Monday, 27 September 2021

HOW TO CRACK BUSINESS AND CONSULTING INTERVIEWS?


In the broad sense, interviewing is the process whereby individuals exchange information. The individuals may be concerned with a job opening, a promotion, a special assignment, a product sale, information for intelligence purposes, a proposed merger, or other questions. The information exchanged need not be limited to facts. In business, particularly, such products of an interview as meaning and understanding are oftentimes more significant than objective factual statements. Let’s look at some tips for doing well in a management consulting firm case interview

Let's approach this as if it was a consulting interview question in itself and let's understand 

a) What They’re looking for and 

b) How we get there.

a) As with any other job interview, interviewers in management consulting are asking themselves three questions:

Would I like to work with this person?

Does this person have / can this person learn the skills?

Can this person be placed in front of a client?

b) So let's address all 3 of these:

Would I like to work with this person?

This is where your people skills will come in. You can have the best case interview answers of all time.

Does this person have / can this person learn the skills?

There is a good saying: "Hire attitude, train skills" - This doesn't mean that you can completely lack skills and get an offer, but it does allude to the fact that your skills need not be perfect the day that they hire you. They, however, expect that you will want to learn and grow within the company, so that in a short amount of time after you begin working, you will indeed have the necessary skills.

Can this person be placed in front of a client?

As a junior consultant, you will often spend your days analyzing analysis. However, if you work in a small company you will very early on be expected to be able to carry out your meetings with the client. That means that you will be placed in rooms with executives who are more experienced and more knowledgeable than you are. If you can't handle your nerves during a case interview, They can be pretty certain that you won't be able to handle your nerves when the client asks you a question you have no answer for. This is why it is important to stay cool, calm, and collected during your interview.

Put emphasis on how you present yourself. The way that you present yourself and the way you present the answers is the key. In technical questions, it’s important to think about how you can bring your answer from a logical standpoint and walk through your thinking and show how you’re getting to that answer. Now let’s look at some of the classic errors to be avoided 

# Do not assume your immediate surroundings as a sample to make guesstimates, sometimes it may not be the representative sample.

# Don’t let your personal bias come in the way. Look at facts in isolation from your own emotion. 

#Look beyond your socio-economic background. Look at the world from far wider angles, think about all possible points of view.

Lastly, it’s crucial to be in the right mental headspace on the interview day. This will hopefully allow you to speak in that conversational way, ask good and smart questions as they come up, and do it all with confidence. Now keeping the tips and tricks in mind enjoy answering this question

How many people in India visit drama theatres? What is its market size.?

 

                                                                                                                 - By Aditi and Naina

                                                                                                                     WIB Members

Monday, 20 September 2021

Should India normalize students having part-time jobs?


A part-time job is a mode of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Employees commonly work in shifts, normally fewer than 30 hours per week. Part-time employees receive the same employment entitlements as full-time workers. In recent years, the demand for part-time jobs among students has risen tremendously. Part-time jobs provide exposure and bring about personality enhancement for those students who wish to explore the world.

 

Let us talk about the pros and cons that students might face while working.

 

One of the huge benefits of working part-time is that you end up with a little bit more money in your pocket than your usual allowance. But in addition to that, you begin to appreciate the value of money a little more. Now it so happens that rather than just being provided the money to buy things that you might want or need, you start earning that money for yourself, and then maybe those sunglasses that were a thousand bucks don't look quite so appealing anymore when you have become conscious of the hours of work it took for you to gain that.

If you have a part-time role while you are studying, you will find that you will acquire plenty of significant soft skills like teamwork and time management. You can offer your initiative or an opinion. You will be working with people and that will certainly hone your interpersonal communication skills. But most of all, you will gain the confidence that if you can engage in part-time work then you can give your future employers or universities that you are applying to, some real-life examples of how you have shown some of those key skills and competencies that we all know that they are looking for. These non-academic skills are crucially important to not only them but also for you and the rest of your future.

 

An inconvenience that often so arises is the lack of accessibility for suitable jobs. To find an appropriate job that would be an asset to your CV, a little rummaging around the web is a must. However, the main difficulty that young people face is that their time management skills are put under pressure while trying to create a balance between work and school. But studies have shown that students who successfully work part-time are the most organized and juggling between academics and work builds up a character beneficial for their careers ahead.

 

According to a survey conducted in India, only 45% of the students opt for part-time jobs and only one-third of them are able to accomplish the undertaking whereas, in the west, we can see that it's well over 75%. There are many reasons for the unpopularity of part-time employment among students in our country and the following lines account for some of them.

 

1.      Almost 60% of India is rural which narrows down the opportunities by a considerable amount.

2.      The remaining 40% brimming with opportunities believe that the students are not competent enough to be working for their firms.

3.      The psychological barrier from families to provide undivided attention to academics while they subsidize their teenager’s fees as well as provide a monthly allowance for all their needs makes students very dependent.

4.      Students themselves do not see the potential experience they can gain as their individualism is being deprived of when most of their decisions are taken by others in the family.

5.      Employers do not seek students and refuse to give them work as they look for someone who will be a future asset to their company and not an unstable part-time student who would always be looking for better pay.

6.      The unvarying unemployment in India is leading to a lot of part-time jobs being taken up full-time by unwaged people.

 

India doesn’t encompass a mushrooming retail sector. Most of these retail stores are family-run corporations where they employ their kids for no pay. The blooming urbanized cities that provide for jobs however are not usually taken up by students owing to the disparaging attitude inculcated in them, preventing them from taking up odd jobs. Menial work is thought of as something reserved for a certain class of people. Whereas, for the same people, flipping burgers or working as a barista in other countries like the US and Japan isn’t something to be looked down upon. We grow up learning that education is the only path to a respectable and well-paid job. As a result, doing a part-time job is considered to be a distraction or a burden over and above studies. Moreover, they don’t find it necessary for the child to take up a job as the parents are earning and in some cases, earning plenty. In our culture, the people of our society, neighbors and relatives play a part in influencing our lives. Hence, they tend to misjudge part-time jobs as parents failing to provide for their children.

 

It is the need of the hour for India to start evolving towards a progressive country by uprooting the deep-seated archaic norms and start acknowledging the importance of letting their youths be more independent by taking up jobs to pay their bills or any extra expenses, being financially aware, socialize and network with experienced people and learn the pre-requisite of multi-tasking. Society needs to start encouraging students to contribute and form communities of their own. This can be initiated by an authorized change in the education system by the Government to incentivize volunteering, training, and internships. Right upon activation, perhaps it won’t be paid or have a lot of work for students to do. But getting the ball rolling will still provide the encouragement for students to socialize, teach them the value of community and give them an insight into the workings of the real world.

                                                                       


                                                                                                       -By Dikshita and Pooja

                                                                                                             WIB Members

Monday, 13 September 2021

Top challenges of a new idea


Enterprises face a variety of obstacles in the early stages of development. As a company expands, various difficulties and options need to be answered differently. And in order to expand and thrive your business, you need to recognise and overcome usual expansion problems. Importantly, you need to ensure that today's actions do not pose any further problems in the future. All these challenges can be divided into three main challenges.


We live in a fast-paced world, especially for enterprises. Consider how, in just one generation, firms have had to adapt to whole new marketing channels (online and social), decide how to invest in and use new technology, and compete on a global scale - all of which were unthinkable to our parents' and grandparents' generations. All these challenges may be divided into three major categories as follows:


We live in a fast-moving world, for businesses in particular. Consider just how, in a single generation, companies had to adapt themselves to whole new (online and social) marketing channels, decide how they can invest in and use new technologies, and compete globally- all these being undeniable for the generations of our parents and grandparents. The following can be divided into three main categories: 

 

a. Ideation:: The first checkpoint for product-based problems is the idea, it's not as simple as it sounds. Brainstorm and brainstorm, then a great and unique idea, should be developed. Factors like what customers need should also be included, what customers will need during brainstorming in the next few years.    

 

b. Product engineering issues::   Engineering dependencies also hinder product initiatives. The test phase is also essential for the product life cycle to make sure the actual result fulfills the desired result. Although problems or bugs are often identified during the testing phase, it is important to fix and re-tested these problems before we go live so that our customers are not dissatisfied. 


a. Pricing policy:: Transforming an idea into a product is one thing, but it's a completely different ball game. If you charge too much, no one is going to buy your stuff. You run the risk of losing a lot of money when charging a low price. It's all about finding this sweet place at your customers prices. Factors such as hiring costs, market expenditures and product expenses must be taken into account before developing a pricing strategy.

 

 b.. Pricing policy :: Growing start-ups report quality decreases while they scale, especially those with rapid growth. A small number of people are responsible for all the operations for the first year or two. Expert professionals begin a company, offer excellent quality, work on quality and build a customer base. New roles are created throughout the growth period. Since recruitment and onboarding processes are still in infancy, it separates the quality level from one team member to another.

                                             

2. Market based challenges:

 

a. Market viability: An idea might seem good on paper, but its use in practise is only expensive on the market. Before development begins, always do market research. One of the key aspects of new businesses is market research. It is not only market competition which should be analysed but also its target customers, because they are the one who buys the product. The opinions and interests of the target market must be known. Use the market research information to develop a minimally viable product(MVP). Enhance the key features and advantages of the product for clients. One of the most common MVP errors is to design a simple prototype with only one feature. Add as many features as you can

 

b.Competitors:: Before you launch a new product, you must check out its competitors and we are talking about other companies which can provide their customers with the same or similar goods and services. Not only are your competition competitors those with whom you compete. They include potential competitors that will be able to compete in your future market. Your work arrangements can also affect whether or not you compete with those with whom you work. You may also have an impact on whether you compete with your employees or not. If, however, you work on a contract or a fee for service basis, even when you work in the same location, you are considered to be competing with others who offer similar services. Before you launch your product or service, you should see what problems your product already has on the market and how you can overcome these problems.

 

c.Sales :: Sales are a must to power the engine of the company. A successful sales strategy opens up potential growth in all corporate departments — hiring new team members, investment in brand construction, training of existing staff, raises and bonuses, and a safety net if anything goes wrong. The market environment changes rapidly if a well established sales process is in place. New opportunities for consumers (or competitors) are open to them. The retention of top salesmen is costly and they eat the margins of the business. One should therefore concentrate more on retaining existing clients. With a drop in quality, price increase and the start of a more lucrative competition, customer retention can be impeded. 

 

d.Marketing :: Building a new product or service marketing isn't a tea cup for everyone. It is important to take the first step to improve your marketing strategy. Don't just miss out. Don't miss out. Before you begin, you should segment your market. Market segmentation facilitates the development of highly targeted and efficient marketing campaigns and plans for marketing teams. Market segmentation is important because it makes marketing efforts and resources easier to reach the most valuable audiences and achieve business goals.

With defined segments, companies can meet a range of customer requirements by offering different packages and incentives. For different segments, different forms of promotion will be applied on the basis of needs and characteristics for different segments. If a company focuses on a particular segment, its competitiveness on the market increases. This leads to increased ROI in turn. The company focuses on certain segments and learns all about the segment to commercialise its products for them.

                                                                      

       3.Core team problems:-

 a.Lack of communication:: The success of a company is needed by establishing an efficient

 communication protocol and an easy process. There are so many factors that contribute: 

insufficient experience, vague requirements, fear of management deception (or loss of work),

 ego, and poor processes. You could say freely, without any fear of peer pressure, what you 

want. And the head should also try to understand the feelings and ideas of their colleagues.

Strategic leadership should be tackled. Strategic leadership is aimed at defining the right road map for the company or department; dividing it into operative parts; delegating the aims to the right parties; bringing together the team; encouraging each individual member and moving the needle both short and long term.

 

 b. Time management::How and at what point is not as straightforward as it would seem. It is a craft to allocate time effectively to the right initiatives. Productive time management maximises each employee's potential. The Power Law starts with a team: two slow parties will drag an order further exponentially and initiate overhead communication. If you have to succeed as a brand/team, you need time management. This involves the time of founders, executives, supervisors and all of the company.

 

 

 

                                                                                                              -by 

                                                                                                               Manisha and Garima,

                                                                                                               member WIB

                                                                                       

 

 

 



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