I didn’t really understand what the buzz about Six Sigma was so I did
a little research and Wikipedia unveiled the 2 core foundations behind
Six Sigma

"Methodology
Six Sigma has two key methodologies: DMAIC and DMADV.  DMAIC is used
to improve an existing business process; DMADV is used to create new
product or process designs.

DMAIC
The basic methodology consists of the following five steps:

DEFINE process improvement goals that are consistent with customer
demands and the enterprise strategy.

MEASURE key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.

ANALYZE the data to verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine
what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors
have been considered.

IMPROVE or optimize the process based upon data analysis using
techniques like Design of Experiments.

CONTROL to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before
they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process
capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms and
continuously monitor the process.

DMADV
The basic methodology consists of the following five steps:

DEFINE design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the
enterprise strategy.

MEASURE and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To
Quality), product capabilities, production process capability, and
risks.

ANALYZE to develop and design alternatives, create a high-level design
and evaluate design capability to select the best design.

DESIGN details, optimize the design, and plan for design verification.
This phase may require simulations.

VERIFY the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process
and hand it over to the process owners. "

If you scrolled through all of that without reading it, I understand.
But if we think about our product as our case competitions and events
and our customers as our members, BC is just like any other business.

The reputation of BC also depends heavily on our employee-customer
interaction.  I’m still plowing through "Human Sigma."  Its  a pretty
interesting read, and a great resource about improving the
effectiveness of customer service.  Remeber, one bad interaction can
not only drive away that member for good, but it can also drive away
that member’s 5 friends.

Of course you can! We have the beautiful, spacious Korn Hall at Anderson, and you and other guests are welcome to come. We especially encourage you at attend if you’re serious about launching a career in business and want to learn firsthand about crafting strategy.

In fact, we’ve put together an awesome day for you. Attend the Conference from 8 AM-12 PM and learn about business psychology, the path to business school, acing the GMAT and the life of a consultant. Then hang out for lunch and sit in on the final rounds from 1-3 PM, when the final three UCLA teams will compete for the first place title. Can you ask for a more exciting day?

BC brings it to you, every quarter. Send your RSVP to conferences@bruinco.com and if you are one of the first 30 to arrive on Saturday, you’ll receive a free premium conference t-shirt, hand-crafted by one of our apparel sponsors, Hard 8 Clothing.

See you Saturday!

At 8 PM teams will receive a business case and have 36 hours to create strategies that address the challenges the company is facing. On Saturday morning they’ll present their recommendations to a panel of judges from the business world.

We congratulate all the teams who made it to the competition, and we wish you all the best of luck! Have fun!

In short, the panel is incredible.

We have judges from interesting industries and excellent firms, with extensive deal experience and a large body of knowledge to share with you all.

This is going to be a wonderful learning opportunity for the competitors.

Read up on the judges here!

We received over 30 applications for 15 spots, and as we preserve the prestige of the competition, we can only select a small number of teams. BC wants you to know that we appreciate how much effort and enthusiasm you put into your pre-qualifying rounds and that we want to see your application again for our next case competition in Fall 2008.

If you didn’t make it, do not be discouraged — that you even applied says a great deal about you as a candidate. We invite you to attend the Bruin Consulting Business Conference running alongside the competition in the morning. The workshops at the conference are delivered by leading experts and are designed to accelerate your career. RSVP now by sending an email to conferences@bruinco.com, and the first 30 to arrive on May 17 will receive an exclusive conference t-shirt!

Thank you all again and we look forward to seeing you on May 17!

Check out photos from our terrific Niche Consulting Night in the Gallery under “About BC.”

You’ll also notice other photos sprinkled around the website.

Thank you all for attending NCN, which was a huge success, and for being so photogenic!

Tons of hilarious moments went down, including a “bad” case interview in which the candidate answered his ringing cell phone and Martin’s revelation that British corporate events are just like American ones, except people don’t send follow up emails in the U.K. and the Brits serve beer instead of water.

Honestly, you have to come to Deloitte’s campus presentations.

But there was a ton of valuable information that Martin and his colleagues shared, and I want to include one of the simplest but most poignant ones we heard. Martin stresses that every interview decision comes down to three main questions:

1. Can you do the work?
2. Do you like the work?
3. And do you fit in here?

That’s it. That’s the rubric.

In other words, it comes down to whether you are competent, enjoy the work, and fit in with the firm’s culture.

As far as case interview prep goes, the main takeaway from the demonstration was PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Grab a friend, grab some cases, and go at it over and over until the entire process — structuring your thoughts, crunching the numbers and developing recommendations — is entirely natural.

And how can you supercharge your case? By learning about real-world business.

Deloitte and BC recommend reading the newspaper every day (The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are superb) and competing in the BC case competition. Deloitte endorses it as one of the best moves you can make at UCLA and uses it as a main way to recruit talent.

So as you think about which firms to apply to and how best to prepare, remember the three elements of the interview and these concrete ways to supercharge your recruiting.

A big thank you from BC to Deloitte for a valuable and entertaining event! It’s always a pleasure learning more about this awesome firm and meeting its terrific consultants.

This is just another example where being nice can save you a lot of time, get you what you want, and make you happier in the end.

Don’t let this day sneak up on you!

Another note: I keep hearing from potential applicants that they:

1. Have no experience in business.

2. Do not have a team.

3. Don’t know what a case is and are afraid to apply.

NONE of these three aforementioned reasons serve as an excuse not to apply! The whole point of the case competition is for students to be exposed to cases and business situations. The competition requires no experience, and the less you know, the more you will learn. Whether or not you win is secondary to the skills you will acquire from competing with your team. If you have no team (excuse number 2) then please apply individually, or with a partner, and we can try to pair you up with other people. After all, the team that won in 2007 was made up of 4 strangers who all came from different majors and also had no experience in doing a case!

If you are still afraid to apply, do not hesitate to ask us questions and clear up your fears. This is a chance for you to learn and grow – do not miss this opportunity!

Apply before the approaching deadline, and we will see you at the pre-qualifying rounds!