Management Consulting and Case Solving

for Dummies

0. Introduction

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

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Why am I doing this?
A lot of PGP1s had come to me asking for summer placement tips as well as the approach to handle
the various processes as part of getting into consulting firms. Last year when I was a pgp1, there wasn’t
anyone that I went to. I just heard most of what is to be done from my friends/placecom and I acted
on it. But last year, I did feel that it would have been good if there was one common location where
all tips and fundaes required for going through the process of getting into the firms from the various
fields (be it Marketing, Consulting, GenMan, Finance, Ops etc) was collated. There are clubs on
campus and they do a wonderful job but there are a lot of softer aspects with regard to the processes
which are not documented and people generally have no clue how to go about it. I’ve seen a lot of
people mess up really badly because of a lack of direction. I’m not in any way stating that whatever
I’ve written as part of the set of documents is completely comprehensive. But personally, I feel it will
be more than sufficient for starting your preparations for interviews for summer placements.

How can you make the best of these documents?

With regard to management consulting, I’m enclosing all my learnings about the industry, process at
IIMB, as well as the tips/frameworks that I used for case solving. If you’re targeting management
consulting OR even if you’re not sure whether you want management consulting or not OR if you’re
not sure what you want to do in life now that you’ve come for an MBA, these documents will help –
Even though the scope is management consulting, I’ve written it in a way that anyone who doesn’t
have clarity on what to do in life, now that the person has come for an MBA, can understand easily.
I have tried to encapsulate all my learnings into this collection of documents. I’ve tried to make it as
comprehensive as possible, but I might have missed out on some minor points as well. Please think
of yourselves as continuous learning machines – Use whatever positive takeaways from the
enclosed documents as starting points for your preparation for summers. Do not tell someone that
“Yes. I saw this written in that document which that pgp2 sent. It has to be correct” There is nothing
like that. Whatever you feel is correct and logical – internalize it. Rest of it – you can ignore.
I would suggest to write all your positive takeaways in a fresh notebook. If you’re lazy to write it down,
read through once with all your heart like reading a fun yet slightly serious story book and if you feel
it is useful, you can refer to this later and write down the learnings.
The level at which I’ve tried to communicate is at a very layman level. Any person who has absolutely
no clue what management consulting is will be able to get a fair idea of what it is and how to go about
preparing for interviews with a good level of understanding if the person goes through these
documents. DO NOT GET OVERWHELMED by the amount of information that you would see
in this compilation of my learnings. You have more than enough time left to go through all the
documents. Keeping that in mind, please find on the next page the appendix that I’ve followed. All
documents are relatively short documents. So even though it might seem like a lot when you look at
the appendix, it’s something you can finish in a matter of 1 day. Even if you have a fair idea of what
management consulting is, you have to go through the documents at least once sequentially without
jumping sections. After the first time, you can refer to whichever document you want whenever you
want. But ensure that for the first time, you read it sequentially. Don’t read it for the sake of reading
it. Read it with all your heart with complete focus and concentration.

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Appendix
Management Consulting and Cases
1. What is Management Consulting?
2. Why Consulting and what is the process of getting into a Consult firm?
3. Case Prep Resources Part 1
4. Case Prep Resources Part 2 – The Buddy System
5. Consult Dinners
6. Actual Interviews
7. What is a Case and what is the Case Method of solving problems?

More on Cases, the Case Method and types of Cases

8. Profitability Cases
9. Growth Strategy Cases
10. Market Entry Cases
11. Guestimates
12. Mergers and Acquisitions
13. Unconventional Cases
14. Summary
15. Reference 1: “Where to Play How to Win” by PGP seniors passed on
by ICON
16. Reference 2: “Case Interviews Cracked”