1. +
MBA Consulting
Curriculum 2011-12:
Feedback on Problem
solving Workshop
Introduction to Creative Problem
Solving for Case Interviews
J-P Martins
Head of Consulting Careers
October 2011

2. +
Intro
 This session is an introductory workshop, run for around 160 first year MBAs
 It aims to give an experiential introduction to what a case interview is, and a simple 4-stage process to apply in
tackling all cases (this will not solve the problems – it is a process, not a framework or structure)
 The workshop is completely outsourced to Booz and Co, who deliver it using staff and sponsored students as
facilitators
 Booz does this at zero price – it gives them a very early contact point with a key recruiting pool
 The event is the kick-off event in the MBA course ‘Creative Problem Solving for Case Interviews’ – further
events include
 Presentations on practical tools and techniques (entirely devoted to a range of structures and frameworks) and
on advanced/differentiating approaches
 Small group practice on a case
 3 x 1:1 mock case interviews for every student
 This year, following pressure from MiF students, we opened signup to MiFs
 The venue was switched form LT6 to RCOG a week before the event – signed up students were informed and
the Career Central entry changed
 RCOG does not allow drinks to be taken in by students

3. +
Summary
 The event was very positively received
 Room for improvement exists
 Definitely need to add breaks, access to hot drinks
 Communicate better – aims, logistics, what this is and what it is not (eg 1:1 practice, recruiter
networking etc)
 Consider whether it is appropriate to invite MiFs – the event is pitched at MBAs and may not be up
to MiFs’ standards of problem solving
 50% of students that mentioned the name of the consulting firm got it wrong, naming Bain and BCG
instead of Booz. Consider better promotion (although slides, handouts were labelled and there
was a big banner at the front!)
 Improve consistency and number of table facilitators
 Improve Ops support – late venue change and table layout were not ideally handled
 Ultimately, we are constrained by lack of access to students and budget here. The
workshop needs to be a full day, and to cater for demand of 150-180 students, near the
start of term. Problems arise from trying to squeeze it in to ½ day, being constrained as
to when we can hold it (clashed with Booz’s 2nd year interviews) and having no budget –
we are delivering this at essentially zero cost

4. +
Intro to Consulting Careers: 98%
would recommend it strongly
The format and content of the workshop 1 23 30
were excellent
The presenters and facilitators were 21 24 27
engaging and informative
The event was well organised - logistics 1 27 26
and venue were appropriate
I would strongly recommend this event to 1 15 37
next year's first year MBA students
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Disagree Strongly Disagree Agree Agree Strongly
Response rate: 53/144 (37%)

5. +
Comments

6. +
Comments: format and content
Too basic for my own needs but might have been informative for first- Comment from a
year MBA's MiF
One of the best workshops delivered by career services to date
The practise sessions were good, as well as the mock demo. However,
due to the large group sizes it is difficult to understand entirely how it
would work in practise. However, for an intro session this was
probably OK
Great introduction with the focus on led practise

7. +
Comments: presenter and
facilitators
Zaid (our facilitator) was outstanding
I was very impressed by the Booz & co staff. In particular the main presenter
Phil Coghlan was very clear and structured in his explanation of how to tackle
cases
Strong
Lauren was friendly and effective, giving us a very systematic approach
The facilitator at my table was excellent
Presenter was very strong. Facilitator did not seem to always have a strongest
language skills
The presenter was great, but our group instructor was really disappointing,
didn't share inputs from her experience as a consultant but just navigate the Mixed
discussion between the students. It turned out to be just a forum of students
talking about strategy
I was surprised that the presenters did not have more impact - given the
importance of this factor in consulting interviews. They were competent, but not
as engaged and enthusiastic as I would have hoped Weak
Facilitator in my table could have been more informative, otherwise ok
The facilitator at my table was hugely disappointing

8. +
Comments: logistics and venue
Tables good!
Great to have tables - better than a lecture theatre
Include a 5-10 minute bathroom break - 4 hours can be a long period without one
But give us a
But should have scheduled short break
break!
Would have loved to have access to some tea/coffee during the session!
Perhaps coffee or a short break would be helpful - i was digging deep after 4 hours
straight on a friday afternoon
Good to have some coffee available next time
The venue was appropriate for the format of the session. However - the venue on
career central was incorrectly stated as LT6, which then conflicted with the reminder e- Venue/comms
mails. Additionally, I find it frustrating that the RCOG does not allow drinks, and then
the coffee provided at the event was only for the facilitators. Whilst this is a small point, problems
I would have appreciated having coffee in the morning - I had in fact bought a coffee
along not realising that the venue had changed and had to leave it behind not drunk
There was no clear message saying that the workshop was transferred to the ROCG. In
portal it was still LT6. Many people went to the wrong place and ended up arriving late
at the workshop
Clearer communication of the room change would have been appreciated
It felt like the tables had a few too many people at them- we had to find extra chairs so Too few
everyone had somewhere to sit facilitators/
However, there was not enough for one facilitator per table and after 5 mins our table groups too large
had to alert Booz that we were lacking someone. Also, the venue was a bit too cold -
small comment but it was the view of most of the other people

9. +
Comments: overall
recommendation
Good for people like me with no crack a case experience. I would not recommend it to
people with consulting experience
As a basic foundation in case interview technique this was extremely helpful. I look
forward to building on the experience in future sessions
I am a MiF student
Very useful intro for those who have never seen cases before

10. +
What should we do more of?
‘Nothing’ – 18 comments
N/A (x 9)
Nothing (x 2)
I thought that everything was well organized. I don't have any
specific recommendations for improvements
Nothing. The timing of the day was perfect. 4 hours was a sufficient
time to cover everything. The pace of the main BCG senior associate
was very good
It was really helpful It was Booz!
Honestly, keep it the same
For 4 hours of time… this was just perfect. Nothing more
Was well balanced, adding something won't necessarily improve
Perfect

11. +
What should we do more of?
‘Cases’ – 15 comments
More live interviews
More detail on different case types might have been useful (eg. what different types of outcome/answer could you
expect from each case type?)
Analyse more scenarios/cases. Exercise on a case where no pre-existing framework could be applied
Give examples of problems that require different structures to analyze
Structures and case studies
More practise in smaller sessions - but understand that this is difficult to facilitate whilst allowing most people a chance
of attending the workshop too
Analyze more types of cases during the session; however given the time limit this was not possible
More example cases to take away to look at
Examples
Practice of cases, although this would have required more time
Cases
Different structures
I would have liked one more case study something on the lines of M&A, but I do understand the time constraints
Maybe one or two more cases so that we could be exposed to all types
Use of different frameworks instead of mostly focussing on profitability framework

12. +
What should we do more of?
‘Breaks’, ‘feedback’, ‘1:1s’
Have access to hot beverages
Have tea/coffee
Breaks, drinks
Break
I think it was good the way it was. Except that there could have been a 15
minute break for those who had to go to the bite and get a coffee
Get students involved more, engaged more. We worked well on the cases Alternative
within our groups, but the presentation of the answers was incredibly dull. The
presenter can help move things along in this respect. facilitation
The session was quite balanced between theory and practice. I think every
benefited from the group interactions. Would have appreciated more feedback
from facilitator on approach and examples of better approaches
More feedback, more details on approaches
Got students to work in pairs in each table in the framework building phase,
rather than having all 7 or 8 people dive in at once, perhaps?
One-on-one
Time for another case, maybe a verbal case interview with one person Students are
More one on one training guaranteed access to
More one-on-one sessions 1:1s later in the
course

13. +
What should we do more of?
‘Other’
It would have been good to know that this was a workshop aimed at first-year MBA students and
The MiF again
thus very basic in content. Many of the MiF students who are in the process of interviewing
already (myself included) found this workshop not very helpful due to its basic level. Knowing that
in advance we could have allocated our time more efficiently.
…but this wasn’t
More of these kinds of workshops. The facilitator was open and gave us insights into the Booz style about Booz
of interviews. If we could do the same across the board, with as many companies as possible, the cases, it was
potential applicants will have a strong base before the recruitment season starts next term.
about cases in
Thought process training general…
time for another case, maybe a verbal case interview with one person Later in the
More one on one training course!
More one-on-one sessions
Possibly have a break between the two case studies to talk to the people from Booz casually about Other
general consulting information
opportunities –
Informal chat / Networking
this is training
I think that less students per instructor would have helped a lot

14. +
What should we do less of?
‘Nothing’ – 36 comments
N/A (x 9) No problems really
Nothing (x 7) All ok
- (x 3) Nothing really…very good session. Thank
you
None (x 2)
Everything was informational, and had no
. (x 2)
room for reduction
No specific recommendations
This was a great workshop, I learnt a lot
Everything was useful, thanks! from it. I would keep most of the elements
of the workshop. Thanks!
It was really helpful
Nil
Everything was good
Perfect
I am yet to see a wide variety of events
offered by career services to make a No
qualified comment here

15. +
What should we do less of?
Audience participation Less repetition
(plenary), more
The main speaker had a tendency to bring things back to his own ideas and the discussions he had with
his group, rather than letting other ideas and conversations develop breakout
(plenary)
Less discussion after the group work which might have left time to cover another case
It felt like the wash up after we went through the first case was a little repetitive with multiple groups
saying the same thing – one group summarising might have sufficed
Less time for
Less time on audience participation breakouts
Shorter discussion of cases afterwards, since we have discussed the outcome with the facilitator at the
table
Perhaps a couple breaks would have been nice, the afternoon was too long
More (!) breaks
The content was good. The pace should have been quicker and students should be more engaged Faster pace
Maybe shorten the time to solve a case on the tables in order to be able to see one or two more examples
of potential structures
Less time doing the initial excercise in which we had to separate Profits into Cost and Revenue and then
analysing Porter's 5 Fs. It felt too long and not adding much value And it’s Booz,
not Bain!
The collection of opinions around the tables was time consuming and did not add too much value. Most of
the value derived from the cases' discussion in our own table. The Bain consultant at our table was
fantastic. He ran through the case as if it was a real interview and he provided specific feedback to each
single of us

16. +
What should we do less of?
Faster pace,
The second case in our group was finished in half an hour, therefore I felt that less time could have been
allocated to this part of the session – and maybe allow more time for another practise
shorter
workshop
Too much time spent solving the case. We were done in 40 minutes and just sat around for 20 more
waiting for the allotted 60 min to be over
It could be shorter
Letting people ramble - quite a few examples of people focusing on detail or process rather than listening Better students
to a question and answering
Short workshop – full day is better Longer
workshop