Stephen straightened his tie as he gave himself one last look in the mirror. "All right," he thought, "Here goes nothing!" He had prepared for this moment his entire college career, and now he was about to have his final round interview [3. Influential Event] with Bain and Co, one of the "Big Three" companies that controls the management consulting world [1. Authoritative Organization], and the one that he'd been dreaming of joining ever since he decided he wanted to be a consultant. He would sit across from the interviewer, who would give him a case study, a hypothetical business case that he would have to think through and solve as the interviewer watched, closely observing his analytical skills, creativity, mental math, and interpersonal skills. [2. Regulating Standard] Every aspect of his performance would be closely examined, analyzed, and reported, and he was more than a little nervous.
He walked into the room that had been set aside for Bain interviews, shook hands with the interviewer, and sat down. For two and half hours, he was presented with case after case, answering and asking questions, analyzing diagrams and drawing his own. He was very glad that he'd spent a lot of time poring through the many Bain publications, such as Founder's Mentality and Results Delivery, as well as keeping up with general business news in the Wall Street Journal, [4. Authoritative Publication] because they gave him valuable industry insights into several of the cases. At the end of the interview, his interviewer stood up to shake his hand. "Thanks for coming! You should hear from us in a couple of weeks whether or not we'll be taking you on." And that was that! Stephen hopped in his car and drove home, relieved to be through that experience, but almost sick with anticipation of the results.
As luck would have it, he received a phone call three weeks later. "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted as an associate at Bain and Co." Sweeter words had never reached his ears. Stephen packed his bags and reported at the Dallas office the next week.
Over the years, Stephen was an integral member at Bain. He moved up the ranks, from associate to consultant, and eventually to partner. He pioneered new management techniques in new industries, and this innovative mindset helped drive him from success to success [5. Changing standards] He changed the face of management consulting, and it all started with that one interview at Bain.
I like that you mentioned the Wall Street Journal as well as Bain's official publications. In some fields some of the most important publications could potentially come from third parties with access to objective information that people in the authoritative organization or company need.
ReplyDeleteSoo that sounds like a rough process. It's crazy how different the processes are in different fields, and where we look for things, like I don't know that I would never look in the Wall Street Journal for my field.
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