+

Introduction to Creative Problem

Solving for Case Interviews

J-P Martins

Head of Consulting Careers

October 2011

MBA Consulting

Curriculum 2011-12:

Feedback on Problem

solving Workshop

+ Intro

This session is an introductory workshop, run for around 160 first year MBAs

It aims to give an experiential introduction to what a case interview is, and a simple 4-stage process to apply in

tackling all cases (this will not solve the problems – it is a process, not a framework or structure)

The workshop is completely outsourced to Booz and Co, who deliver it using staff and sponsored students as

facilitators

Booz does this at zero price – it gives them a very early contact point with a key recruiting pool

The event is the kick-off event in the MBA course ‘Creative Problem Solving for Case Interviews’ – further

events include

Presentations on practical tools and techniques (entirely devoted to a range of structures and frameworks) and

on advanced/differentiating approaches

Small group practice on a case

3 x 1:1 mock case interviews for every student

This year, following pressure from MiF students, we opened signup to MiFs

The venue was switched form LT6 to RCOG a week before the event – signed up students were informed and

the Career Central entry changed

RCOG does not allow drinks to be taken in by students

+ Summary

The event was very positively received

Room for improvement exists

Definitely need to add breaks, access to hot drinks

Communicate better – aims, logistics, what this is and what it is not (eg 1:1 practice, recruiter

networking etc)

Consider whether it is appropriate to invite MiFs – the event is pitched at MBAs and may not be up

to MiFs’ standards of problem solving

50% of students that mentioned the name of the consulting firm got it wrong, naming Bain and BCG

instead of Booz. Consider better promotion (although slides, handouts were labelled and there

was a big banner at the front!)

Improve consistency and number of table facilitators

Improve Ops support – late venue change and table layout were not ideally handled

Ultimately, we are constrained by lack of access to students and budget here. The

workshop needs to be a full day, and to cater for demand of 150-180 students, near the

start of term. Problems arise from trying to squeeze it in to ½ day, being constrained as

to when we can hold it (clashed with Booz’s 2nd year interviews) and having no budget –

we are delivering this at essentially zero cost

+ Intro to Consulting Careers: 98%

would recommend it strongly

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

The format and content of the workshop

were excellent

The presenters and facilitators were

engaging and informative

The event was well organised - logistics

and venue were appropriate

I would strongly recommend this event to

next year's first year MBA students

2

1

1

1

1

23

24

27

15

30

27

26

37

Disagree Strongly Disagree Agree Agree Strongly

Response rate: 53/144 (37%)

+ Comments

+ Comments: format and content

Too basic for my own needs but might have been informative for first-

year MBA's

One of the best workshops delivered by career services to date

The practise sessions were good, as well as the mock demo. However,

due to the large group sizes it is difficult to understand entirely how it

would work in practise. However, for an intro session this was

probably OK

Great introduction with the focus on led practise

Comment from a

MiF

+ Comments: presenter and

facilitators Zaid (our facilitator) was outstanding

I was very impressed by the Booz & co staff. In particular the main presenter Phil Coghlan was very clear and structured in his explanation of how to tackle cases

Lauren was friendly and effective, giving us a very systematic approach

The facilitator at my table was excellent

Presenter was very strong. Facilitator did not seem to always have a strongest language skills

The presenter was great, but our group instructor was really disappointing, didn't share inputs from her experience as a consultant but just navigate the discussion between the students. It turned out to be just a forum of students talking about strategy

I was surprised that the presenters did not have more impact - given the importance of this factor in consulting interviews. They were competent, but not as engaged and enthusiastic as I would have hoped

Facilitator in my table could have been more informative, otherwise ok

The facilitator at my table was hugely disappointing

Strong

Mixed

Weak

+ Comments: logistics and venue

Great to have tables - better than a lecture theatre

Include a 5-10 minute bathroom break - 4 hours can be a long period without one

But should have scheduled short break

Would have loved to have access to some tea/coffee during the session!

Perhaps coffee or a short break would be helpful - i was digging deep after 4 hours straight on a friday afternoon

Good to have some coffee available next time

The venue was appropriate for the format of the session. However - the venue on career central was incorrectly stated as LT6, which then conflicted with the reminder e-mails. Additionally, I find it frustrating that the RCOG does not allow drinks, and then the coffee provided at the event was only for the facilitators. Whilst this is a small point, I would have appreciated having coffee in the morning - I had in fact bought a coffee along not realising that the venue had changed and had to leave it behind not drunk

There was no clear message saying that the workshop was transferred to the ROCG. In portal it was still LT6. Many people went to the wrong place and ended up arriving late at the workshop

Clearer communication of the room change would have been appreciated

It felt like the tables had a few too many people at them- we had to find extra chairs so everyone had somewhere to sit

However, there was not enough for one facilitator per table and after 5 mins our table had to alert Booz that we were lacking someone. Also, the venue was a bit too cold - small comment but it was the view of most of the other people

But give us a

break!

Too few

facilitators/

groups too large

Venue/comms

problems

Tables good!

+ Comments: overall

recommendation

Good for people like me with no crack a case experience. I would not recommend it to

people with consulting experience

As a basic foundation in case interview technique this was extremely helpful. I look

forward to building on the experience in future sessions

I am a MiF student

Very useful intro for those who have never seen cases before

+ What should we do more of?

‘Nothing’ – 18 comments

N/A (x 9)

Nothing (x 2)

I thought that everything was well organized. I don't have any specific recommendations for improvements

Nothing. The timing of the day was perfect. 4 hours was a sufficient time to cover everything. The pace of the main BCG senior associate was very good

It was really helpful

Honestly, keep it the same

For 4 hours of time… this was just perfect. Nothing more

Was well balanced, adding something won't necessarily improve

Perfect

It was Booz!

+ What should we do more of?

‘Cases’ – 15 comments

More live interviews

More detail on different case types might have been useful (eg. what different types of outcome/answer could you

expect from each case type?)

Analyse more scenarios/cases. Exercise on a case where no pre-existing framework could be applied

Give examples of problems that require different structures to analyze

Structures and case studies

More practise in smaller sessions - but understand that this is difficult to facilitate whilst allowing most people a chance

of attending the workshop too

Analyze more types of cases during the session; however given the time limit this was not possible

More example cases to take away to look at

Examples

Practice of cases, although this would have required more time

Cases

Different structures

I would have liked one more case study something on the lines of M&A, but I do understand the time constraints

Maybe one or two more cases so that we could be exposed to all types

Use of different frameworks instead of mostly focussing on profitability framework

+ What should we do more of?

‘Breaks’, ‘feedback’, ‘1:1s’

Have access to hot beverages

Have tea/coffee

Break

I think it was good the way it was. Except that there could have been a 15 minute break for those who had to go to the bite and get a coffee

Get students involved more, engaged more. We worked well on the cases within our groups, but the presentation of the answers was incredibly dull. The presenter can help move things along in this respect.

The session was quite balanced between theory and practice. I think every benefited from the group interactions. Would have appreciated more feedback from facilitator on approach and examples of better approaches

More feedback, more details on approaches

Got students to work in pairs in each table in the framework building phase, rather than having all 7 or 8 people dive in at once, perhaps?

Time for another case, maybe a verbal case interview with one person

More one on one training

More one-on-one sessions

Breaks, drinks

Alternative

facilitation

One-on-one Students are

guaranteed access to

1:1s later in the

course

+ What should we do more of?

‘Other’

It would have been good to know that this was a workshop aimed at first-year MBA students and thus very basic in content. Many of the MiF students who are in the process of interviewing already (myself included) found this workshop not very helpful due to its basic level. Knowing that in advance we could have allocated our time more efficiently.

More of these kinds of workshops. The facilitator was open and gave us insights into the Booz style of interviews. If we could do the same across the board, with as many companies as possible, the potential applicants will have a strong base before the recruitment season starts next term.

Thought process training

time for another case, maybe a verbal case interview with one person

More one on one training

More one-on-one sessions

Possibly have a break between the two case studies to talk to the people from Booz casually about general consulting information

Informal chat / Networking

I think that less students per instructor would have helped a lot

The MiF again

…but this wasn’t

about Booz

cases, it was

about cases in

general…

Later in the

course!

Other

opportunities –

this is training

+ What should we do less of?

‘Nothing’ – 36 comments

N/A (x 9)

Nothing (x 7)

- (x 3)

None (x 2)

. (x 2)

No specific recommendations

Everything was useful, thanks!

It was really helpful

Everything was good

I am yet to see a wide variety of events

offered by career services to make a

qualified comment here

No problems really

All ok

Nothing really…very good session. Thank

you

Everything was informational, and had no

room for reduction

This was a great workshop, I learnt a lot

from it. I would keep most of the elements

of the workshop. Thanks!

Nil

Perfect

No

+ What should we do less of?

Audience participation

The main speaker had a tendency to bring things back to his own ideas and the discussions he had with

his group, rather than letting other ideas and conversations develop

Less discussion after the group work which might have left time to cover another case

It felt like the wash up after we went through the first case was a little repetitive with multiple groups

saying the same thing – one group summarising might have sufficed

Less time on audience participation

Shorter discussion of cases afterwards, since we have discussed the outcome with the facilitator at the

table

Perhaps a couple breaks would have been nice, the afternoon was too long

The content was good. The pace should have been quicker and students should be more engaged

Maybe shorten the time to solve a case on the tables in order to be able to see one or two more examples

of potential structures

Less time doing the initial excercise in which we had to separate Profits into Cost and Revenue and then

analysing Porter's 5 Fs. It felt too long and not adding much value

The collection of opinions around the tables was time consuming and did not add too much value. Most of

the value derived from the cases' discussion in our own table. The Bain consultant at our table was

fantastic. He ran through the case as if it was a real interview and he provided specific feedback to each

single of us

More (!) breaks

Faster pace

Less repetition

(plenary), more

breakout

(plenary)

And it’s Booz,

not Bain!

Less time for

breakouts

+ What should we do less of?

The second case in our group was finished in half an hour, therefore I felt that less time could have been

allocated to this part of the session – and maybe allow more time for another practise

Too much time spent solving the case. We were done in 40 minutes and just sat around for 20 more

waiting for the allotted 60 min to be over

It could be shorter

Letting people ramble - quite a few examples of people focusing on detail or process rather than listening

to a question and answering

Short workshop – full day is better

Faster pace,

shorter

workshop

Better students

Longer

workshop