Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Staffing at the Strategic Consulting Gro...

Weiss, Elliott N.,...

Case

Staffing at the Strategic Consulting Group: The "S" Word

Weiss, Elliott N.; Stets, Kate

OM-1564 | Published May 1, 2017 | 6 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

Product Details

Mackenzie Spencer, vice president of operations at Strategic Consulting Group, must determine a staffing (the “S” word) plan for the upcoming year. She must balance the costs of overstaffing with those of understaffing in the face of uncertain demand for future services. Students can either determine a staffing plan based on the expected demand or by taking into account the uncertainty by simulating demand. This case was awarded second place in the 2017 Decision Sciences Institute case-writing competition. It is used at Darden in the first-year operations course as well as in the service operations elective. This case would also be suitable for use in a first-year decision analysis course or in an elective or course module covering optimization.