The Blog
Long-form essays, field notes, and frameworks from the FIRMSconsulting team — published weekly.
All posts
Published weekly-
The Speech that Defined McKinsey
Delivered by Marvin Bower. The Speech that Defined McKinsey. Annual McKinsey & Company Partners’ Conference.
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Internal Strategy Units Rarely Create Strategy Consultants
Internal strategy units at banks tend to be attractive alternatives to McKinsey and BCG. This article argues they are not and the accompanying podcast discusses the practical problems a typical analyst would face in the unit.
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Chapter One: From Pepsi to Bain
An ex-Bain partner discusses his rise from Pepsi into Bain’s aerospace practice and his lessons along the way. This chapter highlights his almost serendipitous arrival at Bain.
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Chapter Three: My First Engagement at Bain
Terance discusses his disastrous first Bain engagement when he was taken off after disagreeing with the case leader by challenging the recommendation of boosting investment in the marketing department.
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Chapter Two: Learning MECE and 80/20 at Bain
Terance discusses learning about consulting analyses, MECE, 80/20 and storyboards in Bain’s internal research team during his first year.
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Chapter Four: Redemption on a Bain Business Case
Through a Bain business case, Terance discusses how to distinguish between analyzing a problem and assembling the answers to arrive at a strategy.
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Chapter Five: Bain Airline Turnaround Study
Terance discusses his first turnaround study in an emerging market and outside the US, particularly the challenges of remaining “plugged” into firm-wide initiatives which are crucial to maintaining Bain’s culture.
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Chapter Six: First Bain Operations Study
The differences between Bain strategy, operations and implementation engagements are outlined and the unique challenges strategy consultants face in adapting to implementation roles.
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Chapter Seven: Benchmarking Airlines at Bain
The very practical challenges of applying benchmarking airline industry are discussed and the need to stress-test each recommendation in a “live” setting.
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Inside A McKinsey Financial Services Engagement
A detailed McKinsey financial study in Latin America to restructure a $7B state-owned microfinance fund by entering the retail market.
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Inside a McKinsey Electricity Strategy Engagement
A McKinsey engagement in South Africa to develop a procurement strategy for Eskom to build 10 new power stations and secure $3.5B in initial funding.
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Learning From Consulting Mentors
My consulting mentor demonstrated strong values in two occasions: a transfer pricing study as an associate and on an organizational redesign as a principal.