One of our most advanced training programs with >270 videos, is where we help a major Latin American Bank determine if they should enter the highly competitive US retail banking sector. We asked the partner leading this study, Michael, to document each day of the study as he thought through the issues, managed the client and led the engagement team on this complex assignment. The subsequent live-blog was one of the most popular programs we ever released. The posts were prepared at the end of each day of the study so you can see how the thinking on the study evolved. We have since re-edited the live blog. At 600 pages long, the re-edited live blog is probably the most detailed guide anywhere demonstrating how a partner thinks on a study. You will see that it is not a linear process. It is not a function of simply finding and plugging in a framework. Though there is a clear logic to the thought process. On StrategyJournal.com we are publishing the entire re-edited live-blog. On the Strategy Skills podcast channel, we will publish an accompanying free podcast series. Insiders, our most loyal clients, who want to see how we conducted the analyses, the actual engagement slides and follow the training to replicate this type of partner-level thinking can view all ~270 detailed videos at StrategyTraining.com and Premium members can view the videos on StrategyTV.com.

1. StrategyTraining.com l StrategyJournal.com l StrategyTV.com l FIRMSconsulting.com
We teach business strategy in compelling and creative ways.
Our client’s solve mankind’s toughest problems.
9 The quality of training is directly proportional to the impact of
the study
Engagement teams must always be supported by great training and support on studies
Pre-study onboarding
As the interns prepare to arrive from their various MBA programs, I wanted to have regular conference calls to
help them prepare and understand the culture, attitude and style of the way we approach problems.
Having so many updates before the interns start is uncommon, even at the elite firms, so this is a luxury that I
hope they will use to their benefit.
The agenda for this call is simple:
(1) Provide the high-level study background.
(2) Forget what they think is management consulting, and focus on my guidance.
(3) Ensure they internalize the pace at which we will work – it will be blistering. It will astonish you, and
them, to see what we will produce in the 10-week period.
(4) Explain the culture and value system we will use.
(5) Get them comfortable asking for help, realizing that within the team they need to spend less time trying to
look good and more time asking for help.
(6) Emphasize the importance of taking initiative.
Unfortunately, I cannot provide more details to them until they arrive and sign the full non-disclosure
agreement. If I want them to take away one thing, it is the pace at which we will need to work to understand
the economics of this problem.
There is far too much emotion and anecdotes being used to make massive decisions.
I will also send them a reminder about sending me a list of their expectations from the internship and overall
study.
I want them to look for 2nd and 3rd order expectations. In other words, make a list and ask themselves why are
they are asking for these expectations to be met. Then they need to reword the expectations with their refined
answers and repeat the process.
This forces them to get to the root cause of the expectation.
Then send it to me and I will discuss that with them when they arrive.
Top-down analyses

2. StrategyTraining.com l StrategyJournal.com l StrategyTV.com l FIRMSconsulting.com
We teach business strategy in compelling and creative ways.
Our client’s solve mankind’s toughest problems.
LAB recommended we use an unbanked expert from the USA to work with us on the study. They believe he
can add value given that he understands the market well and worked on the initial studies they did internally.
This is not a bad idea. By working with him, we have someone they trust who understands our approach,
findings and research.
The team will have to focus on three areas for the initial top down analyses:
(1) Analyses of the bank’s current financials to see how the bank is performing.
(2) Focus interviews with a range of stakeholders including government, banks, NGOs, the banking clients’
partners in the US and local market intermediaries.
(3) Day-in-the-life-of studies for both the banks agents working with borrowers in the field, clients of the bank
and the intermediaries who help the bank find clients.
I will spend the next few days thinking through how this works and whom we need to interview. In particular,
the bank has intermediaries in the US and Mexico to whom it provides financing and these intermediaries find
borrower clients. The bank also works with banks in Mexico and Guatemala whom have the same model.
We really need to spend time understanding the economics of the intermediaries since this is what the bank
would want to create if it entered the market directly with a retail structure.
Would the intermediaries mind such an intrusion? Could the bank run the retail structure better?
Every time we present a finding, someone will say, “have you looked at…”
Therefore we will have to conduct our very own case studies to understand why some ventures were successful
and others were not.
Since we are looking at micro, small and medium sized businesses in the US, primarily in the south, we can
consider a wide range of countries. The client has recommended Poland, Indonesia, Bolivia, Dominican
Republic, Kenya, Thailand and of course, the famous Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.
I would want to be very involved in the case studies to prevent them from becoming simple desktop research.
We want to speak to the clients, managers, partners and management of the agencies and companies we end up
choosing to case study.
We also want to review major failures and there are plenty of those.
QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: Why are values such an essential part of our training?
We answer this question, additional reader questions and discuss more issues raised in this article on the
accompanying episode on the Strategy Skills podcast channel on iTunes, Google Android Podcasts, Libsyn,
Spotify, Acast, Podbay, Podbean and Listen Notes. This is the world’s #1 ranked business strategy podcast
channel.
If you have a question, please post it as a comment on iTunes and we will respond in a podcast.

3. StrategyTraining.com l StrategyJournal.com l StrategyTV.com l FIRMSconsulting.com
We teach business strategy in compelling and creative ways.
Our client’s solve mankind’s toughest problems.
If you would like sample episodes of our most advanced strategy programs all taught by ex-McKinsey, BCG
et al. senior partners please visit the FIRMSconsulting.com homepage and provide your contact details at the
top.