(12.1)--Debate-U12-Supplementarymaterial.pdf

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1、What is the MECE principle?A powerful,problem structuring framework MECE is a fundamental,problem structuring framework that stands for Mutually Exclusive,Completely Exhaustive.Why is it so popular with management consultants?Well,management consultants essentially spend all day solving problems-its

2、 a huge part of their job.As a result,the better consultants get at quickly decomposing problems and bucketing them into key issues,the better they get at their job!Who coined the phrase MECE?While its not exactly clear who coined the phrase MECE,one of the definitive books on logical problem solvin

3、g and problem structuring is Barbara Mintos The Pyramid Principle.More importantly though,its used day in and day out by all the leading consulting firms.Breaking down the MECE principle Lets apply the principle of MECE to learning about MECE itself,well separate it out into its own two components a

4、nd then look at each component in detail.This will give us a thorough understanding of the core principle itself and make it easy for you to apply in any problem structuring situation.Part 1:Mutually exclusive Mutually exclusive means that the buckets of a proposed problem solving framework are comp

5、letely independent of each other.If you think about the individual words themselves,mutually implies that all entities involved share the trait and exclusive means that all entities involved are exclusive(meaning they dont include the others).Thus,mutually exclusive describes a set of entities that

6、definitionally do not include each other.Think of it this way:mutually exclusive is a Venn diagram where the circles do not overlap.A non mutually exclusive Venn diagram For a little comic relief,lets consider the entities Desserts and Tacos.Now,ordinarily you might think these are mutually exclusiv

7、e entities,since anything thats a taco wouldnt be a dessert and vice versa,anything thats a dessert wouldnt be a taco.but,in this case,the innovators at Taco Bell have proved us wrong.Tacos and Desserts arent mutually exclusive,because Taco Bell invented the Dessert Taco!A mutually exclusive Venn di

8、agram Taking this example a step further,lets consider Milkshakes and Tacos.Barring any crazy Taco Bell innovations,these two entities are 100%mutually exclusive.We can reasonably imagine things like chocolate shakes,vanilla shakes,strawberry shakes which all fit into the milkshakes category and the

9、y are completely excluded from the Tacos entity.On the flip side,we can imagine things like chicken tacos,fish tacos,steak tacos and all of those fit squarely in the taco category.In addition,all of those tacos are 100%excluded from the milkshake category.Part 2:Completely exhaustive What is complet

10、ely exhaustive?Simply,completely exhaustive means that the entire set of relevant entities is considered.Put another way,a completely exhaustive structure for investigating the problem will have buckets which cover the entire scope of what needs to be looked at.Essentially,you are exhausting the set

11、 of things to look at.An incomplete,or unexhausted,set Lets continue with the example from above and lets do a deep dive on the Tacos category.If you wanted to provide an exhaustive look at all types of Tacos,would the following set of entities be exhaustive?The answer is:no.Why?Well,while the examp

12、le does call out chicken,ground beef and steak tacos,which likely make up most of the Tacos in the world,it doesnt completely exhaust all types.What about shrimp tacos,or fish tacos,or even.dessert tacos?A completely exhaustive set Now,look at this completely exhaustive set for tacos.It has some sim

13、ilarities to the set above,namely that includes chicken,ground beef and steak,but it has a hierarchy above it which solves some critical problems.Specifically,the exhaustive set starts by setting out meat tacos and non-meat tacos.This is a completely exhaustive set because any taco is either a meat

14、taco or a different type of taco.Making it MECE:Putting it all together Ok,now that youre clear on what 1)mutually exclusive and 2)completely exhaustive mean,youve got all the building blocks for understanding the MECE principle for problem structuring.So,lets look at our last example and ask oursel

15、ves the question:is it a MECE framework?Are the buckets completely mutually exclusive?Is the set of buckets completely exhaustive?One helpful way to test this is pick some real life examples and see if they cleanly fit into the framework.For example,what about tofu tacos?Or duck tacos?Both those wou

16、ld fit into the framework easily,tofu is a non-meat taco and duck fits into meat tacos.One final test:truly MECE!Lets consider one last example:a surf and turf taco.Does our framework still pass the MECE test?Well,it certainly fails the mutually exclusive component,since its both a meat and non-meat

17、 taco simultaneously.Also,one could argue its a whole new type of combination tacos so itd appear our framework isnt completely exhaustive either.Thus,we could MECE proof our structure by adding Combination tacos as a new bucket on the same level of meat and non-meat categories.Practical limitations

18、 of MECE Before moving onto a real consulting case example,there is one important thing to call out is:MECE can get complicated quickly!Just think about how much thought went into reaching a MECE framework for laying out all the types of tacos,an example that seems like it should be pretty straight

19、forward!Thus,keep in mind,especially in an interview context,you want to provide a MECE framework but you also want to make sure youre being efficient with your approach.In the above example,it would be reasonable to say something akin to while I know this framework doesnt account for combination ta

20、cos,I believe those are a minor category and thus not material for our analysis.Remember,MECE is a useful tool,but like all useful tools,they do have their practical limits!A MECE problem structuring exercise with a real consulting case Finally,lets look through a MECE example in the context of a co

21、nsulting case interview.Here well look at two variations of the case prompt Should our client,who is a large sporting goods manufacturer,acquire a smaller,manufacturer of bicycles based in Minnesota?To watch the live examples,skip to 4:07 in the embedded video below.If you want a full re-cap of MECE

22、,you can start from the beginning!Conclusion:Putting the MECE principle to work MECE is a simple,powerful problem structuring framework.If you follow it,youll find yourself creating logically organized,independent buckets of analysis that cover the complete set of sub-analyses and considerations.Onc

23、e you start to get comfortable with the MECE principle,youll find innumerable use cases for it!Not only will you be able to apply it in your consulting case interviews,but youll be able to apply it your current job or your studies if youre a student.Furthermore,you can even put this powerful problem structuring to use in your personal life!