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Guide to FIRMSconsulting Content

A brief guide to our videos, podcasts, books, knowledge management system, and advice and coaching sessions.

We produce an extensive list of podcasts, books, videos, slides and other media. This content guide can help you navigate your way through and build your career development plan. It’s helpful to remember that a leader gets things done. Therefore, always think about how to implement your ideas.

We offer 6 services:

  1. Books—use in conjunction with video training programs to quickly grasp core skills.
    1. The Strategy Journal
    2. Succeeding as a Management Consultant
    3. The Strategy Engagement
    4. Marketing Saves the World
    5. Mavis
    6. Turquoise Eyes
  2. Slides—use our curated editable studies, tools, templates, proposals and letters to significantly reduce the time it takes to generate results, lower your costs and improve the quality of your work.
  3. Videos—gain mastery of core concepts to ensure that you solve the problem, implement the solution and bank the benefits.
  4. Coaching—to avoid roadblocks and trial-and-error, you can book 1-on-1 advice sessions in which a partner will evaluate your plan and help you develop a bespoke career strategy and solution. This is subject to availability and your admittance to the program.
  5. Coaching— Eligible to apply for 1-on-1 coaching only if referred by a prior coaching client. We do not accept applications without a referral. These are the longer coaching programs that Andrew, Amrit, Peter, Tatiana, Richard etc., participated in.
  6. Podcasts—Strategy Skills and Case Interviews & Management Consulting are routinely ranked among the top-5 career podcasts in most countries from Singapore, France to India.

While you are excited to learn please remember it is a great privilege being granted the permission – it is not your right – to advise a client on their most pressing issues. Be it external client if you are a consultant or internal clients if you work outside of consulting.

We trust that you understand and respect the great responsibility that comes with the skills you will learn and the access you will have. What you will find below is not a complete list of all our programs. We have far too many. This is simply a categorization of what we offer.

Given we have >6,300 videos, >400 podcast, books and editable slides, please visit the websites to see what is available at this time since we often make changes. Click To Tweet

You can find our video content streamed/available at the following locations:

  1. Apps
    1. StrategyTraining.com (FC Insiders)
      1. Android
      2. iOS
      3. Apple TV
      4. ROKU
    2. StrategyTV.com (Premium Members)
      1. Android
      2. iOS

Strategy, Operations, Implementation, Digital & Leadership

Strategy, Operations and Implementation studies and other advanced consulting and business skills training programs teach consultants and executives the skills of McKinsey, BCG et al partners to solve real business problems. Some programs teach you how to conduct actual studies in real situations while dealing with the messy and political nature of gaining acceptance for your recommendations from colleagues. Other programs focus on soft skills or career development.

Great care is taken to design highly realistic and detailed training programs which recreate a business environment as closely as possible. Each training program we curate takes between 1 to 2 years to plan and produce. Implementation. Building an Innovation Division was developed over 4 years as we mentored Andrew from Senior Manager to Senior Partner at one of the world’s largest professional services firms.

Descriptions of each program can be found on the StrategyTraining.com website.

As stated above, it is best to work through the step-by-step studies and other advanced programs once the core case interview program skills (especially within TCO I, III & II) are mastered, even for members who are not preparing for case interviews. This is important because TCO is designed to help develop foundational skills required to make the most of our more advanced FC programs.

As you progress further through the latest studies you will notice the concepts are more complex. You will need the foundational skills from earlier programs to understand them.

Guide to using the training

Our consulting and business skills training consists of the following sample programs. The full list of programs and episodes that are available can be found on StrategyTraining.com.

All programs teach the skills that McKinsey, BCG et al partners possess.

  1. Business Case Analysis
  2. M&A Strategy Study (The Tech Merger Study)
  3. First 90 Days in Consulting
  4. Market Entry Strategy Study
  5. Corporate Strategy & Transformation Study
  6. Building an Innovation Division
  7. Implementing an Operations Strategy
  8. Rebuilding a Consulting Practice
  9. The Start-Up. In 2 Years
  10. Partnership. Memoir
  11. McKinsey to Private Equity
  12. US/Canada/UK Immigration
  13. Life After Consulting: Daniel’s move from McKinsey to Banking
  14. Corporate Strategy & Transformation Study Partner Guide (iTunes)
  15. Big Data Study Partner Guide
  16. Implementation Study Partner Guide
  17. Turnaround Study Partner Guide
  18. IT & Digital Strategy Study Partner Guide
  19. FC Greatest Clients
  20. The Bill Matassoni Show, Season 1
  21. The Bill Matassoni Show, Season 2 (coming soon)
  22. The Bill Matassoni Show, Season 3 (coming soon)
  23. How to become a McKinsey Partner, 1st Time Revealed by Kevin P. Coyne
  24. How to be Influential & Make an Impact by Kevin P. Coyne
  25. Competitive Strategy by Kevin P. Coyne
  26. Advanced Competitive Strategy by Kevin P. Coyne
  27. Foundations of Problem Solving & Critical Thinking by Kevin P. Coyne
  28. The MasterPlan Program 21 Day Program
  29. Implementing the MasterPlan 21 Day Program
  30. US Immigration Best-Practices 21 Day Program
  31. How to Reboot a Stalled Career 21 Day Program
  32. How to Find Great Mentors 21 Day Program
  33. How to Sell Like a Partner 21 Day Program
  34. How to Develop Big Insights 21 Day Program
  35. Replacing Income with Online Freelance Consulting 21 Day Program
  36. How to Manage a Crisis 21 Day Program
  37. Getting Ahead of the Recession 21 Day Program
  38. How to Find a Job During The Recession 21 Day Program

The studies below will soon be coming to FC Insiders:

  1. Digital & IT FIG Strategy Study
  2. Wealth Management Strategy Study
  3. Operations Strategy Study
  4. Implementation Program
  5. Corporate Restructuring & Turnaround Study
  6. Infrastructure Strategy & Feasibility Study
  7. Market Entry Strategy Study
  8. Sales Force Optimization Strategy Study
  9. Investor Relations Strategy Study
  10. Risk & Pandemic Planning Strategy Study

To gain all the requisite skills of a partner you will need to focus on four areas:

  1. Hard problem-solving skills
  2. Communication skills
  3. The philosophy/values of management consulting
  4. Skills to implement all the above in your career

Implementing the skills is going to be the toughest part. For example, it is one thing to learn about value chain analyses and it is quite another to figure out the following:

  1. When should a value chain analysis be used?
  2. How do I adjust the analysis for my situation?
  3. What data do I need?
  4. How do I find the data?
  5. What must I do if a colleague will not supply the data?
  6. How do I convince peers to use the insights?
  7. How do I accomplish all steps above without alienating my co-workers?

Our training teaches the technical skills, as well as soft skills, and covers these seven steps above. Implementation. Building an Innovation Division, The Start Up, First 90 Days in Consulting with Henri St-Pierre, Rebuilding a Consulting Division and Partnership. Memoir are wholly dedicated to helping you understand how to implement the thinking we teach.

  1. The M&A Strategy Study teaches the basics of problem solving and running a study within a real environment. All studies teach the basics but this study is wholly focused on foundational skills.
  2. Building an Innovation Division shows you how we helped a client use all the skills we teach to implement his own career strategy by helping him rebuild the innovation business at one of the world’s largest professional services firms. This program explains the detailed steps taken to implement the advice offered in all the other programs.
  3. Memoir will take you through the strategy and tactics used by a partner who rose all the way from business analyst to director. This focuses both on the unusual career strategies used and the tactics to implement the career strategy.
  4. Rebuilding a Consulting Practice covers just 12 months in a consultants’ career as they lead the turnaround of a failing strategy practice at one of the firm’s key emerging markets offices.

You can start anywhere you wish, but, assuming you have the time and want to play the long game to build the skills correctly, use the order above.

The Start Up is a big new program. We have admitted clients into our program and will help them build new multi-million-dollar revenue companies. Everything we do, including the templates used, meetings held, funding, e-commerce tools, website templates will be documented so you can replicate our approach.

  1. The 1st business is a digital luxury brands business. You can follow that program on StrategyTraining.com.
  2. The 2nd business is a digital miner. That will also be coming to StrategyTraining.com.
  3. The 3rd business is an electric car company being developed in China.

Titans of Strategy

Titans of Strategy is the marque program we launched in 2017 and it still going. We invited some of the most influential partners in the history of McKinsey, BCG et al to teach you concepts in strategy, leadership, marketing etc., that they have never taught before to a broad audience. If you want to know how a partner thinks through critical issues, and follow this approach, this is the series of programs to watch.

Each program is shot in HD and, in some cases, within some of the most iconic architectural landmarks. Every concept they teach is broken down into multiple steps so you may follow their thinking and ultimately replicate their approach. We hope you like it.

SCR-Advanced

SCR-Advanced is just as the name says. You can now edit, download and use all the advanced slides we have developed for our studies. This will significantly improve your capabilities. It is probably one of the greatest competitive advantages we have offered our clients. Member also have access to full CRM and project management online tools.

This is the biggest initiative we are launching in the history of FIRMSconsulting, to give our members an unassailable competitive advantage. Click To Tweet

This is a sample of the full editable material SCR-Advanced will have within its first year of launch:

  1. Digital & IT FIG Strategy Study
  2. Wealth Management Strategy Study
  3. Operations Strategy Study
  4. Implementation Program
  5. Corporate Restructuring & Turnaround Study
  6. Corporate Strategy & Transformation Study
  7. Infrastructure Strategy & Feasibility Study
  8. Market Entry Strategy Study
  9. Market Entry Strategy Study (2)
  10. M&A Merger Strategy Study
  11. Sales Force Optimization Strategy Study
  12. Investor Relations Strategy Study
  13. Risk & Pandemic Planning Strategy Study

Case Interviews

Case Interview training programs, primarily The Consulting Offer (TCO), are the foundational programs. They teach core skills in communication, structuring, logical problem solving, calculations, estimations and decision making that will be very useful even to those not preparing for case interviews. The strategy, operations and implementation training programs assume a grasp of these foundational skills and all clients, even senior executives, find it useful to first go through at least the main parts of TCO before learning from the more complex training programs.

Think of our case training as a bridging program for someone in industry who wants to learn strategy. You don’t need to go through the material, but it will significantly improve your critical thinking skills.

  1. TCO I, Felix, joins MBB Europe
  2. TCO I, Sanjeev, joins BCG Asia
  3. TCO I, Rafik
  4. TCO I, Samantha
  5. TCO II, Alice Qinhua Zhou, joins McKinsey NYC
  6. TCO II, Michael Klein
  7. TCO III, Jennifer Nwankwo, joins Bain Boston
  8. TCO III, Zach Steinfeld
  9. TCO IV, Sizan, MSc
  10. TCO IV, Ritika Mohan, joins McKinsey NE USA
  11. TCO IV, Haris, Big 4 National Practice Leader (currently in development)
  12. TCO IV, Dylan, Booth MBA (currently in development)
  13. TCO IV, Francisco, Accenture Consultant (currently in development)
  14. TCO IV, Assel, joins McKinsey Europe
  15. EMBA / Experienced Hire Program with Tom
  16. TCO Solution Videos
  17. Case Studies of FC’s Greatest Clients

Given the depth of the videos, it is best to watch The Consulting Offer content over approximately 12 – 18 months. The sessions should be watched in the following order:

  1. Assel joins McKinsey Europe: Covers the main concepts quickly
  2. EMBA/Experienced Hire: Covers the main concepts quickly
  3. TCO I: At least watch the episodes on estimation and brainstorm
  4. TCO III: At least watch the episodes on breakeven analyses / cost-volume-profit curves / marginal cost curves
  5. TCO II: McKinsey unstructured final round interviews with partners

Keep in mind the following:

  1. The EMBA and Assel programs cover all the concepts quickly but give you enough to understand everything very well.
  2. TCO I is the foundational program. If you really struggle with the basics and need to be taught everything slowly, start here.
  3. You could start TCO I (Felix followed by Sanjeev), then TCO III (Jen followed by Zach) and finally TCO II. It is still advised to go through the EMBA and Assel programs first.
  4. Not moving on to a subsequent session until all concepts and techniques are mastered in the previous session.
  5. It is best not to watch numerous videos back-to-back. Watching 4 to 5 videos per hour is generally not recommended. Nor is trying to watch all of TCO in one month. We rigorously track and analyze member viewing data and have determined that binge-watching does not work. We use data to make all decisions governing our programs and our advice is based on both our subscription members and having mentored over 1,000 candidates via 1-on-1 coaching.
  6. Each video teaches new skills and requires time to understand. Make careful notes and revise them regularly to ensure key techniques/concepts are internalized. Carefully follow all advice, including advice on developing/improving business judgment, communication etc.
  7. We do not teach frameworks. We teach you how to develop bespoke structures for any problem. This means you will never ever need to memorize a framework. Skipping towards frameworks in the videos is not the best way to learn and is discouraged. Moreover, you will miss the communication skills training within an episode.
  8. Distinguish between learning and practicing. They are different. Be wary of practicing when you do not understand the concepts taught or practicing with members whom have poor case interview techniques. If you do not understand a concept, it will be difficult for you to explain why you are doing it. Practicing the wrong skills reinforces the wrong skills. First learn the correct techniques and only then practice.

This is how we recommend using TCO:

  1. Resumes:
    1. Always complete your resume first despite the urge to jump into cases. Resume editing is a difficult process requiring numerous iterations done in small bursts.
    2. Only begin networking once the resume editing process is completed.
    3. The cover letter should be written after the networking process commences and is about midway done.
  2. If you can, go through all of the EMBA program and Assel programs.
  3. With TCO I, pick two candidates as your base and use these candidates’ files to prepare. Ideally, focus on Felix and then Sanjeev.
  4. Review your notes from past practice sessions and from before you joined this program, and focus on just the top 3-4 areas for improvement.
  5. While watching each session in TCO I it is useful to review additional solution videos. These were the videos used by the TCO I participants to prepare for their coaching sessions.
  6. Per session: Always start with the session where the participant is being trained by the partner. These are vital sessions and should not be skipped. They are more important than the solution videos.
  7. Per session: Watch the candidates’ case session videos and pause videos to do the cases alongside them.
  8. Per session: Watch the “perfect answer” video.
  9. Per session: Take the time to review the material, practice and ensure you can explain the main concepts from the session.
  10. Test your knowledge of each TCO I session with our quizzes.
  11. Per session: Create a new list of top 3-4 development priorities. Do not list all development areas.
  12. If you have time, review the perfect answers from TCO I for Samantha and Rafik.
  13. Never begin with TCO II. And never watch each TCO II episodes just once. They should be watched at least 3 times. In TCO II we teach partner final-round cases that cannot be solved with frameworks and they assume an understanding of the strategy approach to break-even curve analyses as taught in TCO III.
  14. While working through TCO I, simultaneously follow our iTunes podcasts series, Case Interviews & Management Consulting, by listening to useful episodes. We do not duplicate content across our programs so do not ignore the iTunes channel. This program is the #1 ranked iTunes channel for case interviews with over 350 podcasts.

When watching all the videos ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Do I understand the underlying principle taught?
  2. Could I explain the principle to a colleague?
  3. Could I apply the principle to a case?
  4. Do I recognize the interview pattern?

All members, but especially EMBAs & Experienced hires, should listen to our dedicated program for EMBAs & Experienced Hires while working through TCO I. This has turned out to be one of the most useful programs we have. Every client finds that it helps them quickly and effectively.

Enjoy learning and let us know if you will have any questions by writing to us at [email protected].

Best regards.

Kris Safarova

Presiding Partner

 

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