Turquoise Eyes: A Novel about Problem Solving & Critical Thinking

Our brand new book, Turquoise Eyes: A Novel about Problem Solving & Critical Thinking, is available on Amazon.

To celebrate the launch week of Turquoise Eyes: A Novel about Problem Solving & Critical Thinking, we offer a purchase gift to customers as our way of showing that we’re truly thankful you chose FIRMSconsulting.

To claim Your complimentary 1 month access to the accompanying video program please see the details below

Available until midnight EST 28 May 2020 only.

But there is more. The first episode of the accompanying program is temporarily released, at no charge, to the broader FIRMSconsulting community and can be accessed on YouTube or below.

ADVANCED PREDICTIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING. Turquoise Eyes accompanying video program. 1st episode:

BUY THE BOOK HERE 

Turquoise Eyes started off the groundbreaking new genre developed by FIRMSconsulting that combines compelling narrative while teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills. Set after a bank begins implementing a new retail banking strategy, we follow Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo, a director-general in the Mexican government, who has received some disturbing news.

A whistleblower has emailed Teresa with troubling news about a mistake in the loan default calculations and reserve ratios. The numbers do not add up.

The book loosely uses the logic and financial analyses in A Typical McKinsey Engagement, >270 videos.

Our business books are different.

Most people learn business because they are forced to, for their careers or to earn a larger salary. Most business books are, consequently, boring and dense. They have little incentive to be interesting because they have a captive market. Many avoid a business career because the books are presented as a hurdle to be overcome. We wondered what would happen if we made business books interesting, so people chose to read them? Would we draw more people into business? Would we generate more enthusiasm and excitement for business at a younger age?

This book teaches advanced business concepts through a compelling storyline. This new genre of our books is written not only for people already interested in business but also for people who may not realize they have an interest or talent for business. Clients often request gift ideas for their children, spouses, friends, and families to get them interested in business and critical thinking. In part, this is our response to those requests.

We want you to learn advanced critical thinking without realizing you are learning. We hope you will enjoy it, too.

We believe the more people who find business interesting and choose to learn business, the better it is for everyone. Businesses will have a larger pool of employees from whom to select and more of the right people will be choosing the discipline to improve humanity versus simply to make more money.

Imagine the advantage your children will have if they learned critical thinking in high school, or even before high school? Imagine if you had that advantage? Imagine if you had learned strategy alongside science and math in high school? The possibilities would be endless. It all starts with the right books. And it’s never too late to start.

If learning is engaging, it will stop being a chore.

To claim your complimentary 1 month access to the accompanying program (see the video above of the first episode):   

1) BUY THE BOOK HERE
2) Email [email protected] by midnight EST 28 May 2020 with the following:

1. Your Name
2. Your receipt for the book (Kindle, paperback or hardcover)
3. A Mention of Your Review for the above book
4. If you’ve left a Review, please include a link – we’d love to read it and sincerely appreciate it. Even if you haven’t left an Amazon review but only left a Goodreads review, your training program 1 month access will still be sent to you! While we cannot require Amazon reviews to take advantage of our free gift to you, we would certainly appreciate your feedback and it will be a great way to support the book and FC.

YOU CAN LEAVE A REVIEW HERE FOR AMAZON AND HERE FOR GOODREADS.

3) Sit back and wait for your FREE 1-month access to Turquoise Eyes: A Novel about Problem Solving & Critical Thinking program, which will be sent to qualifying participants in July 2020.

BUY THE BOOK HERE

We look forward to hearing from you!

Kris
CEO, FIRMSconsulting

P.S. Please help us get the word out by sharing the purchase link with friends, family, and colleagues. Your friends can reach out to us about claiming their launch purchase gift at [email protected] Thank you in advance!!
P.P.S. Below are some reviews. You can read more reviews and buy the book here.

There are some very common misconceptions and myths about analytical problem solving. Most candidates simply skim over this phrase on consulting profiles without thinking about the meaning. This post will tell you what management consulting firms like McKinsey, Bain and BCG mean by analytical problem solving.

You would be surprised at how many people believe that analytical thinking is something that comes instinctively, letting you do data analysis and pinpoint relevant information to get the key takeaways from complex problems. The truth is, these analytical skills are, more often than not, hard skills that you acquire through years of problem solving and critical thinking. They’re problem-solving skills that help you go from coming up with easy solutions to coming up with creative solutions that go the extra mile.

This is important advice so it is worth reading carefully – we’ll also go over some analytical and problem solving skills examples to help you understand better.

What is analytical problem solving

To be an analytical thinker does not mean you must have a degree in science, engineering, finance, economics or any other quantitative subject. While some subjects, like those listed, imply you could be analytical in your thinking, not having quantitative background does not mean you cannot think analytically. Thousands of candidates with quantitative backgrounds fail to get offers from McKinsey, Bain and BCG every year. Therefore, having a quantitative background can be an advantage, but it does not guarantee analytical problem solving ability.

Being analytical refers to the way you think and not to the problem you solve. This is a very important statement. Lawyers, social scientists, linguists and historians can all be extremely analytical in their thinking. Yet, they are not solving quantitative problems. So the problem is not what determines if you are analytical, it is the way you solve the problem.

Good analyses are grounded in hypotheses. Can you develop hypotheses? It always surprises us how many people do not know what is a hypothesis. A hypothesis is not the problem. It is not a fact. It is not an opinion. It is a statement which captures the observed phenomenon as well as the likely cause of the phenomenon. Both must be present for it to be a hypothesis. A surprising number of candidates do not understand this.

Are you able to reason using only the facts provided? Analytical thinkers are not unemotional. No one is unemotional. However, analytical thinkers are able to separate their emotion from the situation and use the data provided to arrive at a conclusion. Analytical problem solving means reasoning using facts and logic. Past experience or opinions which cannot be substantiated are ignored.

Can you assemble data and facts to develop an argument or line of reasoning? Analytical thinkers can take pieces of information, compare them and decide what the information is saying. They can assemble the information to produce new insight into the problem rather than simply restating the information.

Analytical thinkers do not blurt out answers. Assuming your answer is even correct, the fact that you knew the answer means you did not need to analyse the facts. Therefore, your analytical problem solving skill could not be tested.

Logic has nothing to do with numbers. There is a misconception that if your reasoning lacks numbers then it must be incorrect. That is ridiculous. In many consulting case interviews, you will need to reason based on logical arguments and with very little numbers. Your line of reasoning is more important than your final answer.

Analytical thinkers can show you how they arrived at the answer. This should be obvious, right? After all, it is the foundation of the case interview method. If you followed a path of reasoning to arrive at an answer, you should be able to explain that path to someone. That is why the method is used. The interviewer is more interested in how you arrived at the answer than the answer you developed. How you arrived at the answer shows the strength of your analytical problem solving skill.

Logical thinkers apply MECE, even if they do not know it. I have some impressive friends in the legal profession. Watching them reason and debate is worth doing so. When you ask them how they arrived at an answer or why they eliminated an option, you realize they are applying the rules of MECE perfectly. Yet, they never heard of MECE. Reason and logic is not exclusive to management consulting but is it essential to management consulting.

You do not need to know anything about an income statement, balance sheet or cash-flow statement to develop analytical skills. I should not need to say this but I will say it anyway. The thought process is more important than the topic. You can learn accounting and financial concepts when you need them. It is not very difficult to do so.

Analytical and problem solving skills examples

Below we share with you some examples of analytical and problem solving skills and how analytical skills are being tested during consulting case interviews.

McKinsey case interview examples 

• Complex McKinsey Interviewer led profitability case in Pharma (by FIRMSconsulting.com) 
• Comprehensive McKinsey hypotheses based case interview example (by FIRMSconsulting.com)
• McKinsey cost-benefit approach complex profit case interview example (by FIRMSconsulting.com)

BCG case interview examples

• Comprehensive BCG interviewer led market entry case interview example (by FIRMSconsulting.com) 

General case interview examples

• A comprehensive approach to brainstorming in case interviews (by FIRMSconsulting.com)
• Framework for a Bain, McKinsey, BCG acquisition case (by FIRMSconsulting.com)

Structured case interview analytical and problem solving skills development is needed

If you would like to get help with developing your analytical and problem solving skills, and fast track your case interview preparation, we welcome you to enroll into Premium membership.

There is nowhere else in the world where you can see real candidates trained by former partners from major consulting firms to help them develop analytical and problem solving skills. You will see the candidate’s progression through each step of the case interview preparation process, and how their analytical and problem solving skills are being developed. And you will see candidates receiving real offers from major firms such as Deloitte, McKinsey, or BCG.

SPREAD THE WORD! Like this? Please share it.

Follow us to get the latest updates: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn

Image from Trey Ratcliff under cc.