Applying to

DigitalBCG:
BCG Platinion
2019 - 2020

WESTERN EUROPE, SOUTH AMERICA AND AFRICA

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Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

WHAT IS TABLE OF CONTENTS
DIGITALBCG?
What is DigitalBCG?
What work do we do?
What's in it for me?

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Who are we looking for?
Where can you find us?

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Through DigitalBCG, we bring together a
diverse mix of consultants and digital
specialists to support our clients throughout
their digital transformation journeys.

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

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WHAT IS
DIGITALBCG? Our heritage combined with
cutting-edge capabilities

A fast-growing network of more than

4,000 consultants and digital experts

A significant part of our business with

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

3000+ projects in the last two years

End-2-End approach to create

lasting impact with digital

A global digital footprint that continues

to expand
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We collaborate End-2-End to create impact with digital

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Strategy Operating Product Big-data Architecture Engineering
model and org. development analytics and delivery

Complete digital ecosystem

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WHAT WORK
DO WE DO?
Together with KLM, we built an Custom built, and continue to
AI engine to manage air traffic build and scale the Starbucks
disruption in hubs, ensuring app using a predictive model
KLM airlines canceled fewer to create personalized offers
flights and improved service for individual customers.
across multiple hubs

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Launched Renault Digital, a Reimagined how Allergan
separate entity dedicated to connects with its customers
developing software and about beauty and medical
applications for all the group’s aesthetics
businesses.
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We jointly build disruptive solutions with our clients
that create lasting competitive advantage

Together with KLM, we Custom built, and Launched Renault Digital, Reimagined how Allergan
built an Artificial continue to build and a separate entity connects with its

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Intelligence engine to scale the Starbucks app dedicated to developing customers about beauty
ensure KLM airlines using a predictive model software and applications and medical aesthetics.
canceled fewer flights to create personalized for all the group’s Together we built an
and helped more offers for individual businesses. This change innovative, digital hub of
passengers make it to customers. Drove 100% empowered the entire curated content creating
their flights increase in marketing organization to become an entirely new business
engagement and net more reactive, flexible venture for Allergan
incremental and digitally competent
revenue (+$100M)
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 Core consultant Digital/Tech consultant Product manager
Work hand-in-hand with client Navigates digital/technology to Transform and scale the core

You will work as teams to drive impact achieve business impact business, bear the overall
responsibility for product
delivery
part of an
integrated,
client-facing
Topic expert Experience designer
team to solve a Translates client context and
specificities to engineers and data
Develop product and service
solutions by bringing together
range of complex

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

scientists You? strategy, design and technology
development

business
problems
Data scientist IT Architect Engineer
Generate data-driven insights Develop and implement IT Supports the development and
Note: An example team composition for a digitization architecture solutions implementation of enterprise
project, for illustrative purposes grade software solutions
Source: BCG analysis 8
WHAT'S IN IT
FOR YOU? Personal growth

World class
Think like an
training and
entrepreneur
mentorship

What’s in

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Work in
diverse it for you? Work on a wide
range of topics
teams

Deliver leading
C-level access
edge impact

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Our holistic approach to digital transformations

Business strategy driven by digital

• Digital Strategy Roadmap NEW

• Digital Acceleration Index

Digitize the core New digital growth

• End-to-End Customer Journeys • Innovation Sprints and
Strategic Ventures
Customer offer and
Go-to-Market Operations Support functions

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

• Personalization and • Industry 4.0 • Digital Support
Digital Marketing Functions
• Next Generation Sales • Digital Supply Chain

Changing ways Leveraging the power

of working of data and technology Integrating ecosystems
• Agile at Scale • AI Activators • Digital Ecosystems NEW
• Build Operate Transfer (BOT) • Data and Digital platform
• Internet of Things
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 BCG?
FIT IN
DIGITAL
WHERE DO I

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Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

 Multiple benefits of joining any part of DigitalBCG…

World class training

Growth and mentorship

Entrepreneurial
spirit Work as one team
Leading edge
Wide range C-level impact
of topics access

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

…but what Identify clients’ highest- Build end to end, Help clients digitize and Help corporate partners
value opportunities and artificial intelligence transform their think and
are you most address their solutions & assets to core business and build act like venture
interested in? strategic challenges radically transform our digital solutions capitalists
clients' business
performance

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 Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.
OUR DIGITAL Identify clients’ Build end to end, fit Help clients digitize Help corporate
highest-value for purpose artificial and transform their partners think and
TEAMS opportunities and intelligence solutions core business and act like venture
address their strategic & assets to radically build digital solutions capitalists
challenges transform our clients'
business performance

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 AND IGNITE CHANGE
WE RESOLVE THE UNSOLVABLE

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Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

 BCG Platinion brings global scale and footprint
Frankfort
Berlin

Stockholm Hamburg

Copenhagen
Chicago Amsterdam Helsinki
Brussels
Toronto
London Warsaw
Cologne
More than New-York Paris Milan
Tokyo

500+
Madrid
Pittsburgh
Shenzhen

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

experienced Mumbai
employees New Singapore
Delhi

28 Santiago
Sao Paulo
Johannesburg Sydney
Canberra

offices Note: As of April 2019

Melbourne

Source: BCG Platinion 15

WHAT DOES BCG Digital Products & Services
PLATINION Accelerate design and build of MVPs and
customized software solutions
OFFER?
Architect digital and Data
Platforms
Architect digital & data platforms to enable

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

end-to-end transformations

Enabling Digital capabilities

Leverage specialist capabilities to support
BCG's digital transformation offer

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WHO ARE WE
LOOKING FOR?
We're looking for digital talent
who understands how
technology contributes to
business strategy and can
design digital platforms to

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

unlock real business value

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 Design engaging experiences and solutions,
including customer journeys, based on
Digital Design understanding users through ethnography and
prototyping

WHO ARE WE Digital

Products & Engineering
Develop user interfaces, proof-of-concepts, &
MVPs; build data & digital platforms to enable

LOOKING FOR?
digital customer experiences and enterprise
Services agility

Lead teams to discover and design products;

Product define product roadmaps tied to value and drive
Management teams to deliver product iterations; build, train
and lead product teams

Help clients design and migrate to next

Architecture & Architecture generation architectures and modernize their
Platforms legacy platforms, enterprise apps,

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

infrastructure, and data architectures

Manage large IT programs at scale and in agile

Agile Delivery & ways; change business and tech operating
models through Agile coaches and DevOps
Enabling IT Consulting experts
Digital
Capabilities Deliver comprehensive cybersecurity strategies
Cyber Security and respective organizational and technical
solutions
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Note: Platinion NA has also built a non-IT Risk capability; not shown here since it is not core to the business and will not be replicated elsewhere in Platinion
WHAT MAKES
IT UNIQUE? Building digital solutions

Deep technical expertise

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Design environment

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 BCG Platinion: Blend deep technical expertise with design

Growth Building digital solutions

• We build digital solutions from scratch in 8-12 weeks
• Define business and technology architecture at C-Level,
understand how senior executives think about
Entrepreneurial spirit technology and what it takes to sell IT investment

Wide range of topics

Deep technical expertise
• Deepen your business and technology expertise, work
with industry leaders to understand how they use
What's in C-level access + technology
• Help them to elevate technology and explain it in

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

it for me? terms that can be understood by senor business
stakeholders.

World class training

and mentorship Design environment
• We work in collaborative and highly innovative work
environments that are enabled by cutting edge
Work as one team technology
• Regular knowledge sharing sessions and interaction with
internal and external expert communities allow us to
Leading edge impact build the knowledge we need to service our clients

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 Often combined Often combined

HOW CAN

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

CV screen Round 0 Round 1 Round 2 Decision
YOU APPLY? round

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 Effectiveness and impact
Does the candidate posses the behavioral
characteristics required for success at
BCG Platinion?

Communications
Technical expertise
Does the candidate demonstrate a What are we and presence
Does the candidate have the

looking for?
broad understanding of technology1
presence and communication
or deep IT know-how & expertise
skills to succeed as a
in a selected areas2?

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

BCG Platinion consultant?

Problem solving and insight

Does the candidate exhibit a strong set
of analytical abilities and
thought processes? 22

1. IT Consultants & Agile 2. IT Architects, Engineers & Designers

 Personal discussion • Experience
• Motivation
~10-15 mins
• Impact

3 Case study • Case set up

• Structure/approach
Parts to the ~20-35 mins
• Analysis, Brainstorm
• Summary

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

BCG case
interview • Questions led by candidate
Q&A
~5-10 mins
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The case study is
the most
influential part of
the interview

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

• We use the case study to test
your ability to solve problems and
articulate insight
• They are designed to be
representative of a real ~10-week
BCG case

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 A real case interview…
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Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

 What to expect • Interviewer provides stem
from us logistics • Candidate repeats main points of stem
• Candidate optionally asks 1–2 clarifying
questions
– “If it will fundamentally change the way
you frame the problem, ask it up front”
• Candidate asks for time
– Takes 1–1½ minutes to formulate
Structuring the a structure
problem is the first • Candidate explains structure
step to crack the case

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

What we expect • Designed in real-time vs. memorized
from you • Answers the specific problem vs. generic
• Completed within 1–1½ minutes—be quick
but comprehensive
• Revisited throughout case
• Not necessarily unique

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The set up Form your approach

The client is a financial services company that specializes in

mortgages & small business loans to customers.

It recently experienced a major failure at one of its data centers What is the structure or
from a severe power outage. The data center was out for a full analysis framework you
week causing disruption in service affecting its mortgage lending would use to solve this case?
business unit customers

Our client has asked us to: What information do you

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

• Understand reasons for the severity of the disruption & need to prove or disprove
mitigate risks of future disruptions those hypotheses?
• Determine the magnitude of impact on its mortgage clients
• Come up with a strategy to maintain brand reputation /
customer retention

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Evolution of candidate framework preparation
Four stages of proper performance

Weak Candidate progression over time Strong

1 2 3 4

Design a framework in
Develop personalized real-time tailored to
Apply “canned” framework
“generic” framework specific problem …
direct from case book
No framework (profitability, market
(profitability, market

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

entry, etc.) and apply to … using fresh
entry, etc.)
case as-is thinking, portions of
personalized framework

“Lack of “Used a canned framework” “Framework too generic” “Created tailored

structure” framework that hit all
key points”

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Tips on creating a quick framework

A If I could ask three or four key questions what would they be?
• Asking the right questions is sometimes the best structure
Start with 3-5
themes or
B What data would I need to solve this problem? categories and
• Build a framework on what data you would seek to analyze under each theme
or category think
of the questions

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

C What are the major issues on the CEO’s mind in making a decision? you would ask or
• Market trends, competitors, customers, etc. analysis you
would do
D If struggling—what are the key themes you would explore
• Financial implications, risks, tradeoffs, segments, customers, etc.

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Technology event at a bank—strong framework
An example of a "what key questions should I ask" framework

Who is involved to prevent, What are the processes in How is the How many people were
fix, address outages? place around outages? technology designed? affected and by how much?
• Roles and responsibilities • Preventive maintenance • Application design • # of customers the outage
for business continuity – Testing & monitoring – Recovery objectives affected
• Level of authority to drive – BCP plan updates – Single point of failure • Customer remediation
recommended change • Escalation & resolution • Data center design – Example customer journeys
processes – Automatic failover during outage

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

• Communication processes – Disaster recovery – Type of impact: financial,
– Internal (e.g. to • Maintenance & monitoring inconvenience, other
leadership, teams) technology & tools losses/hardships
– External (e.g. via – Restitution options
customer service, PR) • Crisis management approach

What can the client do to address these issues?

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Technology event at a bank— weak framework

An example of a
framework that is
too generic, misses
People Processes Technology key elements, and
does not fully
• Who was at fault? • Processes to get system • What caused the power
address the question

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

back online? outage?
at hand

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 Develops reasonable number relevant, specific ideas—includes
the “obvious” but uncovers not-so-obvious ideas
• Incorporates the client context
• Makes sound business sense and is feasible
• Is actionable or testable as a next step

Provides specificity and creativity to the ideas

Characteristics of
excellent creativity Brings structure to the brainstorming, makes sure nothing
and brainstorming is “missed”

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Develops in real-time

Demonstrates understanding of a second order implication

• Brief (!) detail on each idea
• Initial thought of feasibility or risks
• Not a full deep dive into the ideas
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Characteristics of excellent creativity and brainstorming

Creative & Includes the “obvious” and uncovers not-so-obvious ideas

Specific
Important to
pull together a
Structured Pulls together a quick framework to make sure nothing is
missed quick
framework to
help structure

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Developed Confident approach using the client's context and general
in real time informed business sense; doesn't quickly "run dry" your thoughts

2nd Order Derives implications that consider feasibility and risks

Insights

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Evolution of candidate brainstorming and creativity
Four stages of performance

Weak Candidate progression over time Strong

1 2 3 4

Irrelevant or Relevant, some not-so-

impractical ideas obvious ideas, but misses Relevant, actionable,
a few obvious specific and some non-
Relevant ideas, but vague
or obvious ideas—
and non-specific

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

or structured around a
Frozen—no framework
new ideas Lacks structure

“Made no sense in “Was too generic” “Creative, but unstructured, “Out of the box thinking,
this context” felt like spit-balling to see clear she didn't
“Not enough creativity” what sticks” miss anything”
“No attempt
to develop
other options”
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How to approach your summary

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Recap Answer Next steps

What was the client's What's your answer? What should the client do
original question? with this answer?

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 Client asked what we could do to recover from the data
outage and avoid future issues

Externally, we should reimburse the $3M losses from fees

and consider additional customer retention incentives
asap, then rebuild public trust in our infrastructure via
key investments and publicity around those

In one minute or less, Internally, we should to rewrite our business continuity

summarise your case plan focused on elevating BCP roles and building more
robust processes including rigorous testing and failsafes

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

•Identify a key executive responsible for BCP
•Work with him/her to launch a group of cross-business
stakeholders from IT, operations, customer service, PR
to revisit our BCP and crisis communication protocols
•Identify a credible data infrastructure partner / vendor
•…

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Preparing for your interview

Practice…: Live case …but don't over-prepare: Frame of mind: View the
interviews as well as taking We want to see how you interview as an
business problems from the approach problems not opportunity not a hurdle
WSJ/FT and sketching out case interviews
structures & brainstorms

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Rehearse: Know your Questions: Prepare your Have fun! This is the most
personal stories inside and questions for your difficult one to do, but if
out, and be concise in interviewer - often where you've prepared well, you
delivery the interesting will relax and confidence
conversations happen! will show
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WHERE CAN
YOU FIND US?
DigitalBCG.com

Youtube.com/TheBCGVideo

Copyright © 2019 by Boston Consulting Group. All rights reserved.

Apply at
BCG.COM/CAREERS or
BCGPLATINION.COM/GLOBAL/CAREERS/
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