“(In practice, most consultants will try up to 20 segmentation patterns and discover the most insightful one only through trial and error.)” — Victor Cheng Trial and error Copy Share Image
“If an understanding of the product isn’t relevant to the core issue for the client, I skip this section.” — Victor Cheng Learning Copy Share Image
“the candidate who stands out the most in an interview is the one who acts like a consultant already.” — Victor Cheng Candidate Copy Share Image
“At this point, it makes sense to switch to the business situation framework to understand qualitatively why sales volume in China has… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“Our goal now is to figure out what the rest of the industry is doing that our client isn’t to grow sales.” — Victor Cheng Goals Copy Share Image
“you want to ask yourself constantly if the revised statement is true and under what circumstances it could be wrong.” — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“the consultant’s process was the exact process consulting firms value. It was linear, logical, and based on facts (and reasonable estimates of… — Victor Cheng Consultant Copy Share Image
“Candidate: Aha! Interesting. So industry growth is really being driven by a single segment that is offsetting flat and declining sales in… — Victor Cheng Growth Copy Share Image
“Interviewers highly value candidates who can think and communicate linearly (as opposed to jumping around in a scattershot way). They like candidates… — Victor Cheng Interview Copy Share Image
“About 50 percent of the time, I don’t finish the entire business situation framework. By the time I’ve worked through part of… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“Because the profitability framework won’t give me the additional information I need about customers and competitors, I’ve officially exhausted its usefulness. My… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“Hypothesis: The client should enter one segment of the XYZ market. One segment of the market is growing and attractive. Client has… — Victor Cheng Competitive advantage Copy Share Image
“Hypothesis: Client should enter the XYZ market. Consumer demand is strong, growing, and likely to stay that way. Client has a strong,… — Victor Cheng Competitive advantage Copy Share Image
“Hypothesis: Introducing XYZ product makes sense. Favorable customer factors Favorable competitive environment Favorable company operations factor Favorable aspects related to the product” — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“When a consultant interviews you, she is wondering, Can I drop you off with a division of a Fortune 500 company by… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“Based on the initial analysis, I recommend that the company expand Program B in the short term for the following reasons: Currently,… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“An interesting problem arises with brand-new first-year consultants, who often contribute negative value to an engagement team. More-experienced consultants must double-check at… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“After you analyze each company independently, you’ll run a third analysis of the two companies combined, which will provide you with qualitative… — Victor Cheng Analysis Copy Share Image
“I’d like to know the components of revenue. For example, do we know if there’s a change in revenue per account or… — Victor Cheng Change Copy Share Image
“The companies that win in commodity markets tend to be large and have incredible operational efficiencies or some type of cost advantage.… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“develop strategies for bundling products or partnering with companies in other industries. For example, when I was a child, my mom gave… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“The preliminary conclusion here is that the profitability problem the client faces is a company-specific problem, not an industry-wide problem. Determining the… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“This entire process, convoluted as it seems, exists in large part because first-year consultants have not yet proven their ability to solve… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“Competitor Behaviors Answer these questions: What strategic choices do key competitors make? Who are their customers? What products do they offer? What… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“Using my conclusiveness test, you’d want to ask yourself, “Can I imagine any scenario where entering the iPad market would be a… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“JUST LIKE A scientist devises an experiment to test a working theory about a disease, you need to determine how to test… — Victor Cheng Problem solving Copy Share Image
“If I were to nitpick (which I’ve been known to do), I would say her last sentence should have restated the conclusion… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“when I look back on my first two years at McKinsey, a solid 80 percent of my managers’ feedback related to communication… — Victor Cheng Communication Copy Share Image
“For example, does one customer segment care a lot about speed of delivery but another cares about order customization? Or does one… — Victor Cheng Customer Copy Share Image
“Once you understand the company’s distribution channel mix (the percentage of sales from each channel), you typically will want to compare it… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“consumer demand is strong, growing, and likely to stay that way.” Depending on the case interview format your interviewer uses, you will… — Victor Cheng Customer Copy Share Image
“She is also thinking, Do I want you on my team right now? Will my life get easier if you’re on my… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“If customers are more concentrated, then the customers can demand (and get) big price discounts. If suppliers (the client’s company and its… — Victor Cheng Customer Copy Share Image
“Integrating micro-recommendations into the company’s big-picture vision and providing supporting facts and analysis for those micro-recommendations allow the consultant to instill greater… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“If a client asks you a question you don’t know how to answer, reply confidently that you do not have the facts… — Victor Cheng Truth Seeking Copy Share Image
“Clients probably have a lot of intuitive problem solvers on staff already, and each employee has his or her own opinion. But… — Victor Cheng Problem solving Copy Share Image
“In the U.S. criminal justice system, someone accused of a crime cannot be convicted unless evidence demonstrates that person’s guilt “beyond a… — Victor Cheng Criminal justice Copy Share Image
“If there isn’t any obvious segmentation pattern, avoid stating the segmentation pattern you want to see. Instead, phrase your question such that… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“Partners sell “phase 2” of an engagement by indicating what additional certainty the consulting team could’ve discovered if it’d had more time.… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“Synthesis involves stating your conclusion in a way that Tells the client what to do Tells the client what you discovered and… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
