Resources for Understanding Industry-Specific Trends and Drivers in Consulting Cases

Question

Dear Community,

I hope this message finds you well. I am currently in the process of preparing for consulting cases and was hoping to get some guidance from you all. I am looking for resources that provide a general overview of industry-specific trends, revenue and cost drivers, disruptors, and new business models, beyond what can be found in newspapers such as the Financial Times.

I am hoping to find resources such as informative YouTube channels, insightful blog posts, or industry experts on LinkedIn who share their knowledge on these topics. I believe that having access to such resources would be beneficial for future case interviews and to develop my business acumen.

I would be grateful for any recommendations you may have. Thank you in advance for your time and help.

Answer 1

Hi there,

I think this is an interesting question that may be relevant for many people. I would be happy to share my thoughts on it:

First of all, please keep in mind that business knowledge is not assessed unless you are an industry expert. While I would highly advise you to gather a basic understanding of the dominating industries for strategy consulting companies in order to showcase solid business judgement, this will probably just help you with understanding the overall business context of a case study.
When it comes to resources, I would highly advise you to have a look at the business school case books of Duke, Ross, and Wharton. Even if they are far from perfect, they will serve their purpose to provide an overview of the most relevant industries.
Moreover, many consulting companies and industry research organizations publish reports and whitepapers that provide in-depth analysis of industry trends, drivers, and disruptors, in case you want to dive deeper into a specific industry.
Lastly, while there is certainly a lot more material available, please keep in mind to be efficient in your case study preparation.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to address your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

Hi,

Sharing a couple of thoughts:

Many MBA case books have some sort of summarized ‘Industry Overviews’. Depending on your timeline, it may be useful to use those as a baseline and continue to build on it and/or dive deep into the points there that you aren't as familiar with.
In addition to FT, do of course consider other reputable publications (e.g. Economist, WSJ, Bloomberg)
- While you likely already are familiar with these, I mention this because depending on your timeline, even covering several of these can be very time consuming, especially when taking into account the rest of your prep
While it is intuitive to go to ‘business’ related publications, I do think it is helpful to expand your reading and also cover ‘non business’ types of publications (e.g. NYT) - sometimes the overlap between ‘business’ and ‘non-business’ is fairly blurred
- e.g. a NYT article about say, fake influencers or influencers may not necessarily be about ‘business’ but it could allow you to think critically about the drivers and models to a low barriers to entry, content focused industry
- e.g. Economist has “The World Ahead” section - which talks about key trends in the world, some may be industry and business specific, but others may be more general/societal but yet still interesting to think critically about

Answer 3

Hi there,

Some advice/tips:

I have 20+ industry deeps dives that I have created (comes for free with coaching)
Several casebooks have industry deep-dives
Leverage your university online library
Investopedia
Google
Youtube (typing in the industry)
Robinhood snacks
Money Talks
The Economist
BCG Insights
McK insights

Answer 4

Hi there,

I have recently created an industry primer covering 27 industries with

typical PnL
Players
Trends and future outlook
Revenue streams
etc.

Reach out for more information.

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 5

Hello,

I would suggest accessing case books from top business schools - many of these have industry deep dives with revenue and cost drivers.

Additionally, you could also look at some publications from consulting firms.

Hope this helps!

Rushabh

Answer 6

Hello, Don't let this worry you too much - plenty of successful consultants come from STEM backgrounds, and there's l... (read entire answer)

Hello, Don't let this worry you too much - plenty of successful consultants come from STEM backgrounds, and there's less overlap between casing skills and college business/econ... (read entire answer)