AIAP Topic Courses·Management Consulting·03:47

Part 10 / Assignment: Week-One Homework - Two Cases with Issue Trees and a Hypothesis

Course instructor (unnamed, ex-McKinsey) Main trainer - IIT Madras engineer, ISB MBA; ITC, Boston Scientific, Paytm, ~4.5 years at McKinsey, now product partnerships at LinkedIn

▶LMS lesson

The short version

Case 1: an APAC pharma client finds China profits down over five years - what could be the problem? Case 2: a media company considers exiting cable TV as Netflix and Hotstar rise - how should it think about the decision? (0:00-0:01).
For each: 5-6 clarifying questions (not deal-breakers), an issue tree with at least three MECE levels, a week-1 hypothesis with the evidence you would need and the data you would collect. Paper, Word or notes; photograph the tree; no PowerPoint. Case 2 is a strategic decision and 'needs a slightly different structure' (0:01-0:03).

At a glance, three clicks deep

Skim here first: the closed row is the glance, open is the study card with the key points and timestamps, and the ↓ link drops to that concept's full write-up below.

01The week-one homework: two cases, three deliverables eachQuestions -> 3-level MECE tree -> hypothesis + evidence.›

Questions -> 3-level MECE tree -> hypothesis + evidence.

Cases and instructions (0:00-0:03)

↓ Full write-up of this concept

The concepts in full

The week-one homework: two cases, three deliverables each

Draw the tree on paper and send a photo. The slide is not the thinking.

Case 1 (pharma, APAC, China profits down five years): root-cause problem. Case 2 (media company exiting cable TV under on-demand pressure): a strategic decision, revisited later with its own structure. Deliverables per case: 5-6 clarifying or exploratory questions that are not deal-breakers for an answer; an issue tree of at least three levels, MECE at each; a week-1 hypothesis stating the evidence you would need to believe it and the data you would collect once the project starts. Format: paper, Word or notes - no PowerPoint. The prompts are only what the client says on day one; week 3 may reveal more. Closing: 'imagine how you would structure things in your life'.

Why it matters

Applies steps 1-2 and the hypothesis to realistic prompts.

This idea elsewhereappliesIssue trees appliesHypotheses

Tools referenced

Tool	Coverage	Moment	Context
Netflix	mentioned

Action items

Resources mentioned

Resources

docWeek-one assignment (two cases)

Extraction notes

This page was built from an auto-generated transcript, which garbles product and people's names. Those were corrected silently in everything above and logged here for transparency. The warnings flag claims that were true on the recording day but change fast.

Transcript corrections applied

The transcript says	The trainer actually means
forms	firms
me see / messy	MECE
PNL	P&L

True on recording day — verify before relying

Hotstar has since become JioHotstar; the case prompts are otherwise evergreen