Management Consulting Case: Solve Any Business Challenges

In this lecture, you'll dive into the essential frameworks and problem-solving techniques that management consultants use to address complex business challenges. By the end of this lecture, you’ll be equipped to:

• Clearly define problem scopes and build structured approaches to tackle them.

• Apply case-based frameworks to real-world business scenarios, including estimating market sizes, setting effective pricing, maximizing profitability, and developing growth strategies.

• Enhance operational efficiency, refine marketing approaches, and identify potential revenue streams for various industries.

• Use advanced consulting methods to deliver actionable insights that lead to measurable results.

This lecture is designed for anyone, from beginners to experienced professionals, who wants to improve their analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities. No prior experience is necessary—just bring a curious mind and a willingness to learn!

This lecture provides an in-depth look at the world of management consulting—a $160 billion industry that shapes decisions and drives change in organizations globally. By the end of this lecture, you’ll be able to:

• Understand the role of management consultants in transferring knowledge and legitimizing internal decisions within organizations.

• Recognize the phases of a consulting engagement, from diagnosis and data collection to implementation and feedback, and how these are applied in real-world scenarios.

• Identify the eight core objectives of consulting, which range from providing information and problem-solving to building consensus and improving long-term organizational effectiveness.

• Appreciate the importance of case studies in consulting, and learn strategies to tackle challenging, open-ended business cases that test analytical skills and communication under pressure.

This lecture is perfect for anyone interested in consulting, providing a solid foundation for understanding its role and value in modern business.

In this lecture, we’ll explore the decision tree—a powerful tool that brings clarity and structure to problem-solving. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Understand the purpose and construction of decision trees, and how they provide a structured approach to complex problems.

• Apply the MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) principle to organize ideas and prevent overlap.

• Use decision trees to break down problems into levels, from broad goals to specific actions, creating a roadmap to tackle profitability, cost, or growth challenges.

• Leverage the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) within a decision tree to focus on high-impact areas, improving efficiency in analysis and recommendations.

This foundational lecture sets the stage for tackling real business cases, empowering you to break down challenges logically and prioritize solutions that make the biggest difference.

In this lecture, we’ll cover the four main types of decision trees, equipping you with versatile tools to approach different kinds of business challenges. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Distinguish between the four types of decision trees, understanding how each type is suited to different scenarios.

• Apply yes/no decision trees to binary questions and utilize option-based trees to evaluate distinct choices.

• Use combination decision trees to tackle complex goals, like increasing profitability by combining revenue and cost strategies.

• Recognize sequential decision trees and understand how to approach step-by-step decision-making processes.

This lecture provides a foundational understanding of how decision trees are used across a range of consulting scenarios, preparing you to apply them effectively as we progress through the course.

In this lecture, we’ll explore how decision trees can provide a clear path through complex business decisions, using a real-world example from NovaTech Solutions. By the end of this lecture, you’ll be able to:

• Analyze strategic business decisions by mapping options, risks, and potential outcomes with decision trees.

• Apply probability calculations to forecast outcomes, balancing high-risk, high-reward scenarios versus cautious, flexible approaches.

• Evaluate both financial and non-financial factors—such as risk tolerance and competitive response—that impact strategic decisions.

• Leverage decision trees to make balanced choices and communicate your analysis clearly to stakeholders.

This lecture equips you with practical tools to navigate high-stakes decisions, providing clarity and insight into potential strategies for long-term business success.

In this lecture, we’ll explore the four most common types of case studies that form the backbone of management consulting and strategic analysis. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Approach sizing or estimation cases by calculating market potential and using effective mental math techniques, such as the funnel approach, to narrow down to a clear answer.

• Break down profitability cases using revenue and cost frameworks to diagnose issues like declining profits or rising costs.

• Tackle new product scenarios with confidence by asking targeted questions, identifying market needs, and proposing a clear direction.

• Analyze pricing cases by determining the best pricing strategy, whether competitor-based, value-based, or cost-based.

Beyond these core cases, we’ll also introduce advanced scenarios, such as market entry strategies, cost reduction methods, and public sector challenges, to expand your problem-solving toolkit. This lecture will prepare you to adapt case-solving techniques to diverse business contexts, helping you confidently tackle complex, real-world challenges.

In this introductory section, we dive into the fundamentals of management consulting. Learn about the key principles, such as decision trees and the MECE framework, that are essential for structured problem-solving. You'll also explore types of consulting cases—estimation, profitability, new product scenarios, and pricing—to build a strong foundation for tackling real-world business challenges. Get ready to develop a strategic mindset and the confidence to approach complex business issues!

In this engaging lecture, we’ll dive into an estimation case focused on calculating the total tire usage for the McLaren Formula One team over a full season. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Distinguish between supply-side and demand-side estimation problems.

• Formulate and apply a step-by-step approach to estimate total resource usage over a specified period.

• Use assumptions effectively to estimate the number of race tires McLaren requires per season, based on race schedules, FIA regulations, and driver requirements.

• Conduct a cost analysis by estimating the price of F1 tires, adding context through industry benchmarks and financial comparisons.

• Perform a sanity check to ensure the estimated figure aligns with typical F1 team budgets and expenditures.

This lecture will equip you with essential techniques for tackling estimation cases, allowing you to apply structured thinking to complex, real-world problems.

In this practical lecture, we’ll explore an estimation case focused on calculating the total annual value of bagels sold at Starbucks locations across the United States. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Identify whether an estimation problem should be approached from the supply side or demand side.

• Formulate assumptions to estimate customer traffic, sales frequency, and product demand across a large number of locations.

• Adjust calculations and assumptions to refine estimates and ensure they align with broader financial data and business context.

• Conduct a reasonableness check by comparing estimated figures against known financial metrics, such as Starbucks’ total revenue and food sales proportion.

This lecture equips you with the skills to build accurate and sensible estimates by questioning assumptions and refining calculations, a valuable technique for handling estimation cases in real business scenarios.

In this lecture, we’ll tackle an estimation case focused on determining the number of servers TikTok needs to support its global user base and data demands. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Approach demand-side estimation problems by assessing user activity, data generation, and infrastructure requirements.

• Formulate assumptions about user numbers, behavior patterns, and data size to estimate total data processing and storage needs.

• Calculate server requirements based on data load, individual server capacity, and redundancy for reliable operations.

• Conduct a reasonableness check by comparing estimates with industry data on infrastructure for large video platforms like YouTube and Netflix.

This lecture provides a solid framework for understanding the infrastructure demands of high-traffic applications, helping you to apply structured estimation techniques to real-world tech scenarios.

In this lecture, we’ll tackle an estimation case centered on calculating the potential market value of Dior’s promotional tie sales in their Manhattan store. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Approach demand-side estimation problems by assessing target market segments and customer behavior.

• Develop an equation for estimating total sales value based on factors like customer count, purchase probability, and average quantity per transaction.

• Apply strategic assumptions about customer demographics, luxury brand purchasing patterns, and accessory demand to estimate sales.

• Conduct a reasonableness check to validate results within the context of a luxury brand’s market dynamics.

This lecture equips you with the analytical skills to tackle estimation problems in luxury retail, helping you understand how exclusivity impacts promotional strategies and sales potential.

In this lecture, we’ll estimate the number of Tesla Cybertrucks that a factory can produce in its initial year of operation, focusing on production capacity and real-world constraints. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Identify supply-side estimation problems and build an equation to calculate production output based on capacity, schedule, and efficiency.

• Make assumptions about ramp-up periods, production rates, and working days to estimate annual production.

• Account for potential setbacks like supply chain issues and quality control to adjust initial estimates realistically.

• Perform a sanity check, validating estimates against industry benchmarks and production histories for similar automotive launches.

This lecture will equip you with structured thinking and estimation skills, useful for analyzing production capacities and planning outputs for new products in manufacturing.

In this lecture, we’ll dive into a demand-side estimation case to calculate the total annual tea consumption in China. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Set up demand-based estimation problems by analyzing population segments and consumer habits.

• Develop assumptions about product consumption frequency, typical serving sizes, and daily consumption patterns.

• Calculate large-scale consumption figures by breaking down complex numbers into manageable steps.

• Perform sanity checks on your estimates to ensure alignment with initial assumptions and logical consistency.

This lecture will help you sharpen your estimation skills, focusing on structured assumptions and accuracy checks, valuable for tackling large-scale consumption estimation problems across various industries.

In this lecture, we’ll explore why IT projects, particularly large-scale ones like SAP implementations, often go over budget and exceed scope. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Identify common planning pitfalls, such as underestimating complexity and lowballing budgets to gain project approval.

• Analyze factors that drive project overruns, including scope creep, resource constraints, contractor upselling, and hidden integration costs.

• Apply quantitative techniques to adjust for industry trends in budget and time overruns, benchmarking against real-world studies.

• Understand how methodologies like Agile help manage complex IT projects by breaking them down into smaller, adaptable components, reducing the risk of "black swan" project overruns.

This lecture will give you a comprehensive framework for analyzing IT project challenges and provide insights into methods that can improve project planning and execution.

In this lecture, we’ll analyze strategies to boost Taylor Swift’s tour profits using structured problem-solving and business frameworks. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Apply the Five Whys technique to identify root causes of revenue drops, exploring potential issues like ticket pricing, market demand, and operational costs.

• Brainstorm and quantify revenue-boosting strategies, including tiered ticket pricing, enhanced VIP experiences, and exclusive merchandise offerings.

• Calculate projected revenue increases by adjusting ticket pricing structures and improving value propositions for fans.

• Recognize the importance of clarifying assumptions and developing frameworks to approach business problems systematically.

This lecture provides hands-on experience in using logical problem-solving and revenue optimization techniques, essential for analyzing and boosting profits in the entertainment industry.

In this lecture, we’ll analyze the potential impact of a new casino in Toronto, focusing specifically on the financial and social implications for the province of Ontario. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Define and structure cases narrowly, guiding analysis through a clear focus—in this case, the impact on the provincial government rather than consumers or industries.

• Quantify financial benefits for the province, including tax revenue from gaming, income taxes, and additional sales tax from tourism.

• Account for potential social costs, such as increased healthcare and social service expenses associated with problem gambling and crime-related costs.

• Evaluate mitigation strategies, such as responsible gambling programs, and calculate their effect on reducing social costs.

• Present balanced scenarios, showcasing both positive economic impacts and social concerns, while considering differing stakeholder perspectives.

This lecture equips you with a structured approach to evaluating public policy projects, helping you weigh both economic gains and social impacts for comprehensive decision-making.

In this lecture, we’ll explore a tailored framework to evaluate the economic impact of the art sector on a city’s economy. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Define "economic impact" in terms of revenue generation and expenditures within the economy, allowing for a clear analysis of a sector’s contribution.

• Break down the art sector’s revenue impact, considering contributions from locals, exports, and foreign tourists, while accounting for displacement effects.

• Analyze expenditure categories, including labor, procurement, and capital expenditure (capex), and apply a multiplier effect to estimate the full economic impact.

• Use a cluster theory approach to assess how the art sector supports related businesses and stimulates additional economic activity.

This lecture provides a structured framework to assess the economic significance of any sector, particularly helpful for evaluating the arts in urban economies, allowing for robust, data-driven insights into its financial contributions.

In this lecture, we’ll tackle a complex pharmaceutical case focused on reducing R&D costs while growing revenue, providing a detailed look at profitability strategies for the pharma sector. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Use hypothesis-based and decision-tree approaches to break down a profitability problem in the pharmaceutical industry.

• Analyze cost drivers in R&D, including clinical trials, and assess how they impact revenue generation.

• Explore strategic options to close revenue gaps, including value-based pricing, tiered pricing, launching generics, price increases on patented drugs, bundling, and licensing partnerships.

• Quantify the potential impact of each option on revenue and profits, understanding how they can complement each other to address gaps left by patent expirations.

• Balance revenue growth with cost-cutting in R&D, learning how interconnected financial and operational elements in pharma can complicate cost reduction efforts.

This lecture offers a practical framework for tackling pharma profitability cases, equipping you with tools to evaluate complex financial strategies and optimize portfolio performance.

In this lecture, we’ll tackle a rare yet challenging case focused on increasing sales volume. Using Franklin Sugar’s goal of boosting sales by 10%, we’ll explore effective strategies to reach that target. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Apply Ansoff’s Matrix to identify strategic options: Market Penetration, Product Development, Market Development, and Diversification.

• Assess the most cost-effective and impactful strategy by analyzing variables like price elasticity, promotional impact, and distribution improvements.

• Evaluate nonlinear relationships in sales strategies, understanding how price cuts or promotions may not lead to proportional volume increases.

• Develop a practical action plan using a blend of price adjustments, targeted promotions, and enhanced distribution to hit the sales volume goal.

This lecture provides a detailed framework for analyzing and implementing volume-driven strategies, emphasizing the importance of nonlinear thinking in complex, real-world business scenarios.

In this lecture, we’ll explore a structured approach to pricing Nvidia’s latest consumer graphics card, the RTX 4090, by building a tailored framework rather than relying on generic pricing strategies. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Define the objective of pricing within the broader strategic goals, understanding that pricing is a tool to support the company’s overall strategy.

• Identify and prioritize key pricing drivers: production costs, market demand, competitor pricing, and Nvidia’s strategic objectives, such as market positioning and share growth.

• Analyze the role of competitor actions, market substitutes, and customer perception in setting price ceilings and floors.

• Consider strategic objectives, such as premium positioning or loss-leader pricing, to determine an optimal pricing strategy aligned with Nvidia’s goals.

• Build a custom framework specific to the problem, applying first principles thinking to ensure relevance and effectiveness.

This lecture reinforces the importance of aligning pricing with overall strategy and avoiding one-size-fits-all frameworks, a skill essential for management consulting and strategic decision-making.

In this lecture, we’ll explore Lamborghini’s pricing strategy for its new luxury electric SUV, analyzing multiple pricing approaches to arrive at an optimal price point. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Define the floor and ceiling prices and apply them as boundaries for pricing decisions.

• Understand and apply four main pricing strategies: cost-plus, value-based, price skimming, and competitive pricing.

• Assess the brand implications of each strategy, determining which one aligns best with Lamborghini’s focus on luxury, exclusivity, and premium positioning.

• Explore innovative pricing models, such as performance-based or subscription-based pricing, as a way to generate ongoing revenue.

• Synthesize information to provide a decisive, strategy-aligned recommendation that captures Lamborghini’s market potential while enhancing brand value.

This session will help you grasp the importance of aligning pricing with strategic objectives and customer expectations in the luxury market, ensuring Lamborghini’s new electric SUV reflects its premium brand image.

In this lecture, we’ll analyze Lululemon’s potential market entry into Mongolia using a structured, comprehensive approach that balances strategic goals, market opportunity, and practical considerations.

Objectives:

• Understand how to break down a market entry case using a flexible, strategy-driven framework that includes the following key elements:

  1. Strategy Fit: Assessing if the opportunity aligns with Lululemon’s premium brand image and long-term growth strategy.

  2. Market Attractiveness: Estimating market size, consumer demand, and competition, considering Mongolia’s economic environment and emerging middle class.

  3. Operational Feasibility: Evaluating logistics, supply chain, and regulatory challenges in entering a developing market.

  4. Implementation Options: Exploring entry methods such as standalone stores, partnerships, or a phased entry using pop-up shops.

  5. Exit Strategy: Establishing clear benchmarks and contingency plans to manage risks effectively.

Case Insights:

• Calculate and validate Lululemon’s revenue targets in Mongolia using data-driven assumptions.

• Develop a phased, test-driven approach (e.g., pop-up stores, partnerships) to balance risk and investment.

• Craft a realistic entry strategy that respects Lululemon’s brand position, minimizes initial risk, and adapts to local market dynamics.

Outcome: This session will prepare you to confidently tackle complex market entry cases, balancing ambition with operational realities, and ensuring alignment between strategic objectives and practical execution.

Today’s session dives into an operations case focused on Carlsberg, a brewing company facing two operational challenges: late deliveries and an inventory buildup. As a classic example of an operations bottleneck analysis, this case offers a hands-on way to understand process flow and capacity optimization.

Case Scenario: Carlsberg is receiving customer complaints about delayed deliveries while also facing a 40% increase in inventory over the past two months. The goal is to reduce delivery time from six days to 4.8 days and lower inventory levels from $10 million to $6 million.

Objectives:

• Identify the root cause of Carlsberg’s operational issues by mapping out the production process, from inbound logistics to manufacturing and outbound logistics.

• Diagnose the bottleneck(s) causing production delays and inventory buildup.

• Develop solutions to increase production flow and efficiency, aligning supply and demand to meet Carlsberg’s delivery and inventory targets.

Key Concepts:

1. Process Visualization: Understand the sequential steps in Carlsberg’s operations—Inbound Logistics, Manufacturing, and Outbound Logistics—and assess where delays occur.

2. Bottleneck Identification: Using capacity analysis, locate the process stage limiting overall throughput. In this case, we identified the bottling/canning stage as the bottleneck.

3. Capacity Alignment and Quality Control: Explore options to increase bottling/canning capacity or improve quality control to increase effective throughput.

4. Inventory and Procurement Coordination: Align raw materials purchasing with production capacity to prevent excess inventory.

Case Solution Steps:

1. Process Mapping: Break down each manufacturing step to locate bottlenecks.

2. Capacity Calculation: Compare demand (30 million liters) to each process stage’s capacity, identifying bottlenecks.

3. Bottleneck Solutions: Options include increasing bottling/canning capacity, redistributing unused equipment, or preemptive quality control.

4. Purchasing Alignment: Adjust raw material orders to actual production capacity to reduce inventory buildup.

Outcome: By addressing the bottleneck and aligning supply chain and quality assurance processes, Carlsberg can meet its delivery time and inventory targets, resolving customer complaints and optimizing production efficiency.

Takeaway: Operations cases require a structured, process-driven approach distinct from strategy cases. Learning to visualize the process flow, calculate capacity, and optimize production stages is essential for successful problem-solving in operations management.

In this lecture, we explore the complex relationship between maximizing shareholder value and maintaining ethical responsibility. Through real-world examples, we'll analyze situations where these goals align seamlessly, as well as cases where they conflict, especially in the short term. Using a practical decision tree framework, students will learn to make informed choices that consider legal, financial, and ethical factors.

What You'll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Identify Key Decision Points: Recognize when and how to apply legal, financial, and ethical considerations in business decision-making.

• Apply a Decision Tree Framework: Utilize a step-by-step decision tree to assess the viability of proposed actions within a business context, especially when facing ethical dilemmas.

• Balance Stakeholder Interests: Evaluate how decisions impact not only shareholders but also employees, customers, communities, and the environment.

• Develop an Ethical Approach: Apply corporate values and ethics policies to guide business choices, ensuring that decisions reflect both legal requirements and ethical responsibility.

This lecture equips you with a structured approach to handle ethical conflicts, helping you make decisions that serve both shareholder interests and societal impact.

In this lecture, we'll delve into the financial strategies that IBM can implement to boost shareholder value, addressing challenges such as declining market share, unsatisfactory stock performance, and the delayed launch of new products. Using key financial metrics and decision-making frameworks, we will analyze the impact of various strategies, including improving return on equity (ROE), adjusting the equity growth rate, lowering the cost of equity, and modifying the beginning book equity.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Analyze Financial Metrics: Understand and apply the valuation formula to calculate IBM’s value per share using metrics such as ROE, cost of equity, and growth rate.

• Evaluate Shareholder Value Strategies: Assess the effectiveness of different financial strategies (e.g., cost-cutting, revenue enhancement, share buybacks) in increasing share value.

• Make Strategic Decisions Based on Financial Data: Determine how to optimize ROE and equity growth for IBM to balance immediate shareholder returns with long-term growth.

• Understand Trade-offs: Recognize the trade-offs involved in boosting shareholder value, such as the potential impacts of cost-cutting on R&D and the risks of reinvestment without profitable opportunities.

This lecture equips you with tools to make strategic financial decisions that enhance shareholder value while considering both short-term and long-term impacts on the company.

In this lecture, we’ll dive into an in-depth analysis of Morgan Stanley’s potential acquisition of a gold mine in South Africa. By evaluating various scenarios, including outright purchase, expansion, joint venture, and leasing, we'll use financial metrics to determine which approach offers the highest return on investment (ROI) and best aligns with Morgan Stanley's 25% ROI target.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Apply ROI Calculations: Understand and apply ROI formulas to assess the financial viability of different investment strategies.

• Analyze Investment Scenarios: Evaluate and compare the benefits and risks of outright ownership, expansion, joint ventures, and leasing in capital-intensive industries.

• Determine Optimal Investment Strategies: Use data-driven insights to recommend the most profitable investment option, considering both ROI and total profit.

• Assess Risk Factors: Identify potential risks, such as price fluctuations and geopolitical factors, that could impact the profitability of large-scale investments in foreign assets.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll have the skills to analyze investment opportunities in the mining sector (and beyond) to support sound, strategic decision-making that maximizes shareholder value.

In this lecture, we’ll take a deep dive into the process of boosting productivity at BMW by focusing on the core drivers of productivity: the total value of output over the total input cost. We’ll examine critical factors like the number of cars produced, pricing, and model mix, and explore strategies to control both fixed and variable costs effectively.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Define Productivity for Business Optimization: Understand productivity as a ratio of total output value to total input costs, and break down this concept into direct drivers like units produced, price, and cost structure.

• Use Decision Trees for Structured Problem-Solving: Apply a decision-tree approach to identify and prioritize productivity drivers, ensuring a logical and organized analysis.

• Apply MECE and the 80/20 Rule: Ensure that your analysis is mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE) and focus on the most impactful factors to avoid "boiling the ocean" or unnecessary over-analysis.

• Identify High-Impact Cost-Saving Strategies: Calculate potential cost savings from actions like moving production to low-cost countries or optimizing sourcing agreements, and assess their impact on productivity.

• Evaluate Strategic Options with Quantitative Insight: Weigh the benefits of increasing demand, launching new models, or shifting production, and select the most viable option based on a structured, data-driven approach.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll be equipped to tackle productivity challenges in a structured way, prioritizing high-impact actions to drive meaningful gains in output and efficiency for BMW or similar businesses.

In this lecture, we’ll dive into the operational analysis of route optimization using a case study of FedEx’s potential right-turn-only policy. By examining how factors like fuel costs, labor time, and route efficiency interact, we’ll see how even seemingly simple changes can have complex cost-benefit implications. We’ll explore how to approach an operations case with detailed estimation and calculation, critically assessing if a new policy could bring real savings.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Define and Apply Productivity in Operational Contexts: Learn to calculate productivity by analyzing direct cost and time drivers in a delivery service context.

• Use Cost-Benefit Analysis to Assess Policy Changes: Understand how to estimate costs and benefits associated with operational changes, including time savings, fuel consumption, and labor implications.

• Perform Sequential Calculations and Make Reasonable Assumptions: Practice breaking down an operations problem into manageable steps, making educated assumptions to calculate real-world implications.

• Identify Key Factors for Optimizing Route Efficiency: Gain insights into how balancing route modifications, such as reducing left turns, impacts overall operational costs and safety.

• Apply Advanced Route Optimization Concepts: Recognize when a rigid policy may not be effective and consider how advanced algorithms can fine-tune operations for optimal savings and safety.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll understand the complexities behind route optimization and will be equipped to analyze similar cases with a structured, data-driven approach that evaluates both financial and operational impact.

In this lecture, we'll explore the use of marginal cost curves in assessing potential investments within commodity industries, focusing on a high-stakes investment decision for a commodity-based business. We'll dive into how marginal cost curves work, why they're critical for industries like mining, oil, and agriculture, and how companies can use them to guide strategic decisions on scaling production and making investments.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Understand and Interpret Marginal Cost Curves: Grasp how to read marginal cost curves, including the importance of unit cost, market demand, and competitive positioning in commodity markets.

• Analyze the Impact of Supply and Demand on Profitability: Evaluate how shifts in supply and demand affect market prices and how this impacts decisions around expanding or reducing production capacity.

• Calculate and Compare Production Costs Across Competitors: Learn how to assess whether a new facility should come online by comparing unit costs and expected returns against market conditions.

• Apply Strategic Investment Criteria for Commodities: Understand key factors such as economies of scale, price elasticity, and homogeneity in commodities that influence investment decisions in capital-intensive industries.

• Recognize the Risks of Excess Capacity and Market Saturation: Learn why excess capacity can depress prices in commodity markets, and how this affects long-term profitability for different producers based on their unit costs.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll know how to apply marginal cost curve analysis to assess the viability of new investments, especially in scenarios where long-term profitability depends on supply, demand, and efficient cost management.

In this lecture, we will explore effective strategies for reducing the costs of clinical trials, a critical phase in bringing new drugs to market. Using practical examples and detailed cost-saving calculations, we will look at various options from outsourcing to lower-cost regions to leveraging advanced technologies and innovative trial designs.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Identify Key Cost Components Across Clinical Trial Phases: Understand the fixed and variable costs involved in each phase (Phase I, II, and III) of clinical trials and pinpoint high-cost drivers that can be optimized.

• Evaluate Cost-Saving Approaches: Assess the potential savings from strategies such as outsourcing trials, implementing virtual trials, using adaptive trial designs, and partnering with other organizations.

• Calculate and Model Savings Potential: Apply real-world data to calculate cost reductions across various strategies, including geographical cost differences, patient recruitment efficiencies, and data management innovations.

• Integrate Multiple Cost-Reduction Techniques: Explore how combining strategies—such as virtual trials with adaptive designs—can maximize savings while maintaining regulatory compliance and trial quality.

• Make Informed Recommendations: Develop insights into how pharmaceutical companies can reduce trial costs without compromising trial integrity or timeline.

By the end of this lecture, you'll be equipped to analyze clinical trial costs strategically and recommend data-driven, cost-efficient solutions that maintain rigorous standards, improve resource allocation, and enhance operational effectiveness in drug development.

In this lecture, we’ll walk through a complex case focused on achieving significant cost reductions within a defense contract. Our goal is to identify and implement strategies that reduce the internal cost base by 10%—or $900 million—while maintaining project quality and avoiding any impact on margins.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Break Down Cost Structures: Analyze fixed and variable costs to identify potential areas for savings, with a focus on components, labor, utilities, and subassemblies.

• Prioritize High-Impact Areas for Cost Reduction: Assess cost-saving opportunities by prioritizing significant costs like labor and components to address the largest potential savings first.

• Design Creative Yet Practical Solutions: Develop practical solutions for reducing costs without compromising quality or breaching government mandates, such as consolidating suppliers, reducing backup staff salaries, and outsourcing subassemblies.

• Implement Cost-Saving Measures Strategically: Apply specific strategies like negotiating supplier discounts, switching to cost-effective materials, and adopting energy efficiency measures to maximize savings.

• Communicate and Refine Problem-Solving Approaches: Learn to communicate each step of your analysis clearly, making your thought process transparent and revising as needed to reach the target savings.

After this lecture, you’ll be equipped to analyze cost structures within large projects, identify high-impact areas, and develop structured solutions that balance creativity and methodical problem-solving—skills essential for tackling real-world business challenges in consulting and beyond.

In this lecture, we’ll explore a strategic competition case, focusing on how Mercedes can counter BMW's potential entry into the New Zealand market. Using structured analysis and financial calculations, we'll assess Mercedes' options for defending and expanding its market share while maintaining profitability.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Identify Customer Needs and Competitive Advantages: Analyze New Zealand market dynamics to determine customer preferences and pinpoint Mercedes' competitive strengths relative to BMW.

• Assess Market Entry Implications: Evaluate the impact of BMW's entry on Mercedes' market share and revenue, identifying the risks and opportunities posed by competition.

• Develop and Position a New Product Line: Plan the launch of a new model tailored to capture the target demographic, calculating development costs, variable costs, and the payback period to measure profitability.

• Set Competitive Pricing Strategies: Establish a pricing strategy that leverages Mercedes' local manufacturing advantage to undercut BMW's prices while maintaining a healthy margin.

• Forecast Financial Outcomes: Calculate revenue, cost, and profit impacts of introducing a new model, along with the expected break-even period for development costs, to ensure a sustainable competitive position.

After completing this lecture, you'll have a solid framework for approaching competitive cases, leveraging customer insights, strategic positioning, and financial analysis to make informed decisions that strengthen market presence and drive profitability.

In this lecture, we’ll tackle a complex deregulation case focusing on how a telecom company can respond effectively to a newly deregulated market. With the Spanish telecom market as our example, we'll analyze strategic moves to maintain profitability in the face of lost subsidies and increased competition.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Identify Key Impacts of Deregulation on Business Models: Recognize the critical revenue and cost implications of deregulation, including loss of government subsidies and potential new competition.

• Structure a Response Framework for Deregulated Markets: Develop a systematic approach to assess changes in prices, customer demands, and competitor behavior, helping you understand how market dynamics shift in a deregulated environment.

• Formulate Cost-Reduction and Revenue-Enhancement Strategies: Explore cost-cutting measures such as efficiency improvements and restructuring, and design innovative revenue strategies like leasing network infrastructure or developing new customer-focused products.

• Analyze Financial Scenarios for Optimal Decision-Making: Perform detailed calculations to weigh the financial impacts of various scenarios, from maintaining the status quo to investing in product innovation, to determine the best path forward.

• Balance Short-Term and Long-Term Strategic Goals: Learn to create a strategic balance between immediate profit protection and long-term market competitiveness by combining cost efficiencies with customer-driven product investments.

By the end of this lecture, you'll be equipped with a robust toolkit for approaching deregulation cases, using strategic analysis and financial modeling to make informed decisions that safeguard profitability and position the company for growth.

In this lecture, we’ll explore the strategic process of evaluating whether a company should exit a particular business segment, using a case study approach with BHP Billiton’s titanium division as our example. Through structured analysis, we'll break down the essential elements that guide strategic exit or continuation decisions.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Completing This Lecture:

• Identify Key Decision Factors in Exit Strategy Cases: Understand and apply the critical factors in exit strategy cases, focusing on profitability targets, industry trends, and competitive dynamics that impact whether a business unit should continue or exit.

• Apply a Profit-Driven Analysis Framework: Use a profit and loss breakdown to examine the impact of price, volume, and cost on net margin, allowing you to assess a business’s current profitability and its potential for improvement.

• Evaluate Strategic Revenue and Cost Levers: Identify and prioritize potential revenue and cost drivers, such as capacity utilization, recovery rates, and cost reduction opportunities, to assess if a business can meet its profitability objectives.

• Consider External Market Forces: Analyze customer demand, competitor actions, and broader industry trends to understand the external forces that influence strategic decisions in commodity sectors.

• Provide Data-Driven Recommendations and Implementation Plans: Develop well-supported recommendations for either remaining in or exiting a business segment, supported by cost-benefit analysis, and address key implementation challenges like operational disruption and resistance to change.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll have the tools to confidently analyze and provide recommendations for exit strategy decisions, balancing both internal financial objectives and external market realities to ensure sound strategic outcomes.