That's a wrap folks..

Hello all,

It is over! 10 weeks flew buy. I am actually sitting in my flat/apartment in Ann Arbor as a write this at Woodbury Gardens. As much as I enjoyed living here during the school year, my wife and I are looking around the unit and realized we already miss living in downtown Chicago!

The final week of work was climatic as it was the week I wrapped up my work and more importantly received the decision whether I would receive an offer or not. However I already did my year end presentation the week before, so that pressure was off.

In regards to work, to be completely honest my week was rather slow. My project was a in a bit of a state of flux as my job manager throughout the project had been assigned to another project so his replacement was busy trying to keep his head above water. The senior principal assigned to the project was on vacation in in South Africa, and another team member was about to take vacation for her wedding. Furthermore I had actually handed in my major deliverables the week before. So I was kept busy with "busy work" to support my peers. Mostly building charts in excel, and providing analysis on 1000's of pages of data received from the client.

In reflection, I really enjoyed my summer. Loved Chicago and Boston, developed new business relationships, realized I didn't know anything about excel and powerpoint, and found out the importance of being able to write/tell a story.

At the beginning of the summer I felt my consulting experience was atypical, and I was at a disadvantage from my peers. When assigned to my project, the work was scattered and the team was over whelmed. As such I did not feel I received the direction I needed to truly understand my tasks. In those 2 weeks I was excel modelling for one day (task cancelled), building case studies in power point for 2 days (task cancelled), worked on a brainstorming initiative to develop next generation ideas for the client (task cancelled). Then to start the 3rd week of the project, the entire project was cancelled.

In addition, as mentioned above my team mates were re assigned, went on vacation and one of the senior most members on my team was brand new to Booz, and not necessarily interested in my personal development.

But what I realized at the end of the 10 weeks was, there is no typical consulting engagement. It is very difficult to answer the question "What is a typical day in consulting?" Each intern had a completely different experience. We all learned at difference paces, in different places, with different faces. Overall it was a challenge on one's ability to adapt to an ambiguous environment and provide value.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent more time developing my Excel skillset before arriving to work. In addition I would have tried to have more fun while I was in Chicago/Boston. There was a lot to see and do in both cities, and I may have been to occupied with trying to make a good impression and working late hours. With proper time management it is feasible to work hard and play hard.

So in conclusion last Friday I met with my senior and junior mentors to discuss wether or not I would receive an offer...after a lengthy discussion the verdict was......

Final Presentations, Client Deliverables, Internal/External Networking

Hello all,

Coming up to my last 2 weeks I have 2 major items to complete to round out my internship experience. Each intern is expected to present a year end presentation to their peers, as well as other full time Booz employees from their local office on Friday August 3rd. Forutnately the presentation is a low pressure environment, and is meant to be fun. The most valuable take away I will enjoy from the presentations, is that I will get to see what my 12 other intern peers (from the chicago office) worked on their entire summer. The 2nd major item was highlighted in my year end assessment, which is I needed more analytical experience (I may expand more on this in the next post).

The presentation itself is 5-8 power point slides, highlights the key take aways, learnings, and my contirbutions to the team and project. It also highlights the fun take aways outside of the actual work experience that each person experienced (in my case my 5:50am golf match with a senior partner, and the night I hung out with Shaq in the hotel lobby).

After 8 weeks I feel like I have a strong handle on the company culture in regards to the Chicago and Boston offices. And the reason I specify the office, is that I feel the culture and community of your city will have a profound impact on the people.

Chicago: Is a large office with a small town feel. There are over 200+ employees, but within the office there are several "communities" based upon industry practices. Whether those practices be IT, Financial Services, Engineered Product Services, CPG, etc each group has it's own network. And if you are considering a consulting career, this is a significant differntiator at Booz. Booz does not offer the generalist approach to consulting. Rather it provides a soft alignment model that has it's pros and cons. If you feel already have an idea about your passions (i.e., you love SOAP!!! ..CPG), even if you don't have experience in that field, I highly encourage you to consider Booz & Co. By joining the CPG practice you can ensure that your early experiences will be focused on that practice, and thus devleop your expertise earlier in your career.

This accelerated development is reflected in culture of the organization. So back off my tangeant, back to Chicago. The people are extremely friendly, and helpful. On Friday's in the office I have never felt intimidated to introduce myself to a Partner, Principal or other senior member to learn more about their practice. The challenge is, they are quite busy, and you may need to schedule time with their admins.

As this business (Consulting) follows an apprenticeship model, that is reflected at all levels throughout the organization. Every consultant was once a junior person who didn't know how to write a slide, present to a client, or manage a Vlookup function. They all learned on the job, particularly through trial and error and the support of their peers/mentors. Without that support, and formal/informal training, this business does not work. Once you get into the firm (and likely any other firm), it is in the best interest of everyone involved to ensure you are succesful. And that has been apparent throughout my entire summer. A great example is my job manager, entered booz with little to no experience using Excel. 5 years later he is one of the Excel rock stars who leads begineer and advanced internal training. He did not take any formal courses, rather learned by trial and error and support of his mentors.

A last point on Chicago, I love the city. For a big city life, the prices are much cheaper than others (New York, London, Paris, Toronto (my home town), and the space is much larger. I've never seen a downtown with such wide streets. As such, people in general are happier. I feel there is less stress to life in Chicago. People afford a higher quality of life with less money and it's reflected in the smiles and attitude.

A few words on the culture in Boston. Awesome city, incredibly small considering it's history and successes (do they ever lose in sports?!?!). The office itself is very small. Less than 15 people at any time (15 is generous), and the office essentially revolves around 1 or 2 clients. I feel it's a great place to work and learn from a project perspective, but because it is so small I don't think I would learn as much from a Booz culture perspective. In addition my networking opportunities are limited versus a larger office.

The counter to that may be with less people, there is less competition to stand out?  But that is a factor you need to consider when choosing your home office

That's all for now

Signing off
Omair

3am wake up calls, 6am flights, avoiding the consulting 15lbs!

Hi all,

I am behind on my blogging! I am behind on a lot of things!!! The life of a consulting intern :)

My experience I would say has been atypical of that of other consulting interns both within my firm and at other firms.

I was fortunate to be staffed onto a project that was just starting up. It was follow up work with an existing client. However as it was starting up, the goals and directions were vague and fluid. In the first 6-8 days on the job, my tasks changed 3 times which included changing the manager(s) that I reported too twice.

In regards to reporting and just working with the people, it has been excellent. When consulting firms tell you its all about the people, the really do mean it is all about the people. My team is fun, engaging, and overall a brilliant group. What I find really exciting is the motivation of each member in the team to ensure I enjoy my experience and to provide mentorship. They are investing a lot of their time and resources into me as the intern, as they want to ensure that I do join the firm next year (at least thats how I perceive it!).

While in contrast, I am evaluating the firm, work, people, etc to ensure that I want to join the firm full time next fall. It's an interesting dynamic

So the reporting structure is very fluid. I have junior and senior mentors that I touch base with on a weekly basis, project managers, and then practice champions (those who over see the IT practice). Not to mention the myriad of firm Partners who are available to meet. It really is an open door policy for me to discuss my goals, challenges, needs with several people within the firm. Not nearly as hiearchial as I was expecting.

Now what makes my experience more atypical than most are two events:

i) In the lobby of our hotel last Tuesday night, as I was heading towards the bar to relax after a long day I walked into Shaquille O'neal. Now I'm not a small guy, I'm 6'2, but when I stood next to Shaq and shook his hand, I felt like a child. He was enormous. And one of the friendliest, if not the friendliest, athlete I ever met. He sat with us, chatted, took photos, and did the same for anyone else who approached him. He was in town filming a movie with Adam Sandler

ii) My project has been delayed. So I am currently "on the beach" so to speak, as the firm finds me an additional project. I really am getting the full consulting experience. Let's see how this plays out


In terms of getting my work done. I really do have a lot of freedom. Tasks are assigned to me, and I 'm expected to go get it done. My tasks have ranged from researching reference examples, modifying excel models, and building customer facing power point slides. In each case anything everything I have produced and shared with my manager has come back with "this needs work!". But that's ok! That's the way we learn in consulting. It's trial and error, iteration, receive and act upon feedback. It has been a great learning experience, in a positive environment.

Anyhow, enough of my rant for now

Until next time

Omair

Hanging out in Chicago

It was a long weekend last week for the independence day. All of the interns left this small town to enjoy the long weekend. I decided to go to Chicago to hang out with my friends.

On Friday, I watched a firework show sponsored by the company that I interned with. It was not a big show if compared to the government organized firework show in China. But is was great to sit outside and watch it with friends around.

After some shopping on Saturday afternoon, I hung out with couple of Chinese MBA folks in Chicago. We had some great and cheap Cantonese food in China tonw and headed over to the bar area. Unfortunately, a friend of us locked his car key at the trunk. We felt very sorry for him as he was so worried about it. We stayed with the friend and waited until he figured out how to get the key out.

Then, I had a big day on Monday. I want boating! It was my first time in US or let me say, it was my first time boating with my friends only. We had great weather that we prepared enough foods for this event. After one hour sailing on the lake michigan and enjoying the sky line of Chincago, we anchored somewhere in the lake. I jumped into the lake and swam. But the water is still very cold. It was a great Monday and I was glad that I spent time with my friends. I am pretty sure that I will come back to Chicago again this summer.

I am almost half way on my intern. Wish myself good luck.

Hi!

I finished already seven weeks of my internship, which means that less than half to go. I didn't understand how much time I am working at my Business Unit until the second group of SLP interns joined the program three weeks ago and I saw how much I can help them or at least point them to the right person. It makes me feel good about how much I integrated with my team. The project is on the fast track and we are on schedule, which is impressive as this is the biggest competitive strategic sourcing the company has done. I also started meeting both my Business Unit President and my Senior Vice President on a weekly basis, so I get better understanding about the strategy behind the process. Last week I even participated at the board meeting of my Business Unit and learned the future growth strategy of Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard.

Another exiting event that happened this Friday was going to a Hot Road race in Route 66, where I was a guest of DieHard which is the main sponsor of one of the teams that competed. I never imagined I would be in such an event.

One last thing I would share in this post is how much Chicago is amazing in summer. I tour the city, going to its museums and walking a lot in downtown where I live. Right now I came back from the movie Transformers 3 which was almost entirely filmed at the block I live in and where the teater is located. For the first time in my life I stepped out of a movie and felt I am part of this movie, a feeling which was much more exiting than the real movie...

Week 5

Hi,

Until now I told you how much I like my fellow interns, Chicago and how much I like to come back in some of the weekends to Ann Arbor, I didn't tell you about my project.

Well it is about time I'll do so. Sears Holdings is divided to approximately 32 Business Units which each acts as a company with its own P&L. I am a proud member of the Brands business unit which is called KCD after the top three brands Sears Holdings holds- Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard. I joined the Strategic Sourcing Group and I am working on one of the largest sourcing in the world - choosing the vendors that will manufacture the Kenmore home appliances for the next five years. Kenmore is the leading brand in terms of market share in the U.S but the manufactures who build it are Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Samsung, LG, etc. In total the result of this initiative will be almost $10B contracts, so I see many zeroes and trying not to make any errors while modeling their bids.

Although I am part of a very professional and experienced team I also have my own responsibilities that sometimes I am amazed that I own them. My team and I prepared the Request For Proposals (RFPs) for the different segments (refrigerators, laundry, cooking and dishwashers), evaluating the returning bids, meet the vendors who demonstrate the features and modeling the financial aspects of the bids in order that in the end of the process we will choose together with the buyers and the product managers which vendor will manufacture what. Because this process is very fast and occurring during the summer, I am very fortunate to be part of it.

I think it is enough information for one post, but I will keep you updated how it is evolving in the future.

Yoav.

Chicago, week one

Hi all,

Last week I started my internship at Sears Holdings which is located at Hoffman Estates, a suburb north west of Chicago. I must say that most of the time I am embittered why Sears is not located anymore at Sears Tower in Chicago. I can't imagine a nicer place to work than the tallest building in America, however that's life and in 1992 the company moved to the suburbs due to amazing tax break they received from Illinois. Therefore right now I live in Extended Stay America in Schaumburg which is next to Hoffman Estates, and I am waiting that my downtown apartment will be ready in two weeks. Hence I don't have any Chicago's experiences to share other than realization that the suburbs of Chicago is a never ending "Desperate Housewives" neighborhood. At least my morning commute is short...

During the first three days of the internship we had a really nice orientation. We learned about the company and learned about each other which is what I enjoyed the most. The power of the Senior Leadership Program is the communication among its participates and the mutual help. In order to achieve it we must be friends with each other and the program director tried really hard to make it happen, and very successfully I should say. I became to know fellow MBAs from all the top 10 programs and I must say that after hearing about their experiences in school, both academically and socially, I became a much bigger advocate of Ross. The combination of the experiences we are getting in Ann Arbor and how much we are enjoying it all is unparalleled to any other top program. In the end of the day we are all working together, getting the same compensation, therefore I can't find any reason not to attend Ross. I'm sure next year I'll be a much better Student Ambassador...

As for the internship, well, it just started this week and after the great time we had in the orientation I worked only one day at my department so I will be much more knowledgable to speak about what I really do in my next post of the blog...

Have a successful Memorial Day shopping,

Yoav.

Internship done!

The summer is finally over, and what a great experience it has been. I got a chance to explore the world of consulting, work with some very smart people and learn a fantastic amount of information within a very short period of time. Since the project was ending the same week as my internship was, the last two weeks were critical. This was when we made the final push for our client deliverables. The model that I initially developed was used extensively by the team to nail down the quantitative aspects of our recommendations. Also, the principal on my project thought that this model would be a great tool for the client as they went ahead with the implementation in the coming months. So I had to spend some time cleaning up the model, making last minute changes and including the relevant background information so that the model was easily usable by the client. It’s one thing when you develop a model for your analysis. It’s something completely different when you are developing a model that someone else will use – this was a key learning for me. Always develop the model as if someone else were going to use it. I also had to do my final presentation at the Chicago office last week. My manager was extremely understanding about the criticality of that, and gave me some time off so that I could work on my deck. The team pitched in to review my deck and gave some great feedback on how to make the presentation stronger.

I just want to finish with another observation from my experience. There is one key skill that I have noticed is common among the senior folks. With any problem, they have a laser-like focus on the fundamental question we are trying to answer, and are always asking “how does this piece of work answer that question?”. This enables them to break down even the most complex problems into simple relevant blocks. And this is a skill I definitely want to develop over the next few years.

Well, to summarize I had a fantastic summer experience. I couldn’t have asked for more. Now, three weeks of down time before the next year at school. Thanks for reading, and take care!

Getting there

I can't believe that I am now in the closing stages of my summer internship. Two more weeks to go, and that's it! Since the end of my internship is coinciding with the end of the client engagement, things are really heating up now (as if they weren't busy enough already!). But I have had some great learning experiences over the past two weeks as I have been gradually pushed out of my comfort zone.

The first learning is the value of qualitative information. While my engineering background has made me comfortable with quantitative data, I am slowly learning that qualitative information also can make or break a recommendation despite what the numbers tell you. And since qualitative data is just that - qualitative, it is difficult to exactly structure what specific piece of information you need for an analysis. The second important learning for me was managing client interviews. This was something, again, that was completely new to me. As I conducted more interviews, I found myself increasingly asking direct and pointed questions to get to the point. I think this is an extremely important skill for leaders to have. with the amount of technology out there today, the data available is infinitely huge. Managers who having the ability to ask the right questions at the right time to the right people will have a huge advantage over those who don't. And I think consulting is a great way to develop and hone that skill.

Now, I am nearing the end stages of my analysis and my work is really helping the team build out their recommendations for a key part of the project. Yes, there are projected to be some $$$ savings (Good, now I can quantify another bullet point on my resume!). I also got a chance to present my analysis to the Principal on my project. He had some great suggestions to make, and I am currently working on incorporating them into my analysis. If all goes well, my workstream will be presented to the COO of the client organization!

The next week is a big week for me. I have to make two additional presentations - one to the partner on my project and the other, to the entire Chicago office. So in between all of this, I am working on putting those decks together too! Yes, good times.

Till next (and last) time, happy readings!

Half-way point!

I am now officially more than half way through my internship – and it feels like I just started yesterday. A lot has happened in the past two weeks – a couple of big client meetings, excellent team dinners, a new workstream and my mid-summer “pulse check”.

Let’s start with the work first. I completed the first project that was assigned to me (read previous post for details), and have now been assigned another workstream for the rest of the summer. The summer pulse check turned out to be balanced – with areas of strength and areas of improvement. I hope I end up improving on those “areas of improvement” by the end of the summer!

My next piece of work will influence a couple of key recommendations that we will make to the client. I am extremely excited, and a little apprehensive at being given this new responsibility. For one, the situation is a lot more ambiguous than my first project. And two, this project involves qualitative decision-making, definitely not my area of strength, in addition to the quantitative analysis. But the support from the rest of the team and other Booz folks has been tremendous. They have made themselves available to speak with me, exchange ideas, brainstorm and offer advice in a heartbeat. And being a Michigan guy helps too – there are tons of people here from Michigan, and the community feeling is stronger than ever. If I have one piece of advice to give it is this: reach out to people, and make the effort to ask if you are genuinely stuck at something. The absolute worst that could happen is that you remain where you started. Surprisingly, this did not come to me as naturally as I thought it would.

Now, for the fun part. The Chicago office is doing a fantastic job of keeping its summer interns entertained. They took us to the Taste of Chicago, organized a barbecue and are taking us on a cruise. Although my work keeps me really busy, I am trying to attend as many of these events as possible to get to know the people here. As I roll into the second half of the internship, the pressure will no doubt start to increase. But all in all, this experience has been immensely satisfying so far. Good times!

P.S: The Germany-Argentina game was an absolute shame. And we could not have asked for a more boring final. A disappointing world cup over all.

Consulting - three weeks in

I'm three weeks into my internship and Booz and honestly, so far I'm loving it. The work is challenging, and the people I work with are absolutely fantastic - extremely smart, yet down to earth. I can best describe the experience so far as an extension of the Ross MBA experience.

Let's put things into context - what exactly did I do the last couple of weeks? As I mentioned in my last post, I am working for a client in NJ and we are helping to design their organization structure (strategic objective, reporting structure, incentives, metrics, etc.) for the COO. So yes, this is one of those high touch engagements, and as a result, the attire is business formal. The first week was all about ramping up and setting the expectations for the rest of the summer. Booz & Co. gives its interns the undiluted consulting experience - this means that we are expected to contribute just like we were full-time Associates. So as you can imagine, the learning curve is extremely steep. I had a lot of reading up to do to develop an understanding of the industry. After I spent a day doing that, it was time to understand the client firm (one day). After that I had to get going, and any other background learning would have to come from the job itself. Given that 9 weeks is an extremely short period of time, I wanted to become productive as soon as I could and made a conscious effort those first few days to ramp up my knowledge. Once my manager noticed that I was relatively comfortable with the knowledge (at least I knew where to look for what!), I took over the workstream of developing the model of the current view of the organization. The team had already collected data from various client units. I had to collate the data, clean it up and integrate it into the model in a meaningful way.

We had a big client presentation scheduled the following week, and my manager said that my model would be driving a few slides on the deck. So I had to put in a lot of effort (yes, I even worked a couple of hours over the weekend) to build the pages. My biggest takeaway here is that great excel modeling skills is not just about being able to model close to real life scenarios while making good assumptions. It also involves being able to automate a lot of the repetitive tasks so that you can spend more time thinking about how best you can do the former. As my manager had mentioned, my pages did end up going into the deck. It was a pretty good feeling to see that my analysis was directly impacting the client. The presentation went well, and now my task is to extend this model so that we can use this to design the new organization.

The biggest surprise for me has been the people. There's no question that they are all extremely smart folks. But the best part is, despite how busy they were (there was quite a bit of pressure within the team before that first deliverable) they always took the time out to help me with my questions, and made sure I was comfortable. To summarize, the first two weeks on the project have been fantastic, and I am really enjoying myself so far. Stay tuned!

Consulting - Week 1. Check!

Phew - week 1 of my consulting internship at Booz & Co. is almost over, and I can already feel the heat of the fast paced consulting career! My first week was very similar to what the other Ross-er at Booz has experienced - drinking from a fire hose. Think first week of RLI - on steroids.

The first day involved the "logistics" - laptop, paperwork, welcome presentation and address, etc. The second day onwards, "the game" was on! By "the game", I mean a training simulation where we are all assigned to teams and have to work together on a client engagement. Our engagement working sessions were peppered with training sessions for Excel, Powerpoint, Company culture and policy, etc. "The game" ended with the teams presenting and the team coaches giving each of us feedback. My, how much we all had to learn! The final day involved Booz's version of the follies. Given the high quality of the skits that were put up with less than 45 mins of preparation time, I strongly believe that most people in my class would do wonderfully in the entertainment industry! And oh, did I mention that we all ended every night with copious amounts of alcohol in our systems? Good times.

Today is my first day at my home office - Chicago. I have received my project assignment and couldn't have asked for anything better! I strongly believe that I will get a chance to apply concepts learnt from multiple classes at Ross. My client is based in New Jersey, which is also awesome, because my wife is in New York, and this makes things a whole lot easier! So right now, I have received a couple of project documents and am busy poring over them to make sure that I show up on the client side with an informed view of the current situation. I expect to be challenged significantly - both in terms of analytical skills and organizational skills. Do not underestimate the latter. The number of things that have to be managed, in addition to your regular work, is fairly daunting - timesheets, learning sessions, conference calls, mentor meetings, office luncheons - the list is seemingly endless! But this is exactly what I signed up for, and I am eagerly looking forward to the next 8 weeks of the internship.

And oh yes, before I forget: Viva Argentina!

Prologue: A clean slate

Hi there – my name is Kripal Kavi and I a second year dual–degree student (MBA/MS) here. I will be spending my summer as a consultant with Booz & Co. in their Chicago office. I am an international student from India, and yes, I was an engineer before I came to school. I am very excited to be going to a top–notch consulting firm this summer. And quite frankly, I feel a little lucky as well, given the caliber of the students here at Ross and the high level of competition for consulting internships.

I, like most other business school students, want to generate a full–time offer out of this internship. That would make the final year a lot less stressful! But at the same time, I am using this internship to determine my fit with consulting, and decide whether this is a career I would like to pursue for a prolonged period of time after business school. I have multiple reasons to be worried: never worked in the US before, don’t have a background in consulting, not sure what to expect, etc. etc. But at the same time, this is a tremendously exciting opportunity for me – to work with some really smart people, do some fantastic work and basically have a great time over the summer. Right now, it's a clean slate, and it's up to me to see how the story gets written!

Take care, and happy readings!