Casebook 2020-21
Volume 10 (B)
ICON – Consulting Club,
IIM Bangalore
1
Foreword
This casebook documents the interview experiences of IIM Bangalore to help students in preparation for case
interviews during placements. The aim of sharing these experiences is to inform students about the case
interview experiences of past batch and to help them prepare for their placements accordingly. The experiences
listed below are not necessarily the best way to handle case interviews. They only serve to give students an idea
as to what to expect when they walk into a case interview. Every individual could have his/her unique way of
tackling consulting interviews, each of which could be correct.
This document has contributions from students who appeared for campus interviews conducted by consulting
firms during the summer placement process over the last year. The interview experiences have been sorted
based on the type of case, consulting firm, difficulty and the round in the selection process. Special thanks to all
the contributors.
Team ICON wishes you all the very best for your final placements!
ICON, IIM Bangalore
2
Contents - I
S.No
Particulars
Difficulty
Company
Page
S.No
IV.
Particulars
I.
Introduction
5
II.
Profitability Framework
7
18.
Toll Collection
19.
New Medicine Launch
Difficulty
Company
Pricing Framework
Page
44
Easy
BCG
45
Moderate
McKinsey
47
1.
Two Wheeler Manufacturer
Easy
Bain
8
2.
Retail Supermarket Chain
Easy
Bain
10
3.
Energy Major Firm
Easy
McKinsey
12
20.
Coffee Production
Easy
Kearney
50
4.
IT Services Firm
Easy
McKinsey
15
21.
OTT Service Launch
Easy
Strategy&
52
5.
Pharmacy
Moderate
A&M
17
22.
Convenience Store at Gas Station
Moderate
Kearney
55
6.
Skiing Resort
Moderate
BCG
19
23.
US Tyre Manufacturer
Difficult
BCG
58
7.
Quick Service Chain Restaurant
Moderate
Kearney
21
8.
Electricity Company
Moderate
McKinsey
23
24.
Time to Market
Moderate
Accenture
60
9.
E-Commerce Firm
Difficult
Bain
25
25.
Customer Experience Improvement
Moderate
Bain
62
27
26.
Home Services : Fall in NPS
Moderate
Bain
64
III.
Market Entry Framework
10.
Apple Farming Supplement
11.
V.
VI.
Growth Strategy Framework
49
Unconventional
Easy
Kearney
28
27.
Movie Release : Theatre or OTT
Moderate
Bain
66
Air Purifier – COVID disinfectant
Moderate
Bain
30
28.
Business Process Outsourcing
Moderate
BCG
68
12.
Cybersecurity Software Provider
Moderate
Bain
32
29.
Pharmaceutical Firm
Moderate
Kearney
70
13.
Metro Line - I
Medium
BCG
34
30.
Unhappy Friend
Moderate
Kearney
72
14.
LCD Screen Manufacturer
Moderate
KPMG
36
31.
Movie Launch
Difficult
Bain
74
15.
Car Manufacturer
Moderate
McKinsey
38
32.
Wood Manufacturer
Difficult
BCG
77
16.
Asset Management Firm
Difficult
Bain
40
17.
Metro Line - II
Difficult
BCG
42
Easy
Accenture
80
VII.
33.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
Guesstimates
Automobile – Electric 2-wheeler
3
Contents - II
S.No
Particulars
Difficulty
Company
Page
34.
Food Delivery App
Moderate
Bain
81
35.
Food Delivery Customer Service
Moderate
Deloitte
84
36.
Four-Wheeler Tyres
Moderate
GEP
87
37.
Automatic Vacuum Cleaner
Moderate
McKinsey
88
38.
COVID Tests
Difficult
GEP
89
ICON, IIM Bangalore
4
Introduction – Case Interviews
Case Interviews
❖ Personality based ques. (5 min); Case discussion (20-30 min); Closing ques. for interviewer
(2 min)
❖ Know your CV well→ personality ques are based on CV to break ice and getting to know
you
❖ Case discussions don’t have a predetermined answer. Evaluation is based on approach,
exercising judgements and steering through the problem statement
Business Case
❖ Real life consulting project, that the interviewer was involved in → basis of case discussion
❖ Consult projects can vary from 2-3 months to even a year → condensed into minutes for
interviews
❖ Provided as a 3-5 statement caselet introducing the client and problem faced by them
❖ Can be number based or strategy driven; guesstimates can be a part as well
Why Case Interview?
❖ Test the ability to perform on the job in a similar setup as the case-interview (consult-fit)
❖ Understand thought process of the candidate and capability to make decisions/ prioritize
❖ Put you under same pressure, like any consult project, to assess your poise, self confidence
and communication skills (interpersonal skills)
❖ Drawing on personal experiences, if any, can come very handy – appreciated by interviewer
ICON, IIM Bangalore
5
Introduction – Case Interview Process
Interview Stage
What to expect?
Skills Tested
Case Interview
Question
❖ Interviewer tells about the business problem and objective
❖ Ask clarifying questions; ensure you heard the question correctly
❖ Ability to listen
and synthesize
Developing the
structure
❖ Ask for time to structure the problem at hand
❖ Come-up with a structured MECE approach quickly
❖ Structured
thinking
❖ Communication
❖ Use a hypothesis driven approach for case solving
❖ Ask relevant questions, use 80-20 rule appropriately
❖ Case can get number intensive
❖ Problem solving
❖ Analytical skills
❖ Communication
❖ Summarize the case with recommendations backed up by insights
discovered in the case
❖ Creativity
❖ Concision
❖ Communication
Case Analysis
Summary/
Recommendation
Questions for
Interviewer
❖ Opportunity to show enthusiasm towards consulting
❖ Ask relevant, non-generic question
ICON, IIM Bangalore
❖ Consulting fit
6
Profitability Framework
Profits
Revenue
Price
Production
Cost
Volume
Distribution
Product Mix
Customer
(What product in the
portfolio; apply 80/20)
(Can use customer
journey for services)
Fixed
Variable
(Can use value chain analysis
for cost reduction too)
Value Chain
Volume per
customer
# of customers
Loyalty program
Place
Cross selling
Product
Bulk discounts
Promotion
Think about journey of product/ service
R&D
In-bound
Mfg/ Srvc
delivery
After sales
Sales &
Mktg
Outbound
(Covering the 4Ps)
ICON, IIM Bangalore
7
Two Wheeler Manufacturer
Profitability | Easy | Bain (Buddy)
Case Statement : Your client is a 2-wheeler manufacturer, and the company has seen a significant drop
in the market share in the last 2 quarters. Find the issue and recommend solutions.
Before we delve deeper into the case, I would like to get some context about our client. Can I ask a
few questions on the same?
Sure, please go ahead.
Since it is an OEM, the value chain starts from the procurement of raw materials from the suppliers.
We have inbound logistics and the manufacturing happens at the plant. We have warehouses to store
the finished models and these models reach the dealers / distributors through outbound logistics. We
have post-sales services as the final element in the value chain. Which element of the value chain do I
need to focus on?
Focus on the post-sales services.
Where is our client located and what is the geography in which they operate? What are their products?
Our client’s R&D centre is in Bangalore and they have 8 manufacturing plants across India and also
have pan-India distribution. They have products in 3 segments: sports, scooty and motorbikes where
they have 5 models in the 100-200cc segment.
I would like to know if the dip in market share is in a specific segment or throughout segments? I
would also like to know if this dip is across India or concentrated to a specific geography?
The dip in market share is in the 100-200cc motorcycle segment and is concentrated in the Punjab and
Haryana location.
I think I have enough information to start the case. Since it is an issue with the market share, is it fair to
assume that the revenue has fallen down for our client and that we can neglect the cost aspect?
It is a fair assumption to make. You can proceed now.
I would like to break the revenue into two major factors: No. of bikes sold x Average price per bike.
Did any of these go down or is it a combination of both?
The number of bikes sold has gone down in the geographies mentioned above.
Since the volume of bikes being sold have gone down, is it a demand side issue or a supply side
issue?
It is actually a combination of both. But for now, focus on the supply side.
I would like to break down the value chain of our client and investigate each element of the value
chain. Does it sound like a reasonable approach?
There can be multiple reasons with respect to Post-sales services:
1.
Lesser number of service centres, lesser opening hours.
2.
Lesser number of free services.
3.
More service time (Turnaround Time)
4.
Service assistants behaviour
Do I need to look for more reasons?
No you don’t need to. Apparently, a few service centres in Punjab & Haryana were shut down due to
non-conformance with the government waste disposal regulations. Because of this, the vehicle owners
had to travel longer distances to get their services done. Moreover, this created dent in the reputation
of our client.
So I am assuming that the combination of both these factors pushed the end consumers to switch to
other OEMs because of which our client’s demand has gone down. Is this the reason for the demand
problem that you mentioned at the beginning of the case?
You are correct. Now what can our client do to salvage the market share?
I would like to give a few recommendations.
1.
Incentivise the service centres to follow the rules and reopen the centres as soon as possible.
2.
If the service centres are company-led, try to move to franchise model and increase the
number of service centres in the short run.
3.
Our client can also get into a revenue sharing agreement with other OEM service centres.
4.
Lobby the government to approve the reopening of the centres.
5.
Rebuild the brand reputation by providing additional free services for the vehicle owners.
That is pretty much it. Thank you!
Yes, you may do that.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
8
Two Wheeler Manufacturer
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Easy | Bain (Buddy)
• Market share of 2-Wheeler manufacturer has reduced over the last two quarters
• Analyse the reason for the drop and recommend solutions to capture the market share again
Structure/Framework
• 8 manufacturing plants,
Pan-India distribution
• 3 segments, dip in
100-200cc segment in
Punjab and Haryana
• Focus on supply side
issue
• Post-sales services
deteriorated
• Few service centers
shutdown
Revenue
No. of bikes
sold
Demand
Suppliers
Inbound
logistics
Average price
/ bike
Supply
Plant
Warehouse
Post-sales
services
Dealers
Outbound
logistics
Reduced no. of
service centres
Key Takeaways
• Used the profitability framework – Supply side issue
• Understanding of value chain is required to list down the possible reasons
• Think of recommendations to open service centers at the earliest, comply with regulations and lobby with the Government
ICON, IIM Bangalore
9
Retail Supermarket Chain
Profitability | Easy | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is a retail supermarket chain based out of Mumbai. It owns about
50 stores. The EBITDA has been negative for the past few months.
Yes! The inhouse operations costs can be divided into five major heads. Rent, employee salaries,
utilities, technical infrastructure and security costs. Have I missed anything else?
Thank you for the problem statement! I would start by asking a few questions. What are the
target consumers of the client? Is it high end supermarket like Godrej’s or something like a
Big Bazaar?
You did consider the major costs. Wastage/Shrinkage costs is also a major component for the
company and has been increasing for the past few months. Let us analyse core revenue now.
You can consider to be it like a Big Bazaar chain, but focusing solely on groceries.
Thank you! Could you let me know the product mix of client, whether the company sells
private label goods or large FMCG labelled goods?
The client has both type of products. Additionally, it also deals in fresh products like milk, fruits,
vegetables etc.
Okay. Do we have any area specific issue or is it across all stores?
Great question. So, we have been facing lower profitability than the industry standards. The
issue has cropped up over the last year and is across all the stores
I would like to further break down profit as a function of revenue and costs. Is it a fair approach?
Please go ahead with the approach. Kindly analyse both the factors for me.
Thank you! Revenue can be broken down into core and non-core revenues. Core revenue will
mainly include the revenue generated from sales at the stores. Non-core revenue would be
advertisement expenses, parking charges, value added service charges etc.
That is a good way to structure the Revenue components. Let us also analyse the costs
involved.
I would like to analyse costs across the value chain: Sourcing and procurement costs, logistics &
warehousing costs, inhouse operations costs, and after sales costs if any.
Oh yes, Wastage costs will form a major part since the client has significant proportion of
perishable items in the total sales. The core revenue can be a function of no of customers and
Average basket size per customer. Do you have issue with any of this?
The footfall at the stores has been decreasing. How would you analyse this?
Sure. We can go through the entire consumer journey of purchasing goods via retail chain, and
understand the pain points.
Can you think of dividing the customers on some parameter, given we have equal number of
consumers from all income segment.
Customers can be divided into frequency of visit: first time visitors, occasional visitors and
frequent visitors
Yes you have correctly identified. Due to lack of time, I would tell you that we face issues with
both New and Old customers (varies according to region). Please think of recommendations
that you can give to your client.
Sure, I would like to divide my recommendations on a 4x4 matrix of short term/long term on x
axis and frequent/new visitors on y axis. for new visitors, area specific marketing campaigns and
discount schemes can be launched in short term. In the long term, company can look to employ
practices like ELDP. For frequent customers, in the short term it can focus on better in house
experience and in the long term, the client can focus on introducing attractive loyalty scheme.
Thank you, it was nice interacting with you, All the best!
What are the possible inhouse operations costs that you can think of?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
10
Retail Supermarket Chain
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Easy | Bain (Partner)
• Your client is a retail supermarket chain based out of Mumbai.
• It owns about 50 stores.
• The EBITDA has been negative for the past few months.
Structure/Framework
Profits
• The supermarket chain
is like that of Big
Bazaar, dealing in
groceries.
• It also holds large
amounts of perishable
goods.
• Stores in different area
have different sets of
problems.
Revenue
Core
Costs
Non-Core
Number of customers* Avg. Basket Size
Demand (Number of customers)
Security Costs
Infrastructure
Salaries
Rental
Frequent
New
Utilities
Shrinkage
Key Takeaways
• Interviewer was impressed by spilt of core and non-core revenue. It is not necessary, but surely fetches brownie points
• Incorporate the given context while coming up with the cost heads, and do not blindly follow set patterns
• Interviewer appreciated the structuring of recommendations section
ICON, IIM Bangalore
11
Energy Major Firm
Profitability | Easy | McKinsey (Partner)
Case Statement : Client is an energy major based in the USA, facing declining profitability for past
couple of years and wants our help in diagnosis. So, let’s do a case. We will discuss about a
power and energy client. Do you have any idea about power industry?
Okay, what else?
We should check whether the decline in units sold is due to declining demand or our client’s
incapability to fulfil the demand.
Sure, the power sector is quite vast, electricity can be generated from various sources like coal,
nuclear, hydro and wind. Then, it is distributed to through the grid.
Supply is not an issue. What factors can drive the demand down?
That’s right, a typical power value chain has 4 parts: Generation, transmission and distribution,
wholesale and retail. So, our client is a major US based energy sector player. They have been
experiencing declining profits from their coal-based power business for past couple of years.
Demand = No. of customers (HH connections)* No. of units/HH
So, we can look at either of these. Further, the decline in either can be driven by internal
like their client specific issues affecting the consumption or external macro factors like
competition, economy etc.
Okay. So, I’ll like to ask a few questions to understand the problem better.
Fair enough. Let’s look at costs.
Sure, go ahead.
For costs, we will look at the value chain: Raw material (coal), thermal power production,
transmission and sale to the whole-seller and further distribution to the end consumer.
What part of the value chain does the client operate in?
Client owns the entire value chain till the distribution.
Okay, electricity consumers can be divided into 3 segments: Individual, commercial and
industrial right? Is the problem prevalent across all?
Okay. Let us look at some data. The player has 10 coal power plants, with average output of
4.5 million Megwatt-hrs/year per plant. The wholesale price is $40/ MWhr and the costs is
$10 / MWhr. Now the current utilization is 80 % and client is looking to increase to 90%.
How much extra income will this generate? Assume price & costs remain same.
Okay, sure. Can I take a moment to do the calculations?
Let us focus on household customers.
Is this trend common to any other players in the industry?
We do not have any information on that presently.
Okay, sure I’d like to approach this problem solving by expressing profits as a
function of revenues less costs. We can look at whether the declining profitability is
due to decreased revenues or increased costs or both.
Output
Revenue
Costs
Income
Current
=4.5*10 million MWhr =
45 million MWhr
$1800 M
$450 M
$1350 M
New
= 45*(90/80) million
MWhr ~50 million MWhr
$2000 M
$500 M
$1500 M
Extra income = $150 M on the venture
Okay, what factors can drive down revenues?
Firstly, revenue = no. of units sold * unit price. We can check for any decrease in unit price.
Very well. Walk me through your calculations.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
12
Energy Major Firm
Profitability | Easy | McKinsey (Partner)
Fine, so it seems like a good opportunity, what can be the bottlenecks in increasing the output to
90%?
Can I take some time to think?
Sure, go ahead.
The bottlenecks can be:
Supply issues
1. Regulatory licenses/ requirements
2. Safety/Advised %utilization
3. Increased wear and tear of equipment
4. Quality issues – coal efficiency, etc
Demand issues – demand may be highly variable, hence extra capacity buffer is required, mean
cannot be increased
Good. I think that is all.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
13
Energy Major Firm
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Easy | McKinsey (Partner)
Power sector client facing declining profits
Structure/Framework
• Coal based plants
• Full VC
• HH customers only
Profits
Revenue
No of units
Calculations:
10 plants- all coal based
4.5 mil MWhr/yr/plant –
current output
Wholesale price –
$40/MWhr
Cost –
$10/MWhr
No of
connections
x
x
Costs
Price/unit
Raw material
Avg no. of units/HH
Generation
Internal
External
Transmission
Need
Competition/
Substitution
Wholesale
distribution
Regulatory
Retail
Awareness
Accessibility
Affordability
Cust.
experience
Social
Technological
Environmental
Calculations:
Output
Revenue
Costs
Income
Current
= 4.5*10 million MWhr = 45
million MWhr
$1800 M
$450 M
$1350 M
New
= 45*(90/80) million MWhr
~50 million MWhr
$2000 M
$500 M
$1500 M
Key Takeaways
• The interviewer mostly wanted me to list as many factors as possible in each scenario without going in too much depth.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
14
IT Services Firm
Profitability | Easy | McKinsey (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is an IT services company based out of Bangalore and has been
facing declining profitability. Diagnose the problem and suggest possible solutions.
Thanks a lot, Sir, for the problem statement. I would like to confirm that our client is an IT
services company facing declining profitability. We must find the problem and suggest
possible ways to mitigate it.
Correct.
So, before starting with the analysis, I would like to ask a few clarifying questions to get a
better understanding about the problem and our client. Is that okay?
Revenues have been steady. Let’s focus on the costs.
Sure, Sir. Since our client is an IT services company, their main costs would be HR costs,
infrastructure costs and any miscellaneous costs.
What do you mean by infrastructure costs?
Infrastructure costs would be the costs associated with maintaining hardware like servers, and
computers/laptops or costs associated with licensing software. Are there any other costs I
need to consider?
Sure, go ahead.
Let’s start with the HR costs and then come back to others. What all factors do you think
contributes to the HR cost?
As I understand that we are facing declining profitability. I wanted to understand if the
problem is specific to our client or whether it is an industry-wide problem. Also, for how long
have we been facing this problem?
I believe HR costs can be a component of the number of employees in the organization, the
salary paid to each employee and the employee mix, or the number of employees at different
roles. Are any of these the issue?
The problem is specific to our client. The issue has been around for a while.
Let’s analyze the employee mix. Why do you think this could contribute towards increasing
costs?
Can I know where the customers of the client are based?
The clients customers are mainly based in the US.
Thanks for the information. One last clarifying question. I wanted to understand the
competitive landscape of the industry.
For the sake of simplicity, you can assume that our client is the market leader in the industry.
The HR costs will depend heavily on the number of employees at different roles. For example,
in any project team, there might be a manager and developers at 2-3 roles, each commanding
different salary. So even with relatively lesser number of employees, if there are a greater
number of employees at senior roles, the costs will be higher.
Is there any other way in which different employees could receive different salaries?
If the company has different onshore and offshore teams, there could also be a problem with
the onshore-offshore mix, resulting in higher costs.
I would like to take a minute to gather my thoughts and come up with a structure for the
analysis. Would that be Okay?
Yes, that was one of the major issues our client was facing.
Thanks. We are out of time. Let us wind up here.
Sure, go ahead.
Thanks. Since we are facing issue of decreasing profitability, I would like to start the analysis
basis revenue and cost. Could you help me with the trends in revenue and cost?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
15
IT Services Firm
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Easy | McKinsey (Partner)
• IT service client facing declining profitability
Structure/Framework
• The problem has been
going on for a while
• Client is a market
leader in IT services
Profitability
Costs
Revenue
HR Costs
Infrastructure
Costs
Number of
employees
Hardware costs
Employee
Salary
Software costs
Misc.
Employee mix
Key Takeaways
• Segmenting people cost by number of employees, salary and mix was important
• Think on various aspects around how employee mix can affect HR costs
ICON, IIM Bangalore
16
Pharmacy
Profitability | Moderate | A&M
Case Statement : A pharmacy present inside a multi-specialty hospital has been facing declining profits
since past one year. You have been hired to identify the root cause of the issue.
Interesting. I would like to begin with a few clarifying questions on our client. Is it the only
pharmacy store our client is operating? And do they sell only prescription drugs or OTC drugs as
well?
Yes, the client just had one pharmacy inside the hospital, and they sell both prescription and OTC
drugs.
Since it’s a multispecialty hospital, I would like to understand what kind of drugs are being sold by
the client. As in do they specialize in some particular drugs or they sell all kinds of drugs?
Yes. The stocks are enough, although the store doesn’t keep the prescribed medicines.
I see. Since you already mentioned that they keep different types of medicines already since it’s a
multispecialty hospital. So is it because the doctors are not sticking to few brands and are prescribing
different brands to different patients?
Yes indeed. Can you think of a reason why this might be happening?
Sure. So, one reason that I can think of is maybe in the last few months the sales representative
visits from different brands have increased and doctors are just switching from one brand to
another more fluidly.
They sell all kinds of drugs.
Alright, so, profit can be broken down into revenue and cost. I would like to understand if the
declining profits is due to declining revenues or increasing costs?
Great, you have identified the root cause of the issue. Now, can you identify major cost heads for the
store?
Revenues have declined and costs have also gone up. Let’s focus on revenues for now.
So, revenue from the product can be thought of as Price X Ticket Size X Frequency of buying. I will
look at each of these components individually to understand the problem area. Has there been a
decline in the volume of our product sold or have there been some pricing changes?
There has been a fall in volumes.
Okay, so if there has been a fall in volumes it is a demand issue. It is important to understand if it is
due to the falling demand or there are supply related constraints at the store.
The demand is doing okay, but there are supply side constraints which is leading to a fall in volumes
sold. But just list down the factors which might affect the demand before moving on to the supply side.
Alright, so looking at the customer journey, some of the key factors affecting the demand at the
pharmacy are shop awareness, visibility of the shop, payment options, staff quality, service time,
opening up of new pharmacies nearby or in the hospital and promotional discounts.
Great, go on to analyze supply side now.
So, coming to the supply side – availability of prescribed medicines, stockout of medicines, salesforce
availability and its efficiency are some of the key factors.
Yes. So, we can break costs into the fixed costs and variable costs.
Fixed costs would comprise of rental space, employee wages, marketing costs and other
administrative costs. Variable costs will comprise of MDR on payments, inventory holding costs
(pilferages and product expiration), and cost of products.
Correct.
I would now analyze the issue with the increasing costs. It can be either due to increasing fixed costs or
the increase in variable costs.
My initial hypothesis would be that our client needs to keep various multiple brands of the same
medicines, this might be leading to increased costs due to loss of negotiation power basis volumes with
one brand.
But I would still like to check each cost head.
That’s fine. Your hypothesis seems correct. Let's close the case here.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
17
Pharmacy
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Moderate | A&M
• Declining Profitability of Pharmacy
Structure/Framework
Declining Profitability of
Pharmacy
• Declining Revenues and
Increasing costs
• Demand is fine
• Supply side issues
Revenue
Price
Costs
Ticket Size
Frequency
Supply
issues
Medicines
Availability
Stockout
Fixed Costs
Demand
issues
Sales Staff
Availability
Efficiency
Awareness
Rental costs
MDR on
payments
Salaries
and wages
Inventory
holding
costs
Visibility
Service
experience
Variable
Costs
Marketing
Costs
COGS
Administrati
ve costs
Discounts
Key Takeaways
• Structuring of the problem by the candidate was strong to identify possible factors impacting the problem
• Utilization of real world understanding to identify practical problems in a case like this
ICON, IIM Bangalore
18
Skiing Resort
Profitability | Moderate | BCG (Manager)
Case Statement : A Skiing resort in Switzerland a decline in sales since a year. You have been
hired to find what is wrong and solve the problem.
You decide.
I have a few questions about our client, may I do ahead?
Okay, I will go ahead with supply first. I want to look at supplies for skiing business and then
non-skiing business. Is that fine?
Sure
You can focus on the skiing business.
When we are talking about Sales, do you mean revenues or volume?
Sure. For skiing business, the major players in the supply chain are – Training personal/guides
and skiing equipment. Is there a dearth of training personal or the equipment quality and
quantity?
Volume.
Is the client facing declining volumes in all resorts or a particular resort?
No, no issues in these. You can move to the demand side.
The client has a single resort.
What kind of customers does the client have – local/foreigners? And in which type has there
been a decline?
The decline has been in external customers.
Are the competitors in the region also facing a similar issue?
Okay, as the number of foreigners visiting the resort are decreasing, I would like to look at the
customer’s journey. The customer journey will first involve booking the resort which includes
search and payment, then travelling from the respective locations to Switzerland, moving from
train/air/sea-port to the resort, resort services(stay/food), enjoying skiing and then checking
out to the resort and the reverse journey. Do you want me to look at any particular head?
There has been a decline in the people travelling by air
Yes.
Okay. I will analyze this based on availability of flights to Switzerland and affordability. Are
enough number of flights available? Have the prices of flights increased in the past year?
I have enough information. May I take a few seconds to structure my thoughts?
Yes sure.
As the competitors are also facing, I would like to look at the factors external to the client
affecting the company as a whole? Does this approach seem fair to you?
Yes, go ahead.
Have there been any changes in the government regulations, environmental laws/factors(like
there is not enough snow or any restrictions imposed) or licensing in the last year?
Yes, price is the issue. People are not preferring to go to Switzerland because prices of flights
have increased. Can you suggest what can be done to mitigate this problem?
For this I would look at the reasons why the prices increased in the first place. It can be
because of the fuel charges or a general price increase among all the airlines. For solving the
price issue, our client or the tourism department/union can lobby the airlines to decrease the
prices or the resorts can introduce more tour packages decreasing the prices on their end so
that the whole experience is within the budget of the customer.
No, no changes.
I will look from supply and demand side. Which side do you want me to look at first?
Great! It was a good discussion.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
19
Skiing Resort
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Moderate | BCG (Manager)
• Skiing Resort in Switzerland
• Decline in sales since a year
• Find problem
Structure/Framework
Volume
Decrease
• Sales = Volumes
• Single Resort
• Decline in external
customers
Local
customers
Foreigners
External
Factors
Supply –
Demand
PESTEL
Supply
Training
Personnel
Customer Journey
Booking
Resort
Travel to
Switzerland
Internal
Factors
Demand
Equipment
Customer
Journey
Move to
resort
Resort
Services
Skiing
Experience
Reverse
Journey
Key Takeaways
• If the client as well as the competition is affected then it is not necessary that PESTEL or Porter analysis works.
• Always check customer journey when volume decreasing and be comprehensive in that
ICON, IIM Bangalore
20
Quick Service Chain Restaurant
Profitability | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
Case Statement : Let's get into the case. . Your client is a QSR chain restaurant. Their manpower
costs have increased tremendously. You need to analyse and give recommendations
Okay. So, I should focus only on manpower costs or is there any other specific costs/
revenue issues which I need to consider? I wanted to know more about the company and
industry before going ahead. Where does our client operate in? What are the products
being produced, in the sense is it like burger and pizzas? How long has this cost increase
situation been and what is its quantum?
So, our client operates in India. You can consider it as similar to Dominos kind of thing w.r.t
products. So, they are facing this cost increase b/w 2017 to 2019 and current increase is at
50% compared to 2017 costs.
Is the cost increase specific to our chain of restaurants or is it across all restaurants in the
industry?
Other similar restaurants have also experienced these kind of increases. Not to 50% , but to
certain extent yes though we don’t have the exact data
Okay, thank you. Manpower costs increase can be either due to increase in salary per
employee or due to increase in number of employees. Do we have any data which says
which of these parameters have increased over last 2 years?
Both of them have increased. Before you go this path, when you refer salary per employee
which salary are you considering?
So, the other 25% increase is due to increase in number of number of employees. Possible
reasons for both could be a) These contract workers will have certain minimum wages as
per govt regulations. That might have increased in these 2 years increasing in avg salary. b)
The customer intake might have increased leading to more revenue and also hiring more
employees. That might have contributed to increase in number of employees
Both of them are correct. They explain only partial increase though. The minimum wages did
increase as 2019 was election year and it contributed roughly 10%; the revenue growth
directly contributing to increase in number of employees could be another 10%; there is still
30% we are yet to explain.
Let me take one minute. Was there some sort of incentives required to keep employees from
leaving as we were having higher revenue and we didn’t want trained workers to leave ?
Yes. As you can see 2019, lot of other competitors had turned up in online delivery channels
like Swiggy, Zomato. So, client had to give more incentives which contributed to 15%
increase.
Got it. I think I missed asking a basic question in starting. How much of our business is from
delivery chains and how much is from inhouse and takeaway at restaurants? Have they
changed in these 2 years?
Yes. I was wondering when you would ask this or tell your assumptions on this. So, online
delivery business has picked up in these 2 years.
I guess that explains remaining 15% increase contributed by increase in number of
employees. Number of employees working in one delivery order are generally more than that
of inhouse or takeaway system.
The overall avg salary considering salaries of all employees
This would not help you to find the root cause. Could you think of dividing it further?
In general, these restaurants will have 3 types of employees. Mainly Blue colllars who are
temporary workers or contract workers, white collars at restaurants like cashiers and admin
employees who are part of central administration. I guess salary of the admin people
contributes the highest percentage of overall salary, but we must check data to confirm
which salaries have increased over these 2 years
Yes. The blue collars / contract workers avg salary has increased by 25%. So what do you
think the reasons are?
Good. Can you quickly list out 1 or 2 recommendations?
On short term, a) Consider reducing the employees in the take-away/ inhouse business as
those business haven't grown that much. b) Think of other non-monetary incentives like free
food from restaurant instead of direct monetary incentives. On long term, a) Since all chains
are facing this minimum wage problem, they can club together and lobby with the
government. But that would be seen in the bad light by consumers. Instead of this, they all
collectively can increase prices of their food. b) They can also think of having strategic tie
ups with Swiggy or Zomato and let them take care of delivery business.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
21
Quick Service Chain Restaurant
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
• Manpower costs increased by 50% from 2017 to 2019
• Both avg salary and number of employees have increased by 25%
• Online delivery portion of revenue has increased more and more online competitors have popped up.
Structure/Framework
• Qualitative analysis
• Contract workers had
increase costs
• 2019 – election year,
increase in online
deliveries, incentives
and revenue growth
contributed to the
increase
Manpower costs
(increase by 50% over 2 yrs)
Contract workers
workers
(roughly 50% increase)
Number of employees
(25%)
(25%)
Avg Salary per employee
(25%)
Minimum wages
(10%)
White collars at Admin
White
White collars at restos
Variable incentives
(15%)
Revenue growth
(10%)
Increase in online deliveries
(15%)
Key Takeaways
• The candidate directly went to the split between avg salary and number of employees without considering different categories of employees. It is better to state assumptions
upfront regarding the way you are approaching rather than interviewer asking you to explain.
• Few preliminary questions were asked in later stage and they were related to the final answer. It would have been easy if this was asked in the beginning which would have given
right hypothesis to test during the approach.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
22
Electricity Company
Profitability | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is an electricity generation company based in US. They are
experiencing declining profits. Analyse how would you approach the solution. Before you go
ahead, I want you to tell me what do you think is the value chain for such companies?
I am assuming they work for 16 hours per day and approx. 300 days in a year. Electricity
generated would be 10 * X * 10 * 0.3 * 16 * 300 = 144000X units
Good. What do you think can be improved here?
Revenues have remained constant whereas the costs have increased.
The first obvious thing would be the efficiency. As indicated earlier, we could think of
buying new machines which have better efficiency which will improved the units generated.
And also, based on my previous experience, we can have heat recovery system installed at
every turbine. These will help in efficient usage of output gases which are at high
temperature and can be used to heat steam. This will add additional revenue stream.
Okay. I will try to analyse the costs across the value chain activities. Should I focus on
generation first? And also, what kind of turbine do they use?
Interesting. How about we focus on transmission now. What do you think is the trade off that
exists here?
The three major value chain activities in such a company would be Generation, Transmission
and Distribution. These will be supported by other activities like sourcing fuels etc. I wanted
to know if revenues were decreasing, or costs were increasing or both for the client
Sure. They are currently using Gas Turbine generators. Tell me the various cost drivers which
you think are in generation.
The major costs in generation would be input fuel costs, machine operating costs,
manpower costs, conversion costs, repair and maintenance costs.
Among these various costs, which of them do you think is more controllable from the client’s
perspective?
Transmission losses occur more as there are long distances between generating and
consuming units. To reduce losses, we need to have more hubs. But having hubs requires
huge capital expenses. So we need to find appropriate location for hubs with given capital
budget which will minimise transmission losses.
We have covered most aspects of the case. It was nice interacting with you. We are delighted to
have you on board with us.
a) The input fuels used are mostly Naptha or Liquified Natural Gas in Gas Turbines. These
fuels have lot of uses in other streams and their prices fluctuate based on crude oil prices.
Client will have little control over these prices
b) All other costs like Manpower costs based on operation, supervision and maintenance
personnel; Machine operating costs; Repair and Maintenance costs, Conversion costs and
Efficiency of machines based on type of machine used are controllable in nature.
There are machines with efficiency ranging from 30% to 60%. A more capital investment
would lead to better efficient machines which reduces costs of running. They will also
require less maintenace.
We should focus more on these controllable costs to analyse which of them have
increased.
Ok. Our client has 10 turbines with each turbine requiring throughput of X units of naptha per
hour. 1 unit of naptha gives approx. 10 units of electricity. Calculate electricity generated in a
year if efficiency is 30%
ICON, IIM Bangalore
23
Electricity Company
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Profitability | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
• Client is facing declining profits. Revenues have stayed same. Costs have increased
• Analyse the value chain and indicate the costs associated with it
Structure/Framework
• Generation,
Transmission and
Distribution is the value
chain. Client operates
only in G and T
• Costs that are
controllable in nature
need to be analysed
further to find root
cause
• Trade off between
number of hubs and
transmission losses.
Declining Profits
Profits
Declining
Constant Revenue
Revenue
Constant
Value Chain
Increasing costs
Generation
Controllable costs
Controllable
costs
Machine
Operating costs
Manpower costs
Transmission
Non Controllable
costs like Fuel
Number of hubs
Conversion costs
Efficiency
v/s
Transmission losses
Repair and
Maintenance costs
Key Takeaways
• The candidate has previous experience working at power generation industry. Hence this case was asked to check work exp knowledge as well as the approach in analysing
• Efficient understanding of value chain and various cost drivers is critical in qualitatively analysing such problems.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
24
E-Commerce Firm
Profitability | Difficult | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is an E-Commerce player like an AJio/ Myntra which is facing a
problem of very high returns. For every 100 Rs order, they are facing returns worth Rs 30.
Along with the revenue loss there are additional return costs involved which need to be
brought down. You have been hired to help them with the same
Okay. I had few questions to understand the problem more clearly. Is the problem specific
to particular geography/ product type/ customer segment? Also, are our competitors facing
the same issue or is it only specific to the client?
The problem is specific to our client but not specific to any geography/ product type/
customer segment. For this case, you can assume whatever you can think of can go wrong, is
going wrong. I would want to listen to what all recommendations you have for every problem
you can think of
I will begin by addressing the problem of higher returns first and then move on to analyzing
ways of reducing costs. Does that sound good?
Why don’t you start with the costs first and then we shall come to the returns.
If I look at the steps involved in the process and try to think of cost heads which would be
involved in it, first would be a delivery agent coming and collecting the parcel from me
(Labour cost). Second that parcel travels back to the fulfilment centre (Transportation cost).
Third the parcel is stored as inventory in the warehouse (Inventory Costs). Should I go ahead
with these three cost heads or have I missed out on any?
These are pretty comprehensive and you came up with these following a good structured
return journey approach, please go ahead.
To begin with transportation costs. I would want to divide them into # of trips * Avg distance
per trip * Freight rate. I would further divide the # of trips into (# of return parcels / Avg # of
parcels / trip).
While for reducing the # of trips, the major driver would be to reduce the # of returns itself
but apart from this, the client could look at efficient return pickups to probably pickup return
parcels in the same area/locality together to club multiple parcels in a single trip.
Moving onto Avg distance per trip, this can be done in two ways, On a short term basis the
client could employ network optimization software to ensure the orders get fulfilled from the
nearest fulfilment centre and a long term recommendation would be to increase the # of
fulfilment centres in India which would reduce the average lead distance and time per order.
On a short term basis for freight rate, the client should negotiate with their delivery partners to
bargain for a better rate. On a long term basis, the client could award the contract for the next
term on an L1-T1 basis to a new delivery partner which provides better rate. Third option could
be to acquire an existing player which is in the last mile delivery business or to have a long term
strategic partnership with some Courier company.
Excellent. Why don’t you move onto Inventory costs now.
In the inventory management process, there would be three steps involved Unloading –
Storage –Loading (during order dispatching). Considering these three stages, I would
again divide the recommendations basis their ease of implementation and investment
required to be either on a Short-term basis or Long-term basis.
Under Short term recommendations - 1. Provide training for upskilling of material handlers
to ensure minimum damage 2. For reducing material related damages, the client should
ensure the place is properly sealed and maintained to avoid problems like rodents etc.
damaging the stored products. Frequent clean-ups of the fulfilment centre to be done
using rodent repellents etc. 3. To reduce instances of pilferage, increase vigilance both in
and around the fulfilment centres and deploy a detailed SOP for security guards to check
all the employees while they go out.
Under Long term recommendations - 1.Upgrade the inventory management system to
deploy a more automated technique (like a RFID based management system which
reduces human intervention) 2. Deploy CCTV cameras across all the fulfilment centres and
have a tracking team to keep 24x7 eye on the same. This will ensure lower instances of
pilferage. 3. Change the inventory management practice to follow a FIFO basis to reduce
the damages. 4. For disposal of damaged products, the client should recycle to the
maximum extent possible or could even partner with a firm to whom we can sell the scrap
and recover some salvage value from the disposed products.
Perfect, your recommendations for controlling costs are pretty comprehensive and we have
covered most of it. Why don’t you just tell me the approach you will follow for looking at ways
to reduce the # of returns.
Sure. I would want to look at 6 major factors (Product, Price, Promotions, Place, Process,
People) and give my recommendations under each of these heads for reducing the # of
returns
Sounds good. We are happy to extend an offer to you.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
25
E-Commerce Firm
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Consider all possible
scenarios
• Transport costs
recommendations to
reduce number of trips,
avg distance and freight
rate
• Inventory costs
recommendations to
reduce storage costs
and loading/unloading
costs. Loading costs
also include damage
costs due to
mishandling
• 6P analysis approach to
analyse high returns
Profitability | Difficult | Bain (Partner)
• Client is facing high returns and as a result, facing huge costs associated with the same.
• List all possible costs associated and recommendations to control the same. Think of all possibilities.
Structure/Framework
Costs associated with returns
Transportation costs
Avg distance per
trip
# of trips
# of return
parcels
Factors for
analysing
÷
Inventory costs
Frieght rate
Unloading costs
People
Promotions
Labour costs
Storage costs
Loading costs
Avg no of
parcels/ trip
Product
Prices
Place
Process
Key Takeaways
• The candidate divided every cost into appropriate MECE categories on every aspect. This structured the approach also helped in recommending solutions as there was no overlap
between solutions.
• Short term and Long-term recommendations were given in most cases which is very important as it considers both the budget and implementation effort constraints.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
26
Market Entry Framework
Good to know frameworks
Basic structure
Market Entry
Strategic
Objective
- Why to enter?
- Target Metric
Industrial
Conditions
How to
Enter?
Market
Attractiveness
- Addressable
market
- Growth rate
- Profit Margin
Customers
- Market structure
- Reaction to entry
- Segments
Competition
- Price, Product,
Place Promotion
Barriers to
Entry
-
Organic
Inorganic
Using 2 by 2s for final decision like degree
of control vs investments; competition vs
1
own capabilities or your own set of
parameters
2
Porter’s 5 forces: Good to get the context
of industry as a whole
- Joint venture
- Acquisition
Financial constraints
Capabilities/Resources
Suppliers
Govt. Regulations
Patents, IP
ICON, IIM Bangalore
5Cs: Company, Competitors, Customers,
3 Context, Collaborators → very useful in
scoping
Value Chains for various industries to
4 understand nuances of market entry and
objective metrics
27
Apple Farming Supplement
Market Entry | Easy | Kearney (Buddy)
Case Statement : Your client is an Indian conglomerate who has acquired a US-based Biotech firm. The
US firm has developed a chemical which improves the ripening of apple in agriculture. It allows apple
to be harvested earlier and gives it a better quality. The client wants to commercialize this product for
the Indian market. They have hired you to figure out if they should do so.
Yes, you can assume similar benefits here.
Sir, before moving forward, I would like to prepare a list of some preliminary questions to get a
deeper insight into the case, may I?
So, we would have the first mover advantage. I think I have all the data needed to proceed further. I
would like to divide my analysis into three buckets. First, I would assess Industry attractiveness, then I’ll
check the financial viability of launching the product and finally I’ll look at its operational feasibility.
Sure, go ahead.
So, I would like to start with the client. What kind of business they are operating in and in what
geography?
The client is a conglomerate which operates in multiple businesses with a diversified portfolio
and they are spread across India.
Sure. Is there any existing competition in the Indian market?
No, we would be the first ones to launch such a product.
Sure, go Ahead. What are the factors you’ll look upon to check the attractiveness of the industry?
I would check the presence of any regulatory barriers and look at the customer buying behaviour
to see if both of these favour the product launch. Also I will estimate the market size.
So, how will you estimate the market size. And before that, who do you think is our customer?
So, is it fair to assume that they acquired this firm to diversify their portfolio further?
Yes, you can go ahead with it.
Now, I would ask some questions about the US-based firm. How credible this firm is and have they had
any experience in the Indian market?
It is a very credible firm in the US and has a good understanding of the market there. They have not
had any experience in India yet.
Sure. About the product, what kind of a product is it and how is it used?
It is a powder-like product which is sprinkled on the field during the sowing season.
What are the exact benefits of the product? I understand that it improves the quality but do we have a
metric to assess it? Are there any side effects?
Yes. It makes the crop to get harvested 10 days earlier, improves the yield by 10% and sweetness
by 5%. There are no side effects
Since this product has been developed in the US, do we have any information if it would have the
same results in the Indian farming?
Our customer would be the farmers and their cooperatives. To calculate the market size of the Indian
market, I’d take the population of the states of Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and
Haryana since apple needs a cold climate, so I believe that our major customer segment would be in
North India. Then, I’d divide the population according to expected percentage of people involved in
agriculture. I’ll take an estimate of proportion for farmers involved in apple farming in each state and
finally multiply it by an average acre of land owned by each farmer.
That sounds good. So, we have some data regarding that. We are currently focussing on a sample of
200 orchards. Each orchard has 100 acres of land and each acre generates $30000 per harvest.
Assume there is only one harvest per year and estimate the annual farm revenue we are focussing
upon.
So, we have $3 million per orchard per harvest, which means $600mn per year for the whole sample.
Do you think this is a good enough size to launch a new product?
Yes, on the face of it, it looks like a good figure. However, it would be relative upon what the client’s
goal with this product is and what is the investment required.
Okay sure. Sounds good. In the interest of time, we can close the case here.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
28
Apple Farming Supplement
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Multiple businesses,
diversified portfolio
• No experience in India
• Powder like product
• Crop harvests 10 days
earlier
• Improves the yield by
10%, sweetness by 5%
• No side effects
Market Entry | Easy | Kearney (Buddy)
• Acquire US based bio-tech firm
• Developed a chemical which improves the ripening of apple in agriculture.
• Better quality and early harvest
Structure/Framework
New Product
launch
Industry Attractiveness
Market Size
Estimation
Regulatory Barriers
Financial Viability
Operational Feasibility
Customer Buying
Behaviour
Calculation
Total population
Number of orchards
% of people in
agriculture
Acres per orchard
% of farmers growing
apple
Revenue per acre per
harvest
Aevrage acres of land
per farmer
Harvest seasons per
year
Average revenue per
acre
Key Takeaways
• Understand the client well by asking preliminary questions – there can be related business which may help start the new business
• Try to MECE at every step
• Draw on personal experience and knowledge about the client/industry/situation but do get a buy-in from interviewer
ICON, IIM Bangalore
29
Air Purifier – COVID disinfectant
Market Entry | Moderate | Bain
Case Statement : Your client is an international player and wants to enter the Indian market
with an air purifier which kills Coronavirus. The client wants your input on 2 keys:
Whether they should the enter the market?
If yes, what would be the price range of entry?
Okay, before I structure my analysis, I’d like to begin with some preliminary questions. Firstly, what
is the exact products characteristic that the client wants to enter with? What part of the value chain
would the client own/outsource?
Sure. The client will enter with one type of air purifier that would kill the Coronavirus in the
room. They will produce the air purifier and then sell it to customers.
Do we have any information if the client owns this technology & has patent over it?
Also, what are the major segments the client is targeting? Is their any similar product in the
market or is our client’s product the first of its kind product?
Good questions, The client has to bid for the technology from a 3rd party company. Also,
there are no similar products in the market.
Coming to the target segment, why don’t you tell me which segment will be most attractive
to the client?
I would like to break it into 2 parts, B2B and B2C. In B2B the customers will be various
corporate offices, Airport, Railway stations which might require such disinfection. In B2C, it
would be general retail customer like you and me.
That’s a good analysis. Can you give me an approach to decide the price of the purifier
keeping into mind all the facts that we have discussed so far? Don’t go into numbers, give
me an approach you will follow.
Sure, I would basically like to look at various costs that the client would incur, e.g.,
licensing cost of technology, manufacturing cost, distribution cost.
Then I would calculate the breakeven point of sale to get the better understanding of cost
per unit. Then if we can source the tender of said number of units, then it makes sense to
launch the product. We can also include binding future contracts so that we have a buffer
against vaccine announcement in the future.
That’s great. Given that you have decided the price and are ready to launch. What should you
do next?
Sir, I would then analyze for any entry barrier in legality given that it comes under the realm
of healthcare. If there are no such restrictions, then I would focus on marketing the product
to ensure that people are aware of the product.
Great, I think we can close the case here. It was nice discussing this case with you.
Thank you, sir. It was indeed an interesting case.
Good, Now let’s say the client wants to target B2B, what all risks he must consider before
launching?
He must consider the following risks:
1. Return on Investment, given that the vaccine might be announced anytime rendering the
purifier useless.
2. Legal issues as the claim is that the purifier kills the virus.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
30
Market Entry | Moderate | Bain
Air Purifier – COVID disinfectant
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Consider all factors
under the ambit of a
product launch
• Additional factors such
as mode of entry could
also be explored
• The case should test
the soundness of your
framework and your
ability to apply that to
this context
• Air purifier that claims to kill the Coronavirus
• Looking to enter the Indian market
• Want clarity on whether to enter and explore factors related to this
Structure/Framework
Factors under consideration
Market Size
B2B
B2C
Financials
Revenue
# of
customers
Price per unit
Risks
Cost
Licensing
Financial
Legal
Manufacturing
Distribution
Key Takeaways
• The customers of the product could be business customers and end consumers
• The life of the product is limited, and this factor must be taken into consideration while evaluating financials
• One of the most important risks is the legality of such a claim and the availability of a patent
ICON, IIM Bangalore
31
Cybersecurity Software Provider
Market Entry | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is a cybersecurity software provider that manufactures software for end
point protection for corporates. They've recently developed a new product and are deciding whether or
not to launch it. Help the firm to go about this problem.
Before we begin with discussing the case, I would like to have a slight understanding of the product.
Our firm manufactures software for end point protection, that means the antivirus that you and I use
on our laptops, right? Can you confirm if my understanding is correct, else please help me understand
what end point protection means?
Sure, you're thinking along the right track. It's an antivirus, only it can be used beyond your laptop as
well. Can you think where else corporates might have use for it?
Sure. They may be extending its usage to the employees' phones, tablets and/or Video Conferencing
equipment as well.
That's correct. Why do you think they might be doing that?
I can think of two reasons:
1. Heightened awareness around data protection in today's business environment (gave an example
of US firms' paranoia about Chinese apps and software)
2. Nature of the work may be also playing a role – for example, more and more financial services
and consulting firms are mandating security nowadays
Interesting. You might be onto something here. So now we've got this product. Tell me if we should
launch it or not.
Now we've arrived at the addressable market. But we discussed about the various devices earlier.
Where do you think that comes in?
Divided white collar population as owning just laptop, laptop + phone, or laptop + phone + tablet and
estimated the number of devices that software would be used in.
Excellent. Now, can you think of our main competition?
I'm not very familiar with the industry but I do know that other players exist with the same end point
protection model. Additionally, my own laptop, for example, came with a free one-year trial for a preinstalled antivirus. Similar models may exist for corporates as well.
Perfect. Now what? Should we launch our product or not?
There are three things I would like to consider. We have already done the market sizing. Do we expect
the market share for this product in line with our overall market share?
Yes, if the product is successful, we will get a good market share.
Next, I will consider Operational viability. Since the product is already ready and our firm deals in
similar products, I think it would be fair to assume operations are viable. Is that right? Also, is the
product financially feasible?
Yes, that’s a fair assumption. The product is also financially feasible in terms of margins.
Well, how does it measure against the competition?
Sure, can you help me understand the nature of the product better? Is it more sophisticated/effective
than our current offerings? If not, is it differentiated in any other manner?
It's definitely more effective.
It's more effective than our current products. But we're not sure if that might be needed.
Basis this, the drivers mentioned above and the market sizing, I would say we should go ahead and
launch the product (gave a quick summary of all the points till now)
Well, I can identify some drivers for the business, if any, that would spur this new product launch. Am I
right in assuming that more drivers exist besides the two that I mentioned above?
Good, we are done. Thank you.
Sure, but why don't you do a quick market sizing for me first? Start with the US market.
Did an extremely quick calculation to estimate the number of corporates and white-collar population.
Got stuck in the middle so the interviewer gave a number as an estimate. (Calculations in appendix)
ICON, IIM Bangalore
32
Cybersecurity Software Provider
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Market Entry | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
• Your client is a cybersecurity software provider that manufactures software for end point protection for corporates. They've recently developed a new
product and are deciding whether to launch it. Help the firm to go about this problem.
Structure/Framework
• End point protection antivirus software used
in laptops, mobile and
tablets
• The new product is
more effective than
current products
offerings of the client
Market drivers
Heightened
awareness
Mandatory in
certain sectors
New product
launch
Market size /
share
Operational viability
Financial feasibility
Market Size
Product ready
and viable
Projected
Margin under
control
Market Share
• US pop: 300 M
• Working % = 50%
Expected to capture
market share
• # of employees /
corporate = 5000
• # of corporates = 30K
Key Takeaways
• Used the product launch framework
• Understanding of market drivers is required
• Think of market size, drivers for launch and product comparison w.r.t. competitors.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
33
Metro Line - I
Market Entry | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is a infrastructure company tasked with setting up a metro line. They
would like you to look at sources of revenue and operation plan.
Also the client wants to know that after investing whether the payback period would be attractive or
not. How would you proceed with the situation?
Sure, sir! (Summarize the case for clarity). Can I assume this to be a Tier 1 city ?
What is the PBP threshold decided by the company?
Sure, let’s take New Delhi so that you can get some reference.
The client would go ahead with the project if the PBP is below 7 years
Perfect sir, I am actually from New Delhi :). When I think of the Delhi metro, the major sources of
revenue I can think of are: 1) The tickets 2) Value added services –food outlets on the stations 3)
Parking at the stations (minor)? Is there anything else you would like me to consider?
I think that’s good. Let’s look at the core revenue from tickets in a bit more detail.
Sure, sir! I believe the revenue that can be generated from ticket revenue could be calculated as :
No of tickets sold* Average Price of each ticket. (As price of ticket usually depends on the distance
travelled, we take average)
To start with, I would use the formula of Payback period to determine what all factors need to be
considered. It is equal to the number of years in which the initial investment in project is recovered
using the cash flows from the project. Hence, I’ll divide the analysis into the initial investment and
future cash flows. In initial investments, we can have elements like the license/bidding related costs,
costs associated with building infrastructure like tracks, stations, metro sheds, etc. We can divide the
future cash flows into revenue and costs which can be further sub-divided into recurring and nonrecurring costs, fixed and variable costs, and also soft costs like interest during construction. Does
this seem exhaustive or am I missing out on some aspect?
Are you sure you have covered the initial investments completely? You may be missing out on a major
component.
Sounds good, what could be the average price of the ticket you would assume?
So I believe for the Delhi metro, we have 20 Rs as the minimum fare for 3 stations, and then it
increases to 40 Rs for 4+ stations and so on to 60 Rs and finally 80 Rs is probably the maximum fare.
Given this distribution and considering people use metro for inter-city travel, shall I assume 50 Rs to
be the average price?
Oh yes, I forgot about the actual metro trains.
Thanks. Please wait for further instructions.
That sounds reasonable. Can you now go and estimate number of tickets sold?
Sir, I would like to approach this from the supply side as I have seen the Delhi metro to be over
capacity most of the times. So I assume that end to end a metro takes 1 hr and we would like a
frequency of 10 mins for the trains? Is that good?
Yes, let’s go ahead with that!
In which case we have about 6 trains leaving point A on the line every hour and reaching point B.
And 2 hours till our first train comes back, so that would be 12 trains in circulation at the very least.
If we assume 10 coaches per train and a capacity of 50 per coach (assuming no over capacity), we
would have total seats = 12*10*50 = 6000. We double this to consider B to A journey and then
consider 14 hour day ( 7 * 2 hour window ) which gives us total capacity as 6000*2*7 and total
revenue = 6000*2*7*50 = 4200000 Rs per day.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
34
Metro Line - I
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• No notes as such
because the case was
driven by personal
experience
Market Entry | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
• Infrastructure company setting up metro line
• Sources of revenue and operation
Structure/Framework
Metro Line Revenue
Sources
Core Revenue
(tickets)
Number of
tickets
Value Added
Services
Parking
Average price
of ticket
Number of trains
Hours of
Operation
Number of
Coaches in train
Seats in a train
Key Takeaways
• Try to determine revenues and costs using formula which can be easily broken down and analyse the sub parts well
• Draw on personal experiences during analysis
• Use OPR – Occupany, peak time, replacement in guesstimates
ICON, IIM Bangalore
35
LCD Screen Manufacturer
Market entry | Moderate | KPMG (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is an LCD screen manufacturer from Sweden. They are a market
leader in Europe and now they are evaluating options to enter an emerging market like India,
China, Indonesia or South Africa to expand operations. Which country would you prefer to
enter and why?
Thanks a lot, Sir, for the problem statement. I would like to confirm that our client is a LCD
manufacturer and they are evaluating options to enter into either India, China, Indonesia or
SA. The client must decide on one country, is that right?
Correct.
So, before starting with the analysis, I would like to ask a few clarifying questions to get a
better understanding about the problem and our client. Is that okay?
Sure, go ahead.
Sure, go ahead.
Sir, for identifying opportunity, we will look at : 1. Major businesses producing LCDs say,
TVs, Phones, Machines and equipment etc. and their scale of operations plus order size. 2.
The market for products using LCDs in India market and YoY growth of the same. 3. The
life-time of the LCD screens within. For evaluating the feasibility we’ll look at: 1. Regulations
of land and labor 2. Fixed costs associated with point 1 and 3. the ease of doing business
or similar rankings. And finally, in the viability aspect, since we are already a market leader
in this LCD technology, client has the required operations capabilities and I assume that
they have efficiently leveraged the economies of scale by keeping variable costs low.
However, the cross-pollinating would be required to transfer best practices to the native
engineers.
Good. So what would be your final ordering of attractiveness and why?
Is the client only into LCD manufacturing or do they are into ancillaries of the same as well?
No. they have a broader portfolio but for expansion purposes, they are looking at LCD only
Interesting. Any reasons why only LCD and not ancillaries or other components?
They are one of the pioneers in this technology and that’s why they want to set the first foot
right.
Sir, my order would be: 1. India 2. China 3. Indonesia 4. South Africa. It was a tough call
between India and China, but given the current political and pandemic circumstances, the
business environment would be slightly more volatile than India and it poses a risk for export to
major OEMs. Although India doesn’t rank well in Ease of Doing business ranking, but the
situation seems to be improving and many manufacturers, who use LCDs in their products are
setting up their operations in the country because of increased adoption of technology and
allied devices..
Ok. That’s all. Thankyou.
Alright. Sir, first I’ll look into market size, then look at feasibility of setting up operations and
finally the viability of the same in these emerging markets. We will conduct this exercise for all
the countries individually and then make a final comparison matrix
This looks good. Please go ahead and explain each. I do not need calculations. Just mention
the 2-3 essential factors that you would consider.
I would like to take a minute to gather my thoughts and come up with a structure for the
analysis. Would that be okay?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
36
LCD Screen Manufacturer
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Market entry | Moderate | KPMG (Partner)
• Swedish LCD manufacturer evaluating expansion into emerging markets
Structure/Framework
• Client is pioneer in
technology
• Market leader in Europe
Expansion
Opportunity
Qualitative
Market sizing
Feasibility
PESTEL and
PORTER
Country
Opportunity
Feasibility
Viability
Overall
India
7
6.5
8
7.17
China
7
5
9
7
Indonesia
6
5
7
6
South Africa
6
6
7
6.33
Viability
Capability
analysis (VRIN)
Capability
development
Note: Scores are out of 10
*Score on personal discretion
Key Takeaways
• Used market entry framework
• PESTEL application in GTM
• Current affairs knowledge was required and establishing connection with the case
ICON, IIM Bangalore
37
Car Manufacturer
Market Entry | Moderate | McKinsey (Final)
Case Statement : Your client is a car manufacturer and wants to the enter the Indian market in the early
90s, what are the factors you would consider and if you decide to enter how would you establish a
distribution network.
Before I delve further into the case can I ask a few preliminary questions to understand the client and
the market scenario better
Great, please proceed with the analysis.
As established earlier the growth seems to be good and is it ok to assume that the profit margins for
the premier car segment are higher, would you like me to do a guesstimate to look at the potential
market size?
Yes, the first assumption is fine. You don't have to get into the numbers but just walk me through how
would you approach the guesstimate
Sure, go ahead
Can I know a little about the client, as in where is the client located, what is the prime reason for
entering the Indian market, what segment does the client operate in and in what all parts of the
supply chain is the client operating in?
Sure, the client is located in the United States, and a premier car manufacturer, think of something like
Audi or BMW, and the client operates in whole of the supply chain. About why Indian market, what do
you think could be the reason from the given data
Thank you for the information, from the given context since it is the early 90s, I am thinking of the
following 2 reasons: 1. due to the liberalization in India the client believes it would be profitable to
venture into the new and growing market, 2. The US market has reached a level of saturation for the
existing car brands and Indian market has seen an increase in disposable income
That's right, anything else you would like to know?
No sir, that would be all for now, I'll get back in case I need anything. I would like to take a min to
structure my analysis, is that alright?
Yes, please take your time.
Sure, So I would take a demand side approach and follow a top-down analysis, I would consider the
total population in the 90s, split the population into urban and rural and then split it into families, I
would further split the families based on the income range. Since our client is a premier car
manufacturer, I would focus only on the high-income bracket and further I would look at the frequency
of purchase and based on that further calculate the number of cars demanded in annually.
Great Job, I think you've mostly covered what I was looking for, let us now look at the distribution
channel.
Sure, before we proceed with that, I would like to look at the possibility of opening manufacturing plant
in India or if we should import the cars from their existing plants in the US.
That's a good observation, what do you think is feasible and profitable?
I think in the shorter run there would be low profits or even losses of setting up the plant in India but
in the longer run it would be profitable to operate wholly from the location of operation than to
importing the cars, also importing the cars would be directly impacted by the volatile government
policies around the import/export duties.
Ok, let us get back to the distribution channels.
So, I would like to proceed with my analysis in the following way, I would like to look at the Market
Attractiveness and the Core Competencies on a high level, under Market Attractiveness I would like
to look at the Market potential and the Industry attractiveness and under Core competencies I would
like to look at the Tangible, Intangible and Human resources the company has which can be
leveraged to get competitive advantage in the industry. Under Market Potential I would like to
further look at the Market Growth in the new market, Profitability, Market Size and Barriers if any.
Under the industry attractiveness, I would like to look at the PESTEL analysis and the Porter’s five
forces.
Sure, so in the Indian context the customers need the touch and feel of the product they buy and are
also very particular about the aesthetics. It would be ideal to have showrooms and dealerships in
major cities where there is a higher population of the target segment. The target customers as
identified earlier would be the high-income households, hence the dealerships should be located
accordingly.
Great, Thank you. You may please wait in the breakout room.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
38
Car Manufacturer
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Located in the US
• Premium car
manufacturer
• Covers whole supply
chain
Market Entry | Moderate | McKinsey (Final)
• Wants to enter Indian market
• Establish distribution network
Structure/Framework
Market Entry
Market Attractiveness
Market
Potential
Industry
attractiveness
Core competency
Tangibles
Growth
PESTEL
Intangibles
Profitability
Porter’s 5
Forces
Human
Resources
Market Size
Barriers
Key Takeaways
• Do not mention the names – Porter’s 5 forces as a term
• Whenever starting anything new (like the distribution channel), think in long term and short term
ICON, IIM Bangalore
39
Asset Management Firm
Market Entry | Difficult | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement: Your client is an investment firm, like Blackrock, and is focused on wealth
management for HNIs and institutional clients. They manage portfolio worth trillions of dollars.
They have approached you in the height of COVID pandemic. They want to make some
investments which will deliver in 5-7 years. Can you recommend some countries for them to
explore?
I would like to ask some preliminary questions to get a better understanding of the case. I
would like to start by understanding the investment strategy of our client – do they have
expertise in any particular sector or type of investment? Also, do they have any preference
between public market or private equity?
No they are open for all kinds of investments
Do they have any particular exit strategies in mind between IPO, secondary buyout or trade
sale?
That’s a good point but let’s ignore it for the case.
Okay, let me take some time to think of an approach for the case. Firstly, I would like to focus
on developing or underdeveloped nations for this exercise. They look like an exciting option
to deliver in next 5-7 years. The developed counties would mostly be saturated, and our client
would probably not make a good return. Does that sound okay?
Yes, that sounds reasonable.
I would like to break the analysis in three phases:
1. The over-arching attractiveness can be defined in terms of political and legal
environment of a country
2. Then I would look at the organically favorable factors such as natural resources,
government attitude to FDI and any announced investments and the country’s response
to COVID. The COVID response can give us a good idea about how quickly the country
can make changes in their infrastructure
3. Thirdly, I would like to look at what our client can bring to the table to foster inorganic
growth through synergies with other portfolio companies or any technological
investments
That sounds like a good approach. You can ignore the third point in your framework for now.
Based on your knowledge can you tell me top 2 countries where our client should invest?
Exclude India from your analysis
Sure, let’s look at this continent by continent. Going by my previous logic I would ignore
North America and Europe as they are developed. Does that sound okay?
Yes, let’s proceed.
This leaves us with Africa, South America and Asia. Africa is attractive in terms of natural
resources and population growth, but based on my approach I would rule it out for political
instability. Does that make sense?
Okay, sure.
That leaves South America and Asia. I do not have a lot of idea about South American countries
except Brazil, and their response to COVID was not great which shows government
inefficiencies. Hence, I would like to focus on South-east Asia now. Does that sound good?
Yes, please proceed.
I will start off by listing countries in South East Asia – Singapore, Japan, Australia, New
Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Koreas come to mind. Out of these I will again exclude
Singapore, Japan and ANZ because they are developed.
Further, I have past experience working in Malaysia during COVID and know they had a very
rapid response. I also know that they are very welcoming towards foreign investments and are
growing rapidly. Hence that would be one of my priority countries. The other country, for
similar reasons, would be Vietnam
Great, thank you. We can end the interview here.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
40
Asset Management Firm
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Firm is open to all
kinds of investments
across sectors and
markets
• No particular exit
strategy in mind
Market Entry | Difficult | Bain (Partner)
• Investment firm looking to expand across geographies during COVID
Structure/Framework
Evaluating countries
Defining country attractiveness
1
Political and Legal environment
2
Organic favorable factors
3 Inorganic favorable factors
•
Natural resources
•
•
Macroeconomic factors
(GDP/capital, population
growth etc)
Synergies with other
portfolio investments
•
Technological innovation
•
Government initiatives for
any infrastructure projects
•
COVID response
N. America &
Europe
Rejected as developed countries will
be saturated
Middle East
and Africa
Rejected for political instability
South America
Considered Brazil, rejected basis of
COVID response
Asia
Listed down countries, selected
Malaysia and Vietnam
Key Takeaways
• Interviewer was more interested in approach to case solving than the final answer
• Very important to form an initial framework and keep going back to it
• Some general information about global happenings in COVID were important
ICON, IIM Bangalore
41
Metro Line - II
Market Entry | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement: Your client is an Indian infrastructure development firm. They are contemplating
whether to accept an offer to develop a metro line from point A to point B in an Indian city. They want
you to find out the number of years in which they will be able to get back their initial investment. We
will test your comfort with numbers in this round. For the case, I want you to assume that the
operating costs for the metro are zero. I would like you to begin your analysis by looking at the
revenue.
Okay, Sir. I would start by looking at the annual revenue from the passengers. For this, I would
consider the price/ km, the average distance travelled per trip, and the number of trips made per year.
The price/km is Rs 5. You can assume that the average trip is from A to B, which are 5 kilometers
apart. I would like to know how you would approach the calculation of the number of trips.
Starting with the population of the city, I would look at the number of residents commuting from A to
B and vice versa daily. For this I would look at the percentage of residents near A and B. I would then
apply filters of gender and age, summing across the two routes to get the market size.
Would this give us the number of trips?
No, Sir. We would estimate the number of commuters who would use the metro. For this, we would
divide the market into income segments, and rate the metro on the parameters that each segment
values. The sum of market shares from each segment would give us the daily demand. We could then
multiply this with the number of working days to get the number of trips in a year.
That sounds comprehensive. We do have the numbers for this: the number of unique trips will be
2,00,000 a day.
Alright. Assuming that a year has 360 working days, we get revenue from operations to be Rs 180
crores. We could also look at other sources of revenue such as advertising.
No, that will not be necessary. Please look at costs now.
Alright. I want to look at the total capacity of each coach. I will divide the daily demand by the
capacity to get the minimum number of coaches required. How long is one trip? How many hours in a
day does the metro run for?
One trip takes 30 minutes. The operating hours are 7 AM to 10 PM.
In 15 hours, each coach can make 30 trips. It can seat a maximum of 360 people, which gives
us a capacity of 10,800. Dividing the daily demand by this capacity, we get a minimum of 19
coaches.
What are the assumptions that you made in arriving at this number?
I assumed that there would be no down time between each trip. I also assumed that the
demand is uniformly distributed. These assumptions are unlikely to hold to a complete extent
in real life. So, the true number of coaches should be higher. I would recommend a number
50% higher. So, 30 coaches. This would add 600 crores, resulting in a total investment of
750 crores.
That sounds good. Going back to the objective, what would be the payback period for
the client?
With an annual revenue of 180 crores, we would need a little more than 4 years to recover the
investment.
With this payback period, would you recommend that the client invest in this project?
Sir, that would depend on whether the client have a cutoff period for investment decisions. If
the cutoff period is more than 4 years, then they should invest in this project. They could also
look at other judgement criteria for investment.
Alright, that sounds fair. Let us close the case here.
Okay. Given that the operating costs are zero, we will look only at the fixed costs. There would be
two major investments: laying the track and buying the coaches. Do we have any numbers for how
much these will cost?
Yes. Laying the track will need an investment of 150 crores. Each coach costs 20 crores and can seat
360 people. You also have to determine the number of coaches to buy.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
42
Metro Line - II
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• The interviewer was
very clear about the
purpose of the case:
calculation skills. So, it
was important for me
to be accurate in each
calculation.
• The interviewer was
pleased with the
recommendation,
although it was not
very concrete.
Market Entry | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
• An infrastructure development firm is trying to calculate the payback period for a project.
• The company faced high fixed costs in terms of laying the track and buying coaches.
• The number of unique trips is 200,000 each day.
Structure/Framework
Profit
Revenue
Revenue from Operations
Costs
Revenue from Other
Activities
Fixed
Price/km
Tracks
Average
Distance
Coaches
Variable
Number of
Trips
Key Takeaways
• While the percentage values for demographic have been removed for ease of presentation, engaging the interviewer with your rationale might further prove your clarity of thought.
• It is important to lay down the logic of your calculation and getting the interviewer’s buy-in before actually starting the calculation.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
43
Pricing Framework
GAP
Market Price
Pricing
Value to consumer
Profit to seller
• Brand
• Quality
• Innovation
• New-found utility
Cost
Inward looking
1
External looking
2
Cost based
Comparable/
benchmark
Competition based
Costs
R&D, one-time costs
Industry
Production costs
Customer based
Willingness to pay
Features of others
Opportunity cost
Substitutes
Variable portion
Complements
% markup, margins?
Value based
Structure
Fixed portion
Extrapolate benefits
Or proxy based
Other specific costs
Returns
3
Features
Additional features
Breakeven period
Differentiating benefits
Payback period
Price range of existing
ICON, IIM Bangalore
44
Toll Collection
Pricing | Easy | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement: Your client is an infrastructure company which has just built a new road. You need to
help them find the right amount of toll to charge for each vehicle which uses the road.
That sounds interesting. I would like to know a bit more about the road which the company has built.
Where is it located? Is it an alternative route or it the repaired version of an older route?
Well, there are a couple of creative ways. We could look at the amount customers are willing to pay to skip
queues for services which allow skipping them for a premium. Apart from this, we can look at the extra
charge that customers play on delivery apps to get a guaranteed delivery time.
Okay, those are definitely some interesting options. It was nice interacting with you. Let’s close the case
here.
You can assume that the road connects two Indian cities, which were previously only connected by a single
bridge. The road is an alternative to the old bridge.
I have a couple of questions about the differences between the two routes for potential users before
I begin my analysis. Does the new road reduce the travel time between the two cities? Is the build
quality of the two roads different?
Yes, the new road reduces travel time by 30 minutes, even though it is a longer distance to travel. The build
quality is the same as the old road.
Alright, great. There are three possible ways to choose a toll to charge. The first is by choosing a time
period in which we want to earn back our initial investment. For this, we will divide our costs by the
projected demand in the given time period to get the minimum required toll price. The second method is
to look at the toll prices charged by other builders. We can record the prices at toll plazas connecting the
same cities to other places, and then given our advantages/disadvantages over them, add a premium or a
discount. The third method is to look at the value which we provide to our customers and charge an
equivalent amount.
Okay, that sounds comprehensive. I am interested in the the third method. How would you price the value
which we provide to our customers?
We can provide for value for travellers on three parameters: distance, time, and convenience. We are at a
disadvantage in the first parameter. We can use the extra fuel charge as a proxy.
Sounds fair. How will you value the time savings?
So, we know that the time savings are 30 minutes. Different segments of consumers value their time
differently. For example, lower income classes are perhaps not that affected by time savings when
compared to upper income classes. We should consider implementing a price discrimination
mechanism, such as charging different tolls to different vehicle categories after doing surveys.
Okay, can you arrive at the rupee amount any consumer ascribes to their time without doing surveys?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
45
Toll Collection
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• The interviewer
mentioned that he was
looking for creativity.
• It was also explained
that there would be no
numbers in the round.
Pricing | Easy | BCG (Partner)
• An infrastructure company is trying to set a poll charge for its new road, which has a time saving of 30 minutes.
• The road requires travelers to cover a longer distance.
Structure/Framework
Pricing
Cost-based
Competitor-based
Value-based
Advantages
Distance
Disadvantages
Time
Convenience
Key Takeaways
• The case was supposed to be done without a pen and paper. The interviewer had mentioned that he was looking for a conversation. Thus, it was important to be quick on my feet
and not ask for a couple of minutes to think.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
46
New Medicine Launch
Pricing | Moderate | McKinsey(Partner)
Case Statement : A Pharma company has developed a new product to control diabetes for patients in India
and need your help in pricing it
Yes, the new product is superior to insulin
In that case, we should certainly price our product more than Insulin as we are providing more value than
insulin. Again, how much should be the markup depends upon the perceived benefits of our product
amongst the consumers
That’s an interesting problem. Do you mind if I ask some questions to better understand the client?
Sure, go ahead.
Yes, that’s correct, anything else you want to consider here?
What is the objective of pricing? Is it to maximize the profit or something else
Yes, we can also consider substitutes in the form of Ayurveda, Homeopathy which might eat up on our
Market share if we price too high.
Yes, it is to maximize the profit
Can I have more details about the product? Basically, how it is different from normal insulin injection &
information on how restricted its availability be i.e.. Will it be available over the counter or requires a
prescription? And how is the competitive landscape in the market
It's an oral tablet instead of an injection and has lesser side effects. It'll be available over the counter
and the market is highly competitive
I want to breakdown the Pricing of the tablet into three broad strategies - 1) cost based 2) Competitor
based 3) Value based pricing
The final price will be dependent on all the three factors
That’s a fair assessment. Let's move on.
Okay, now I want to consider how much value we are providing to the customer and how much we can
capture it. For that we can do price elasticity analysis of the product to arrive at a price which maximizes
the profit and can also investigate Supply v/s Demand gap of the existing market to determine the best
price of the product.
Yes, that’s a detailed enough analysis. Let’s stop the case here.
Yes, that sounds fine. Why don’t you list down all the factors. I don’t want you to go into details.
Just tell me all the factors
Okay, let me start with Cost based approach. Over here Total cost is composed of one-time RnD costs +
Cost of production which again can be divided into Fixed cost and Variable cost. This along with our
production volumes will give the minimum price for the tablet. We need to now find profit margin in top
of that. Profit margin can either be something company is targeting, or we can use some proxy to find it
Yes, that’s sound fair. Let’s explore other factors you have listed now
So now we can look into competition and substitutes for our product and figure out a price based on our
product's position with respect to them. For that, I already have the information on lesser side effects
and the fact that medicine is in oral form which makes it superior to the injection-based insulin. Is that
fair to assume?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
47
New Medicine Launch
Case facts
Interviewee Notes
Pricing | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
• Oral tablet for diabetes patients
• Lesser side affects
• High competition in the market
Structure/Framework
Cost
• Follow a qualitive
approach rather than a
quantitative one
Fixed Cost
RnD
Salaries
Variable Cost
Depreciation
Rent
Cost
Pricing
Competitor
Value based
Sourcing
Manufacturing
Distribution
1.
2.
Cost of production - fixed cost and variable cost
RnD expenses
1.
2.
3.
Competition: Insulin injection
Substitutes: Ayurveda, homeopathy
Value Addition:
•
Lesser Side affects
•
oral tablets instead of injection
1.
2.
Willingness to Pay: Elasticity analysis
Supply and Demand tradeoff
Sales and
Marketing
Key Takeaways
• As interviewer hinted for qualitative discussion, I made sure that I’m listing all the factors down before going in detail to any one
• The interviewer was trying to speed up the case. Make sure that you are not taken aback by it
• My case ended abruptly when interviewer started asking me about one of my resume points, make sure that you are confident in such situations, and be thorough with your
resume. Don’t lose the structured approach even if you are asked a question from your resume.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
48
Growth Strategy Framework
PRODUCTS
Existing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Market growth rate in line
with management’s growth
expectations
Low market share w.r.t.
market leader
Growth rate w.r.t competitor
A derived profitability case!!
New
•
1. Market
Development
Strategy
4. Diversification
Strategy
•
•
•
Four
Growth
Strategies
Existing
•
Market growth rate lower
than management’s growth
expectations
High market share w.r.t.
closets competitor
Concentrated in a small
market
Demand in other markets
Typical Market Entry Case!!
MARKETS
•
New
2. Market
Penetration/ Entry
Strategy
ICON, IIM Bangalore
•
3. Product
Development
Strategy
•
•
Product - Market growth rate
lower than management’s
growth expectations
Management’s objective
High concentration in a
single product/ category
Diversification strategy case!!
Market growth rate lower
than management’s
growth expectations
Product in maturation or
decline phase
Product Launch Case!!
49
Coffee Production
Growth Strategy | Easy | Kearney (Partner)
Case Statement : Let's get into the case. I want to understand your approach. You can ask me
any questions. Your client is in global coffee production industry. They want to increase their
revenues from 1000 Cr to 5000 Cr in 5 years
Okay. So is the growth only concern or they are looking for cost aspects also? Also, I wanted
to know more about the company and industry before going ahead. So I know of coffee
producers who own plantations and some who are just involved in processing the coffee
beans. Where does our client operate in? What are the products being produced?
Ignore the costs for now. Our client kind of operates both. We have two business units. Oneunit deals with owning plantations, producing green beans and processing them to Roasted
ground coffee. The other unit buys high quality green beans from others and then process
them to Instant Coffee. Our current share of revenue is composed of 60% from Roasted
ground (RG) coffee and the other 40% from Instant coffee (IC)
Ok. Do we have any growth data available regarding the industry? And should I focus on RG
coffee first since it is 60% of our revenue. I also wanted to understand the bottleneck area in
value chain where we are lagging. Is it in plantation or processing or customer side.
RG is growing at 4% p.a. and IC is growing at 6% p.a.. But yes, the client is attracted to RG
industry and wants to find out what can be done. We have very high demand, and our
processing capabilities are also good. You can focus on plantation.
So when I think of plantation, I think of land area * yield of area. We can think of increasing
the land area or the yield in current area to improve our revenue. But to double our revenue, I
don’t think yield can be improved to that extent. It might be dependent on climate conditions
also.
Okay. Makes sense. I would like to take a minute to gather my thoughts and come up with a
structure for the analysis. Would that be Okay?
Sure, go ahead.
I am thinking we can do below things
1. We don’t need to own land. We need the low-quality beans so that we can produce RG
coffee. We can have tie ups with other farmers and ensure we get this
2. We can also think of growing other crops compatible with coffee in our available land. In
this way, we can increase the revenue
Should we start focusing on IC now we know that it is growing by 6%? We can use current
land to produce high quality beans
I like your first two options. Nice way to think about the problem. But we are still focusing on
RG and not to IC. I think you missed one important part in the entire statement. Can you
relook?
I am sorry. I am not able to find it exactly
Don't you think you are constraining yourself? The land is costlier in India.
Ohh, yes. We are thinking of increasing our global revenue. We can think of buying land at
other areas like Brazil where the land costs might be cheaper. Sorry. I missed this
Yes. This is what we had suggested to the client and it was a success. I really liked your
approach to the problem, though you missed one key aspect. Well done
Correct analysis. We have only 5% land with us in the coffee area which is cultivable in India.
Can you think of strategies on what do we do from here?
Why are we not buying more land ?
The client has done complete analysis and has found out that it is very costly to buy land in
India compared to the revenue gain expected.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
50
Coffee Production
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Growth Strategy | Easy | Kearney (Partner)
• Client wants to double the revenue from 1000 Cr to 2000 Cr in 5 years
• Client has two products RG and IC. RG involves plantation
• Client cannot buy more land in India as it is costly compared to revenue gain
Structure/Framework
• Qualitative analysis,
though numbers were
provided
• Client is interested in
growth of RG products
• Problem is with Plantation
and root cause is with
limited land availability
with clients
Current Revenue
(1000 Cr)
RG coffee
(600 Cr) growing at 4%
Plantation
Land Acres
Processing
*
Distribution
IC
(400 Cr) growing at 6%
Customers
Yield per acre
Key Takeaways
• The preliminary questions and the value chain set up before analysing the problem worked in favour of the candidate as he could directly go into the root cause based on this.
• The candidate missed a key aspect of problem statement. “Global” revenue. It could have gone horribly wrong as you are expected to note down on all case relevant facts. But approach and other
recommendations helped him.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
51
OTT service launch
Growth Strategy | Easy | Strategy& (Manager)
Case Statement : Our client is a regional production house and produces content in Gujarati language.
Given the increasing popularity of OTT format, they are looking to launch an OTT platform of their own.
I want you to analyse whether they should go ahead with the launch?
To make sure I have understood the case statement clearly, our client is a regional production house
which produces Gujarati movies and TV shows. They are considering launching their own OTT platform
and have, and I need to analyse whether this is a viable option.
That’s right!
Before I proceed with structuring my analysis, I would like to ask a few preliminary questions. Would
that be fine?
No, this is reasonable. Please tell me how you would estimate the market size.
I would break down the market size into two – number of users and average subscription charges
per user. To calculate the number the users, I would further break it down into two – potential
market size and percentage conversion. Market size is the total Gujarati speaking population in India,
which is around 5% of the total population. That gives us the total market size of 6.5 crores. Given
that there would be just one subscription per family and average family size at 4, we get
approximately 1.6 crores families. Now, I would like to break them further down basis the income
level.
Okay, that sounds fine.
I shall divide it further into three income levels – low, medium and high with 40% falling in low and
medium and 20% in high-income level bracket. This gives us 0.64 crore families in low and mediumincome levels and 0.32 crore families in high-income level. Assuming that subscription to the OTT
platform as a luxury service, the affordability would vary across the different income levels. I would
like to assume that 100% for high, 50% for medium and 0% for low-income groups. Does this seem
fair to you?
Sure, go ahead.
What kind of content does our client produce? Is it movies, TV shows or both?
Great question. They produce both movies and TV shows, but their focus is on TV shows.
Okay, and does the client have a particular customer segment such as youth or elderly that they
target?
No, they don’t have any such specific customer target.
Yes, go ahead!
This gives us the total market size of 0.64 crore families. To calculate the percentage conversion, I
would like to look at two factors – awareness and adoption. I would like to assume that, given the
medium and higher income level groups, 75% awareness level and approximately 50% would actually
adopt. This would give us the total number of users as 0.24 crore. Does this seem reasonable to you?
Alright and what is the primary objective of launching their own OTT service?
Client is looking at the OTT service as an alternate source of revenue.
What factors led you to consider 50% adoption levels?
Thanks for making the objective clear! Can I have a few seconds to structure my analysis?
Sure!
I would like to approach this problem by evaluating the market attractiveness, financial viability and
operational feasibility. Market attractiveness aspect is to assess the market size, growth potential,
existing competition and the trends prevailing in the market. The financial viability aspect is to assess
the profitability of the venture. Operational feasibility would include factors like regulatory approvals,
resource availability and technological capabilities. Does this seem reasonable to you, or should I
consider any other aspect?
I assumed that given the specific level of technical expertise required for using OTT platforms, a certain
population level even though they can afford it would not be that tech-savvy to use it. Further, some
customers may not see value in subscribing to an OTT platform just for Gujarati TV shows and movies.
Okay, not that we have the total number of users tell me how would you price the services?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
52
OTT service launch
Growth Strategy | Easy | Strategy& (Manager)
Firstly, I would like to look at the pricing of other OTT players in the market – Netflix charges Rs.
499/month for its basic plan and fall in the premium segment, Disney-Hotstar charges around Rs.
399/year which is around Rs. 30/month. Given the extensive range of content they provide to user
we can consider this as the ceiling price. Further, I know that DTH services, in an average, charge
around Rs. 10 to Rs. 20 per channel per month. Given that the OTT platform would be providing
more timing flexibility with no disruption due to advertisements hence it would provide more value
to the user. To increase adoption initially, we can price the service at Rs. 15 per month. Does this
seem fair to you?
That does seem fair and what be the annual revenue that the client would generate if it were to launch
the OTT platform?
Our total number of users would be 0.24 crore and charging Rs. 15/month, the client can have a
potential revenue of Rs. 43 crores.
Alright. That makes sense. Let us wrap it up here. All the best!
ICON, IIM Bangalore
53
OTT service launch
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Growth Strategy| Easy | Strategy& (Manager)
• Regional production house looking to launch OTT platform
• Aim – increase profits and create additional sources of revenue
Structure/Framework
• Total Gujarati speaking
population can be
assumed as 5% of the
total population
• Population can be
further broken-down
basis income – low
(40%), medium (40%)
and high (20%)
• Identify the
characteristics for OTT
platform users and use
it to further segment
OTT service
launch
Market size
Number of users
Potential market
size
Market
attractiveness
Financial viability
Growth potential
Existing
competition
Operational
feasibility
Average revenue
per user
% conversion
Key Takeaways
• Ensure that the you lay out the structure for your analysis at the start
• Assume that are easy for calculation and take buy-in from the interviewer on the assumed numbers
ICON, IIM Bangalore
54
Convenience Store at Gas Station
Growth | Moderate | Kearney (Manager)
Case Statement : Our client is the owner of a gas station between towns A and B –10 miles to
each town. He is wondering if it would make sense to add a convenience store to the gas
station.
I have a few questions about our client, may I do ahead?
Sure
Are there any other gas stations in town A or B? Who are the typical customers of the gas
station like?
There are no other gas stations in town A or B. The gas stations current customers are
residents of town A and B; there are no other customers
So, just to visualize the problem a bit more, I am assuming it to be a typical gas station with
revenue coming from sale of petroleum and maybe some other service?
Yes, that’s a valid interpretation. Gas is 75% of revenue with 10% profit margin and the gas
station also offers car washes with 25% of revenue and a 20% profit margin
Finally, I would like to ask what would be a valid criterion for the decision to make sense? Is
the client targeting certain revenue numbers or profitability?
That’s an excellent question! So, the Criteria for “making sense” – 1) making profit, 2) having a
better chance to hold off new competitors enter the market, 3) diversifying income
I have come up with a structure for my analysis; Firstly, I’ll analyze the decision based on
financial factors, whether the convenience store provides incremental profits.
Then I’ll jump into the nonfinancial factors like holding off competitors, realizing synergies
and diversifying risks.
Alright, your structure seems exhaustive, go on, let’s analyze the project from financial
perspective.
Firstly, I would analyze the current revenue of the gas station. For this, I would need the
population of each town, and the percentage of people that own a vehicle.
Sure, Assume that there are 1000 people in each town, 80% of the population owns a car.
Also let’s assume that 50% of the people buy gas from our client.
Alright so that gives us:
Per town: 1000 * 80% = 800; 800 * 50% = 400
Total: 400 * 2 = 800-person customer base
This seems large enough; do we also have frequency of purchase, and dollar value per
purchase data?
The market size calculation seems correct. I also have the other information you needCustomers get gas on average 1x/week; Assume 50 weeks/yr and a customer spends $50
each time. Also, Customers make 40% of all gas purchases at the client’s station
Sure, I’ll just quickly calculate the profits :
800 customers * $50 * 50 weeks/year = 2M on gas per year 2M * 40% of purchases made
at client = $800K client revenue 75% of revenue is gas: $800K * 75% = $600K * 10%
profit margin = $60K profit from gas
25% of revenue is other: $800K * 25% = $200K * 20% profit margin = $40K profit from
car washes
$60K + $40K = $100K profit per year
Do we have information on the expected revenues from the new convenience store? Do we
expect it to attract more customers, apart from the existing gas customers?
Good question! Gasoline customers will spend an additional $20 at the convenience store per
purchase but will not increase frequency of purchases. Also, 50% of town population who
currently are not customers (the remaining 1200 non-customers, not just the 80% car owners)
will spend $5 per week at the convenience store
ICON, IIM Bangalore
55
Convenience Store at Gas Station
Growth | Moderate | Kearney (Manager)
Alright, so that gives us:
Revenue – existing customers:
800 customers * 50 weeks * 1 purchase/week * 40% purchases made at our gas station =
16K total purchases
16K purchases * $20 = $320K additional revenue
Revenue – new customers:
1200 non-customers * 50% * $5 per week * 50 weeks = $150K Total revenue: $320 +
$150 = $470K
Do we also have cost information?
So, in terms of current customers, the convenience store provides higher revenue, may
increase visit frequency and better experience. However, it may increase the wait times. In
terms of new customers, It provides conversion opportunities into gasoline customers. It
also has the potential to attract customers from other cities.
From a competitive aspect, it becomes important to look at other similar offerings and
differentiate the service and experience
In terms of other factors, We can consider the outside regulations. We can also consider
logistic factors like whether there is any space to add another store or not.
Shall I also think of it from the macro perspective?
Recurring costs for convenience store are: Labor: $75K/year
Utilities: $5K/month
COGS: 50% of revenue
Ignore fixed costs
No, I think you have done a thorough analysis. Let’s end this case. Thank you!
Okay, so that gives us
Costs:
COGS: $470K revenue * 50% = $235K
Labor: $75K
Utilities: 12 months * $5K = $60K
Profit:
$470K - $235K - $75K - $60K = $100K/year
I can see that the convenience store generates profits equivalent to our existing business.
This makes it seem attractive
Alright, it seems profitable, let’s move on to the nonfinancial factors. What can you think of?
For nonfinancial factors, I’ll split my analysis into the following factors:
Current and new customers, Competition and others
Alright, go on...
ICON, IIM Bangalore
56
Convenience Store at Gas Station
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Population of each
town is 1000 and 80%
of them own car and
out of these 50% fill
gas at the client’s gas
station
• Customers get gas on
average 1x/week;
Assume 50 weeks/year
and a customer spends
$50 each time
• The new convenience
store will attract new
customers as well. 50%
of town population who
currently are not
customers will spend
$5 per week at the
convenience store
Growth | Moderate | Kearney (Manager)
• Aim – increase profits, competitive advantage and diversifying income
• Gas is 75% of revenue with 10% profit margin; car washes with 25% of revenue and a 20% profit margin
• Labor: $75K/year; Utilities: $5K/month; COGS: 50% of revenue
Structure/Framework
Profitability
Revenue
Gas
Costs
Car Wash
Fixed costs
Variable costs
Labour
Utilities
COGS
Key Takeaways
• Ensure that the you lay out the structure for your analysis at the start
• Ask the interviewer for relevant data instead of getting stuck in your analysis
ICON, IIM Bangalore
57
US Tyre Manufacturer
Growth Strategy | Difficult | BCG
Case Statement : Your client is a tyre manufacturer based in the United States. The problem they face
is they are operating at full production capacity. The CEO is worried that if the demand for their
product increases, they will not be able to serve it. The board evaluates three options for expansion –
increasing capacity in the US itself, expanding production in Mexico, or assessing a production facility
in China. They have hired us as a consultant. What would you advise them?
Apart from production costs, I would also consider other transaction costs like freight, logistics, import, and customs
duty.
I would also look at the inflation rates and future projections of these costs. Mapping the production units with the
demand locations will help us to find out which location (US, China, and Mexico) gives us the lowest cost.
Okay. What next?
This is an interesting problem at hand. So, before we deep dive into the case, I would like to ask a few
preliminary questions to know more about the client.
The second bucket we have is operational feasibility – where I would like to see the entire value chain. So, I
would see whether there is an uninterrupted supply of raw material, adequate labor resources are available,
capital is available, the latest technical equipment and machines are available.
Sure, go-ahead.
I would like to know more about the client – what part of the value chain do we operate in, the product
lines (different types of tyres) we have, and the competitive landscape.
Fair enough.
Coming to strategic fit – wherein I will see what the future plan for the company is. From where will the next leg
of demand come. Example, is the company intending to expand in Asia – if that is the case, it makes sense to
have a factory in China. Also, other qualitative factors like bad economic foreign relations between the US and
China are important.
And the last bucket is the mode of expansion. Apart from a greenfield factory expansion, I would also explore
other options like acquiring local manufacture, a brownfield expansion where a factory is bought, or
outsourcing of production, or finally setting up a joint venture.
So, for simplicity, let us assume that we have only one type of tyre that we manufacture. The
client is the market leader in the US market, and we have a couple of competitors who have
around 15-20% market share each.
Thank you. Also, I would like to know the objective or evaluation metric that the client is looking at –
whether it is lower cost, a certain quality of production, or an uninterrupted supply of raw material.
So, if you look at the problem holistically, you will realize that all of these are very important while
making a decision. There isn't a single criterion that the client has.
True. Also, are there any demand forecasts that we have in the US markets. How fast is the market growing?
So, we expect moderate growth in demand in the domestic US market.
Sure. Now, I would like to approach the problems looking at four buckets – the first bucket being financial
feasibility, second being operational feasibility, third part would be strategic fit and future plans, and the
last would be the mode of entry.
Interesting, carry on.
So, for financial feasibility, I would look at the cost-benefit analysis considering the demand projections and the
projected cost of production in all the 3 locations - – the US, Mexico, and China.
Good, that was a comprehensive analysis. Say if Mexico is L1, what would you do?
I would not jump into a decision based solely on the lowest costs. I will also see the operational feasibility, the
strategic fit, and other qualitative factors. If Mexico ticks all the boxes, I would finally decide on the expansion
mode – a greenfield factory or outsourcing of production, an acquisition, or a joint venture.
Good. Can you summarise the case for me now?
Sure, sir. So, our client is a US tyre manufacturer facing a shortage of production capacity and evaluating three
options whether to produce in the US, Mexico, and China. We solved this problem by looking at financial
factors – costs and other qualitative factors – like strategic fit, operational feasibility, future projections and
finally explored the various options available in the form of greenfield factory, outsourcing, or joint venture.
Good job.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
58
US Tyre Manufacturer
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Only 1 type of tyre
• Market Leader
• Couple of competitors –
15-20% M.S.
• Moderate growth in
domestic demand
Growth Strategy | Difficult | BCG
• Leading US Tyre Manufacturer
• Operating at full capacity
• Exploring expansion options
Structure/Framework
Expanding production
capacity for US Tyre Mfg
Financial
Feasibility
Cost Benefit
analysis
Operational
Feasibility
Demand mapping with
location
Raw material
availability
Strategic Fit &
Future Plan
Future global demand and
expansion plan
Mode of Entry
Greenfield
expansion
Demand
Projections
Labor
resources
Production
costs
Capital
Outsourcing
Transaction
costs
Technology &
equipment
Joint Venture
Geo-political factors
Acquisition
Inflation & future
projections
Key Takeaways
• Case was an open-ended growth strategy case to evaluate the candidates structured approach
• Interviewer gave non-verbal cues in the beginning to guide the candidate – important to take note of this during interviews
ICON, IIM Bangalore
59
Time to Market
Unconventional | Moderate | Accenture
Case Statement : Your client is an FMCG firm that is looking for recommendations on improving the time
to market for their product.
That’s an interesting problem. Do you mind if I ask some questions to better understand the client?
What do you think is an important point to consider while having multiple suppliers?
Managing multiple suppliers and ensuring timely delivery of raw materials would be essential for
achieving a lower time to market,
What do you suggest for the same?
Go ahead.
Can I know the product(s) that our client has and what is their current time to market? Also, do we
have any target timeline for a particular product? Time to market may vary a lot among different
product families.
The firm deals in food products like pickle, ketchup, and sauces. They plan on launching a new
variant in their ketchup line and would like to reduce the time to market from 12 to 9 months.
All suppliers can be brought on a common platform to achieve greater transparency for resource
planning which will further impact the production planning process. We could also use tools like
product lifecycle management software and onboard the suppliers and vendors on it.
Thank you, that will be all.
Alright that is a considerable time reduction. We should analyze the value chain of their business to find
out points of improvement.
Sure. What do you think comes under the value chain of an FMCG firm?
I would analyze activities like research and development, insourcing logistics, production, storage
and distribution, marketing. Is there anything else you would like me to consider here?
This seems fine. Tell me how you plan to improve each of these to reduce the time to market.
Sure. I would like to begin with research and development as it is an important and time-consuming
process especially for an FMCG firm. We can leverage technology to speed up R&D. Next. I would look
at the marketing arm. Gathering consumer insights and preferences can also be a bottleneck. Using
more of digital marketing practices may help in faster data collection and analytics. Training the
marketing personnel and ensuring smooth communication between the R&D and marketing arms will
also reduce the time for new product development.
Sure, lets focus on new product development.
Under insourcing logistics, the two most important factors to consider for new product development
would be resource planning and supplier onboarding and negotiations.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
60
Time to Market
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Time to market varies
among product families
– focus on one product
• Look at each step in
the value chain to
understand points of
improvement.
• New product
development –
gathering customer
insights and
onboarding suppliers
Unconventional | Moderate | Accenture
• Reduce time to market from 12 to 9 months for a new ketchup variant produced by an FMCG firm
Structure/Framework
FMCG Value chain
Inbound
logistics
R&D
Processing
Storage
Distribution
S&M
Inbound logistics
Raw materials –
resource planning
Supplier management
Key Takeaways
• Focus was on R&D and marketing for FMCG, with attention to activities for new product development like consumer research and supplier onboarding.
• Managing multiple suppliers through product lifecycle management software.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
61
Customer Experience Improvement - Banking
Case Statement : Your client, a private sector bank, is witnessing a decrease in NPS. You need to find
out the reason and give recommendations.
That’s interesting. May I take a few moments to gather my thoughts before we can proceed?
Sure, please go ahead.
I would like to understand a bit about the client. What are the segments that the bank operates into,
and is there a particular segment facing this issue? Is it a global or domestic bank?
It offers corporate banking and retail banking. Only retail banking customers seem to be dissatisfied. It
operates only in India.
What are the kinds of services offered by the bank? Is there a particular service where customers are
facing issue?
It offers regular banking services including debit/credit cards, net banking, loans. Issue is across all
these services.
Are the customers unhappy with the products offered, or the customer services in the branch, or
customer support through call centres?
It is the call centre that is driving down the NPS.
Does the bank have in-house customer support, or does it outsource? If it outsources, are there
multiple partners? Is the issue specific to a call centre?
It operates its own centralized call centre.
Unconventional | Moderate | Bain
Good, the issue is with the third category. Now that you have identified the root cause, could you make
2-3 recommendations on how to tackle this issue, considering that you can’t increase the number of
agents.
The first suggestion would be for more channels of customer support like BOT and human-based
WhatsApp chat, and enhanced IVR system to address the most common and trivial concerns not
requiring a support executive.
That’s a great suggestion given that the bank currently doesn’t have these. Can you also suggest how
to improve the existing process?
Sure. Since we have identified that the issue is with the time taken by the executive to understand
and resolve the issue, I would like to recommend improvement of the existing decision tree to
resolve the complaints. The complaints can be first classified into comprehensive categories so that
the L1 support teams can be trained on how to identify the type and give first-level support before
escalating to L2. Historical records of the frequency of each type of query and required escalations
can be used to decide the number of L2/L3 executives required for a category. Executives should be
able to instantly fetch recent customer logs to identify possible issues to reduce problem
identification time.
Also, the average call duration per support executive should be analyzed to identify if there are
specific ones who are taking longer time to resolve, and they should be trained to use the decision
tree more efficiently.
Great, those are some really good recommendations and in fact the actual ones were on similar lines.
Thank you, we are done.
Thank you, sir.
Okay, so since it operates through a centralized call centre, we can rule out a partner or a locationspecific issue. Is the call volume increasing beyond the estimations or is the waiting time and call
duration very high?
Yes, number of agents are keeping up pace with the estimated call volume. But it the higher call
duration is leading to waiting times.
Waiting time can be of three types – Connecting to the line, getting to the service executive, and
getting the final resolution. Do we have the data to indicate either or all of them is causing higher
waiting times?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
62
Customer Experience Improvement - Banking
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Unconventional | Moderate | Bain
• Private sector bank is witnessing a decrease in NPS. Need to find out the reason and give recommendations.
Structure/Framework
• Domestic bank
• Issue in the retail
segment
• Long wait time to get
resolution at the call
center
Decreasing NPS
Corporate
Banking
Retail Banking
Customer support
Product
Branch
Call centre
Call Volume
Connecting to line
Duration per call
Identification and
resolution
Reaching support
executive
Key Takeaways
• No conventional framework used
• Basic knowledge of banking and call center processes required
• Drilldown of wait time and recommendations was the key
ICON, IIM Bangalore
63
Home services: Fall in NPS
Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (OCR)
Case Statement : Your client is a home services solutions company whose Net promoter score
(NPS) has been falling. Determine how should the client solve for it.
Thanks! I have a few questions to understand the problem statement better – Is this home
solutions company similar to an Urban Clap? What kind of services do they provide and where
are they providing the service?
Yes, similar to Urban Clap – they provide cleaning, beauty and repair services through an App.
The client is currently providing services only in Bangalore
Alright. Can I also know for which service category the NPS has been falling? Also, is the NPS
falling for a particular customer segment? And since when has it been falling?
The NPS is falling for the beauty services since 6 months now. What do you mean by customer
segment?
Customers can be segmented on the basis of gender, location, age and so on. Do we know if
the fall in NPS is concentrated in a specific segment?
The NPS is falling evenly across gender and age. However, the fall is more prevalent from Tier2 areas in Bangalore than the more urban set up
Alright, so this narrows down where the problem exactly lies. At this stage, I also want to know
how the client calculates the NPS and which constituents are impacting it ?
NPS = % of customers who give positive rating - % of customers who give negative rating.
Right now, the former is falling and latter is increasing – so it’s a very bad situation
Thanks for the information. I would like to approach this problem from the customer journey
angle. We can explore the various steps in the entire process and see in which step there is an
issue. What do you think?
Sounds good. Why don’t you take some time to build the steps?
Yes, so there would be around 8 steps in the process. 1) Professional arrives at the
destination 2) Alignment on the nature of service 3) Service professional sets up the
equipment 4) Service given 5) Changes suggested by customer 6) Changes incorporated 7)
Equipment packed 8) Professional leaves.
Do we know at which stage the issue exists?
The issue exists in Step 3 and 4 – the actual service delivery
Okay, so there can be four categories of sub-issues : Quality of equipment, Technical quality of
service, Time required to do the service and softer issues such as communication, behavior
etc. Do we know where the issue is?
The problem is in the quality of equipment as well as technical quality of the service
Okay, for the first issue, probable causes – 1) low quality equipment purchased 2)
Professional not able to take care of the equipment 3) The equipment are not serviced
regularly/ replaced
For the second issue, probable causes - 1) Lack of skill training given to service professionals
2) Lack of confidence/other skills to conduct the service. Do we know the reason among
these?
Great, so for the first one – it is the professional who is not able to take care of the equipment
and the second one – they lack expert skills to deliver the service.
Okay, and with the given information we known that these issues persist in only the Tier II
areas of Bangalore. That could be because of two reasons – 1) Uneven development strategy
by client 2) Lack of expert professionals based in the area.
Great, the reason is uneven development – the client first focused on only the Tier I areas and
then while expanding to Tier II area, focused on speed rather than quality. Any solutions you
can think of – I want to specially now what can the client do right now?
Right now, taking a high level cut – Pre service (booking, waiting etc), during service (delivery)
and post service (payment, rating etc). Do we know which stage has the issue?
In the short term, the client can create create an SOP for professionals to follow, appoint expert
professionals from Tier I to Tier II areas. In the long term, specialized training can be conducted.
The issue exists in the delivery stage
Thank you
ICON, IIM Bangalore
64
Home services: Fall in NPS
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Understand that
problem lies only in
one service vertical
• Understanding of NPS
was not required to
solve the case
Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (OCR))
• NPS score of home services firm has been falling for beauty services in Bangalore
Structure/Framework
Service
delivery
Pre-service
Arrival
Alignment
During service
Equipment
setup
Service
delivery
Feedback
Post service
Rework
Equipment
packed
Departure
People
Equipment
Key Takeaways
• Be MECE in defining consumer journey
• Use People, Process, Technology framework to understand why service quality may not be up to mark
ICON, IIM Bangalore
65
Movie Release: Theatre or OTT
Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement: Your client is a film production house. They want to launch their next movie which is ready
to release. They would like your opinion on whether to release it now on an OTT or to release it in the
theatre after 6 months.
I would like to understand the client and the movie a little better before analyzing it further. Where is the
movie set to release, what is the objective, and do we have any details about the movie itself?
Assume the movie is releasing in India with the usual aim of profit maximization. The movie in question is
Houseful 5.
On what basis would this amount be decided by an OTT assuming your client is an OTT like Netflix?
We would take into consideration factors that affect the reach of the platform. We would look at
preferences of the existing audience as well as how many new users can be onboarded with the
help of new content. We could go and guestimate this number starting with the total population
and taking into account various filters of age, income and number of users per household.
Right. You are going in the right direction so we can close the case here. Congratulations!
Alright. I would like to compare the profits of both the options before taking a decision. To do the same, I
would like to dive into the revenues and costs involved in each option. Is this approach okay?
Yes, go ahead.
Starting with Theatre release, we can look at the various revenue streams. The primary revenue comes
from the box office collections, with additional revenues from Sponsorships, Merchandise sale, DVD and
Music rights. To estimate the revenue through box office, we can guesstimate through distribution and
theatre networks. But an easier way would be to look at past data. Do we have numbers of Houseful 4 or
any similar movie?
Yes, that’s a good approach. Houseful 4 earned 200cr in the box office.
Adding 10%, we can estimate the number of Houseful 5 to be 220 cr. Of this, a percentage would go to
the production house as revenue. Do we have any data on the set percentage and on the additional
revenue through sponsorships, merch, DVD and music rights
23% goes to the production house. They have sponsorships worth 100cr and assume the rest to be
negligible.
Alright. So we have 23% of 220 cr, approximately 50 cr and 100 cr from sponsorships. Total revenue from
theatre release is 150cr. Let’s go into the costs now. Since the movie is already ready, do we have any data
on their budget?
Yes. The fixed component is 80cr. There is also a variable component after 150 cr of revenue. 10% of
incremental revenue adds to the cost.
Alright. Since revenue is at 150cr in this case, we do not have any incremental cost. Accounting for the 80cr
spend, projected profit lies at 70cr. Now assessing our other alternative, we can look at the revenue from
OTTs like Netflix, Prime Video, and Hotstar.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
66
Movie Release: Theatre or OTT
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
• The movie is Houseful 5, a sequel to Houseful 4 which earned INR 200 cr at the box office.
• 23% of box office earnings go to production houses. Other sources of revenue include sponsorships
• Theatre releases see a fixed cost of INR 80 cr.
Structure/Framework
• The interviewer did not
want a guesstimate
figure under the OTT
profits head. It was
more important to have
a clear flow of thought.
Theatre
OTT
Profits
Revenue
Profits
Costs
Costs
Reach
Box Office
Fixed
Existing Users
Sponsorships
New Users
Variable
Income
DVDs
Age
Merchandise
Key Takeaways
• It is important to be MECE in recognizing all sources of revenue. The industry was not very familiar, hence buy-in from the interviewer was even more crucial.
• Talking about the logic to be followed and bringing in numbers later is also helpful in case the interviewers is only testing clarity of thought.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
67
Business Process Outsourcing
Unconventional | Moderate | BCG
Case Statement: Your client is a BPO who just entered India. How many employees should they
hire? We’ll not go into numbers, let’s just discuss the approach.
Before proceeding, I would like to ask a few preliminary questions. What exactly does our
client do as a BPO? Does it serve as a call center?
Yes, it’s a typical call center.
Okay, and what would be the implication of choosing a particular percentile value?
So, it would involve a trade-off of costs vs service level. As we increase this percentile value,
we are planning for high arrival rates, and we would need more employees to meet our
service level by maintaining our desired call waiting time. However, more employees would
mean higher employee costs.
That’s correct. We’ll close the case here.
Okay. Does the client already operate outside India? If yes, what clients is it looking to serve
from India – new clients or already existing ones? And will this call center have exclusive
clients, or is it just capacity expansion to meet growing needs of existing clients?
The client operates outside India as well. However, in India, the call center will be used
exclusively for serving an Indian Telecom operator, which our client recently partnered with.
Okay, the number of employees will equal the estimated number of calls multiplied by the
number of shifts per day. The estimated number of calls at any given moment would further
depend upon the arrival rate of calls, duration of answering each call, rate of call drop-off
during waiting, and desired waiting time for each caller.
That sounds good. Let’s say we want to estimate the arrival rate of calls. We have historical
data about customer service from the telecom operator. How do we go about it?
So, we would have access to the call logs. We can look at the number of calls in a particular
time frame and divide it by the duration of the timeframe to get the arrival rate. This rate
would also have variability during different hours in a day, so we will have to take that into
account.
That’s all fine, but how will you actually use the data? Will you consider the mean, median, or
something else?
Right. So, I would be using a certain percentile value which is higher than the mean. For
example, the 90th percentile value, such that 90% of the arrival rates in the data fall below
this selected value.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
68
Business Process Outsourcing
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Unconventional | Moderate | BCG
• Client would operate for 250 weekdays in a year
• Client will serve only one company – an Indian Telecom operator
Structure/Framework
• Qualitative analysis
• Client has historical
caller data
Number of
employees
Number of calls to be attended
at a given moment
Number of shifts
per day
Call Arrival Rate
Call duration
Drop-off rate
Waiting time
Key Takeaways
• Listing down all factors affecting number of employees ensuring MECE was a good start to the case
• The candidate initially didn’t comprehend the interviewer’s question about the usage of data, where clarification could have been sought
ICON, IIM Bangalore
69
Pharmaceutical Firm
Unconventional | Moderate | Kearney
Case Statement : Your client is a pharmaceutical company that is seeing a lot of its shipments
being rejected. Find out why and provide recommendations
Before analyzing the case, I’d like to know a bit more about the client and their problem. Where
does the client operate and what is the rejection rate of shipments?
The client operates in India and ships the drugs to firms in the US. There are two streams of
sending shipments: waterways and airways. Airways constitute 80% of the load and has been
seeing a 54% rejection rate. Waterways on the other hand has observed only a 3% rejection
rate.
Shipment through airways seem to be the major issue so I would first like to tackle that. I would
like to compare with waterways and find out the cause of such high contrast.
Yes sure.
In order to understand where exactly in the supply chain are the shipments being rejected, I
would break down the supply chain into 3 parts: 1. Rejected before onboarding 2. Rejected post
transit 3. Rejected on reaching the customer.
The shipments are being rejected post transit during the customs screening.
In order to figure out why the shipments are being rejected, I would like to analyze the
package based on package contents – is the content being shipped allowed/legal; packaging
conditions – shape, weight, size, material used for packaging and are they according to the
customs regulations; physical conditions of the package post arriving – is it damaged or
rendered ineffective in anyway?
That’s right, the packages are rejected because they are being rendered ineffective. The drug
shipments need to be maintained within a temperature range of 15 – 25 degrees Celsius and
there are thermal sensors on the shipments that track if they have been exposed to
temperatures beyond this limit. Even a single exposure can severely degrade the drug efficacy.
Hence customs officials strictly monitor the thermal exposure of each package on arrival.
That’s interesting. I will now look at various parts during the airways transit where the shipments
could be potentially exposed to temperatures beyond the permissible range.
Consider shipment happens throughout the year and all air routes go through the Dubai.
I’d break the transit down as: Before loading into the flight, during flight, transit through
Dubai, offloading in the US. How is the temperature being regulated at each of these places?
Before loading into the flight, the shipments are transported in temperature-controlled
vehicles. Inside the flight as well the temperatures are controlled. At Dubai, these containers
are kept in warehouses that are temperature controlled. Once offloaded, they are again packed
in the controlled containers.
There seem to be lapses during the shifting of containers from vehicles to flight, in transfer to
the warehouses in Dubai, and while offloading. Dubai experiences severe diurnal whether
changes so the timing in which the shipments are being sent out should also be looked into.
Also, the landing location in the US can experience seasonality in weather with temperatures
likely to drop below the lower limit. However, onloading/offloading exposures could also be
there in waterways mode. I would like to know why the rejection rate is so low in that case
Great point! When the shipments are sent through ships, they are packed in temperaturecontrolled containers and hence do not face any external exposure. You’ve identified the
problems correctly now. Why don’t you come up with recommendations for the client.
Before I move on to the recommendations, I would like to know what the client is already
doing to tackle these issues. Also, why is the client sending only 20% shipment through
waterways, is there a possibility to increase that percentage?
Since, waterways are a slower mode of transport, for sending shipments through this mode the
client needs to plan shipments in advance which is currently not being done by the client.
All right, so I will provide recommendations for what can be improved in the air transport
and how the client can send more shipments through waterways: For short term, client can
send packages through similar temperature-controlled containers in airways. However, there
could be space and weight issue which need to be checked with the regulations. They can
also look at alternate routes or direct routes that avoid passage through Dubai. Over the
long term, the client must shift their operations to waterways. Better demand forecasting
and shipment planning should be undertaken.
Thanks, we can close the case here.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
70
Pharmaceutical Firm
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Focusing on airways
first – 80/20 rule
• Analyze package
journey while loading
to reaching the end
customers
• Rejected at customs –
internal factors of
package like shape,
size, weight, damages.
External factors like
legal, regulations
Unconventional | Moderate | Kearney
• Shipments of pharmaceutical drugs being sent from India to US.
• Two distribution routes – airways and waterways. Airways consist of 80% of the total distribution load and sees 54% rejection rate
• Packages sent through waterways have only 3% rejection rate.
Structure/Framework
Routes
Airways
Rejected while loading
Rejected post transit
Waterways
Rejected by end customer
Internal Factors
External Factors
Key Takeaways
• Packages getting rejected after landing at the customs screening, because of overshooting the permissible temperature range.
• Rejection rate is low for waterways as they operate with temperature controlled containers.
• Important to ask the interviewer, why only 20% of the shipment is being carried out through waterways. This will uncover the fact that for waterways, distribution planning needs
to be done well in advance, which further brings out that the client needs to focus on improving demand forecasting.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
71
Unhappy Friend
Unconventional | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
Case Statement : Your client is a friend of yours who is unhappy since some time. You have to figure out
why he is unhappy and give some recommendations to change the situation.
What I’m looking for can be related to fans.
Reasons for the client to be unhappy that relate to fans could be reduced or unsatisfactory album
sales, concert attendance, nominations and awards, and some other factors such as merchandise
sales or social media engagement.
That’s an interesting problem. Do you mind if I ask some questions to better understand the client?
Sure, go ahead.
Can I know the profession the friend is in, where does he live, since when is he feeling unhappy,
and his interests outside work?
Great, so the client is unhappy because the band is not winning a particular award since the last 4
years despite being nominated everytime, and the other factors you mentioned are exceeding
expectations.
So he is a musician based in Ireland, he is feeling unhappy since about 2 years and he has no
other interests.
Can I know a little about the award? What is the criterion for receiving it and how are bands judged?
Can I know if he’s an independent musician or he plays with a band, if if the latter is true do we have any
more details about the band?
Sure. He is the lead singer of a jazz band which has been around for 7-8 years now.
I’d now analyze the possible reasons for our client being unhappy. To begin with, I will look at
them from two lenses – personal and professional. Personal reasons for being unhappy can be
broken down into interpersonal and intrapersonal. Interpersonal can include reasons relating to
family or friends and intrapersonal reasons could be physical, mental, or emotional. Before I look
at the possible professional reasons do you think I have covered everything on the personal
reasons front? Please let me know if I have missed something.
The personal reasons seem fine. Tell me how you plan to look at the professional reasons?
There are two components of evaluation for this award. Public voting and the jury’s decision.
The band does really well in the public voting but fails to get through in the jury round. Can
you think why?
The reasons could be that the band actually fails to meet the jury’s criterion and expectations or
there is some personal bias involved. To investigate this further can I know the composition of
the jury if relevant, is it the same or has it changed over these 4 years, and how any votes does
the band get from the jury.
Great questions. So the jury is the same and out of 3 members, one always votes against the
band due to a personal bias against the Irish.
Oh okay. So, is this the root cause of the client being unhappy or do I look at some other aspects
as well?
Sure. I’d break the professional reasons as monetary and non-monetary.
Perfect. Let’s look at the non-monetary reasons.
This is the reason why the client is unhappy. Can you quickly give some recommendations?
The non-monetary reasons could be internal or external. Internal reasons could include motivation and
whether he is still interested in music or the genre he is into. The external factors could be related to
the band members, the fans, or other partners such as record labels or sponsors.
Sure. In the short-term, the band can apply to other similar awards, and if they are really keen on the
award we discussed, in the long-run they can look at exploring another genre of music so that they could
get nominated in another category and be evaluated by a different jury.
That’s a good breakdown. Could you think of some more external factors?
Thanks. That will be all.
Sure. Do you want me to look at factors different from what I have mentioned or related to something
covered.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
72
Unhappy Friend
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Unconventional | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
• Client is unhappy
• Recommendations to make the client happy
Structure/Framework
Friend being unhappy
reasons
• Musician based out of
Ireland – lead singer of
jazz band – 7-8 years
• Unhappy since 2 years
• No other interests
Personal
Interpersonal
Professional
Intrapersonal
Friends
Mental
Family
Physical
Monetary
Non-Monetary
External
Team
Emotional
Labels and
Partners
Internal
Fans
Album Sales
Motivation
Interest
Concert
Attendance
Awards
Key Takeaways
• Internal and external is always a good MECE option if nothing is working
• Try to use MECE in day-to-day situations to practice. Cases can be as random as this one
ICON, IIM Bangalore
73
Movie launch
Unconventional | Difficult | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is a movie producer and is contemplating to launch a movie either
on OTT platform now or on theatre (six months later). Help the client take this decision.
I would want to start with identifying key revenue streams under both the options and then
consider any non-monetary factors which are critical.
Sure, go ahead.
Thank you. I would want to reiterate the problem statement once to confirm my understanding
- Our client (film producer) is deciding whether launch a movie on OTT platform immediately
or on theatre (six months later) because of Covid-19 restrictions right now. Is that correct?
For OTT platforms, I understand there is generally a fixed sum contract for obtaining rights of
the movie. However, for blockbuster movie like Housefull 4, other contract mechanism like
fixed sum + per view fee can also be explored.
Correct.
How would you go about agreeing the contract price with OTT platform
Before heading towards the core problem, I would want to understand few basic aspects
about the client and case.
Different methods can be considered for quoting the contract price to the OTT platform:
1. Cost plus margin: Here client may simply add its targeted margin to the total cost (say
20-30% or more; I am not well versed with profitability in movie industry)
2. Benchmarking with collection from Housefull 1/2/3 and adjusting for time period,
Covid-19, OTT growth, saving of distribution cost and other factors.
3. Benchmarking with recent OTT launch: Analysing performance of recent movies
launched on OTT and adjusting for Housefull and Akshay Kumar fanbase, target
audience, etc. However, I am skeptical whether contract value of other movies can be
easily sourced.
Am I missing any other important aspect here?
Sure, go ahead.
What is the genre of movie under consideration and demographics of the key target
audience? Also, does it have blockbuster cast?
Why do you think genre will impact the launch decision?
An action movie with high end visual effects, VFX or a 3D movie can do justice to the audience
in theatres with big screen, Dolby sound only. However, a comedy or largely non-action movie
can be launched on OTT as well.
Fair enough. The movie is Housefull 4; a comedy movie targeted to all age groups and
profession. It has a known cast line up including Akshay Kumar.
Housefull is an interesting movie and has a positive track record of its earlier versions. As the
client is in the phase to decide its launch, is it safe to assume all production costs are already
incurred? If yes, at what cost? Also, is revenue the only metric to decide between two
platforms?
Yes, movie production is done and only marketing and launch is pending. The total budget is
₹100 crores.
No, you covered different methods properly. Next, tell me briefly, which factors you would
consider to decide the OTT platform to partner with?
Key factors to be considered shall be userbase of the OTT platform (free and paid both) and its
growth rate, demographics (age group), recent Bollywood movie launched, etc.
Fair enough. Let us shift to theatres now.
For theatres, the key revenue stream would be box office collection. Out of which a portion
needs to be shared with the appointed distribution company. In the current scenario, certain
aspects would need to be considered:
1. Reduction in theatre footfall due to Covid-19 risk. However, there is also a probability of
vaccine being launched and reduction in active cases. Thus, by the time of launch after 6
months, spring effect may also spike the movie viewership. Situational analysis shall be done
with different probability.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
74
Movie launch
Unconventional | Difficult | Bain (Partner)
2. Financial cost due to delayed launch by 6 months.
3. Additional revenue stream by selling rights to OTT platforms for publishing post theatre
launch.
4. Marketing costs (launch events, etc.)
Did I miss any key aspect or revenue stream?
Yes, one additional revenue stream is missing. The fee collected from sponsors/partners of
different categories
Yes. Partnering with different brands (media, beverage, fashion, etc.) is also a key revenue
source.
Ok. You analysed it well. We can stop the case here.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
75
Movie launch
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Think about contract
terms with OTT
• OTT selection
parameters through
customer base and
content similarity
• Be MECE in thinking
about various revenue
streams
Unconventional | Difficult | Bain (Partner)
• Movie producer trying to decide launch timeline because of COVID
• Comedy movie targeted across all customer segments
• Total budget of INR 100 Cr
Structure/Framework
Box office collection
Pricing OTT contract
Cost Plus method
COVID-19 considerations
Margin on top of cost of production
Situational analysis for launch of vaccine, spring effect etc
Internal benchmarking
Returns on previous Housefull movies
General considerations
• Financial cost of delay of launch
Competitor
benchmarking
Results from other movies on OTTs
• Marketing cost
• Sponsorship / partnership revenue
Key Takeaways
• Interviewer was more interested in approach to case solving than the final answer
• Very important to form an initial framework and keep going back to it
• Some general information about global happenings in COVID were important
ICON, IIM Bangalore
76
Wood Manufacturer
Unconventional | Difficult | BCG(Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is a wood board manufacturer. They manufacture two kinds of boards –
1. Particle Board 2. TSM. A particle board is a commodity product and is very rough. It cannot be used
for furniture. TSM is a more enhanced board with better appearance and quality. It has a larger range
of use cases and has multiple variants. The industry is moving towards TSM. The partial board is one
of the raw materials used in the TSM board. The company has recently bought a plant and has added
a TSM line. However, the plant has not been profitable.
I have a few clarifying questions before we go ahead. May I ask them?
May I please take a minute to understand the data?
Sure. But hurry up please.
Okay, so the plant is making a profit of Rs. 25 per unit of particle board and Rs. 40 per unit of TSM.
However, due to the fixed costs, the plant is making a net profit of Rs. 1 Million in case of the particle
board and Rs. 2 Million (Loss) in case of TSM. That’s odd, considering TSM has a higher gross profit
per unit. We may need to analyze the fixed cost further here
That is fine, we can investigate that. What else?
Sure.
Could you please share a bit more about the client – where is the client located? Where is the
plant located? And what part of the value chain does the client cover? Is this a client specific
issue? Do we have a timeframe for the decline in profitability and magnitude of the same.
The client is a global company with worldwide operations. It has entered the Indian market using
the plant mentioned earlier. The company sources wood externally and then supplies the finished
products to other businesses (B2B) and direct to customers (B2C). 90% of its business is
B2B. Yes, this is a client specific issue. Other competitors are not facing this. The plant has not
been profitable since acquisition.
Okay, so I would like to approach this from the plant’s profitability perspective (Absolute profit). I
will arrive at profit using revenue and cost from the plant. Do we have any data available with us?
(Shares his screen on zoom) Yes, we do have some data. Here is an exhibit for you:
Particulars
Particle Board
TSM
# of Units Sold
200K
100K
Price per unit
220
380
Cost per unit: Resin
85
40
Paper
30
100
Material Y
80
190
Particle Board
Fixed Cost Attribution
Available Capacity in Units
10
Rs. 4 Million
Rs. 6 Million
250K
300K
Also, the capacity utilization of the plant from the TSM line perspective is lower. It is just 33% utilized.
Is there any specific reason for this?
Yes, let’s take a look at possible reasons on why the utilization is low.
We can look at this from the perspective of supply and demand.
(Interrupts) The demand for TSM produced by the client is about 200K units.
Oh, so even if we were able to meet the demand, the capacity utilization would still remain at
66%.
Yes, so – Is that a problem? (Seemed very impatient at this point)
It could mean that there just enough demand for TSM for the plant to be profitable. If the plant
manufactures 200K units of TSM, then the profit of the plant would be about Rs. 3 million. Okay, so
meeting the demand would make the plant profitable.
Yes, in fact, the plant does not even need to meet the full 2L demand to be
profitable. Anyways, lets move on.
In that case, we can look at the supply side. I would want to break this down into a value chain to
identify any bottleneck in the process. I would want to limit my analysis until manufacturing since we
know the capacity utilization of the plant itself is low.
Of course. Let’s focus on the manufacturing process itself. There are no bottlenecks in the
sourcing and inward logistics of raw materials.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
77
Wood Manufacturer
Unconventional | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
But I want to know why this is happening.
Okay sure. I am not really sure how the manufacturing process of TSM works. Would it be
possible for you to explain this a bit?
We know that more variants would evidently mean smaller batches. Smaller batches would in turn
mean that the machines in the process would have to be changed in terms of configuration
repeatedly. Is this happening in our case?
Yes. The RM enters the factory line (including the particle board). All the materials are
cut as per the required length. There are 3 variants – 3M, 5M and 6M. Then the
painting process is conducted depending on the type of color required (brown, blue,
black, white, etc.). Finally, a varnish coating is applied – again depends on the
application of the TSM – for furniture, outdoor wall, indoor wall, etc. Lastly, the products
are packaged depending on the variant and the destination.
Yes, that is exactly what I was looking for! The higher number of variants lead to smaller batch sizes.
That impacts production planning in case of TSM. It also leads to more unproductive hours which are
spent on machine set up. Do you have any recommendations in mind?
Okay, so in order to identify why the capacity utilization is low, we would have to look at
each part of the process and see which part is utilized the most. Do we have any data on this?
We know that the utilization is low across all parts of the process.
Okay, I would want to look at the two departments. TSM and particle board. Are there any
differences in policies between the two departments? The reason I am asking for this is because
the particle board department has a fairly strong utilization ratio despite being in the same plant
(thereby eliminating any external factors).
I have 3 recommendations in mind – Considering the greater number of variants, the client should try
to negotiate longer lead times (Increase 2 weeks). We can identify which of the 25 variants form the
tail of the demand curve. Those variants should be scheduled for bulk production during off peak
seasons and stored in a warehouse. This will reduce the number of variants in production during BAU.
The client can outsource some parts of the process to distributors assuming quality control is feasible
– follow a model like the paints industry. Eg. Move the varnish process to distributors.
This sounds okay. Please wait here. (Leaves the zoom call)
There are two key differences. 1. There are about 25 different variants of TSM which have
been specified by the marketing team after months of market research. Particle board is a
commodity product. 2. The order to delivery time for TSM is 2 weeks while that of particle
boards is 4 weeks.
Okay, so we have a greater number of variants which increases complexity, and we have a lower order
to fulfillment time
Yes, why do you think this led to lower utilization of the plant in case of TSM?
I am not sure as of now. I need to think over this. Do we have any date on what kind of fulfillment
mechanism we follow? Do we follow FIFO, LIFO or best fulfilment estimate
They follow the best estimate method. How does that even matter for capacity utilization?
In that case, I would want to delve into the delivery timelines we have selected. We have picked 2
weeks for TSM even though there are more variants. While we have picked 4 weeks in case of Particle
board even though there is just 1 variant. Is that causing the bottleneck?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
78
Wood Manufacturer
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Unconventional | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
• Wood Manufacturer
• 2 kinds of boards – one preferred over other
• Plant not profitable
Structure/Framework
• Data already presented
in case
Low-capacity Utilization
Profits
Supply
Revenues
Demand
Costs
Raw
materials
Inward
logistics
Manufacturing
Outward
logistics
Distribution
Key Takeaways
• The case can be number heavy so be prepared for that. Without getting intimidated, try to for data relevant to the case
• Remain calm even if the interviewer is irritated.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
79
Automobile – Electric 2-wheeler
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• To estimate 2-wheeler EV
market, find population
who would buy 2-wheeler
and multiply by avg. price
• Consider only urban
because of EV
infrastructure facility
readiness in 5 years
• Age group b/w 18-50 is
considered as people
above this age generally
don’t buy 2 wheelers
• Income affordability,
preference towards cars
and petrol vehicles is
considered and 1% was
approved by the
interviewer
• Avg. price of 2-wheeler
assumed 1L INR
Guesstimate | Easy | Accenture (Partner)
Estimate the market size for electric 2-wheeler in India after next 5 years, say 2025.
Structure/Framework
Population of India in 2025
140 Cr
Urban – 30%
42 Cr
Age group 18 to 50 – 50%
20 Cr
People who can afford and
enjoy – 1%
20 L
Rural – 70%
Other age group – 50%
Students, low income who can’t afford, rich people who prefer cars and
people who continue with ICE vehicles -99%
Assuming avg. price of 2-wheeler is 1 Lakh INR,
Market size = 20L *1L = 20000 Cr
Key Takeaways
• Buy-in from interviewer for all assumptions and percentages is important.
• One does not need exact split of various categories and percentages based on stats or data. The candidate groups various categories and indicates a percentage based on those
clubbing with appropriate reasoning which was approved by interviewer. This saves a lot of calculation hassle.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
80
Food Delivery App
Guesstimate | Moderate | Bain
Your client is an online food delivery app who has approached you to estimate the market
size of such a service and the changes that can be expected by 2025.
Before proceeding, I would like to clarify a few aspects of the case. When you say a food delivery
app, can I assume the product to be like Swiggy? Also, for the market size, should I estimate the
number of users or the dollar-value of the market?
Yes, you can assume the product to be similar to Swiggy and for the market size please
estimate the dollar value. Also, I would like to see how you would go about estimating the
market size and the assumptions that go along with it. We can calculate the exact numbers
later if time permits.
Thanks. Based on the information, I would like to structure by analysis based on the
demographics of India. I will first split India into rural and urban. Considering that this is a
food delivery app which requires access to smart phones and internet as well as places
that deliver food, we can remove the rural market from our analysis. For the urban market, I
would look at the age and income segments to get to the market size. Does this seem like
a fair approach to you?
Yes. That seems more accurate. Please continue.
Again, since this would require the ability to use smart phones and order food of the
internet, we can rule out the 60+ age segment. Is that OK?
Sure. Continue
Each age group can now be divided further into income segments and then average
frequency of ordering and purchase value for each group can be determined. Since, we are
talking about the urban group, we can assume the following split: 1) Less than 5LPA: 30%,
2) 5LPA-15LPA: 60%, 3) More than 15LPA- 10%. Given the income ranges, we can remove
the low-income category from our estimates. Is this alright?
Yes. That’s OK. Carry on.
Now within the 0-20 age groups, we can cover kids from 0-18 as they would mostly be
living with their parents who will be ordering for them. College students from 18-20
will be the ones ordering directly. Based on this we can assume the following numbers
for each age group.
Yes. Please go ahead.
Age Group
Alright. Based on the latest census data 70% of the country’s population reside in rural
areas and 30% in urban. Even within the urban population, the market for such a product
would predominantly be present in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities which would be around 50% of
the overall urban population. After that, I would divide the population in to 4 age segments0-20, 20-40, 40-60 and 60+ and assume an equal split of population among them.
0-20
Does an equal split among age segments feel like a fair assumption to you?
40-60
Actually, no. Considering that India is a young country, population would be skewed towards
the younger age groups. So, 0-20 would be 30%, 20-40 would be 40%, 40-60 would be
20% and 60+ would be 10%.
21-40
Income Segment
Order Frequency
Average Order Value
5-15 LPA
1 time per week
INR 150
>15LPA
1.5 times per week
INR 200
5-15 LPA
2 times per week
INR 300
>15LPA
3 times per week
INR 400
5-15 LPA
1 time per week
INR 600 (family order)
>15LPA
1.5 times per week
INR 800 (family order)
Should I now calculate the exact numbers or discuss on trends by 2025?
ICON, IIM Bangalore
81
Food Delivery App
Guesstimate | Moderate | Bain
No. That’s OK. No need for exact numbers. Let’s talk about changes by 2025.
Great. So based on my understanding, I expect the following changes by 2025:
As internet penetration increases, Some of the Tier-3 cities and rural markets might also become a
viable market
Income levels in India have been rising and middle class is becoming larger. So, we can expect that
both the order frequency and average value per order to go up.
This is more or less in line with our findings except the rise in average order value which we
estimated to be more or less constant. But this was a good analysis. We can close the case
now. Thank you.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
82
Food Delivery App
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Focus on the
intersection of the
population and income
demographics
• Population is skewed,
more number in the
younger age brackets
• Spending is dependent
on the income level,
only those with
dispensable income
should be considered
Guesstimate | Moderate | Bain
• Food delivery app which wants to determine the market size today
• Also want to see how the market is expected to change by 2025
Structure/Framework
Income Segment
Population
<5 LPA:
30%
Rural: 70%
5 – 15
LPA: 60%
>15 LPA:
10%
Urban: 30%
0-20: 30%
20-40: 40%
1 time per
week, Rs.
150
2 times per
week, Rs.
300
1.5 times per
week, Rs. 200
3 times per
week, Rs.
400
1.5 times per
week, Rs. 800
40-60: 20%
1 time
per week,
Rs. 600
60+: 10%
Key Takeaways
• Estimate consumer spending habits focusing primarily on a younger population with higher incomes
• Value of the market will trend upwards given the increased internet penetration and spending by consumers
• Mobile phone usage is an important factor to take into consideration
ICON, IIM Bangalore
83
Food Delivery Customer Care
Guestimate | Moderate | Deloitte
Case Statement : We have a food delivery platform like Swiggy in NCR. We are getting a lot of
customer care requests and queries and the manpower is not enough right now due to the
COVID situation to handle all the queries. What should we do to reduce the load on the
current customer care executives? I want to understand your approach. Make your own
assumptions for any other information you require.
Okay. Since, we are looking at resolving the queries and requests, we can divide the
requests into two parts:
1. Requests for information about the order status, location of delivery person, and other
similar information
2. Personalized and specific requests and complaints
The responses to requests in bucket 1 can be automated through a service or a bot, thereby
reducing significant load on the customer care executives. And the customer care executives
can just respond to requests in bucket 2.
only 10% order every day, that is 7200. I would then divide the day into 4 parts, based on
traffic: 8 AM – 2 PM, 2 PM – 7 PM, 7 PM – 12 AM, 12 AM – 8 AM.
All times of the day don’t get the same traffic. We can divide daily traffic into these slots.
Sounds good. How would you do that?
I would assume high traffic in the first slot, medium traffic during the second slot, traffic
again peaking in the third slot due to dinner and minimum traffic in the last slot. So, we can
assume the distribution of traffic as follows;
8 AM – 2 PM : 35%, 2 PM – 7 PM : 20%, 7 PM – 12 AM : 40%, 12 AM – 8 AM : 5%
Of all the traffic, not everyone will create a query about their orders. That should be around
10% maximum. So, by slot it would be
8 AM – 2 PM : 252, 2 PM – 7 PM : 144, 7 PM – 12 AM : 288, 12 AM – 8 AM : 36
How will those request in Bucket 1 be automated?
We can categorize the different type of requests that are received into separate classes
depending upon their type. For example: status of order, location of delivery person, time
for the order to be delivered, cancel the order, modify the order, etc. For each class, we will
calculate the volume of such requests and their frequency of occurrence. Requests with high
frequency and volume can be directly integrated as options for requests while a person
raises a request and can be automated completely.
In case, the customer doesn’t feel satisfied with the automated response, he can still request
for a customer care executive to talk to.
Okay. Let's say if the system is not automated, can you provide a rough estimate how many
customer care executives will we need for Delhi NCR? Please make your own assumptions.
Alright. So, I would like to begin with the assumption that Delhi’s population is 12 million.
And there is 60% internet penetration. Of all the people have internet, I am assuming only
1% people are using our services. That makes it 72,000. Let's say of all the registered users
Right, so if we have two shifts of 12 hours, how many people do we need?
We have maximum of (288/5) 58 requests per hour. Assuming a request takes 5 min on
average to resolve, we need 5 customer care executives simultaneously in case of the 7 PM 12 AM slot. Similarly, in case of the 1st slot, we would have 252/6 = 42 requests per hour.
This would require 4 employees. So, we can have 4 employees from 7 AM – 7PM , and 5
employees during 7PM to 7AM slot.
Great. So, what will be your recommendations?
Automate the simple requests that can be directly answered by the bot without human help.
These requests can be decided based on the frequency and volume.
Refer to the customer care executive only in cases of complex requests
ICON, IIM Bangalore
84
Food Delivery Customer Care
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
Guestimate | Moderate | Deloitte
• Client is food delivery platform
• Lot of customer care requests; manpower is not enough due to COVID
• How to reduce the load on the current customer care executives?
Structure/Framework
• Delhi Population:
12 mn
• Users:
12 mn*0.6*0.01 = 72,000
Current Users (7200/day)
• Users/day:
72000 * 0.1 = 7,200
8 AM – 2 PM
0.35*0.1*7200
= 252
2 PM – 7PM
0.2*0.1*7200
= 144
7 PM – 12 AM
0.4*0.1*7200
= 288
12 AM – 8 AM
0.05*0.1*7200
= 36
Key Takeaways
• The interviewer was looking for the approach and problem-solving skills rather than the numerical data and assumptions.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
85
Four-wheeler Tyres
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Total population – 130
Cr
• 4 members per family
• 32.5 Cr Households
• 1 car per MI house
• 2 cars per HI house
• 350 people/ sq. km
• 1 taxi/10 people in
metro
• 35 cars/ sq. km
• Avg tyre usage – 50K
kms
• Annual car usage – 10K
kms
• Avg tyre age – 5 years
• 5 tyres per car user
• Avg tyre purchase = 5
tyres/5 years
= 1 tyre/ year
Guestimate | Moderate | GEP consulting (Manager)
• Calculate the number of 4-wheeler tyres sold in a year
Structure/Framework
No. of 4-Wheeler tyres
Personal Cars
Commercial Taxis
Metro area:
4250 sq. km
32.5 Cr households
Low Income (50%)
Middle Income
(40%)
13 Cr Cars
High Income
(10%)
1.5 lac Taxi cars
6.5 Cr cars
Total personal: 19.5 Cr
Total Cars: 19.515 Cr
Total Tyres: 19.515 Cr/ year
Key Takeaways
• Candidate used 2 different approaches for 2 sub parts of the same problem – demand side for personal cars and supply side for commercial cars.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
86
Automatic Vacuum Cleaner
Guesstimate | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
Case Statement : Guesstimate the annual demand for automated vacuum cleaners in India.
It sounds interesting. Can you please explain what an automatic vacuum cleaner means? Is it
something like a vacuum cleaner, which moves around and cleans automatically.
Correct. Assume that it is a new sensor-based vacuum cleaner which cleans the floor
automatically. This is the first time it is being launched in India.
So, before starting with the analysis, I would like to ask a few clarifying questions to get a
better understanding about the product and our client. Is that okay?
Sure, go ahead.
Do we have any information about the company which is launching the product and the price
point?
You can assume it to be around INR 10 – 20K and its being launched by a foreign major.
Which geography is being targeted and what are the channels of sales?
The company is targeting pan India and the sales channel is online for first few years.
Amongst the 10 Cr urban households, we can assume that upper, middle and lower class are
in the ratio of 1:5:4. This gives us 1 Cr upper class, 5 Cr middle class and 4 Cr lower class
urban households. I would now like to assume a conversion factor to get the demand for the
vacuum cleaners. We can say that something around 50 % of urban upper class and around
20% of urban middle class will be looking forward to buy this product. Given the price point
lower class people would not be interested. Are the assumptions fine with you or do we
have any specific data on this?
Yes, that’s perfect. Give a final number and some comments.
So, this gives us a demand of 1.5 Cr automatic vacuum cleaners. However, this is just an
estimate for first year. For any other average year, we need to divide it with the life of the
product. And the sales would also depend on the marketing of the product.
That’s perfect. Can you just tell an approach for finding the institutional demand.
For institutional demand, we can estimate the working population, multiply it with the office
surface area required per person and then calculate the vacuum cleaners required for cleaning
the surface.
Can you think of any other approach for institutional demand ?
So just to summarize, I need to estimate the annual demand of a new automated vacuum
cleaner in India which is to be sold online. So, the approach I want to go ahead with is to split
the demand into two: domestic and institutional sales.
That sounds great, let’s move into domestic sales first.
So, in domestic, I would like to calculate the number of households in India. Taking 1.3 billion
as the population of India and the average household size to around 4, we get around 30 Cr
households in India. And dividing it in rural and urban in 2:1 proportion, we get 10 Cr urban
households and 20 Cr rural households. Within urban I would like to subdivide in income
classes, and an assumption can be made that the rural demand will be zero as it is an
expensive new automatic product from a foreign player.
Yeah, we can start with Fortune 500 or any other dignified list of companies and see how
many offices do they have in India and then find the demand. These companies will probably
be the early adopters for this expensive new technology.
Thanks. It was nice speaking to you. We can end the case over here.
Yes, you can ignore the rural segment.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
87
Automatic Vacuum Cleaner
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Divided into Domestic
Demand and Institutional
Demand
• For domestic demand,
India household: 30 Cr
(130 Cr population/ 4
people in household)
• Ignore rural segment.
Guesstimate | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
• Client is looking to launch automated vacuum cleaners pan-India
• Price point is around INR 10-20K
• Client is a foreign MNC.
Structure/Framework
Domestic Demand Indian households (30 Cr)
Rural (20 Cr)
Institutional Demand
Urban (10 Cr)
Ignore
Upper class urban (1 Cr)
50% penetration
(0.5 Cr)
Middle class urban (5 Cr)
20% penetration
Lower class urban (4 Cr)
Ignore
Key Takeaways
• Clarify the problem statement clearly, especially for novel products.
• Keep validating your assumptions with the interviewer as you proceed.
• Since the domestic demand approach was explained clearly with numbers, institutional demand was explained qualitatively.
ICON, IIM Bangalore
88
COVID Tests
Case statement
Interviewee Notes
• Focusing on people
coming into the city
only
• Gwalior City – 12.5
Lacs population
• 0.4% incoming
travelers (validated by
interviewer)
• 50% symptomatic –
needs testing
• Considering 2 level
chain of contacts
• Every person has 4
direct/ primary contacts
• Every primary contact
has 4 secondary
contacts
Guestimate | Difficult | GEP consulting (Buddy)
• Calculate the number of COVID tests to be conducted in a city daily
Structure/Framework
No. of COVID tests
People coming in city
(0.4% of 12.5 Lakh)
Airways (20%)
Roadways
(50%)
People who want to travel
out of city
People within the city with
no travel plan
Railways (30%)
1000
2500
1500
Symptomatic –
50%
500
1250
750
Asymptomatic –
50%
0
0
0
Primary Contact
(4* symptomatic)
2000
5000
3000
Secondary Contact
(4* primary)
8000
20000
12000
52,500
Key Takeaways
• Candidate could have considered some fraction of voluntary tests by Asymptomatic travelers
• All the broad numbers in the case were basis assumptions validated by the interviewer
ICON, IIM Bangalore
89
For any queries, reach out to us
ICON – Consulting Club,
IIM Bangalore