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

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

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.

BCG on Strategy: 12th August 2008

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.

Consulting Club – BCG Official Event – July 2nd 2008

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.