“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
“You should synthesize the case not only at the end of the interview but also throughout the case. Most candidates don’t use… — Victor Cheng 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
“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
“For example, let’s say that during your analysis you discover something indicating that the client’s key issue is internal, not related to… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“The Business Situation Framework The business situation framework is useful for developing a conceptual and qualitative understanding of a client’s business, market,… — Victor Cheng Investing Copy Share Image
“many clients’ companies lose money, and typically one of a dozen or so common reasons can explain why. Thus, one commonly used… — Victor Cheng Money Copy Share Image
“The preferred method uses the following structure: What client should do Why client should do it—Fact #1 Why client should do it—Fact… — Victor Cheng Communication Copy Share Image
“Product Analysis In the product branch of the framework, you look to understand the product at a qualitative level. I use this… — Victor Cheng Learning Copy Share Image
“Candidates commonly and mistakenly interchange sales with profits. A company that wants to grow profits wants something completely different than does one… — Victor Cheng Business 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
“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
“In addition, if senior clients don’t follow your argument, they might not tell you they’re confused. Instead, they’ll nod their heads as… — Victor Cheng 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 Leadership Copy Share Image
“If you were to determine in this branch of the analysis that the client had only a modest and temporary competitive advantage… — Victor Cheng Competitive advantage Copy Share Image
“The single biggest nightmare of partners at the top firms is some first-year consultant shooting off his or her mouth, saying something… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“When a consultant delivers a well-synthesized recommendation, she usually has done two things well. First, she has put the recommendations in context.… — Victor Cheng Connecting the dots Copy Share Image
“Candidate: Because digital advertising is the only segment that’s growing, we need to understand more about what’s going on with customers, so… — Victor Cheng Marketing Copy Share Image
“Candidate: I sense we’re just missing something critical. Something is causing this to happen. Either customers have changed in a way that… — Victor Cheng Asking questions Copy Share Image
“Tip #1: Start with the Branch That Eliminates the Most Uncertainty First Identify all the branches you intend to analyze, and then… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“It may be tempting to work through the framework diagram mentally and ask all the questions it lists. But by now, you… — Victor Cheng Big mistake Copy Share Image
“consider whether intangible assets such as brand names, reputation, and culture are relevant in testing the hypothesis. For example, if a no-name… — 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 Root cause 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
“Because we spent so much time on it, I thought it deserved a mention in the synthesis. Obviously I was wrong; the… — Victor Cheng Big picture Copy Share Image
