Strategy Simplified

Episoder

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  S23E30: Why Retail Consulting Firms Are Losing Market Share 22.07.2026 28min

  Send us Fan Mail Consumer and retail consulting used to be one market. Now it's 4. Each lane pulls a different lever – growth, margin, or talent. Firms that used to compete on "we do consumer and retail" are getting picked apart by specialists who can prove which lever they actually move. In this episode of The Briefing, Japheth sits down with Namaan to break down the 4 lanes reshaping a $70B market, why AI stopped being enough on its own, and why private equity's longer hold periods are turn...
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  S23E29: How to Build Business Acumen for Consulting 17.07.2026 23min

  Send us Fan Mail Building business judgment is learnable – most candidates just go about it the wrong way. Tauseef Charanya spent 10 years at BCG, conducted over 300 case interviews, and coached hundreds of candidates through the process. In this episode, he explains what business acumen actually looks like in a case interview, why work experience alone doesn't build it, and the 4 layers you need to hit to get an offer. Resources: If you're ready to work on your business acumen with an ...
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  S23E28: How to Use AI in Case Prep (And How Not To) 15.07.2026 12min

  Send us Fan Mail Using AI for case prep? For most candidates, it's costing them the offer. McKinsey and Bain are already grading how you use AI in interviews this cycle. Most candidates ask AI for answers, skip the hypothesis, and accept whatever it hands back. That skips the exact skill firms are testing: how you think through a problem, not just the answer you get to. In this episode, Namaan breaks down the 3 AI case prep mistakes, and the right way to use it like a directed junior analyst ...
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  S23E27: Former BCG Consultant Runs a Live Higher Education Case Interview 10.07.2026 48min

  Send us Fan Mail This episode is presented by Bates White, one of the world's top economic consulting firms. If you're an undergraduate rising junior (Class of 2028), Bates White internship applications open in August. Learn more. Consulting firms are moving towards non-traditional cases. They want to see if you can think, not just if you've memorized a framework. This one is a BCG-style case built around two universities launching a joint degree from zero. Ex-BCG coach Yusuf Shai...
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  S23E26: Everyone Thinks AI Is Killing Consulting. The Data Says the Opposite 08.07.2026 26min

  Send us Fan Mail Everyone assumes AI is eating consulting alive – demand shrinking, firms pulling back. That's the narrative. The data from our July Consulting Market Outlook says something else entirely. In this episode of The Briefing, Japheth sits down with Namaan to unpack what's actually happening in the market right now. Demand is up. The bottleneck isn't leads or RFPs – it's delivery. And that changes who's winning in the second half of 2026, for firms and for candidates. W...
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  S23E25: BCG HireQuotient: What It Is, How It's Scored, and How to Pass It 07.07.2026 21min

  Send us Fan Mail BCG's HireQuotient Online Assessment is the Online Case – same test, new platform. Katie – MC's Black Belt Advisor and ex-BCG – breaks down what's on it, how it's scored, and the thing that fails candidates outright. We walk through a live demo so you can see the mechanics before BCG sends you the real thing. Finish in time, prioritize fast, rule things out. And when you get to the final video rec – you get one shot. Whatever's recorded when the clock hits zero goes to BCG. R...
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  S23E24: Consumer & Retail Consulting in 2026 – What the Top Firms Are Watching 03.07.2026 54min

  Send us Fan Mail The consumer and retail consulting market is fragmenting. Specialists are winning deals that used to go to the big firms – and the clients driving that shift aren't going back. 2 partners from this year's Top Consumer & Retail Consulting Firms ranking break it down. Keith Fogerty from Advancy and Shikha Jain from Simon-Kucher share what's actually happening in the market – revenue growth pressure, AI's real role, private equity's tightening standards, and why a pret...
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  S23E23: The Unsexy Habit That Landed Him a BCG Offer 01.07.2026 21min

  Send us Fan Mail Bruno had every disadvantage on paper: international student, non-target school, three internships that didn't add up to one clear story. He didn't let it hold him back, landing a full-time offer at BCG. In this episode of Recruiting Reality Check, Katie – MC's Black Belt Advisor – breaks down what got Bruno there. Spoiler: it wasn't more cases. It was a plan he stuck to even when it felt too "boring" to work. Turns out, unsexy habits get results. We cover: Why stacking...
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  S23E22: Case Interviews Got Harder at MBB in 2026 – Here's What Changed 26.06.2026 7min

  Send us Fan Mail Every McKinsey interviewee last year got at least 1 non-traditional case. Most candidates are still only prepping for standard business cases. Namaan breaks down what's actually different about case interviews in 2026, and it's not just the case types. McKinsey is piloting an AI-enabled interview round. Bain's also adding one this summer. The bar on communication and presence just went up too, because AI raised the floor on sounding prepared – but sounding ready isn't t...
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  S23E21: The Real Driver Behind the Energy Consulting Boom 24.06.2026 14min

  Send us Fan Mail Energy consulting grew in line with the market for a decade. Flat. Unremarkable. Nobody paid attention. That changed. The market's now projected to grow 11% in 2026, and leverage for candidates with ops or technical backgrounds is higher than at any point in recent history. In this episode of The Briefing, Japheth sits down with Namaan to break down what's driving the boom. Spoiler: it's not just the data center buildout you've been reading about. Whether you're hunting...
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  S23E20: The 4 Case Prep Gaps Costing You the Offer 19.06.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail The reality of MBB recruiting: 100 candidates apply. 15 get an interview. 1 gets the offer. Most of the 99 who don't get it aren't underqualified. They just had a bad plan. Kabreya Ghaderi, who coached hundreds of candidates and spent time at McKinsey, PwC, and Bridgespan, sees strong candidates still miss because their prep plan has a hole in it they can't see from the inside. In this episode, Kabreya walks through the 4 gaps that sink even candidates who are doing everythin...
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  S23E19: BCG Case Interview – Solar Energy Revenue Decline 17.06.2026 41min

  Send us Fan Mail Ish Mawla ran a BCG case in front of a live audience. Real candidate, real pressure. The case: a solar company in an emerging market watching its revenue fall while the broader market keeps growing. Aditya has to figure out why – and what to do about it. Then Ish breaks down the whole thing – what Aditya did well and where he left points on the table. Here's what stood out: Why your framework can work against you – and the one thing most candidates build in that they shouldn'...
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  S23E18: 5 Candidates Share What Actually Got Them MBB Offers 12.06.2026 47min

  Send us Fan Mail 5 people just landed offers at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, and L.E.K. We got them all in one room and asked them the same question: what actually worked? The real stuff – how many cases they did, how they networked, what they wish they'd done differently, and the misconceptions that almost cost them. Aisha did 50 cases her first recruiting cycle and didn't get the offer. She did 25 the second time and got it. That contrast says more than any framework guide will. You'll le...
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  S23E17: Ex-Bain Interviewer Shares What Gets You Hired at Bain 10.06.2026 39min

  Send us Fan Mail Mitali Jalan was told she couldn't break into consulting as a chartered accountant. She was told it was unlikely she'd land Bain as an international MBA student. She got the offers anyway. She worked at Deloitte India and Bain London, then sat on the other side of the table as a Bain interviewer. She's coached over 350 candidates and knows where people lose the offer. The thing she kept seeing? Candidates who spent weeks on case prep, walked in technically ready, and still di...
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  S23E16: How AI is Disrupting the Consulting Model | Arda Ecevit, Ex-Bain & NexStrat AI Founder 05.06.2026 45min

  Send us Fan Mail Every week we hear the same question from candidates: Is AI going to gut consulting before I can break in? Short answer: No. Longer answer: The model is changing fast, and you need to know what's shifting and what isn't. Arda Ecevit spent over 13 years at Deloitte, Strategy&, and Bain before co-founding NexStrat AI. He sat down with Namaan to talk about what AI is doing to consulting – and the parts of the job it can't touch. What AI is taking off the junior consultant's ...
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  S23E15: He Quit His Job to Break Into Consulting 03.06.2026 17min

  Send us Fan Mail Walter applied to consulting out of undergrad and didn't get an offer. Went into investment banking, got another shot a year and a half later, and still wasn't ready – too busy, not focused enough, cramming at the last minute. So he quit his job to recruit full time. That's an extreme version of the lesson, but the lesson applies to anyone working full time while trying to break in: you have less time than you think. Consulting firms aren't running a six-month hiring cy...
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  S23E14: Ex-BCG Principal: Why 22 Cases Beat 100 (And What Actually Gets Offers) 29.05.2026 27min

  Send us Fan Mail BCG interviews typically start 3–4 weeks after the application deadline – and deadlines are here. Tauseef Charanya spent 10 years at BCG – half consulting, half building AI products globally. He's done 300+ interviews and has seen strong candidates miss offers for the same reasons, over and over. In this episode, he breaks down the 3 mistakes that hurt otherwise solid BCG candidates, why doing more cases without feedback makes you worse, and the 4-step system that gets ...
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  S23E13: How to Crush Your First 90 Days in Consulting 27.05.2026 46min

  Send us Fan Mail Most new consultants walk in with work style blind spots they can't see – and their managers notice before they do. In this episode, Namaan – COO of Management Consulted – breaks down his framework for owning your first 90 days in consulting: how to identify your blind spots, read your manager, and carry yourself like someone who's been doing this for years. You'll learn: What your manager actually cares about (hint: it's not how hard you work)The 3 work styles that get consu...
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  S23E12: Energy Consulting Is Exploding – 3 Insiders Break Down Why 22.05.2026 54min

  Send us Fan Mail Energy consulting is growing 11% this year – the fastest-growing sector in consulting. AI data centers are eating power faster than the grid can supply, the energy transition is still underway, and nobody has a clean answer for how to do both at once. 3 insiders from MC's 2026 energy ranking join the show: Sean Jump (dss+), Charlie Sorensen (BearingPoint), and Michael Einstein (Simon-Kucher). You'll learn: Why clients are asking for things now they weren't 2 years agoHow ener...
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  S23E11: 400 Bain Resumes Reviewed – 3 Mistakes She Saw Every Time 20.05.2026 29min

  Send us Fan Mail Maile Dyer reviewed 400+ resumes as a Bain Manager. She was on the recruiting team, making the decisions on who got interviews. And she kept seeing the same 3 mistakes: structure, content, and formatting. Most candidates miss at least one. A lot of them miss all 3 — and they never find out why they never heard back. In this episode, Maile breaks down each mistake and tells you exactly how to fix it. Katie Neff joins to tie it back to your full recruiting strategy. You'll lear...