Case Interview Frameworks Are Overrated!

case interview frameworks is one of the most searched for keywords in all of consulting prep in fact it's one of the core concepts and case interviews that every candidate has got to understand really well but it's been very frustrating for me there are so many different misconceptions about this important topic and that nobody out there stood up to provide some clarity on it welcome to our case interview frameworks video the comprehensive guide to aligning your path to master this important topic you hi my name is Kim Tran a former McKinsey consultant and the founder of the platform management consulting prep I can't wait to share with you the insights that I've gathered from years of experience in a management consulting and case interview coaching let's get started first of all what is a case interview framework if you haven't already done so I strongly encourage you to watch our case interview 101 video though we just briefly explain what a framework is it's important to see where this concept fits into the overall picture of case interview prep anyway in simple language frameworks are like standard templates that we use to structure and to break down common business problems since it's a template it's usually very well organized and written however as you know a template won't fit every situation you have to choose templates for different purposes and sometimes even customize them ok so now that we know what a framework is let's talk about some of those misconceptions myth number one the more frameworks I know the better people feel like the more frameworks they know the less chance they'd have of facing a case without a specific framework that fits it well one aspect of this idea is true there's a real danger in having this mindset these people tend to rely too much on what they memorized and pay less attention to the specific context this then results and them getting trapped in some fixed framework ignoring important data or even going into irrelevant areas of the case when I was interviewing with a big three I only studied several building blocks frameworks I emphasize more on the ability to draw specific frameworks suitable to each context by doing this I'm well prepared for anything that the interviewer might throw at me myth number two there must be a framework out there that fits this case the truth is there are a lot of cases to which no framework ever built can be applied try this case for example higher education exporting holds an important weight in Australia's economy most higher education institutions in Australia plays an important focus on attracting international students however the percentage of international students has actually been decreasing for the last five years the Australian Government would like to hire McKinsey team to tackle this problem I would argue that no conventional framework ever built can be used to tackle this case specifically a new framework or at least a fair amount of customization is needed in a case like this so if I just rely solely on what I memorize about existing frameworks I can't imagine getting a case like this in a real interview myth number three the fancier the framework the more impressed the interviewers become in actual fact whether or not a framework is fancy is none of their concern what would impress them is an appropriate framework that really applies to the provided context a McKinsey partner in the Singapore office once told me that nothing is more annoying than interviewing people trying to show off their knowledge by using complicated but inappropriate frameworks now you may wonder what are some frameworks considered fancy that you should avoid using well I would answer by saying that as long as it's applicable and suitable to the situation nothing is too fancy so a better question would be what is considered inappropriate let's look at some bad examples of inappropriate frameworks that I've seen used blindly for the Australian case above a the STP framework segmenting targeting and position this framework is more suitable for market research cases where the client wants to investigate the best segments to attack be a McKinsey 7s model strategy structure staffing style skills system shared value this framework is better for an individual organization or company not a whole industry such as this case myth number four the ability to draw frameworks is only relevant to the candidate lead format in interviewer lead cases I'm not driving so why should I need the map the truth is an interviewer led cases the interviewer may ask framework questions this is actually very common these framework questions can be asked in some different formats like the following what factors would I consider to or what should you investigate to determine basically what's being asked is really can you show me the freaking framework not only that most other questions in interviewer lead cases require you to structure your answer this is somewhat like you have to have a mini framework for each question so yes case interview frameworks you can't run away from them to summarize through these myths we talked about four important messages one knowing how to draw frameworks is more important than knowing a lot of frameworks to be ready to tackle cases where no conventional framework can be applied three try to use appropriate frameworks not fancy ones and four you cannot escape this you need frameworks in every case now that we have covered some big misconceptions about frameworks let's learn some of it what are some good building block frameworks that I should study for the scope of this video we only briefly touch on the overall concept for a detailed explanation please refer to our website or the PDF attached below you can also find some really interesting examples of how different frameworks are appropriately used for different cases in our case interview end-to-end secret program we devote a holy book in the intuition part for this let's start with a few frameworks and remember since these are building block frameworks they should be understood and used with flexibility we will start with some comprehensive ones and then move to some more generic forms comprehensive framework number one the profitability framework the spirit behind this well-known framework is to mathematically break down profit until you've gathered enough information to conclude or to switch to a more qualitative framework specifically in this framework we break down profit mathematically into revenue and cost then revenue can be mathematically split up into and unit sales while total cost can be that divided into fixed cost and variable cost and say if the problem is in fixed costs we further break down these into cost components like overhead salary rental etc even further let's suppose that the problem is actually an HR cost we can even break that down into two possibilities is the company hiring more than they need or is it paying too much for the people that they have usually this is the point where you either conclude the problem or switch to another framework to search for the root cause if we are hiring more than we need why is it caused by some external force or is it caused by the company itself etc comprehensive framework number two three C and P this is an extension from the famous three C customer company and competition the P stands for product of all the frameworks ever developed this is probably the most comprehensive and applicable this can be applied to almost all cases yet like most things in life there are always two sides of the same coin along with its applicability is it's unfortunate generic nature a really high level of customization and flexibility is needed to successfully use this framework I've seen so many candidates mechanically apply this framework without thorough consideration of the specific situation that they're trying to apply it to let's look at an example let's say following the use of the profitability framework we found out that our client company is paying their people too much now how are we going to incorporate the three CMP framework into the situation most inexperienced chemists just blind Phillipe ring for elements in they asked me to describe the customers their needs how to segment them their preferred distribution channels etc now if we take a step back and really think about this is knowing more about the customers that much helpful here does it help find out why the client company is paying their employees too much the answer is very little if any candidates would be much better off not spending time in this area if I'm going to use a 3e C&P here I would customize it in the following way branch one internal factors in the company itself for branch two I twist the competition and aspect of it a little bit I would explore external factors outside the company its competitors and other market forces comprehensive framework number three McKinsey M and a framework there's actually no official name for this framework but since it's so widely used at Mackenzie for merger and acquisition projects I just call it the McKinsey M&A framework the framework is developed to answer the key question what do we need to know to find out if this is a good M&A or not turns out there are three major buckets that fit within this framework first how the targeted companies doing what's their values core strengths and weaknesses etc the term we at McKinsey often refer to this bucket is the standalone value of the targeted company second is it a good fit together is the hole better than the sum of each individual company and the official term for this is synergy the third bucket is for any other miscellaneous factors such as feasibility culture fit legal issues etc mini framework number one external and internal this is one of the most popular mini frameworks out there when you need instance structure or when you're not sure which approach to use breaking down factors into external and internal groups is a really good place to start the internal often refers to the company itself but sometimes it can refer to individuals a department or an entity the external then refers to anything outside of that entity mini framework number two qualitative and quantitative though it can be widely used in various context for instance structure this framework is particularly good at structuring reasons and evaluations for example let's say in the middle of an M&A analysis your value the standalone value of company a how are you going to structure your analysis a very good way is to divide your work into two groups you would look at quantitative factors like profit growth rate leverage etc then on top of these you would add the qualitative factors like brand name capability etc mini framework number three cost and benefit like other mini frameworks this one can be applied in many different contexts however the cost and benefit framework is particularly helpful in decision-making let's look at a simple example should I subscribe to the M consulting prep newsletter well let's compare the cost and benefit of that on the cost side we have a one-time fifteen second used to sign up your with your email address which is relatively small compared to how much time we waste on TV or Facebook every day in addition to that is probably a certain proportion of our inbox which is free anyway and that's about it on the benefits side we have access to regular insights and knowledge that significantly improve our performance in recruiting processes we are reminded regularly about our goal to become a consultant someday which also translates to a higher chance of not giving up we get free study tips that will eventually save us a lot more time than crawling on our own we can stay even to the competition as there are already thousands of candidates around the world reading these newsletters every day now if I'm to compare these benefits with those costs as long as I'm a normal and rational person I would definitely choose yes mini framework number four BCG two-by-two framework lastly we would like to introduce you to not exactly a framework but since it's so popular we'll put it in here anyway it's the BCG two-by-two analysis let's say we have five business lines and we would like to focus on just a few based on two factors how profitable they are and how much intangible benefit they are creating for the company we would then draw a scatter plot like diagram put the two evaluating factors on two axes give it a scale then place five business lines into it now the picture tells us hopefully a better story on how we should deal with those five lines sometimes even before placing the five dots onto the plot we identify up front the nature of the four areas the top right corner can be called a superstar the bottom left corner is consider closing the top left corner is four lines to focus in capital constrained period while the bottom right corner contains lines only kept for socially focused and financially sound companies well I wish I could keep going is there are a lot more insights I can give on case interview frameworks but for the scope of this already long video we just touched on those most basic concepts and examples make sure you also look the detailed PDF attached below you'll find detailed components and user manuals for a lot more frameworks also don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for a lot more coming up if you wish to look at examples of real cases and how different frameworks are used you're welcome to join me and hundreds of other candidates around the world in our case interview end to end secrets program hope to see you there now I'll end this video on a different note if you're new to case interview prep these concepts can be difficult and confusing it's very important to be patient and to try to get a little better at this everyday everything is hard until you know how to do it at 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Views: 353,904

Keywords: Case Interview, Framework, Kim Tran, Management Consulting, McKinsey & Company (Business Operation), Bain & Company (Business Operation), Boston Consulting Group (Business Operation), consulting interview, case interview preparation, case interview example

Id: cdK31eg79xY

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 07 2014