1. An elective course schedule with fascinating topics + celebrity professors.
2. Travel to South America, Africa, and Central America.
3. A tragicomedy of epic proportions around job options and last-minute decisions.
4. A foray into winter climbing and hiking in the New England ice and snow.
5. Graduation that included a surprising (and most welcome) Baker Scholar award.

I’ve been working all summer – in Cambridge at a start-up – but I’m finally settling in and I’ll try to hit a few updates on these topics in my spare time.  Maybe even touch on a bit of the world post-HBS (start-ups, consulting, etc).

Debating whether or not I should start a new blog for this new phase of life.  Surprisingly, this blog continues to grow in popularity!  I have no idea why – It’s almost depressing that traffic has been increasing even though I haven’t posted in a year (correlation or causation?).  I’m about to crest 27,000 hits over the two short years this blog has been in existence.  Pretty surprising given the low level of activity.  I think this just indicates the market is huge for a good HBS blog:

Weekly Hits for InsideHBS Blog

It’s also kind of interesting to check out the type of Google keywords that bring people to this little blog.  Google Analytics says that viewers have arrived via some 6,000 different search phrases (by the way – I *love* Analytics… it’s just such a fascinating data playground). Here are the top 20 for your info-tainment:

Top Google Search Terms

Looks like the whole McKinsey vs. BCG vs. Bain is a topic in high demand.  I might have to revisit some of the items on this list (it’s what the customer wants, after all…) and provide something more than the cursory thoughts I threw down 2 years ago.

Looking forward to talking to you all further!

The takeaway here: I hope to have some more time to post over the next couple of weeks until exams and the holiday travels drag me away.

The most important bit of news to share is that I finally accepted a full-time job offer this past week!  I’m headed back to the consulting firm I worked for during my summer internship.  Given the amount of time and stress I devoted to the recruiting process this year, it’s ironic that I’m accepting an offer that was on the table back in early August.  In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been a tough decision.  I had a fantastic experience over the summer, built a lot of strong relationships, and (I think) established a solid reputation within the office.  I really hope I haven’t sacrificed all of that goodwill by exploring other options over the last few months.

It’s tricky to know how best to handle this.  HBS’ policies are both a blessing and a curse.  They require firms to keep their offers open until this weekend:

“Second year class of 2010 students may not be required to accept offers before 1/15/10, or 3 weeks after the offer is made, whichever date is later. Full-time offers to previous employees and/or summer interns must be held open until at least 11/16/09. It is permissible to offer incentives to students who accept a full-time position in advance of these dates. The base offer (including base salary, base signing bonus, performance bonuses and job function) must remain open until the decision date.”

I think it may have been even later (Dec or Jan) in years past, but the power balance has shifted solidly to the recruiter’s camp in this dire economic climate.  The policy is great in that it gives us the chance to explore other options… BUT, only within the bounds of firms that recruit on-campus during recruiting week.  The 50-60% of jobs that arrive after the 11/16 deadline are outside this process… and tend to include many of the more interesting possibilities (VC/PE, start-ups, etc…)

I hope I’ve made the right choice here.  When I stop to think about it, it’s kind of amazing that I’ve signed a contract that doesn’t even have a start date until 1 year from today…!  Part of me thinks that’s a bit insane.  I can barely make firm travel commitments a few months in advance.  For the firms that require you to do this (consulting + i-banks), it’s really quite a good deal.  You’re able to remove candidates from the job market during what’s likely the most attractive period of their lives — all without paying a dime.  Now, that’s a *good* contract!

Maybe I’m just feeling a bit fatalistic now that I’ve (basically) locked-in the end result of two years at HBS… and while it’s a great option, it doesn’t involve a risky turnaround, stock options, the c-suite, or private jets.   (So much for everything I’ve learned here…!)

Or maybe it’s just typical melancholy from a rainy, rainy Saturday morning:

Rainy November #1

Rainy November #2

City Skyline

The Pool I Wish I Were Swimming In

It’s 6-something and dawn is approaching.  I’m waiting outside my apartment complex to catch a taxi to the airport for another week of living out of a hotel room.  Ahhhh…. the consulting lifestyle.

Just a few quick ideas that were discussed in the two sessions I attended.  The first was with Robert Eccles on “Leading Professional Service Firms (PSFs)”.  Three ideas:

1. What type of “alternative” business models are emerging?  We did a case earlier this year on Eden McCallum, which uses a “network” type business model (ie, a loosely linked internet-coordinated approach with flexible staffing) to compete against the major consulting firms.  Is this disruptive to the majors?  Or is it just a niche play?
2. Where does innovation come from in PSFs?  A lot of the consulting firms essentially “do R&D” by solving problems for clients.  How do you generalize and codify this into a new offering?  How do you select the projects that might create valuable IP / thought leadership?
3. How does a PSF build capabilities given the incentive structure?  The economic interests of the partners (in the short-term) does not necessarily align with long-term capability building.  The related question here is: why are so few consulting / investment firms able to expand beyond a small partnership and charismatic founder?

Anyway, some very interesting things to think about as I move forward into a consulting role this summer.  The second session I attended was with Andrew King on the “Industry Self Regulation of Environmental Impacts”.  Again, three  ideas:

1. Project finance (which consists of setting up a separate “corporation” for a large infrastructure project) has some unique issues.  While creating this SPE and funding it with a consortium of investors helps “de-risk” and spread the potential negative outcomes, it also dilutes a sense of responsibility.  No one has their brand equity at stake.  An interesting (and vividly beautiful) example of this are concrete plants in the karst of Vietnam.
2. There are two “Kermit the Frog” questions that each company should ask: 1) Is it easy to be green?  2) Can the frogs themselves make it easy?  I’m not sure how insightful that is, but I enjoyed the description.
3. The most economical way for a firm to raise standards is to do so in such away where it affects not just your firm, but changes the game for all firms.  Alliances, Due Diligence Best Practices, Signals – there a number of ways to raise the boats of all incumbents and to raise the barriers-to-entry for new entrants.

That’s it!   I skipped the third one (had a meeting to attend).  My only request for the next one: make the presentations 30 minutes long and let people jump around more!  It’s a bit ironic that HBS considers companies (during the Company Info Days) to only be worth 30 minutes each, but the professors to be worth 1hr each.  Such is the arrogance of academia…

If I could do it over again, I would:

1.  Watch the first five videos on the free CaseInterview.com while folding laundry.
2. Schedule 3 mock interviews / week with former consultants in the 3 weeks prior to the actual interviews (so – 9 interviews total).
3. The weekend before, skim a few real cases from a consulting club case book (not Case in Point). 

That’s it!  You really don’t need to do much more than that.  Memorizing frameworks?  Useless.  Attending case prep lectures and sessions?  Equally wasteful.  If you truly feel behind, I’d say that the time would be much better spent receiving (or giving) a mock interview than learning techniques that can only be effectively applied 5% of the time. 

That said, here are my top 10 tips for case interviews:

1. Listen carefully.  Information isn’t typically given without a purpose.
2.  Start with the basic metrics: industry size, market share, growth, margins.
3. Framework #1: Revenues – Costs = Profits
4. Framework #2: Client/Product, Customers/Market, Competitors, Risks
5. Don’t try to explore a laundry list of ideas.  Categorize and group.
6.  In contrast, segment everything they give!  Averages hide the truth.
7. Drive the interview forward with probing questions.
8. Hypothesize constantly!  Let this drive your search and analysis.
9.  Structure your answers: “I think about this in three ways…”.
10. Conclude holistically and succinctly.  Answer the original question.

That’s it!  Good luck…