in the “extra curricular activities” section. In fact, such actions represent a level of drive which needs special recognition.

Some of the dos and don’ts while making the CV
Dos
- decide the 2 or 3 points that differentiate you
- have some talking points for the interview
- take inputs from friends/alums before finalizing CV
- use legible font size and heep the overall page clean and free from clutter
- do a spell check – not using MS word

Donts
- mention interests and hobbies that you cannot carry an intelligent conversationon during the interview
- try to paint a super-human picture of excellence
- provide a list of All the projects that you did at ISB

What happens on the interview day
Pre interview
- read and re-read candidate CVs
- identify areas to discuss
- prepare for a long day

Interview
- meet the candidate
- discuss a case
- answer the questions posed by the candidate

Integration
- discuss performance on various parameters
- debate relative performance
- decide

Each interview usually lasts around 30-45 minutes. There are two interviews in each round. Arvind told the audience that BCG doesn’t conduct stress interviews. There are some warm up questions for initial few minutes of each round to make the candidate comfortable. This is where CV can play an important role. Communication skills and presence of the candidate is usually tested during this time. A case interview is conducted subsequent to that. Typically, problem solving capabilities are tested during the case interviews.

During the first few minutes of the interview, the stage is handed over to the candidate. A great interviewer grabs this opportunity to steer the conversation in pre-determined direction. Therefore, it is critical for the candidates to think through at a great level of detail and specificity the manner in which they would like to use the first few minutes.

Some of the evaluation criteria that are tested are:
- Problem solving and insight
o Structure, judgment, rigor, creativity and synthesis
- Effectiveness and impact
o Independence, team contribution, substance, learning and achievement
- Communications and presence
o Presence, precision, active listening and relationship management.

The second part of the session was covered by Ashish. This part of the session helped in conveying the thought of how to think strategically in case interviews and in any business situation.

Ashish began by describing what Strategy means. He said that “Strategy is an integrated set of choices that positions a firm to win an disproportionate share of future profits in its industry. The definition of profit also changes depending on the nature of the organization. In the most general term profit can be equaled to “utility”.

He then led the audience through the evolution of strategy over the ages. Ashish told the audience that there are two schools of strategic thought.
- Outside-In/Macro View
o This school of thought postulates that “structural biases / positions” determine the extent of success of a firm
- Inside-Out/Micro View
o This school of thought postulates that “internal capabilities” determine the extent of success of a firm

The real power of the idea is unleashed if the outside-in and inside-out views are considered in concert. Specifically, while dealing with a business situation, one needs to consider the “structural biases / positions” and “firm capabilities” simultaneously.

However, this is the traditional view of strategy. Ashish is part of an initiative within BCG called “the future of strategy” which is trying to design new intellectual property on strategy. It has been observed as part of this effort that the traditional tools of strategy belonging to the outside-in and inside-out schools of thought are insufficient to generate competitive advantage. Today all new bases of competitive advantage occur at the boundary of the firm.

Therefore, in addition to marrying “positions” and “capabilities”, modern strategy is about effectively exploiting 6 additional bases of competitive advantage in concert, they are:
- system advantage
- adaptive advantage
- simulation advantage
- people advantage
- social advantage
- signal advantage

Ashish and Arvind later went on to demonstrate strategic thinking through 2 real life case examples.

While there were several take-aways for the students, the key take-away was that while providing an answer to any business problem one must assess whether the following aspects are covered by the solution:
- Choices: Have the choices been made based on a sound assessment?
- Integration: Are the choices integrated (do the choices fit) with the rest of the company’s activities?
- Positions: Have the limited resources been deployed in the most important areas – maximize bang for the buck?
- Winning: Is the solution going to generate a “competitive advantage” over others as against mere parity?
- Long-term disproportionate share of profit: Is the solution going to position the firm to gain disproportionate share of profits over the long-term? Is the solution likely to remain relevant in the long-term?

BCG CV and Case Interview Workshop | 13th September 2008

2008-09-15T10:38:00.007+05:30

The following Alums from BCG came down to ISB to share some gyan on Resume writing and how to approach Case Interviews.

Varun Gupta, Consultant, ISB Co2007
Yashraj Erande, Consultant, ISB Co2006
Akshit Shah, Sr. Associate, ISB Co2007
Shiva Agarwal, Sr. Associate, ISB Co2008
Jitesh Shah, Sr. Associate, ISB Co2008

The workshop started with some fundamentals about Resume writing. The gist of the workshop was “Get the story right”; the CV should bring out a story about the candidate. The recruiter wants to understand the personality so we should think about the points/themes that we want to highlight in the CV. The CV should highlight the special attributes of the candidate. Therefore if the strengths are some specific expertise then a function or skill based resume is suitable. If the aspirant has undergone rapid growth in his career then a chronological resume makes more sense.

There are three main sections in the CV. All the bullet point in each section should be interlinked to the bullet points in the other sections. The CV should highlight the following themes/points:

- Analytical
- Problem solving horsepower/ fire in the belly (different from analytics)
- Communication
- Leadership
- Client management
- Business/commercial Knowledge
- People Skills
- Creativity

This is merely a representative list of attributes. Therefore, please think about your special set of attributes and represent them in the CV. E.g. “ability to take end-to-end responsibility / reliability” is not mentioned in this list but could be the key strength of an individual.

Fundamentally, a CV should be a portfolio of some of the above points. Think about each and every point that is written in the CV. Try to make an excel sheet out of the above written points and map your achievements along-with. The Alums also stressed on the fact that everybody has to be honest while writing the CV.

In an interview the first few minutes are critical to make an impact on the interviewer, this could even be a make or break phase. If there is a theme in the CV, it helps in giving consistent answers in the Personal Interview. Working hard at writing your CV helps you build a mental image of yourself which ensures the consistency in PI answers. Each statement should ideally begin with a strong action verb. Weak words make for uninteresting resumes. Replace “Statement of facts” with actions and results. Don’t write points in paragraphs, break them in bullet points (and sub bullet points) and don’t have more than two indentations. Yash was of the view that different roles require different CVs. Consulting CV and GM CV could be similar but Marketing and IT CVs have to be different.

Case Interview

There are two main types of case interviews: Brain Teasers and Business Problems.
Brain Teasers: How many pencils are sold annually in India. Brain teasers and such questions are usually not asked by BCG in ISB campus.

Business Problem Case: usually snippets from a case done by BCG earlier. “A pharma company has a product which is superior to its competitors. Its sales are declining, what can you do?”

Why are case interviews given?
The case interviews are conducted to judge how much does a candidate like a consulting job? It exposes the candidates to case situations and the kind of work consultants do.

Firms generally do not expect an extensive business background. Most companies try to give cases just to judge general knowledge and knowledge about the prior industry. Candidates are not expected to know about all the jargons pertaining to an industry. Thus, it does not make sense to get a deep insight into each and every industry.

What do Companies Look for?
- Creativity
- Poise
- Analytics

How do I prepare?
- Prepare mentally
o View the interview as an opportunity, not a hurdle.
o Remember, most questions have no right answer
- Practice
o With friends, batch-mates, alum
o Look at the web for firm provided practice questions
o Read consulting case books (give precedence to ISB case books over US school case books)
- Read, read, read and think
o Pink papers
o Have a general awareness of happenings around the world
o Run through the papers on the interview day

Yash highlighted that applicants should think very hard about the company, job profile and role before applying to any company. A candidate should also evaluate the company and actively seek out information from alums, friends and ex-colleagues about the different roles and profiles offered by companies.

Akshit laid out the approach for taking the case interview. However, he was of the opinion that candidates should not make it a mechanical process. Interviewer is looking for creative approach. Typical steps to solving a case are:
- Understanding the problem
o Interviewer will give a problem statement
o Ask questions to gain a detailed understanding of the problem
o Identify the issue
- Problem definition
o Define the problem, say it aloud
o Get the buy-in of the interviewer on the problem definition
o Lay down your approach to solving the problem
o Occasionally, cases may end at this point
- Problem solving
o Solve the problem based on the laid out structure
o Deep dive into areas where issues persist
o Get creative in identifying potential solutions
o Lead the interviewer through your thoughts
- Synthesis and conclusion
o Synthesize your discussion into conclusions
o Conduct a sanity check to ensure solution is practical.

Alum Shadow Initiative

2008-09-11T12:36:00.001+05:30

Alexey Rogozinskiy (AT Kearney Mumbai)

Challenge
One should not expect to be just an observer at the Shadowing Program, surely not with a consulting company. First, the host team was eager to know who we are, what our background is and what we’re going to learn from this visit. My purpose to this effect was to spot the difference between management consulting and IT consulting (which I was a part to for the last several years), and to distinguish AT Kearney’s unique traits from those of other top-tier consultancies. Second, the most inspiring thing was a case solving session based on real-life cases our alumni worked upon (of course, all sensitive details kept confidential). To our joy it turned out that almost all key elements to the solutions we suggested had been deployed in the firm’s recommendations to its clients.

Electives and Case interview preparation
As was testified by the alumni the approach to solving real-life business problems is not different from that used in case interviews. So case method is in a good proximity to what we’ll be doing as consultants. Moreover, with a consulting firm like AT Kearney one is able to reach out to a vast network of experts with deep industry and functional knowledge pool. In fact, before deep industry (as a rule) specialization a newbie has to gain a generalist experience in solving different kind of functional problems from strategy development to designing solutions for operational issues to helping a client with implementation to advising top executives on a diverse set of problems. It incurs that the area of specialization at ISB is not quite important for aspiring consultants. What’s more important is the aptitude for adding convincing logic to the clients’ unstructured problems and delivering tangible results at the bottom line. So the recommendation was threefold: practice, practice, and practice cases covering broad range of business situations until you feel comfortable with this specific way of thinking.

Lifestyle
It’s amazing how diverse a consultant’s lifestyle could be . You may routinely find yourself in an airplane at 6.30am, Monday by Monday, month by month, going to a client’s site. The other way round, you may find yourself in Africa today, in China tomorrow, and in a small town in Gujarat another day. So everyday work may seem to be routine and a new country may bring not only pleasant feelings. Then what drives satisfaction in consulting work? One answer is client’s agreement to act upon your recommendations. Another one may be the caliber of client’s people you are exposed to, or just support and collaboration you find with your fellow colleagues. During the visit our alumni gave us a sense of it all.

This is by no means a comprehensive report and I’m sure my group mates will complement it with new features. And I’d like to take this chance to say ‘thank you’ to Ranjan, Jagan and Vignesh who played host for us, and to Mr. Himanshu and Mr. Hemant who also spent their precious time to give us the flavor of the profession.
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Vinay Shenoy - Deloitte Consulting Strategy &Operations, Hyderabad

At the onset we would like to thank our Alums Anand (C0 06), Abhishek, Vikas (C0 07) and senior manager Shashi Yadavalli and other senior executives at Deloitte Consulting for their time, providing us insights into Consulting, culture at Deloitte and also for patiently answering all our queries. The icing on the cake however was the real life cases and assignments that the alums took us through.

What does it mean to be a Consultant?
Our hosts started off by sharing with us their consulting experiences.
Definition of Consulting – ‘Helping Clients solve problems and executing change’

Role of a Consultant is akin to that of a Business advisor who figures out ways to address client problems and how this is mostly, the game of ‘connecting the dots’.

Consulting experience - ‘Art and Science, roller coaster ride, learning, learning, learning!’

Consulting at Deloitte – ‘Best-in-class peers and leveraging the learning experiences across the clients’.

Most crucial aspect of Consulting is about asking the right questions to address the problem! Once you have these questions in place, you use a structured framework to address these problems and have to drive stakeholder alignment to enact upon the recommendations / findings. Implementation of these findings is also the most critical aspect of any consulting assignment.

Introduction to Deloitte Consulting

Deloitte offers a broad and diverse range of end to end services -
Audit
Consulting
Enterprise Risk Services
Financial Advisory
Merger & Acquisition Services
We will restrict our Focus to Consulting arm of Deloitte. Deloitte Consulting is a subsidiary of Deloitte & Touche USA, the American member firm of DTT. However, Deloitte member firms around the world offer their own brand of consulting services, and Deloitte's Asia Pacific presence includes Australia and New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Industries covered can vary from country to country, but most of Deloitte's consulting services focus on human resources, strategy, information technology, enterprise applications or outsourcing services.

Deloitte is ranked 7th on Vault 2009 Rankings of the top Consulting Firms. Deloitte believes in a sustained long term partnership with its clients. It provides a collegial environment with the ‘hourglass’ model for career growth. Promotions are competency based rather than spending a certain number of years in a given role. Deloitte values professionals, who can manage ambiguity, take charge in high stakes situations and are energized by working with colleagues and clients across borders and who believe in reinventing themselves periodically. Deloitte believes that the best flavour of consulting can be acquired by working as ‘generalists’ for sometime and then later on working in a specific domain and function.

At all levels the employee has access to mentors, diverse range of projects from different industries and interaction with colleagues hailing from diverse backgrounds.

Culture at Deloitte

Deloitte Consulting's big strength is its culture - very collegial, collaborative, embraces diversity. There are weekly social networking events, in and outside the office, enabling employees the option to network into groups that they would like to work with. Working hours and project durations vary quite a lot with an assignment lasting around 6 months. For most consultants, engagements generally "range from a few weeks, to three to eight months."

Consulting service offering at Deloitte
Deloitte addresses the consulting requirements of its clients via 5 services.

Enterprise Applications
Extended Business Services
Human Capital
Strategy and Operations
Technology Integration

On the ‘Advise , Execute , Implement and Operations ‘ Service Offering Canvas Deloitte offers one of the most comprehensive range of services vis-à-vis competition.
Shashi brought out some interesting aspects of work at S&O.

S&O in India was started in 2006 and seeks to leverage the talent pool in India the primarily services the clients across Northern America (comprising of US and Canada), Western Europe, South East Asia. Currently S&O has offices in Hyderabad and Mumbai

At this point of time the Alums walked us through their current assignments (sensitive info kept confidential).Shashi and Anand took us through industries they executed projects in and Anand walked us through a case where they exceeded client expectations via innovative ‘Job based “approach, how they generated market leads for a client and how they handled the challenging deadlines to ensure that the client needs were met.

Abhishek and Vikas spoke about the M&A function and how the assignments they undertook were industry agnostic versus the specialised industry specific projects that Anand executed upon. Abhishek and Vikas took us through a specific M & A case where during the first one week – they built a structure and framework to address the buy side opportunities, establish a list of firms by size (market capitalization), and identify possible synergies and the complexities of integration. They also addressed the ethical aspects should both the potential acquisition target and acquirer approach the same consulting firm with contradictory interests (inform and decline one of the two clients in this case). They also touched in brief the methodology and the leverage of internal teams and tools during these assignments.

These sessions were followed by a general Q & A and lunch with the alums and the other senior executives. In all this was an eye-opener for all of us and we are grateful to our alums and their seniors for having provided us a very well thought of , detailed overview into the Strategy and Operations division of Deloitte.
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Anurag Krishan – AT Kearney Delhi

As part of the shadow alum initiative of the Alumni Affairs Council of the Graduate Students Club, a group of 9 students visited the Delhi office of A.T. Kearney on 29th August. The students were hosted by Ankur Warikoo, Class of 2006, Anshu Gupta, Class of 2006 and Sharad Mittal Class of 2007.

The day’s proceedings started with a round of introductions following which Vikas Kaushal, Vice – President, A.T. Kearney addressed the group.

Vikas heads the campus recruitment effort of A.T. Kearney in India. Reflecting on his association with the firm, Vikas talked about how he had joined the firm 5 years after passing out from IIM Ahmadabad. He was amongst the first group of 15 consultants who joined A.T. Kearney’s newly set up office in Delhi in 2000. Since then the firm’s India operations have grown and the firm now has close to 110 consultants between its Gurgaon and Mumbai offices.

He explained in brief about A.T. Kearney’s core strength areas – energy, oil & gas, Automotive, retail and telecom sector, in addition to niche areas such as Real Estate and Media and Entertainment. Vikas also delved on the current scenario in the consulting profession, with clients looking for engagement which go beyond mere recommendations to actual implementation of those recommendations. He pointed out that this feature played to the strengths of the firm, which has always prided itself on following an end to end approach. Vikas also talked a little about the consulting landscape within India and how it differed from the landscape abroad, with clients’ expectations differing. He emphasized that this is a scenario to which all firms need to adapt while in India.

In response to a question, Vikas also explained the change in trend with respect to strategy consulting – specifically corporate strategy. He explained that while in the past, especially in the hey days of consulting in India, clients tended to look to consultants to work on complete corporate strategy redesigns, the trend had changed off late. He said that now clients generally have their own dedicated departments that work on corporate strategy. Consulting firms come in on very specific assignments that offer a specific insight and / or fit into the client’s overall strategy, but the final corporate strategy is with the client itself.

Following the above interaction with Vikas, the team of Sarovar, Faiz and Anshu gave a brief recapitulation of a current live project that they were working on. Sarovar is a Manager with the firm, while Faiz and Anshu are Associates. The trio is currently working on a fast track roll out strategy for a new GSM player in the Indian market. They explained how the work was split up between the various team members and also the challenges faced – the time pressure as well as the challenge of differentiating a new GSM player in a market that already has a large number of players.

Ankur also talked about his own engagement with a major real estate player in Dubai, and how the particular account has carried on for a long time with the client still employing the services of A.T. Kearney. He also used the example to illustrate the fact that A.T. Kearney did not just stop at providing recommendations to the client, but instead worked with them during the implementation phase too. In this particular case, the client had in fact continued to engage the firm’s services on recurring projects.

After a brief break out session for tea, Ankur then showed the group around the office. He explained that the office also houses the Global Research Center of the firm, which provides back office support to AT Kearney’s offices worldwide.
The tour was followed by a brief interactive session with Ankur, where he explained the future activities that ATK had planned vis-a vis the recruitment season at ISB.

This was followed by lunch, where the group was joined by Vikas alongwith Kaustav Mukherjee (Vice-President) and Abhishek Poddar (Principal). It was an extremely interactive and engaging session, where they talked about their experiences and interests beyond the profession.
After lunch, the group bade goodbye to the host team at A. T. Kearney before leaving for the day.

All in all, this was a very interesting and engaging half day session which saw the group exposed to a premier consulting firm and its practices. Thanks to the efforts of our ever ready to help alums, the session was made extremely special.

The Parthenon Group - Alum Session | 7th September 2008

2008-09-07T13:47:00.005+05:30

Viren Periera (Co2008) and Abhinav Mital (Co2008) were present in the morning session on The Parthenon Group. They gave a brief introduction to the firm and addressed questions posed by the audience.

Viren did his bachelors in business from Mumbai University and worked with E&Y for 4 years in financial consulting space.

Abhinav did his engineering from IIT Delhi and worked with a textile company in Bangalore. He helped his company in setting up a textile plant and assisted them in some takeovers.

The Parthenon Group started its operations in 1991 at its Boston office. Currently it has offices in four locations at Boston, London, Mumbai and San Francisco.

Parthenon works in the following practice areas:
- Corporate Advisory
- PE strategic due diligence - Market scan, analyze various players, Post Investment valuations, strategic roadmap
- Education

Verticals include healthcare, retail, financial services, consumer goods, hospitality, industrial products, education, etc. Parthenon does case work for Not-For–Profit organizations as well as pro-bono consulting work. They have worked for organizations such as Gates foundation and Michael and Susan Dell foundation.

Mumbai office was started in Jan 2008 and has around 15 consultants. Mumbai office is the only office in Asia and is in charge of the projects being undertaken in Asia, because of this the case work spans around different countries in the continent.

There are three major rungs in Parthenon Associate, Principals and Partners. Senior principal takes on the mantle of an engagement partner. The career track is around 5-7 years. India office has 1 Partner, 2 Senior Principals, 3 Principals, 2 Senior Associates and 4 Associates.

The firm has around 200 consultants in all the global offices. The benefit of working in a smaller firm is that you get greater responsibilities very early in your career. Learning curve is steeper and accessibility to the senior consultants is easier. The consultants are expected to take on diverse and different roles. Since the Mumbai office was started in Jan ’08, it provides a startup environment, which is very enriching and challenging

MBA graduates come in at Principal level. Usually they work on two cases simultaneously. That means the learning curve is quite steep. Since cases go through crests and troughs on an average the work pressure does not build up because the timelines and the pace of the projects is different and one can do a balancing act between the two. Time management skills and quality management is crucial. Working on two projects does not mean that the quality can be compromised. Principals have associates reporting to them and it is their responsibility to guide them. Apart from that Abhinav and Viren also work on Client development work. Typical team size consists of 2 principals and 2 associates led by a senior principal and a partner. Size can vary depending on the project. Typical project duration is 6- 8 weeks. PE projects last for about 3 weeks whereas strategy projects can go up to 10 weeks.

Abhinav recently worked on a market entry case for a chain of international schools that wanted to enter Vietnam. The team did a competitive analysis of Vietnam’s market. They used primary research to estimate the demand, price points, competitors, availability of resources etc. The regulatory framework in the country was studied as well. The team finally built a demographic model to forecast demand for international school in the country. The client wanted to take the acquisition route so they explored that opportunity as well.

Placement Process: These were the stages in the placement process for Co2008.
1) A Case Analysis on profit improvement strategy of a company.
2) Personal Interview to assess the cultural fit with the company
3) Day 1 had a case which had concepts from different areas. Candidate was expected to explain the approach that he will take to crack the case. It was a strategy case on advising the CEO of the company on how to take up future action. They were given 30 minutes to read the case and present the solution to the interviewer. Abhinav was of the view that structure is very critical while solving the cases.
4) Final Interview (PI) with a Senior Principal.

The Alums stressed upon the fact that Personal Interview is a very critical aspect of the placement process. Students should start the preparation for the PI ASAP. This preparation takes a longer time. Before applying to Parthenon, candidates should prepare the cover letter seriously after reading up about the firm. Cover letter can add a personal touch to the resume and hence should be used wisely. Alums further informed the batch that the Parthenon Group will be visiting the campus regularly. The schedule of their visits will be updated by the Consulting Club.

McKinsey & Co.- Resume Workshop

2008-09-03T12:44:00.002+05:30

ISB Alums working in McKinsey came down to ISB to undertake a Resume workshop. The key takeaways from the workshops have been divided into "Structuring", " Content" and "Formatting"

Structuring

You can structure your resume based on skills, functional expertise or chronology (time) depending upon how best you feel you can position your resume and the intended recipient.
Bucket the work-experience into different roles/profiles
If you are applying to the same industry but want to move up in terms of roles, then it makes sense to highlight the work experience in a chronological order.
In case you are switching industries then highlight the critical skills that are transferable to the job that you are applying to.
Try to be specific and avoid vague points
Make a list of the skills that you want to showcase to the recruiter.
Make different buckets of skills that you want to convey to the recruiter. Include relevant work-ex/project-work under the different heads.
Recruiter takes a holistic view of the resume and does not give any disproportionate weight to any particular section.
Usually there is a standard EOI format which is circulated by CAS. If the recruiter has asked for the cover letter then change the format. Don’t waste too much time on EOI. EOI could be used to explain career gaps, role changes etc.
Try and bring out a problem solving capability through the bullet points that talk about work
You can make a segway into a section by introducing some unique characteristic about it – Could be academic or work related – For eg. “Worked across 5 diverse roles in 3 years” – This helps set the context for what the recruiter will expect through the resume
For extra-curriculars, use a role-based approach. Explain what you did more than talking about the post you held
You can always flip the order of the resume elements (eg. You can start with extra-curricular section and then move to work section)

Content

Make a list of things that you have done in life (including things done at high school etc.)
Then shortlist the points that you want to tell to the recruiter
Keep it simple so that the person reading the CV could understand it. Hence remove the technical terms. The resume should be understood by a layman.
Highlight the impact of the things that you have done.
Prioritize and retain only the points that have the greatest impact. Those points should cover the work experience, academics, extra-curricular and co-curricular.
Even if you have a draft of resume, still you should start from scratch and make a laundry list of all the activities and achievements.
The resume should reflect the strength of the person. If the person is strong in extra-curricular, then his resume should give more space to that.
Show it to a lot of people and ask them to review it.
The bullet points in the resume should tackle the following three points:
a. The resume point should highlight the complexity of the situation
b. What did you actually do (your contribution)
c. Does the point highlight the impact (contribution v/s complexity).
Highlight both the external (company) impact and internal impact (yourself).
Extra-curricular portion of the resume is important as a story can be built around it.
If you are applying in the same industry then you can use jargon/technical words. Incase you are applying to a different industry then shelve all jargon and technical words
Non-disclosure of grades is not a good idea even if the grades are low. Non-disclosure of grades is assumed that the grades are abysmally low.
Please explain significant gaps in career.
If there is something that you have designed but not implemented use the word “potential”
Always exhibit consistency of a select set of strengths
CA articleship experience can either be placed in the work experience column or under the academic section depending upon what you did and how important you feel your contribution during the 3 years was i.e. do you have a story to tell?
The articleship experience will not be counted as full work experience

Formatting

Try to be specific and avoid vague points
There should be no full stops
Change the mobile number to landline in case you are applying to international recruiters ‘coz landline is clearer.
Take a printout after converting into a pdf and go through the content again
People with higher years of work experience should put the years upfront in the resume. Usually it is difficult for the recruiter to estimate the experience from the dates which are written.
Highlight courses in case you want to apply to a specific domain for ex: finance, marketing etc.
Use simple language
Short forms that are commonly understood like “mgmt” for management are permitted
White space optimization is very important – Change the font size of the white spaces between lines, use the horizontal as well as the vertical white spaces effectively to pack in text
Margins – Keep them no more than 0.25”
Always start with an action verb – “Designed”, “Conceptualized” etc. and maintain consistency in the usage i.e. always use verbs. A list of usable verbs are available on the internet and the 2007 consulting club handover booklet

Oliver Wyman Informal Alum Interaction Event

2008-08-25T18:38:00.005+05:30

Sunil Rana (Co 2005) and Abhishek (Co 2007) gave an informal presentation on Oliver Wyman, its offices and its organizational structure. Sunil informed the audience that Oliver Wyman has undergone rebranding last year. Rebranding was undertaken to re-enforce the firm's positioning and values, and unify different existing consulting firms under a single powerful brand. Oliver Wyman was formed in May 2007 through the union of three fast growing, world class consulting firms. The three firms were Mercer Management Consulting, Mercer Oliver Wyman and Mercer Delta Organizational Consulting. Oliver Wyman is part of the leading group Marsh & McLennan Companies. Combined revenues of the Oliver Wyman group have crossed $ 1.5 billion last year. Firm has grown organically as well as inorganically where highly selective acquisitions have played a key role in achieving firm’s vision of deep expertise in its areas of focus. The firm has grown at 25 % CAGR over the past few years achieving the highest CAGR in the industry among its peers. According to Sunil, in 2006 Oliver Wyman had 3 % market share in the Management and Economic Consulting Market.
Oliver Wyman works across a broad range of industries and is a global consulting leader in many of these, e.g., aviation, telecommunication, financial services, retail, logistics etc. Oliver Wyman’s Dubai office caters to the African Continent, Indian Subcontinent and parts of South East Asia. Alums touched upon the “Consulting in International Arena. Consultants” by talking about their Dubai office, which has consultants from over 30 nationalities work out of Dubai Office.
Middle East is an extremely fast growing market. The focus is on growth and it is very consulting friendly. Dubai, in itself is a very vibrant city and has quickly established itself as a big brand on the global map. In addition, its friendly tax regime (zero income tax) attracts people from across the globe. However, summers are hot and traffic can be a turn off.
The firm emphasizes on maintaining a good work life balance and its consultants usually come back to Dubai (home office for the Middle East region) on Wednesday evening. They spend a day at the home office and fly out on Sunday mornings to their respective client locations. A typical project can have multiple dimensions (across industries) and may span multiple geographies. Consultants are constantly on the move and travel to different countries for case work (primarily within, and sometimes even beyond). With respect to recruiting, the firm places a lot of emphasis on cross cultural experiences and analytical rigor in its interviews and selection process.

BCG on Strategy: 12th August 2008

2008-08-12T23:50:00.013+05:30

Mr. James Abraham, Senior Partner and Managing Director from BCG's India office gave an inspiring talk to the Consulting Club Members at ISB.

Along with James, the following people were also present at the event hosted by BCG on "Strategy, What strategy means for you as future leaders..."

· Navneet Vasishth, Principal, Leads recruiting at ISB
· Rohit Chhapolia, Project Leader, ISB Class of 2006
· Yashraj Erande, Consultant, ISB Class of 2006
. Akshit Shah, Sr. Associate, ISB Class of 2007
. Jitesh Shah, Sr. Associate, ISB Class of 2008

James gave an exalting talk on Strategy and Leadership. He started with the quote by Alexander the Great, “The God puts dreams in the hearts of men - dreams, desires, aspirations that are often much bigger than they are. The greatness of a man corresponds to that painful discrepancy between the goal he sets for himself and the strength that the nature granted him when he came into the world".

He regaled the audience with his invigorating anecdotes. He told the audience that early adoption of strategy borrowed heavily from military.

In the 1960s and 1970s, The concepts that were drawn from military were position and structural competitiveness. Competitive advantage was about positions and structural advantages. Nowadays, position advantage is no longer in vogue. Structural ad (telecom) is still present today.

In the 1980s and 1990s the competitive advantage was due to people and capabilities. This led to a huge re-engineering craze during those times.

1990-mid 2000s – strategy has moved to the periphery. We have to think about structural advantage, position and about people whom we lead. Nowadays, competitive advantage is about networks and interconnectedness. This requires very different skills to manage the people. Everybody should learn to sell, we all should become a good salesperson. In the interconnected world people at the periphery are going to make the choice.

He gave a nice mantra to the students, “ study hard .. change the world”. James summed up his talk with the following points

Find a passion

Be more humble and less insecure

Live into possibility

Learn to sell

Strategy is being re-written by new population that is coming into the main stream.

The Next Billion

James spent sometime on BCG's pioneering project "The Next Billion". This refers to the lower middle class demographic of any country – one that represents a largely untapped consumer potential. He said that the lives of billion people are changing because they are joining the new market. BCG has coined a phrase “Shaping the Future. Together.”. According to him, BCG has the responsibility to change the lives of the people and they have the capability to do that. Till the time we view this segment as a profitable segment, things wont change. Till now, this segment was being looked down upon as non-profitable and charitable segment. The project revolved around understanding the specific needs and requirements of this consumer segment, their aspirations of matching the higher demographic segments lifestyle, and how they tried to match those aspirations under the financial constraints.

Accenture Official Event : 9th August 2008

2008-08-09T21:23:00.006+05:30

The following people were present for today's event

Mr. Ajay Nair, Senior Manager

Kaustubh Verma (ISB Co2008)

Rahul Mishra (ISB Co2008)

Ajay: Senior Manager Strategy practice. He looks after projects involving M&A and post merger integration. Within Accenture (hereby referred to as Acc), Ajay focuses on aviation, logistics and consumer goods industries.

Kaustubh: He is presently with Accenture’s M&A Strategy consulting practice. Currently he is working on an assignment involving PE firms scouting for acquisition targets.

Rahul: prior work experience in HPCL and Honeywell. He is presently with Accenture’s M&A Strategy consulting practice. He is currently involved in a project involving metals and mining client in Orissa.

Ajay gave a brief introduction about Accenture. Acc has around 250 consultants and is adding resources across all the levels. Acc is also pioneering the concept of offshore consulting. Acc was one of the first management consulting firms in India. Till late 90s Acc was mainly into management consulting. With the advent of IT boom, Acc diversified into IT and Outsourcing. Prior to being branded as Accenture, it was known was Anderson Consulting.

Accenture has broadly 3 Business Units: Consulting, IT and Outsourcing. Industry verticals and industry groups are present. Accenture has 5 service lines, Strategy, CRM, Human Performance, Logistics and SCM.

Initially new recruits start with the horizontals and then move into verticals. After gaining wide horizontal experience, people move into industry specific verticals.

Bulk of the work in Accenture is around M&A, Post M&A integration (PMI) and transformation. Acc works with the management team and defines areas of improvements. Acc is also involved in implementations. Acc’s USP is implementation of its recommendations to the clients. The strategy part of the projects is over in 2 months. The bulk of the time is taken up by the implementation. PMI is critical and forms an important part of the implementation. This is what the clients are demanding today. They want the consultants to stay back and see through the implementation of their recommendations.

Acc banks on the breath of the IT practice to back it up on the implementations. He gave an example of a consumer goods manufacturer. There was a requirement of tracking the sales and times spent by different sales men in different outlets. The client had 150 stock keeping Units (SKUs). The sheer scope of the assignment required the assistance of an IT solution to manage the project. He used CRM and IT solutions to enable the implementation of the solution. This is where the IT BU of Acc enhances Acc’s competencies.

Today’s presentation was focused on these topics:
- Merger and Acquisition Execution and
- Post Merger Integration Execution (PMI)

Ajay talked about the drivers of M&A. the key drivers of M&A are
- Growth – new technologies, new products, new avenues of growth, new customers, manage regulation environment.
- Profitability through consolidation

Sometimes organizations want to enter a particular segment of a market. But due to the presence of a regulation, they can not enter those segments. Such organizations scout for acquisitions which would enable them to enter. Some of the acquisitions that have taken place in the Indian marketplace are

- Aviation – Jet-Jetlite, Kingfisher-Deccan, Air India-Indian
- Freight and Logistics – DHL-Blue Dart, TNT-Speedage
- Retail – Walmart-Bharti
- Auto – Nissan-Mahindra, Tata Motors-Ford
- Telecom – Idea-Spice, Vodafone-hutch
- Pharma – Ranbaxy-Daichi
- Banking – HDFC-Centurian
- Steel – Tata-Corus

An important question that the client should answer before acquiring a firm is – what is required to achieve the vision for the business and should I buy or build?

M&A Execution:

The larger problem is the decision to build or buy the capacity/capability? Sometimes it is profitable to build the capacity/capability, but at other times it makes economics sense to acquire the capacity/capability. The important metric to arrive at a decision is the correct cost model. If there are errors in estimation, then it could lead to severe problems.

Some of the key steps during the M& activity are:
- Identify potential growth or profitability opportunities
o Conduct market sizing and understand growth drivers
o Estimate future growth and profitability
o Prioritize opportunities
- What is the best way of leveraging the opportunity – build/buy/JV
o Develop scenarios for build
o Identify potential targets for buy, value them, estimate synergies
o Prioritize based on investments and returns
- Manage the deal process
o Exchange information through information memo/data room
o Conduct due diligence, refine valuation/ synergies (Tax, accountants, legal and various players are involved in this process)
o Define the parameters for negotiations, conduct negotiations to agree on valuation.

Risks involved from the legal and accounting angle is thoroughly explored. Tax is a difficult and sensitive subject. Management consulting team evaluates and verifies the data that is thrown up after the end of the above processes. The Management Consulting team assists in negotiation between both the parties.

Key reasons why deals break in M&A
- Valuation
Both the seller and the buyer have their own estimates of the valuations. The negotiation process is responsible for the deal breaker. Both the seller and buyer
- Regulatory challenges
Non-payment of taxes and liabilities of the seller
- Personality challenges
The personality of the negotiators plays an important role. Ego issues in the case of family business also come into play
- Organization culture challenges
- Breakdown in Mutual Trust between the buyer and the seller
Press leak
- Post Merger Integration Challenges
Some of the examples are different IT systems, cultural issues

PMI Execution: How does one do it?

How should organizations integrate

Should they integrate
The organization could acquire and not ingrate, if the processes are complex and does not make economic sense
If so which functions? Some of the functions that share synergies could be integrated, for example: Sales team, HR etc

What should be the pace of integration

How should synergies of the transaction be realized
Validation of synergy opportunities and identification of new opportunities
Form teams focused on implementing and realizing synergies
Focused monitoring of synergy realization – identify and realize the synergies

How should the HR integration be achieved
Fair and transparent processes
Select the better of the two processes

How should processes and systems be integrated
Assess technology involved on delivery of business requirements
Evaluate the cost/business impact of standardizing
Form focuses team for evaluation and implementation
Monitor progress of implementation

Key reasons why PMI are not successful
- Limited focus on implementation
- Inability to retain key people
- Absence of a fair and structured process in organization integration
- Absence of open communication
- Absence of a focused team and a senior leader driving the integration
- Organization culture differences

The success of the PMI is measured by the deviation from the forecasted P&L of the merged entity.

Accenture has lined up series of events over the year. They will hold CV workshops, case prep, interview prep and people skills workshop. Accenture was the day zero firm last year.

TransCare Management Consultants - 31st July 2008

2008-08-01T15:38:00.006+05:30

The following people represented TransCare at the event hosted by the firm at ISB.

· Poul V. Jensen – Managing Director, TransCare Logistics India Pvt. Ltd.
· Jaffrey Thomas – Senior Lead Consultant, TransCare Logistics India Pvt. Ltd.
· Vipul Kumar - ISB Co2008, Lead Consultant, TransCare Logistics India Pvt. Ltd.

Paul started the session with a brief introduction to TransCare. He informed the audience that TransCare is a niche management consulting firm providing solutions in Logistics domain. They have an office in New Delhi, India (3.5 years old). TransCare deals with transportation and logistics planning. TransCare has a presence in all the BRIC countries.
Paul delved on the question “what is management consulting in a niche”?
- focus and expertise in a service or industry
- high impact in the niche industry.

Jaffrey took over from Pail and took the presentation further. He told the audience that TransCare has a global outlook and was founded in 1993. It has successfully conducted over 1000 projects for more than 250 clients. TransCare takes pride in adopting a pragmatic approach for the problems. Apart from coming up with solutions for the problem, TransCare also partners with clients to implement the recommended solution. TransCare gets a majority of its business from repeat clients. TransCare has a long term vision for India and it sees India as an attractive market. With the boom in the cargo and container traffic, logistics consulting is in great demand. Jaffrey further informed the audience about the current scenario in Indian logistics sector.

Current Indian Logistics Sector

Logistics industry
- Fragmented: regional players with limited geographical reach, lot of consolidation taking place in the industry. Huge scope for M&A and consolidations
- There are no economies of scale.

Poor infrastructure
- Indian infra has been unable to keep pace with economic growth in the country
- Created bottlenecks across all segments of transportation.

Low level of outsourcing
Only 60 percent of Indian customers outsourcd their transportation service
Almost 50 percent of warehousing services is not tapped by Indian

High costs of logistics
- Indian logistics spend 6-13 percent of GDP
- This is much higher vis-à-vis global average of 5-10 percent
- Room for major improvement

There are several growth drivers
- Introduction of VAT to replace ST and hence promoting more efficient logistics
- Increased FDI in auto, auto components, electronics manufacturing and logistics
- GDP growth driven by organized retail and manufacturing
- Infrastructure investments in road creation, port capacity, rail network and air cargo.

Indian logistics market has just crept out of nascent stage and is poised for an exponential growth. Growth potential is immense; roads, air, sea etc are the modes of transport.

TransCare classifies its clients under three categories.
- Industry/retail
- Infrastructure providers and
- Logistics service providers

Investors in all the above sectors also constitute an important customer segment for TransCare.

TransCare provides consulting in the following functions

- Management consulting
o Market Entry Strategy
o Market assessment
o M&A support
o Feasibility analysis and
o Economic analysis

- Global supply chain consulting
o Logistics audit
o Process optimization
o Network optimization and
o Implementation support

- Technical and operation consulting
o Warehouse planning
o SEZ/FTWZ Planning
o Site planning
o Location analysis and
o Operation simulation

Vipul (ISB Co2008) informed that TransCare has 60 consultants worldwide. It has 12 consultants representing 4 nationalities in the Indian office. Complete focus in the niche of logistics and supply chain. It recruits from IIM, ISB, IIT and SPA. TransCare has a small team, inspiring work environment, offers diverse projects, and provides high visibility of work.

At the close of the talk, Jaffrey explained to the audience that TransCare is also offering an ELP at ISB. The team is expected to address the following questions:
1) Are Logistics Service Providers (LSP) open to hiring management consultants to improve their operational efficiency?
2) Look at TransCare’s portfolio and develop a plan to attract LSPs towards it.

Overall it was a great talk and helped clear the doubts of several people about niche consulting firms. Many more firms are scheduled to visit the campus in the coming months.

PARASPARA: Healthcare Consulting, Sunday - July 27

2008-07-28T10:42:00.002+05:30

Smriti Bhatia has worked with AT Kearney for close to three years primarily with the Healthcare practice. She began talking about the scope and the opportunity of Healthcare consulting and the various parties it involves. Healthcare consulting can involve Pharma companies, Hospitals and Health insurance providers, medical device companies and allied industries like pharmaceutical retail. The nature of projects can vary from that of corporate strategy to operations and marketing. She then gave examples of projects done by ATK in all these domains. For a mid-sized pharmaceutical company, she worked on a project that identifies areas of growth for the firm. The client was looking for international expansion and ATK identified 3 Therapeutic areas of focus based on the market potential and client’s internal strengths. Second stage of project then entailed the modus operandi of growth in the three TAs including acquiring target drugs in development, acquiring another company and strengthening already marketed products. Other examples given included improving operational efficiency of a healthcare provider in UK and organizational redesign for a pharmaceuticals wholesaler.

Ankita Gupta worked with Analytic Services at McKinsey Knowledge Center. Apart from other work, she has also worked with National Health Services, UK. Ankita talked about the different kind of studies that McKinsey has done in the Healthcare domain. She spoke about different studies that she has done as a part of this which include benchmarking studies; and studies to determine the optimal service mix that could be offered to the patients. McKinsey improved the processes of different operations like staffing and managing the patient inflow. Ankita talked about her team that was composed of Pharma majors and various other grads. She stressed upon the fact that the healthcare sector is open for all those who have a passion for this sector. This sector is not restricted only to doctors, she herself does not have any education regarding medicine. Aspirants having previous experience in this sector and enthusiasm can look at a bright career.

Anand (ISB Co2006) a Senior Consultant working with Deloitte attended the “Paraspara” session today. He was extremely happy with the initiatives taken by the consulting club and the activities of the club. He informed the club that Deloitte is the world’s top consulting firm in the healthcare sector. Deloitte Audit and Enterprise Risk Services (AERS) and Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations (S&O) recruit from ISB. He had worked in FMCG sector and is currently working in Life Sciences and Healthcare sector. He emphasized on the fact that a background in a certain industry is not the sureshot formula for success. A consultant should be passionate and should know how to come up with solutions to the client’s problems. Deloitte S&O takes up projects for US and APAC clients. Deloitte has a separate firm that does work for Indian clients. Later Anand met up with the core members of the club and discussed the activities of the club and how Deloitte could participate more in those activities. Anand is the “brand ambassador” for ISB in Deloitte and will look after recruitment from ISB.

Consulting Club – BCG Official Event – July 2nd 2008

2008-07-24T02:01:00.001+05:30

The Boston Consulting Group, one of the most coveted firms on campus, conducted its first official session at ISB, in conjunction with the Consulting Club, on 2nd July 2008. This was the first time that the batch was brought face to face with some of the Principals and Project Leaders of the firm. The BCG team consisted of the following

Mr Bart Janssens, Principal,
Mr Navneet Vasishth, Principal and Recruitment effort leader for BCG at ISB
Mr Gaurav Nath, Project Leader,
Mr Shaleen Sinha, Project Leader,
Mr Akshit Shah, Senior Associate and ISB alum from Class of 2007
Mr Hardik Manek, Senior Associate and ISB alum from class of 2008
Mr Ankush Wadhera, Senior Associate and ISB alum from the class of 2008

The theme of the event was to go beyond general information about consulting to description of the way problems are actually tackled by consultants, specifically at BCG.

The team started off with a short, succinct presentation on Boston Consulting Group, its ethos and working philosophy. Elucidating on the above, Bart emphasized on the “Sweet Spot” that BCG occupied in terms of people and networks, its ability to impact organizations, and intellectual stimulation. These he said, were crucial to BCG’s success in the consulting profession.

The team also talked about the broad categories of clients with whom BCG worked, namely Industries, Companies, Governments and Non Governmental organizations.

Moving on to the main theme of the day, the team picked three very different assignments handled by them to explain how BCG approached its cases.

The first assignment related to developing a sales and marketing strategy for a motorcycle firm. This firm was facing a rapidly deteriorating financial position and an eroding market share and needed urgent steps to affect a turnaround. Gaurav explained how his team broke the entire value chain of the firm into pieces to identify the weaker links. They realized that one of the weakest links for the firm was its sales strategy, and hence proceeded to counter the same. From creating buzz about the product through word of mouth, social circles in offices and networking sites, to offering “experience centric” test rides to the potential customer, the BCG team suggested very unconventional modes to build up the customer base. The motorcycle firm’s management though initially skeptical, implemented these steps with support from the BCG team. Within a year, the results showed an improvement in overall sales of the firm.

Shaleen was the next to speak about his assignment, one involving creating a winning product in the refrigerator market, for an electronic goods firm that was facing a low market growth, intense competition and rising commodity prices. The firm had ageing products and the brand was not considered contemporary in the market. For Shaleen and his team, the goal was to help the firm create a winning product within the budget cost and shortest time possible. Shaleen explained how his team sat with the combined team of R&D, manufacturing and marketing and analyzed the entire process of taking a good from the design table, through manufacturing process onto the showroom. They first looked at the consumer needs to arrive at a possible design that would appeal to the main consumer – an Indian Housewife. The team then worked with R&D and manufacturing to identify potential cost reduction areas in the process. Based on these, the BCG team gave its recommendation to the firm, and then worked with the firm to ensure that all the recommendations were implemented in letter and spirit. The result was a winning product, that met all the requirements of being within the budget cost and reaching the market on time.

The last case of the day referred to an ongoing project being undertaken by BCG to target what is referred to as the Next Billion. This refers to the lower middle class demographic of any country – one that represents a largely untapped consumer potential. Akshit explained that the project revolved around understanding the specific needs and requirements of this consumer segment, their aspirations of matching the higher demographic segments lifestyle, and how they tried to match those aspirations under the financial constraints. Based on this understanding the BCG team would go about identifying products that would meet the requirements of this consumer segment. Currently the team is working on products from the telecom sector, suited to this segment.

Through the above examples, the BCG team emphasized the rigorous, structured and analytical thought process with which any problem and assignment was approached. It was also mentioned how any BCG team worked closely with the customer both during the recommendation as well as the implementation phase of the assignment.

Towards the end of the session, the BCG team fielded questions from students on their strategies and methods followed for working on assignments. This event was unique in the sense the team gave an insight to the students on how a typical consultancy project worked and thus helped them develop a perspective on what to expect of in terms of work as future consultants.

With more such events planned by BCG as well as other top tier consulting firms through the year, the budding consultants of the batch can look forward to an enriching road ahead as they chart their career plans.

Horizons - Alum Interaction Series kicks off on 21st June 2008

2008-07-21T02:10:00.002+05:30

As part of its continuing efforts to tap into the large pool of highly successful alumni base of the institute, especially in the arena of consulting, the Consulting Club organized its first chapter of the alumni series, aptly titled “Horizons”. The event was made special by the presence of our distinguished alumni, representing different consulting firms, sharing the same dais and coming together to address some of the burning queries that the batch had on consulting, as a career.

The following alums attended the event
Rohit Kapoor, ISB Class of 2006, currently with Mc Kinsey & Co
Ankur Warikoo, ISB Class of 2006, currently with AT Kearney
Sunil Rana, ISB Class of 2005, currently with Oliver Wyman
Varun Gupta, ISB Class of 2007, currently with the Boston Consulting Group
Tarun Pandey, ISB Class of 2003, currently with ZS Associates
Aman Sood, ISB Class of 2005, currently with Accenture

The entire event was organized into three sub-sessions, with each session covering questions related to one facet of consulting. The alums took their turns addressing the critical questions in each of the sessions.

Leveraging your past experience for a career in Consulting

Tarun and Varun kicked off the session. Giving a snapshot of his career pre and post ISB, Tarun explained how relevant experience in niche industries could get one into his or her choice of a consulting role. Having started out as an architect post his graduation from IIT Roorkee, Tarun went on to start businesses of his own, designing various web portals such as e-greetings etc, and working on pilot projects for Indiatimes, before joining ISB to pursue his MBA. At ISB he worked on developing his skills in the areas of Leadership and Marketing. Tarun joined Infosys in the USA as a CRM consultant. It was there that he was able to leverage on his experiences in customer relations and marketing to apply and land with a lateral placement offer with ZS Associates. The firm which focuses on sales force and marketing related consulting found a direct match in his experience in marketing and customer relationship management.

Building on Tarun’s observation, Varun, in a trademark consulting style, elucidated the key aspects of one’s experience within three silos:-
· Deriving direct value from one’s experience e.g. in marketing, sales etc to apply to specific roles in consulting,
· Developing transferable skills while on the job, and finally
· Using the courses available at ISB to build upon one’s own prior professional experience.
These three combined, he vouched, could act as a good recipe for success in terms of using one’s prior experience for a successful consulting career.

All the alums were unanimous on the opinion that a right choice of electives was very important in deriving the best out of one’s experience at ISB, in terms of a successful career. “Use your electives wisely and carefully, in terms of completing your overall picture, whichever career you go for” was what Varun had to say. Sunil elaborated further by saying that even though consulting firms never really looked at the electives one had chosen, what mattered was the depth of knowledge one had acquired in the chosen electives. Reflecting on their experiences, the alums mentioned that it was also important to balance one’s workload with respect to electives to allow room for other activities. Some electives required huge amounts of work, while others were comparatively lighter. “Choose a tactical mix of heavy and light electives, and take your alums help for this” – opined Rohit.

What to do to make the most of your stay at ISB

“There aren’t really any trade offs that one has to make here at ISB – you can do just about everything – what you may have to decide perhaps is what the next batch would remember you for” – Rohit said. To concretize the statement, Rohit suggested a strategy in terms of trying and deciding by the end of term 3, what one’s primary focus should be – top of the line academics leading to a dean’s list, very good extra curricula and so on . Without negating the significance of a decent academic performance, all the alums opined that it was more important to do at least one thing really well and to come out on top in that.

On the issue of whether to go for an ELP or a PaEV, Ankur said again that it was more important to do something with full passion and achieve at least a semblance of a good result. At the end of it, “A partner interviewing you would perhaps have no clue about what an ELP is unless you choose to talk about you, but if you do, make sure you are ready to be grilled”. To sum it all up Sunil had this to say “Choose something you really like, put your heart into it, get some results, then go ahead and use it”.

There were some “early” questions on CV preparation and Case Studies, however these were just touched upon, given the fact there would be more detailed sessions on both.

Consulting as a Career
Moving to the last topic of the day “Consulting as a Career” – Ankur addressed the questions in a unique way by talking about three reasons why one should not choose consulting as a career:-

Do not go for consulting if you are not very receptive to change – most firms look for generalists, and you have to be willing to switch between projects in different industries within a short time period.
Consulting requires detail orientation - if you do not have that inkling for detail, this might not be just the right space for you
Do not take up consulting if you don’t like being the weekend parent – consulting is a demanding travel oriented job.
Consulting as an industry is unstructured – do not go for it if you are not adaptable to ambiguities.

Ankur elaborated on the above points; by saying that these were important reasons why many MBA’s would not be happy doing the job, even if they did it well. Having said so, all alums were unanimous on the fact that consulting as a career was immensely satisfying in terms of the impact on clients – financial or related to implementation and change management.

The alums also fielded questions on exit options after consulting and cited private equity, corporate strategy and entrepreneurship as the three primary options for consultants. Sunil and Aman also explained how some of the consulting firms offer short sabbaticals in between projects, where consultants actually go and work in the industry, thus making it easier to choose their exit options. Rohit elaborated on the primary reasons why consultants choose to exit the industry –money, change in approach from advisory to action, or just a general slowdown with more meaningful work being on the top.

One primary concern that seemed to have been raised by quite a few students, was the work life balance – especially for women in the industry. This question was addressed very positively by all the alums. While all them maintained that they would really not be able to elaborate on specific problems faced by women in the industry, but would be glad to direct interested students to their female colleagues, they cited very clear cut guidelines laid down as policy in most firms. Aman for example explained how Accenture has clear cut policy documentation on caring about the female workforce.

Rohit had an interesting perspective on the entire issue of work life balance for all consultants. He explained that first, an engagement manager had a huge incentive to ensure a good work life balance for his team members, for fear of losing a good team in the future. Second, with other industries too catching up with consulting as top career choices, it was up to the consulting profession as a whole to offer a good work life balance as a positive. The alums also gave examples of some of the policies adopted by their respective firms – the 0% travel factor at ZA Associates, to the across the board work from home flexibility. Aman in fact pointed out that Accenture allowed all its consultants to work from home if they were not on a live project. Sunil further advised all students to specifically engage firms coming to the campus in conversations on how well they addressed the issue of work life balance.

This first in the “Horizons” series turned out to be a success in terms of bringing alums from a range of firms up close and personal with the students. All the alums were kind enough to make themselves available for further one on one session even later into the night, both during the barbeque party and outside.

Class of 2009 takes over

2008-07-20T10:53:00.000+05:30

Hola,

Here comes another enthusiastic batch at ISB, full of verve and energy. The activities of the Consulting Club were kickstarted even before the elections took place, this is something that speaks volumes about the enthusiasm of the current batch. With the elections over and the core team in place, the club activities are vrooming ahead.

The fundamental philosophy driving the Consulting Club’s activities would be a spirit of “engagement”.
1. Engage with a wider variety of firms to provide the student body with greater insights into the world of Consulting from a perspective relevant to the courses taught at ISB and the level of preparedness required for Placement Week.

2. Engage with Alumni a lot more throughout the course of this year by keeping them posted on the club’s activities, newsletters etc.

3. Engage with firms more regularly through multiple interaction points such as sharing research, recent happenings and case-based info sessions rather than the regular pre-placement presentations.

Lots of new initiatives have been planned and will be implemented shortly. This year will prove to be a benchmark for the coming batches. One of the greatest strengths of ISB has been alumni support. We have got a widespread support of the alums who are going to guide us as we march ahead.

Here's to an exciting year ahead. Do keep reading this space for further updates.

Case Prep - Group 14

2007-12-23T22:37:00.000+05:30

22nd Dec., 2007

By : Nitin
To : Satish

Opening description: Client wants to invest in either Hyd Jets – football team or Hyd Heroes – hockey team. Objective is to maximize profit. Pl help him decide which one to pitch for.

1. Opens by asking about scope of the teams. Is told that the teams are part of India national league.
2. Secures clarification that the team has to be purchased. Determines no constraints on the investment monies available with client.
3. Criteria of profitability is Profitable in yr 1.
4. Defines the problem as – ‘Which team should client purchase to ensure profitability in yr 1’

Defines a structure as follows. Will:
- Identify cost structure of the business
- Identify the revenue drivers
- Identify the cost involved to purchase / maintain the team
Secures agreement from Nitin ... is told to proceed.

5. Scopes the sources of revenue first.
- tournament prize revenue
- sponsorship revenue
- ticket revenue
- parking revenue
- refreshment sales

6. Lets scope tournament prize rev first… then runs into an issue that this is not a sure source of revenue and hence pulls back – Wrong strart!!

7. Lets move to ticket revenue. Gets this data from Nitin….
a. Football matches: 30 nos x 65/ticket x 50,000seats x 70% capacity util
b. Hockey matches : 40 nos x 130/ticket x 20,000seats x 70% cap util

Ok.. give me a min to work out the nos of revenue.

8. What is the price of each team; is told that 100mln per yr is payable as the cost for each team. Secures clarification that this is annual fee.

9. We find that both are profitable, but football is more profitable.

10. ok…. So we take football, but what else can we do??? This question is posed by Nitin.
a. Hockey has more pricing power, explore elasticity of hockey demand; can we drop hockey prices slightly and secure additional revenue.
b. Football has more volume; explore elasticity again; can we raise football prices slightly and generate additional revenue.
c. Optimal can be determined – Marginal Cost = Marignal Revenue

Take away
i. Simple case - 5 on a scale of 10.
ii. Too long with the calculations.
iii. The wow section - point 10 - was not scoped enough. This is where there e3xists opportunity to make a diff in this case and Satish could have scoped this further.

By : Sudipto
To : Nitin

Client is a large conglomerate. Has experienced an increase in road accidents and the CEO is concerned about the loss of life leading to low morale. Further, for a fatality the CEO loses his bonus! 20 fatalities last year. Wants us to develop a plan to reach zero fatalities over 1 yr.

Is a bit flummoxed to start with, but then proceeds bravely.

1. Goes through the initial scoping about the company type, scope of accidents, location of accidents.

Defines the problem without any additional relevant information being added.

Obs: could have queried the relation between accidents and fatalities. Not doing this made him equate fatalities to accidents and subsequent analysis was on the lines of Zero accidents.

Strucuture definition... asked numerous questions, without formulating a definite framework....

Obs: A slightly ambiguos case and none of the usual structures would be applicable here. Best to take a common sense approach.... Possible structure...
- understand cause of accidents
- understand cause of fatalities and correlation between accidents & fatalities
- identify possible solutions to bridge gaps
- explore feasibility of solutions to yield results in 1yr

Scopes the problem as:
What work leads to road travel. Is told that various reasons - market visits, factory travel, visits to warehouses etc lead to road travel.

Intercity – This is where the accidents happen which means highway
Intracity – None
Secured a clarification that the issue is with intercity travel.

Are accidents in one particular geography? Was told that there is no pattern and that we should assume equal incidence across India.

Causes of accidents...? was told..
45% Our driver at fault or other driver at fault
25% Poor visibility, low illumination - drive at night, fog.
10% Mechanical failure - brakes, tyres etc.
20% Driver fatigue - drive for 3hrs + at a stretch.

Obs: Stopped at reasons for accident; did not develop this to reasons for fatality. This was due to a weak structure upfront that did not capture this.

The case proceeds along and Nitin gets to some good recos as

- Certified agents for car hire / Training of drivers / Audits of cars by independent personnel to certify the vehicles / No travel at night / SAfety awareness training of employees / Policy on distance of travel etc.

Takeaway: A bit unconventional; difficulty level 6/10; key is strucutre, the rest flows seamlessly if that is in place.

24th Dec., 2007

By: Satish
To: Nitin

Client is a Angel Investor (AI) with a lot of money. Has been advised that the KPO business in India has opportunities. Has also been told that Registrars in the USA can be bought out. Needs help on a plan to evaluate the KPO opps.

Opens with asking
- what is the exit criteria of profit? Is told that inv needs a exit multiple of 4 in 4yrs. Thus investment should be worth 4 times in 4yrs!!
- What are registrars? Is told that these are manual intensive ops in the US and that these can be relocated to India.

Defines the problem as – ‘Client needs to a plan to evaluate if transferring Registrar ops to India thus creating a KPO operation will return 4 times investment in 4yrs time’.

Structure - ????

Can I know something more about Registrar ops? Is told that they maintain record keeping and documentation for the Mutual funds (MF).

What is the revenue stream for registrars? Is told that fees are based on no of people deployed to a MF. Contracts are for 5 – 15yrs. The no of people deployed are based on volumes.

What are the charges per person? $60,000/person/yr

What are the costs per person? $30,000/person/yr direct and $20,000/person/yr indirect. Thus margins are $10,000/person/yr.

Determines that MFs would be keen to get lower prices!!

How many people does a typical registrar exist in the US?

A clarification – why does AI need to buy out? Is asked why do you think so? Says that long term contracts make customer acquisition easy and also access to the legal knowledge.

Ok…

So how much does a registrar company cost? What do you think??
Ok… we have margins of $10,000 per person per yr. Tax rate of 40%, thus Net Income per person is $6000 / yr/person. Thus for 200 people, we have 12,00,000 /yr. With a valuation multiple of 10, the firm is valued at $12mln.
So a typical firm will cost $12mln.

Now what are the charges when we move to India? Is told that you can charge $35,000/person/yr for off shore ops and costs are $15,000/person/yr.

Thus margins are post tax = $12,000/person/yr

Can we move all people to India? No, 50 people / 200 people will continue in USA.

Thus net margin = 0.25 x 6000 + 0.75 x 12000 = $10,500/person/yr

What is the applicable valuation multiple? Inv sources say that 16 – 24 multiple is possible. Ok…. So expected valuation will be 10,500 x 200 x 20

Thus actual investment will be = 10,500 x 20 / 6000 x 10 ~ 3.5 times

So is there an opps for future growth? Is told that yes this can grow as we will get more customers in future… hence future cash flows can come through soon in ~ 2yrs…
Ok… so possible to reach 4 times in 4 yrs…

Hence, we should go for this opprtnity…. Will meet the AI criteria…..

Takeaway: Structure was the weak link.
- No industry analysis done. Preferred mode for structure could be as:
…… to be done..

McKinsey BTO Challenge @ ISB - A report

2007-10-29T18:19:00.000+05:30

The McKinsey & Company's Business Technology Office (BTO) conducted the McKinsey Business Technology Challenge for the first time at ISB. The challenge was to use breakthrough technologies to bolster the competitive positioning of leading companies. The technologies to choose from included crowd sourcing and co-creation, ubiquitous broadband and persistent connectivity, virtual worlds and smart network elements.

Senior management from the Mckinsey Business Technology Office, Mr. Oliver Schein from the Germany office, Mr. Shameek Kundu from the London office and Mr. Akil Jain from the Dubai office visited the ISB for the final presentation on 27th October.

The challenge received twenty five entries out of which only six teams were short listed on basis of the quality of the plan submitted. The finalists then made a presentation on the spot illustrating the innovativeness, impact and practicality of their plan. This was followed by Q&A.

The six teams did a fabulous job with innovative plans on a wide range of areas. The six plans covered as diverse segments as a 3D virtual banking environment for a leading bank, smart vending machine for one of the world’s largest soft drink providers, a virtual world environment to aid recruitment process of a top consulting firm, sourcing creative inputs and market data from internet users for animated movies and TV shows of a giant media and entertainment corporation and credit card fraud detection using broadband connectivity for one of the ubiquitous banks. All the ideas were backed by their economic impact, implementation plans and risks mitigation strategies.

Commenting on the plans, Mr. Schein from Mckinsey said, “What distinguishes these groups at ISB is not just the technical content but also the quality of the discussion.” He emphasized the importance of balance among ideas, implementation and risks that brings out the best of technology and strategy giving the competitive edge. Mr. Kundu also appreciated the quality of work of the teams at ISB.

The excitement in the room was accentuated in the end when the audience was told to decide the winners by voting. The team comprising Udayabhaskar Bidurukontam, Sarat Burle, Neha Mittal, Atul Saraogi and Nitin Pandey was voted as winners. Hemant Garg, Rohit Sehgal, Nishant Rawat and Avinash Tiwari were the runners up. These top two teams got latest iPods and the winners also get to enjoy a sponsored trip to the McKinsey office in London.

“Imagine Disney making Hanuman! This can really happen with our idea. It was awesome the way we pulled it off with our presentation.” recalled Atul.

“‘Exciting and great way to showcase and listen to ideas; but more importantly it was fun.” added Hemant.

“The McKinsey BTO Challenge was a fantastic way to explore the application of emerging technologies to specific industries. The entire experience from brainstorming the various combinations of technologies and companies to choosing crowd sourcing for Disney to the unique peer voting to select the winning idea was very exciting.” concluded Udayabhaskar.
Overall an amazing experience, they all agreed.

BCG - 24th October, 2007

2007-10-27T18:11:00.000+05:30

Date: 24th Oct 2007
3rd visit to ISB this year

BCG Team:
Sachin Nandgaonkar, Partner and Managing Director [Chair of the Career Development Committee in BCG India]
Arvind Subramanian, Principal [Leads recruitment at ISB]
Ravi Srivastava, Principal
Anshuman Biyani, Consultant, ISB Class of 2004 [Senior most ISB alum at BCG]
Marc Weiner, Consultant
Sushma Vasudevan, Consultant
Rahul Kothari, Sr. Associate, ISB Class of 2007
Akshit Shah, Sr. Associate, ISB Class of 2007
Bindya Malhotra, Recruiting Manager

The talk consisted of 3 parts: (i) BCG Career track, (ii) Recruitment process followed by a chat over High Tea and (iii) Case Workshop

1. BCG CAREER TRACK: First Sachin talked about the different roles in BCG and the responsibilities of each of them. The roles are in order of hierarchy are:
Associate
Senior Associate
Consultants
Project Leader
Principal
Partner

ISB students generally get hired as Sr. Associates and can be described as Diligent, hardworking providers of insightful insights who typically work on a module of a project.
Sachin talked about his role as a Partner and a typical week in his life, about managing client relations and maintaining work life balance. Then Arvind spent a significant amount of time sharing his views on the role of a Project Leader and Principal. Finally Rohini discussed what does it mean to be a BCG Consultant, what does it take to be successful and how the load factor can change over the course of a year.

After that Sachin talked in some detail about Competencies across Career Levels. He highlighted the key attributes at each level that cater to these competencies but being most relevant to ISB students, I have only mentioned the attributes at Sr. Associate/Consultant level. The competencies and the corresponding attributes are:

A. Ideas and Insight - Problem Solving
B. Apprenticeship - Team Contribution
C. BCG values - Role Model
D. Influence - Credibility
E. Client Service - Effectiveness and Interaction

2. RECRUITMENT PROCESS: BCG is looking for 3 basic qualities:

A. Analytics and Insight (Problem Solving) - Structure, Judgement, Rigor, Creativity and Synthesis.
B. Communication and Presence - Listening, Precision, Presence, Relationship Management C. Effectiveness and Impact -Independence, Team contribution, substance, learning and achievement

Your CV should reflect the reflect skills and your differentiating factor.

You should try and bring out areas of strength and comfort for you that can be discussed in the interview. Based on the CV roughly 30-40 people would be shortlisted for interviews. The shortlisting is done by senior BCG people and is very thorough process with great attention given to each application.

There are 6 criteria in the evaluation of the CV:
(i) Academics
(ii) Work Experience
(iii) Co-curricular
(iv) Extra-curricular
(v) Position held (non-work related)
(vi) X-factor (Your USP)

It is ok to mention achievements before college if you find them to be significant.

The interview process is of two rounds and each round is two interviews. The interview is typically 35-45 min with the following general structure:

5-10 min: Personal/Resume based (Effectiveness and Impact)
25-35 min: Case (Problem Solving)
5 min: Questions you can ask (Effectiveness and Impact) Your communication and presence is tested throughout the interview.
After the interview you are categorized into a 2x2 matrix (OBVIOUSLY!!) the
2 dimensions being Hire/Reject and Strong/Weak. Within each you have three levels so finally you will be in one of the 6 categories: H+, H, H-, R-, R,
R+, with H+ being Definitely Hire and R- being Definitely Reject.

Do's and Don't's of the Interview:
DO's: Be genuine, relaxed, take time to structure your thoughts, organize the facts, develop a working hypotheses (it is ok to be wrong in your first attempt to come up with a hypotheses). Be willing to work numbers in a case.
DON'T's: Exaggerat, Fumble with the basics, impose artificial frameworks, ignore given information and clues, get bogged down.

Case Worskhop:
Satish kashyap gracefully volunteered for the mock case and Sachin gave him a real life situation in a manufacturing setting where Satish had to come up with the right product mix strategy (and of course he had to offer other insights along the case as well). After the case we had a feedback from the students and finally the expert opinion of the BCG partners and principals.

D'construct Report @ ISB

2007-10-27T17:53:00.000+05:30

Oct 17th, 2007– Diamond Consultants @ ISB for the finals of the D'construct Competition

Participants
Vinod Nair - Managing Partner, India
Govind Balan – Sr Mgr Telecom Practice

Case Competition:
Simulation of a client consulting assignment – real live issues that were worked on

Feedback on the case competition:

Simulation of client interactions was a good experience
Choice of sector and topic was relevant
Backing up recommendations with the data – good approach
Clarity of Expectations/requirements

Vinod:

Imparting structure to the problem and drawing boundary around the same
Spending considerable time ahead to help customer define the requirement or the problem

As a consultant, data driven approach exhibiting a structured method to problem solving is best.

What diamond was looking for:

Telecom – degree of knowledge, understanding of the sector brought to the table
Knowledge that goes beyond the online resource
Structure – Have you understood the problem theory, have you understand what is being asked to solve
Flow - Is the logic flowing smoothly, do we see the overall structure of the problem solving effort
Presentation – written and oral
Interaction – Q&A, how do you interact with the customer, subjectively + overall impact

Feedback from Diamond Team:

+ve:

Quality of work was very impressive
Very impressed with the content that was picked
The issues that were learnt and data collected and analysis was very impressive
Very professional

-ve:

Govind:
-How easy are the slides, to read and also visually
-Present sources of data
-Not content, focus on the message and then pick data to support the message
-Don’t read off the slide, impact is powerful if the speech complements whats on the slide
-Anything that is not thoroughly done, exercise caution while answering, if not sure, admit the same
-When answering questions, if one of the team mates has answered the question to the client satisfaction, avoid piling on answers on the same

Vinod:
-Structuring is very important – has steep learning curve
Client was looking at 3 things
1.Which markets/circles to go after
2.What segments to look at
3.What do the segments need

Teams should have set this upfront instead giving a presentation on the entire Indian telecom scenario

About Q&A Session:

In a team env, when it comes to interaction with external clients, there is a pyramid where one person leads the response with others supporting.

Congrats to the winning team of Harsh Singhal, Gaurav Bagaria, Ashish Aluwhalia, Sameer Desai

Everest Consulting PPT @ ISB

2007-10-22T22:21:00.000+05:30

Everest Consulting @ ISB for PPT, 22nd October, 2007

Conducted by

Vivek, ISB alum 2005, Prior Work Experience at Sapient+Areva

Gaurav Gupta, Head, Everest Consulting, India - 10 years work ex, started off in New York . Worked with Infosys before joining Everest. Then moved to McKinsey as an engagement manager.Worked for 5 years before joining Everest. Was a part of the McKinsey and Co. team which saw through the inception of ISB.

About Everest Consulting

Experts of Global Sourcing, Captive Strategies, Services Outsourcing, Specific sourcing issues and Outsourcing. Also help clients with syndicated data.

15 -16 years old firm. 130 – 140 ppl world wide.

Distinction – Analytics Insight, Experienced outsourcing professionals, Research group.

Main verticals of operation – Travel and Transportation, Manufacturing, Distribution, Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare and Energy.

Facts -85 % of the outsourcing is not labor arbitrage but for other reasons. They have set up a research institute to study outsourcing transactions. The Institute has around 30 – 35 people.

Indian Setup - 2.5 – 3 years in India. Mainly global projects. First Indian project completed 12 – 18 months back. Very focused career path. India to become the hub of all Everest activities in Asia. Office is in Gurgaon – 40 to 45 people.

Recruitment - No specific requirements for work ex. Two distinct skills will be given preference – strong analytical skills or some operational skills in terms of a shared service center. Moolah will not be a problem.

Oliver Wyman PPT, 19th October, 2007

2007-10-22T18:04:00.000+05:30

These are the notes of the Oliver Wyman PPT on the 19th of October, 2007 at ISB.

The people present from OW were

Manny Montoria - Talent Manager, Mark Kremers - A principal from the Dutch(cluster) consulting and ISB alum of 2006 Sunil Rana.Mr. Kremers was a principal from the CMT group which is the Communications, Media and Technology group.

They informed the audience Mercer + Mercer O&W + Delta are al now under the umbrella of OW.The track record of OW was for all to see. They declared that OW makes 500 $ + per consultant per year. They have revenues of nearly 1.2 Billion $ and a market share of 3 % and a growth rate of 25 %.

Their CCG ( Core Consulting Group ) consists of the GMC ( General Managment Consulting ) and the FSC ( Financial Services consulting ). The GMC in particular caters to the following verticals-

- Automotive - Germany
- CMT - Middle East
- Aviation - Middle East
- Surface Transport - Middle East
- Retailing

They also explained as to why OW is placed in Dubai . Some key takeaways about O&W were

- A very collaborative environment
- Exposure to real clients and responsibility from day 1.
- Early and deep specialization
- International work from day 1
- Result oriented promotions
- Commitment to mentorship and feedback
- Large connected alumni network

Some of their major clients include Mashreq Bank, Q tel and Qatar airways. OW are specialists in capital markets. They have completed enormous assignments which involved due diligence and valuations of fast growing companies and hence specialized in M&A.

Key Dates

Deadline - 25th of Nov, 2007 ( Cover Letter + CV )
1st Round interview - Jan 2nd week ( knock - out ); 1 -2 interviews
2nd Round interview - Feb Mid;3 interviews at Hyderabad or Dubai

Additional Points - Try and be creative in the Cover letter;focus on industry rather than functional specialization

Oliver Wyman @ ISB

2007-10-09T11:15:00.000+05:30

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

A.D. Little - Pre Placement Talk at ISB

2007-09-28T20:20:00.000+05:30

The consulting club at ISB had the honour of hosting Mr. Thomas Kuruvilla from Arthur D. Little for their pre-placment talk on the 26th of September. With great roles and international postings on offer, the buzz amongst the Student Body was very vibrant . Here are a few pointers.

Presence in India
ADL has no presence in India currently and does not intend to in the near future. However if the project is based out of India, ADL will be glad to move associates in the region.

ADL is resource constrained; no limit to the number of hires that they are looking to recruit from campus. ADL has never been faced with surfeit of manpower and they look at hiring at all levels – depending on experience and the interview performances.

Consultants in ADL in different locations have the same net pay. Hence ADL has international billing rates and since they are resource constrained, they have not pushed for presence in India. They see their operations outside India more profitable. However, ADL does numerous projects in India for international firms intending to enter India.

Recruitment & Process
ADL will look at recruiting for any location that the candidate is interested in. The typical locations are: Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Korea, Europe, Japan etc.

Recruitment is based on 2 parts:
- initial rounds: by home office – Dubai
- later rounds: by the preferred office as indicated by the candidate
Recruitment process is uniform across offices and the criteria are similar; hence candidates are not disadvantaged or advantaged by choice of a particular office.

ADL does not view foreign language skills as an advantage to get through the interview. It will however, be an advantage to work in a particular country.

Process involves:
- Screen resumes
- Short list based on the resumes: each resume gets 30sec view
- 4 to 5 rounds of interview
- initial rounds based on cases
- later rounds are more soft skill based

Indication of clearing after indication by candidate that he/she is interested in the offer. If candidate has cleared, then the offer is made and is valid for 2 weeks.

Experience and relevance
Experience of 4-5 yrs is not considered enough for an individual to be knowledgeable about the industry. However, ADL sees this as allowing the individual to understand functioning of organizations and hence allows individuals to make more informed and practical decisions. ADL is not setting a bar on experience. However, the level of experience will determine the assessment methodology during the interview and hence will determine position and pay.

Hiring from other campuses in India
ADL will be visiting IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, IIMK this year, besides ISB. They had picked up 7 from the IIMs last year and are pleased with their performance.

Movement in ADL
ADL is open to having people move from one sector to the other. Further, they are open to employees moving across geographies.

Work style
ADL indicated that they do jot follow rigid and structured processes of problem solving. They believe in giving employees a greater level of innovation, freedom and this, in their opinion, will lead to superior results. Their areas of strength are: Technology, Telecom.

Indicative pay
Dependant on the role that one is recruited for.

Making a Difference - BCG Session on Campus

2007-09-11T01:30:00.000+05:30

The Consulting Club at the Indian School of Business (ISB) recently hosted some Associates and Principals of the Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) to address students on a session titled ‘Making a Difference’. This is BCG’s second formal session with the Club this year. The inaugural session was a talk on Strategy. The purpose of this interaction was manifold - to inform students about the manner in which BCG approaches cases, to share real life examples of cases done by BCG India Office and to answer student questions regarding the organisation, in order to make them familiar with the BCG work environment.The session started with Chief Principal, Arvind Subramaniam, introducing his team and outlining the purpose of their visit. He briefly explained the work culture at BCG and elaborated on the organisational structure of the BCG, terming it as a “Mesh Structure” - where each vertical is represented by a function such as Marketing, Finance, Operations, etc. and each horizontal represents an industry such as Retail, Real Estate, Oil and Gas, etc. BCG also addressed the case approach methodology they follow.

This was described as a four step process:

Developing a hypothesis
Conducting an analysis
Working with a team
Ensuring impact

Recalls Consulting Club member, Varun Khullar, “A very interesting phase of the discussion was the concept of the ‘Sweet Spot’. It basically implies the intersection of three circles - namely People, Ideas and Impact. BCG described that attaining the ‘Sweet Spot’ was the main aim of the associates, at the start of a project.”The session was rounded of by discussing three cases that had been solved by BCG associates. They were cases from the fields of Industrial Goods, Fair Price Shops, and Innovation in the IT field. The interaction proved highly informative and insightful, with students left asking for more. In all a lively and worthwhile experience!

Start of the New Season - Event 1

2007-07-31T00:35:00.000+05:30

THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP ON STRATEGY

The Boston Consulting Group visited the ISB campus to meet the Consulting Club members on the 5th of July, 2007. The BCG team comprised of Arvind Subramaniam, Akshit Shah, Ramesh Jha, Navneet Vasishth and James Abhraham. The BCG team gave an not only gave an introduction to BCG but also to the evolution and future of strategy. The club members were most interested in every word the team had to say and the riveting session lasted for 2 hours leaving the crowd even more insatiable than before.
The following topics were discussed

- Introduction to CC by the BCG team.
- The Contribution to the Intellectual Capital of Strategy by BCG over the years.
- Introduction to Strategy? What it is and where it originated from? How the Greek were the first ones to use this much clichéd term in the world of Strategy (Greek definition Strat=Lead and Argos=Army)
- The importance of the client in the consulting world.
- Foundation of Strategy and BCG’s Legacy in the field.
- Introduction to the much read concepts of Scale and Market share and how these to concepts evolved to being the first applications of strategy to business
- Analysis of the learning curve.
- Introduction to the BCG matrix.
- The changing face of the corporate world and along with it strategy. As James said “ A former CEO of BCG said that the corporates of today are moving from being Symphonies to Jazz ensembles”
- The concept of Positional Strategy vs Capability Strategy.
- The various diversifications of Capabilities i.e. of knowledge, of process and of nimbleness.
- The paradigm shifts from the Experience curve in the 60s to the Competitive cost structure in the 70s to the Competition of time in the 80s
- The evolution of Competitive advantage through sustainable relationships.
- The concept of tradeoff between how rich is the data and how far can it reach out to people and how the Internet has changed that!
- The concept of Traditional deconstruction
- How the internet Is helping the evolution of Competitive Advantage through relationships as the data can travel half way around the world and reach the person on the street in no time.
- Conclusion - Uniqueness is the innovation of strategy, looking for new frontiers, grounding research in client works and that is BCG’s competitive advantage
- The introduction of certain portals to help ISB students to resolve queries and benefit with the help of BCG resources.

Class of 2007 signs off

2007-02-28T19:11:00.000+05:30

Dear All,

The placement process at ISB is in its final stages and hence it is a right time for the Class of 2007 to sign off from this blog.

If last year was a great year for ISB in terms of consulting placements – this year was even better. All records in terms of number of consulting offers were broken. ISB will officially announce the placement report at the end of the placement process. But in terms of consulting placements – this has perhaps been the best performance on any campus in India.

We hope this blog served its purpose of being a platform for sharing information and helping ISB students in preparing for consulting placements. For the non-ISB readers of the blog – we hope that this blog gave you some insights into consulting and how ISB students go about preparing for the top consulting jobs on offer.

A lot of people have played important roles in ensuring that ISB had great consulting placements this year. We would like to sincerely thank all of them. Special thanks to the ISB alums and students of the current batch who collaborated and helped each other through the last few months.

So with this – the Class of 2007 signs off. We welcome the Class of 2008 and wish them all the very best. We hope that they will continue with this blog and have even better consulting placements next year.

Class of 2008 students can contact me at Akshit_Shah@pgp2007.isb.edu or akshits@hotmail.com

Thanks.
Akshit

Case interview: Building products company

2007-01-06T10:48:00.000+05:30

The following post is courtsey Tuhin and Tarun

" Tuhin interviewing Tarun29 Dec 2006

Topic: Investments / Acquisitions

The CEO of a large diversified building products company has asked to look at his division which manufactures china products, including tubs, toilets & urinals. He wants to evaluate the decision to invest $250m in a new manufacturing facility. What are the issues that need to be considered when making this decision?

Where does he have his ops?In the US. He's one of seven producers in the US. The largest has 20% mkt share. We are #3 with 15%.

Is the market equally distributed among the other four?Yeah, more or less

What are the kind of products that the client builds?The division builds tubs, toilets & urinals. Apart from that, we make anything that is used in construction.

Restate: Our client is a building products company, and wants to evaluate the decision of a $200m investment in a new manufacturing facility, which would manufacture china products.

Are the products only for commercial or residential buildings?Not specific, general

Is the construction market growing?Market, by itself, is linked to new housing. We can safely assume it is growing.

And do we have a dollar value of market?No, I don't have $$ value. Let's assume we grow at same rate as market, holding the same market share.

Maybe you want to think about other positives apart from increasing sales?Does the client also export stuff?No, primarily USA.

Apart from growing sales, he might want to shut down existing facilitiesNo, existing facilities will remain.

Do you think there'd be a cost impact?He could be considering economies of scaleYeah

How does the client fare with competitors in terms of prices?Competitor has been cutting prices. Ours have been flat. Two largest competitors are making a profit, we are only able to break even.

Are the supply sources the same for us & comp?Yes, the cheapest.

Are we catering to the same market as comp?How would you define market?E.g. Comp could be sourcing to commercial market. We're doing home segments. Maybe we're trying to subsidise home segment. Is that happening?No, we're targeting pretty much the same segments.

How much augmentation is this new facility going to make to his existing capacity?I don't know. All I know is he's asking for $200m.

What has been the reason that competitors have cut prices?Primary idea behind industry is volumes. No differentiation. Comp have managed to cut prices with scale.

I want to look at our cost structure and compare that with comp.OKSo, Yep

How's our distribution set up, as regards comp?Same. We use trucks.

How about current manufacturing facility?Anything specific you want to ask?
Do we have a stock out problem?No
With the added facility, will the client be able to sell excess stuff? Is there enough demand to justify that?True, that's a factor to be considered. Will be kept in mind when making the proposal for the $200m.

What are our operating costs? Labour, material, operating?Yes, yes. Any other costs?Overheads.Yep

How's our client's manufacturing facility?Mixed prod facility. Pretty much the industry norm - it's a moulding industry. The increased level of production would help me reduce VC.Will that be in form of material cost?No, it's currently the cheapest.Any automation in our facility?Yep, in line with industry stdAre we catering to entire US market?Yes, we try to.What are our ops cost? Do we use our own trucks?YesWill the new facility be located somewhere we don't have nay other place?It will be placed strategically.

Are our overhead costs in control?These are just allocated costs.

Is there anything apart from manufacturing you should be looking at?Is the distribution a problem?No, let's say I just hand it over to a distributor's warehouse.

How do we promote our products? How does our customer know of us?We have a good brand name, and get asked for from our distributor.

Is there any area I'm really missing here?You've covered most of the issues that are there. Question remains if I should invest 200m.

Umm.. there's nothing to be set right here. If he wants to invest 200m, what's the benefit he gets in terms of cost. If this facility gives us economy of scale... Look at location of facility, to ensure proximity to suppliers & distributors. Perhaps look at proximity to upcoming markets.If the benefits of all these amount to greater than cost, he should go ahead. That's about it.

Key Learnings

1) Completely skipped phase 2 and started to ask questions in phase 3
2) Interviewee did not realize that it was time to make recommendations inspite of covering all areas defined in the issue tree.
3) Did not apply MECE while covering cost areas (Missed out on operating costs but recovered eventually)"

Case Interview: US payfones

2007-01-06T10:42:00.000+05:30

The following post is courtsey Tuhin and Disha.

"Tuhin interviews Disha Rustogi
++++++++++++++++++++
18 Dec 2006

Good evening, Ms Rustogi
Good evening, Mr Verma

Let's start with our case-based interview
The client is a major player in the payfone industry. His market share in the last year has gone up by 20% in the past year. But he's seen a decrease in profitability. The question is why has this happened? And what can we do about it?

Phase I
=======
Can you tell me which geography? Based in US.
Is the client active througout the US?
Pretty much.

I'd like to tell you about the workflow how the revenues of this client are generated. Please tell me if they're right.
Assuming that payfones owned & installed by the client. No, they're owned by the telecom company. I manuf these payfones, my telecom companies place orders and tell me the locations. I install them there, I also do maintenence, but maintenence contracts vary.

Restate: We're looking at a client that manufactures payfones. Its clients are telecom companies. The Market share has increased by 20% last year, but has reduced profitability, which it is looking to resolve.

Comments: No measure of profitability decline! By when do they want it resolved??

Phase II
========
Look at two sides - revenues & costs.
In costs - variable & fixed
In revenue - the company, competition, the environment & market, the pricing, promotion, essentially the 4Ps
How would promotion affect revenues? How would distribution affect revenues? -- to be debated later

Phase III
=========
Revenues first
---------------
Divide it into price & volume
Do we have revenue figures for last year? No, I just know my market share went up 20%
I know my price dropped by 10%
And my volume dropped by 15%

How much is my market share? 55%.
Am I market leader? Yes
Competitrs? Two major ones - they own the rest of the market, mostly.

So, this is a declining market. Is this a trend that has continued over a period of time.
Last year, two of my competitors dropped out, I gained their market share.

Do we know why competitors dropped out?
No, they didn't find it viable to continue.

Any idea why they didn't find it viable?
I don't know.. maybe their internal calculations.
Also, the competitors' market share is now mine --

Were these competitors based in a specific location?
Irrelevant

Were they selling to telecom operators at a specific price and we had to match it?
Why don't we try to find parity between volume decrease and price decrease? If we took over the installed base of the competitors, our volume should have gone up. Plus, the market prices would prevail as the payfone is not a differentiated product.

Are the other competitors faring well?
They have their market share. What do you mean by "faring well"?

My market share = total installed base

Do we have any idea of this year's market share?
We know my volume has gone down by 15%
Source of confusion: Market share is historical base of installed phone, not share of phones sold in the current year. And volume is the current year's sale.

Do I have an idea of the current year's market size? No, I don't know how big the pie is. But let's say I get the same proportion YOY.
Since price & volume are going down, therefore my profitability is falling.

Moving to costs
---------------
Have my fixed costs changed?
No, no change, I have enough capacity.

Are my labour costs higher?
Nothing out of the ordinary. Regualar pay hikes, etc, pretty much the same.

Any other labour issues? Unions?
Labour is unionised, but that's the way it's always been.
As my sales volume has gone down, but labour costs have gone up. Why should I do that just because of a one-year dip?

Material costs? Have those changed? Fuel costs went up, so material costs went up too. Same for everyone.
Is there a reason why my prices have dropped, inspite of cogs going up? Yeah, I had to stay competitive. Cost of materials has gone up for no fault of suppliers.
What is the profitability figure? No information available.

Can I frame my recommendations?
Can we answer both questions? Any questions that could be relevant to the latter question on what I can do about this?

Price cut is industrywide.

Considering I'm the largest player in the market, is it feasible I can increase the price?
Don't you think my volume would go down further? Please consider that this is a commodity product. I could lose a heavy amount of customers.
Ms Rustogi, have you used a payfone in the US? No. Have you seen one? When would you use one? When I don't have a cellphone, or in an emergency situation.
So, if I don't want to use a payfone, what would happen to demand? It would go down. The reason being alternate methods of calling.

Can I frame my recommendations?

Phase IV
========
-It is a declining market. But you're the largest player.
-Though it is a commodity market, you are a consortium of three players.
-Raise prices through price discrimination
-Either wait for others to go out of a business, or raise prices to increase revenues.
-You have issues on costs, labour is unionised.
-Material costs are highly dependent on fuel prices, and would fluctuate accordingly. Change policies so that competitors don't undercut you straightaway.

Reasons, summarised:
1. Market going down
2. Price competition
--> Gaining market share has not helped you

Depending on your cash flow, do either:
1. Bail out, probably not feasible
2. Acquire the others --> no, it is monopolistic.
3. Drive up the prices by forming a consortium.
4. Diversify, but not enough

Key Learnings
The interviewee missed out the following things:

1. Analysis of why the demand for payphones has fallen in-spite of increase in market share.
2. The structure is at an extremely high level and needs to be a bit more detailed in the branches of the decision tree.
3. Did not apply the SMART rule in problem definition (Missed out on M and T)
4. Recommended the possibility of collusion amongst the market leaders but needs to consider that it might have legal implications.
5. Out of the two questions posed, the first question was resolved but the question “What can the client to about it” was not analyzed.

Where is the Value add in a Case interview?

2007-01-03T01:08:00.000+05:30

The following post is courtsey Manu and group. A useful set of takeaways from their mock interview.
======================================================
" We had our mock case analysis session with our ISB alumni, Mr. Ganesh Srinivasan from McKinsey & Co.

After going through our case, Ganesh gave us a few important pointers.

Key Take-Away:

1) Most people will get the problem definition and structure in place before the placement season. But, that is not where the value is.

2) It is true that everyone who has come to campus to advice us on case preparations has stressed on the structure and logical thinking. However, it is very important to keep in mind what the real purpose of the exercise is. If you take a step back and look at what one has achieved after putting a structure in place, and extracting all the information from the client/interviewer logically and exhaustively, there has been no value-add as such from the interviewer’s/client’s point of view. You have merely asked him to divulge all the information he already knows.

3) The most value-add is actually in the solution itself. Show your creativity here. It is very important to pace your analysis such that you give enough time to get to this stage. A major portion of the points allocated in assessing a candidate is based on creativity of solutions.

4) By around 20-25 minutes into the case interview, one should have already extracted all the information from the client/interviewer and identified the problem. This should’ve been accomplished keeping in mind the structure and logical flow of questions. The next 10 minutes should be spent in coming up with a number of creative solutions (as exhaustively as possible), and going over the pros and cons of each of those solutions. This further exhibits to the client/interviewer your structured thinking even in coming up with solutions.

5) Spend the last 5 minutes of the interview, synthesizing these solutions and eliminating the most risky/improbable ones. Then summarize the problem and restating the short-listed solutions.

"

Mock Case Interview with alumni

2007-01-02T21:43:00.000+05:30

Many alums working in consulting firms, volunteer to help the current students prepare for the case interviews. The consulting club of class of 2007 had organized mock interviews via videocon with alumni in various firms. One such experience is posted below for the benefit of all:

“The other day we had a session for an hour with Jatin Pant( McKinsey), and discussed three cases, each for 15 minutes, and had 5 minutes of feedback after that, given by Jatin and the other observers.
The following is a case discussion and analysis. Inputs from Jatin have been incorporated within the case itself.

Case: Unannounced strike by servers forced Sarovar Dining Hall to close for a month. However, Sarovar Café remained open catering to ISB students and staff during the month. The management expected huge profits due to the heavy traffic frequenting the café. At the end of the month, the P&L statements showed losses. What is the cause of this loss?

The First stage: Problem definition.
Before the problem is defined with the customary, “As I understand…” one should ask a few questions to bring out the fact that the problem has been understood. Like, the magnitude of losses (in this case it was around 10%), the expected profits (+10%).

After this the problem can be stated like this: A month long strike of the Dining Hall made students flock to the Café for their meals. The management had expected the profits to be around 10%, however, the end-of-month P&L showed losses (negative profits of 10%). The reasons for this 20% setback in profits need to be analyzed.

Jatin had mentioned that one needed to have a framework to understand the real problem. Even before the solution space is defined, the real problem needs to defined.

The Second Stage: Solution Space
The interviewee had decided to analyze the case by looking at three levers 1. Traffic at the café 2. Menu served 3. Timings of the Café 4. Raw material
Another way to define the space is to talk of Internal and External factors. Internal factors are those related to the operations of the Café, while External factors pertain to competition, substitute products and so on. In this case, as it was known to the interviewee that it Sarovar was a monopoly, the external factors were not discussed.
The other way is to talk about Revenues and Cost, and then proceed further.

The third stage: Analysis
Traffic: 418 students frequented the Café, twice a day
Menu Items:
Price?: The standard prices were maintained during strike
Standard food v/s Variety?: In fact, students having been used to variety of the dining hall demanded customized orders. Hence, a significant number of orders were customized for them.
That led to asking about the price of these products – they were not charged a premium for customized food.
3. Timings?: Sarovar operated as they had always been operating, however, there was an extension of ½ hr in the morning to cater to the crowd.
4. Overtime wages? Yes, the Chef and 3 waiters who had come early had to be paid extra. Did the traffic justify their early arrival? – No, not many people came to the café around that time.
5. Infrastructure? – Furniture was leased (at a premium because of the short notice period of strike) to seat the crowd of students.
6. Raw materials? Our supplier remained the same. But the heavy customization orders forced us to obtain items which we hadn’t bought before, and we were charged a premium for the short notice that we gave them.

One needs to bring to a conclusion each of the findings, especially the fact that large number of customizations lead to high costs, and in the absence of capturing the same in the P&L, it is lost.
The profits have been eroded due to: premium paid for renting furniture, overtime expenses, and premium for raw materials.

Jatin mentioned having the second framework, which is essentially a checklist to ensure that the major ideas that can cause the loss for a Café/restaurant is captured.

The Fourth Stage: Synthesis
The case needs to be concluded with the main reasons for a loss and if possible, giving a solution for each of the problem identified.
For example – pricing for customization, staggered timings to control the traffic and remove the furniture/ get it from Sarovar Dining Hall, reduce the staff (cut the overtime) and other creative suggestions.

Jatin’s main feedback centered around developing two critical frameworks:
To pin down the real problem from the case presented to you
A checklist framework which captures the main reasons why such a thing usually happens.

He emphasized on being confident, listening and taking hints, clarifying in case of doubt, and being involved with the case.
He signed off with Good Luck!”

Posted by: Enakshi Chatterjee
Group members: Rishik Ghosh, Rutvik Pawgi, Ashish Kumar Patidar, Siddhartha Pakrashi

Interview Prep experience: Weird Problem statements

2006-12-13T08:32:00.000+05:30

Here is an instance of a case where problem definition is weird and we are essentially looking at solving these types of cases in pressure situations.

This case was discussed once in prep practice by group 5.

First the characters in the story:
Interviewer: Narayanan (aka Mama)
Interviewee: Venkat
Case fished out by: Guru (also the observer)

Case statement: A hamburger manufacturer in the US has acquired a meat processing facility. The cows can be made to walk into the processing machine or run into it. What should they do?

Interviewee’s approach:
1) Tried to define the problem. What exactly are we trying to do?
2) What exactly is the difference between walking and running? Understanding the process.
3) How does it effect the output? Are there quality issues?
4) What is the processing capacity?
5) How does walking over running impact the capacity? (Lame question. Of course make the cows run will increase the quantity of meat produced)
6) How does it impact the cost of processing?
7) Questions on various cost aspects (lot of hints were given by interviewer)
8) Conclusion: On a per unit level, Its cheaper to produce by making the cows run. So that’s should be the approach

Interviewer’s comments:
1) Structure could have been better
2) Too much time spent on walk vs run. Interviewee should straight jump to the real issue which is “How can we improve our profits by doing one over another”?
3) How is the facility being used? Captive consumption Vs Selling to outsiders as well. If only captive, overproduction of perishable item like meat would result in wastage losses. Also can we sell to outsiders?
4) How will a process improvement at the facility impact revenues of the burger chain? Can we translate the cost savings into lower prices and ultimately better margins?
5) Charts could ve been used to understand the process (Thinking aloud)

Key takeaways:
1) Structure-Structure-Structure---Ask the right questions
2) Don’t get overawed by the weirdness of the problem. Walk Vs Run doesn’t mean anything unless it impacts the bottom line. Ask intelligent questions to get out the real problem and define it to obtain the agreement of the interviewer.
3) Think about both cost and revenue aspects. Similarly from an operational output stand point match supply to demand.
4) Think aloud and try to present pictorially your understanding of the process. Interviewer may throw hints if there is something wrong.
5) Listen carefully. In case of weird problems like this, there are enough hints in the initial answers which would help a candidate to come up with a good problem definition and structure

(This case is adapted from the case given in Pg 40 of the Harvard MCC case interview prep guide. Those interested may go over the case for a better understanding and numerical details. This case was repeated in the mock interview session with Yashraj from BCG and his comments have been incorporated at appropriate places)

Interview Prep session by ATK

2006-12-08T21:56:00.000+05:30

After the success of the Mckinsey workshop, the Consulting Club continued its series of interview centric information sessions with a session from the A.T. Kearney (ATK) team, conducted on Saturday 2nd December 2006. The session was conducted by Saurine Doshi, Supratim Banerjee, Anshu Gupta and Kunal Malani.

The ATK team gave a brief overview of the firm and highlighted the features which differentiate ATK from the other Consulting majors. The speakers illustrated the differences by recounting their own experiences and emphasizing on the service delivery methodology followed by the firm. The focus of the session was interview preparation from the point of view of cracking ATK interviews. The following are the most important qualities that ATK tries to assess in the candidates through the interviews:

Strong intellectual capabilities
Ability to work in ambiguous environments
Intellectual capital development
Long term partner potential

The candidates are evaluated on certain broad aspects viz, – problem solving skills, personal qualifications, and client impact potential. Supratim also emphasized on the fact that everyone in ISB has come in with experience and hence the firm gives a lot of credence to a candidate’s prior work ex. The interview procedure is designed in a way so as to assess the candidate’s flare for consulting and whether he/she will be an appropriate fit for the firm or not. One question that is frequently asked on the interview is “Why ATK?” The candidates need to carefully think through this and assess whether their skill sets and qualifications are a good fit with the firm’s culture and how best they can leverage upon their own experience and proficiency in order to differentiate themselves.

The session ended with the ATK team conducting mock interviews with volunteers. After the interview, the team provided their feedback and perspective on how good or bad the interview was and what are the key areas of concern that need to be worked upon. As in the Mckinsey case session, the mock interviews were immensely useful not only to the observers but also the volunteers themselves as they got a thorough understanding of what they need to do and how they should go about doing it, in order to crack ATK interview.

Case Interview workshop by McKinsey and Company

2006-12-08T21:52:00.000+05:30

The mercury has really started rising when it comes to the placement fever. With the D-day fast closing in, preparations have begun in full swing. Amidst this high pressure environment, the Consulting Club organized the Mck case workshop, which caught the pulse of the atmosphere on campus. The event was eagerly awaited which was quite evident from the number of people that swarmed AC 7 Max theatre on 1st December 2006. The workshop was conducted by Nigel Andrade, Venkatesh Srinivasan, Raj Kamal, Gaurav Bhalara and Rohit Kapoor and focused on the dos and don’ts for case interviews.

Nigel kick started the session by giving a general overview of what was going to be covered in the workshop and what would be the key learnings at the end of it. He defined the framework within which he was going to conduct the session and asked the student body for their expectations from the workshop. The key concern that Nigel sought to address was the evaluation criterion used to ascertain the success of a candidate in a case interview.

After the expectations had been laid down, Nigel switched gears and jumped straight into the methodology of preparing for and tackling case interviews. He stated the 4 key things that Mck looks for when evaluating the performance of a candidate on a case interview

Intellectual horsepower / Problem solving ability
Business judgment
Drive and aspiration
Leadership qualities

He then elaborated on the various stages that a candidate must pass through in order to crack the case. The emphasis is on the thought process rather than getting the correct answer.

First and foremost is the understanding of the problem and correctly defining it. The candidate must delve into each and every aspect of the problem posed to him and ask questions in order to completely understand the problem at hand and define it appropriately.

Once the problem has been identified and delineated, the candidate must work towards structuring the problem. This stage is very important as it can help the interviewer judge the thought process of the candidate and assess whether he is on the right track or not.

The third and the most important stage is the “test of creativity” which highlights the candidate’s ability to think out of the box and bring out new ideas and solutions to the problems. At this stage, the candidate must aim towards being as creative and innovative as possible as it will help the interviewer get an insight of the personality of the candidate and assess whether he would be a good fit with the organization or not.

The last stage is the problem solution or conclusion. In this stage the candidate needs to tie all the lose ends together and synthesize the ideas and link it back to the problem definition. A successful case interview is one which ends with all the loopholes plugged and all the ideas and solutions tied back to the original problem, and not necessarily getting the “correct” answer.

The above mentioned process of tackling case interviews was illustrated through a mock case simulation where volunteers were called upon and given a case to solve. Volunteers were made to handle a single stage of the case interview and after each round; the team gave feedback on what the volunteers should or should not have done. This approach made the whole learning experience extremely enjoyable as students could understand and grasp all the techniques required to crack a case by observing the volunteers solve cases on the spot. The session was immensely useful especially at a crucial time like this, as it gave a clear understanding of the line of attack to be adopted to successfully crack case interviews.

Hierarchy in Trade up

2006-12-08T00:43:00.000+05:30

A very interesting article by Michael Silverstein, Vice President and Director, The Boston Consulting group. The article was published in the brand equity section of the economic times on Dec 6th 2006.

Cracking Case interviews: Some Tips

2006-11-05T18:32:00.000+05:30

Diamond visited ISB around 15 days back to have an interactive session with the Consulting Club. Yashraj Erande from the Class of 2006 also visited ISB for an informal interaction with the club.

Both the sessions touched upon the process to be followed by students to crack case studies during interviews. The main take aways from both the sessions are documented below:

Steps to problem solving:

Problem definition: After the problem statement has been given to you, ask relevant probing questions to understand the situation better. Remember that the interviewer is trying to hire a future partner and not an associate. Ask questions about the constraints, if any. Thereafter define the problem concisely
Issue tree: Develop an issue tree and identify all the possible issues. This is a very important step because you will structure the problem at this stage. If the interviewer is not showing interest in what you are saying then it means that your issue tree is going in the wrong direction. Step back and start over again.
Collect data: Ask questions and gather as much data as you can. Manage data well – make sure write it all down.
Analyze data: Work out the calculations with the interviewer – speak out each step, check for signals
Recommendations: After all your analysis is complete, wait for the interviewer to give you a signal to start the conclusion. Thereafter concisely conclude the case.
While concluding, make sure that you conduct a sanity check: If the solution seems ridiculous and you think you’ve covered everything then tell the interviewer that the solution seems a little weird – ask if you missed out on something.
Synthesize – story about your full case (60 seconds)

Some do’s and don’ts:

Do’s and don’ts about case interviews
- do take time to understand the case and the key question
- do ask questions if something is not clear or if you need more data
- do take some time to think through the entire process and then start
- do keep your interviewer aware of your thinking
- do use a pen and paper if you have data to manage
- do stop and check if you are missing something obvious

Don’ts
- don’t be unstructured – this is all about structure (not necessarily the right answer)
- Don’t hesitate to admit that you have got it wrong and to start again
- Don’t force fit frameworks or use too much jargon
- Don’t just hypothesize – prove your hypothesis
- Don’t focus only on the answer – the approach is just as important

Posted by: Contributions from several members of the consulting club.

First steps towards placement preparation

2006-10-18T19:49:00.000+05:30

With the end of core terms and the electives on offer, the Consulting Club kick started preparations for the placement season. Preparations are mainly targeted on two fronts:

CV / Resume preparation; and
Interview / case studies preparation

The first effort in this direction started off with a video conference with Rohit Kapoor and Shankar Prasad (both McKinsey and ISB Class of 2006) on CV Tips. The main takeaways from the session were:

-Identify your spike – it will either be education, work experience or extra curricular. Once identified, allocate the maximum page space to that spike.
-Work experience:
Emphasis on skills vs. content – you will be taking your skills to the new job, not the content of your work experience
-State results, not activities. For every activity there would be some result – emphasize that
-Prioritize achievements to state: Any bullet point, even if it appears to be remotely meaningless-delete it
-Use the situation – complication – resolution format. Identify the complexity in the job and then state the achievement
-No need to mention all projects done – just state the important ones
-Mention client names only if your previous employer did not have a policy of not disclosing client names
-Try and quantify achievements in numerical terms (increased revenues by XX%, improved efficiency by XX% etc.)
For other activities – if they are your lifetime passion and you have been perusing them since childhood then mention them in the extra-curricular section. Things done in educational institutes that do not fall in the above category – mention in the education section
Stress on value created by you at ISB – even if it is in a very small capacity
Keep font size consistent and leave enough white space on the CV
And most important – do not lie on your CV

Apart from this, some alumni have volunteered to review student CVs as a part of the interview preparations. The interview preparation efforts will start from this weekend and more posts on the progress will follow.

Nnumerous individual specific queries raised by students were also cleared. All in all it was a wonderful session and the student body went away with some important takeaways. This session was very useful to the entire student body and not just the Consulting aspirants.

Continuing with the series of Consulting firms visiting ISB, Diamond is visiting ISB on Friday. A post on that session will follow shortly.

Consulting in cross cultural environments by ATK

2006-09-29T09:27:00.000+05:30

A.T Kearney visited the ISB on 22nd September to share some perspectives about Consulting in cross cultural environments. The session was conducted by Raman Mangalokar (Principal), Supratim Banerjee (Manager, ISB Class of 2002) and Ankur Warikoo (Senior Business Analyst, ISB Class of 2006).

The team shared their experiences about consulting with various business over the course of their career and how working with culturally diverse teams added to their experience. Raman recalled and shared his experiences of working out of ATK’s Chicago office and the different experiences he had working with cross cultural teams.

The team also spoke about ATK, the kind of work done by the firm and how an ATK consultant is passionate about not just making recommendations for the problem they are trying to solve but also, to see through the implementation of the solution.

Supratim also shared his perspectives and spoke about his experience with ATK for last 4 years.

On 23rd Sept, Ankur conducted a resume analysis session for the benefit of the students interested in consulting and ran us through a case study of his own resume and how he worked on it to shape it up for applying to Consulting firms. Use of effective verbs, and efficient presentation tactics to bring out all the positive aspects of one’s profile was stressed upon.

Both the sessions were attended by a large number of students and the consulting club would like to thank the ATK team for visiting the campus and interacting with the students.

Venkat

Introduction to McKinsey and Company

2006-09-13T13:09:00.000+05:30

McKinsey and Company visited ISB on 9 September 2006 to conduct an “Introduction to McKinsey” session with the student body. The session was conducted by:
Rajiv C Lochan – Associate Principal
Venkatesh Srinivasan – Engagement Manager
Rohit Kapoor – Junior Associate (ISB Class of 2006)
Gautam P Chhugani – Junior Associate (ISB Class of 2006)
Ruchi Bansal – Junior Associate (ISB Class of 2006) and
Chris Fernandes –Recruiting coordinator

The session began with a presentation giving the general background and information about the firm. This was followed by each of the speakers recounting their own experiences with the firm and the ups and downs in their careers. The student body appreciated the honesty and frankness of each speaker as they recounted their initial days in the firm.

Thereafter, the focus shifted to the recruitment process of the company. Venkatesh invited questions from the students regarding the recruitment process and the same were addressed during for the remaining part of the event. The main focus of the remaining part of the session was on the short listing and interviewing process followed by McKinsey.

The speakers gave a detailed insight on the interview and evaluation process and elaborated on the parameters on which they judge the candidates. They emphasized on the fact that grades are important to the extent that they provide a quantifiable measure on the basis of which the candidates can be differentiated. However, it was also very clear from the discussion that grades were not the only consideration and other factors are equally important. These include – prior work experience, leadership skills and extra curricular activities. They also gave a brief overview of the rigorous resume short listing process where they spend almost 7 -8 minutes per resume and that every resume that is accepted needs the concurrence of at least two people.

After the resume short listing stage there are two rounds of interviews where they judge the following skills of the candidates:
· Quantative skills
· Problem solving
· Personality
· Ability to work in teams

The session was immensely useful as it gave a sense of what McKinsey is looking for in the applicants and provided an opportunity to students to reflect on their profiles and assess whether there is a “fit” between their profiles and the expectations of the firm and what needs to be done in order to bridge the gap.

Posted by Sunanda

BCG' s session on Consulting Careers

2006-08-21T16:11:00.000+05:30

Representatives from The Boston Consulting Group visited ISB on 17 August 2006 to conduct a session on “Careers in Consulting”. The main agenda of the session was to address the specific questions of students on careers in consulting and to dispel some of the common myths that enshroud the profession. The session was conducted by Arvind Subramaniam, Ravi Srivastava, Rohit Chhapolia, Vishal Sharma and Ramesh Jha.

The event started with the Arvind inviting specific questions and queries from the students. The key questions that were asked during the session were as follows:
What are the different types of Consulting?
How to make the most of the management programme at ISB from the perspective of making a career in Consulting?
What are the key characteristics that Consulting Firms look for in prospective candidate?
What does the life of a Consultant entail – Work Life balance?
What is the Career progression in a typical Consulting firm?
Myths about Consulting

The speakers started with clearly defining and differentiating between the different types of Consulting – Management, Functional and Operational. Further, they addressed the above mentioned questions by citing examples and instances from their own experiences and their career progression in the firm. They also gave an insight on the diversity of projects and engagements that they had handled and impressed on the fact that each engagement is unique to a large extent and entails its own set of challenges. The theme that emerged from the discussion was that Consulting is all about “Out of the Box” thinking and the tools and methodology used in one project cannot be blindly applied to all projects. They also gave an insight on the problems and challenges faced by them as consultants in their day to day work life and gave a perspective on how they went about overcoming these challenges. They elaborated on and dispelled some of the common myths that surround consulting and helped the students get a clear understanding of the profession as a whole.

Towards the end of the discussion, the speakers addressed specific questions regarding the recruitment process and how to prepare for the same. However, the specific details of the interview preparation process were not addressed and would be taken up in the interview specific sessions in the coming terms. It was a highly interactive session which ended with the speakers informally interacting with the students on a one on one basis. This exercise gave the students an opportunity to express their individual concerns and get answers to questions which were probably not answered during the session.

Posted by Sunanda

Alum Interaction : Vijay Mulbagal

2006-08-13T20:09:00.000+05:30

Vijay Mulbagal from class of 2006 was at the ISB today. He spoke at length about the various aspects of consulting and about his short span so far in the consulting world working with Diamond. Here are some key takeaways from the session:

1) Not everyone is cut out for consulting. Management Consulting is a glamorous job but at the same time it’s tiring, tedious and involves a lot of travel.
2) Grades and only grades are not important to make it to consulting. Each one of us has some unique achievements and it depends on how we bring that out in our resume’.
3) Resume building exercise should start early (may be now). A good resume plays a vital role in helping a candidate make a shortlist. People should get their resumes critically evaluated by peers and others and try to achieve perfection. The cover letters should be personalized and well written as well.
4) Vijay suggested some books that would be good to read towards preparation for consulting careers. The McKinsey way, McKinsey mind, The Pyramid principle ( by Barbara Minto) and Say it with charts were some of the books he suggested.
5) It is very important that one understands the key qualities required for consulting jobs. Flexible(read long) hours, frequent travel and working with ambiguity are a part and parcel of consulting. Qualities like good interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively are extremely important.
6) You should not choose to get into consulting just because it is glamorous. You have to make sure that you are cut out for it ( i.e to say you will be happy doing it). If you lack the qualities and still feel passionate about consulting, you should work on developing them.
7) There is a huge world outside consulting. There are many people who have not gone into consulting and yet are very well placed ( i.e earning well and happy with their job content!). Finally its only the industry guys who make the headlines.
8) It is very important to understand individual firm culture. Every firm is unique and has it’s own strengths and limitations. An aspirant should choose his/her target firm after evaluating the best fit according to his/her preferences.
9) Vijay also spoke at length about his experience with Diamond so far, the kind of work Diamond is looking to doing in India and overall culture at Diamond.

The Consulting club would like to thank Vijay for taking time out and being with us.

Posted by Venkat

What is Consulting?

2006-07-30T09:05:00.000+05:30

The consulting club conducted its first major event today. It was a panel discussion on a Consultant’s work profile and culture across different consulting firms. The discussion was moderated by our Deputy Dean Ajit Rangnekar.

Three Alums: Bejoy Suri from Accenture, Anshuman Biyani from BCG and Rohit Kapoor from Mckinsey took part in the discussion.

Most of the discussion was centered around the kind of work consultants do in general with focus on strategy firms. What is consulting? What kind of work the consulting firms do? How is a typical day in a consultant’s life? How do you grow and learn in a consulting firm?—All these and many more such questions in the minds of many students looking at consulting careers post ISB were effectively answered.

The alums discussed in detail the kind of projects they have been doing since they joined their respective firms. The spoke at length about their experiences and touched upon the various assignments they have been involved in, to give the students present a deep insight into the life of a consultant. Ajit provided us with his valuable comments and narrated his own experiences as a consultant to add to the discussion and drive home the issues being discussed.

A consultant’s typical day was also discussed and it was emphasized, that though consulting careers give you a great opportunity to constantly learn, innovate and challenge yourself, it’s a tough job at the end of the day and you need to be one up always to succeed. Further, it was clearly mentioned that consultants had to travel a lot and keep away from their base offices for long periods adding to the challenges of the job.

Later an interactive session with alums was conducted to build upon the discussions and answer certain unanswered questions in detail.

The consulting club would like to thank Bejoy, Anshuman and Rohit for taking time out to be with us. We also thank Ajit for agreeing to moderate the discussion and provide us valuable insights on consulting careers.

-v

Falling Rupee--Good News !!

2006-07-20T12:16:00.000+05:30

The Indian rupee continues its upward march against the dollar and there was no intervention from the RBI till yesterday. According to a TOI article published yesterday, although the rupee/dollar real exchange rate continues to be strong, a worldwide strengthening of the dollar has lead to a weaker rupee.

The strengthening of the dollar against the rupee is being considered as good news for the Indian business having huge receivables in dollars ( in particular the software firms--) a weaker rupee means more rupee for each dollar receivable and this could lead to boosting up of bottom line for many of the firms.

The RBI believes that as long as the rupee/ dollar real exchange rate is in good shape i.e to say that macroeconomic fundamentals are strong enough a weaker rupee only means good news for Indian firms in the short run. Though, what percentage fall is not a risk to the currency is something to think about

Venkat

Class of 2007 takes over

2006-07-09T12:38:00.000+05:30

The activities of the consulting club were kick started with the formation of the club and election of office bearers. The class of 2007 has diverse set of individuals with their unique strengths and a stellar set of achievements. The profile and expertise of students is reflected in the consulting club as well.

For details about class of 2007 please click here.

The consulting club at the ISB is driven by the following objectives:

To equip the students with the tools and resources necessary for careers in the consulting domain.
To create a forum for information exchange among the industry and students.

Following is a snapshot data about the student members of the club:

Number of members: More than 250
Average work experience: 4.5 years
Areas of prior consulting experience:
Management consulting, risk advisory, process / operations consulting, IT consulting, benchmarking advisory.
Club members with consulting experience have previously worked at: (Illustrative only)
KPMG, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Deloitte
Consulting, Ma Foi Management Consultants, Best Practices LLC, IBM, A.F. Ferguson
Club members with domain expertise have previously worked at: (Illustrative Only)
Infosys, TCS, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Maruti Udyog, CNBC, Siemens, NCDEX,
Wipro, Microsoft, Progeon, Marico, Evalueserve.com, Thomson Financial

The range of activities planned by the club in the current year includes:

Facilitating forums such as internal speaker series, knowledge sharing sessions, and industry focus groups ensure the dissemination of knowledge amongst the students.
The club plans to organise various speaker series’, interactions and workshops with executives from various companies and industries. This would facilitate an environment for knowledge sharing and growth. Interactions with the industry shall widen the students’ knowledge base and enhance their ability to respond to “real world” situations.
The club plans to organize a plethora of events that prepare students for a career in consulting. These include facilitation of focus groups for case study discussions, groups for discussing the latest trends in industries, conducting mock interviews and regular interactions with consulting firms.

We at the consulting club would like to thank all alumni for all the support rendered to us so far and hope to having many more interactive sessions in the future.

A special thanks to Yashraj ( Class of 2006) for helping us reactivate this blog. This blog would contain updates about the activities of the club and all other material relevant to the Consulting world, Industry insights and preparation for Management Consulting careers.

Any further queries about the club may be addressed to the Club President Akshit Shah at Akshit_Shah@pgp2007.isb.edu

[Consulting@ISB] Big Ticket Dreams - Time to Pause

2006-04-07T16:46:00.000+05:30

Dear All,

Now that the placement report has been formally announced, I can formally take a "pause" on this blog. This year has been a watershed year in terms of the consulting placements. New records have been established and our efforts have borne fruits. ISB has bagged huge (if not the largest) number of consulting offers from the bluest of the bluechip firms.

I hope that this blog has served its purpose of being a platform for sharing knowledge with all consulting aspirants from Co2006. We worked as a team to ensure that everyone gets the best shot at their dream consults. There was unprecedented collaboration within the batch and I strongly feel that it helped all of us push our bar a notch higher. Great show! This has only vindicated our belief that consulting placements are not a zero sum game.

The placement figures are available for all to see [ http://www.isb.edu/campussbuzz1/placements_2006_Fact_Sheet.pdf ] so I would not repeat them here.

The incoming batch can use this blog to get a feel of the way their alums went about preparing for consults. From here on it’s up to the Class of 2007 to carry the tradition forward and keep the ISB and Consulting@ISB flag flying high!

Wish you all the best in your careers.

Cheers :)
Yash

ps: if anyone wants to get in touch with me then mail me at yashraj_erande@pgp2006.isb.edu or yashraj.erande@gmail.com or check the alumi website for my latest contact details.

So what ?

2006-02-05T10:42:00.000+05:30

Folks:
The following post is courtesy Rohit Kapoor... thanks dude.
Rohit has suggested two very useful frameworks which can be used during PI to generate the 'wow' ;D factor. Read on...

[Rohit's comments --]
I was reflecting on the PI rounds that I conducted and somehow found that the 'wow' factor was missing. The common link was that I could not understand the "so what?" of the answers. In other words the question which came to my mind was "so what is great about this particular thing". I think the challenge-action-impact framework will help in answeing PI questions especially around leadership, team work etc.

Challenge - Describe succintly what were the circumstances which made the job/experience difficult. This gets the interviewers attention.
Action - This part is essentially "what did you do?". This allows the interviewer to appreciate your problem solving and leadership capabilities.
Impact - Anything one does is meaningless unless it impacts something - client, internal processes, colleagues, team etc. Describing the impact tells the interviewer that you are an achiever. Also use a FROM-TO approach within this section. E.g. "The market share in this product category went up from 42 to 45% as a result of these initiatives".

Some other observations:
Please avoid using bombastic terminology like "passion for excellence", "amazing leadership capabilities !!" in describing yourself. You are really setting yourself up for trouble because after you have used such extreme superlatives, your examples better be damn good. Words like "committed", "person who can take end-to-end responsibility" are more likely to be believed and examples can back these up.

Lastly, please please do not give cop-out answers on "What are your weaknesses" question. Answers which are complete disasters are "I work so hard ... I multi-task so much that I fail to prioritize ..... I dont know how to strike work-life balance ..... I am too analytical". The interviewer is out to recruit a human being and not god !! One good answer which I got was "I am a slow starter ..this can be a handicap in consulting .. however I was given this feedback in my last job .... this is what I have done to get better at this"

Economic Indicators on Economist.com

2006-01-28T19:45:00.000+05:30

Some of you might be interested in tracking the Economic indicators on a regular basis.
You can visit this link on Economist.com using ISB login (via E_Resources):

http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/index_wide.cfm?page=Emerging%20Market&story_id=5446071

-- Yash

Interesting trends in IT industry

2006-01-18T22:36:00.000+05:30

As a follow-up after my session on 'Global Delivery Model' here is an excellent article that talks about the emerging dynamics in the Indian IT industry.

It makes a passing reference to a new delivery model christened 'Networked Delivery Model'. In my understanding the key difference between Global and Networked Delivery Model is that the latter may include multiple delivery centers in the same geography operating as a mesh. For example, Chile may provide Insurance (verticle) domain serivces while Mexico may provide Application Development and Maintenance (horizontal) services and India may provide Engineering and QA (horizontal) services.

The main advantages are:
1. Increased localization - European office has better grip over European insurance sector
2. Increased specialization - Chile office focuses mainly on Insurance, India on solution derlivery
3. Increased robustness (risk mitigation) because of increased geographical spread - In built fail over system

In my opinion, in the long run this model will allow TCS to develop processes and competencies at one center (say Solution Delivery capabilities at India) and then roll them out across many other centers (say Latin America). Thus, the main hub will function as a center of excellence in a particular horizontal / verticle.

Although, the article's focus is on TCS' strategies, I think it gives a very good perspective on the changing paradigm in the Indian IT industry. I got this article from an alum - Vijayant Gupta Co 2002. Thanks Vijayant!

file://isbhome/generalhome/Clubs_Co2006/Consulting-Club/Resources/CS.pdf

-- Yash

Bharat Nirman Project

2006-01-15T18:47:00.000+05:30

Following post is courtsey Gaurav Balhara... thanks Balu!

BHARTA NIRMAN
Swaminathan Aiyar
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1336063.cms

Main Analysis and Targets
India sets Rs. 80 bn plan for rural infrastructure development.

Roads, railways, electricities, water supplies and telecommunications; what else 70 per cent of one billion plus population is waiting. Will the virtual figure of improving these in rural areas show its face in reality. Time will break the pause.

One of the main relation between project made and project done is the correlation between ‘cause’ and ‘effect’. If the ‘cause’ runs in a positive direction, the ‘effect’ is always positive. In the development sector, which generally is a very long period plan, ‘cause’ will never affect the mass. It is always the ‘effect’ which matters. Promises are made and promises broken. Its nothing new among Indian politicians. Still, lets hope for the better tomorrow in the infrastructure development sector which was served deliciously in the Lok Sabha in the long two hour speech by the Harvard-educated lawyer-turned-politician Mr. P. Chidambaram.

For the development of Rural India, Chidambaram invited private investment in the rural infrastructure plan to implement the project ‘Bharat Nirman’, outlined by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam last week. The annual funding of this four years plan is Rs. 80 billion. Bharat Nirman is a business plan for building infrastructure in areas of irrigation, roads, housing, water supply, electrification and telecommunication connectivity by 2009. Our FM is confident about ‘Bharat Nirman’ and mentioned it to be “an achievable project”.

The Targets:
• Extension of irrigation facilities to additional 10 million hectares.
• Providing rural roads to inhabitations with a population of 1,000 people in plains.
• Providing the same to inhabitations of 5,000 people on hills.
• Building 6,00,000 additional low-income houses.
• Providing drinking water facilities to 74,000 habitations who are currently lacking this facility.
• Providing power connections to 1,25,000 more villages involving connectivity to 23 million houses.
• Providing telecommunication facilities to 66,822 more villages.
It will be a giant step in development of the rural India if the ‘effect’ comes out with flying colours after four years. As in the telecommunication sector, only 1.1 per cent of the total national density is in rural areas. According to the promises made, it will be increased to more than eight per cent. According to Kalam, Rural India should be seen as a growth engine and public investment is required in the area of rural infrastructure to unleash its growth potential. If all goes well, Bharat Nirman will eradicate poverty, provide excellent and affordable opportunities for education and skill development for all citizens. Health will surely improve and higher income level groups will be generated in India.

An allocation of Rs 9,308 crore has been made for the North Eastern region for the fiscal 2005-06. Out of this Rs 459 crore has been alloted as a special package for highway development in this region. Kumarghat-Agartala and Lumding-Silchar-Hiribam-Imphal projects would be supported with additional funds outside the Railway Budget as projects of national importance. According to FM all ministries and departments are required to allocate at least 10 per cent of their Budget for schemes and programmes in this region.

The burgeoning foreign exchange reserves for will be used for infrastructure development henceforth. All disinvestment receipts will go to the National Investment Fund and used for social sector projects and it will not be taken as capital receipts nor as revenue receipts. Courtesy

Increasing Topline for a Market Leader – Pointers

2005-12-31T12:37:00.000+05:30

There are cases where the client wants to increase his/her revenues despite already being the market leader. This post talks about some common approaches (using our takeaways from Gillette case) that can be used in such cases.

Problem Statement:
My client is a watch making company. Its revenues and profits have been flat for the last few years and it wants to increase both of them now. Can you help?

Facts:
· There are three segments – high end/lifestyle, value for money, low price
· Client has 5% market share in lifestyle segment, 70% market share in the value for money segment, and 20% in the low price segment.
There are some other facts which are not very relevant… refer to ISB Consulting Case Book

Analysis:
First of all, you need to ascertain whether you are a market leader in $ terms or # units sold terms (thanks Umang). In this case, the client is a market leader on both these counts.

In general, there are three ways to increase top and bottom line (other than simply increasing the price and reducing cost):
(a) enter new segments in the existing market
(b) increase penetration in existing segment or
(c) create new market segments, i.e. redefine the segmentation all together – change the rules of the game

In this case, it turned out that the client for some reason was reluctant to enter the other two segments. So if the client is a market leader in a given segment and it wants to increase its revenues from the same segment then it can adopt three strategies:
(a) Increase the frequency of purchase of its products
(b) Generate multiple/alternative uses of its product. For example, a wrist watch can double as a heart rate tracking devise
(c) Increase segment size by
i. trading-up customers from lower segments to the client’s segment
ii. cannibalizing some customers from higher segment

After some data collection about the growth rates of the existing segments, market penetration etc, this case boiled down to creative problem solving. By talking about various approaches to do the three things mentioned above you could come up with recommendations for the client to follow. Some recommendations could include:
(a) Launch watches for each day of the week
(b) Keep changing the designs for each season to entice customers into purchasing new watches
(c) Promote alternative uses of a watch such as a gift item or an accessory
(d) Launch watches at extreme price points within the value for money segment. The cheaper watches will attract customers from the low price segment while, the costlier watches will attract some customers from the premium segment if the positioning and branding is right. This also involves generating strong brand awareness

Finally, don’t forget to do a sanity check of the recommendations that you make. They should be practicable and should not create new problems.

Process Improvement Case - Pointers

2005-12-29T20:55:00.000+05:30

This is a real life case on which Pranjal J had worked. What is mentioned here is a toned down version of the real stuff that he did… great fun :) I recommend that you should catch hold of Pranjal and ask him to give you this case. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Problem Statement:
HLL has opened a new factory in Himachal Pradesh to manufacture detergent. However, they are facing frequent stock-outs. The factory was started three months ago and now that the winters are here the problem seems to be worsening. We had expected that the processes should have stabilized by now but that doesnt seem to be the case. Can you help us?

Facts:

Factory works 24 x 5
Factory uses seven different types of powers in equal proportion to make detergent
There are seven silos at the factory for each power
Stockouts happen at random in any one or more silo
Each silo gets empty within half a day and needs refilling
Seven trucks with nine drivers and nine cleaners are responsible for getting the seven powders from the feeder. Two drivers and cleaners are back-ups
Feeder is 80 kms away
Feeder has a bucket elevator which loads poweders into the trucks
Bucket elevator takes two hours to load the poweder into the truck
One truck can carry only one type of powder
Drivers are paid well and are not dissatisfied
Factory earns Rs. 100 crores each day
Managers are satisfied with work and their bonuses are tied to them meeting targets. Stockouts are not something they want

I wont mention the solution here... for that you should talk to Pranjal.

Analysis and Pointers:
I started off by talking about all the ops jargon that I could think of – cycle inventory, safety inventory, lead time, variability in demand, reorder point. After some time Pranjal said he had no clue of what I was talking about. So I realized that there wasnt anything wrong with these things.
The rest of the case was pure commonsense and creative thinking – which I couldn’t do a lot of :)

Possible Approach:
In any case, here are my over all learnings from this case and also my ideas about how I will approach such cases in the future.

The problems could be in any stage of the inbound or outbound process. Therefore, the first task should be to identify the exact region where the problem has occured.

a.) For doing this it is very important to understand the entire process end to end. This is a must because each process is bound to be unique and unless you have a grip on the process its difficult to do any intelligent analysis
b.) Next you should track the problem to the exact stage or step where it occurs. It is likely that a problem occurring at one stage may manifest itself at some completely different stage
c.) Once you have isolated the erroneous step you can go about identifying the root cause of the problem
d.) Then, put on your creative thinking hat and get cracking at the problem!
e.) It is very important in a process improvement type case to analyse the impact of the recommendations that you give because changing the process at one stage may lead to new problems downstream or upstream. So do a sanity check
f.) Finally, provide recommendations to ensure that the fix stays fixed even after you (the consultant) have walked out … this might be your chance to wow the interviewer :)

I think after having documented these steps, I will be better prepared while tackling a process improvement case next time. Hope you find this useful too!

-- Yash

Market Entry Case - Pointers

2005-12-28T18:17:00.000+05:30

First of all, thanks Rohit C for annotating my previous blog on McK Attack!

In this post I am going to document some generic pointers about M&A valuation cases. Please do send your annotations as well.

Problem Statement: Firm A wants to acquire firm C. There is another firm B which also wants to acquire firm C. All three are from cement industry How much should A be willing to pay ?

Approach and Methodology:
Why is this acquisition important?
à The answer should tell you something about the motivation behind acquiring B. It could be any combination of the following
a) Strategic: ex. A will gain access to unexplored markets; A will thwart a future competitor by buying out B (which Cisco often does); A will gain technology which B has developed; A will gain scale which might be an important factor; A may be doing it just because it doesn’t want C to do it.
b) Operational: A may be able to reduce redundancy in distribution, supply or production systems; A may learn best practices from B and use it in its existing factories; A may achieve economies of scope by improving its supply chain to do cross docking of different raw materials (used in A and B)
c) Financial: A may get a lot of tax cover if B is currently loss making or has huge debt
d) Opportunistic: A may just be getting B cheaper due to some distress sale

How will you value the acquisition?
à Value the standalone value of B (target) using
a) Discounted Cash Flow - FCFE, FCF
b) Transactions multiple – comparing with other similar acquisitions that may have happened in the recent past
c) Accounting Multiples
à Value the PV of synergies that may be generated by acquiring B
à Value the PV of losses that you might incur if C acquires B
Add all the three up to get to the maximum value that you are willing to attribute to B.

Further, you should go into the details of the exact sources of the synergies and whether or not they are realizable.

Finally, you should somehow account for the cost of a failed acquisition. This could be accounted for by reducing the expected cash flows in the future. Note that increasing the discount rate is not a good idea for this (think why ?).

Include all the above factors to arrive at the maximum valuation.

McK Attack!

2005-12-26T23:17:00.000+05:30

In this post I will consolidate some of my learnings from the McKinsey sessions over the last weekend. Others are welcome to post their comments and inputs!

Case Prep: These sessions brought in tremendous clarity about the over all process.
The case interview should be an interaction of peers. Specifically, an interaction between a CEO and a consultant.

The case interview should consist of the following four phases:
1. Problem Definition: In this phase the interviewee should ask probing questions to get to the heart of the problem. Avoid the temptation to jump right into the solution as you will miss out on two things - firstly, the interviewee might completely miss the problem and secondly, interviewee will not be able to build a rapport with the interviewer. *An important point to note here is to clarify the constraints. Some constraints could be - need to implement the solution in the next fifteen days*

2. Issue Analysis: In this phase the interviewee should analyze the problem from different angles and identify a set of issues. Later s/he should prioritize them in consultation with the interviewer

3. Creative Problem Solving: In this phase the interviewee is expected to come up with creative solutions to the problems identified during the issue analysis

4. Synthesis: In this phase the interviewee should synthesize the case (and NOT summarize) and then give recommendations

Evaluation Criteria: The interviewee is being judged of the following parameters:
1. Powerful communication: Be confident, clear and crisp in your communication
2. Presence: Your posturing and body language will create a big impact - positive or negative - on the interviewer
3. Clarity of thought: be crystal clear in your thinking
4. Creativity: think practically but creatively. There are two ways to do this - either apply an idea across domains or come up with a blinding fresh insight about the current domain
5. Exhaustive Issue Analysis: Be structured and thorough in your analysis
6. Prioritization: Prioritize the issues and manage them in a coherent manner

The key question that the interviewer asks her/himself is "can I put this candidate in front of the client alone for half an hour?" Only if the answer is affirmative will you proceed to the next round.

Behavior Questions: Be confident about who you are and know what you stand for. Above all, be honest because that is in the interest of both the interviewee and the recruiter.

The campus is abuzz with discussions about the McK attack. Looking forward to many such attacks in the coming days... I leave you with a few comments from people who attended the sessions...

"It was a really good session and I think getting guys like Nigel at this critical point would provide a good boost to our preparations. Overall the session was great and very personal and I thank the Mckinsey team for being so friendly in helping us prepare. I appreciate their energy to bear with us till so late in the night ….actually it is their fault because they made the session Thanks to the consulting club forso interesting that no body wanted to leave organizing this. "

"It was really a very helpful session for the likes of me who have yet to start any prep. The whole process was very involving and interesting that kept us awake until very late at night. I really enjoyed the key takeaways and the methodology used. I would like to thank you consulting club guys, and the McKinsey team for taking such an effort to help us out."

"Major take-aways for me:
1. Difference between "problem restatement" and "problem identification"
2. Structure of the analysis
3. Difference between case-summary and case-synthesis
4. Contents of a constructive feedback during mock case-interviews"

-- Yash

Notes from Pramath Sinha’s visit

2005-12-21T09:15:00.000+05:30

Pramath’s talk focused on two aspects of preparation.
- Personal interview
- General awareness

On the personal interview front, Pramath pointed out that there is no substitute to typing out the answers. He listed the following questions which are bound to be asked in one form or the other:
1. What do you want to do in life?
2. Why ?
3. How will help you reach your goal?
4. Why should we recruit you? / What do you bring to the table?
a. Your strengths
b. Your weaknesses
c. Team experience
d. Leadership experience
e. Major Success
f. Biggest Failure
You can add to this list…

On the general awareness front, Pramath implored us to read at least one business daily and two magazines per week. Following is the gist of the points he highlighted:
1. Speak and think like an MBA. Use the right phrases during a discussion
2. Be in position to talk about any issues that are of general importance
3. Have an in-depth knowledge about two industries other than your original industry
4. Have an informed perspective / view on issues

To address the general awareness bit, consulting club is considering a new initiative where we will provide a forum to all interested parties to engage in a perspective building discussion on a regular basis. Request you all to participate whole heartedly as these sessions are not just consulting specific; they will be of use in any interview.

-- Yash

Observations from Vijay Mulbagal's focus group

2005-12-19T10:02:00.000+05:30

Padhnewaloon,
The following post is courtesy Vijay. I think he gets to the heart of case interviews. Thanks Vijay !!! Read on....

In the last three days our focus group did about 12 case interviews. We kept procrastinating till we could no longer manage the burden of getting psyched out by other groups. The efforts, though rudimentary, have offered some results. The following are a few observations:

All our life we have been rewarded for our knowledge. In consulting, it not knowledge but the process of thinking that is paid premium for. It is quite difficult not to indulge in giving out some off-the-cuff guesstimated answers, as if the interviewer was actually interested in knowing the surface area of an airplane and the number of litres required to paint the surface. The process of probing, by asking intelligent questions, is just not rewarded but rewarding too.

‘What’ is important, but ‘how’ is not to be ignored. The way one puts across a point can change the way the interviewer will respond. Niceties ‘are’ important.

There will be individual differences in the interviewers. It is not required to infer meanings into the behavior of the interviewer beyond what is warranted. If the interview is curt or rude, it does not necessarily mean that he does not like you. Losing confidence midway by reading too much into the interviewer’s gesticulation and articulation is unwarranted and detrimental.

Video recording is not just a ritual that will get one entry into the Club consulting cprep’s closed-door meetings. It is imperative that one records as many interviews as possible. More importantly, go back to analyze each aspect of the interview. To repeat ad nauseam, in case interviews, what matters is not the ‘product’ but the ‘process’. Hence, detailed examination and analyses of recorded videos is paramount. Making notes and comparing on a weekly basis would be of help.

Finally, one should do case interviews whether or not one wants to go for consulting jobs. Case interviews offer a chance to review course concepts; they sharpen the mind and greatly enhance problem solving orientation.

-- Vijay

Road ahead guys!

2005-12-18T08:38:00.000+05:30

We are in mid-December and quite a few groups have started practising for interviews regularly. While every person will have a different schedule and a way of doing things - I thought it may be useful to lay out a general road map leading to placement season. This roadmap is specific to consulting and will not fit all interview prep - however it may not be a bad idea to have this for any sector that you may be targetting.

-- Rohit

Same start different endings - Useful Frameworks

2005-12-12T23:20:00.000+05:30

This Sunday we had a marathon case prep session with Rohit conducting four consecutive interviews. The interesting part about this session was that each of the interviews started with the same problem statement but ended up with four completely distinct solutions.

Problem Statement: Market Share Problem

Our client is a world leading Pharma company. They have launched their blockbuster product - Human Insulin - in India. Although the product is extremely successful all over the world, it doesnt seem to be picking up steam in India. What can you do to help?

Analysis 1

Facts:
1. Doctors who were approached were very satisfied with the product and also recommended it willingly.
2. The stock was available at the drug store
3. C&F agents were satisfied
4. No incentive problem
5. Best medical reps were employed
6. Patients were happy with the product
7. Competitors were not posing a problem
8. Price was not an issue...

So.... what the hell was the problem? It turns out the problem was that this company had not employed sufficient number of sales reps and the distribution coverage was not sufficient.

Recommended Framework:
You could start off with a very broad framework - Internal vs. External forces. All outcomes are because of either some action taken by the company (internal forces) or because of some actions taken by the external entities (forces). Once you have isolated that there is nothing wrong with the external forces you should try enforcing a more specific framework. MarkStrat framework for market share is apt for this case. Market Share = Distribution Coverage x Purchase Intent x Awareness

You can quickly rule out Purchase Intent and Awareness by asking relevant questions. That leaves you with Distribution Coverage which is the right issue. It seems the company did not employ sufficient number of sales reps. So although those who were employed did a great job, not all doctors could be reached.

Aside:
You must ask questions regarding the value chain in this case. It turns out that in the Pharma sector the doctor is the key stakeholder in making or breaking a product. So unless a company has that front covered, it is in deep trouble.

Analysis 2

Facts
1. Everything else is fine
2. Prices are high and hence customers are not buying sufficient quantities.
3. Client knows this but isnt doing anything about it. WHY?????
4. The costs are low enough to permit a price cut.
5. No issue of global leadership not being sensitive to local needs.
So, whats the problem here?

Hint: Think about how a customer purchases a medicine. Think about India and also US, which is a major market for our client. How is the purchase paid for?

If you are thinking Insurance in the US context, you are bang on target! Okaie... Insurance so what? Think! Think!.....

You see, the company simply converts $ into INR and sells the product in India. So if it charges $1 in US then it charges INR 45 in India, although it could charge INR 20. The reason behind the company doing this is that, if it were to reduce the price of its product in India then the US Insurance companies would feel that they are being ripped-off by this company in the US and hence would sue it. So the company cant reduce the price of its product in India.

First Principles - Some useful questions to ask:
Once you know that the company is aware of the problem but isnt taking any corrective action, you should think about why is Indian market not that significant for the company? So asking some information about the contribution of Indian market to the over all sale might be a good question. Secondly, once you have been told about the insurance funda, its good to ask the implications of pricing it lower in the US as well.
Notice that this case cannot be cracked by using a framework. You need to think logically and start from first principles.

Analysis 3

Facts
1. Same as analysis 1, except that prices were high compared to competitors.
2. The company knows this but still wants to increase the market share without reducing price. How can it do so? Scratch... Scratch... Scratch...

Recommended Framework:
To cut a long story short, you can once again use the internal vs. external forces analysis to determine that there are two issues here - supply side and demand side. First of all, will the customers buy such a costly product? It turns out they would because our product is of an extremely high quality and is a life saving drug. So to convince the customer you should do an EVC and then sell on some softer issues such as importance of the customer's life to his/her family and long term benefit etc. For the supply side issue, you got to go through the entire value chain to determine where exactly the bottle neck is. It turns out that the drug store owners are not ready to stock the product because it means high working capital investment. So only way to resolve this is to offer higher credit. You can afford to do this because you are earning very high margins.
Once you have covered these two bases, you are thru!

Analysis 4

Facts:
1. All facts same as analysis 1
2. We have sufficient distribution coverage as well...
Now what?!

Recommended Framework:
Identify that the volumes sold depends on price, distribution coverage, segment size, purchase intent, awareness etc and rule them out quickly as likely suspects. Then you start looking for a bottleneck in the value chain. Turns out there is none!
So think think think....Then go to first principles and ask yourself where does all this demand come from? - you know its the doctors. If the doctors are responding favorably then the only issue could be that we are not targeting the right segment of doctors. It turns out that a huge proportion of Insulin sales arise out of family doctors/general practitioners. But intead of targeting these, our client is busy targeting the specialists, high profile doctors sitting in posh hospitals. Once you have got this... you are through :)

Long post, but it shows that there can be multiple endings to the same case. So stay alert!

-- Yash

Deep dive, stress testing and huge response

2005-12-09T17:25:00.000+05:30

Generic CP:

Yesterday’s workout was a very good kick-off session for this year’s consulting preparation. The level of commitment shown by people who stand to derive no direct benefit from their effort is inspiring to say the least. Anant, our alum, had flown down from Delhi despite having worked the whole day and Gautam, who is a senior person at McK and not even an alum, wanted to be here but wasn’t able to make it due to some bizarre circumstances. In addition, Rohit also made it a point to be present for the entire session despite the fact he had just gotten his son back from the hospital. To top it all, we had a huge turnout and a deluge of entries! Hats-off guys! I hope that we are able to set some new records this year given our current energy levels.

Note:

There are several advantages to recording a case:
· it helps people analyze their performance and improve
· it helps people see other’s performance and either improve themselves or give constructive feedback to the concerned person
· it helps people track their progress through the prep season, and
· it will help the junior batch if we can pass on a library of even 10 top-notch case videos

We have also got some great feedback which we will try to incorporate in the next rounds.

REAL MEAT:

Below are some notes I took during yesterday’s workout session. I have jotted down some basic points about each case and the feedback given by the team as well as Anant and Rohit marked as "< rohit >".

Over All Takeaways:
o Define the problem.
o Take 30 secs to structure the problem.
o Identify buckets into which you can categorize the problem areas.
o Formulate some hypothesis.
o Then go about attacking one sliver after another.
o Ask if you are unsure.
o Finally synthesize by stating what the problem was, followed by what facts were stated, followed by which slivers were identified, followed by what analysis was done, and finally followed by the conclusion.
o Don’t try to fill silence with obvious questions.
o Structuring thoughts will help you avoid trivial questions.
o A good place to find out if the case is a quant / quali case is the problem statement. If there are lots of data points in the problem statement then you can guess that this is a quant case.

ROHIT C – RISHI V
Outline:
Wonder eye drop. Client has done R&D for 10 years. By using the eye drop for 10 days the user doesn’t need to use the spectacles ever. Competitor is 2 years behind in R&D. You have to market the product. How will you do it?

Team’s Comments:
· Interviewee was not initially sure about pricing.
· Interviewer did a good job.

Alum’s comments:

About Interviewee:
o Should have taken 30 seconds to organize your thoughts.
o Should have categorized your approach into three different buckets and then approached them separately.
o Appeared to be engaged in solving the problem.
o Body language was good – didn’t appear to be flustered, appeared to be driving hard towards a solution, lively interaction.
o Didn’t state hypothesis upfront, synthesize in the end.
o This was the problem, this is how we approached it, these were the facts and therefore this is our recommendation.
o Choice of language is important – make your language sound professional.
o Cases will be a mix of quali and quanti.
o Use a structure implicitly and not explicitly.
o Give a basis for your thinking.

SRIDHAR – SHANKAR --- ( awesome stress testing :D )

Case: ATM Public Sector Bank. Newly installed ATMs. No one is using them. How to increase ATM usage?

Team’s Comments:
Jot down the intermediate solutions. Helps in assimilating in the end.

Alum’s Comments:

Interviewee:
· Very good problem statement and then asked for a minute to think about it.
· Asking relevant questions but didn’t structure it upfront.
· Too much silence.
· It was good to ask ‘is there something I am missing?’
· Good body language. Seemed to want to solve the problem.
· Did not synthesize.
· Good creativity.
· The interviewer was able to confuse the candidate very easily. It would have helped to bucket the problem in multiple categories.
· Think through the process of issuing and using the card. Take a sliver and ask questions on that sliver. Ask for the process wrt to this particular branch.
· Ask questions about the industry average.
· Use the word hypothesis while stating your hypothesis.
· Introduce some quant questions from your side. Even if the quant is not relevant, asking about quant will indicate that you are comfortable with a quant.
· Ask questions about an industry that you are not aware about.
· If you miss out on some bucket in the analysis then introduce it later up front and state that you would like to include it in your analysis now.

TARUN’S CASE:

Pharma sector. New product. Two products with same functionality but different segments. Low market share. How to increase it?

Alum’s Comments:

Interviewee:
· Initial questions good. Did not follow up with time to structure the problem.
· Kept asking too many questions.
· Should have taken time out to build hypothesis.
· Never say ‘I have no idea’.

MANI’s CASE: (dude what was the problem statement? i forgot pls mail me)

Team’s comments (self analysis):
· Structure missing.
· Not addressing the questions directly.
· Candidate did not take the hints when the interviewer offered hints thrice.
· Did not ask for some key data points.

Alum’s comments:· Very serious feel to the case.
· The candidate should show resolve for problem solving, communication, rapport, creativity in getting at the solution.

Interviewer:
To be helpful to the candidate.

Interviewee:
o Ask for help if needed.
o Good to have clarified the question.
o Asked for too many facts.
o Essential to frame the problem statement in your words right at the onset.
o Structure was missing in the answers. Started shooting in the dark. There was no basis for asking some questions.
o Summarize the approach right away and take the interviewer’s view.
o Asked for too much time. Be ready with a quick and dirty answer.
o You didn’t appear to be interested in solving the problem à lack of enthusiasm and interest in solving the problem.
o Make it very interactive. Get the interviewer to talk more.
o Summarize your findings.
o End the interview on a good note.
o Writing for too long a time and therefore loss of eye contact.
o State a hypothesis upfront à this is where I am going, this is the direction in which I think the solution lies “I think it’s a distribution problem and here are my reasons and here are the questions I want clarified so that I can solve the case.”
o Don’t state the solution upfront. Just state the options that you want to explore

Final Questions and Answers:

o Should a wild card question be asked, such as “should I know something more about the case”?
It is a fair thing to ask, because as a consultant you can ask this question to your client.

o How do you start seeing improvement?
You will see improvement within two weeks. Start structuring your problems and you will see improvement. Be regular. Always get someone to ask you questions and some people to observe. It’s a good idea to start with Vault and Wetfeet frameworks. But don’t try to force fit some framework.

o You need to be comfortable with the sector from which you have come from. You need to be comfortable with at least two sectors.

-- Yash

Case: Bank's modernization strategy

2005-12-06T10:20:00.000+05:30

Interviewer: Umang
Interviewee: Yash
Nature of case: 90% quali - 10% quant ( :) once again...quali case)

Problem Statement: A bank wants to close down its eight branches and move all operations online. Should it do so? How would it go about making the decision?

I am not going to reproduce the interview here, but I will mention my key takeaways.

This time I tried to put some structure to my thoughts... :)

Started off by listing the implications the move could have:
1. Impact on Profit
1.1 Due to loss of revenue due to loss of customers
1.2 Due to increase in revenue due to gain of customers
1.3 Due to increase in costs on account of taking all transactions online
1.4 Due to cost savings from closing old operations
2. Impact on Goodwill due to loss of customers (if any)
3. Is this move aligned with the over all strategy and image of the bank?
4. What other benefits could this move entail (I didnt think of this point but I think this should be considered)?

With this thought clear in my mind, i went about asking relevant questions.
Firstly, i wanted to understand the customer profile across branches and whether or not they would migrate willingly onto the new platform. I was informed that the young : old customer ratio is 1:1 which was consistent across the branches. Then i surmised that the old customers must be high net worth customers and hence more profitable for our branch. They might also be ones not very eager to move online. Some of the younger customers might be relatives (sons - daughters) of these old customers. If the family wants to bank with one bank, then some of the young customers might also move along with the old customers if the aged customers decide to move their account elsewhere.

All these points were validated by Umang to be true.

With all this in mind, i recommended that firstly we should do some customer survey to get some feedback about the viability of this plan. Then we should pilot this program in some branches to evaluate the response.

Next, I asked a lot of quant questions about the per transaction cost, profit, expected customer base, expected loss of customers etc ... but this being a quali case, I couldnt get much out of Umang and spent a lot of time just groping in the dark without much data :)

In the process I missed out on asking questions regarding the new services that would be offered, which was pointed out by Umang. Again, this led to some qualitative discussion with no quant stuff available.

Finally, Umang asked me to express the decision in a single equation.

Take Aways: 1. I didnt explicitly link recommendation to reasoning.
2. Final conclusion was not very assertive. I should have said, "because of points a, b, c, d, and e, I recommend xyz." I didnt do it. The interview closed with a casual feel... not good enough.
3. It helped a lot to ask for two mins time to organize my thoughts right at the beginning of the interview after understanding the problem clearly.

Cheers!

Yash

Guide for Case Preps

2005-12-04T14:06:00.000+05:30

Here is an important document which talks about Case Interview preparation.
I have posted the link of the doc on general home. Click
Here ...

-- Yash

The "X" Factor

2005-12-03T20:39:00.000+05:30

Great to see that Yash has taken this initiative to start a collaborative blog to help students prepare for consulting interviews.

I was thinking as to what should I write in my first post. I think the "X" factor is an interesting topic to write on. So what does "X" factor mean? Essentially in the consulting context this has two dimensions -

first is the personality of the person being interviewed.

second is how has the person carries himself in the interview.

The first one is important because recruiters often ask the question - "Can I work with this person as part of a two member team in a remote location for six months?" The answer to this question is critically important and often decides whether a firm wants to hire the person or not. Having said this you cannot become a "fun" person overnight if you are essentially an introvert or do not like too many social interactions. So this part of the "X" factor is difficult to control and work on ....

The second one is how one dresses and carries himself when he is being interviewed. This variable is completely in our control. The points given below are specific to consulting interviews and may not hold true for a "IT services company" interview....every sector has its own requirements

Make sure you have the right suit on. Borrowing your quaddies jacket is definitely a no no !! A black suit stiched to your requirements is the safest bet as far as consulting interviews go ... Blazers purchased off the shelf normally are not a good idea.
A white shirt is again a safe bet..a double cuff shirt with classy cuff-links really goes well with a black suit..Also as far as shirt goes it makes sense to purchase a brand new one just before the interview season. Old white shirts beaten to death by the laundry guy are not ideal
A plain tie or a striped tie goes well with a black suit and a white shirt. Mickey mouse motifs on the tie are not ideal for a consulting interview !!
A black shoe should be combined with a black belt. The biggest goof up is a black shoe with a brown belt or vice versa...
Those who wear specs may want to get brand new ones made - the type you see the "consulting types" wearing ...rimless with anti-reflection lenses et al

What does the above mean ?? Style is no substitute for substance - none of this will get you through a consulting interview. But does it matter - the answer is a resounding yes !! The people who come down to recruit also evaluate as to whether they can put you in front of the client on day 1 - having the right appearance helps...

So while you practice the case interviews and tear the wetfeet and vault guides apart, make sure you make the trip to the Raymonds showroom and are ready when the d-day comes...

The "X" factor counts ....

- Rohit

First Blood

2005-12-03T13:26:00.000+05:30

None of us except Rohit had any idea about what exactly a case interview is! Watching BCG dudes perform a mock interview is one thing but actually doing it yourself is a totally different game. So Rohit took up the responsibility to flag off the grand prix.

Case 1 - Correcting a strategic implementation gone sour
Interviewer - Rohit
Interviewee - your truly

R: One of the biggest public sector banks in India is our client. Some time ago it decided to install ATMs across thousands of its branches across India. Its been a long time since then but no one seems to use those ATMs. What should they do?

Y: After jotting down some key points - largest bank, public sector, India, large number of branches etc... So if i understand the problem correctly, this bank has installed ATMs in a lot of branches but there arent sufficient number of transactions being generated. Assuming that the bank make some money per transaction, the problem is that it has done a large Capex but is not able to recover any of it. Am I correct ?

R: No. The bank just wants to offer its customers more convenience, not make money from the ATMs.

Y: Ok... after a lot of questions and answers... So whats the profile of these customers - young/old, wealthy/middle class/poor?

R: they are mostly middle aged to old pensioners.

Y: So may be these people are not tech savvy. Were they given sufficient user training?

R: Yeah that was problem. They werent given much training earlier but now this bank has posted a person near each ATM.

Y: lots of questions like - is the ATM prominently located, is it user friendly, has the number of transactions over the counter reduced or is it the same ... etc etc etc... basically going no where.

R: Think about the process of using an ATM.

Y: Bingo!... do all of the customers have cards?

R: Well actually no... we havent been able to send out cards to all our customers. Its a costly process etc...

Y: Ok, so this bank should profile the customers who come most often for a cash transaction and use the technology used by ICICI. Have pre-printed cards for these customers and give them to these customers when they come to the branch.

R:... some more discussion about the exact process of doing this. Problems with pre-printed cards etc. Finally, R says cut - time out.

Feedback from Ankur, Umang and Rohit. Final takeaways:
1. This interview will take me to next round but they will test me again. So this is neither a direct-in, nor a direct-out case.
2. I should have asked some quant questions like - what exactly do you mean by transactions have tapered off? Whats the industry average? Whats this bank's average?
3. This was a 80 - quali ; 20 - quant case.
4. Structure was conspicuous by its absence. Need to structure the analysis better...
5. Recommendations should be more thoughtful backed up by reasons and assumptions.
6. Make the interview into more of a conversation.
7. It was good that I picked up the hint when it was offered. Had i missed it, it would have been all over for me.
8. Should not mumble ... think out aloud after letting the interviewer know that you are doing so.
9. Indicate that you are about to jot down some points and then start writing. Otherwise you lose eye-contact and the interviewer doesnt know what to do.

Case 2 was with Umang... more on that later - may be Umang can post it himself.

Others are welcome to post their experiences as well.

Let me know your comments and feedback.

--Yash

Welcome to Consulting @ ISB

2005-12-03T00:15:00.000+05:30

Hello everyone and welcome to the consulting blog. The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone current on the progress various teams have been making in their journey towards the coveted 'big-ticket' consulting firm. This blog is meant to be a collaborative effort. Interested people - please contact me (yashraj_erande@pgp2006.isb.edu).

The main aim of this blog is to work as a platform for sharing experiences and exchanging notes as we progress through our interview and case prep sessions.

You are welcome to post comments, links to informative websites or any thing that you believe will be useful in the pursuit for a job with "the dream firm".

Please do post your comments and feedback.

In my next post, I will discuss my takeaways from my first case prep session with my team - Rohit Kapoor, Umang, and Ankur. Cya soon !

Cheers! - Yash