S23E27: Former BCG Consultant Runs a Live Higher Education Case Interview

Speaker A: To get to 240, we need, you know, 8,000 applicants. To get to 8,000 applicants, we need to make it attractive. How can we make it attractive? Um, two things. One is structure. So you again went straight into the answer didn't necessarily define a couple of buckets. I sort of, as you spoke through it, took a step back and was like, okay, well, okay, these are your buckets.

Speaker B: This BCG style case is presented by Bates White, one of the top economic consulting firms. Fields are here directly from the firm's lead recruiter on Open Rules. After that we'll hand it over to Yousef, who's xbct and one of our coaches who cases a real candidate live. You'll see the structure, the math, the final recommendation, the mistakes and everything. And make sure to stick around for the feedback after the case wraps up. And if you want reps like this before your own interview, join our Black Belt program for personalized feedback and accelerated preparation. Link in the show notes. Let's dive in. And I'm going to turn it over to Julian Pritcher, who's, uh, one of the lead recruiters at Bates White, to share just a little bit about the firm and then some opportunities I believe for some undergraduate candidates coming up. Julian, um, I'll let you take it away.

Speaker C: Yeah, thanks a lot, jpeth. I, uh, appreciate the introduction. Hi, uh, everyone, like Jay Peth said, my name is Julian Pritcher. I'm one of our recruiters here at Bates White, working primarily on our economist recruiting program, our PhD program, but also, uh, filling in on our undergraduate recruiting program as well. And I can give you a little bit more information about that towards the end of this call. Um, but for a little bit of background on Bates White, if you haven't heard of us, Bates White is an economic consulting firm located in Washington D.C. uh, if you're unfamiliar with economic consulting, I can provide a quick overview. It's a little bit more niche than maybe strategy or management consulting, uh, that you're used to on these type of live case interviews. Um, but our clients are typically law firms, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies involved in some sort of economic litigation. And they hire Bates White for our economic analysis and expert testimony. Uh, so some relevant examples here. Um, so the DOJ might hire Bates White to evaluate a merger between two companies and the effects of that merger. Uh, or a company may be stewing another one for some sort of anti competitive behavior and they'll hire Bates White to calculate the damages. Um, something extremely relevant. I'm not sure if People on this call follow the music industry, but there was a recent announcement that the DOJ ruled against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, calling them a monopoly. Uh, Bates White worked alongside the DOJ and helped them win that ruling. So pretty uh, uh, interesting and relevant work uh, in the news if you follow things like that. Uh, so just a little bit more background on Bates White and the work we do. Um, our consultants generally work on processing and analyzing large data sets, creating economic models, conducting industry research, preparing client deliverables. And then economists, uh, often perform advanced economic and econometric analysis, test and evaluate the their economic theories, research economic issues and apply that training they Learned in their PhD programs, uh, to help the our clients with their projects. Um, now just for some key differences in how Bates White operates and uh, maybe some other uh, different types of consulting you've heard of. So our work is very, very heavy on the quantitative side. So if you enjoy things like programming, coding, analyzing data, Bates uh, White is a great place for you. And then one other thing is our roles require no travel. Um, so they're you're not jet setting off across the world. If you're interested in Washington D.C. um, that's where you'll stay and uh, it's a great place. So cool. So this is our 2026 fall recruiting preview. Um, so we're uh, opening up positions for our summer consultants, essentially our summer internship for students graduating between December 2027 and spring 2028. Uh, we also have uh, economist positions opening around the same time, a little bit closer to the winter. Um, that's for those who have already earned their PhD or will be earning their PhD, uh next spring. Uh, and you can look out for those and apply for those on our website that I've linked there. And if you have any questions you can reach out to our careers page or um, I have my email address here at the bottom. Uh, in case those you have any questions and you want to reach out to me, uh, directly. Um, so yeah, that's uh, that's the plug.

Speaker B: Well, amazing. So you heard Julian, undergrad opportunities open in August, so stay tuned to Bates White's careers page. And it's not every day that you get to the recruiter's contact information. And so uh, we'll send that out when we share the recording of this um, live case. So Julian, I believe he's going to stick around for a few minutes to be able to answer uh, any questions in the chat. So if you've got those, pop those into the chat and uh, thanks again, Julian. Always great to hear from you. Amazing. Well, we are going to move into the case, so Yousef would love to get your, your introduction. Can you give us this kind of the 30 second highlight reel of uh, your kind of background and your work here at Management Consultant.

Speaker A: Great. Thanks so much. Um, uh, jfet, um, thanks for the bites. Wide intro, I think. Super, super exciting firm to work at for anyone who's, uh, into the quant side of things and wants to do some cool work. But yeah, let me jump into a little bit more about myself. Uh, my name is Yousuf Shaikh. I am a born and bred South African. Um, I grew up sort of on the east coast of the country. Uh, went on to study finance and accounting. So that's my academic background. Also qualified CFA charter holder. Um, and since graduating, started my career at bcg. So I interned first and then joined full time. Spent some time at bcg, most working mostly across, uh, Africa and the Middle east, uh, across a variety of different cases from uh, commercial due diligences, uh, to corporate strategy work. Uh, since then I spent a few years in private equity, um, and then got into the driver's seat of building businesses in the tech world. Uh, so I spent a couple of years at uh, Yoko, South Africa's leading pavements business. And uh, now I lead Uber's membership business for Sub Saharan Africa. And in parallel, uh, work with management, consulted, um, with casing. So have coached, uh, dozens of candidates similar to a lot of you who are dialed in. And, uh, Wasif that we have here today, um, and run, Uh, I think it's been grandfathered now, but something called the Strategy Sprint, uh, which simulated, uh, uh, uh, live, you know, MBP style cases. Um, that's the quick intro from my side. Um, happy to then jump into the case. Anything else, Jeffed?

Speaker B: Oh, thanks so much, Yousef. Wasif, cool. Would love to get your intro as well and then we'll, we'll dive in.

Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for that. Hello everyone. My name is Wasif and I am currently a grad student at Tufts. I'm studying engineering management. Previously I worked as a strategy and analyst at a construction technology company. And right now I'm just, you know, pivoting towards consulting and, uh, let's see where it goes. That's just a short intro.

Speaker B: Perfect. All right. Hey, I'm done here. Yousef, take the show.

Speaker A: Sounds good. Uh, Wasif, uh, thanks so much for joining us here today. Welcome to bcg. We are excited to have you. Um, we're gonna jump Straight into things. So I've taken a couple of minutes to review your resume. Um, so I have a good idea of your background. Uh, so I want you to follow it up. Um, what do you think makes you a good candidate or someone who would make a good consultant, uh, at BCG if you were to join?

Speaker D: Absolutely, yeah. Thank you so much for the question, Yousef. Ah, well, a couple of things honestly. I would like to start off by saying that uh, I'm the type of person who loves puzzles and that's where I think consulting is all about. Right. And when talking about puzzles from the very beginning and from a very young age I've been working on chess. You know, like, you know chess is something that I love and very uh, do enjoy a lot. But it' I got into engineering the first place. You know, that's, that's where the actual puzzles are all about. And after engineering I shifted towards management so that you know, I can learn more about business and corporate world. And now consulting makes the most sense because that's where intersection applies. And that's why I feel like I'm the very good candidate for BCG because I lie in intersection of things. Um, knowing what to, knowing what to say at the right time and also communicating well, making sure that I think in structured manner and also present my views in a proper manner.

Speaker A: Exciting, I think aligns a lot with what we're looking for at pcg. Uh, and Dan, to hear a little bit more about you. Indeed. Uh, consulting to a large extent is solving uh, some complicated puzzles and having fun along the way. Uh, so talking about puzzles, let's dive into the case for today.

Speaker B: Are you ready?

Speaker D: Absolutely. Yeah, let's do this.

Speaker A: Sounds good.

Speaker E: Cool.

Speaker A: Uh, your clients are two universities in a mid sized Southeast Asian country that are considering partnering to launch a new undergraduate degree. They're planning to call it the Bachelor of Global Technology and Innovation degree or BGTI for short. Both of these universities currently offer a uh, small locally recognized undergraduate technology and business program program. However, neither of these institutions have significant international visibility. The universities believe that by combining their strengths one university's strong engineering faculty with the other universities strong business and entrepreneurship reputation. They believe that they can create a differentiated international program. The longer term goal is to build a program that attracts high performing domestic and international students and develops partnerships with multinational employers, ultimately earning its recognition uh, as a global university. Um, and among business education rankings. The university has engaged your team to determine what steps they should take to ensure a successful launch of the new, of the new BGTI program or Bachelor of Global Technology and Innovation program.

Speaker D: Awesome. Yeah. So, uh, isn't it, uh, is it okay if I just, you know, run you through and through the. Whatever you said just to make sure that I got it right?

Speaker A: Sounds good.

Speaker D: Yeah. So our client today is like two universities, they're mid, mid size in Southeast, uh, Southeast Asia and their partner, the whole concept is to come up with a new undergraduate degree, uh, which is called Bachelors of Innovation. Did I get that right?

Speaker A: Uh, Bachelor of Global Technology and Innovation.

Speaker D: Perfect. Yeah, I just, just wanted to make sure that I got that right. All right, perfect. So it's a Bachelor's of Global Technology and Innovation, um, and neither have international visibility and that's what they're trying to focus on. Uh, and one of them is strong in their engineering faculty and the other one is strong in their business side and they're trying to, you know, join together and up with this new uh program. And the long term plan is to come up with high performing individuals, high performing students and alumni, have a global image and also increase their ranking, uh, side by side. And today they're asking us to determine what steps we need to come up and to ensure for the successful launch. Did I get that right?

Speaker A: Sounds good.

Speaker D: Perfect. All right, um, is it okay if I just take a couple of seconds just to gather my thoughts?

Speaker A: Uh, sure, go for it.

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Speaker D: All right, perfect. Um, just a couple of questions before we uh, before I explain my framework, um, I just wanted to know understand what's the um else than ensuring that they need a successful launch? Do they, are we also like looking towards what kind of um, like what kind of students are we trying to get from. Like do they also want from not just from domestic but also from transit students just to understand that uh, uh, where they want the global presence? Like exactly what regions?

Speaker A: Exactly that the objective is to create internationally competitive program attracting students not just domestically, but internationally as well?

Speaker D: Yeah. And what region specifically are they targeting?

Speaker A: Uh, they're agnostic of regions. They're based in Southeast Asia. So ideally from the broader Asian region, uh, as a starting point, um, however, over time the long term goal is to attract, um, the best talent from across the globe.

Speaker D: Perfect. And are they, and would you say are there like an expensive private institute or more of a government, um, uh, you know, small size institute, mid size. What kind of like institute would they be in terms of pricing in um, of their fees?

Speaker A: They're a, they're a private institution. So pretty much would be benchmarked against other private institutions. Institutions.

Speaker B: Perfect.

Speaker D: All right, sounds good. Um, okay, so the way I would, I would want to, like to take this uh, ahead would be in essentially the two buckets like I want to look at. Uh, so just to make sure that it's a successful launch, I want to know, um, what exactly is our target audience? Now we know for sure that it's going to be students, uh, aging from 16 to 18, uh, who are right now in their highest school. That's the main target. So like, how to reach them now to reach them, what we need is essentially marketing. And the way to market this would be, uh, first, uh, how. What kind of, you know, um, like talking about webinars or domestically, are we, are we going towards it or not? And then of course when we talk about partnership as well, I also, also that's my second bucket. The partnerships in which I'm looking at different universities, different high schools, sorry, speaking with them and making sure that, you know, we collaborate with them and then, you know, go from there. So, um, that's the way I would go for it, uh, making sure that the global presence is done in every way possible, not just virtually, but also domestically. And then uh, in terms of every high school, like to reach out to and then partner with them. And that's how, uh, I would love to like take this ahead. Does that make sense?

Speaker B: We'll be right back after this quick break.

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Speaker A: Sure. So you spoke about your first bucket being marketing. You spoke about your second bucket being around partnerships. Are there any other key elements that you'd look at in terms of developing a successful program?

Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, what I would also want to look at is how much would this cost us and how much would this, uh, um, uh, to show them that what exactly, um, are we. The cost benefit analysis, essentially looking at how much, uh, of everything would, uh, cost and how much are we getting back. So this is also something I would want to look at just to make sure that our client exactly knows what m. What's they're in for. And, um, the way, uh, to sell it would be definitely covered in the rest of the two buckets.

Speaker A: Okay, sure. And if we were to then go into it, which element would you look at first?

Speaker D: All right, so first of all, I want to look at our customers, um, the students that would be interested in. So when we talk about bachelor's in, um, global technology and innovation, I'm guessing it's, uh, those people, those students who are interested, uh, in a more diversified, um, portfolio for themselves, for the future. So, um, targeting those students would be crucial for us. So I want to know first of all that, uh, did we do, do we have some kind of data in terms of what kind of students. Are they even excited for this? The customer, uh, satisfaction or. So I want to look at these things first in terms of. In the marketing part.

Speaker A: Sure. Let's then dive into that specifically around the target market and the estimated size of what they're looking to. And we'll speak specifically about enrollment. So the university has defined a target of enrolling an inaugural class of 240 students. Of these 240 students, they ideally want it split evenly between domestic students and international students.

Speaker D: Cool.

Speaker A: Their estimates are one, that 60% of domestic applicants who are admitted will then ultimately enroll into the program. Further, they estimate that 15% of international applicants who admit will enrol. So to repeat that they assume 60% of those who are admitted domestically will Enroll, while only 15% of those who are admitted internationally will ultimately end up enrolling. Currently, the two universities have a combined 120 students enrolled in their undergraduate program, which they're expecting all of those students to transition into the new BGTI program.

Speaker D: Um, what's the number?

Speaker A: Sorry, 120 students? Yeah, combined between the two universities. So given this, given the target enrollment, the admission and enrollment rates, as well as the current class size, is that enrollment target that they defined up front the 240 students. Is that enrollment target a feasible target?

Speaker D: Yeah. So, um, absolutely. It is definitely achievable, I think that, uh, since already 120 students will be directly coming towards the UM program, that leaves us just with 120 more. And you said that 60% of, uh, um, the applicants would be, uh, joining the program, and then 15% of the international applicants will be joining the UM program itself. So that means that, um, if you like to find out how many total applicants would be applying, that would be like around, so 60, uh, percent. Um, so 120. So that's 160%. So that's 120 to 1.6, I believe. And, um, that's around.

Speaker B: Let me just see.

Speaker D: Uh.

Speaker G: Okay.

Speaker B: All right.

Speaker D: So that's around one. Around one. 180, 200 students. So that's like 200 students. Uh, applicants would, uh, would give us, uh, 120, uh, students that we exactly require. And the 15%, um, that means that if even if around, uh, let's say around 400 applicants apply for. From the transfer applicants, that's how we'll get the number. So I think it's very feasible. Uh, reaching the exact target audience would be much easier, I believe.

Speaker A: So let's, let's go through that. Um, in terms of actual, uh, applicants, what would we. What would be required in order to meet, um, the 240 student goal?

Speaker D: Right. So as you said that, and if I heard you correctly, like 120 students from combining both universities will be joining the program. So, like, we're left with 120 left, is that right?

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker D: And then you said that 60% of, uh, domestic applicants would be joining the overall program. Is that right?

Speaker A: So, um, let's take two examples. So the example, the two situations that we have is we have someone who applies domestically. Assuming that person applies and is admitted, um, only 60% of those who are admitted would ultimately end up enrolling. And then the same ratio when it comes to international students, only 15% of those who are admitted will ultimately end up enrolling.

Speaker D: Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. So, um, like I said, so the way to solve this would be that just, uh, like 60% of X would be 120. That's. That's how I'm looking at it. Right. So to uh, find the total number of applicants, so 120 divided by 0.6. That's uh, that's how is that math right?

Speaker A: Sure. It assumes that you're only looking at domestic students in that scenario.

Speaker D: Yeah, just the domestic Ones for then after that I will look into the international as well separately. And that would be like uh, 120 into 10, uh, divided by uh. That's 120.15.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker D: So that's how I would look at the international applicants and then find the total number of applicants. And that's uh, I think that's a very feasible number, um, to go about it. So.

Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So let's get into that calc.

Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. So, all right. So 120, uh, six. So the total number for um, the domestic ones would be 200 like I said. And for the um, uh, the international ones would be 120 or 15%. That would be around 800. So we do need around 1,000 applicants total, uh, just to reach that criteria of uh, 120. So I think that's very achievable.

Speaker A: Okay. And of those 1,000, you're saying ultimately we'll get 120, uh, students. Or will that.

Speaker C: You.

Speaker A: Will that contribute to the total? 240.

Speaker D: This will be just for 120. And the rest of 120 I believe is coming from the combined uh, uh, program that you said is, will be coming from the rest the two universities. So total, uh, will be 240. Cool.

Speaker A: Sounds, sounds good. Um, we'll then move into the, the next part of the case. So the team concluded that attract international students will be the most difficult aspect of launching the new program, similar to what you mentioned earlier in your structure around marketing. So what are some of the ways that these two universities could use to attract some international applicants?

Speaker D: Yeah, so, um, like I said, the way to look at this would be the best way honestly is to show them what opportunities would they get after they graduate. That's, that's the biggest selling point that they would have. Right. So after you graduate, what are the career opportunities that you could get and while you're there as well? Um, what kind of faculty are you. Are you guys getting? What kind of um, studies are you m. What kind of courses are going to have throughout the four years or three years program? Um, this, these, these selling points will attract those students to make. And these uh, will make sure that they come towards the Southeast Asia. So the way to look about this is making sure that you know what your selling points are and selling points are and then going about those. And uh, uh, like I said, like in my structure that. Not just that. So like you're hosting webinars, making sure that everyone knows information sessions. They know what, what the whole program Is all about. And also before the launch. And before the launch is also important to have partnerships with different high schools so that uh, they tell their own students that, all right, this is something that's been very um, growing and emerging field. And this is something that you guys should look into. So it's a.

Speaker A: It's a.

Speaker D: It's a very um, diversified, um, approach. We need to make sure that all the students, whoever uh, would be interested are. Know about the program itself and they're very aware about it. Complete transparency is how I would put it.

Speaker A: Sure. And anything else.

Speaker D: Um, so I believe, uh, the way to uh, attract international students is uh. Is also having um, some kind of. Let's say that you have some kind of um, semester abroad programs. Right. So currently the high school students who are studying, they come to your university, they see what's going on and they meet the faculty and then that's how they get more attracted about, oh, this is a great school. So having more summer schools and uh, attracting international students, even those, it will help them gain more exposure and more awareness about the university itself and then go about from there. I believe, uh, that's also a smart way to go about things. So it all uh, depends, um, on uh, what are their target audience and which high schools they want to target, essentially.

Speaker A: Okay, so I get you on making the program attractive. So showing candidates what they can get into. Your second point around introduction sessions, creating some awareness. And third, you mentioned, uh, around partnerships. Anything else that you would consider open above that?

Speaker D: Um, I believe these are the things that I would um, primarily look at. And that's how I would go about, uh, how to. So your question is how to increase awareness amongst teen trial students. Right. So this is how primarily I would go about these things and see uh, what's working, see what makes more sense and then double uh, down on the things that are working the most.

Speaker A: Correct. So the question is awareness, but more broadly it's attractiveness. And of course awareness of the program is one element, but attractiveness is what we're optimizing for.

Speaker G: So.

Speaker A: Yeah. Anything else around making it attractive?

Speaker D: Yeah, um, I can see that you're trying to make sure that I get to it. And. Yeah. So the way to make it more attracted, I believe is to make um, sure that um, they know more about the program itself, as transparent as you can get. Um, like give them scholarships, give them different kind of, you know, um, those kind of things so that they can come and they make sure that, oh, this is getting more cheaper for me. And it's I'm also like getting a lot of. So like uh, if the students are able to do cost benefit analysis at the end of the day they're able to reach their whole potential. I believe they would definitely be attracted towards it.

Speaker A: Sounds good. Sounds good.

Speaker E: Cool.

Speaker A: Um, we'll then wrap up with the last section of the case and um, the team is actually you know, following all of this. Analysis confirmed that international recruitment and marketing will be critical to the success of the new program. The next phase is now going to be focused on implementation. What implementation challenges do you think the two universities will most likely face in trying to attract enough students?

Speaker D: I believe the biggest thing would be making sure like initially we discussed uh, webinars and we discussed summer schools and we discussed scholarships. Making sure. I think the biggest challenge that they would have in terms of implementation would be getting the signups and getting the target that they have in terms of applicants. That would be the biggest implementation challenge that we have in terms of a launch. Uh, uh, and also uh, domestically it might be easy uh to reach out to students and uh, go to these high schools and do collaborations. It'd be much harder to do that internationally with different schools all around the world. I believe it's going to be um, a much harder sell and they would need a much more um, I would say power in terms of um, uh attractiveness so that they can also agree to it to uh, the partnerships and also sign ups. So I believe that that's the main challenge that they would have in terms of uh, implementation.

Speaker A: Sounds good. So um, our client has now asked for a formal recommendation based on everything that we've looked at. What would you say to him?

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Speaker D: They want formal recommendations.

Speaker A: Yes. So the final formal recommendation.

Speaker D: Yeah. Right. So um, to just summarize the whole thing, the best way I would say is that um, the steps that you need to take are simple. You need to make sure that your um, the target that you have is achievable and that's there. And then go about uh, the marketing in the proper way. Um, like you said that um, uh, making the program attractive. So that's the first step. What are the things that makes the program attractive if you have a complete transparent list and then you're able to sell that in a good marketing way. I believe that's the first step you need to do. And secondly, um, you need to gather data. Is this even um, a great program for you, uh, to launch and have uh, some surveys, um, all around, all around the world to get some more data like which, which students will be majorly, um, uh, attracted towards it. So that's, that's the more data you have, the more knowledge you'll have to reach the right audience. And then lastly, um, making sure that you have the right partnerships to go about your launch and uh, to make it a great success.

Speaker C: Cool.

Speaker A: Sounds good. Uh, Wassif. That brings us to the, to the end of the case. Um, I'll jump into a little bit of feedback and we'll actually start right from the top. So um, we kicked off with ah, a very typical question when it comes to case, ah, interviews. And that was, um, it can come in different flavors. It can be, tell me about yourself. It could be, you know, why you're a good fit. Sometimes these questions come at the start, sometimes they come at the end. And it's in part to gauge um, your understanding of the firm, but also your willingness and your potential fit. So there's generally three things that I like to call out, uh, and encourage candidates to call out when they're asked this question specifically about why you would be a good fit. First, you want to call out something relating to curiosity, uh, and creativeness. And I think you ticked that box perfectly when you spoke about puzzles. It uh, lends itself to the type of person that an MBB consulting firm would want to hire, um, and so aligns very well with um, what the interviewer would almost want to hear. So that's the first part. The second part is showing some form of differentiated interests. So um, the easiest way that I can describe this is, um, at a high level you demonstrate a curiosity, um, by saying that you enjoy solving puzzles. The way you can really nail this because to a certain extent that could be quite a generic answer. So the way you can really nail this and bring that message home is to demonstrate how you've done it in a very differentiated way. A, um, very simple example of this could be, um, I grew up in a small town, uh, in the 90s and the early 2000s, uh, without access to tons of technology, um, but had a deep interest in technology. And the way that I, uh, you know, uh, solved puzzles or made use of it is I took all pieces of, uh, technology and put things together to make something unique or different that I could have fun with. I don't know, like a simple example of that could be, you know, taking a battery and an old motor from some old appliance at home and making something that solves some problem. Again, a differentiated story to help land the message around what you're saying. That makes you different, that makes you curious. So that's the second element. The third element is incorporating into your answer something that shows culture fit. So McKinsey, Bain and BCG, while they're all similar, uh, in some instances around the types of talent that they attract and the type of work that they do, there are slight nuances in terms of the culture of each of the firms. Um, bcg, uh, famously, or maybe not so famously, prides themselves on hiring what they call the humble overview overachievers. Ah, so just demonstrating how, you know, despite, you know, maybe your great results or all of your achievements, you know, you're focused on being humble, but doing so with, um, you know, the client in mind, doing work, you know, with the end customer in mind, demonstrate how you could be a good culture fit for the. For the firm itself. So calling out elements that align with the firm's culture is, Is critical. And I'll maybe draw another parallel, uh, to Bates White, who we mentioned a little bit earlier. They mentioned being very quantitatively Dr. So a part of, you know, uh, demonstrating through this question of why you'd be a good fit is, uh, speaking to how, you know, almost everything in your life is driven by numbers. You have an Excel spreadsheet to track your monthly grocery bill. Again, it's not necessarily answering the question about how you're going to add value for the client at the end of the day, but it speaks to the type of person that you are and how well you'd get along in the environment should you be hired. So those are maybe the three points on that question. Let's then dive into the case. So, um, we'll start with the first prompt, which is around what steps the client should take to develop a successful program. There's two pieces of feedback. One that's going to be sort of a common thread throughout the sections of the case study that we covered. And then another piece of feedback that's very specific to the, uh, first. So my first piece of feedback is structure. Uh, there was generally a lack of structure throughout each of your answers. Um, uh, in the first part of the case, you did take time to pause to think through a structure. Um, however, in each of the instances, the first, second, third and fourth part of the case, you dove straight into answering the question and, and instead of demonstrating a structure upfront, um, your answer was more continuous. So you started your answer by saying to. The first part of the question is I would look at the audience and then I would look at the marketing and then I would also do partnerships as opposed to these are the four buckets that I would consider defining the audience. Creating a marketing plan, uh, creating a partnership plan. Cool. Now under audience um, I would uh, understand who is an international student, who is a domestic student, which university they come to, who are we targeting under partnerships? Uh, what are the top schools in the world that we may want to partner with in order to make this program attractive? Under I think we then uh, towards the end of it going to cost of the program. Uh, what does the cost of the program? What is the current cost of the undergraduate program? What is the cost of comparable M. International programs? How does our cost compare? Where would we want to make a ah, um, a ah, trade off in terms of how we structure our program? So my feedback here is not necessarily on the content itself. I saw that you were able to think through the content. It was more about creating a structure. So it makes it very easy for the interviewer to then go into one piece of the, of your, of your structure over another. So for example you'll notice that the quant based question, the next part of the case went into the audience and the enrollment size and the size of the class. By clearly structuring your case you can almost give the one line on each of those and then almost immediately jump into the, into the next session, you know, making better, better use of your time through the interview. So that's my first bit of piece of feedback and again it's going to be consistent throughout. Your answers is really drive good structure. Um, there's a couple of tools that you can use to do this. The pyramid principle, top down communication, um, you know, speaking to each thing at the same level, so being mutually exclusive, completely exhaustive. Um, uh, really encourage you to look into some of those principles that will help guide you in developing structure going forward. Second piece of feedback again on the first section was there's a very important piece um, that it relates to contextually. With this case it's two universities that have two different sets of strengths. A big part of the consideration is operation needs. How are these two universities going to bring together the two sets of strengths to actually make an attractive program? It's not Simply a matter of just coming together and be like, hey, we're going to create this new bachelor program and transition everyone into it. It's, you know, what does the syllabus look like? Um, what are the syllabus of other comparable programs that we need to bring in? Are we filling in all of the gaps or do we still have gaps? Do we need to hire some additional academic support staff to be able to build a syllabus, to teach the syllabus, to test the syllabus, and so on and so forth. So operational readiness, important to call out in the first section, but it also flows through in a lot of the other sections. Remember, you're now looking to take two universities that currently only cater for 120 students and double it 240. There's going to be some additional operational overhead that you're going to need to consider from a cost side as well. You did mention briefly around the investment that's required, you know, the ROI of the program. Ultimately, however, operational readiness is key to that. So that, that covers the first section, the second session around the quant, um, here and I really encourage everyone who's watching. When it comes to quant, there's generally, you know, the what, what do you call in consulting the low hanging fruit or the easy wins when it comes to quant and is the more difficult part. So when it came to the quant, we wanted to get 240 students. We currently have 120 that are currently enrolled in the university. They have no international program. So all of those students are effectively domestic. And remember, we want 240 equally split between domestic, international. So 240 divided by two is 120, 120 domestic, 120 international. We already have 120 within our program. So we've ticked the box on the domestic students. We now only need to focus on the international students. So we need 120 international students. I had to prompt you to go into the actual calculation. It didn't naturally come to you. So, um, the feedback that I'd give here is take time to structure exactly what I described. We have 240. We have 100 that we want to get to. We have 120 currently. Uh, can we assume that these are all domestic? If. Yes. Okay, cool. So we sort out the 120. We need the balance of 120. But importantly, the balance of 120 needs to be international. Structuring the problem, writing it down and speaking the interview through. That will help eliminate some of the confusion that you face through that but it'll also help you clarify. I'm just working on one, one calculation which was to get to the 120 international. Assuming the 15%, uh, enrollment rate relative to admission, that gives you, um, 120 divided by 15%, which basically gets you to 800 students that need to be admitted. However, you don't simply get admitted as a student. Right? So if you're saying there's a couple of stages in the process. There's enrollment, which is the final stage. There's admission, which is the stage before enrollment. There's one step before which is application. You apply from apply, you enroll from. Sorry, from apply, you get admit. From admit, you get enrolled. You still needed to work out how many people needed to apply. And here you would have needed to apply. Some sort of, um, uh, assumption. So if we wanted to get to 800, um, admissions, what percentage of the students who applied would be admitted? Let's say 10%. So if we had 800 admissions at a, uh, 10% admission rate, then we'd need 8,000 applicants. And then you can sense check and actually answer the question, is that enrollment target feasible? The real question Then is, is 8,000 applicants in your first year actually reasonable? And that's the point that you'd be able to engage with the question creatively. Next. And I'll, and I'll wrap up with this feedback, um, in terms of, um, uh, attracting the international applicants. Because that's really what the crux of the case came down to, is to get to 240, we need, you know, 8,000 applicants. To get to 8,000 applicants, we need to make it attractive. How can we make it attractive? Um, two things. One is structure. So you again went straight into the answer didn't necessarily define a couple of buckets. I sort of, as you spoke through it, took a step back and was like, okay, well, okay, these are your buckets. Um, if I'm not mistaken, your buckets were make it attractive from a next steps perspective for the students. Look at partnerships. And then when prompted, you said, okay, let's also look at things like scholarship. So on the one side it's building awareness. That's definitely one part of making the program attractive. Um, on the sec, in terms of the other two parties, um, that you could have looked at is how can we make the university have a better reputation? Um, so, you know, for a university to get a better reputation, maybe it is, you know, being part of the formal rankings that get done of international universities, um, or create a very special specialization that really makes this, um, a very specific university that could be known for something specific. Um, on the attractiveness side, just purely making it attractive exactly as you. You got to towards the end, is how can we provide better financial aid for. Specifically for international students. Um, you mentioned highlighting employment outcomes. So really not just looking at awareness, uh, attractiveness purely from the awareness lens, but looking at some of the other lenses as well. Um, so in one part, it was just creating a structure. So pausing, taking a minute to creating a structure. And then the second part is actually speaking through the content and the elements. Um, the last part was then on the final recommendation. And here, um, again, you're more than welcome to take 30 seconds or 20 seconds to pause and maybe think through your final recommendation. And ideally, what you want, your final recommendation is not just to be, hey, we should do it because of this reason. It's, uh, hey, um, based on all of the information that we have that we've been given, this is my recommendation. So it's not just a recommendation for the sake of giving a recommendation. It's a recommendation rooted in the data. So an example of how we could rephrase your recommendation based on all of the answers that we work through in the cases. I recommend that we go or not go ahead with the BGTI program because our goal is to get to 240 students. We already have half of that class. The balance needs to come from international students, of which we need 8,000 applicants. To get to those 8,000 applicants, we really need to make the program attractive. To make the program attractive, we need to do awareness. We need to do partnerships. We need to do this. Um, that's my final recommendation. And really, if you want to really nail the case and, uh, make the interviewer very happy, you say, well, this is my recommendation, and here's my specific next steps for us to look into. Let's do a market analysis. Let's create a differentiated positioning. Let's look at the curriculum. Let's build a specific implementation plan. So not just giving the recommendation, always concluding a case with.

Speaker G: With.

Speaker A: With next steps.

Speaker D: Cool.

Speaker A: I know we're a little bit over time on. On how we like to stick to the case, but that brings us to the end of the feedback on that case.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: And back to J.F. great job, guys.

Speaker B: Um, well done. Uh, Wasif, there's a little bit of pressure here with a bunch of people watching live, so. Hello. Bravo. Hi, Katie. How are you?

Speaker G: Hi. Doing all right. Great job.

Speaker A: Good.

Speaker G: On that case, um, I would say, Yousef, it seems like you've done this

Speaker A: before, so maybe once or twice.

Speaker G: Yeah, but it takes a lot of courage to be in the hot seat. So well done. And you know, how uh, does Yusuf get to the point where he can advise candidates so well? Well, he's been doing this a while and he's helped a lot of candidates succeed. Um, he's one of our fantastic coaches that uh, we have in our black belt program and we have an incredible success rate when candidates join black belt. The industry average for an offer rate is about 5%. And 80% of our black belts land at least one offer. And that's whether we're talking internships or full time offers. And um, that's really one of the backbones of that is our coaches who help create the structure in addition to the uh, the resources we have along the way. So black um, belt gives you structure. It's most people who are looking to join consulting are. You're intelligent, you're ambitious, you're hardworking, but you know that you have to do so many things in a small amount of time and you have to do everything. How do you put it all together? We help you with the structure. What do you need to focus on and when. Don't waste your time with the noise. We are going to help you find the right coach for you or coaches because um, we want you to have a really positive relationship with the person who's going to help you uh, succeed. And you have milestones. These are milestones through your self paced training. But also coaches, let me tell you, I know that when I have a meeting booked with a coach, I want to show up like I've actually improved since the last time we met. Talk about some, some milestones of accountability. Absolutely every session. And we have seen historically, this is over 15 years of data that black belts who succeed on average have completed uh, 22 real cases to land the offer. That is not prescriptive, but it is um, illustrative of illustrative uh, of how we help you be more effective. So if you have uh, if you're in interview season, if you're going to start recruiting, uh, and you are ready to join, then that second QR code with the little yellow sort of squares is the one to click or scan. Uh, and if you're still not sure or you want to understand what would be a good fit for you, book a call with me with the uh, blue shapes QR code and I'd be happy to talk to you. Uh, love BCG cases. I'm ex BCG myself but we help you get into any consulting firms. We're agnostic to that. And, uh, we want you to succeed.

Speaker B: That's a live BCG case for you. Start to finish. You saw each part of the process. Biggest lesson coming out of this structure first, content second. State your buckets, your structure before you start to talk through them every single time. Do you want a coach like Yousef to help build your case skills with real feedback that's included in our black Belt program? If you want to accelerate your prep, join today via the link in the show. Notes finally hit subscribe so you don't miss our next case interview. Thanks for tuning in.