Make use of 80/20 rules. Don't boil the ocean: don't try to analyze everything. Focus on 20% effort that yields 80% result. No matter what, engage the client members in the process. The more they feel everybody is on the same boat, the more they would support you. Simon London: Problem solving is a really interesting piece of terminology. It could mean so many different things. I have a son who’s a teenage climber. They talk about solving problems. Climbing is problem solving. Charles, when you talk about problem solving, what are you talking about? Simon London: OK. So step one—and there is a real art and a structure to it—is define the problem. Step two, Charles?

Simon London: In the real world, we have a lot of uncertainty—arguably, increasing uncertainty. How do good problem solvers deal with that? Break down and structure the analysis with the “ issue tree” framework: A “hypothesis-driven” process may take forever as there are millions of possible root-causes. We need to test hypotheses from the top to the bottom of the issue tree – a top-down fashion. These issue trees need to be MECE. On brainstorming: there are no bad ideas; no dumb questions; be prepared to kill your ideas; take notes. Include some questions you know the answer to. This gives insights into the interviewee’s style, knowledge, and honesty. What stays with me is the rigorous standard of information and analysis, the proving and double-proving of every recommendation, combined with the high standard of communication both to clients and within the Firm.”– Former associate in the Boston and New York offices

You are looking for a fun, easy read that will teach you more about management consulting in general. Use “hypothesis-driven” process: Make educated guesses of possible root-cause A B C and test with data (a.k.a: facts). We’ll sometimes call this a fact-based process. Although the book is fun and well structured, the book skims the surface on a wide variety of topics and doesn’t go into great detail. Because of that, I feel some chapters are worth reading twice though few chapters should be just skimmed through, I will leave it to you to decide, which of the chapters you feel should be skipped. Simon London: Here we’re talking about cognitive biases primarily, right? It’s not that I’m biased against you because of your accent or something. These are the cognitive biases that behavioral sciences have shown we all carry around, things like anchoring, overoptimism—these kinds of things. Adopt the Columbo tactic. Wait until a day or two passes, then drop by the interviewee’s office. “I was just passing by and remembered a question I forgot to ask”. This is a less threatening way to keep the conversation going.

Hugo Sarrazin: No, but it may be useful as a starting point. If the stakes are not that high, that could be OK. If it’s really high stakes, you may need level three and have the whole model validated in three different ways. You need to find a work plan that reflects the level of precision, the time frame you have, and the stakeholders you need to bring along in the exercise.

The McKinsey Way

When faced with an amorphous situation, apply structure to it.” – Kristin Asleson, New York office, 1990-93; now working in Silicon Valley Real meaning: Tell me you haven’t missed something big in your analysis that is going to bite us in the heiny. On making presentation: be structured; resist the temptation to tweak your presentation up to the last minute; keep it simple. Structured approach for many commonsensical things business professionals naturally do (some may see this as a con) Too generalist (though I believe one should not expect secret recipes or detailed problem-solving algorithms from such a book.. I was still very eager for some level of detail or specificity)

One symptom may have different causes and we as doctors should never rely on the patient to diagnose. Don’t reinvent the wheel! Whatever you are doing, chances are that someone, somewhere has done something similar. Building upon someone’s work is the best way to save time and energy while achieving the highest standard.Chapter 12: The Business Development Mindset This chapter provides advice on how to develop a business development mindset, which involves identifying new opportunities and creating value for clients. It emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships with clients and developing a deep understanding of their businesses. Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah. It’s not like “Can we grow in Japan?” That’s interesting, but it is “What, specifically, are we trying to uncover in the growth of a product in Japan? Or a segment in Japan? Or a channel in Japan?” When you spend an enormous amount of time, in the first meeting of the different stakeholders, debating this and having different people put forward what they think the problem definition is, you realize that people have completely different views of why they’re here. That, to me, is the most important step.

Example: “You don’t need to look at the cost structure of each of the operations. Don’t boil the ocean.” Now, I still think it can be an incredibly powerful thing to have the two—if there are the right people with the right mind-set, if there is a team that is explicit about the roles, if we’re clear about the kind of outcomes we are attempting to bring forward. There’s an enormous amount of collaborativeness and respect. Simon London: I think we are, sadly, out of time for today. But Charles and Hugo, thank you so much. Hugo Sarrazin: It’s helpful, at that moment—if someone is asserting a point of view—to ask the question “This was true in what context?” You’re trying to apply something that worked in one context to a different one. That can be deadly if the context has changed, and that’s why organizations struggle to change. You promote all these people because they did something that worked well in the past, and then there’s a disruption in the industry, and they keep doing what got them promoted even though the context has changed. Charles Conn: For me, the most important thing is that we start with simple heuristics and explanatory statistics before we go off and use the big-gun tools. We need to understand the shape and scope of our problem before we start applying these massive and complex analytical approaches.This is Consulting 101 for new and aspiring consultants to read. My first half year in consulting went in understanding the aspects mentioned in the book and the anxiety associated with navingating a firm. While there are definitely no silver bullets, there are indeed some cardinal sins as consultants which any good org drills into it's consultants from day 1. Simon London: You do hear these ideas—that if you have a big enough data set and enough algorithms, they’re going to find things that you just wouldn’t have spotted, find solutions that maybe you wouldn’t have thought of. Does machine learning sort of revolutionize the problem-solving process? Or are these actually just other tools in the toolbox for structured problem solving? Outdated techniques in some areas (e.g. Research). It could benefit from an updated version for the era of massive internet use Simon London: Let’s move swiftly on to step four. You’ve defined your problem, you disaggregate it, you prioritize where you want to analyze—what you want to really look at hard. Then you got to the work plan. Now, what does that mean in practice?