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Nitie Casebook 2019 - Gustimate
Mathematical Method (National Institute of Technology Andhra Pradesh)
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2019
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CASE BOOK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
BRAINSTORMING: WHERE DO YOU STAND ........................................................................................................................... 4
INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING............................................................................................................................................ 7
FRAMEWORKS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13
CONSULTING INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES.............................................................................................................................. 23
GUESSTIMATES ...................................................................................................................................................................... 138
APPENDIX A: BASICS AND FORMULAE ............................................................................................................................... 150
APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY ....................................................................................................................................................... 153
APPENDIX C: BALANCE SHEET AND INCOME STATEMENT............................................................................................. 156
APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS ....................................................................................................................................... 157
APPENDIX E: DATA-INTENSIVE CASES LINKS ..................................................................................................................... 161
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CASE BOOK
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Foreword:
This is the first time that NSC2, the students’ consulting club of NITIE, is coming up with a casebook on its own.
In the previous years, the students had leveraged different casebooks published by premier B-Schools across the
world and some of the leading consulting firms to prepare for the consulting interviews. With NITIE exclusive
casebook, we have tried to give the readers a crisp and comprehensive overview of all the important
frameworks to solve the cases as well as real-time experiences of the candidates (both success and failure
stories) who have already appeared for the interviews. Simultaneously, we have added some additional sections
like Guesstimates, interview tips etc. to cover as many aspects as possible. In addition, we would like your inputs
on how we can make this casebook even better via addition of new segments, refining of the existing ones etc.
Structure of the casebook:
The casebook is primarily divided into six sections. The sections have been kept in an order such that the
readers can start from the basics and slowly develop and further refine the structured thought process &
problem solving skills –
•
•
•
•
•
•
The book starts with a ‘Brainstorming’ section which is dedicated to tickle the consultant in you. A sample
case will be provided, which you need to solve on your own without any prior guidance. The proposed
solution to the case will be provided at the end of the section. This will serve as a-self assessment for
you in consulting space.
Next section is ‘Introduction to Consulting’ – what consulting is all about, how the interviews are
conducted, situations candidates face, do’s and don’ts and tips to ace them.
The Frameworks section will cover all the basic and important frameworks that are commonplace to
solve different types of cases.
Next section is ‘Consulting Interview Experiences’, a compilation of students’ interview experiences.
This will cover most of the consulting companies that have visited the campus for recruitment.
Experiences of students from diverse academic and professional background has been compiled to
maximize the utilization and relevance among all the students.
‘Guesstimates’ have more often than not been an important part of consulting interviews. So, a
compilation of different types of guesstimates has been given in the next section. also include some
data intensive cases to ace your consulting preparation.
Last but not the least, an ‘Appendix’ has been provided to help the students with some additional
resources which can be referred to as and when required.
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How to make the most of it:
The readers can utilize the contents based on their requirement and preparation level. However, for people who
are starting afresh, it is suggested that they start from the basics. The solutions or case structures provided are
by no means fixed or exhaustive, rather they are guides to approach the problems. The readers are encouraged
to come up with alternative thought processes or structures if they feel the suitability is better. For practicing
the cases, it is recommended that the reader form a group of two or more and utilize the interview transcripts
to solve the cases like it happens in a real consulting interview. Afterwards, the solution and approach can be
compared with the ones that has been provided. The guesstimates and additional references should be given
separate attention as these might turn out to be an edge factor in your consulting interviews. Since acing a
consulting interview is not only about solving a case, but also about how the candidate carries him/herself
during the process, it is recommended that the readers keep the do’s and don’ts in mind all the time. Lastly,
preparing oneself separately for individual consulting companies via deriving insights from past interview
experiences will be of paramount importance.
Wish you all the best for the process of preparation… Let’s crack it!!
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BRAINSTORMING: WHERE DO YOU STAND
Given below is a handpicked sample case for your preliminary practice. With this, you can check your current
ability to approach a solution to a real- time business scenario. Go through the problem statement and come up
with a step by step solution to address the issue. A possible solution is also provided at the end of this section to
help you compare it with the solution proposed by you.
Case:
A successful chain of Canadian auto service stores (Autoland) has entered several markets in the United
States in hopes of duplicating their success in America.
The stores offer two services:
1. Retail sales of auto parts for customers who prefer to perform their own maintenance.
2. A service center for fixing any automobile problem, from an oil change to new transmission.
Since entering the U.S., Autoland has experienced $50MM in revenue with losses of $20MM. The owner is
considering pulling out of the United States. You have been hired to determine if they can improve their
performance or if they should exit the market.
Your Approach:
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CASE BOOK
Possible Solutions:
In a real interview, you should start by confirming the solutions that is being expected of you. Also, confirm
whether you need to address any other additional issues with the one that has already been mentioned in the
problem statement.
To address the problem, start by analyzing the internal and external factors that can affect the system
or business in hand.
In this case, Analyze the following factors•
•
•
Competitive situation
Current capability of the company
Market potential/ customer segments
Next, draw a basic framework based on your analysis and understanding.
•
•
How competitive
is the market?
Major
competitors?
Market/Customers
Capabilities?
Competition?
•
•
Buying power of
company compared
to competitors?
Is
profitability
similar for both the
business segments?
•
•
Are customers
segments different for
the two businesses?
Important factors for
attracting customers –
o Pricing
o Marketing
o Location
Competitive Situation:
Q: How is the present economic condition in US when compared to Canada?
A: It is mostly on the similar lines. In fact, going by latest data available, the US economy is doing slightly better
than Canada.
Assumption: Alright. Based on that it can be assumed that the economy is not affecting the overall industry
conditions.
Q: How has the automobile industry been doing in the recent past?
A: The industry is doing good. The manufacturers recorded excellent sales no. Additionally, cheap interest rate
and lower price of petrol is fuelling the uptrend.
Q: What is the competitive situation in Canada?
A: We are the major player (few local stores)
Q: Are we providing the same services in Canada as in the U.S?
A: Yes
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Q: Do we have strong competition in the U.S?
A: Yes, a national chain of stores in the exact format as Autoland exists in the U.S. They copied our Canadian
format and have about 10 locations in every major city. They are very profitable in all cities including our U.S.
markets.
Assumptions: Due to size, I would guess they have superior buying power over Autoland in the U.S. Is this true?
A: No, we have the same cost structure due to our presence in Canada.
Assumption: The market has potential due to the competitor's performance. Key is to determine why they are
out-performing Autoland.
Autoland Capabilities:
Assumption: We have two businesses under one roof, is one more profitable than the other?
A: In Canada - No.
However, in the U.S. we are profitable in retail sales and losing heavily on the service
centre. Q: Are the costs associated with each side of the business different?
A: Yes, the service centre is much more expensive to operate, we must pay mechanics and have high fixed
costs. Assumption: We are profitable in retail but losing in service. We attract the wrong consumer.
Market/ Customers:
Q: Autoland provides two services, are the customers for each service different?
A: Yes. The customers that shop for retails parts typically have lower to middle incomes and are trying to save a
few dollars by performing their own maintenance. The customers who utilize the service centre have higher
incomes and no interest in fixing their own car.
Assumption: We are attempting to attract two distinct customer segments. Are we doing this successfully?
A: We are not sure; how would you help us determine if we are?
Factors:
Marketing.
A: We do the same as the
competition Pricing.
A: Identical to
competition Location.
A: Different, we located in the inner cities to save money on leases.
Where are competitors located?
A: Between the inner city and the suburbs (on the border)
Assumptions/ Recommendations:
Our location is great for the retail sales business but prohibits heavy use of the service centre due the
distribution of income between the inner city vs. the suburbs. In new markets, locate between the lower- and
upper-income areas to attract both segments.
In existing markets, move, or drop the service business and retain the profitable retail Portion.
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INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING
What is consulting?
In its simplest form, consulting is the business or act of coming up with a solution to real world business
situations or problems. Often such solutions take the form of advice offered by specialists in their respective
fields (to which the problems or situations belong).
What are the parts of the job?
The nature of consulting means that you can be working on several projects in different industries. You’ll often
be based at a client’s office which means you may be away from home during the week, staying in hotels and
travelling lots. So why would you want to be a consultant? Well for one there is never a dull moment. There is a
huge amount of variation in your work – you get to work in different industries with diverse people and clients
when you change projects. You will meet, and work with, important, high-level people and will learn new things.
Why Consulting?
Non-Monotonous & challenging Work
A career in consultancy is highly versatile – one day you’re working on a market research, the next on a
competitor analysis, while yet developing a management dashboard or helping a client with a big change of
management. Consultants are constantly warped into a new environment – if not a new branch, then a
new field of operation or new client. Furthermore, the location is also continuously in flux
The learning opportunity
Consultants get the opportunity to work in multiple projects and in intellectually challenging environment,
getting you acquainted with a variety of sectors and domains. Each project will add to your skillset. Moreover,
consulting firms offers plethora of opportunity for the personal development of their consultants. You also
get to deal with problems that you might not be even aware of until you are much into your career, if in
another career.
Good Pay
Consulting offers a very good pay and performance related bonuses.
Working with the best.
Consultants are expected to operate well in teams and to work with like-minded, hard working and
ambitious professionals. Big consultancy firm have the best people recruited from the premier institutes.
There is an opportunity to learn and gain from the best in the area.
Career Launchpad
Many professionals see consultancy as a good starting point to launch their future career. A lot of private and
public organizations view consultants as appealing employers, partly due to their mix of functional and their
personal skills. Experienced consultants leave the consultancy branch to, for instance, work in corporations in
a management function.
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Client Centric work
The work is always client centric and the clients include the biggest companies in the world. The opportunity
to understand and learn from the processes and cultures of the clients is immense.
Types of Consultancies
Consultancies vary in focus: they can be structured by topic, type of problem or industry, with specializations ranging
from the relatively broad to the extremely niche. Some consulting firms specialize in giving advice on management
and strategy, while others are known as technology specialists. Some firms concentrate on a specific industry area,
such as financial services or retail, while others are more like gigantic one-stop shops with divisions that dispense
advice on everything from top-level strategy to saving money on staples and paper clips.
For example, here is a classification based on specialization.
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Some of the well-known consulting brands
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Big 3 (MBB): McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Co
Big 4: Deloitte, EY, PwC and KPMG
Accenture Management Consulting
Strategy, Oliver Wyman and AT Kearney
ZS Associates
GeP
CBC, IBM & GBS
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Consulting Hierarchy
What to do in Consulting interviews?
Communication
Creating and operating a small business is a complicated process that often involves making decisions and
performing tasks that are outside of the owner's area of expertise. Consultants are professionals who are
experts in certain fields and provide advice related to their areas of expertise. Excellent communication skills
are vital to be a successful consultant.
Consultants are advisers who are paid for their insights. Consultants must be able to communicate their ideas
to clients effectively to make their services worthwhile. Communication skills can be just as important to
consultants as technical expertise. Per O*NET Online, an information service created by the U.S. Department of
Labor, oral expression, oral comprehension and written comprehension are the three most important job skills
for management analysts, including management consultants.
Mental Math
If you don’t like mental math, especially mental math with large numbers, then PRACTICE! Even if you feel
numerically challenged, practice! Test yourself repeatedly in this area and make sure you continue to
wean yourself off Excel and your calculator. As with any muscle, it will grow stronger the more you use it.
There are 2 aspects of inspired mental math – accuracy, and speed. Accuracy comes by developing a
process, practicing under simulated conditions (e.g. out loud, with a timer), and taking great notes. Accuracy
is more important than speed – without accuracy, speed is nothing.
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Speed, in contrast, is icing on the cake. Top candidates demonstrate the ability to boss around numbers. They
use them in casual speech. They think numerically. Mental math is a fun game they play, and they enjoy the
math section of the case. Speed comes through short-cuts and strategies, but mostly just through confidence
– you hear a problem, you plan, and you dive right in.
Identify the question’s objective
This is a very important weapon to have in your case interview arsenal. It’s not unlikely that you will get asked
at least on very broad and open-ended question in each case interview. The temptation, especially if you’re
feeling nervous, will be to jump in head first and hope for the best.
There’s a problem with this method: the chances of you going off on a complete and unnecessary tangent are
high. Too high. Time is an important issue in case interviews, so you don’t want to waste it.
Remember, spending a few extra seconds at the beginning of each question getting to the heart of the issue
can save you valuable minutes later.
Whether you are opening the case, where you must make sure you understand the case context and
background, or mid-case, where you want to make sure you’re driving toward the correct conclusion, don’t just
ask if there are other objectives. Give it a college try by offering a choice or suggestion about what you think the
interviewer is asking.
If you do get asked a very broad and open-ended question, you have a great opportunity to shine
and demonstrate a level of incisive, analytical prowess that not all candidates will possess.
A quick example of this could be the interviewer asking you;
“What issues do we need to better understand here?”
To which you might reply;
“Are you looking for company specific issues, or industry wide problems?”
Never confuse company-specific and industry wide problems
If you ran the risk of doing this, we just saved your bacon. You’re welcome. If you did happen do confuse the
two in a case interview you practiced before, we’re sure you understand how far off course this could take
you. Make sure you differentiate between these when you’re trying to diagnose issues. For example, you may
be given a case interview about a car company who came to the firm because their profits are suddenly
declining. An example of company specific vs. industry wide problems may be:
Company-specific – The company using very expensive raw material to build their cars, leading to very
small profit margins.
Industry-wide – Three of their main competitors have released similar performance cars recently, all of
which are cheaper than theirs, and they are losing market share.
We usually recommend focusing on eliminating industry-wide problems first – if they aren’t there, you can
dive more deeply into company specific problems. If you do uncover an issue, you can explore the company’s
position first before identifying recommendations.
Segmentation
This is vital. If you’re trying to get to the heart of the issue, you must remember that you cannot just use a
one-size-fits-all label, “customers” or “products/services”. It would not be fully accurate to work from the
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assumption that the only thing happening is general decline in revenue across the customer base, or across all
products and services.
It is very unlikely that all customer or product segments are being impacted in the same way. In keeping with
our example of the car company, it may be that they have seen a 10% increase in purchases among 35-50year-old men, while seeing a 60% decrease in purchases among women in the same age range.
What are the insights? What they’re doing is working among men but is failing among women. If women used
to make up 75% of their clientele, this accounts for the oversized downturn in their revenues and related
profits. But not only that: it gives us insight on how to fix it – targeting the women either with the old
strategy/message/process or dividing them out to understand them better going forward, or both.
Common types of segmentation are: product segmentation, customer demographic segmentation,
customer needs segmentation, channel segmentation, and geographical segmentation.
Have an opinion and stick with it
By the time you’ve finished all your deliberations, considering all the data that has been put in front of you, can
you conclude and summarize it?
Most interviewers are going to shoot from the hip and ask you to tell them exactly what you think at the end
of each question and at the end of the case. This isn’t the time to tell them what your notes say, but for them to
hear what you think. Here, it’s important you don’t beat around the bush and ask for time, but that you just spit
it out (McKinsey is the one exception – they don’t mind as much if you do take time).
This also isn’t the time for you to be shy. Be confident and give your answer in the self-assured manner that
is befitting of a case interview genius.
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FRAMEWORKS
I - Profitability Framework
Whenever you hear the words "bottom line," "profits," "costs," or "revenues," you should immediately think:
Profits = (Revenues - Costs). However, I'm going to change this formula to the framework or structure: E(P=RC) M. The E represents the economy, and M represents the market or the industry.
You always want to look at external factors first. You want to know whether this is a company problem or an
industry-wide problem.
Breaking profitability down to its simplest components is the key in consulting cases. The structure shown above
will be useful in exploring how to go about exploring the case.
Deconstructing the case-problem
The profitability problem is very vast and generally comes in varied dimensions. Thus, scoping of the problem
becomes very important in order to make a structured headway in the case. This could be done by asking a
sequence of logical questions.
Defining the problem
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is the magnitude of loss/profit? Since when has the trend occurred?
What is the target of profit / profitability? Any other constraints or secondary objectives (e.g. market share)?
Is there a timeline that the company wants to solve the problem in?
Find out the background of the company, For e.g.: Ask the product mix and revenue streams for the company.
Ask for data on trends of each product and ascertain the product(s) which is leading to the problem.
Is the profitability problem across the industry and trends for the product? If problem is across the industry,
ask for context
• Competitive landscape – No of competitors, market share and its trend
Define and reiterate the statement: Improve Profits in X product from A% to B% by n years. A brief structure as
below would help to landscape the problem –
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Among the Internal Factors, the problem may lie in two areas - revenue and costs. What are the trends of
revenues (up or down) and costs (up or down)?
Depending on the response, choose which one to go in first. Although there is no hard and fast rule, you can start
with either of the factors.
Revenue
Revenues are dependent on two factors –
1. Average Price - Thus, if revenue side has been affected then either Average Price across the product mix has
decreased (majorly due to competition or company policy). Quantitatively, we can see that
Average Price = Price of all the products/Total number of products
Here, the advice is to stick to first principles and be aware of the fact that price of the products in the product mix
and total number of products could also affect the revenues.
•
•
•
•
•
Company tried to reduce price to increase revenues, but it backfired
Transfer pricing (may be relevant if problem is limited to a division of a company)
Other stakeholders demanding more in value chain e.g. – increased distributor margin
Government regulation (price cap)
Customer preference changed. Had to reduce price
Resolution:
Product Differentiation
Better features
Better brand
Better packaging
Innovative Pricing Methods
Loss Leader Pricing/ Captive Pricing (Razor Blade),
Consolidation: Acquire other markets players – Charge premium price
Bundle
Pricing
Different methods of pricing (Refer the pricing strategies)
2. Volume
Ascertain changes in number of units sold. The two potential reasons for a volume decline are –
a) Market share decline
b) Market size decline
a) If Market share declines
Possible Reasons:
• Insufficient differentiation
• Being outcompeted
• Need to refresh strategy
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•
•
•
•
•
Competitors dominating some channels
Introduction of new disruptive technologies
Supply chain bottlenecks
Limited operating capacity
Restricted access to distribution channels
Solution:
•
•
•
•
•
Increase distributor margins
Target new segments
Launch new SKUs
Increased focus on customers and their needs
Increase market penetration by using various marketing strategies
b) If Market size declines
Possible Reasons:
• Decrease in demand of the product
• Increased value for money of substitute goods due to lower prices or improved quality
• Shrinking size of the regional, national or global economy
Solution:
• Expand into new markets to sell existing products to new customers
• Develop new products to be sold in new markets
COSTS
Following approach can be used for cost analysis:
a) Fixed costs and variable costs
Fixed costs are costs that are independent of output. These remain constant throughout the relevant range.
Examples of fixed costs include insurance, interest expense, property taxes, utilities expenses and depreciation
of assets.
Variable costs are costs that vary with output. Generally variable costs increase at a constant rate relative
to labour and capital. Variable costs may include wages, utilities, materials used in production, etc.
Complexity can arise in numerous parts of cost structure
• Manufacturing
• Sales/distribution
• Administration
Remember it can be a product specific problem or a product mix problem something such as that we
are selling more of higher cost product
b) Value chain analysis
Albeit simpler, FC and VC approach is considered limited in considering the entire set of costs related problem.
Here Value Chain analysis helps us to consider all the costs in detailed manner.
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The porter’s value chain depicted above represents a manufacturing setup. However, thinking on first
principles one can easily construct a value chain for any business mentioned in the case. For starters, think
of Suppliers, Distributors (inbound/outbound), storage/warehouses, end customers (VERY IMPORTANT).
After establishing the value chain for the given problem, each head can be explored one by one.
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II - Market Entry Framework
Market entry cases can be quite tricky if the basic factors such as basis of entry, companies As-Is position etc. are
not understood properly.
Determine why? What’s our goal? What’s our objective? Does it fit into our overall strategy?
This framework broadly outlines the major considerations in a market entry case. Different portions of the
framework may be important in the given sequence for different problems depending on case.
A comprehensive analysis includes the following:
1. Situation Analysis
2. Industry Attractiveness
3. Entry Strategy
Situation Analysis
Situation Analysis
Expectation: Target
Current business/
products
Current customers
profit, timeline
Things we need to inquire under this category are listed below:
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is the size of the market?
What is the growth rate? Does it meet our expectations?
Where is the company in its life cycle? (Stage of development: Emerging? Mature? Declining?)
Who are the customers and how are they segmented?
How will the competition respond?
Scale of investment required?
Industry Attractiveness
Once the firm’s objective and its role in the market entry is understood it is essential to evaluate the industry
attractiveness.
• Who is our competition and what size market share does each competitor have?
• How do their products and services differ from ours?
• How will we price our products or services?
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•
•
•
•
•
Are there substitutions available?
Are there any barriers to entry? Examples are: capital requirements, access to distribution
channels, proprietary product technology, government policy.
Are there any barriers to exit? How do we exit if this market sours?
What are the risks? For example, market regulation or technology.
3. Entry Strategy
If we decide to enter the market, we need to figure out the best way to become a player.
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III - PE Investment Framework
This section discusses investment into a business for financial gain.
Whenever asked to evaluate an investment it is essential to understand the objective first.
• Why? – Objective of investment: direct return from investment, incentives in the current business,
synergies, etc.
• What? – What is the target rate of return from investment
•
• When? – Timeline of investment
Once the expectation setting is done, rationale to make an investment can be evaluated as follows:
Industry
Attractiveness
•Market Size and growth
•Profitability
•Competition
•Customers & Suppliers
•Substitutes
•Entry barriers
•Financial
•Revenues, revenue growth
•Profits, profit growth
•Debt/Equity
•Price per share/ Earnings per share (P/E)
Target's
Potential
•Operational
•Products & Services
•Capabilities - Sourcing, manufacturing technology, distribution, IP etc.
•Management
•Vision
•Skill
Sources of
return
•Value of control - Operational Efficiency (Value chain analysis)
•Synergy (Revenue & Costs) with existing investments •Other
benefits - Tax breaks, regulatory reliefs etc.
Only if the industry is attractive, target has high potential and expected return from the investment (from
all sources) exceed target ROI, investment is justified.
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IV - Sourcing/procurement cost reduction framework
The following framework can be used to analyze increasing sourcing costs and make recommendations
for reducing the same:
RM Costs
Supply
Transportation Costs
Demand
Price
Negotiation
Futures
Price
Reduced Wastage
Negotiation, long term
contracts & volume discounts
Operational improvement (
value chain analysis)
Suppliers
Substitutes
Mode of transport
Supplier rationalization (
alterenate suppliers,
consolidation etc.)
Change specification ( Raw
material specifications &
finished product specifications)
Efficiency of transportation
(TAT, Load factor & quantity
transported per trip etc.)
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V - Pricing Framework
Before selecting any pricing strategy, we need to investigate about the product such as competition/
alternates available, R&D costs, pricing of competitive products.
It also needs to be found out that what is the motivation behind the pricing? Is the company interested in profits
(usually priced higher) or market-share (usually priced lower)? This can often be the deciding factor when picking
a price.
Basically, there are three main ways to price the product: competitive analysis, cost-based pricing, and pricebased costing.
Pricing
Price Based
costing
Competetive
Cost based pricing
Pricing
Aspirational value
COGS- what does it cost
to make ?
Competitors' prices
Product's worth to
customers compared to
other products
What's our break-even
point?
Our product compared
to competitors'
Supply and demand
How much profit margin
can we add?
Availability of substitutes
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VII - M&A Framework
The following are the main steps to evaluate a case for merger and acquisition:
Objectives
•Market Access
•Boost Brand
•Increase market share
•Diversify holdings
•Pre-empt competition
•Taxes
•Synergies
•Cost Savings
•Cultural Integration
•Distribution channel expansion
•Shareholder Value
Acquisition Costs
•Fair Price? Is it profitable?
•Can we afford it? How to pay for it?
•Reintegration Costs
•What if the economy sours?
Due Diligence Risks
•What shape is the economy in?
•A market leader?
•How secure are markets, their customers and suppliers?
•Industry overall/ technology risks
•Margins
•Competitive response
Exit Strategy
•Hold for how long?
•Break it up and sell off its parts?
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CONSULTING INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES
Experience: 1
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Tata Motors
BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus
34 months
Operations (Lean Manufacturing, Quality)
Academic Record (90.8%, 80%, 86.5%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
I primarily prepared for 5 things:
1. Formulation of CV and preparation for CV answers: All your interviews start with CV, so this section is of
paramount importance.
2. HR Questions – Standard deck of HR Questions (39 Qs), circulated by Placement Committee was enough.
3. Guesstimates: I learnt about the demographics of India, my native state, Mumbai and practiced around 6070 guesstimates. Prepare as many of them as possible. Other than Google, Vault and Quora are some sources
that can be scoured for good guesstimates and approach.
4. Caselets: I primarily read Case in Point for preparation of cases. Some other casebooks that can be read are
Duke, ISB, and Wharton.
5. General Awareness: I tried to regularly read the news and be up to date with the latest happenings in the
business world
Workshop– In the workshop, the team was split in groups of 3, with 1 case given to each group. Details for
my case are given below:
Our Client Autoco is a leading MNC Auto Manufacturer, with revenues of over $100 billion (2011). Autoco
assembles a variety of consumer vehicles and has numerous suppliers around the world. It has a global supply
base but limited flexibility with supply of certain parts due to infrastructure and geographical constraints.
Recently Tier 1 Co, a supplier of critical components for some of Autoco’s leading cars and trucks threatened
to cease production due to significant financial losses.
If Tier 1 Co stops supplying, Autoco has to stop numerous production lines leading to negative financials, loss of
service and brand name among customers.
Tier1 Co has a revenue of $40 million and operates via 3 manufacturing plants. All these plants
were underutilized. It sells 90% of its parts to Autoco
We have been asked by our client Autoco to support the assurance of continued product supply, drive
operational improvements and develop long term sourcing strategy
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Approach
We started with identifying what is the primary issue at hand. Then we moved on to discuss the key factors
that Autoco should determine to stabilize their production supply.
Tip: It is always advisable to create buckets and state the factors beforehand. Accordingly, interviewer will
ask you to drill down on a factor. Considering all the factors here, shows the width of your knowledge.
Then we asked for the key data points (max 3)
The relevant ones were Fixed Cost, Variable Cost & Plant specific details (like Production rate, Presence
of Union, Workforce, Year in which the plant was built etc.)
Accordingly, we were asked to infer from this data and make recommendation about short term.
Because of time constraint we were not able to tackle long term objectives. Some of the long-term solutions can
be Joint venture between Autoco and Tier1 Co, developing alternative suppliers etc.
•
•
•
•
Interview– For the process there are normally 3 rounds:
1st Round: CV Qs, HR Qs and a Guesstimate (Duration – 10-15 mins)
2nd Round: CV Qs, HR Qs and a case (Duration – 45-50 mins)
3rd Round: Interaction with Partner. This round is primarily to check if the candidate is a cultural fit.
Interview Experience:
I had 2 rounds. There was no 3rd round for me.
1st round (1 interviewer, duration – 20 mins)
My first round was with the Partner in the firm. He asked me about some CV Questions on my work
experience, internship and hobbies. Apart from that, there were some HR Qs like Tell me about yourself, Major
achievements and challenges.
There was no guesstimate. Finally, the interviewer asked if I have any question for him
Please note that it is very important to ask a sensible and logical question at this stage. Asking insightful
question, shows that you have done your research, are inquisitive and serious about joining their company.
Overall the interview went very smooth. The interviewer was very friendly and never made me feel the heat.
2nd Round (2 interviewers (1 Senior Manager, 1 Manager), duration – 45-50 mins)
2nd round started with interviewers introducing themselves followed by the question tell me about yourself. Next,
there were a couple of CV Questions. After that, they straight away went to case. My case is given below
There is an insurance firm who primarily operates in 3 segments (Segments names were given). The profits for
the firm were given for 2012, 2013 & 2014 year and there was a significant drop in the profits. Accordingly, CEO
of the firm has made 4 hypotheses for declining profits:
a)
b)
c)
Economic slowdown
Increase in competition
Ineffective Sales and Marketing
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d)
Internal process Issues
Now the CEO has hired consultants and want us to evaluate these hypotheses, find out the major one,
and subsequently turnaround the company.
Me: I first summarized the case & then asked if there are any secondary objectives that we need to achieve.
Interviewer: No
Me: Ok, so we need to first look at external factors first.
Interviewer: Interrupted me in between, and asked me what profit is?
Me: Revenue – Cost
To evaluate the revenues, I need to know the revenue streams and last 3-year trends
Interviewer: Handed me a data sheet, containing data for the years – 2012, 2013 & 2014 for all the 3 sectors
of the firm. The data was about no. of clients each year and revenue per client in each year.
Me: Can I have a minute to observe the data?
Interviewer: Yeah, go ahead.
Me: I can infer that for Segment – 1 and Segment – 3, there is an increase in the number of clients and
revenue per client. For segment – 2, number of clients are decreasing and revenue per client is increasing. So, I
need to calculate that.
Interviewer: OK
Me: After calculation, I stated that revenue for Segment – 2 is also increasing and hence the overall revenues
are increasing.
Interviewer: Good, so what can you say about the initial 4 hypotheses?
Me: Since revenues are increasing, I can say that Economic slowdown, competition and ineffective
marketing and sales are not the major factors responsible for declining profits. I need to further investigate
internal process issues and need cost related data for the same.
Interviewer: You are right. Company is incurring major costs on technology front and handed me some data
about technologies. Data included 5 technologies (let’s say T1, T2, T3, T4 & T5), the year in which they were built
and their functions. Some other details mentioned were:
• Technologies will function in sequence, from T1-T5, (i.e. T3 can only work after T2, T4 after T3 and so on).
• T1 & T2 are unstable and many a times not able to function properly
• If T4 & T5 are not functioning properly, firm won’t be able to do due diligence of their clients
So, what can you infer from this data? You can take a minute to think about it.
Me: T1 & T2 are unstable and hence might be many a times down. Consequently, T3, T4 & T5 won’t be able
to function properly. Hence there will be no due diligence, and firm might insure those people which will in
turn lead to huge losses.
Interviewer: Ok, good. So, what do you recommend?
Me: Since problem is primarily with technology, we can upgrade the existing technology
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Interviewer: What else?
Me: We can introduce a new technology
Interviewer: Ok, What else?
Me: We can club all technologies together and substitute it with 1 technology. This will remove the
individual downtimes and improve productivity
Interviewer: Ok & Handed over data about 2 proposals:
1st proposal: Introducing a new technology
It involved cost incurred by the firm in 2012, 2013 & 2014 and corresponding productivity increase (in Million
$) for each year
2nd Proposal: Upgrading the existing technology:
It involved cost incurred by the firm in 2012, 2013 & 2014 and corresponding productivity increase (in Million
$) for each year
I want you to do the cost benefit analysis for each proposal. Take a minute and tell me how you will go about it.
Me: Sir, I will use Net Present Value (NPV) concept to do the cost benefit analysis.
Interviewer: What is NPV concept?
Me: Explained the NPV concept and asked about the discount rate.
Interviewer: Assume 10%
Me: Calculated the NPV for new technology proposal. And then started calculations for 2nd proposal.
Interviewer: Interrupted me in between and said it’s ok. You don’t need to calculate NPV for 2nd proposal.
Now assume you have calculated NPV for both proposals, which one will you choose?
Me: The proposal with higher NPV
Interviewer: Great. Let’s assume proposal 1 with new technology has higher NPV. How will you go about
implementing it in the firm?
Me: We will need to hire skilled workforce to handle the superior technology
Interviewer: What else?
Me: We need to create awareness among the existing workforce and conduct trainings to bring them up
to speed with the new technology.
Interviewer: What else?
Me: We can first start with a pilot in a division or facility and if the results are promising then we can tell
the CEO that hypothesis – 4 is valid and we can horizontally deploy it in all areas.
Interviewer: Brilliant. Can you summarize the case for us?
Me: Summarized
After this, the case finished. He asked some more CV Questions and then asked if I have any question for him.
Overall Experience was very smooth. Interviewers dictated the entire case to me in the beginning and gave all the
data in a printed sheet. They were very helpful, polite and appreciative. You just need to keep your cool
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Suggestions:
Case is the make or break for consulting interviews. Even if you do all other things well but falter at the
case, you might not make the cut. So, prepare cases well specially the ones which involve data and
applications of accounting principles.
Experience: 2
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Civil Engineering
Telecommunications Consultants India
NIT Bhopal
Limited, 46 months
Academic Record (82.80, 91.60 & 84.70)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
• I believe candidates should be well versed with the basic financial terminologies. In my case, classroom and
self-studies for Managerial Accounting (Mod 1) helped to a great extent. For the general behavioural
approach to a case study, I found Victor Cheng’s videos on YouTube helpful. Apart from these I partially went
through Case in point. I also spent some time on the IIM A consult club case book, which has some really
interesting cases. I would recommend everyone to go through that at least once. Coming to frameworks, I
didn’t stick rigidly to the frameworks given in books but followed a logical approach that I felt was
appropriate.
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• Workshop: The entire lot was segregated into 3 groups. Each group was given a case study. Our group was
given a case study on a medical equipment manufacturer based in the U.S. It had nominal presence in
India and China. There were two segments in the medical equipment landscape: Premium and Mass. The
case study was to gauge the attractiveness of the two markets, and to suggest which segment would be
more profitable for the firm to enter.
The entire case was data driven. We had two sets for data for both countries, for the years 2018 and
2030. Based on the two data sets we had to estimate the profitability of the two markets in 2018 and
2030. There was yet another data set of qualitative parameters given, which had to be factored in into the
final recommendation as well.
As I have stated earlier, basic knowledge of accounting or finance is a must have. This is because terms
from these backgrounds are very frequently used in the cases and sometimes the entire case may depend
on a given accounting principle.
Interview Experience:
• Interview (about all rounds): There were 3 rounds in the entire process:
1. Basic HR, CV and guesstimate round
2. Case Study round
3. PPD round
So, the process started off with the 1st round, where the interviewer was the senior manager with the firm (he
was also the one who was with our group for the workshop). We started off with the standard about yourself?
Then we discussed a couple of points I had written in my CV. Then finally, we moved on to the guesstimate. The
guesstimate given to me was something like this:
Our client is a U.S. and Europe based premium shoelaces manufacturer. They want to know whether
they should enter the Indian market.
This was the statement that was given to me. Based on this statement, I asked a couple of questions
that revealed the main guesstimate question, which was:
Estimate the size of the Shoelaces market in India.
I took the top down approach. Start off with population, divide into urban rural, then age groups, then gender,
then buying patterns and so on.
The 2nd round was the case study round with another senior manager and one more interviewer. They
started off by introducing themselves, I followed suit. Thereafter, they asked a couple of questions from my
CV, after which we were on to the case study.
The case study was something like this:
Our client is in the insurance business in the U.S., operating in three segments within the insurance domain.
The profits have been declining for the past 3 years, and the CEO has four theories as to why the profits are
declining.
Our job was to evaluate the four theories and provide solutions to the problem.
This again was a data driven case, where the first table helped you determine what could be the problem behind
declining profits. The second table provided a detail of the different platforms the company used to process
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insurance policies and what services each platform offered. I was told to identify what problems might be there
with the existing platforms and what solutions could be offered to solve those problems. Then finally, in the last
two tables, there were two possible solutions to the problem given, along with future incomes and costs. The
two had to be evaluated, as to which offered a better alternative. Using NPV calculations, I suggested that the
one with the higher NPV be recommended.
The 3rd round or the PPD round was with one of the Directors of the firm. It was a very relaxed and informal
interaction which was aimed mainly at checking whether you’re a cultural fit with the company. We talked about
a couple of points from my CV. I asked him about the countries he’s visited, which one he liked best, whether he
saw a match while he was in Spain, and so on. Key is to be relaxed and ask interesting questions.
Experience: 3
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electronicas & Communication Engineering
Work Experience
Fresher
SRM University
Academic Records (90.8%, 95.6%, 93.58%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
After the shortlist, I interacted with few seniors who had done their summer internship in the firm and drew
some inspiration out of them. I attended the workshop conducted by one of the firms from which I obtained a
basic understanding on how to approach a case based interview. However, I was a bit familiar with
guesstimates by then, so that didn’t trouble me much.
I read through “case-in-point” and tried solving few cases discussed in it. I read “Walt” on frameworks and
some additional data. Overall, I faced the process with a very little preparation. Be good at numbers, try to
express any change in terms of percentage and be logical.
Workshop:
My workshop was handled by two of our alumni. It started off with introduction of all of us and quickly
moved to solving the case. The case presented to us was regarding a “Premium Medical Devices
Manufacturing Company”, XYZ, which is a major player in Europe and US. It is planning to enter one of the
two emerging markets, India or China. As a consultant, you are required to provide them the solution.
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They provided us the data only when asked by us. The data included the industry details in both the countries and
market share of premium and mass products. Both qualitative and quantitative data were provided. GDP and data
related to economies of the countries was not given but was expected to be asked by us.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
My interviewer was a NITIE alumnus. I entered the room, greeted him and sat down. He quickly scanned my
resume and asked me, “Ok, tell me something interesting about you which is not there in resume already”. I
shared my experience as a member of an NGO. He then asked few questions from my resume – about my
project, the six-sigma certification and about my roles of responsibility during graduation.
He then told me that we would be doing a guesstimate. He says, “how many test matches…..” breaks and asks
me “are you comfortable with cricket?” I said, “I don’t really follow cricket”. He changed the problem statement.
It was “You have two eggs and a 100-storied building. You are required to determine the cut-off floor from
which if you drop the egg it would break. (The egg wouldn’t beak if you drop it from floors below the cut-off
floor).”
The first question was “are the two eggs sufficient to arrive at an answer?” The second was “how many
minimum numbers of steps would be required to find out the cut-off floor?” The discussion went on for
about ten minutes and finally I arrived at a solution. He said thank you and I left.
Round 2:
I was called in by one of the panelists. This time there were two of them. Again, it started off with my
introduction and resume grilling. They even asked me what the different methodologies to implement Six-Sigma
are. Then one said “Ok. We will now quickly do a case” and she started off narrating the case.
“Our client is an Insurance Firm in US Their profits have been declining and they have approached us for a
solution. The CEO of that firm has listed down four different factors which he thinks might be the probable
causes. They are: 1. Ineffective Marketing, 2. Economic Slowdown, 3. Fierce Competition, 4. Process
Issues.” They asked me to keep in mind that the US insurance market has already achieved maturity.
They gave four tables of data, asked me to run through some numbers and pick one factor which I think is
the actual reason. So likewise, the discussion went on for about 40 minutes.
They said thank you and asked me if I had anything to ask them. I thought that’s the right moment and asked,
“what’s the scope of cross-functional movement?” They in turn asked me what I meant by cross-functional. I
elaborated, and they explained me the same. That was the end of 2nd round.
Round 3:
This was an interactive session with the Director. This round was purely about me, my personal life and
academics. He questioned me on my project and other resume points. He also asked me questions like “Why do
you want to join consulting?” So, that was the end of it. He asked me if I had anything to ask. I asked him “How
would my career path be?” He talked on that for about 10 minutes and that’s it. I came out and the result was
declared.
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Experience: 4
Educational Background
B. Tech (Mechanical),
Work Experience
Infosys Ltd
Amrita School of Engineering
Academic Record (80.8%, 71.4%, 74.3%)
36 Months
Domain: FSI, Project: Aetna Inc.
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
I divided the preparation into three segments:
HR questions: The questions shared by the senior with 64 probable questions and their best answers were
a great pointer in preparing the HR background for me
CV details: Like everyone else, I made sure to have a backup story or details for all the points of my CV. A
story always helps in linking the pointers with real experiences and achievements with a humane connection
Case Interview preparation and Guesstimates: I did read the books like IIMA Case Interview Manual, AT
Kearney Case Interview Manual, Case in Point and a few others, but only for first couple of cases; basically to
understand how case interviews function and how questions are to be pursued. Cases are never same, so
mugging up the framework doesn’t help. I tried to understand the origins of framework to devise on as the
cases appeared. I also practiced a couple of cases and guesstimates with fellow shortlisted candidate
Workshop
a) Case discussed in our panel was of a medical equipment manufacturer who wanted to scale its business in
BRIC nations. Data was given for China and India and we had to find the most feasible strategy for entering
which market and why.
b) Case discussed in another panel was about an auto manufacturer’s largest supplier facing issues pertaining to
closure which could impact the company very heavily from short run. Don’t have much detail on it though
Interview Experience:
Round1: We started with my CV and I went ahead with mostly the details of my work experience I had prepared
earlier which were in most accordance with my consulting practices and problem-solving skills. We later
discussed on how consulting can be an easy fit according to me in my career path. We also discussed a couple of
instances which introduced my experience as on-the-job problem solver on the table. This whole interview
went on for about 15-18 minutes. Later we discussed two guesstimates, both on interests.
I. Count the number of potholes on the roads of your hometown
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II. Count the number of viewers of your favourite 20-year-old movie
He asked me if I had a question, and I did, to which he gave a complete description
Round2: This round started with the Sr. Managers asking for a fresh introduction which would not bore them. I
had come prepared with the relation of my name and nature to consultancy. This brought the preface of
interview to my CV again and we were able to agree upon almost all my points and stories from CV. Then we
went on to discuss the Case. It was on an Insurance companies running losses. As my client at Infosys was a
healthcare insurance company, I was able to drive most of the interview on my previous knowledge and logic.
The panel was very helpful, and they also gave a lot of details which I had missed earlier. This also helped build a
healthy communication between the panel and me. The interview was more like an interaction where they were
clearing their doubts about me personality. I was completely honest and told them where I was being cheeky or
candid, so as to not to offend them. This round went on for about 35-40 minutes.
Round 3: This round started around 9 am and went on for about 15-20 minutes. This was with the partner who
was very jovial and cheered up. We discussed about my geographical movement from my CV, then some of the
experiences and other things which made it more like a conversation. He then moved to some of the points in
Extra Curricular activities in my CV, namely the 3rd position for Hindi Poetry Recitation in 2004, to which I
recited the poem I had recited back then. We later discussed my interests towards consulting and would I
remain in the profession if I joined. This whole conversation had most number of smiles and laughter and I
believe the best I had ever had
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Experience: 5
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited,
Electrical Engineering
31 Months
NIT Allahabad
Design Engineer
Academic Record (92.6, 87, 82.7)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
• Methodology adopted for preparation- Read Case in Point thoroughly and the material provided by NSC2
and previous interns. Another area of focus was to improve my communication skills.
• Workshop- A case was discussed on overseas expansion strategy in India and China for a US based client
(4Bn USD Revenue) who has business in US and Europe. It deals mainly with disposable surgical tools. The
major customers were Hospitals, Physicians and Insurers. A preliminary research was done and it was
established that the competitors were local, fragmented and had strong distribution network. Their product
quality was inferior but was in improvement phase. There were a lot of copyright infringement in both the
countries. Discussion revolved around factors to be considered for entry, evaluating which country is more
suitable for investment and giving a proper structure to the discussion. This was a judging criteria as one of
the member of was constantly noting down some points on his laptop.
Interview Experience:
• First round- CV questions + 1 question on profitability (Which is more profitable for Starbucks- selling a
coffee @33% discount or selling extra coffee at the same price?)
• Second round- 10 min interview on CV + Case discussion (Case was about a US based insurance company
whose profits are declining. It provided insurance across 3 segments- auto, property and specialty. Initial
discussion revolved around factors to be considered and why, the trends in overall industry and the data
required to reach on to a conclusion. The data had 4 tables. Table 1 contained info about clients and average
premium per client to analyse each segment. Table 2 contained info about risk calculation as per present
scenario and brief info about the 5 systems used for risk evaluation. Table 3&4 had info of a new unified
solution which could replace the current system and what could be the expected profit/loss. This had to be
calculated using NPV. A brief summary was asked in the end.)
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• Third round- Brief about HAL and my role in it. Summarizing the Case of second round, why consulting, why
the firm and where would I fit in? Towards the end, I had a 10-15-minute discussion on the CSR activities of
the firm and what could be my contribution in this field.
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Experience: 6
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineer
Work Experience
Applied Materials India Pvt Ltd
23 months
NIT, Warangal
Semiconductor Manufacturing
Academic Record (87.00,88.20,91.70)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
I primarily prepared for 4 things:
1. Formulation of CV and preparation for CV answers: All the interviews start with CV, so this section is of great
importance. Frame a para on each CV point so as to anticipate the questions and the follow up questions that could
be asked. All the numbers presented in CV should be backed by proper calculation for each data point
2. HR Questions – Standard deck of HR Questions (39 Qs), circulated by Placement Committee was sufficient. An
instance of all major questions was very important. I had written a para on each so as to anticipate the
questions that could be asked.
3. Guesstimates: I prepared guestimates from my hobby and general topics in news like the number of Table
tennis bats sold in Mumbai in a year. I used to practise it in groups to understand different approaches and
formulate the best approach that would work for me. I maintained that in my case journal
4. Cases: I primarily read Case in Point for preparation of cases. After having a decent idea of frameworks and
having framed my own, I practiced some cases from IIM A case book also. I also practiced some mock case
interview with my roommate.
Workshop - In workshop, the team was split in 4 groups of 15 students each, with 1 case given to each group.
But before the case a guestimate was discussed- A new element added to workshop this year. Be prepared
for surprises like this!
The guestimate was finding the revenue of Rio Olympics from tickets sold.
We were given 2 minutes to think and then had to volunteer to come to the board to explain the approach with
calculation. A guy in desperation started in just 1 minute, to which they told him to be sure before speaking. He
first started with an approach which was completely rejected by them. Then he came up with another
approach which was.
Dividing the type of stadiums, like athletics, in doors, etc. Assuming occupancy percentage and then assuming
the number and price of tickets sold.
Details for my case are given below:
A case of M&A was given. A telecom company with its presence in North America was looking to enter Indian
Market through an acquisition of an Indian firm.
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Income statement of each firm was given and there were different slides (3) about
•
•
•
•
customer segmentation
details of income statement and balance sheet
Due diligence
Some graphs (pie chart and bar chart) on customer segmentation and revenue distribution
4 questions were asked on 4th slide
1.
2.
3.
4.
Discuss the qualitative factors that needs to be considered before working on the intricacies of the deal
Evaluate the amount of organic investment which the company needs to invest to achieve a similar revenue
To go for the deal or not
Finding the synergy dollar number (calculation required)
Important Tip : Though it may sound a cliché, it is absolutely okay to ask about a term or clarify about the
question, no matter how simple it is. It’s better to be safe than be sorry in any consulting interview.
We clarified about synergy dollar number, which was savings in terms of dollar value of
1. Increase in revenue of the combined entity
2. Decrease in cost
In any group case workshop, it is imperative to follow the flow of the case and not say something
completely new or unimportant.
We as a group suggested many factors to be considered, like customer segmentation, using economies of scale
and scope, products offered, using locational advantage of one in the other geographies, etc.
For 2nd we were provided with a slide pertaining to ROI with due diligence, we could arrive at the number
with simple calculation and found out that it’s better to grow inorganically and not organically as we need to
put in larger investment in the latter to achieve the same Revenues
3rd answer was solved while discussion the second case itself
4th again a slide of certain ratios and due diligence was provided to arrive at the Synergy dollar number.
Solving this required a fundamental understanding of balance sheet and income statement as well
As a group, we could solve the entire case in the stipulated time
Interview Experience:
I had 3 rounds.
1st round (1 interviewer (Sr. Consultant), duration – 20 mins)
My first interview was with a Sr. Consultant of the firm (he was there for our group workshop and recognized me in
the beginning). He welcomed me in the room and introduced himself to me with a firm handshake. In the beginning,
he asked me one interesting thing that is not there in my CV. I told an incident when I visited US. He made me very
comfortable by asking very basic questions like tell me about myself, my work experience, etc. Some elementary
questions about my work profile and nothing in very depth. Then he said, since your hobby is Table Tennis what are
the top three factors you would consider starting an independent TT academy? Then he also asked what if you have
unlimited budget but only two areas to spend on where will you spend? (Tip: My
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interviewer tried to disregard my answer saying it is not reasonable to spend in one area. I stood firm and
explained him why is it important to spend in the area he has doubts on). It ended well and he wished me luck.
2nd Round (2 interviewers (1 Senior Manager, 1 Manager), duration – 30-35 mins)
2nd round started with interviewers introducing themselves followed by the question tell me about yourself.
Next, there were a couple of CV Questions. After that, they straight away went to case. My case is given
below: A valve manufacturing company (safety valve) used primarily in Oil and Gas sector, a leader in North
America wants to expand its presence in India. There were two questions
1. What factors should it consider
2. Estimate the size of Indian market
3. Using the previous calculations, estimate the size of other safety devises as well
Me: I first summarized the case & then asked if there are any secondary objectives that we need to achieve.
Interviewer: What do you mean other objectives?
Me: Objectives may be like reducing cost etc.
Interviewer: We just have to expand our presence
Me: Can I have a minute to structure my ideas
Interviewer: No, we don’t need any structure, tell us the factors first.
Me: I told them various factors started with economy, market, competitors, cost of transportation
or manufacturing in India China itself etc.
Interviewer: Looked satisfied and said can you explain
Me: Given all the factors around one minute or so and explained about them.
Interviewer: I want you to figure it out my market size. Tell me the way to do it.
Me: There are two basic demands in already existing refineries and setting up new ones. Stating from the size
of petroleum production to the number of valves used on an average in one unit of production.
Interviewer: Lets now look at maintenance only. How would u do a market sizing for me
Me: We can calculate the size of already existing valve and find the lifetime of each valve and calculate the
market.
Interviewer: This is bottom up approach can you use top to bottom?
Me: I asked for petroleum industry size (they provided me) I guessed total percent of maintenance out of that.
Then guessed the percent on valves alone and came up with a number.
Interviewer: That’s good.
After this, the case finished. He asked some more CV Questions and then asked if I had any question for him.
I asked about the work of an intern. He t will be a great learning experience.
3rd Round (1 interviewers (Partner), duration – 15-20 mins)
Interviewer: Introduce your work experience.
Me: Explained what Applied Materials do and my role.
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Interviewer: Do SWOT analysis of your company.
Me: Done.
Interviewer: New technologies in the field of manufacturing.
Me: Told
Interviewer: New technology in the field of semiconductor industry?
Me: Explained
Interviewer: Why consulting?
Me: Explained 3 to 4 factors.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions?
Me: No sir, thank you for the opportunity.
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Experience: 7
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineer, BIT Sindri , Dhanbad
Work Experience
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), 39
months, Maintenance of Heavy Machineries .
Academic Record: (89.20,89.75,80.20)
Interview Verdict: Converted
JSW Steel Ltd, 7 month, Customer
Relationship Management
Preparations:
I primarily prepared for 4 things:
1. Formulation of CV and preparation for CV answers: All the interviews start with CV, so this section is of great
importance. Frame a para on each CV point so as to anticipate the questions and the follow up questions that could
be asked. All the numbers presented in CV should be backed by proper calculation for each data point
2. HR Questions – Standard deck of HR Questions (39 Qs), circulated by Placement Committee was sufficient. An
instance of all major questions was very important. I had written a para on each so as to anticipate the
questions that could be asked
3. Guesstimates: I prepared guestimates from my hobby and general topics in news like the number of cold play
tickets expected to be sold. I used to practise it in groups to understand different approaches and formulate the
best approach that would work for me. I maintained that in my case journal
4. Cases: I primarily read Case in Point for preparation of cases. After having a decent idea of frameworks and
having framed my own, I practiced some cases from IIM A, Mckinsey 6th edition and Kellogg’s case books. I
practiced the cases with my friends to have a real feel of case interview.
The roommate guide of Case in point was particularly helpful in this)
Workshop– In workshop, the team was split in 4 groups of 15 students each, with 1 case given to each group.
But before the case a guestimate was discussed- A new element added to workshop this year. Be prepared
for surprises like this!
The guestimate was finding the number of school teachers in Mumbai
We were given 2 minutes to think and then had to volunteer to come to the board to explain the approach
with calculation. A guy in desperation started in just 1 minute, to which they told him to be sure before
speaking. Then a student volunteered and approached the case with number of railway station as the base. He
was asked to justify the logic behind his assumption, to which he could not. (A word of caution: Please be sure
before speaking. It’s not a typical GD wherein you have to make an early entry to get noticed)
Then I volunteered and my approach was
Taking India’s demographic dividend into consideration, I assumed 65 % of the population was of the less than
35 years of age. But taking Mumbai’ s consideration of being the financial capital and State’s capital I took the
number to be 70 (taking influx of students and professionals)
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Then I assumed linear distribution of population across the age band, found out the number of people in the
age group of 3 to 18 (Assuming a student spends 15 years in school), I arrived with the number of students.
Then I assumed equal students in government and private schools. Used student teacher ratio by using my
personal experience of a private school and taking assumptions for government school to arrive at a number.
The key factors in this discussion was suitable assumption backed up by proper logic and using student teacher
ratio.
Details for my case are given below:
A case of M&A was given. A telecom company with its presence in North America was looking to enter Indian
Market through an acquisition of an Indian firm.
Income statement of each firm was given and there were different slides (3) about
•
•
•
•
customer segmentation,
details of income statement and balance sheet
Due diligence
Some graphs (pie chart and bar chart) on customer segmentation and revenue distribution
4 questions were asked on 4th slide
1.
2.
3.
4.
Discuss the qualitative factors that needs to be considered before working on the intricacies of the deal
Evaluate the amount of organic investment which the company needs to invest to achieve a similar revenue
To go for the deal or not
Finding the synergy dollar number (calculation required)
Important Tip : Though it may sound a cliché, it is absolutely okay to ask about a term or clarify about the
question , no matter how simple it is. It’s better to be safe than be sorry in any consulting interview.
We clarified about synergy dollar number, which was savings in terms of dollar value of
1. Increase in revenue of the combined entity
2. Decrease in cost
In any group case workshop, it is imperative to follow the flow of the case and not say something
completely new or unimportant.
We as a group suggested many factors to be considered, like customer segmentation, using economies of scale
and scope, products offered, using locational advantage of one in the other geographies, etc.
For 2nd we were provided with a slide pertaining to ROI with due diligence, we could arrive at the number
with simple calculation and found out that it’s better to grow inorganically and not organically as we need to
put in larger investment in the latter to achieve the same Revenues
3rd answer was solved while discussing the second case itself
4th again a slide of certain ratios and due diligence was provided to arrive at the Synergy dollar number.
Solving this required a fundamental understanding of balance sheet and income statement as well
As a group, we could solve the entire case in the stipulated time
Interview Experience:
I had 3 rounds.
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1st round (1 interviewer(Sr. Consultant ), duration – 20 mins)
My first interview was with a senior consultant of the firm. He welcomed me in the room and introduced
himself to me with a firm handshake. He made me very comfortable by asking very basic questions like tell me
about myself, my work experience, etc. . Some elementary questions about my work profile and nothing in very
depth. To my surprise there were no guestimates asked. I would call it a very smooth conversation which
ended on a lighter note. He wished me luck for the day!
Finally, the interviewer asked if I had any question for him
Please note that it is very important to ask a sensible and logical question at this stage. Asking insightful
question, shows that you have done your research, are inquisitive and serious about joining their company.
I asked him a question to which he answered. Then a follow up question from me and again some
discussion followed for about 5 minutes.
2nd Round (2 interviewers (1 Senior Manager, 1 Manager), duration – 45-50 mins)
2nd round started with interviewers introducing themselves followed by the question tell me about yourself.
Next, there were a couple of CV Questions. After that, they straight away went to case. My case is given below:
A valve manufacturing company (safety valve) used primarily in Oil and Gas sector, a leader in North
America wants to expand its presence in India. There were two questions
1. What factors should it consider
2. Estimate the size of Indian market
3. Using the previous calculations, estimate the size of other safety devises as well
Not a very detailed case but relating to my mechanical back ground and work experience in core sector, I
could relate it very well to the situation at hand. It was a case of market expansion.
Me: I first summarized the case & then asked if there are any secondary objectives that we need to achieve.
Interviewer: No
Me: Can I have a minute to structure my ideas
Interviewer: Ok
Me: I would understand the economy of the country first. Looking at the present scenario, India looks to me as
the only bright spot in this gloomy global economic scenario. Other factors that I would take into considerations
are macroeconomic stability recent government’s reforms like GST legislation, ease of doing business rankings
improvement, government stability, Pro business approach. Etc. .
Interviewer: Looked satisfied and said other things apart from Economy
Me: Then I would look into the industry, the factors being:
• Performance of industry (trends)
• Market structure and number of players (both domestic and international if any) in the market and their
market share
• Ease of entry and exit
• Public sector and private sector (public sector generally have a preference of MOUs with some government
PSUs or MSMEs for purchasing while private sector is more focussed on cost )
Interviewer: I want you to figure it out my market size. Tell me the way to do it.
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Me: There would be two major segments: existing industries and expansion of the existing ones. Existing would
already have these safety devises in place, so my preferred area would be upcoming plants. But there would be
continuous requirement of valves even in the existing because of the life of a valve -It’s a safety feature and
needs to be replaced at certain places based on the hours of its use or duration of its installation, whichever
being earlier. To this the interviewer smiled and said You seems to know a lot!
Interviewer: Lets now look at new plants. How would u do a market sizing for me
Me: I will need a moment to think on it.
Interviewer: Go ahead
Me: (After analysing the situation at hand) I would do some market research to find out the ratio of the price
of these devises to the overall cost of the machinery. Different industry has different levels of safety
consciousness and have according levels of quality of safety spares used
This ratio would help me to estimate the size of the expanding industry on the basis of their investment value
Interviewer: That’s good. Provided me with the amount of investment of companies. And the ratio
Me: Figured it out and said the size.
Interviewer: Using this, Find out the size of other products in my portfolio, and decide what should be my
priority. A table was presented with the ratio and the investment value of different sectors.
Me: Figured it out on the basis of calculation and decided on the priority on the basis of market size.
Interviewer: CAGR of 3 industries were given (investment value), Now would your answer be the same?
Me: simple percentage calculation to arrive at the values
Interviewer: That’s fairly decent!
After this, the case finished. He asked some more CV Questions and then asked if I have any question for him. I
had discussed with my previous boss about the history of consulting firms association with SAIL, He narrated me
a Mckinsey instance, wherein the changes suggested were not feasible and implementable. I asked them about
differentiating factor in such a case, to which he explained me. I popped up a follow up question with approval,
to which he answered in great details
Overall a very smooth experience. At no point of time did I feel any stress. They made me really comfortable
and guided in case I was either digressing or entering into greater depth than required (qualitative points)
3rd Round (1 interviewers (Partner), duration – 15-20
mins) Interviewer: Can you summarise the case for me ?
Me: presented the case succinctly. Interviewer: Introduce
your work experience.
Me: Did briefly explaining how I have worked across different verticals of two of the largest steel giants of India
from mining to operations to marketing.
Interviewer: Why consulting ?
Me: answered well with some instances of my work place, wherein I had played the role of a consultant.
Interviewer: Follow up question about the incidence
Me: answered well with data and numbers.
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Experience: 8
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Philips Lighting India Ltd
Academic Record (92%, 83%, 86%)
23 months
Industrial Operations
Interview Verdict: Converted
Interview Experience:
1st round (1 interviewer (Sr. Consultant ), duration – 15 mins)
My first interview was with a senior consultant of the firm. He welcomed me in the room and introduced
himself. The interview started with “Tell me about yourself” question. I gave him my answer and he asked some
clarifying questions about my work experience. I had an entrepreneurial experience. Interviewer asked me some
basic question about the business and then asked me about the market size of my business. I calculated the
market size basis on the number of households in the vicinity. He did not ask me any other guesstimate. He
finished the interview after giving me a chance to ask questions.
2nd Round (2 interviewers (1 Senior Consultant, 1 Manager), duration – 45-50 mins)
My 2nd round started with interviewers asking me how my morning was. They asked me to promptly introduce
myself in 60 seconds, which I did. They also asked to me tell something about me which is not there in the CV.
After that, they straight away went to case. My case is given below:
A valve manufacturing company (safety valve) used primarily in Oil and Gas sector, a leader in North America
wants to expand its presence in India. I was given enough time to understand the scenario of the case and write
down relevant point. I asked a question to confirm the business of the client.
Then they asked me to describe the case. I started to elaborate the case but they stopped me and asked me
to describe the case in “one line”
Interviewer: What factors will you consider for market entry in this case.
Me: Can I have a minute to structure my ideas
Interviewer: Ok
Me: I can think on 4 major factors in this case. Product portfolio, Customer segment in new market,
Competitors in the new market, barrier to entry.
Interviewer: Can you see any possibilities of partner?
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Me: Yes, Partners can be helpful with marketing and may be distribution also.
Interviewer: Don’t you see any help of partner in R&D?
Me: Yes, we can take help of a partner in developing the “product portfolio”
Interviewer: Suppose the sales is proportional to the investment made in the sector, and I am giving you data
for 3 industries, tell me which industry you will select to launch your product.
(Provided me with the amount of investment of companies. And the growth rate)
Me: Figured it out and said my preference.
Interviewer: What is the difference in market entry strategy if the company is owned by third party vis-à-vis it
is owned by the managers involved in operations.
Me: If it is owned by third party, he or she will be more interested in getting return on the investment made. If
is it owned by the managers, they will be interested in knowing the operational synergies of market entry.
Interviewer: Sounds Good. Tell me the exit options in this case.
Me: There can be two ways of exiting the business. First will be to sell the entire business to third party,
second will be to sell the assets of business.
Interviewer: Good. Do you want to ask us anything.
Me: I asked their names.
The round ended there.
3rd Round (1 interviewers (Partner), duration – 15-20 mins)
Interviewer: Tell me something about yourself.
Me: Told him.
Interviewer: Tell me more.
Me: Added few things.
Interviewer: Can you summarise the case for me ?
Me: presented the case succinctly.
Interviewer: There is a lot of Six Sigma and Lean in your CV. Do you believe that it is still relevant?
Me: Yes, Lean and six sigma are not just techniques but methodologies which can be applicable to solve
many problems. It is not related to only manufacturing but can be used in other domains also, like service.
Interviewer: Why consulting ?
Me: I gave him a crisp answer regarding the growth potential of consulting.
Interviewer: Your resume says that you have worked for New product development and Value engineering.
Tell me latest trends in this field.
I thought for a moment and then gave him an example of a new product developed by Philips in which Lighting
of a lamp can be control by touch on an app in smartphone. I pointed out that, new products are being designed
in such a way that they come closer to possessing artificial intelligence.
Interviewer: Do you want to ask anything?
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I asked his name and asked how long has he been associated with the firm.
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Experience: 9
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Computer Science
Work Experience
TEKsystems Global Services Pvt. Ltd
23 months
Panjab University
Academic Record (92.6%, 87%, 85.9%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
1. Frameworks/Approach: My main focus was on frameworks and approach. I started with Victor Cheng videos.
Left them in between because they were taking too long and picked up Case in Point’s chapter on
frameworks. Found it exhaustive to an extent.
2. Asking the right questions: Even though the frameworks helped me create a structured approach, it was still
the case solving that helped in understanding the right questions to be asked. Used a lot of consulting books
randomly. Worked with friends in groups to replicate the interviewer interviewee experience.
3. Finance basics: Worked on my Finance basics from Accounting (Balance sheet, income statement),
Corporate Finance(Valuation, NPV, IRR) and Economics (Concepts such as breakeven, elasticity)
4. Interview related Prep: This was what I was doing in general for SIP. Worked on my Resume, prepared
answers for any and every question that could be brought up. Prepared my HR answers. Worked on
Why consulting and why firms.
5. Interacting: Talked to seniors a lot. Understood their experiences. Gave mock interviews both CV & HR ones
and Case interviews. Helped a lot.
• Was your preparation dedicated to consulting only?
No. I was preparing for Consulting, IT and Operations roles. A lot of the preparation overlapped in terms
of CV and HR. Also, took up Role specific prep.
• Time dedicated
Started serious prep in the month of July. We were being provided constant guidance by the seniors.
There were classmates who helped with group studies.
• Timeline followed during preparation
I would take out at least 2-3 hours for self or group study each day.
• Useful courses
Economics, Accounting, Corporate Finance
Interview Experience:
The selection process consisted of two rounds of interviews for me.
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Round 1: I was one of the first group to be called for interviews. I was to be interviewed by Panel 1 which
consisted of a Director. The interview started a little late due to the panel. I waited outside the allotted room
till then. It lasted for some 20 mins.
Questions asked:
• Tell me about yourself
• Tell me about the work that you did. How big was your client?
• Since I did not know the revenue of the client, the Director asked me to guesstimate the market size of my
client based on the information I knew.
• Again asked why consulting?
• Do you have any questions?
Round 2: Case Round
My panel consisted of a Principal (who recognized me from the workshop) and a Senior Manager. They straight
away dived into the case. The sr. manager had the data sheets which they did not let me have a glimpse of. The
case was driven by them. They gave me the initial situation which I made notes of. Then they had 3 parts that
they wanted me to solve. They provided me data and asked questions whenever needed. It lasted for around
45 minutes to 1 hour.
• The case was on a Consumer Electronics Firm which was making losses.
• The first question asked was the approach that I would take to evaluate this case. I started with the external
- competition/market and explained all the factors there. Then moved to the internal – company, and then
considered Revenue and cost in detail.
• The second question was about a strategy called loss leader that the company was thinking of implementing. I
asked them to explain it to me. Loss leader strategy is one where the company sells one product at a price lower
than the market price to attract customers and in turn make profits through cross selling other products. So, I
asked for data here and they gave me the price and quantities of the loss leader product and the cross sold
product. They also gave me the profit that the company was looking at and asked me to calculate the change in
price and quantity if the profit changed. I had to solve a quadratic equation to come to the answer and had to
explain everything to them side by side.
• The third question was about closing of low performing stores and about the company thinking of shutting them
down and moving to online selling. I was supposed to calculate the no. of online customers the company would need
to make up for the profit of the stores shut down. I asked for information here regarding the normal profit, the
profit/loss the low performing stores made, their count, the average sale per customer online.
There was no third round for me. One of the HR and senior managers just came and congratulated me on
getting selected, 10 minutes after my round 2 ended. There was no round 3 because my first round itself
was with the Director.
What Went Right?
• The mock interviews had given me a taste of the real thing and helped me prepare.
• I thought out loud and asked for help throughout the case interview whenever needed.
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What went wrong?
My why the company answer was not very crisp.
Suggestions:
Cases are data heavy, so be prepared to do a lot of calculations. Don’t lose your cool during the interview
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Experience: 10
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Civil Engineering
Work Experience
NKG Infrastructure Ltd
46 months
IIT Roorkee
Real Estate Project Execution & Management
Academic Record (92.16, 86, 66.17)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
•
•
Preparation of CV and HR Questions: The CV is the basis on which companies prepare their primary shortlists, hence a
thorough exercise to appropriately prepare the CV was undertaken, including multiple iterations and verifications by
seniors with similar profiles. Thereafter probable questions from every CV point were anticipated, and answers
including data and figures were prepared for every question.
Next preparation of the deck of HR questions circulated by Placement Committee was undertaken. The answers
were prepared keeping in sync with my background and profile, in order to create a seam-less connect between my
past profile/domain and future aspirations.
Guesstimates and Cases: The primary aspect was to learn to apply approaches to any kind of guesstimate. After
discussions with friends and seniors, I segregated guesstimates into certain categories where approaches like
demographic, numerical, geographical (area based) should be taken. Thereafter random guesstimates were
practised with friends, to get the fluency and flow whilst solving.
For cases, I relied on Case In Point, IIMA casebook, and consulting101.com. I primarily focussed on familiarising myself
with the frameworks, identifying and segregating a case as per available frameworks, and thereafter adjust and proceed
as per the case conditions.
Few Mock Case interviews are a must in order to get familiar with Case Interview situations
Interview Experience:
1st round (1 interviewer (Senior Consultant), duration – 15-20 mins)
My first interview was with a senior consultant of the firm. He welcomed me in the room, and made me
feel very comfortable straight away by introducing himself, and asking me some really basic HR and CV
related questions. Then we moved on to the guesstimate, which was again taken from my own background:
Estimate the number of stalled Real Estate Projects in Mumbai.
It was rather an easy guesstimate for me, the area of Mumbai had to be broken down progressively as per
rural/urban, residential/commercial, old/upcoming areas, etc. Once I had got the approach right, we moved
on to discussing the factors that can cause projects to get stalled.
2nd Round (2 interviewers (1 Senior Manager, 1 Manager), duration – 45 mins)
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2nd round started with interviewers introducing themselves followed by the question tell me about yourself.
Next, there were a couple of CV Questions. After that, they straight away went to case, which is given below:
A valve manufacturing company (safety valve) used primarily in Oil and Gas sector, a leader in North
America wants to expand its presence in India. There were two questions
1. What factors should it consider
2. Estimate the size of Indian market
3. Using the previous calculations, estimate the size of other safety devices as well
Not a very detailed case. It was a case of market expansion.
I was first asked to summarize the case in one line (the interviewer pointedly suggested that the objective is
mentioned in the case statement itself!!). I figured it out correctly, & then asked if there are any secondary
objectives that we need to achieve (there were none).
We started off by discussing all factors to be taken into considerations like macroeconomic stability, recent
government’s reforms like GST legislation, current scenario of petrochemical industry in India vis-à- vis
energy demand forecasts in the near future, performance of Refineries, etc. We also discussed on possible
long term repercussions due to the recent focus on Renewable sources of energy in India, and the way it
could affect companies in the Oil and gas Sector.
Then the existing market and competitors were taken into account:
• Industry trends.
• Market structure and number of players (both domestic and international if any) in the market and their
market share
• Ease of entry and exit
• Entry and Exit barriers, Govt. regulations.
Then we discussed the approach the company should undertake to enter the market.
Thereafter some data crunching was done to figure out the market size, growth estimates, market shares of
existing players, etc. It was basically an exercise to get to show my comfort level in dealing with big
monetary figures and percentages accurately, and to look at those numbers from a business perspective.
The interviewers were very helpful, and guided me along the way. The basic purpose was to figure the
approach to solve the case, and that was easily done.
3rd Round (1 interviewers (Partner), duration – 15 mins)
A conversational round where the Partner made me talk about the current scenario in the Construction and
Infrastructure Industry (my background). It was more or less a test of my awareness and knowledge about my
own domain, and my conversation and communication skills. It was important to make a fluent conversation
backed by data or practical examples/instances, and not to talk in hyperboles.
At the end of every round I was asked if I had any questions for the interviewer. I had made it a point go
through website and wiki Profiles, and asked relevant questions every time
Overall a very satisfying experience. If you prepare well enough, and are familiar with various case
scenarios, and can keep calm and confident, no reason why you shouldn’t be able to crack it.
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Experience: 11
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Prodution Engineering
Work Experience
22 months
Warehousing & Logistics
PSG College of Techonology
Academic Record (92.2%, 93.6%, 87.3%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
1. Cases & Guesstimates – Case in point, IIMA case book, ISB case book.
2. Resume: Be through with every point in resume.
Interview Experience:
Round 1: Guesstimate/ Situation based (Elimination round)
Q1. Introduce yourself – Typical introduction with more emphasis on work ex.
Q2. If you are a thief and you have an option which shop will you steal? Why?
1) Chandeliers shop. 2) Flower shop 3) Bakery.
Main aim was to determine the thought process and justification for the same.
I asked for further clarifications on manpower I have for robbery and about the infrastructure for the same like
vehicles etc.
He said I am the only person and I have a car with me to take the robbed items.
The answer was Bakery shop and he was convinced with the same because Flower shop can be easily eliminated
as the inventory which I said is perishable and I may not be converted into cash easily.
Regarding Chandeliers shop the lighting fixtures are heavy to carry and typically the buyers are high income
group it will be difficult to realize value from the inventory, moreover cash register of Chandeliers shop will not
have much cash as the sale value is very high and the buyers would make card transactions.
Bakery is ideal choice among the given alternatives because the inventories can be easily converted/exchanged
for cash, easy to carry and cash register will have liquid cash.
Based on the justifications interviewer was satisfied.
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Cleared
Round 2.
Case Round (Elimination round)
‘The client is an electronics retail chain market leader; his profits are declining. Help the client to deal the
given situation’
Me: Profits are declining, can I assume that they are not making loss.
Interviewer: Yes, it’s true.
Me: What is the trend of revenue is it increasing or decreasing?
Interviewer: Revenue is falling drastically.
Me: How about the industry scenario and competitor performance.
Interviewer: Industry is generally performing low; competitor is also facing similar downfall.
Me: What’s the trend of footfall in retail stores.
Interviewer: Footfall is declining rapidly which is treated as the main reason for declining revenue.
Me: How is the marketing and promotional activities performing.
Interviewer: The company has decided to give free HD TVs for 10 lucky draw winners to improve footfall. What
should be the price of HDTV to compensate loss due free offers.
Me: What is the Selling price of HDTV and the current profit margin.
Interviewer: Good, the price of Single HDTV is 1000USD, Profit margin is 30℅.
Me: In that case Profit earned for selling each HDTV is 300USD. What is the offer period?
Interviewer: The offer is for 10 days, if the company wants to earn a profit of 15000USD, how many TVs
should be sold.
Me: With the given data, the loss incurred by giving freebies is 7000USD I.e., (700USD per TV) must be divided
among the 100 HDTVs expected to be sold. Hence Selling price of HDTV must be increased to 1070USD.
Hence to get a profit of 15000 we must sell at least 50 TVs (15000/300) during the offer period.
Interviewer: do you think increasing price is a good decision.
Me: yes, for the given situation to improve revenue promotional offers are inevitable and at the same time
we must absorb the cost incurred in promotional activities by cross subsidization.
Interviewer: What will be the effect of increasing price on demand.
Me: Yes, there will be marginal decrease in the demand due to increased price. Is there any data on
relationship between Incremental cost and demand?
Interviewer: Yes, you can assume an increase of 70USD will lead to 5℅ reduction in total sales.
Me: Yes, adding this assumption we must further increase the price to compensate for lost sales to maintain the
net profit. Hence 5℅ reduction in total sales is 2.5 TVs unsold =approx. 3 TVs, this should be factored into the
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price of the product i.e., (3*300) loss due to reduced sales should be compensated on product price i.e., Piece
of TV should be increased by another 20USD (900/47TV) to attain the profit of 15000USD.
Interviewer: Good, Thank You. That’s all. Do you have any questions for us?
Me: How’ll the typical work day as a consultant be?
Interviewer: He explained about a typical work day and During on-site assignment.
Me: Thank you.
Did not clear.
What went wrong?
I came running into the interview room and I was a bit tensed after giving an GD in other company. Moreover,
I think I have not factored the final price hike i.e., the increase of 20 USD will decrease sales by another 1.4℅
(20/70 * 5℅) that will transcend into another 0.65 TV (1.4℅*47TV) which I could have justified for the 0.5 TV
approximated in previous step.
Suggestions:
Don’t be anxious during interview, be confident and try to involve interviewer during in whatever
assumptions you make and get their consensus on the same. They will guide you when you get stuck at any
point or if you feel like missing any dimension of the case.
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Experience: 12
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Mechanical Engineering
Applied Materials India Pvt. Ltd,
NIT Kurukshetra
23 Months, Design Engineer
Academic Record (91.2%, 83.8%, 88.45%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
1. Cases & Guesstimates – I would suggest to start with Victor Cheng videos on YouTube to get an essence of
consulting interviews. After the basic stuff, step on to case in point to develop mind-set for various
frameworks. Don’t stick to the given frameworks rather build upon that with your creativity. Have a strategic
and valid thinking before jumping on to any conclusion.
2. Resume: For consulting interviews (Round 1), you have to be crystal clear with your resume especially
work experience and projects. Second most important thing is your interests and hobbies which may land
you solving a guesstimate based on that.
3. Personal Hygiene and Professionalism: Your looks and code of conduct may not benefit you any additional
points but insufficiency of the same will definitely deduct some points. It is important for a consultant to look
professional and behave accordingly.
Interview Experience:
1st round (1 interviewer, duration – 20 mins)
Round 1: Resume based and Guesstimate round
Q1. Introduce yourself – Started with basic introduction and focused on work experience as I had 23 months
of experience.
Q2. Why the firm and why consultancy – I talked about the projects I did in the technical consultancy domain
and described about the interest I developed in the area. Repeated same thing which I covered in video
resume. Doing a bit of research about the company helped me tackle the question.
Q3. What are your hobbies and passion? Described
Q4. Guesstimate – No of cars on road in Mumbai.
Cleared
Round 2:
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Case based round.
2nd round started with interviewers introducing themselves followed by the question tell me about yourself.
Next, there were a couple of CV Questions. After that, they straight away went to case. My case is given below:
A valve manufacturing company (safety valve) used primarily in Oil and Gas sector, a leader in North
America wants to expand its presence in India. There were two questions
What factors should it consider
Estimate the size of Indian market
Using the previous calculations, estimate the size of other safety devises as well
Not a very detailed case but relating to my mechanical back ground and work experience in core sector, I
could relate it very well to the situation at hand. It was a case of market expansion.
Me: I first summarized the case & then asked if there are any secondary objectives that we need to achieve.
Interviewer: No
Me: Can I have a minute to structure my ideas
Interviewer: Ok
Me: I would understand the economy of the country first. Looking at the present scenario, India looks to me as
the only bright spot in this gloomy global economic scenario. Other factors that I would take into considerations
are macroeconomic stability recent government’s reforms like GST legislation, ease of doing business rankings
improvement, government stability, Pro business approach. Etc.
Interviewer: Looked satisfied and said other things apart from Economy
Me: Then I would consider the industry, the factors being:
• Performance of industry (trends)
• Market structure and number of players (both domestic and international if any) in the market and their
market share
• Ease of entry and exit
• Public sector and private sector (public sector generally have a preference of MOUs with some
government PSUs or MSMEs for purchasing while private sector is more focussed on cost )
Interviewer: I want you to figure it out my market size. Tell me the way to do it.
Me: There would be two major segments: existing industries and expansion of the existing ones. Existing would
already have these safety devises in place, so my preferred area would be upcoming plants. But there would be
continuous requirement of valves even in the existing ones because of the life of a valve -It’s a safety feature
and needs to be replaced at certain places based on the hours of its use or duration of its installation,
whichever being earlier. To this the interviewer smiled and said You seems to know a lot!
Interviewer: Lets now look at new plants. How would u do a market sizing for me
Me: I will need a moment to think on it.
Interviewer: Go ahead
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Me: (After analyzing the situation at hand) I would do some market research to find out the ratio of the price of
these devices to the overall cost of the machinery. Different industries have different levels of safety
consciousness and have according levels of quality of safety spares used
This ratio would help me to estimate the size of the expanding industry based on their investment value
Interviewer: That’s good. Provided me with the amount of investment of companies. And the ratio
Me: Figured it out and said the size.
Interviewer: Using this. Find out the size of other products in my portfolio, and decide what should be my
priority. A table was presented with the ratio and the investment value of different sectors.
Me: Figured it out based on calculation and decided on the priority based on market size.
Interviewer: CAGR of 3 industries were given (investment value), Now would your answer be the same?
Me: simple percentage calculation to arrive at the values
Interviewer: That’s decent!
Not Cleared
What went wrong?
I went wrong with the listening part of the case. Be prepared and sleep well a day before to be mentally
present. Also, took some time to do basic calculations (as I was too conscious). If I could have engaged
them more in the interview, that would have been better.
Suggestions:
Do not wait till you get the calls to start preparing for the cases. Calls are random and be prepared always. In
interview, be confident and take your time to tackle situations one by one
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Experience: 13
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Indutrial Engineer
Work Experience
Ernst & Young
27 months
College of Engineering, Trivandrum
Data Analytics
Academic Record: (92.8%, 88%, 76.6%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
Prep Methodology: As I expected shortlists mainly from consulting firms, my preparation was majorly focused
on cases. Practiced few cases from casing point and IIM A casebook. Random Guesstimates and some based
on my resume points (interests – e.g. football- the number of footballs sold in India annually). Thorough with
the CV, expanding every single point – This is extremely important if you have a relevant work experience.
Study resources: Case in Point & IIM A casebook – for Practice cases, Victor Cheng Videos for frameworks.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
The round was resume based and a guesstimate.
Q1. Introduce yourself –Started with basic introduction, talked about work experience and interests.
Q2. Most challenging project– Had a readymade answer for this, explained in detail about the project, why I
felt it as a challenging one and how I handled the same.
Guesstimate – Number of local football leagues in Mumbai. This is the advantage of talking about your
interests during the introduction, guesstimates usually come from here.
Started from population of Mumbai, divided based on gender and age group as certain age group will be more
involved in league football. Then went on by finding the number of football playing people, drilled further two
the percentage of these people who would play in league football. Compared Mumbai to Kerala to get a rough
idea of these numbers and percentages by giving justifications for the same. Assumed that on an average
there will be 8 teams and 15 players/ team to get 120 players per league. Divided the former with latter to get
the number of leagues.
Asked couple of questions about Manchester United – History of the club and the managers. Answered well
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Asked for questions if any – I asked about the learning opportunities, comparing with the same I had in
my previous experience.
Cleared
Round 2:
Case Round
Was asked to introduce and asked about my work experience.
Case – The client produces and sells industrial valves and hoses mainly used in petroleum, petrochemical
industries – four industries were mentioned. And they had four main products. They were a dominant player
in Northern America. But they are trying to expand to Asian countries especially India and China. Client has
come to us for advice.
The interviewer read out the case to me. I took some notes and summarized. Stated the objective and asked
if anything more needs to be explored.
Interviewer: What are the risks associated with expanding to these markets.
Me: Can I concentrate on India?
Interviewer: Compare between India and China
I compared the political and economic situations of both the countries. And, mentioned the technological
and political risks.
They did not seem satisfied.
Interviewer: You missed a major factor.
I couldn’t think of anything else.
Interviewer: What all are the factors you would consider before deciding whether to expand to India.
Me: The current demand for such products – total market size, level of competition and market shares,
financial situation of the company, laws & regulations, economic situation etc.
Interviewer: What do you think the demand for any one of the product will be.
I selected one of the products and estimated the demand – This was a guesstimate and did well.
The problem I faced here is that there was no structure to my case and at a certain point in time, I was all over
the place. The discussion continued for further 5-10 mins where I tried to compare the Company, competition
and customers to reach a conclusion.
Did not clear.
What went wrong?
I couldn’t structure the case properly and my lack of preparation with cases that had numbers associated with
worked against my favor. There were many questions asked by the panel during the case which gave the
impression that I was not driving the case.
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Suggestions:
Be thorough with your CV, especially if you have a relevant work experience. In that case, most of the time
will go with a project or two from the experience.
For consulting interviews, make sure that you mention your interests because the guesstimates and cases might
be based on it and it would make your case/guesstimates much easier. Practice some guesstimates based on the
interests and Work experience domain (e.g. If experience is in oil and gas sector, “Volume of petrol consumed
per day in your home city?”)
Never keep your preparations to the last week. You will not get time.
Make sure you have a good answer for why consulting/ supply chain and why the company. This was asked in all
the interview. Try to connect the same to your background.
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Experience: 14
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Fresher
Assam Engineering, College
Academic Record: (94.6%, 94.2%, 83%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
I did some basic preparation which comprised of:
• Random guesstimates practice. For the interview, I went prepared with the following statistics: India
population. Population share of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Guwahati and Assam. Demography of India, Mumbai
and Guwahati. Life expectation. Football field size (I had mentioned football in CV). Area of India and the area
share of Mumbai and Guwahati.
• Case Interview. Four basic frameworks from Case in Point (I was clear only with profitability and pricing
frameworks). IIM-A casebook. Victor Cheng videos (**VERY HELPFUL**)
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
The round was resume based and a guesstimate.
Q1. Introduce yourself.
Ans: Started with basic introduction, talked about academics, extra-curricular, POR's and interests.
The interviewer then introduced himself.
Q2. Asked about my favorite subject.
Ans: Operations Management. Explained why.
Guesstimate – Say this is 2011. Mukesh Ambani is sitting here and says that he is thinking about starting a
new mobile network with very fast internet speed and low prices. You need to estimate his market share.
Started with the population of India.
I said, we must figure out the number of smartphone users. Because Jio would only appeal to them.
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Classified to rural and urban. 70:30
Classified into age groups. <15 15-45 >45
Interviewer said, ignore <15.
Took just the urban population, then classified both categories (15-45 and >45) according to income. LowMid-High
Estimated what portion of which group would have smart phones.
I added all the percentages and said that with Jio’s features, these are all potential customers.
Let’s assume the top 2 existing operators have 50% of the customers. Those might be a little hard to acquire but
a huge part of the remaining will want to switch to Jio.
Interviewer said OK. What about the rural population?
I said the classifications would be same, but the percentages will be different.
He seemed satisfied with it.
Asked for questions if any – I asked two. One about his career from what he had said in his introduction. Second
about the career path of an intern and if he had any specific suggestions keeping in mind my lack of work
experience.
Cleared
Note: I kept asking questions after every step. I also thought out loud. I gave reasoning for my assumptions.
Round 2:
Case Round
Was asked to introduce and asked about my work experience.
Case – The client produces and sells industrial valves and hoses mainly used in petroleum, petrochemical
industries – four industries were mentioned. And they had four main products. They were a dominant player
in Northern America. But they are trying to expand to Asian countries especially India and China. Client has
come to us for advice.
The interviewer read out the case to me. I took some notes and summarized. Stated the objective and asked
if anything more needs to be explored.
I understood the case but I could not structure it. I could not find that initial opening to start cracking the case. I
asked a few questions. They did not seem impressed. This went on for around 15 minutes. I couldn’t make any
progress.
They asked me why I wanted to get into MBA without any work experience. (gave the prepared HR answer).
The interview ended at that point.
Did not clear.
What went wrong?
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I couldn’t structure the case properly and my lack of practice and lack of knowledge about the given
case worked against me.
Suggestions:
Be thorough with CV.
Practice as many guesstimates and case interviews as you can.
While solving guesstimates, keep talking. Keep thinking aloud. Keep telling the interviewer why you are
doing what you are doing. They will correct you if you go wrong. They want you to do well.
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Experience: 15
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Chemical Enginnering, Businayana Mukundadas
ZS Associates
Sreenivasiah College of Engineering
17 months
Business Analyst
Academic Record: (92.2%, 78.17%, 78.6%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
Cases:
a) YouTube videos of Victor Cheng were a great starting point as it provided a holistic methodology on how to
approach different cases.
b) IIM A Casebook, Case in point were effective sources for solving cases. The idea is to read the case
statement and jot down the different the various parameters that you would like to discover. Validate them
against what has already been provided in the book.
Guesstimates: There was no official source of doing guesstimates. We sat in groups and gave each other a
statement to solve. We took up a few points from our CV and tried to create a problem statement based
on them.
CV and HR questions: These are also an important part of the preparation as these can make a vital difference
in all the interview rounds, specifically the 3rd round. The HR questions sheet provided to us covered all the HR
questions that could be asked as well as all their variations.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
I was invited into the room and asked to take a seat. There was a single interviewer, a Sr. Consultant.
The following questions were asked there after:
1) Tell me something about yourself.
Answered.
2) Some questions regarding work ex and CV
points. Answered.
3) Why consulting?
Answered.
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4) Since I mentioned that I am passionate about football, he asked a couple of questions regarding that.
5) Guestimate: Estimate the number of MRI scanners in India.
This question was asked to me since I had some experience in the pharmaceutical industry. I used a simple
top-down approach to answer this question.
Total population in India: 1.2 billion
# of people who have diseases/conditions requiring MRI scanners: x% of 1.2b (assume A)
# of people who are diagnosed with this disease: y% of A (assume B)
# of people who decide to be treated: z% of B (say C) {this will include an assumption of how many
people can afford to be cured by the disease}
# of people/ MRI scanners= w.
Hence total number of scanners can be calculated.
6) Finally, I was asked if I had any questions for the interviewer, I asked a question regarding their projects and
client engagement.
Result: Cleared
Round 2:
Case Study Round
This is one of the most important round of the selection process as most of the candidates get filtered here.
The interview started on an informal note, the interviewers asked me about myself, hobbies etc. I had
mentioned that I am a Chelsea supporter, there was a discussion on the football match the previous weekend.
Case Statement: Company XYZ is an electronic retail chain, with many outlets across the country. In the
recent times, the profitability has decreased. Suggest steps for improvement.
(I= interviewer, M=me)
I: What is the essence of the case in one line.
M: Increasing profitability for the chain.
I: What are the different aspects that you would like to consider?
M: (Like any normal case, I broke it down into Profit= Revenue – Costs) Mentioned points like whether there is a
decrease in Revenue or increase in cost.
Is it a market wide phenomenon or only specific to the
chain. Have the customer requirements changed?
(Basically, majority of the points that are mentioned in Victor Cheng’s videos)
I: Answered my questions. (This was not used in the case as such, just to check if the interviewee was thinking
in a structured manner)
I: The chain has decided to start an offer wherein they plan to sell 20 TV’s at a discount, they think that they can
attract customers to the store and push them to a higher valued TV, with higher profitability. How many TV’s
must they sell so that they are profitable?
M: Did some basic mathematics and answered their questions.
I: We have noticed that if we decrease the price of the TV’s by 5,000, we lose 1 customer. Develop a
mathematical equation, keeping the previous question in mind, to find the number of TV’s that need to be
sold to remain profitable.
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M: Used some basic mathematics and came up with a formula.
I: The chain would like to close some stores and move to an online platform. How many TV’s should they sell
to ensure they maintain the same profitability, keeping in mind the discounts applied on the ecommerce
portal.
A: Again, developed a mathematical formula to answer the question.
I: Should they move to an online platform? Will there be a decrease?
M: Spoke about push marketing, how they might lose sales as a person who comes to buy a TV might also buy
a home theatre system.
I: Some stores are making lower profits than the others, if we close these stores, how much more money should
the others make to compensate for the decrease in profitability.
M: (They had provided me some numbers) Basic mathematics was used to answer the questions.
I: Thanks, it was a pleasure to meet you, any questions?
M: Asked about how you manage through the Strategy and
Operations. Result: Cleared.
Round 3.
Director Round
I: How are you? How was your day?
M: Answered
I: Walk me through the case study.
M: Told him about my experience.
I: Asked some questions regarding my CV and work experience.
M: Answered.
I: Any questions?
M: Asked a question about the culture at S&O.
I: Thanks.
Result: Did not clear
What went wrong?
I can’t point a finger on any one factor that went wrong, most probably, I faltered somewhere in the
CV answers.
Suggestions:
Ensure that you give equal importance to the HR questions and CV points.
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Experience: 16
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineer
Work Experience
BrahMos Aerospace Pvt. Ltd.
41 months
MNNIT Allahabad
Quality Control
Academic Record: (89.40, 89.60, 87.20)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
• I did a thorough preparation of CV both from technical and HR point of view. Each point mentioned in CV
should be supported with a genuine explanation.
• Give as many mock PIs as possible. Get the feedback from different people especially someone from your
relevant domain. Writing HR questions and delivering them during PIs are two different things. I practiced HR
questions to come across as smooth and spontaneous.
• I solved lots of cases and guesstimates of both categories: with less data and data exhaustive. Study material
referred was Case in point, IIM-A Casebook and AT Kearney book. Try and solve the guesstimates from day
to day to examples. Usually guesstimates are given from one of the CV points. So I prepared my CV points in
that aspect also.
Workshop:
All shortlisted members were divided in a team of 10- 12 members. Same case was given to each team this
time. The case given was about “Acquisition” of an internet service provider company by a large company of
similar domain. The case was data intensive but they produced the data only when the group asked for it. The
panelists were helping the group to guide towards solving the case. We were supposed to calculate EBITDA,
synergy and dollar value at the end.
Interview Experience:
Interview Rounds:
• 1st Round: HR and Guesstimate.
• 2nd Round: Case based PI
• 3rd Round: Partner Round
• 1st Round: The interview started with a basic Tell me something about you question. Then she asked about
some HR questions like: any achievement, any failure I have faced.
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• After that she gave me a guesstimate about number of Counter Strike downloads in Mumbai per year (as
I had won CS championship in college).
• Total duration – 20 mins
• 2nd Round: My case based round was taken by two persons one of them being a Manager. The case was
about expansion of valves manufacturing company (US based) in Indian and Chinese market. At the
starting of the case itself the panellists told me that I need not ask about any data because they were
interested in my approach.
After the case was given I summarized it and asked for any specific targets that company is aiming for. They
told me market acquisition up to 10% in first year.
I started with asking questions about our client – its products, revenues, costs and customer it is targeting for.
All this information was given to me as and when asked.
Then I enquired about the competition in Indian market (as they asked me to focus on India). I asked about
the market share by each competitors.
After this, I started with barriers to entry in the Indian market like Government regulations, access to raw
materials, land, labour etc., threat from competitors, customer targeting.
After this point, I was asked to calculate the market share for valves. The information given included sectors
where valves is used like Oil plants, Gas and thermal power plants etc. The panellists were less interested in
numbers and more in approach.
Once the market share was calculated, then I was asked about selecting location for manufacturing plant. I
considered factors like – labour and raw material availability, supplier availability, states acting as tax
havens, distance from our targeted customers etc.
Once the location was finalized, I was asked about how these factors would change if I were to open a plant in
China. I told India has more youth and thus better and cheap skilled labour. They seemed to like my approach till
then.
Then the interviewer asked about how would I approach opening a plant. I gave three options – starting from
scratch by constructing a plant, having a JV with an existing market leader and acquiring a small player so as
to capitalize on his distribution channels and build it further. I told final decision would be taken on the basis
of cost-benefit analysis.
Overall, very less data was given to me even if I asked for it. The panellists told that were more interested in
my approach of solving the case. The case went very smooth. There were 1-2 times when I was deviating from
the path but they guided me by giving small hints.
Duration – 45 mins
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Experience: 17
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
ZS Associates
29 months
University of Pune
Analyst
Academic Record: (87, 84, 69)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
Cases & Guesstimates - I prepared cases from books like case in point and from online resources like IIM A
casebook and some cases on internet. For guesstimates, I prepared some basic data related to demographics
which would help in assuming data for guesstimates. Also I practices guesstimates on lines of similar questions
found in interview experiences.
Resume: I had prepared on all expected questions related to my resume. And also for any possible follow
up questions depending on my answers.
Interview Experience:
Round 1: This was an HR Round
Q1. Introduce yourself – Had a prepared answer for this question. Focused on those aspects of my past
work experience which were related to the profile being offered.
Q2. Guesstimate
Estimate market size for an American nutrition food maker, who is planning to launch a product in Indian
market. There is an existing player in Indian market with a not so good product. Answered this question by
segmenting the market and then estimating the size for each segment. The interviewer then asked if I
could have done this by any other method. Result: Not Cleared
What went wrong?
It was expected to get the market size by using market share of the one existing player in Indian market. But
the mistake I made here was that I assumed that there is only one player as the interviewer had told that there
is one existing player in Indian market. So, I could not think of using the market share method.
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Experience: 18
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electronics & Communication Engineering
Work Experience
PeopleSoft CRM & EMC2 Monitoring & Reporting
Tool, Wat4Net
Institute of Technology and Management, Gurgaon
29 months
Academic Record: (95%, 91%, 78.45%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
• Cases & Guesstimates - My preparation for consulting interviews was very limited. I did spend some time on
Case in Point and Victor Cheng Videos in the last few days once the shortlists came out.
• Resume: I had a generic Resume for consulting as well as SCM interviews, which revolved mainly around my
Work-Ex in Telecom domain. I was well prepared on questions relating to the same, with instances,
challenges etc.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
This was a Guesstimate Round
Q1. Introduce yourself - Started with basic introduction about self and focused on work experience.
Q2. Question from Resume, I had mentioned an 80% improvement in process - Explained what process
was followed, how the improvement was suggested and implemented
Q3. Follow up question on the challenges I faced - Mentioned about people and skill set mismatch
related challenges
Q4. Guesstimate the number of Towers(BTS) in Mumbai - Clarified on the Towers meaning BTS –
Base transceiver station for Mobile telephony only, or for other Radio transmission as well.
Number of Users - Started off with the population, number of users based on the telecom penetration
Number of requests per user – Assumed a number, taking my own example as a general user
Capacity of a tower - Number of requests a Tower can handle per minute, extrapolating to a day
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Assuming the towers are designed to cater to the demand per day, User Requests / Tower Capacity as the
desired number of Towers
Did not clear.
What went wrong?
I did not have the right approach towards the Guesstimate, in fact I would call it too naïve a way of estimating. It
was mainly due to lack in preparation and practice. I did not have any specific numbers, and assumed the figures
mostly. Also, I did not consider important factors like, the Population density, Load factor, Service providers
using same towers etc.
Suggestions:
Do not wait till you get the calls to start preparations. Practice in groups. Also, be prepared with some
basic stats relating to your field, city etc.
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Experience: 19
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electronics and Communication Engineering
Work Experience
Accenture
46 months
MAIT Delhi, IP University
SAP Consulting
Academic Record: (82.4%, 86%, 81.39%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
1. Formulation of CV and preparation for CV answers: All your interviews start with CV, so this section is of
paramount importance.
2. HR Questions – Standard deck of HR Questions (39 Qs), circulated by Placement Committee was sufficient.
3. Guesstimates: I learnt about the demographics of India, my native state, Mumbai and practiced around 2530 guesstimates. Prepare as many of them as possible. Other than Google, Vault and Quora are some sources
that can be scoured for good guesstimates and approach.
4. Case lets: I primarily read Case in Point for preparation of cases. Some other casebooks that can be read are
IIM A Casebook, Victor Cheng videos.
5. General Awareness: I tried to regularly read the news and be up to date with the latest happenings in the
business world
Interview Experience:
1st round (1 interviewer, duration – 15 mins)
My first round was with a Manager. He asked me some CV Questions on my work experience, internship
and hobbies. Apart from that, there were some HR Qs like Tell me about yourself, Major achievements and
challenges.
There was a guesstimate for me.
As I have represented my school in badminton at regional level, she asked me to guesstimate the number of
shuttlecocks sold in Mumbai in a month.
I took the top down approach and firstly describe various sectors which will be buying the shuttlecocks as
people who plays badminton on a regularly basis, shuttlecocks used in badminton tournaments and used in
clubs.
I divided the population of Mumbai into age groups and mainly the age-groups 5-17 and 18-30 are involved in
sports. Then I calculated the approximate number of people involved in both the age groups. After that I
estimated the number playing Badminton. After calculating the total number of persons playing badminton, I
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took average use of shuttlecock as 1 and their monthly requirement. After that I extrapolated that value by 10%
to accommodate the other factors for the shuttlecock usage.
Overall the interview went very smooth. The interviewer was very friendly and never made me feel the heat.
Did Not Convert
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Experience: 20
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Civil Engineering
Work Experience
Oracle, 11 Months, IT
Dark Horse IT Consulting, 23 months, IT
Indian Institute of Technology, BHU
Academic Record (90.2%, 85.2%, 68.6% )
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
I had prepared myself well on 3 fronts and with a higher focus on e-commerce
1. I read 2 newspapers daily and discussed with friends who follow the same practice. This helped immensely
to keep up with the current happenings. Along with reading the newspapers, it is very important to read
magazines and columns to form an opinion about the news.
2. I started practicing cases early on by reading the frameworks Solved cases of Case in Point. The casebooks of
various IIMs and Ivy League schools provide numerous examples. After this, I gave and took cases interviews
with my peers to understand the shortcomings.
3. HR Questions: Having a work-experience of three years means that one should be well prepared with all
sorts of HR questions. The more genuine answers fetch a higher point and I spent quite a lot of time on
HR questions. Also, prepare for the ‘Why XYZ firm’ well after studying about the company and the type of
projects it has been offering
Since, I liked the e-commerce sector, I did a deep study about the sector and it’s functioning. Although it wasn’t
directly useful in the consulting interview, it gives a lot of confidence to be good in one sector.
Interview Experience:
• Group Discussion
Case: The client is a conglomerate operating in around sixty countries and is facing problems of rising costs.
The different countries currently work on legacy systems and the challenge is to cut costs by the integrating
and using a single instance of the ERP system. The investment figure was given to $50 Million and we had to
discuss on 4 major questions
1. Challenges of a single instance implementation
2. Packaged product vs customized product
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3. The CIO had an experience with the finance module, so how will his experience come into play while
budgeting for this single implementation
Gist of the case discussion
Started with what exactly is an ERP implementation and what are the challenges in implementing it as a
single instance such as
Taxation structures
Multilingual abilities
Currency
Leave schedules
Forward and backward integration.
And many more
After this, we discussed on the advantages of getting this singles system, which mainly revolved around
the advantages of an integrated system i.e.
Integrated accounting
Better resource management
Then we discussed about the pros and cons of a customised system vs package system.
Following this, we discussed on the cost factor. The data related to cost was not given, however, the fall in
sales as a percentage was provided. We did not focus on too many numbers and discussed on the cost saving
aspects and how a onetime investment can yield a large term profits
Presentation.
This solution had to be charted down on a single chart paper and presented to a different panellist. We divided
the questions and roles and we focussed on the points which were discussed rather than adding new points.
The panellist kept on cross questioning to anyone randomly he also focussed on things we had missed out like
scalability and timeline of deployment, whether the deployment should be big bang rollout or phased rollout
of the system.
Interview (all rounds)
Number of panellists -2
P1- Tell me about yourself?
Told
P1 - How is the PLM system important and where is it implemented? (based on my work ex)?
Told, was prepared with this one.
P1 – What do you expect from the summer project at this firm?
Told
P2 – You have a background with Oracle, so is there a s preference of working on oracle over SAP?
I told no such preference as ERP implementation is a huge thing and there are many aspects to it, and in 2
months, I’ll find something new to learn.
P1 - Any Questions?
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Asked about the functions of technology consultant, whether it is limited to ERP implementation only?
P1- ERP is the basic stuff, there is no end to the ever-evolving technology world and the role offers many other
challenges in the technology domain
Suggestions:
Try to make the interview a friendly conversation, interact with the panel as much as you can within the limited
time. If you are being grilled too much, know when you should say “I don’t know”.
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Experience: 21
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Tata Motors
46 months
SRM University
Academic Record (88.4%, 77.6%, 83.72%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
1. CV: The first and foremost important thing is to prepare about your CV. All the points that you have
mentioned in the CV should be at your fingertips. Any question can be asked from your CV. I prepared all
the points in my CV thoroughly with an eye on every minute detail.
2. HR Questions: The personal questionnaire released by Placement Committee gave a good idea of the basic
HR Questions and that sufficed for the interview preparation
3. Case Practice: Through various case books available like Case In Point
4. Specific Sectors: I briefly learned about the latest developments in some sectors and also the important
terms and jargons.
5. General Awareness: Read newspapers and surfed websites to remain aware about the latest and important
news around the globe.
6. Read about the firm through various sources and about the job description.
Interview Experience:
• Group Discussion
The group discussion was more of a case based activity. In my group there were 8 members. All of us were given
a case to read. Two minutes were given to read the case and then 20 minutes were given to discuss the case and
prepare a presentation on a piece of chart paper. At the end of 20 minutes the current panel went out and a
different panel came in. The team had to present the case presentation to the new panel which was then
followed by Q&A.
Our case was about a FMCG company which had more than 100 product and market presence in more than 50
countries including BRICS. The company had plans to become marked leader especially in BRIC, but were
facing some serious issues such as rising overhead costs, indirect costs, decrease in earnings per share etc. The
company had a traditional ERP system in place. The CFO wanted to go for an advanced ERP system and he had
to pitch for the same to the Board of Directors.
The case had 3-4 specific question that were supposed to be answered.
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• Interview : I had only one round of interview. My interview was purely CV based. I was asked different
questions, with most of them being purely from my previous work experience. There were some HR
questions like your biggest achievement and challenge in Tata Motors etc. Then at the end I was asked
questions like why consulting and why the particular firm.
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Experience: 22
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Chemical engineering
Work Experience
Reliance Industries Limited
Institute of Chemical Technology
47 months
GET, Technical Servicing, Panel Operator
Academic Record (90%, 86.83%, 65.56%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
1. Prepared using case in point. Used the basics mentioned at the start of the book and then using the cases
after that for practice.
2. Used the Internet to solve more case studies.
3. Mock group case studies with the candidates.
4. Read news for staying up to date on current affairs
5. Since Functional profile interview is based more on CV, worked rigorously on CV points, especially work
experience part as I have 4 years of experience. Did background studies on all points mentioned in CV.
6. Mock interview with seniors focusing on CV and basics of SCM and operations
Interview Experience:
Group case study with 8 candidates.
An MOC operating in more than 50 countries was facing loss of profits due to lack of integration.
The organization wanted to implement an integrated ERP.
1. What are the challenges in implementing such a system?
2. Would a packaged system help or customized is better. Advantages and disadvantages?
3. $50million has been quoted as implementation cost. How would you evaluate the same?
One round of PI
1. Tell us about your academic and work profile?
2. Tell us what did you do in troubleshooting and technical evaluation of projects (this was part of my profile
introduction)
Why consulting?
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Experience: 23
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical and Automation Engineering
G B Pant Govt. Engg. College, Delhi
Work Experience
TAir Liquide Global E & C solutions
34 months
Planning & Scheduling
Academic Record (83%, 74.6%, 76.9%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Methodology adopted for preparation: I primarily prepared for 4 things:
1. Did case in point cases and did victor cheng videos.
2. Prepared my CV points well. Read about the work that I did in my previous company.
3. Read about the scope of improvement in the established working process of my department.
4. Prepared for case interviews with the seniors.
5. Read about ERP.
Interview Experience:
I had 2 rounds.
1st round Case discussion, duration – 20 mins)
The case given to us was that of a telecom company working in south east Asia. The company had the option
of expanding into 4G segment in India or going for a market outside India. We were supposed to analyze the
situation and provide suggestions. We were also asked to predict the kind of service departments we would
establish if we have to enter new market.
The case went well. The moderator gave us 15 min. to discuss and a chart paper to present our case. Followed
by our case presentation was a Q & A round.
2nd Round Interview (1 interviewer)
My interview was completely based on my past work experience.
Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
What worked for me was a crisp 1 min introduction followed by a question regarding what more he wants me to
emphasize on
Q2. Tell me about your work profile.
Defined my work profile and the use of an oracle based software. This question got the interviewer interested in
the extent to which I have worked on the particular software.
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Q3. How would you integrate Primavera with SAP?
Told about the things that we always felt were lacking in the software we used.
Q4. How is EPM different from EEPM?
Read about the above and linked them with SAP.
Q5. Do you have any question?
Asked about SAP and primavera linking projects.
What Went Right?
For GD,
• The group decided that we should have a good civil discussion to maximize our chances of selection.
• We kept track of time so that we do not end up exceeding our time.
• Everyone got a chance to speak and others listened and responded.
• No one tried to force his points rather everyone suggested and allowed the points to be discussed.
Suggestions:
There will be two different people. One will listen to the discussion and other will come for presentation.
Scoring for both will be different.
Be participative in all the activities.
A chart paper will be given to present your case. Everyone should chip in with their inputs.
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Experience: 24
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Aeronautical Engineering
Work Experience
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd
29 months
JCET , Kerala
Manufacture and upgradation of fighter & trainer
Academic Record (90.6, 87.2, 78)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Methodology adopted for preparation:
1. CV preparation: Make sure you have a solid CV highlighting all your major achievements. You should know it
like the back of your palm. They might grill you about any point. So if you write anything make sure you
have proper basic knowledge about the topic.
2. HR Questions: Prepare proper answers for all the questions, make sure you practise saying them so that they
don’t seem made-up. Make sure none of the answers you give are conflicting with each other. Put special
emphasis on why consulting & why XYZ.
3. Learn about the firm: A basic SWOT analysis, what makes them unique, what do they seek in a candidate etc.
This can be a great help in preparing answers for why XYZ firm, why consulting and similar questions
4. Case GDs: Mock case GD's. They can be from any domain including M&A, market entry, pricing or possibly a
mix of multiple types. The shortlists for tech are quite small and this can also be an opportunity to interact
with each other and devise a strategy for the SIP day.
I had the opportunity to attend the workshop. It didn’t help greatly for the tech interview, but it is good to get
an idea of how the people who might interview you carry themselves, how they talk, what are they like etc. But
it’s not a necessity at all.
Interview Experience:
Case GD & Presentation: candidates will be divided into groups of 7-10. Each group will be given a case, usually
in the form of a printed sheet. The team will have 2-3 minutes to think about the topic and then about 15
minutes to discuss. Let me be very clear, this is a case discussion, not a case argument. Talk with your
teammates, carry forward ideas, contribute valid points. The main focus should be on devising a solution not on
being the loudest or speaking the most. It has to be professional and civil. There will be a panellist observing
you during the discussion
You are also required to make a presentation on the basis of the solution you have come up with. You will have
to create a presentation on a A3 sheet using sketch pens etc. Depending on panellist they might ask you to do
this while discussing or might give you a few minutes after the GD to complete it.
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After the GD the panellists are changed. So the new person who comes in will have no idea about the GD that
had occurred earlier. The evaluation will be based purely on the chart that you have prepared and the
presentation you give. The panellist may ask you clarifications and queries about the topic, either individually or
to the team as a whole. Be civil here as well, do not speak over your teammates and be polite.
Interview: This will be a standard interview. Both technical and HR questions will be asked. A few of the staple
queries are: why consulting and the all-important tell me about yourself.
CASE GD:
The panellist walked in introduced himself. He was very friendly and explained the process to us. He made it
explicit that he wants a case discussion and not an argument. The case was given to us in the form of a single
printed sheet. The case was about a telecom firm who was a market leader in Southeast Asia. Over the past
few years, revenue and profits have been decreasing and competition has been steadily growing in the
Southeast. The company recently bagged the 4G license in their home country, implementation of which will
take up 75 % of their resources and workforce. Also, the government has mandated that the 4G services must
be launched before the beginning of the next financial year or the company will be heavily fined.
It is now that the company won the license to set up telecommunications in an African country with a growing
economy. The country has no wireless connectivity as of now. We were asked to figure out the future course of
action and strategy for the company with proper justification for the decision.
The discussion was very good. Everyone pitched in with valid points. There was no bickering and everyone could
speak well. We discussed the various aspects and decided that entering Africa would be the best course of
action, the points that we used to validate the claims were that the SE Asian market is getting saturated and the
company needs to expand more. In Africa, they had the first mover’s advantage. We proposed setting up a JV
with an African player as the best entry strategy. All the points were backed up by data and points.
At the end of approximately the 12th minute we proceeded to work on our chart. The panellist informed us at
the end of the fifteen minutes allocated for the GD. By the time we had made our presentation chart. He did not
look at it too intently, but instead thanked us for the discussion and informed that the next panellist will be
arriving shortly to evaluate our presentation.
By the time that the next panellist arrived (approximately 5 minutes later) we had discussed amongst ourselves the
sequence in which we will be presenting the case. Each topic was assigned to a person and I concluded the
presentation. He asked us a few doubts regarding the exit strategy and asked us to clarify a few of the points.
Overall the process was over in about 25-30 minutes.
I proceeded to the S&O 1st round interview immediately after this. By the time I returned after that the
tech panel was ready for my interview.
PERSONAL INTERVIEW:
The interviewer was a senior consultant. We shook hands and he spoke a little bit about himself before
proceeding with the interview. The initial few minutes was all about putting me at ease. After those we
proceeded to the business end of the interview.
Interviewer: So, tell me about yourself, what have you done so far in life?
Me: I gave the answer that I had prepared for my HR question booklet. I mentioned about HAL and how I got my first
taste of consulting and problem solving from there. That motivated me to come to NITIE the “Mecca of SCM
& Ops”. Basically, I structured my answer in a way that it seemed that the reason I chose NITIE was because I
wanted a good shot of getting into consulting.
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Int: So, you are interested in consulting huh?
Me: Absolutely sir. (I proceeded to tell him about the things I find most interesting about consulting. Dynamic,
great learning opportunity, Good pay, Opportunity to work with the industry’s finest etc.)
“And at the risk of sounding a tad bit unprofessional, sir I have to confess that consultants are seen like…. kind
of the rock stars of the corporate world. I am not in it just for the glamour but I have to admit it was
an influencing factor” (He smiled and seemed genuinely pleased with that answer)
Int: Even then quitting a government job in a big PSU like HAL seems like a bit of a gamble, doesn’t it? And why
this firm in particular? Aren’t there many manufacturing companies coming here that will be more up your
alley?
Me: (I had anticipated this question and explained how I wanted more from my career; I used the phrase ‘a bit
of inorganic growth’, to swing for the proverbial fences etc.)
Int: And that’s why you chose NITIE correct? So, how’s college life for you?
We proceeded to discuss a bit about the college and how it’s great to be here and the opportunities it provides.
I highlighted that many major consulting firms come to NITIE and that helped me decide to come here.
Int: You seem to know clearly what we do in Tech consulting….so Have you had any experience with ERP in the
past?
Me: Sir the ERP system we used in HAL is called IFS. (I proceeded to explain a bit about it)
Int: so, you were more of an end user?
Me: Yes, sir. I am afraid that I have no prior experience when It comes to the nitty-gritties of the implementation
of ERP packages in a firm. However, the work that I have done relied a lot on the IFS system. (I proceeded to
explain about how we worked on IFS and how it made life a lot easier for the officers)
Int: So, you had mentioned that you are an aero engineer and the work you did including that in the
planning department was totally different from what was taught to you in engineering. So how did you
manage that? How did you go about learning the systems?
Me: (This was not a question I had prepared for. I proceeded to explain how HAL’s management trainee
program is quite exhaustive and informative. I told him about how I went about learning new things in
my organization. How I approached my seniors and got information from my peers about issues that
needed attending to.
He asked a few clarification questions and probed further by putting up situations like “What if your senior is
on a leave of absence and the only person you can contact is your department head? What if someone is
unwilling to help you and you have a deadline etc.
All my answers were honest and what I thought would be the most logical thing to do
After this he asked a few more HR questions like strengths, weaknesses, things I am passionate about etc.
He also asked if I am comfortable working night shifts, do I have any experience of working night hours etc.
He asked me if I had any doubts or questions:
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I asked him how a consultant’s performance is evaluated. In many cases companies fail at implementing
ERP because of internal issues. I gave a few instances for this and then asked how would you hold the
consultant accountable then.
He gave a lengthy answer about how they evaluated their consultants and they have checks in place to
ensure that the consultants are trained in the best way to enable them to get the job done.
With that the interview wound up. A short while later I was informed that I cleared and am out of the
SIP process.
Suggestions:
Please make sure you prepare all the HR questions. It’s all about how effectively you can communicate your
points and how confident you seem. You will be asked out of the box questions just keep calm and answer in
the way it best seems fit. Be yourself and be confident about yourself. And remember it’s just an interview. If
you have braved through engineering, then trust me you have seen far worse.
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Experience: 26
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Power Engineering
Work Experience
Adani Power Limited
46 months
National Power Training Institute
Academic Record (89%, 81%, 83%)
Interview Verdict: Did Not Convert
Preparations:
1. Case and Guesstimates: For cases, I mostly relied on Case in Point and IIM Ahmedabad casebook. There
are some more casebooks like that of Vault, McKinsey etc.
a. We also practiced some group case studies. Seniors, who appeared for the process in the previous
year, guided us from their experience.
b. For Guesstimates, I used internet to explore different types of questions.
2. CV: Being prepared to answer any questions asked from one’s CV is of pivotal importance. This is applicable
to all the interviews. I was thorough with all the points I have mentioned in my CV. As I have work experience
of almost 4 years, I gave special emphasis on my job responsibilities and achievements at my previous
organization.
3. HR Questions: Most of the interviews start with the question ‘’tell me something about yourself’’ or
something on similar lines. So, preparing the basic HR questions well is essential. I prepared the
questionnaire provided by Placement Committee and that much should suffice.
4. General awareness: I regularly read newspapers and online articles to keep updated with the latest and
important news around the world. Used the internet platform to know about recent updates in the sector I
had worked in.
5. Read about the firm, their businesses, values and particularly ‘why this firm. Read thoroughly about the job
description that the company were offering to us.
Interview Experience:
Group Discussion:
The first round was a case based group discussion. There were 7 members in the group. We were given the
case to read and asked to go through it for the first five minutes.
The case was on an Asian telecom company whose business was primarily spread across the home country and
other emerging countries. As the competition grew, the profit margin got reduced and they were looking for
new avenues to increase their profit. At the same, they won a license from the 4G spectrum auction in their
home country. But there were penalties associated if they failed to complete the project on time. Africa was an
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unexplored region as per as penetration of mobile services were concerned. We were asked to analyze the
conditions and decide the next step for the company.
The next fifteen minutes were allocated for the discussion. We had to solve the case within the stipulated time
and had to present it on a chart paper. The first panel went out after we finished the discussion and a new panel
came in for the presentation. We, as a team, briefed him about the case and presented the solution we
proposed.
This was an eliminating round.
Interview:
I had one round of interview. I was first asked about me as a person, my job responsibilities and my
achievements. As I had already worked on ERP platform the next part of the interview mostly covered
discussions related to ERP and SAP in particular. The panellist checked my understanding of ERP and the job
responsibilities of a technology consultant. I was given some imaginary situations and was asked to propose
solutions to address them. Afterwards I was asked why I will choose consulting over other domains. In the end, I
was asked why I wanted to join there and what are the businesses they have.
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Experience: 27
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineer,
Work Experience
Maruti Suzuki
24 months
MNNIT, Allahabad
New Product development
Academic Record (90.4%, 92%, 79.1%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Case Preparation: Prepared all the type of cases from Case in Point. Apart from that covered all the cases from
AT Kearney casebook & IIM-A casebook.
HR Questions: prepared for consulting specific HR questions given in Case in Point, apart from that HR questions
given by placement committee.
Workshop
Case was given on profitability. An automotive manufacturer AutoCo is dependent on numerous suppliers. One
of those suppliers supplies many critical parts (& 90% of its supply goes to AutoCo). It is threatening to close
down due to significant losses.
The focus of workshop was on finding key issues, key factors for stabilizing product supply, finding long term &
short term solutions, doing profitability analysis & analysing a lot of data.
Interview Experience:
Round 1: Basic HR questions on Introduction, Why consulting? What do you know about the firm?
After that 1 case on profitability (declining revenues) of a bike manufacturer in US. It was related to product
mix change. Within the case, a guesstimate on market sizing was given.
Round 2: Again, basic HR questions on introduction, Why MBA? Why NITIE? Why consulting?
What do you know about the firm? Something about you that’s not written in CV.
First was a case on Market entry: A hair product company wants to enter food products market. You have
first meeting with CEO. List down all the questions that you will need to ask him to come to a
recommendation. Explain the rationale behind every question.
Then second a guesstimate based on hobby: Suppose you write a novel on your biking experiences 10
years down the line, estimate the market for your novel then.
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Third was a case on pricing: How will you price your novel?
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Experience: 28
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Tata Motors
35 months
NIT Jaipur
Product Manager
Academic Record (90.8%, 80%, 86.5%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
• I started off with the basic HR questions. The ones shared by the Placement committee helped a lot. So
give ample amount of time to them. These HR questions were generic.
• To prepare for consulting, I started with Case in Point. It starts not with the frameworks but the nitty gritty
of consulting as a career. So it will help you prepare answers of questions like
• Why Consulting, which is one of the most probable interview questions.
• For cases, I first went through case in point. But it becomes confusing owing to a large number of
frameworks. Victor Cheng’s videos on YouTube solves this problem. Also, google ‘victor cheng framework
pdf’ for a soft copy of his frameworks.
• Once, after getting some idea of frameworks, I applied them on cases given in IIM-A case book and Darden
case let. You can try case books from other colleges also. The case books are easily available with seniors/
Placement committee
• For guesstimates, I went through generic examples in the book ‘ace your case’. Also, you can google
guestimate examples to know different approaches.
• Another important way to solve guesstimates is to make a group of 3-4 and solve random questions.
E.g.: number of red cars in Mumbai, number of taxis in any city (Mumbai), length of roads in Mumbai.
• Remember, it is the approach to a guesstimate that matters, not the solution.
Interview Experience:
First was CV based shortlist. Though, the criteria are not much clear, but consistency (in a positive way) in
academics, and having a core background/ work ex improves your chances of getting shortlisted.
Round 1:
It was a case interview which lasted for 30 minutes. The interview panel consisted of only one person. The first
question was ‘tell me about yourself’. Later he jumped to my work-ex. I explained my responsibilities for a
couple of minutes. But he again asked me to explain more. So, I continued for 2-3 minutes more. Then he asked
me about my hobbies. He also showed interest in Placement Grid, a YouTube venture which I started in 2012.
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He then asked me why consulting. This initial part was to more of a behavioral interview and he wanted me to
be comfortable.
Then he started the case. The case was a profit/Loss case. There was no data involved. It discussed about
a bicycle manufacturer in US whose profits are declining. This was the problem statement. He wanted me
to identify the core issue and give some recommendations.
I took off a minute to formulate the framework. I started with some questions about the industry and how it
is doing, new competitors in the market, the company’s market share, and the products it manufactures.
He answered all the questions. I segmented the product into three different categories- kids, teen and
racing/tourer/sport. After probing into each segment, the teen segment was seeing a decline. I did a profit
break up for this segment. And it turned out that fixed cost has increased, causing the decline in profits.
He then asked me to come up with some recommendations to offset the increased cost. He wanted me to
think and give him multiple options to increase profits, either to decrease costs or increase revenues.
After this case, he asked me whether I have any question. I asked him about the knowledge transfer among
teams.
Round 2:
Round two was more of an HR round. It also went for 30 minutes. There was no case as such. Again,
the interview panel had one interviewer. She started off by asking me how was my day.
Her second question was about how my stay at NITIE has been till now.
Then she asked me to explain the latest nestle fiasco with financials. She also discussed the cost involved in
the whole episode and how it will harm nestle. We also discussed about how it could have been handed
better. Then she asked me to rate myself on my presentation skills on 0-10 scale. She also asked me whether I
am comfortable working with data.
Then she asked me whether I have any query.
While I was leaving, she asked me to describe myself in one word.
What Went Right?
Presence of Mind. Thorough preparation of HR questions, especially – tell me about yourself and
why consulting. Be cool and keep a smiling face, but not overdo it.
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Experience: 29
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Industrial Engineering
Work Experience
Ernst & Young
College of Engineering Trivandrum
27 months
Data Analytics
Academic Record (92.8%, 88%, 76.6%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Prep Methodology: As I expected shortlists only from consulting firms, my preparation was majorly focused on
cases. Practiced few cases from casing point and IIM A casebook. Random Guesstimates and some based on
my resume points (interests – e.g. football- the number of footballs sold in India annually). Thorough with the
CV, expanding every single point – This is extremely important if you have a relevant work experience.
Study resources: Case in Point & IIM A casebook – for Practice cases, Victor Cheng Videos for frameworks.
Interview Experience:
I had 4 rounds.
1st round (1 interviewer, duration – 15 mins) – CV based and guesstimate.
Asked about two points in CV.
Why consulting – Told about the challenges it brings about and chance to work in multiple projects, domains
etc.
Guesstimate – “Number of fans currently (that point in time) running in the state of Kerala” - Categorized to
houses and school/offices. Divided houses further based on income group and offices based on size. Used
population to get the count of houses and my home town as the sample to get the count of offices. Also,
considered facts like larger offices are more likely to have air conditioners and most of middle and high
income class would be office going and hence fan will not be working at that moment.
2nd Round (1 interviewer, duration – 25 mins)
Case Round –
Asked about the day, how’s it going and then asked to introduce.
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Gave basic introduction, work experience and interests. Stopped by saying about my interest in football and that
I am a Manchester united fan – The interviewer knew a lot about football and this resulted in the following case
“Manchester United’s profits down from last year. What is going on?”
Me: Can I have 2 mins to structure my thoughts.
Interviewer: Yes.
I followed the basic profit loss framework.
Me: I would like to consider revenue side first. How has been the trend in revenue. Has it gone down
from previous year.
Interviewer: Yes.
He gave me a few numbers.
Me: Listed all the revenue streams for a club, as a big supporter this was fairly easy for me. Once I listed all
I asked the interviewer for the trend in revenue for all these streams.
He gave me the trend. There was a drop in the Sponsorship revenue.
Me: I think here is the issue. I want to dig further to see why exactly the problem arose. And listed few reasons
that could be causing the issue. The main reason could be because some deals might have expired and the
club might not have been able to get equally good deals.
Interviewer: Yes, that’s the issue, the main kit sponsorship ended this year and the club was not able to strike
a good deal. What could be the reasons?
Me: Explained about the poor performance of the tem in recent years, not playing Champions league football,
No Asian players (Most of the United supporters are in Asia)
Interviewer: Good, how can we improve the situation?
Me: United need to perform much better, and suggested some points – new players, academy revamp,
more tours in Asia to keep the fan base.
I looked into the cost side as well, but there wasn’t anything noticeable hence concluded the case.
He further asked about my work experience and if any questions for him – I asked about the career
progressions, if it’s merit based and so on.
Cleared
3rd Round (1 interviewer, duration – 30 mins)
Interviewer: Asked to introduce, Couple of questions from CV, Why Consulting, why would the firm suit you?
Answered all. Talked about my previous consulting experience, why I found it challenging and focused on the
work culture in the firm
Case: – “A food preservative industry in loss despite increasing its market share” – Profit and loss frame work,
Checked the revenue side to find why market share has increased. Looked at all the trends – the clients and
competitors and found out overall market size has reduced but our market has remained the same.
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The reason was that the client has kept the price as same, but competitors increased the price.
Looked at the cost side to gain more insight – asked for different trends for cost streams – found out that the
supplier has increased the cost because they had spent money on R&D too develop a new ingredient eliminating
most of the health concerns.
This change was not communicated properly to the customers, who were not willing to pay higher
prices, forcing the client to keep the price constant despite increase in the cost.
Interviewer asked for a few suggestions: Discussed about effectively marketing the product based on the
improvements and health factor, targeted marketing, increasing price, releasing as a new product to change
any perceptions, changing suppliers in worst case. Explained in details the circumstances where these steps
must be taken.
She was satisfied.
4th Round (1 interviewer, duration – 5 mins)
Casual discussion on Kerala, Work experience and a challenging project.
What Went Right?
The case about my favourite football team helped me in second round. Being thorough with the profile
also helped me in most of the rounds
Suggestions:
Be thorough with your CV, especially if you have a relevant work experience. In that case, most of the time
will go with a project or two from the experience.
For consulting interviews, make sure that you mention your interests because the guesstimates and cases might
be based on it and it would make your case/guesstimates much easier. Practice some guesstimates based on the
interests and Work experience domain (e.g. If experience is in oil and gas sector, “Volume of petrol consumed
per day in your home city?”)
Never keep your preparations to the last week. You will not get time.
Make sure you have a good answer for why consulting/ supply chain and why the company. This was asked in
all the interview. Try to connect the same to your background.
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Experience: 30
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electronics & Telecom.
Work Experience
Fresher
VESIT, Mumbai University Academic
Record (96%, 91.8%, 9.36)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Methodology adopted for preparation: I primarily prepared for 4 things:
1. Prepared backup for each CV point
2. HR Questions – Standard deck of HR Questions, circulated by Placement Committee was sufficient.
3. Guesstimates: I prepared guestimates from my hobby and on random topics asked to me by my seniors
4. Cases: read a few basic frameworks from Case in Point. Prepared random cases form various websites
Interview Experience:
3 rounds. HR round, case interview & guesstimate. For me, the HR & case interview rounds were
clubbed together.
Round 1: HR + case interview
For the HR round I was asked to talk about my resume. Why consulting? Why not consulting after a few years
of experience? Consulting usually has people with a lot of experience, how will you fit in being a fresher, why
should we hire a fresher? What brought you to NITIE? What will you do if you are giving a presentation to a
client & in the middle of it you realise that there is a serious calculation error in the most important slide of
your presentation?
Case Interview:
It was a profit & Loss case. There is a shoppers stop store in a mall & it has been experiencing loss. Find out
the reason behind it & suggest ways to improve the situation.
Me: I first summarised the case & asked if I had got the objective right.
Interviewer: Yes
Me: Approached the profit & loss case in the traditional way. Profit = revenue – expense. Focused on the
expenses part first. Has there been any increase in the labour costs over the years?
Interviewer: Not much
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Me: Any increase in the commission expected by the various brands that shoppers stop keeps?
Interviewer: No
Me: Any increase in the rent being payed?
Interviewer: No
Me: So the problem seems to be on the revenue side. Have the no. of sales been dropping?
Interviewer: yes
Me: Has some other better mall opened nearby where the public is getting diverted to?
Interviewer: No
Me: Have the footfalls inside the mall remained the same in the past few months?
Interviewer: Yes
Me: Have the footfalls in the store remained the same?
Me: Has some other better mall opened nearby where the public is getting diverted to?
Interviewer: No
Me: Have the footfalls inside the store remained the same in the past few months?
Interviewer: No, they have decreased over time
Me: does the store cater to the needs of the public that enters it? Does it keep track of all the latest trends?
Is it catering the age group of the public entering the store?
Interviewer: Yes to all questions
Me: What is the location of the store inside the mall?
Interviewer: It is in a corner & beside a washroom.
The interviewer seemed happy at this point because this was the problem. The store was not properly visible to
the public.
Me: To increase sales put banners of shoppers stop store beside the entrance of the mall & put up directions to
direct the public to the store.
The interviewer seemed satisfied with the solution.
In the end I was asked if I had any questions for the interviewer?
It is extremely important to ask good questions in this part. This shows your interest in the company &
how enthusiastic are you about working in it.
ROUND 2:
Was asked about how the previous round was etc.
Was then given another problem. There is only one call centre of Airtel in Mumbai. Calculate its
approximate operating cost & provide a solution to optimize it.
I divided the cost in various parts such as the labour cost, equipment cost etc.
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I started it with finding out the number of airtel customers in Mumbai. Out of all these customers, I found out
the percentage that might be interested in using the services provided by the call centre. I divided what
percentage of which age group of the customer base might be using the service. I assumed the approximate
time for each call & the working hours of each employee. Based on that I calculated the number of employees
required & then assumed the salary of each employee to be 20k. I also included the salaries of the various
other employees in the hierarchy. This led me to the labour cost involved. In a similar manner I considered the
various other costs involved.
That was it, the interviewer seemed happy & I was again asked if I had any questions.
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Experience: 31
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
FMC Technologies Pvt. Ltd
47 months
NIT Warangal
Academic Record (83%, 79%, 75.5%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Study resources: Case in point (Great for developing the basics and know about the various frameworks used),
IIM- A casebook & Vault Guide to case interview (Both helped in gaining a different perspective to the problem)
Prep Methodology: Started by going through Case in point by myself. At a later stage, Did some case
discussions in group. In the end, what helped me gaining confidence was going through mock case interviews
with seniors. Relevant subjects: Only basics of accounting and supply chain were needed.
Interview Experience:
I went through 3 rounds of interviews. Each had just one panel member.
Generally, people go through at least one HR round, but for me, all three rounds of interviews were focused
on Either just case discussions or both cases and guesstimates
Interview 1: Brief about the interview including interview questions.
Q1. A quick intro
Q2. How has NITIE been so far? (Disc)
Q3. Did you like the presentation? what would you suggest making that better?
Q4. Case discussion:
A food preservatives company is seeing losses but the market share is increasing.
I was asked to find out the reasons for losses and make the recommendations.
Ans: Since, it is a standard profitability problem. I started by dividing the factors into external and internal ones.
Tricky bit was that market share was increasing and the competitors were leaving the market.
Apart from this, procurement costs also increased due to some R&D at supplier’s end.
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Asked to conclude the case at this point.
Suggestions included: To have a check on the industry health
Negotiating with the supplier and find out if rend cost was just one-time cost. Also, analyze if there are going
to be any benefits of the rnd.
To acquire the competitors who are leaving the market.
Interview 2: Brief about the interview including interview questions.
Q1: Quick Intro
Q2: Second case discussion:
Magnum has released its world-famous bar in India. Their sales for the first 6 months are given below:
60000, 55000, 55000, 25000, 20000, 15000
Consider yourself as the sales rep and figure out the approach to find out the issue. You have 3 months to
resolve the issue.
Ans:
With such problem, initially I came under huge pressure because I never saw any such problem and it was not
possible to apply a framework to the issue.
After taking 2 minutes to formulate the strategy, I inquired about factors such as industry as a whole,
Product info, marketing strategy, seasonality. They turned out to be not important here.
Then he guided me to consider the survey strategy at customer end where I was to formulate 4
questions related to the product and ask these to the customer.
My questions with interviewer’s answer are given below in the exact order:
-Do you like the taste of magnum?
Customer response: yes, it is very good
-What do you think will make the ice cream better?
Customer response: It melts very fast.
-How frequently do you buy it? (This was probably not relevant)
Customer response: twice in a week
-Do you think it is expensive?
Customer response: it is apt to the brand and taste
After concluding the problem of ice-cream melting too early we considered various option of correcting
that issue.
Finally, the data given was that normal ice cream is maintained at -6C for freezing, while magnum needs to
be frozen at -8C for better experience.
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We closed the case by considering the feasibility of putting dedicated freezers for magnum at all the stores.
This involved looking at each type cost incurred by company, their profits and break-even point.
Interview 3: Brief about the interview including interview questions.
Q1: Quick Intro.
Q2: we started the round with the guesstimate:
Indigo wants to start its flight between Mumbai and Chandigarh. So far only one air carrier operates on
this route. Find out the fleet strength, indigo should start with.
After finding out the potential client base, I arrived at the fleet strength needed.
Now the guesstimate was converted to a case and the problem statement was that indigo is not seeing
the expected revenue on this route, hence I was asked to find out the issue.
I started with the external factors (industry and economy)
Later, I moved on to all the sources of revenue and cost. This got a bit difficult when the interviewer asked
me just to list out each revenue and cost associated with the airline industry.
Once the listing out of all the revenue and cost avenues was done, I was asked to conclude the
case. Final Verdict (Selected/Rejected): Selected
Suggestions:
1. You will definitely get stuck at places, but don’t panic and simply ask them.
2. Case frameworks are just the tools to give you a structured thinking process, they are not applicable
everywhere.
3. Objective of the case can change at times, don’t lose the track and change your approach in between.
4. You can ask for a minute or two to think, at any point of time in the interview. This is much better than
asking non relevant questions.
5. I do believe that the case practice is important, but what is also important is to think on your feet because
every case or problem comes with new challenges.
In the end, be cool, interactive and confident.
Experience: 32
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Honda Cars
35 months
HBTI, Kanpur
Operations (Lean Manufacturing, Quality)
Academic Record: (84%, 82%, 81%)
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Deloitte S&O
Interview Experience:
Round 1
Find out the number of pencil cells sold in India
every day.
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Broke the problem into 3 heads
Batteries used in A.C. Remotes
Batteries used in T.V. remotes
Batteries used in other applications (Toys, Torch, etc.) Then
did 3 guesstimates for different heads and added up.
Used population approaches. Interviewer asked me don’t you think that people with higher income group will
be having more than 1 AC at their home.
Me: For the sake of ease of calculation I have considered linear distribution I will later add an error allowance
of 10%. There will be offices buildings etc. where we have more number of AC and TV etc.
Round 2: Case
Interviewer: TESLA company have made a Teleporting Machine, and they want to sell it to a company A.
You have been hired as a consultant for tesla to suggest them a price that to be quoted to A.
Me: What does this teleporting machine do? Is it the only self-sufficient machine or it requires some
regular accessories updates etc.
Interviewer: It’s a one-time install, it transports a person from one place to other in a blink of an eye. The
person should stand on the machine and type the name of the drop location and he will reach there after
pressing the GO button.
Me: How does he come back?
Interviewer: He has a remote and after pressing the return button he comes back to original location.
Me: Is there any other company working on the same project? Do we have anything of this kind in news or
can we expect similar product by other companies soon?
Interviewer: No, it’s an innovative product. First of its kind in the industry. As far as the innovations are
concerned all companies are working on innovations but as of now only TESLA has developed such products.
Me: Well, that sounds interesting, give me some times to collect my thoughts.
Interviewer: Sure, (and he walked out of the room for 3~4 minutes)
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Me: Since this is a case where no other price for reference is available in the market and this is first time
pricing for the company and no such product is available is the market so the company should go for price
based costing, i.e. the price that customer is willing to pay.
Interviewer: yes, you got it right. Now go ahead
Me: Now I will find out the monetary saving by A by using this machine in their daily purpose. And after
adding some profit margin I will reach on to some amount to be quoted.
Before going further, I want to ask few questions about the investment
cost Interviewer: Negligible.
Me: Fine, Since A is a consulting company and consultants are always on the move so the company, by
using teleporting, will be able to save travelling expenses and the consultant-hours (Time)
Interviewer: That right, how would you go ahead now?
Me: At this point, to show them that I have studied about the company, I told him that A has XXXX number
of employees and out of these I assume 40% are travelling.
Interviewer: Do not assume data, always ask.
Me: Sorry, can you please tell me the number of employees in A?
Interviewer: So, there are 200 employees in U.S.A and 300 in India.
Me: And how many of them travel and how often. Any further details about their travel?
Interviewer: U.S. office employees travel regularly every week to the domestic clients that is to the local U.S
based clients only, and the India office employees travel to U.S. office once in every 6 months on an average.
Me: Okay so I will first consider the U.S. employees travel domestically to local clients. Tell me something more
about their travel. When they leave, how they travel, client’s location from the airport etc.
Interviewer: A consultant leaves on Monday and comes back on Thursday. He uses taxi to move from office
to airport. Then takes a flight and takes a rental car after reaching at client’s location airport.
Me: So, can you tell me, what are the charges of the taxi, for the air travel and for the rental car that he takes?
Interviewer: The taxi charges are negligible as compared to air tickets. The flight costs $1600 to and fro. The
rental car that he takes with him costs $100 per day.
Me: Okay so the total saving in the Mon-Thu stay will be 1600+(100x4) =2000.
Interviewer: You are missing something. What you do when you go to a place take a rental car, what else?
Me: I will stay in a hotel. Okay so what are the hotel expenses?
Interviewer: $300 per day
Me: So now the figure goes to 2000+(300x4) = $3200
Apart from this, the consultant will also save time. So, I would like to know about the utilization of consultant
during the travel time. Does he work in the flight or taxi?
Interviewer: No, during travel nobody likes to work. And here employees also do the same.
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Me: So, what is the per hour salary of consultant and how many hours he saves?
Interviewer: per hour salary is $40 per hour and in the to and fro flight and taxi, he saves 8 hours
Me: So, he additionally saves $320
So, total money saved on one consultant per week is 3200+320 =
$3520 Per year saving on one consultant= 50 weeks x 3520 = $17600
(I have considered that there will be holidays, X-mas, Easter etc. so number of weeks rounded off to
50) Total saving on USA consultants = 200 consultants x 17600 =3520000 Interviewer: so, for the sake
of ease you can round it off to $3.5 Million
Me: Now I will work on the same approach for Indian employees
(in the same way, asked questions for India and calculated for 6 months and 300 employees it came out to be $1
Million so the annual expenses $2 Million)
Me: Total saving per year is $3.5 Million+ $2 Million = $5.5 million
After this I asked multiple questions enquiring about any further charges that the TESLA company will be
charging for.
I asked for Licensing type (open, single user, transferrable/ non-transferrable)
I asked for utility support charges (Maintenance, upgrade etc.)
I asked for resale value.
Finally, he made me to consider only $5.5 Million
Me: What is the life of the equipment?
Interviewer: 10 years
Me: So, the net worth will be $ 5.5 Million x 10 = $55 Million
Interviewer: That’s good you have reached out to a final figure. Now Tesla can sell it on this price only or
with some margin. Thanks, you have followed a proper approach and reached on to the conclusion
Round 3 (Normal Discussion)
In this round, by a different interviewer I was asked to summarize the TESLA case solved in previous round
After that a general discussion on Point to Point and Hub & Spoke model of Airlines
I was asked to discuss the Pros and Cons of both and suggest which is better for India and which one for USA.
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Experience: 33
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineer
Work Experience
Capgemini
60 months
NIT Calicut
CRM & Oracle ERP
Academic Record (72.2%, 78.5%, 60.5%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
1. Cases & Guesstimates - I was not expecting any consulting shortlists except for technology profiles. Hence my
preparations for consulting interviews was very limited. I did spend some time on Case in Point in the last
few days once the shortlists came out.
2. Resume: for consulting interviews, you have to be crystal clear with your resume. I was well prepared in this
area.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
This was an HR Round
Q1. Introduce yourself – Started with basic introduction and focused on work experience as I had 60 months
of experience.
Q2. Why the firm – I talked about the projects I did in the procurement domain and described about the
interest I developed in the area. Also, touched on the company’s software and similar soft wares which I had
come across during my experience. Doing a bit of research about the company helped me tackle the question.
Q3. What are your weaknesses? – I said public speaking, supported with examples and how I have been
working on it. Cleared
Round 2:
Resume based round.
First Question was to introduce and talk about my experience – I introduced and in my experience, I focused on
the procurement area – RFP & RFQ.
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The interviewer asked about my ERP experience in the procurement domain. I could answer well as I was well
prepared with my CV. There were many follow up questions which I could tackle and this turned out to be a very
healthy discussion.
He also gave me a situation where there were several suppliers with different attributes and I had to formulae a
methodology to select the best supplier.
Cleared
Round 3.
Case Round
‘The client had a Saloon shop and wanted to buy a new equipment worth 8 Lakhs and wanted a Bank loan, but
then he did not have a great credit history. So, Bank insisted that he had to return the money in 2 years and
only in that terms, the loan would be sanctioned. What should the client do?
Me: Should we help the client decide whether to take the loan or help in planning his payback?
Interviewer: The client has no other means and has to take this loan, you have to help with the pay back.
Me: First we should consider the cost side, how to reduce the cost associated.
Interviewer: The costs cannot be reduced from the current situation.
Me: I will consider the revenue side.
Interviewer: Okay
Me: Asked about the number of customers, revenue per customer, number of employees and average
time required per haircut/
Interviewer. There are 5 employees and average time per customer is 30 minutes Revenue per customer is 200
and the fill rate is 7/hour.
Me: will the new equipment reduce the time per customer.
Interviewer: No.
Me: Why does he want the equipment then?
Interviewer. To provide smoother experience, he believes in upgrading the shop regularly to provide better
services.
Me: We need to look at the ways to increase the fill rate?
Interviewer: How?
Me: Advertisements, notices.
Interviewer: That would increase the cost significantly and the client doesn’t want to increase the cost in
any case.
I was not able to think of anything else from here, but the interviewer helped me.
He asked me to consider case where customer leave the shop due to waiting.
Me: How much hours do they work?
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Interviewer: 9 Am – 5PM, 1-hour lunch break.
Me: All of them go for the lunch break together? If so, the 7 people coming in that hour might be leaving due
to the over waiting hours.
Interviewer: Yes, that is an issue. What do you propose?
Me: 3 people should be working during the lunch break, and they can go right after the first 2 comes back.
Interviewer: Good.
Me: They can also consider increasing the working hours. But that would increase the cost, but I believe the
increase in revenue would be high because the customer fill rate will increase after 5PM, especially o
working days.
Interviewer: Thank You. That’s all.
Did not clear.
What went wrong?
I could not structure the case, mainly due to lack in preparation. I did it based on whatever I heard from other
people preparing. One point I got stuck in the case, and the interviewer had to give me the direction
Suggestions:
Do not wait till you get the calls to start preparing for the cases. Calls are random and be prepared always.
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Experience: 34
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
43 months
NIT Calicut
Aerospace R&D
Academic Record: (89.4%, 93%, 80%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
1. Cases & Guesstimates
2. Resume – I had very good clarity on my resume. For every point on my resume, I had following prepared:
Description of activity, my role in the activity, hurdles I faced in my role and how I overcame them.
3. Newspapers in depth
Interview Experience:
Q1. Introduce yourself – Started with basic introduction. I focused on my work, my hobbies and my values.
Q2. Why consulting – Continuous learning opportunity, the firm known for good work culture
He switched on the AC and it was making a lot of noise. He wanted me to sell him the AC (Imagining he lives in
a cold Scandinavian country, in a remote location)
I told him that he was living in a remote location, where sound levels were very low and recent research showed
that low sound levels were reducing the efficiency of brain. So, the AC was designed to energize the brain. He
gave a big laugh and moved on to case.
Case: Choco bar sales of a company is going down in last two months. Sales given below
Month 1: 55000
Month 2: 55000
Month 3: 60000
Month 4: 60000
Month 5: 25000
Month 6: 10000
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Me: What is the retailer saying
Info: Customer returns are high
Me: Competitors
Info: No competitors: This is priced @ 90, Other products priced at 10 and 300.
Me: Any change in price or manufacturing process in last two months?
Info: No change
Me: Details of the company manufacturing it
Info: HUL is making this from UK
Me: How is it transported?
Info: Via ship
Me: Any cold supply chain problems
Info: Assume no problems till it reaches the retailer
Me: How is retailer storing the Choco bar
Info: Freezer
Me: Any other items stored in it
Info: 2 months back, retailer started storing new ice cream
Me: Details of the new ice cream
Info: found out that storage temp of the new ice cream is 2 degrees higher than that of our Choco bar, and at
lower temp, the new ice cream becomes hard.
Hence, problem was identified
Cleared the round
Round 2:
Asked a few questions about my resume
He zeroed into my hobbies, to be precise football
He asked me to assume myself to be in UK, and have two career options, either be a footballer or to be
a consultant in X firm. He wanted me to show him how I would approach the problem (write a cash flow
statement, with risk assessment). I just had to show the approach, no monetary values to be used.
My answer was as follows (Tree diagram drawn)
Consultant Career in X
Year 0
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Year 0
Join as Consultant in X (I get a basic salary and a variable salary)
Year 1:
Option 1: Continue as a consultant (Basic salary-10% hike + Variable salary) – 75% chance
Option 2: Jump to another company (Basic salary-30% hike+ Variable salary) – 20% chance
Option 3: Expel from X (No salary) – 5% chance
Year 2
Option 1: Continue in X and promoted (Basic salary-30% hike + Variable salary) – 60% chance
Option 2: Continue in X without promotion (Basic Salary-10% hike + Variable) -20%
Option 3: Jump to another company (Basic salary-30% hike+ Variable salary) – 15% chance
Option 4: Expel from X (No salary) – 5% chance
All the probability percentages were assumed, giving explanation on why I was choosing very low or high
value, but no explanation on the exact numbers.
At this point he was satisfied and he asked me to evaluate my football career
Football Career
Year 0
Assuming I am a decent player; I join a club (I get a basic salary and a variable salary depending on number
of games)
Year 1:
Option 1: Continue in the same club (Basic salary-10% hike + Variable pay) – 75% chance
Option 2: Jump to another club (Basic salary-30% hike+ Variable salary) – 20% chance
Option 3: Expel from club (No salary) – 5% chance
Year 2
Option 1: Continue in the same club (Basic salary-10% hike + Variable salary) – 30% chance
Option 3: Jump to another club (Basic salary-30% hike+ Variable salary) – 65 % chance
Option 4: Expel from club (No salary) – 5% chance
He was satisfied. Cleared for next round
Round 3.
HR round
Started with introduce yourself and my ability to gel in with people.
Discussed about my hobby.
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Asked me how I would approach a person and start talking, etc.
Interview ended in a positive note.
But did not get selected.
What Went Wrong?
In my first- round case, I wandered a bit before zeroing in to the storage problem of the retailer. This could
be the reason
Suggestions:
Think about the case with your common sense first before trying to fit them into various frameworks.
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Experience: 35
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
BPCL
31 months
College of Engineering, Trivandrum
Retail Sales
Academic Record: (94.34%, 99.33%, 78.17%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
1. Cases & Guesstimates – Case In Point, IIM-A case book, Videos of Victor Cheng in YouTube
2. Resume: Thorough backup of every point written in CV is required for consulting interviews.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
The interview started with the Interviewer asking me to introduce myself. I did that as prepared. There were a
few more questions based on my work experience, some achievements during work ex etc. I explained all those
clearly. After this, the interviewer said that we shall discuss a case now. It was a profitability case, and details
are as below.
I(Interviewer): Consider this situation. There is a coffin manufacturer in XYZ country. The population of the
country is 4 million. The manufacturer is currently using manual methods for coffin manufacturing. First let’s
calculate the total profit earned by them in a year.
Me: (Repeated the case as given by the interviewer) So our objective is to find out the total profit earned by
the coffin manufacturer in a year. Are there any other objectives I should be looking at?
I: You are correct, carry on with analyzing the profit.
Me: Profit can be given by revenue minus cost. I would like to start with the revenue part.
I: Sure
Me: The current population is 4 million. I need some information regarding the population growth rate and
the mortality rate in the country
I: The population growth rate is stagnant at 0. The average life expectancy is 75 years. Additionally, only 75% of
the deceased are buried in coffins.
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Me: That’s interesting. So, going by the life expectancy of 75 years for a population of 4 million and that
only 75% are buried in coffins, the total number of coffins required per year can be calculated as below
No. of coffins required per year= 0.75 * (4,000,000/75) = 40000
I: That is correct
Me: Can I have some information about the current market share of our client in the coffin sales?
I: The market share is 10%
Me: That gives the total annual sales of 4000 coffins. Now let’s go to the cost analysis. Can you share some info
about the costs of manufacturing?
I: The total cost of manufacturing is $4800 per coffin. Out of which 10% is cost of raw materials and rest is
cost of manual labor.
Me: Ok. At what price is the client selling the coffin?
I: The selling price per unit is $5000.
Me: That gives a profit of $200 per coffin. Therefore, the total profit shall be 200*4000= $800,000 per year.
Are there any other fixed costs involved?
I: Good that you asked it. There is a fixed cost of $700,000 per year. Me:
So, that leaves a final profit of 800,000-700,000=100,000 per year.
I: Perfect. Let’s move on to some more details. Suppose that the manufacturer wants to invest in some new
technology by which the manual labor cost can be reduced by 50%. The total investment required is 1 million.
I want you to analyze whether it is feasible to invest in the technology or not.
Me: (Repeated the objective) Is there any other objective I should be aware of?
I: No. Everything else remains the same as earlier.
Me: Ok. Could you share details about how the manufacturer is planning to raise the find of 1 million? If it is
a bank loan, please share the interest and repayment term details
I: The manufacturer is planning to take a bank loan of 1 million. The interest is 5%, for a repayment period of 5
years. Simple interest method can be used for calculation.
Me: Ok. Shall I consider that the capital amount of 1 million is split into 5 equal instalments of 200,000 each and
interest is paid on the balance capital remaining to be paid.
I: Yes
Me: So, the repayment calculation can be analyzed as below:
Repayment amount
Balance Interest to be paid
Year 1
200,000
800,000
50000 (5% of 1,000,000)
Year 2
200,000
600,000
40000 (5% of 800,000)
Year 3
200,000
400,000
30000
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Year 4
200,000
200,000
20000
Year 5
200,000
0
10000
I: Correct. Let’s consider the profitability of the first year only
Me: Ok. The net repayment for first year towards loan is 250,000. Let’s analyze the cost part now. The
manual labor cost will be reduced to half by introducing new technology. The calculations are as below:
Cost of raw materials: 480 (10% as discussed earlier)
Cost of manual labor: 4320/2= 2160
Total cost = $2640 per coffin
I: Correct
Me: Is there any change in the selling price?
I: No
Me: So, the net profit per coffin is $5000-$2640= $2360. The total profit per year for annual sales of 4000 coffins
= 2360*4000= 9,440,000.
I: That is correct
Me: Is the fixed cost of $700,000 still present
I: Yes
Me: Therefore, the net profit = 9,440,000-(700,000+250,000) = 8,490,000.
I: Correct. So, should the manufacturer invest in the new technology
Me: Yes, the manufacturer should invest in the new tech as he will be earning much higher profits per year.
I: Thank you.
Result: Cleared
Round 2
The interview started with interviewer introducing himself. Then asked me to tell about myself. I did the
same introduction as in the previous interview. I had mentioned about photography in my introduction. Then
the interviewer put forward a case based on photography.
The case was basically a profitability analysis, where he mentioned that Canon is losing its profits in India.
He asked me to analyze the reasons.
I used the same approach of profit= revenue-cost. The interviewer asked to begin with revenue.
I drilled down the several sources of revenue. At every step, I could suggest 3 or 4 reasons for the point
analyzed. Some points discussed were types of equipment sold, reasons for dip in sales of point and
shoot camera, reasons for popularity of DSLR camera, competitors performance, service levels etc.
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There were no numerical involved, so every point was discussed, exploring reasons and suggesting
improvements.
The interview took about 20 minutes.
Result: Cleared
Round 3
This was an HR round; the interviewer was trying to engage me in a conversation. He introduced himself and
then asked me to tell about myself. Thereafter the conversation progressed to NITIE, my work location, my
hometown, travel, food etc. I kept him engaged with inputs like suggesting him restaurants at my hometown,
where he was planning to visit in a week’s time. The interview took about 15 minutes.
Result: Not Selected
What went wrong?
I could solve both cases easily, but maybe it’s that the interviewer found my client interaction is not up to their
level of expectation for a consultant.
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Experience: 36
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Electronics & Communication Engineering
36 months
Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Academy of Technical
IT (Pharma Domain)
Education,Bangalore
Academic Record: (82%, 83%, 75%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
1. Cases & Guesstimates -completed case in point and IIM A casebook from scratch, skipped M&A cases as I
think it’s too broad to be discussed in any interview which visit our college.
2. Resume: Miss a single point here and you are out of interview. Treat the CV as a holy book and prepare
for each single word you write in your CV.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
This was an HR Round
Q1. Introduce yourself – Started with basic introduction and talked about my experience in IT, My innovation
projects.
Q2. Why the firm – Focus on how your previous work experience aligns with consulting. Know the company in
and out, their strengths, numbers and talk about it.
Q3. Where have you travelled – I had mentioned travelling and being a foodie in the other section. The HR was
a foodie and traveler too, so she talked a lot about this point. Convinced her in this question easily.
Basically, this round was to test communication ability, many candidates were rejected in this round. Focus
on what you speak and how you speak, keep a smile on your face always and make in a healthy conversation.
Cleared
Round 2:
Case round.
First Question was to introduce and talk about my experience – I introduced and in my experience, I
talked about project and asked about the interviewer. He said he was from IIM B, so I talked about doing
my engineering from Bangalore and how I found Bangalore a wonderful place to live in.
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The interviewer then gave me a case to solve.
The case was: The client is a company in the good living space like NDTV good times space. They are facing a
lot of issues in profit. Their profits have been decreasing in the past 2 years and need us to help.
Interviewer: Tell me how will you go about the case.
Me: So, our client is a TV channel which deal in shows like travelling and cooking shows and are facing issue
in profit, their profit is decreasing from the past 2 years. Is there any objective other than this?
Interviewer: No
Me: Can I have 2 minutes to think about it and draw a proper structure for my solution.
Interviewer: Certainly.
Me: As this is a profit problem faced by our client I will use E(P=R-C) M. I told him that as we are growing with
around 7.5 % GDP and a lot of youth travel the economy of such a sector is in good shape.
Interviewer: Yes, go on.
Me: I would like to know about the market. Is the declining profit issue faced only by us or also by
competitors also?
Interviewer: Competitors are not facing such an issue.
Me: Okay, so this is our client’s problem. I would now go into the parenthesis and find the sources of
revenue and potential cost.
As I had no idea about how a typical show is produced and what are the costs involved, I told the interviewer
upfront that I will try to come up with some revenue and cost drivers as I had no idea about TV industry. He
said OK.
Revenue: Advertisement and any package that is being sold in collaboration with travel agency.
Interviewer: Good, but you are missing one more revenue stream.
Me: Is it the amount they earn from TV channels.
Interviewer: Yes.
Me: Then I asked about individual revenue streams, he told me everything is either stagnant or increasing.
Me: So, the problem lies in the cost part. I will go towards the cost. I listed down some of the cost streams as
below:
1) Actors
2) Directors
3) Rent of the set (Including lighting and clothes)
4) Administration charges (Including logistics)
Interviewer: Good, these are the important cost heads, but our client has outsourced production to
another agency.
Me: Okay, so how is agency charging us, per episode or is it for a defined number of episode.
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Interviewer: Per episode.
Me: Can you provide me last 3 year numbers.
Interviewer: I don’t want you to go into numbers, just concentrate on the issue.
Me: Then asked if the agency increased the price.
Interviewer: Yes, they have increased their fees considerably and that is the issue for the lower profit.
He then asked me to give some recommendation on how to solve this issue.
Me: We can go for a long-term relationship with the agency.
We can try to negotiate better.
If the show is not a new show, then we can change the agency all together.
I told him some more points which I don’t remember. He seemed satisfied and said that would be all.
I asked him what should I do to improve my case solving ability. He answered there is nothing to improve you at
this moment.
Suggestion: Consulting firms looks for people who can come up with Suggestion/Recommendations to solve
the case. So, while practicing cases practice providing suggestions too.
Cleared
Round 3.
HR and Case Round.
She talked about my CV points, how college is treating me, different things I have done in the past 3
months during the college, some normal HR questions. Again, the key here is to know your CV throughout.
Then she said let’s play some numbers. I thought it would be some puzzle, but it turned out to be a case.
The case problem:
Our client is a manufacturer who makes premium food colors, from the past 2 years our client is facing loss
in the operation. Please analyze and suggest some recommendation as to what should be done.
She gave me 2 minutes to think before-hand and went outside to do some work. I wrote down the frame
work E(P=R-C) M as this was a profit loss case.
Me: Our client is a manufacturer in the food color industry and is facing loss from past 2 years. We need
to analyze the issue and provide recommendations; do we have any other objectives.
Interviewer: No.
Me: Can I know the loss that our client has been making.
Interviewer: It’s not much 1-2% from the last 2 years.
Me: Thanks, is this a market issue or only our client is facing such issues.
Interviewer: There are 5 major players in the premium food industry. Out of this 2 have already exited
the industry. Our share has increased from 35 to 55% of the industry.
Me: So, we have problem with the market. I will now try to look at the revenue and cost side.
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Interviewer: Okay
Me: I listed down the some of the revenue side and analysed each of them, all the stream was increasing.
Me: Then I analysed all the cost streams such as labour, logistics and raw materials.
Interviewer: Yes, we are facing some issue with raw materials.
Me: How do we source our raw material, what kind of suppliers we have, is it Omni channel or many suppliers.
Interviewer. We have only a single supplier supplying the raw materials.
Me: has the supplier increased the rate in the past 2 years.
Interviewer: Yes, the supplier has increased the rate from the past 2 years. Now suppose I must present the
situation to the board of directors and need to provide 3 recommendations that I can showcase, what
would they be?
Me: I provided some recommendation such as vertical integration, new products, automation,
cost optimization, better long term negotiation, going for more suppliers
But she kept on asking more and more. She was looking for a suggestion which I was not able to understand.
Interviewer: What I was looking for was that the client can even exit the market if it’s not able to increase
its profit.
Me: Yes, but I think this is a long-term recommendation and as now we are having just 1-2% loss, I think
we should look for near term solutions.
Interviewer: It’s ok, not a big problem, that will be all.
Did not clear.
What went wrong?
What went wrong was my inability to give a valid recommendation for exiting the market as per my opinion.
Suggestions:
Do not wait till you get the calls to start preparing for the cases. Calls are random and be prepared always.
Experience: 37
Educational Background
Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience
Maruti Suzuki
36 Months
National Institute of Technology, Raipur
Academic Record: (92.2%, 84%, 75%)
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Deloitte S&O
Preparations:
Cases & Guesstimates - Saw online videos of Case interviews. Studied the framework structure of different
types of cases like profitability, revenues, new product
launches, new market entry, pricing and M&A.
Practiced a few Case interviews with friends.
Resume: for consulting interviews, you must be crystal clear with your resume. I was well prepared in this area.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
(This was probably a round to gauge the personality.)
Q1. Walk me through your CV - I introduced and focused on the Work Ex. Achievements, then
academic achievements and then on my interests.
Q2. Tell me something interesting about yourself, apart from what is mentioned in your CV.
Q3. Asked me to explain my Work Ex. Points (2 achievement points) mentioned in the CV.
Q4. Why consulting?
Q5. Then he asked me a brain teaser puzzle.
There is a broken bridge and the night is dark. 4 persons have to cross the bridge and they have a single torch.
Only 2 persons can cross the bridge at a time.
They can cross the bridge in 1 min, 2 min, 7 min and 10 min.
What is the min time in which all 4 can cross the bridge?
((2 minutes was given to think for the solution and then I was told to explain the solution.
Interviewer told me cross check the solution once again. He did tell whether I was right or
wrong.)) Then Interviewer asked me if I had any questions for him. The interview went for around
15-20 mins.
(Be prepared to ask a relevant question to the interviewer at end of the interview.)
Final Verdict (Selected/Rejected): Not Selected
What went wrong?
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I was the first to go inside for the interview. I was a little tired and disappointed from the previous sessions of
interview. I was well prepared for the cases around but during the first-round I was not able remain cheerful
and the stress was visible on the face. And I was not able to ask a good question at the end of the interview, that
was bad on my part.
I feel these were the reasons for not getting selected.
Suggestions:
Do not wait till you get the calls to start preparing for the cases. Calls are random and be prepared always.
Prior practice of case interviews and guestimates is important. Consulting culture fit questions are always asked.
Be prepared for why consulting and why this company with relevant examples from your work.
Be ready to tell something interesting about yourself in the interview. This is very important.
It is very important to remain calm and overcome the rejections in previous interviews of the day because it will
affect your performance during the interview.
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Experience: 38
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electronics and Communication Engineer
Work Experience
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited
35 months
NIT, Silchar
Communication
Academic Record (79.8%, 87.2%, 84.3%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Case Preparation:
Sources:
• Case In Point
• 5 interview casebook from AT Kearney
• A few cases from 3 IIMA casebook
• Victor Cheng videos
• Bain interview videos
• Case In Point
• Internet (Quora)
• Just made a few questions myself which were somewhat related to my CV
**Just made sure every assumption that I made had some logic or fact to back it up
CV and HR: Just went through my CV and recollected all the work that I did and tried to compartmentalize the
work into challenging, innovative, consensus building, leadership, initiative, limited resources etc.
Interview Experience:
First round: A case was given and we were asked to make a 3 slider presentation within 40 minutes which we
had to present post the stipulated time.
Case brief: Mr Bhardwaj started a consumer durable retail chain 12 years ago and currently had a total of 13 stores
in Baroda, Ahmedabad and Pune. The economy was doing well and also in the recent times several Government
regulations were enforced/about to be enforced (like company act 2013, GST etc.) which favoured businesses. In the
past year, the company witnessed a decline in their bottom-line though the revenue was on
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the rise (implicitly given). Still, looking at the external conditions, Mr Bhardwaj wanted to expand the business
beyond the territory of its current presence. Until now, the strategic decisions of the company was taken by
family and only operational level decisions by store-level manager. They wanted to keep their values and
culture of the company intact. They laid a lot of emphasis on the service levels and also spent a lot in training
their employees in this regard. The cost was also rising due to piling up of inventory, damage of inventory,
increase in rent etc. Also, they were facing stiff competition from online players’ predatory pricing policy and
also the large players who leveraged their market share to bargain with suppliers. We are asked about the
forward strategy for the retail client
Second Round:
Provided solution for
• Increasing Profit margin
• Increasing market share
Was cross questioned several times on the solutions and was also asked to give example to a real-life situation
where the solution could be applied. E.g. – I said they can look for joint venture. Then I was asked why
someone who is already established would want to form a joint venture with a small company like our client.
Then I was extensively asked about my work-experience. The technical aspects of it as well. They wanted to see
the depth of my understanding as I was from communication domain and they also hired for the same field.
Then, I was asked a few current affairs questions and a few facts of communication sector.
Lastly, I was asked a guestimate (How many 2-wheelers are there in India?).
P.S. – The basic structure of questions for all those interviewed was same i.e. presentation related question and
how logically we came to derive our solution (case question), work-ex, CV and guestimate.
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Experience: 39
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Maruti Suzuki India Limited
Mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Raipur
36 months
Academic Record: (92.2%, 84%, 75%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Cases & Guesstimates - Saw online videos of Case interviews. Studied the framework structure of different
types of cases like profitability, revenues, new product launches, new market entry, pricing, M&A.
Practiced a few Case interviews with friends.
Resume: for consulting interviews, you have to be crystal clear with your resume. I was well prepared in
this area
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
(This was probably a round to gauge the personality.)
Q1. Walk me through your CV - I introduced and in my experience, I focused on the Work Ex.
Achievements, then academic achievements and then on my interests.
Q2. Why Consulting and why the firm.
Q3. Asked a few questions from my Work Ex. Points mentioned in the CV.
Q4. Then he asked me to do a zero-based costing for a pen.
The interview went for around 30-40 mins.
(Be prepared to ask a relevant question to the interviewer at end of the interview.)
Cleared
Round 2:
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First Question: Walk me through your CV. – I introduced and in my experience, I focused on the Work Ex.
Achievements, then academic achievements and then my interests. Interviewer asked me about my hobby (that
is travelling).
Then he started with a Case Discussion round.
Case: The client is a Bicycle company selling cycles of all ranges pan India. The CEO had a thought of venturing
into motorcycle business. He approaches us with his thought and wants to know whether they should enter
him into motorcycle business.
We had a discussion for around 30 mins on this case.
Next was a guestimate to find number of black/ white boards available in Mumbai. Time given for this was
10 mins.
Next, the interviewer asked if I had any questions for him. I asked a question regarding the automobile projects
in consultancy.
The interview went for around 50-60 minutes.
After this he guided me for the director interview.
Cleared
Round 3.
Telephonic interview with the Director
Q1) Walk me through the CV.
Q2) What is GST? Tell me about the Tax structure change? What will be its implications on the Automobile
Industry?
Q3) Are you following any current Business news. What is happening in the Indian Telecom Industry? Reliance
Jio and other providers.
Q4) Case Interview: Client is a mobile company. Wants to enter smart phone market in India. Should they launch
a smart phone. How would you do the market sizing for the same.
After that director asked if I had any questions for him. I asked him a question regarding GST.
This interview went for around 45 minutes.
HR Interview:
Next I had a 5-min interview with HR and then she informed me that I was selected.
Final Verdict (Selected/Rejected): Selected
Suggestions:
Do not wait till you get the calls to start preparing for the cases. Calls are random and be prepared always.
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Prior practice of case interviews and guestimates is important. Consulting culture fit questions are always asked.
Be prepared for why consulting and why this company with relevant examples from your work.
Be ready to tell something interesting about yourself in the interview. This is very important.
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Experience: 40
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electronics and Communication Engineering
Work Experience
Tata Consultancy Services
20 months
IGIT, Delhi
Business Intelligence
Academic Record (93.2%, 94.8%, 83.38%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
1. Formulation of CV and preparation for CV answers: All the interviews start with CV, so this section is of great
importance. Frame a para on each CV point so as to anticipate the questions and the follow up questions
that could be asked. All the numbers presented in CV should be backed by proper calculation for each data
point
2. HR Questions – Standard deck of HR Questions (39 Qs), circulated by Placement Committee was
sufficient. An instance of all major questions was very important. I had written a para on each so as to
anticipate the questions that could be asked
3. Guesstimates: I prepared guestimates from my hobby and general topics in news like the number of cold
play tickets expected to be sold. I used to practise it in groups to understand different approaches and
formulate the best approach that would work for me. I maintained that in my case journal
4. Cases: I primarily read Case in Point for preparation of cases. After having a decent idea of frameworks and
having framed my own, I practiced some cases from IIM A. I practiced the cases with my friends to have a
real feel of case interview.
Interview Experience:
I had 3 rounds.
1st round (1 interviewer, duration – 20 mins)
My first interview was about my CV and the general HR questions were asked.
The interview started with Tell me your greatest achievement for which I answered something related to
leadership. Then the interview asked me to elaborate on it. There were other questions asked like why should
we hire you (strengths with examples were quoted) and the weakness was also asked. A few questions were
then directed to my CV and he wanted me to explain a few points regarding my Work ex.
Finally, the last question was linked to my first question as he asked that since this is not a leadership role
initially and you have come after being a leader so will you be able to match up with your aspirations.
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Last but not the least, the interviewer asked if I had any question for him.
Please note that it is very important to ask a sensible and logical question at this stage. Asking insightful
question, shows that you have done your research, are inquisitive and serious about joining their company.
I asked him a question to which he answered.
The tone and voice modulation which is used plays a very important role in getting through your first round as it
suggests how much interested you are in getting the job offered. I showed the enthusiasm through my voice
and facial expressions which was pivotal in getting me through the first round.
2nd Round (1 interviewer, duration – 30 mins)
2nd round started with interviewer introducing himself followed by the question tell me about yourself. Next,
he asked me to go through the CV. I started with the roles and responsibilities held during my professional
career, but he straight away went to the project that I had done in my college. Then he asked about my hobbies.
This discussion lasted for 10 minutes and then a simple case was given to me.
Case: The interviewer wants to purchase a restaurant near IIT Bombay and he wanted to know the
profits generated in a day to get a better understanding whether to go for the deal or not.
Me: I started with the summary of the case and stated the objective once again to be on the same page with the
interviewer. Then I went on to tell him the approach to calculate the profit which was basically to first calculate
the revenues and then the costs that would be associated.
Interviewer: Go on.
Me: I would start with the capacity. Can you tell me the capacity of the restaurant?
Interviewer: Its three times the size of the room.
Me: Ok. So, this room has one table and can accommodate two more. So, total capacity would be nine tables
multiplied by 4 and rounding it off, say 40 people.
Me: Then, I divided it into three meals of the day and then I started with calculating the revenues for lunch
hours. If there would be 80% occupancy and then dividing the entire section into two: veg and non-veg. I
suggested that let’s say there is a standard thali.
Interviewer: No, don’t go with the Thali system.
Me: I then took the price for a standard veg and non-veg dish added with some roti’s. Calculated the price for
the entire restaurant.
Then, I mentioned that an average person would take a total of half an hour in the restaurant, then per that I
calculated the revenue for the four lunch hours and then for the entire day.
Interviewer: Now what all things will you consider for costs.
Me: I would consider the cost of raw materials, labor wages, maintenance costs per day and calculated a rough
estimate by starting with the cost of raw materials. Then went on to add the wages of labor considering the
cook and the waiter charges. Then I added maintenance costs.
Interviewer: Any other cost heads you would consider.
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Me: Yes, the electricity charges per day and the water bills can also be added.
Interviewer: Ok. That’s it. Thank You.
After this, the case finished. He asked me whether I had a question or not and then asked me to wait outside.
Overall a very smooth experience. I was a little nervous at the beginning but as the case proceeded I calmed
down. He made me comfortable and guided along the case.
3rd Round (1 interviewers (Director), duration – 10 mins)
He introduced himself and asked me straightaway what were my job expectations and how well will I be able
to handle the role. Then he asked me a little about how you can add to the job role being offered and then he
himself described what exactly would the profile be like.
At the end, he said do you have any questions.
After a discussion with both the interviewers and the director, I got selected.
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Experience: 41
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Work Experience
Fresher
Sri Sai Ram Engineering College
Academic Record: (85.6%, 88%, 85.3%)
Interview Verdict: Did not Convert
Preparations:
• Cases & Guesstimates - I had a session with a senior who explained some basic guesstimates and asked me to
read few cases from the Mckinsey Wetfeet Consulting Interview Ace Your Case V – Chapter 4 (2 cases of each
type).
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
Q1. Introduce yourself
Started with basic introduction and focused on position of responsibility and extra-curricular activities. I
then moved on to explain my project.
Q2. Final year project based questions
I answered the questions but was not able to make an impression.
Q3. Why consulting?
I spoke about my interest in problem solving and analysis.
Q4. Explain how you solved a problem (curricular or extra -curricular).
I explained about a statistical project with methods involved to deduce outcomes from a given set of data, using
paper and pencil.
Interviewer: Thank You. That’s all.
What went wrong?
I could not defend my project properly and make an impression on them. I lacked confidence and energy. Also,
I had not prepared for consulting till the last minute.
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Suggestions:
Be very well prepared to appear and exude confidence and enthusiasm. Cases are always helpful for any
interview as they broaden your perspective and help you think differently. So irrespective of work
experience, students should go through the various books related to solving cases.
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Experience: 42
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Electronics & Communication Engineering
COGNIZANT, 15 months
Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Academy of Technical
TCS, 21 Months
Education,Bangalore
IT
Academic Record: (82%, 83%, 75%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Prep Methodology: As I was interested in IT and Consulting role, I focused on learning recent technologies
such as Industry 4.0, IOT, IIOT, SMAC, Data Analytics. I thoroughly prepared my CV points and wrote standard
HR questions. I got the HR questions reviewed by 4 seniors which helped me a lot. For consulting I prepared
cases from case in point and IIM A casebook.
Study resources: Case in point, IIM A case book, ISB case book, Senior internship experience and recent
technologies from internet.
Interview Experience:
CV shortlist, video assessment, 3 round of interviews. Panel
members: 3 panels, 1 manager, 1 director and an HR Interview 1:
Brief about the interview including interview questions.
I had in total 3 round of interviews. I was the last person to be interviewed. The interviewer first asked me
questions about my CV and some HR questions like why consulting? Why the firm? Then he asked me which all
subjects have you studied. I answered and he choose Economics. He asked me what is budget line, what is utility
function. I was able to answer both the question. He asked me one more question which I was not able to
understand and so I said I don’t know the answer. He then moved on to statistics and asked me some questions
such as what do you mean by p- value and what is the probability of a continuous random variable equal to 5. I
answered all the questions. He then moved on to my work ex and grilled me on pharmaceutical industry (I
worked for a pharmaceutical company). He asked me all sort of questions - how is Indian pharma industry
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different than Europe? What will be the effect of Brexit on pharma industry? to name a couple. He then
asked me whether I have any questions. (Please ask meaningful questions which the panel must find
interesting to answer). I asked 2 questions.
Interview 2: Brief about the interview including interview questions.
The second round was with a very senior guy who asked me why did I leave my previous firm and other HR
questions. He then went into IOT and asked me how can we implement IOT in pharmaceutical industry. He
grilled me on this for about 30 minutes and asked many different scenarios. One them was how will you use
IOT in recognizing expiry date of medicines. As I had deep knowledge of Industry 4.0 and IOT I was able to
explain to him how it can be done and gave him different scenarios and solutions. To impress him I also said
about Germany moving into industry 4.0 and how Siemens is working on the same line.
Interview 3: Brief about the interview including interview questions.
The third round was basically an HR round. It was for 20 minutes. She asked questions about my life,
my leadership quality, my innovation projects and various HR questions. It was an easy going round.
Final Verdict (Selected/Rejected): Selected
Suggestions:
Don’t study too much. First prioritize your options and then work upon the same. Have confidence in you.
Confidence is all what matters. Be well versed with your industry and how technology can influence your
industry, also keep yourself updated about what different companies are doing in that field. For GD, always
start and be relevant to supply chain, whatever the topic may be but don’t overdo it. In interviews keep smiling
and ask relevant questions (This is a make or break step). Show to the panel that you have learnt a lot in your
life and always want to learn, no matter what domain you go. All the best.
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Experience: 43
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Work Experience
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Electrical Engineering
Future Institute of Engineering & Management
23 months
IT
Academic Record (90.2%, 74.5%, 70.5%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
Maintained notes on all the latest happenings in the IT industry, kept myself abreast with all the
new terminologies and buzz words, understood their business implications.
Study resources : Internet
Interview Experience:
Interview 1: This was the 1st round technical interview. I was quizzed on the following aspects:
Work experience: I had 23 months’ experience in Cognizant Technology Solutions. Was asked in detail about
the different projects I did there. Had to explain a lot of things so preparation on work-ex points is important.
General Questions about myself, my interests, hobbies, what I want to do in life if money was no constraint etc.
Interview 2: This was the 2nd round of technical interview.
• This was more about why I wanted to join IT consulting and in which area of IT I would like to work.
• Questions about what were my favourite subjects.
• I was asked on Big Data, Cloud Computing, IOT, Predictive Analysis, Business Intelligence, Data Visualization,
what they are and their business implications etc.
Interview 3: The last round of interview was an HR round. Very generic questions, like if I have any issues with
relocation, if I have any preference for any city, what I do in my spare time, about my past stint at Cognizant,
what I liked and learnt, about myself, strengths, my passion etc.
Suggestions:
•
•
•
•
Prepare a good justification why you want to join the firm and IT consulting.
Prepare thoroughly on all the latest happenings in the global IT sector.
Be thorough with your work-ex points
Learn your academic subjects well (economics, statistics etc.).
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• Have crisp clear answers ready for your hobbies, interests, goals, passions etc.
• Be confident, maintain a positive demeanour, be well presentable and be courteous.
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Experience: 44
Deloitte S&O
Educational Background
Electronics & Communication Engineering,
PRS College of Engineering and Technology
Work Experience
Reliance Jio
4 months
Academic Record (94.6%, 78.4%, 74.37%)
Interview Verdict: Converted
Preparations:
1. Cases & Guesstimates – Due to the lack of any significant work experience, I was not preparing much for
consulting profiles. I was mainly looking for FMCGs and prepared mostly on Supply chain fundamentals
from Heizer and HR questions. Having said that, once I got the shortlist, I went through Case in Point
thoroughly.
2. Resume: CV is the second most important preparation area after HR questions. Most of the questions asked
in interviews revolved around my CV points.
3. Group Discussions: I followed a preparation schedule which also focused on developing content for group
discussions by going through a newspaper daily.
Interview Experience:
Round 1:
This was a GD Round
Topic: “China, the second largest economy faced a political coup which resulted in the blockage of trade with
all other countries. What will be the effect of this scenario globally?”
Points highlighted:
•
•
•
•
•
China being the second largest economy, blockage of trade means a financial crisis
Devaluation of Chinese currency, Yuan and its effects on US dollar
Stock market crash across the world due to abrupt selling of shares by investors
India, the biggest trade partner of china will become the worst affected
Chinese organizations shifting operations to other countries which benefits emerging economies like
India in the long run.
• Unemployment in china as well as other countries due to market crash
Note: GD was the primary selection criterion. Bulk of the elimination was from GD.
Cleared
Round 2.
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This was a Personal Interview. It was very short. I felt like they had already done the selection process based
on the Group Discussion. They just wanted to check whether I will fit into a Consulting firm or whether I was
ready for a Consulting career.
1) Why Supply Chain Consulting?
GST is the new kid on the block for the Indian economy. This means all companies having operations in India
should change their distribution plans and warehousing strategies in accordance with the new tax system. This
opens ample opportunities for Supply Chain Consulting in India. It provides the right platform for me to make
a mark in the industry by helping Supply Chain Consulting organizations to grow.
2) What is your biggest strength? How would your strengths align with our interests?
Planning is my biggest strength. I can plan things well in advance taking into consideration all the factors
involved so that it can be executed well. I can use my planning skills to identify the best warehouse locations
which incur the least cost. I can also use my engineering knowledge to design warehouses and to install state
of the art technology for handling inventory to ensure a smooth flow of inventory to and from warehouses.
Cleared
Suggestions:
Do not lose your energy even if you are appearing for 3-4 interviews in less than 2 hours. Always be cheerful
and don’t lose confidence. In case of preparation, fresher’s and low work experienced people should focus on
Group discussions and HR questions. Build enough content to speak than practicing to get more airtime. The
quality of what you speak will be the determinant, not the airtime.
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GUESSTIMATES
Things to master for guesstimates:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Structured Approach
General Data to remember
Maths
Handy Formulae
Misc.
Structured Approach
•
•
•
Ask all the relevant questions to understand exactly what is asked (what is required to be calculated)
Don’t go for sunken cost fallacy (change your approach, if you think in mid-way, it’s not going where it
is required to go)
Make tree diagram for showing calculation and flow in the structured and legible way
General Data
India
GDP
Population
Land Area
GDP Growth
Number of Households
Average Family Size
Population Growth
Sex Ratio
$2.46 trillion (nominal); $8.72 trillion (PPP)
1.32 billion (~1.2B) (70% Rural & 30% Urban)
3 million square km
7.6%
350 million
3.6 to 4
1.25%
944/1000 ~ 1:1
Population Distribution of India
Age Group
Population Percentage*
0-15
30%
15-25
20%
25-50
30%
50+
20%
*these numbers are just the approximate ones which can be used for guesstimates purpose
Population Distribution by Income
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Income Group
Population Percentages*
Upper Middle Class (>32k per month)
10%
Middle Class (16k to 32k per month)
30%
Lower Middle Class (8k to 16k per month)
40%
BPL Class (<8k per month)
20%
*these numbers are just the approximate ones which can be used for guesstimates purpose
Population Distribution in India (Gender and Urban-Rural)
Total Population
Males
Females
Sex Ratio
Urban Population
Rural Population
1200
620
580
0.95*
350 (30%)
850 (70%)
Figures are in millions
* 950 females for 1000 males
Life Expectancy and Population Growth Statistics
Overall Expectancy
Male Expectancy
Female Expectancy
Birth Rate
Death Rate
Pop. Growth Rate
69 Years
67 Years
73 Years
22*
7.5*
1.25%
*Figures are for every 1000 individuals
Age-Wise Break-up of Population
Age Spread
Population (%)
0-14 Years
350 (30%)
15-24 Years
250 (20%)
25-34 Years
200 (15%)
35-44 Years
150 (10%)
45-54 Years
150 (10%)
55+ Years
150 (10%)
Figures are in millions
Note: Median age for India is 25 (50% of Indians are below 25, 65% are below 35)
Income and Expenditure
Data Head
Size of Household
Annual Household Income
% Savings
India
5
75,000
-
Urban
5
1,00,000
30%
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5
50,000
20%
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Expenses (Food)
50%
45%
55%
Expenses (Travel)
10%
10%
10%
Expenses (Others)
40%
45%
35%
Poverty: Approx. 25% of the population lives below the poverty line ($1.25 or Rs.75
Class Distribution by Annual Household Income
Annual Income of Household
Low Income (Household Income < 45,000)
Middle Income (45,000 to 1,80,000)
High Income (Household Income> 1,80,000)
Percentage
20%
60%
20%
Demographics by Religion
Religion
Population
Hindu
80%
Muslim
15%
Christian
2%
Others
3%
Population of Major Cities
Area
Mumbai
Delhi
NCR
Bangalore
Chennai
Kolkata
Maharashtra
Population
20 million
18.6 million
24 million
11.5 million
8.2 million
5 million
122 million
NOTE: In Addition to this, note the population of your native state and city
• Population of top 10 Cities: 66 Million
• Population of next 50 Cities: 66 Million
• Population of next 100 Cities: 45 Million
Complete details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India
Sector-wise Employment Distribution
Sector
Agriculture
Industries
Services
India (%)
40%
10%
50%
Urban (%)
5%
20%
75%
Literacy Rate of India
India
74%
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Rural (%)
60%
5%
35%
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Male
Female
Rural
Urban
82%
65%
69%
85%
MATHS (order of magnitude)
Lakh
Million
Crore
Billion
Trillion
105
106
107
109
1012
Formula for total Product Requirement
Product Required = Existing Product that get obsolete + New Product
required = Q/n + Q*r
Q = Existing number of product
n = Average age of product
r = Average rate of growth (which can be taken as GDP growth rate)
For E.g.: For calculating the market of Automobile tyres: we are required to take care of both new tyre
consumed by new cars and the replacement of old tyres.
Approaches
Demand Side:
1) We can start the guesstimates from the demand side, if we are sure that demand = supply
2) In this approach, we can start with the overall number and along the process, we can go on eliminating the
numbers/fraction which are not relevant to the subject at hand
3) In this approach, it’s important to think of all the factors which are to be eliminated.
4) This approach approximately gives a larger number than Supply side as it depends on how many
eliminations have been made
Supply Side
1) We can start the guesstimates from supply side, if we are not sure of supply and there is possibility of supply
being unequal to demand
2) In this approach, we have to take into consideration all the sources that can contribute to the required
subject into consideration
3) MECE (Mutually Exclusive & Collectively Exhaustive) is very important in this case. There should not be
overlapping among the sources considered and collectively all the sources must add to represent almost
entire sample space
4) This approach approximately gives a smaller number than Demand side as it depends on how many sources
have been considered, since it’s practically impossible to take into account all the sources, therefore it gives,
in general, a lesser number.
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IMPORTANT NOTES
1) In most other consulting firms you will be having around 7-8 minutes to solve the guesstimate, so
segregate the questions only in 4-5 (max) sections, so that at the end, a final answer can be attained. They
will be interested in the approach rather than the number of segregations, moreover too many
segregations will make your calculations complex.
2) Guesstimates can be of any type. Consulting companies like to ask guesstimates based on personal profile of
the student, so it is recommended that the candidate is well versed with the data and some useful
information about the following thing:
a. Home State & Home City
b. Current State & Current City
c. Industry & Company where he/she has worked in past
d. Hobbies and Interests (imp)
e. UG & PG College
3) Guesstimates can be based on recent events in political, economic, political and sports fields (e.g.: Calculate
the ticket revenue of the Rio Olympic)
4) While doing calculation approx. the number to the nearest 10's, so that the calculation is simplified
5) For all the number that is being assumed during the course of the guesstimate, its highly recommended to
give the justification to the interviewer for why that value has been taken. This is very important step in
creating a positive image before interviewer as this will show that the candidate has idea of how to use
data already known
Start BIG vs Start Small Approaches to solve guesstimates
Problem: Find the volume of white paints sold in India per year?
Start Big Approach:
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India's population-> Family Size -> No. of House holds
Frequency of Painting each house -> Yearly rate of
houses painted
Sq meter of painted by a litre of paint -> total square
meter of walls in a house -> Litre of paints per house
Total volume for India = Liters of paint per house * No.
of Houses painter per year
Start Small Approach:
City's population-> Family Size -> No. of House holds
Frequency of Painting each house -> Yearly rate of houses painted
Sq meter of painted by a leter of paint -> total square meter of walls
in a house -> Liter of paints per house
Total volume per City= Liters of paint per house * No. of Houses
painter per year
Total volume per year = Total volume per city * No. of City
Sample Guesstimates
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Estimate the market for bicycles India.
Estimate the litres of cola sold in Delhi per day
Estimate the number of denims sold in India in a year.
Estimate the amount of petrol used in Delhi per day
Estimate the market size of paint industry in India
Estimate the amount of water that can fill an aircraft
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7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
Estimate the number of red lights in Delhi
Estimate the number of leather balls sold in India in a year
Estimate the number of light bulbs used in St. Stephens in a year.
Estimate the number of one rupee coins that would fit in a normal size room
Estimate the number of vehicles crossing the road in front of FMS.
Estimate the number of number of subscribers of Economist in India
Estimate the number of cars sold by Maruti in India.
Estimate the number of beers sold in Goa every day.
Estimate the market for air conditioners in Bangalore in 1 year.
(Solution: https://www.scribd.com/doc/283799818/Guesstimate-in-the-Indian-Context
Practice Questions:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
Annual Sales of McDonald in India?
Size of diaper market in India?
Number of Red-Coloured, Swift Car in Mumbai?
Size of Automotive Batteries industry in India?
Number of shoes (pair) sold online in Mumbai through Flipkart in one-day?
How many T-Shirts do you think, e-Commerce companies are selling per day in India?
Calculate the total number of Taxi Driver in Mumbai?
What is the monthly profit of your favourite Restaurant?
How many iPhones were sold in India last year?
What was the ticket revenue of the Rio Olympic?
How many school teachers are there in your native city?
Estimate the total number of YouTube views per day?
How much money does Walmart makes per day in USA?
Number of one rupee coin that can fit in your hostel room?
What are the no of Smart Phones Sold in India per Year?
Estimate the number aircrafts in air at any point of time?
Surf excel detergent usage in a day in India?
What is the distance between New York and Delhi? (Delhi lies at GMT+5.30 and New York lies at GMT5 (standard time) time-zone?
Estimate the number of student who take rounds around NITIE pond from 9 to 10pm?
Estimate the total number of Ranji Playing cricketers in India?
19)
20)
SOLVED EXAMPLES
1) Number of one rupee coins that can fit in your normal hostel room?
In this question, it important to assume/guess the dimensions of room and coins as close as possible
from experience.
Initial Data:
•
•
•
Room’s Dimensions: 6m*4m*3m
Coin’s Dimensions: d=25 mm, t=2mm
Void Spaces can be estimated as the 20% of the total space available
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Total Volume of room = 6 * 4 * 3 = 72 =~ 70 m3
Volume of one coin = pi*(25/2)2 *2 =~ 981 mm3 ~ 1000mm3
Avilable Space in the Room (reduce voids) : 70m3 *(80%)= 56m3
No. of coins accomodated = (56 * 109) / (1000) = 56*106 coins
Total Number of Coins that can fit in a normal hostel room is 56 million coins
2) How many T-Shirts do you think, e-Commerce companies are selling per day in India?
Total population of India
Percentage of people on age range of 15 to 40 will
be doing almost all of the online shopping
1.32 Billions
40%
Statistics of Indian Demographics
Statistics of Indian Demographics
(Approx.)
Percentage of BPL Population
20%
Statistics of Indian Demographics
(Approx.)
Percentage of Low Income Grp
20%
Internet Penetration in India
Percentage of people having internet connection
who shops online
35%
30%
Statistics of Indian Demographics
(Approx.)
Statistics on Internet penetration
Assumption made on the basis of
observed behaviour in the society
Average requirement per person per year
4
Assumption made on the basis of
observed behaviour in the society
Average requirement per person per year served by
online shopping
25%
Assumption made on the basis of
observed behaviour in the society
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Total population of India = 1.32 billions
People on age range of 15 to 40 will be doing almost all of the online shopping = 40%
Number of probable Customer after 1st constaint = 528 millions
Percentage of BPL Population = 20%
Number of probable Customer after 2nd constaint = 422.4 millions
Percentage of Low Income Grp = 20%
Number of probable Customer after 3rd constraint = 337.92 millions
Internet Penetration in India = 35%
Number of probable Customer after 4th constraint = 118.27 millions
Percentage of people having internet connection who shops online = 30%
Number of probable Customer after 5th constraint = 35.4 millions
Average requirement per person per year = 4
Number of probable T-shirts sold per year after 6th constraint = 141.92 millions per year
Average requirement per person per year served by online shopping = 25%
Number of probable of T-shirt sold after 7th constraint = 35.48 millions per year
Total number of days in an year = 365
Number of probable of T-shirt sold per day through E-Commerce = 97,205 units
Total number of T-Shirts E-Commerce companies are selling per day in India = 97,205 T-shirts per
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Also,
Total number of T-Shirts E-Commerce companies are selling per day in India =
(1.32*40%*80%*80%*35%*30%*4*25%)/365 = 97,205 T-shirts per day
3) Estimate the number of tennis balls bough in India per month
4) Problem : Estimate the number of red coloured Swift Cars in Mumbai
For solving this Guesstimate, we should have a general framework of how to get the result, as what are
the things we should consider for finding the number.
Red-Colored Swift Car = (Number of cars in Mumbai) X (Market share of swift) X (Proportion of Red)
Initial Data:
• Population of Mumbai - 20 million
• Household size - 4
• Total Households - 5 million
Total Number of cars in Mumbai
• Let us assume that 1/3rd of the households own cars. Hence, Total Households with cars = 1.5 million
• Let us assume that every households has one car each, Number of cars in Mumbai = 1.5 million
Market share of swift in Mumbai
Of the 1.5 million, we can divide them as,
• Super rich (10%) - who own high end cars
• Upper middle class (30%) - who own cars costing 8-10 lakhs
• Middle class (60%) - purchasing low end cars.
• We can assume that 30% of middle class and 5% of upper middle class purchase swift.
o Maruti Suzuki has around 47% (~50%) market share in India, same is used for Mumbai also.
o Maruti Suzuki Swift’s price is around 5-8 lacs, so it major customer will be middle income
class population.
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o
It can be assumed that, since, Swift is one of the most used variants of Maruti Suzuki, so in
lower income group we can have around 30% of total middle income population having Swift
Market Share of shift = (60% * 1.5 million * 30%) + (30% * 1.5 million * 5%) = 3 lakh people
(approx.) Proportion of Red Swift Car in Mumbai
Swift comes in various colors. Assuming that there are 6 predominant colors and assuming equal probability
to all colors,
Number of red swift in Mumbai = (3 lakh) / 6 = 50,000 cars
5) Total number of Maggie packets consumed in NITIE in one month?
Clarifying Questions:
• Type of Packets : Normal Rs. 10 packet
• Consumption by whom? : Only by Students, no faculty or other working personnel
• Kashi has been excluded from the calculation, as it is out of the main gate of NITIE
Initial Data:
Total Students in NITIE:
•
•
•
•
1st year = 450
2nd year=450
Doctoral and other students=100
Total students in NITIE = 1000 (approx.)
Ways of consumptions?
1) Through Mess Consumption
2) Consumption at BRU Canteen
3) Self-Consumption
1) Mess Consumption: In general, mess makes Maggie once a week
Maggie packets used (per month) = (Student Residents) *(Avg Consumption) *(Fraction of student who eat
Maggie at Mess) (Monthly usage)
•
•
•
•
Students = 1000
Avg Consumption = 1.25 per student
Fraction of student who eat Maggie at Mess = 80%
Monthly usage = 4 times
Maggie packets used at Mess (per month) = 1000*1.25*0.8*4 = 4000
2) Consumption at BRU Canteen = (Student Residents)*(Percentage visiting Bru)*(Avg
Consumption)*(Number of days)
• Students = 1000
• Percentage Visiting Bru = 15%
• Avg Consumption = 1.5 per student
• Number of days = 30
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Maggie packets used at BRU (per month) = 1000*15%*1.5*30 = 6750
3) Self-Usage = (Percentage of students having appliances to prepare Maggie)*(percentage who
eat Maggie)*(Average Consumption)
• Percentage of students having appliances to prepare Maggie = 10%
• Percentage who eat Maggie = 60%
• Average Consumption = 10 per month (this is the number of Maggie cooked on electrical appliance)
Self-Usage = 1000*10%*60%*10 = 600
TOTAL CONSUMPTION = 1) +2) +3) = 4000 + 6750 + 600 = 11,350 per month
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APPENDIX A: BASICS AND FORMULAE
Return On Investment (ROI)
A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of
a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. =
(Gain from Investment - Cost of Investment)/ (Cost of Investment)
Breakeven analysis:
Break-even analysis is used to determine the point at which revenue received equals the costs
associated with receiving the revenue. Break-even analysis is a supply-side analysis; it only analyses the
costs of the sales.
Units to Breakeven:
Total Fixed Costs = (Price Volume) - (Variable Cost Volume); solve for volume
1. Price to Breakeven:
Total Fixed Costs = (Price Volume) - (Variable Cost Volume); solve for price
2. Time to Breakeven:
Total Fixed Costs = (Revenues per day/month/year) - (costs per day/month/year); solve for day/month/year
Profitability
Profit is a financial benefit that is realized when the amount of revenue gained from a business activity
exceeds the expenses, costs and taxes needed to sustain the activity. = Revenues - Costs Revenues =
(Price * Volume) & Costs = (Fixed Costs) + (Variable Costs * Volume)
Profit Margin or Net Margin
Profit margin is part of a category of profitability ratios calculated as net income divided by revenue, or net
profits divided by sales. = (Profits)/(Revenues)
Gross Margin
Gross margin is a company's total sales revenue minus its cost of goods sold (COGS), divided by total sales
revenue, expressed as a percentage. The higher the percentage, the more the company retains on each dollar
of sales, to service its other costs and debt obligations. = (Revenues - Cost of Goods Sold)/(Revenues)
Net Present Value (NPV)
Net Present Value (NPV) is the difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value
of cash outflows. NPV is used in capital budgeting to analyse the profitability of a projected investment or
project.
NPV = Initial Investment + (Cash Flow Year 1)/(1+discount rate) + (Cash Flow Year 2)/(1 + discount rate)^2 +
... +(Ultimate Cash Flow Year X)/(1 + discount rate)^x
where,
Ct = net cash inflow during the period t
Co = total initial investment costs
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r = discount rate
t = number of time periods
A positive net present value indicates that the projected earnings generated by a project or investment (in
present dollars) exceeds the anticipated costs (also in present dollars).
Breakeven Market Share
This is the breakeven volume divided by market demand. It is the market share needed to achieve
breakeven profits. = (Breakeven Volume)/ (Total Market Size)
Return on Assets (ROA)
Return on assets (ROA) is an indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. ROA gives an
idea as to how efficient management is at using its assets to generate earnings. = (Net Income)/(Total Assets)
Return on Equity (ROE)
Return on equity measures a corporation's profitability by revealing how much profit a company
generates with the money shareholders have invested.= (Net Income)/(Shareholders' Equity)
Quick Ratio
Quick ratio is a measure of how well a company can meet its short-term financial liabilities.
= (Current Assets - Inventory)/(Current Liabilities)
Current Ratio
Current ratio is a liquidity ratio that measures a company's ability to pay short-term and longterm obligations.
= Current Assets/Current Liabilities
Debt Ratio
The debt ratio is defined as the ratio of total – long -term and short-term – debt to total assets, expressed
as a decimal or percentage. = Total Debt/Total Assets
Debt-to-Equity Ratio
Debt/Equity Ratio is a debt ratio used to measure a company's financial leverage, calculated by dividing a
company's total liabilities by its stockholders' equity. The D/E ratio indicates how much debt a company
is using to finance its assets relative to the amount of value represented in shareholders' equity. = Total
Debt/Total Equity
Free Cash Flow (FCF)
Free cash flow (FCF) represents the cash that a company is able to generate after spending the money
required to maintain or expand its asset base.
= EBIT(1-Tax Rate) + Depreciation & Amortization - Change in Net Working Capital - Capital Expenditure
Future Value
Future value is the value of an asset at a specific date. =(Present Value)*(1 + i)^t
Perpetuity
An annuity is a stream of cash flows. A perpetuity is a type of annuity that lasts forever, into perpetuity.
Specifically, the perpetuity formula determines the amount of cash flows in the terminal year of operation.
= (Cash Flow)/(discount rate - growth rate)
Price Elasticity of Demand
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Price elasticity of demand is a measure of the relationship between a change in the quantity demanded of
a particular good and a change in its price = (% Change in Quantity)/ (% Change in Price)
Cross Elasticity of Demand
Cross elasticity of demand is an economic concept that measures the responsiveness in the quantity demand
of one good when a change in price takes place in another good.
= (% of change in Quantity for Good X)/ (% of change in Price for Good Y)
Payback Period
The payback period is the length of time required to recover the cost of an investment.
= Cost of Project/Annual Cash Inflows
Contribution Margin
Contribution margin is a cost accounting concept that allows a company to determine the profitability of
individual products. The phrase "contribution margin" can also refer to a per unit measure of a
product's gross operating margin calculated simply as the product's price minus its total variable costs.
= Price/Unit - Variable Cost/Unit
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APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY
Account Payable
A/P is the amount the company owes for goods or services received, but not yet paid for.
Account receivable
A/R is the amount to the company for goods sold or services rendered for which payment has not yet been
received.
Activity-Based Costing
Activity-based costing (ABC) aims to provide a dynamic and realistic means of calculating the true cost of
doing business. It precisely allocates direct and indirect costs to particular products or customer segments.
Assets
Assets are all of a company's physical or intellectual property that has financial value.
Balance Sheet
A financial document showing the assets and liabilities of an organization.
Bottom Line
Bottom Line refers to the bottom line of an Income Statement. The bottom line shows the Net Income
Available to Shareholders. When a company talks about increasing the bottom line, they mean doing things
to either increase the revenue or decrease expenses so the company's income increases.
Cash Flow
Cash Flow is the movement of money into and out of a company. When more comes in than goes out, it is
said to be a positive cash flow. A negative cash flow is when more goes out than comes in.
Cost of Goods Sold
Cost of Goods Sold (CGS) are the costs directly related to the purchase or production of whatever the
company sells.
Cost of Sales
Cost of Sales are the costs directly related to the purchase or production of whatever the company sells.
Discounted Cash Flow
Discounted cash flow is a sophisticated technique used by financial analysts. Despite its complexity, discounted
cash flow analysis is based on a simple idea - that cash today is worth more than cash promised in the future.
Earnings Statement
An Earnings Statement is a standard financial document that summarizes a company's revenue and expenses
for a specific period of time, usually one quarter of a fiscal year and the entire fiscal year.
EBITDA
EBITDA is an abbreviation for Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization. It reports what the
company would have earned during the period if it did not have to pay interest on its debt; didn't have to pay
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taxes; and had depreciated the full value of all assets at their acquisition. It is roughly equivalent to the
Operating Income line in the Income Statements.
Expenses
Expenses are the costs of doing business that result from generating revenue. They include parts, salaries,
utilities, etc.
Fixed Assets
Fixed Assets are the non-liquid assets that are required for the company's day-to-day operations. They
include facilities, equipment, and real property.
Fixed Costs
Fixed Costs are expenses that don't change based on production or sales volumes. They include salaries, rent,
insurance, etc.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit equals sales revenue minus the cost of goods sold.
Gross Revenue
Gross Revenue is money generated by all of a company's operations, before deductions for expenses.
Income Statement
An Income Statement is a standard financial document that summarizes a company's revenue and expenses
for a specific period of time, usually one quarter of a fiscal year and the entire fiscal year.
Liabilities
Liabilities are all of a company's financial obligations that have a negative value.
Long Term Assets
Long Term Assets are the non-liquid assets that are required for the company's day-to-day operations. They
include facilities, equipment, and real property.
Market Share
A company's market share is the percentage of any of its markets that it holds.
Net Income
Net Income is total revenue minus total expense, what's left of the monies received after all debts have been
paid, the bottom line. If Net Income is positive it is also called Net Profit. A negative Net Income is a Net Loss.
Profit and Loss Statement
A Profit and Loss Statement is a standard financial document that summarizes a company's revenue and
expenses for a specific period of time, usually one quarter of a fiscal year and the entire fiscal year.
Revenue
Revenue is money generated by a company's operations, before deductions for expenses.
RFP
RFP is the abbreviation for Request for Proposal. An RFP is issued when an organization wants to buy
something and chooses to make the specifications available to many other companies so they can submit
competitive bids.
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RFQ
RFQ is the abbreviation for Request for Quotation. An RFQ is issued when an organization wants to buy
something and chooses to make the specifications available to many other companies so they can submit
competitive bids.
ROA
ROA is the abbreviation for Return on Assets. It is a measure of a company's profitability and is calculated as
earnings divided total average assets. ROA is expressed as a percentage.
Sales Revenue
Sales Revenue is money generated by a company's sales operations, before deductions for expenses.
Top Line
Top Line refers to the top line of an Income Statement. The top line shows the Total Sales Revenue. When a
company goal is to increase the top line, it means to concentrate on increasing gross sales.
Variable Costs
Variable Costs are expenses that vary based on production volumes. They include material, labour,
production utilities etc.
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APPENDIX C: BALANCE SHEET AND INCOME
STATEMENT
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APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS
The concept of synergies states that the sum should be larger than its parts; 1 + 1 = 3. In other words, the two
organizations together should be more worth than the two entities’ standalone values. Sirower (1997) defines
synergies as “increases in competiveness and resulting cash flows beyond what the two companies are expected
to accomplish independently. Considering the potential upsides and results of synergies, it is to no surprise that
synergies often work as main incentives in M&As where the arguments mostly involve the financial gains
achieved by efficiency improvements at different levels in the organizations. However, the talk about potential
synergies is little worth unless the plans are realized and integrated in the organizations.
The concept of synergies is all about creating added value by sharing resources and acquire benefits that
otherwise would not have been possible to achieve, or possible to achieve but at a higher cost. As synergies can
be found and used all over the organizations, synergies do take many different forms depending on the type of
M&A and the organizations’ businesses. Several attempts have been done to classify synergies and an
abundance of categorizations exists. The classification is as follows:
• Cost synergies – synergies decreasing the costs. Often related to economies of scale, such as administrative
costs and overhead costs. Resources and competences that do not use its full capacity (100 %) or do not
work effectively can be better utilized if combined with new, additional or related activities that extend the
usage thanks to decreased average costs.
• Revenue synergies – synergies increasing the revenues. Often related to economies of scope, for example
extensions of customers and products and cross selling or bundling.
• Financial synergies – synergies related to decreased costs of capital through lowered risks, better cash flows
and increased financial margins.
• Market synergies – synergies related to higher margins achieved through increased negotiation capabilities
towards suppliers and customers
Advantages of synergy:
• Efficiency gains – economies of scale and economies of scope can be seen as overall advantages where the
purposes are to increase efficiencies.
• Entry speed gains – in growing markets where the pace is high, organizations find it hard to attain the
resources and knowledge in the same speed as the market demands; resources must be acquired, people
needs education and required end products take several years to develop. By acquiring other firms these
essentials can be obtained faster by the usage of short cuts such as M&As.
• Competitive gains – in slow, static and mature markets where competition is established the cost of
expansion and building from the scratch is not always worth its money. Especially if it is hard for the
organization to strengthen the current position by simply adding additional resources. If the extra cost of
adding more resources cannot be counterbalanced by the benefits it will bring, needs to go beyond usual
methods occur. To acquire these resources through M&As are in many cases seen as the only option to get
away from this stuck-in-the-middle position.
• Consolidation gains – especially in fragmented industries where there exists an absence of specialization
and ‘all does everything’, competitive advantages can be gained or strengthened through increased focused
on core capabilities and niche areas.
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• Resource gains – resources that cannot be attained at all, or acquired at a higher cost, can be acceded
through M&As. A typical example of this is research and development, where it normally takes several years
to access knowledge by building up needed expertise and educate employees.
• Knowledge and learning curve gains – transformation of knowledge such as routines, information flows and best
practices are more specified resource gains. The exchange of knowledge contribute with opportunities to learn
more and to learn faster, owing to increased cooperation possibilities or improved transformation.
• Gains of stretched corporate parenting capabilities – in situations where M&As are not motivated by
business similarities between organizations, the motivations involve existing competences or capabilities
possible to use in new areas although no common operative resources exist. In such cases, it is rather
the skills at the corporate level creating synergies between diverse business units.
• Gains of increased market size and succeeded market share – by forwarding the organization’s market
position not only customers can be won from competitors, the synergies can also expand the whole market
pie. In addition, an alignment of business units creates increased possibilities to offer the customers a
broader product base in the same or similar market, thus contributing with a more complete market offer
• Gains of resource sharing – by sharing resources, for example by using one machine instead of using two
machines, cost savings are done. Resources used by several business units at the same time, reused or
shifted back and forward also create cost savings.
• Price pressure gains – competitive advantages are gained through price pressures enabled through different
forms of economies of scope decreasing the average costs
• Transaction cost gains – costs associated with transactions in relation to customer’s suppliers and
other closely related stakeholders can be avoided or decreased through the internalization and the
shortened distance of these
• Bargaining power gains – the gains of bargaining power increases with size since large volumes are used. The
bargaining power is mainly applicable in negotiations with external stakeholders.
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Post-Merger risks to watch for
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Post-Merger Integration Risk Types
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APPENDIX E: DATA-INTENSIVE CASES LINKS
McKinsey:
1)
2)
3)
4)
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/diconsa
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/electrolight
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/globapharm
http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/national-education
BCG
1) http://www.bcg.com/Interactives/ICL/
Deloitte
(https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/careers/articles/join-deloitte-preparing-for-the-case-interview.html )
1) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/strategy-operations-business-analyst-case-interviewpreparation-tool-v2.html
2) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/strategy-operations-mba-advanced-degreeprogram-interactive-case-interview-preparation-tool-v2.html
3) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/business-technology-analyst-program-interactivecase-interview-preparation-tool-v2.html
4) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/business-technology-mba-advanced-interactive-caseinterview-preparation-tool-v2.html
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