Conceptual Frameworks in Case Interviews

Introduction

Presenter: Bruno, ex-McKinsey consultant, co-founder of Crafting Cases
Aim: To teach how to stand out in case interviews by thinking like top management consultants
Focus: Conceptual frameworks (3rd way to be MECE in case interviews)

Definition: Categorizing qualitative drivers into broader conceptual structures
Examples:
- Porter's Five Forces: Framework for long-term industry profitability
  - Drivers: Barriers to entry, switching costs, supplier concentration, etc.
  - Forces: Threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of customers and suppliers, industry rivalry
- 3 Cs (Customer, Company, Competition): For competitive environment analysis
- 4 Ps of Marketing: Tactical options in marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)
- People, Process, Systems: Used for organizational analysis at McKinsey

Custom Frameworks:
- Example: Increasing Tesla's electric car sales
  - Categories: Customers, competition, products, infrastructure
- Example: Improving a law firm's staff quality
  - Categories: Smarter people, more experienced, better educated, more motivated, better trained, more exposure to projects
- Example: Enhancing business school education
  - Categories: Better professors, students, books/materials, curriculum, extracurriculars

When to Use:
- For non-numerical problems or issues with unreliable long-term data
- For understanding the full context of a situation
When Not to Use:
- When needing to eliminate parts of the problem quickly (prefer an issue tree)
Choosing a Framework:
- Advanced candidates should build from scratch
- Beginners can adapt existing frameworks
Adapting Frameworks:
- Add/subtract categories to fit the specific problem
- Make issues and hypotheses specific to the problem

Mutually Exclusive:
- Use a unifying criterion for all buckets (e.g., competitive marketplace players)
Collectively Exhaustive:
- Include all relevant categories according to the chosen criteria
- Practice and business judgment are crucial

Quality of Hypotheses: Critical for framework effectiveness
Interviewer Perception: Based on adaptation and specificity, not just framework selection
Framework Complexity: Focus should be on relevance and insightfulness, not exhaustive detail

Action Points: