Strategy Simplified

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 BC...

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 – i...

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. An...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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: W...

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 off...

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 off...

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...

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 t...

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 ca...

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...

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 Einstei...

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 exa...

Send us Fan Mail BCG just updated its Consulting Career Assessment (CCA) and most candidates approach it the wrong way. In this episode, Katie – ex-BCG, Black Belt Advisor at Management Consulted – breaks down the revamped CCA across each section, so you know what to expect. What most candidates miss: this isn't just a math test. BCG is measuring who you are and whether you are consistent in...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone wonders what comes after consulting, but the exits aren't talked about. In this episode of Consulting Unpacked , Jenny Rae (ex-Bain) breaks down the 5 most common exit paths – and why consulting opens more doors than almost any other career move. Resources: Create a free profile + access the Job Board (1K+ jobs) Create a free MC account to access foundational resourc...

Send us Fan Mail Sebastian is a Purdue junior with Bain interviews coming up. He ran a full first-round Bain case live – and after every section, coach Mitali stopped and told him exactly what worked and what he missed. Mitali spent 5 years in consulting, including as a senior consultant at Bain in London. She's coached 350+ people into MBB and used to interview candidates herself – so she kn...

Send us Fan Mail He got McKinsey and Bain interviews and practiced 30 cases with friends – but didn't make it past round 1. Overconfident Ollie is a target school student with every reason to be confident. He joined Black Belt, made a plan – then mostly went at it alone.  His KPI was cases completed and when MBB's first round came, his floor wasn't high enough. Katie and Japheth bre...

Send us Fan Mail Daniel went from steel and automotive to McKinsey. His path wasn't conventional – and neither was his networking strategy. Instead of casting a wide net, he built 2 deep relationships at the firm – mentors who helped him at every stage.  This episode breaks down what worked – and what the standard MBA playbook gets wrong. Why 2 deep relationships beat 30 surface connections i...

Send us Fan Mail Only 19% of McKinsey's new hires today are MBAs. In the mid-90s, that number was over 80%. The # of spots available for MBAs is shrinking – the competition isn't. MC coach Catherine Lee – ex-Deloitte, ex-BCG, Harvard MBA – breaks down 3 mistakes that sink most incoming MBAs before they ever reach an interview: Starting too late (fall semester is already too late) Treatin...

Send us Fan Mail Laura Ackermann once worked with a hospital executive in his 50s – years of running a mid-sized US hospital – who wanted to apply for McKinsey's Associate position. She was outraged. Not at him – at how common the pattern is.  Experienced hires undervalue what they've built. They apply too low. Skip networking because it feels uncomfortable. Wait to start case prep becau...

Send us Fan Mail Bain told Jenny Rae on day 1 she'd be pushed out if she didn't perform. What they conveniently left out: almost everybody meets the bar. Up or out isn't the brutal filter most people fear. In the early years, it's a deliberate scare tactic. The real pressure comes later, when you have to cross from analytical work into managing. In this episode of Consulting Un...