Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we discuss consulting firm's training.   Too often clients ask the wrong questions when it comes to assessing training at consulting firms: do smaller offices have poorer training, should I attend training as soon as I join, does BCG have better training than Bain etc. When considering training you need to both consider formal and informal training. As we show, formal training is very useful, but not at all for the hard/technical skills it purports to impart on attendees. Informal training, also known as training on an engagement, is most effective when consultants can practice under diverse conditions. In other words, the more you travel and work with foreign teams, the better will be your training. Some firms encourage more global staffing and others far less. That counts.   Here are some free gifts for you:   Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach]   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf]   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo]

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we discuss the economic impact of poor business judgement.   The economic impact of poor business judgement, is a topic we managed every day as partners. Each time an associate made a poor “common sense” decision we needed to explain both the potential reputation and economic damage done to the firm. The former is well-known, but the latter is less known but just as important. In thinking through why consulting firms look for business judgement, it helps to consider the economic impact to clients and the firm.   Here are some free gifts for you:   Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach]   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf]   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo]

In this reflective conversation, psychologist and author Dr. Bob Rosen examines the unspoken attachments that often shape executive behavior, frequently without conscious awareness. His framework, drawn from decades of work with leaders navigating volatility and pressure, identifies recurring psychological patterns that can impair decision-making, reduce well-being, and diminish long-term effectiveness.   Rosen outlines the dominant attachments that affect leadership behavior, each is rooted in fear, and each manifests in distinct and sometimes destructive ways. The discussion offers five key insights for senior professionals:   1. Attachment to Success Can Drive Burnout, Not Fulfillment. When external validation becomes the metric for self-worth, leaders risk defining their identity by performance alone. As Rosen notes, “Who you are drives what you do, not what you do defines who you are.” The antidote, he argues, is cultivating an internal orientation of abundance, recognizing that self-worth is not conditional. 2. Unexamined Attachments Are Often Reinforced by Organizational Systems. Rosen points out that performance-based compensation and cultural norms can unintentionally reward self-absorption or control-seeking behavior in leaders, thereby entrenching these attachments further. Shifting these dynamics requires institutional as well as personal change. 3. Emotional Maturity Is Measured by the Capacity to Sit with Discomfort. Many attachments serve to mask fear—through overwork, consumerism, perfectionism, or self-isolation. Leaders must develop the capacity to experience discomfort without anesthetizing it through compulsive behavior, a discipline Rosen describes as essential to long-term growth. 4. Aging Offers Strategic and Personal Opportunity, If Leaders Reframe It. Rosen challenges internalized ageism and presents aging as a stage of potential, not decline. He advocates for embracing imperfection, accepting physical limits, and consciously transitioning into roles of service, wisdom-sharing, and inner peace. “You choose,” he states, “to walk a path of regret or a path of gratitude.” 5. Self-Awareness Is a Precondition for Organizational Leadership. Rosen recommends a structured four-part process for identifying and softening attachments: awareness and acceptance, diagnosis of the underlying fear, vision of an aspirational alternative, and aligned daily action. This framework, he notes, should be viewed not as a retreat from strategy, but as a foundation for sustaining it.   The episode ultimately frames leadership not as a mastery of tasks, but as a form of inner clarity that shapes every external result. For executives in fast-moving environments, this conversation provides a disciplined yet humane approach to personal development, grounded in realism, not rhetoric.   Learn more about Bob Rosen here: https://www.bobrosen.com/ [https://www.bobrosen.com/]   Here are some free gifts for you:   Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach [http://www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach]   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf [http://www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf]   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo [http://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo]

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic, building of our technique to develop hypotheses, this podcast explains a clever way to generate creative hypotheses. In essence, the podcast will be useful to candidates who have already seen how we brainstorm and generate hypotheses, since this podcast expands on that thinking. The core of this idea is that if more than one structure can be brainstormed for a case, each of those structures can be used to develop a new type of hypothesis. This is a very, very simple technique as well.   Here are some free gifts for you:   Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach]   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf]   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo]

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we share a networking success story with a McKinsey senior partner.   We always ask our clients, especially those from weaker schools, to network with the most senior partners of consulting firms. This is a podcast about a PhD client, from a weaker school and no existing consulting relationships, who painfully followed this advice over several months to network with a member of McKinsey's worldwide leadership and obtain interviews for his office of choice. It is not easy, but can be done. It works.   Here are some free gifts for you:   Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach]   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf]   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo [https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo]