Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation (10th Anniversary Edition) [Paperback]

Marc P. Cosentino (Author), Chris Glasser (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2009

Cosentino demystifies the consulting case interview. He takes you inside a typical interview by exploring the various types of case questions and he shares with you a system that will help you answer today's most sophisticated case questions. This new edition includes new case material plus 10 Partner cases to make it easy to give cases to your classmates.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Cosentino is the Dean of case interviewing prep. Case in Point is lucid, down-to-earth, demystifying and surprisingly entertaining. -- --Hillary Harrow Senior Recruiter, McKinsey & Company<br /><br />With humor and insight, Marc gets students thinking about how to use the case interview as a showcase of their talents rather than an obstacle to their employment. --Nancy Saunders Associate Director, Office of Career Services, Harvard University<br /><br />With humor and insight, Marc gets students thinking about how to use the case interview as a showcase of their talents rather than an obstacle to their employment. --Nancy Saunders Associate Director, Office of Career Services, Harvard University

With humor and insight, Marc gets students thinking about how to use the case interview as a showcase of their talents rather than an obstacle to their employment. --Nancy Saunders Associate Director, Office of Career Services, Harvard University

About the Author

Marc Cosentino is president of CaseQuestions.com. He spent 18 years with Harvard Career Services training students in case interviews. He has written 3 books on consulting case interviews. He travels around the country giving case interview workshops at the top MBA programs. Cosentino also developed CQI the most sophisicated interactive case interview on-line training tool.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Burgee Press; 6th edition (November 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971015856
• ISBN-13: 978-0971015852
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers > Interviewing
  • #34 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Consulting

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best business book I have ever read. Stay away from Kindle Edition. 4.5 stars., July 25, 2010

By 

Jaewoo Kim "OB-Wan" (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation (10th Anniversary Edition) (Paperback)

After reading this book, I have found myself thinking differently about business issues. I had an epiphany on many business issues including:

1)How to increase profitability?
2)How to analyze an industry?
3)How to increase market share and sales?
4)How to think about entering a new market or business?
5)How to analyze Mergers and Acquisitions?
6)How to formulate growth strategies?
7)How to formulate pricing strategies?
8)How to formulate competitive responses?

This book provides a framework in a decision tree format to answer all the above and more. Furthermore, it has 30 case interview questions for sample questions and answers and analysis. Be warned, this book is NOT an easy or breezy read. In order to do well in case interviews typically given by consulting companies (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte etc), one would need to master the contents in this book and practice them thoroughly. I would think that would take substantial investment of time and practice (20-50 hours according to many).

Even if you do not want to be a consultant or plan to participate in case interviews, I still recommend this book. If you are running a business, you should understand the basic framework of business. That is, what questions you should be asking and how you should analyze the data you have to formulate an effective strategic business action plan. Contrary to what many believe, running an effective and competitive business takes more than common sense. For example, an effective pricing strategy is often price-based costing (pricing and developing a product and services based on what the consumers are willing to pay) and NOT cost-based pricing (pricing a product based on how much it costs to develop).

I initially purchased the Kindle version of this book. Due to the small print of this book and its many decision trees, the Kindle version of this book (on my Kindle 2) was often illegible, especially the all-important decision trees. So I do NOT recommend the Kindle version of this book. FYI, I am happy with almost all of my Kindle purchases but some books, such as this one, are just better in print.

So I purchased the book and I am very glad I did. I want to give this book 4.5 stars and not full 5 stars mainly because I think much of the concepts are still not completely coherent. Many case interview answers provided, for example, substantially deviated from the IVY system, and that made me question whether the current IVY system is all that complete and exhaustive.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally useful, be careful with some frameworks, October 31, 2010

By 

Jerry K. - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation (10th Anniversary Edition) (Paperback)

I used this book as part of the interview process and landed a job at one of the Big 3 firms. That being said, I did most of my practice in groups and only used the book to review the week before the interview.

Here is how I used the book:

I spent a lot of time looking at the Ivy Case System. I think that summary is the most interesting/important part of the book. When you think about a case interview, prep is most important when getting those first few ideas down on paper so that you can start the discussion. For me, once I had done that, the rest of the interview was completed without actively thinking about a single thing from my preparation. The case system is great for just thinking about what large buckets you should be considering so you don't miss something important. I also read a few of the sample cases to get the juices flowing a few days before the interviews. The morning of the interview I carefully read the case system to keep things fresh. This prep worked out well for me.

Note: I'd stay far away from the other frameworks in the book (Porter's 5 forces, etc). I heard that the big consulting firms hate those frameworks because they are never applied properly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great., May 7, 2010

By 

Allen Brown "Lifetime Learner" (Columbia, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation (10th Anniversary Edition) (Paperback)

I needed an understanding of the different types of cases or problems that I could possibly analyze. Something that I could use for every case that would enable me to do a comprehensive analysis. Case in Point helped me to gain a broad understanding of the various scenarios and gave me a formula for each one. When combined with "How to Get Into the Top Consulting Firms: A Surefire Case Interview Method - 2nd Edition" you get a complete understanding of the problems that exist in the business world and how to solve them. Case in Point enables you to be creative and artistic in your analysis by teaching you how to think about the possible solutions. Every business student should have this book!