Eighth Week..

Eighth week is called Academy Intensive Week. As the name suggests the week is really intensive. It all started on Monday, when we were formed into groups and were given assignments to present on Wednesday. We have a total of 8 teams’ presenting on 4 firms. Deloitte, Huron, PwC, McKinsey. For every firm there are two teams - A and B. I am with McKinsey B.

The objective is simple. Prepare a presentation that depicts to MBA students why should they join a particular firm. We were a team of 7 and worked on constructing a story to collecting the data. There are many takeaways from this assignment.

1. Know the audience. The story should be carved to the audience.
2. There should be a flow in the presentation. The story should seem natural and not jumping around from one thing to the other.
3. The presentation should not have many typed words. It should have many graphs and pictures and the presenter should talk about them in the presentation and should not read from the points that were there on the slide.
4. There should be a clear coordination among the members when they are exchanging the presenting positions.
5. You should anticipate possible questions based on the audience and be prepared for them.
6. While answering the questions, one person should answer and not everyone should jump on it.
7. Answer the question that audience has got and never try to evade it with some goofy answer.

We did a good job as per my view. The other important take away is time management and team dynamics. We lagged in time management because we have only 2 days to prepare this presentation and did not allocate time for each activity and stick to it. We all agreed that that is a lesson for us.

The team dynamics is other important aspect. We will come across conflicts and resolved them. We did not debate much due to time constraints. We learnt that we have to kill an idea even if it is mine and does not fit into the scheme of things.

And finally, we got second place among the eight teams presented. I was happy with it. We worked for 17 hours on two consecutive days and it paid off finally.

That’s the story for first 3 days. On Thursday we went to Chicago to meet our alumni and present what we have prepared the 3 days before. We went to Deloitte, Huron, and PwC. We can see the clear differences in their cultures and styles. Some are more informal than the others. Some are more open than the others. Some are more entrepreneurial than the other. That’s what is called Fit. Consulting companies look for fit when they recruit people. That’s the first step in the recruitment process.

Last but not least is the friends I have made in these 5 days. Now my McKinsey B team is really close. We fight and share and enjoy. Consulting life is tough and rough. But, if you want to be in consulting, you have to endure all these.