“In this last example, it would’ve been much better to say, “Under most circumstances, the client should do X.” It’s much easier… — 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 Copy Share Image
“If these three supporting statements are true, they provide reasonable support that the hypothesis is correct and thus should be considered a… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“When analyzing costs, it’s often useful to segment them into fixed versus variable costs. You can do this in two ways. One… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“Nothing you said in your synthesis supported your point on unwinding Program B. You need to say, “After the short-term crisis has… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“The balanced candidate would instead numerically measure what percentage of the total decline in profits is attributable to the decline in sales… — Victor Cheng Customer Copy Share Image
“To test the sub-hypothesis “Client has a strong, sustainable competitive advantage in the market,” you need to understand the differences between the… — Victor Cheng Competitive advantage Copy Share Image
“If I do any company analysis at all, I almost always ask two specific questions related to this topic: What does this… — 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
“if the product category is emerging, with decades’ more growth ahead of it, making a strategic move within the market rather than… — Victor Cheng Computers Copy Share Image
“If you’re doing the analysis correctly, you are constantly drilling down one branch, discovering it’s not valid, revising your hypothesis (and often… — Victor Cheng Analysis 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 Customer Copy Share Image
“There are two ways to handle this: Say, “Now that I’ve analyzed sales, I’d like to analyze costs next.” Say, “I can… — Victor Cheng 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
“To an outsider, it seems like a client paid a lot of money to a consultant, only to have the consultant repackage… — Victor Cheng Money 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
“As you “drill down,” you ignore the parts of the business where the problem does not exist to focus on the areas… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“If analysis of a branch disproves the hypothesis, you should revise your hypothesis, reconsider what framework or issue tree is needed to… — Victor Cheng 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
“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 Interview Copy Share Image
“In my experience, the two most useful comparisons to make are the following: Compare a metric to itself in a previous time… — Victor Cheng Comparisons 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
“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
“quantitative analysis is often not useful in determining why a certain decision in a client organization was made and how certain processes… — Victor Cheng Analysis 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
“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
“It’s perfectly acceptable and highly encouraged for you to say, “Hmmm, if half the market is growing and the other half is… — Victor Cheng Investing Copy Share Image
“Candidate: To better understand what’s going on for Omega & Omega and its industry, we need to look at four key areas:… — Victor Cheng Business Copy Share Image
“Clients do not accept factually accurate recommendations; they accept factually supported recommendations they can understand. Those last three words are worth gold,… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“I can’t emphasize enough how critical it is for you to realize that a framework is really just an issue tree, and… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“You want to run this conclusiveness test on each branch of your issue tree (to see if perhaps that branch should be… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“even suggest that candidates audio-record themselves communicating their synthesis, play it back, and analyze it. If even one word is off, rerecord… — Victor Cheng Communication Copy Share Image
“Below are some of these initial questions: Who is the customer? What are the customer’s segment needs? What is each segment’s price… — Victor Cheng Customer Copy Share Image
“The framework consists of four key components. I draw this framework as four distinct boxes, but you could quite easily redraw it… — Victor Cheng Copy Share Image
“Candidate: OK, things have remained flat during this time. I wonder if this is an industry-wide problem or a company-specific problem. Is… — Victor Cheng Candidate 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
“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
“I recently took a client through this process, and one of the team members said to me, “It was very interesting that… — Victor Cheng Team Members Copy Share Image
“You will do one of two things as soon as you’ve exhausted what you can determine mathematically in the case: (1) Refine… — Victor Cheng Analysis Copy Share Image
“Candidate: Well, this is really interesting. So far we’ve established that digital advertising is the spending category that’s growing, and the most… — Victor Cheng Technology Copy Share Image
