What are best blogs for improving business judgement?

Question

Clara · Accepted Answer

Hello!

Indeed this can be useful for: 


	Being informed of what´s happening in relevant economic and social matters
	Getting used to the business and particularly MBB terminology


Some ideas: 


	Newspapers free bulletins: such as for instance, NYT, which is delivered to your mail for free. 
	The Economist: always insightful
	Different MBB pages: to get used to the hot topics arround consulting and the classical terminology
	MBB related organisms, such as the McKinsey Global Institute: for the same reasons outlined in the last point


Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Ian · Answer

Daily Business News/Thinking: Financial Times

Larger Thinking/Trends: The Economist

Crash course: BCG Insights, McKinsey Featured Insights

For the past decade I have read The Economist and the Financial Times daily. This built-up knowledge was instrumental in ensuring I had the right thinking+base knowledge for casing.

Also the improve your business judgement:


	Reading through (and fully understanding cases)
	Working on a mindset shift (happy to teach you a session in this)

Deleted · Answer

Hi A,

I would recommend you to read preparation material for Case Interview like Case In Point by Cosentino and London Business School Case Book to understand different types of cases and approaches to crack them, and that is how you can train your mindset. 

And about the media - The Economist and Bloomberg. 

If you need any help, feel free to reach out


Best,

André

Deleted · Answer

Hi there,

Very good question! Business judgement can mean very differnet things (financial judgement, strategic judgement, organisational development judgement etc.)

I would recommend the following blogs, books and online courses that helped me gain insights on hard and soft management:


	
	Critical Perspectives on Management: Free online course on Coursera by one of my favorite professors at IE business schools - He challenges the critical thinking required for management in today's world - A bit of history, and bit of social science - all in a fun enviroment
	
	
	Freakonomics: I'm sure everyone on this website know about this - however what most of them fail to appreciate is that their appraoch is answer (or even come up with their critical questions) is a great mix between cold/hard economic perspective and soft/humanistic/social affinity
	
	
	The Economist: Not a blog, a bit pricey however great business judgement material - Not only their issues provide up-to-date analysis of various business challenges but their charts and visualizations have tought me how to tell stories with my charts rather than just showing bars and figures.
	


Hope this helps,

Khaled

Vlad · Answer

Hi,

Although most of the companies would say that you don't need any specific business knowledge, in reality, it is hard to solve a case purely based on common sense. The lack of business knowledge becomes a very common problem, especially among people with non-business backgrounds

Business Acumen is all about building proper industry and functional knowledge. Here is how you can do that:


	
	Practice more cases with the other candidates. Try to start with the most common industries - Retail, Consumer Goods, Airlines, Banking
	
	
	Study the annual reports of the public companies in each industry. They have a good overview of the company and the industry. 
	
	
	Get the industry information from relevant books, magazines, etc. 
	
	
	Study MBA cases. They have a good industry overview. You can purchase HBS cases here: https://hbr.org/store/case-studies
	


For each industry, you should understand:


	
	Revenue streams
	
	
	Cost structure
	
	
	Average margins
	
	
	Key Performance Indicators
	
	
	Industry trends
	


Best

Raj · Answer

Hi,

This depends on what you mean by business judgement, whether that is:


	Industry Knowlege - Knowledge of different industries and trends
	Commercial Acumen - awareness of common business challenges
	Executive decision-making - decision-making processes in business


(1) For the first, a great primer of what is happening in various industries is actually thought leadership papers. These are published by most of the major strat houses, and give a good overview of the landscape, players, challenges and trends. Also worth subscribing to newsletters such as,


McKinsey Insights

Strategy + Business.


(2) For the second, if you are bored or have some extra time (!), there are some foundational books that are the equivalent of seminal works in strategy / business thinking


Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter

Blue Ocean Strategy  by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne


(3) For the third, there are some great podcasts where they interview decision-makers about major strategy or operational challenges they faced and how they solved these e.g. 


HBR After Hours

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-hours/id1363110130)

Cold Call

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cold-call/id1156646189)

Transformation Talks 

(https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/transformation-talks/id1400295044?i=1000414036908&mt=2)

a16z

(https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711)


None of the above is exhaustive but a starter for 10

Raj

Luca · Answer

Hello,

I think that the most important source of articles and information should be the firms' wesites. MBB are really active on their social channels and website, and you can get used to their mindset and way of communication. More over, you could read something written by your future interviewer and that would be an interesting plus to create a connection during the fit interview.

Best,
Luca

Deleted · Answer

The Economist is a great source as well as Bloomberg. Bloomberg is slightly easier to read than the Economist.