IIM Lucknow
Case Book
2020
The Consulting & Strategy Club
1
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
This casebook has been created by the 34th and 35th batch of the Consulting and Strategy
Club of IIM Lucknow.
We would also like to thank everyone from the 34th and 35th PGP and PGP-ABM batches of
IIM Lucknow who volunteered to document their case interview experiences and share it as
part of this casebook.
Lastly, a thank you to our readers, without whose feedback and inspiration this document
would not have been possible.
Consulting Overview………………………………………….…………...…………...…………1
Case Frameworks & Sample Cases….…………………………………….…………………7
Profitability…………………………………………………..…………………………....11
Market Entry……………………………………………………………………………….15
Market Sizing……………………………………….……………………………………..17
Pricing………………………………………………………….................................18
Mergers & Acquisitions/Due Diligence………………………...................19
Selected Case Interviews….……...…………………………………………………20
Further Detailed Frameworks………………………………........................55
Key Data Points for Guesstimates………………………….......................58
1
Case Experiences (Summers)………………………………………………………...........59
McKinsey & Company………………………………………………..........149
Accenture Strategy……………………………...……………..………...……………60
Optum……………………………………………………………….................166
A.T. Kearney………………………………………………………………………………..73
Synergy Consulting…………..……………………………………………….169
Auctus Advisors……………………………………………………….....................80
Case Experiences (Laterals)………………………………………………….........171
Bain & Company………………………………………………………………………….86
HEPP- Deloitte……………………………………………………………….…...172
The Boston Consulting Group……………………………………………………110
HEPP- PwC…………………………………………………………..................180
Deloitte………………...…………………………………………………………………..126
Everest Group………………………………………………………......................137
EY……..………………………………………………………………………………………140
Gartner…..…………………………………………………………………………………141
KPMG…..……………………………………………………………........................142
Mastercard Advisors………………………………………………….................144
2
Consul ng Overview
The Consul ng & Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow is proud to present the IIM Lucknow Casebook
for the year 2020. This year we have made an a empt to bring to you a consolidated preparaon guide which is an amalgama on of commonly asked case frameworks and most recent
case interview experiences – as communicated by candidates who sat through the placement
process of consul ng rms recrui ng from IIM Lucknow.
Preparing for consul ng interview can be daun ng especially, if you are doing it for the very
rst me! Here is our take on what the process typically looks like and what you should an cipate. We hope this helps those reading the book to be er understand if they want to make a
career in consul ng or not. If your answer is yes, then we hope the book helps you be er prepare yourselves for the process.
Who should use this book?
Students who wish to familiarize themselves with the typical interview process followed by
major consul ng rms across the globe
Students across Indian B-schools and undergraduate colleges who are preparing for consul ng roles on campus
Students who want to prac ce cases closest to actual interview scenarios
Insight into the Process
1.
The Shortlist
The rst step towards landing your dream job is preparing your CV, on the basis of
which the interview shortlist is released by di erent rms. Making the perfect CV is a
task in itself and should be taken very seriously. It is important to get your CV reviewed on ve things – impact, language, structure, highligh ng & forma ng.
Impact:
Typically, you are encouraged to show the impact created by you in every possible
point and also quan fying the impact wherever possible.
Language:
Once your points have been nalized, you should check if each point conveys your role/
contribu on in a crisp and clear manner to the evaluator. If you have worked in a very technical role, try to use less jargons and simplify the language for the person on the other side of
the table.
Structure:
A er freezing your nal CV points, it is important that you order the boxes in your CV tac ully
(The most generic boxes in a CV being – educa on, academic achievements, work experience,
extra-curriculars and posi ons of responsibility).
Highligh ng:
Highligh ng of key points is crucial to a ract the evaluator’s a en on to the points that you
want him/her to read rst. This is especially signi cant since companies have to evaluate a
huge number of CVs before coming out with the shortlist.
Forma ng:
Lastly, your CV must be well forma ed. Presenta on skills ma er and any aw here puts you
in nega ve light.
Top consul ng rms are known to shortlist candidates whose CVs show 3-4 ‘spikes’. Spikes
can be any noteworthy achievements in the sphere of academics, extra-curriculars, workexperience or PORs that make your CV stand out from the rest. Try to keep this at the back
of your head while making your CV.
2.
Buddy Process & Company Interac ons/Dinner
Some companies have a month-long buddy process. One buddy is assigned to each
shortlisted candidate. Buddies are typically your college alumni in the rm who have 03 years of experience in the rm. This process aims to serve the following purposes
depending on the company:
1
Support & guidance for the nal interview: Buddies prac ce cases with you over the
one month and provide feedback for the nal interview. They also help you prepare for
HR answers. Any queries about the process can be routed through them. Interac ons
with them are meant to be less formal than a professional se ng.
Opportunity for candidate to evaluate the company: Buddies are also your means of
ge ng an insight into the company. There may be mul ple interac ons and workshops
scheduled in this one-month period where company representa ves and buddies will
visit campus to take a pulse check on your prep. This is an ideal me to ask ques ons
about rm culture, get to know the people and try to gauge if the rm is a good t for
you.
Pre-interview evalua on of candidates: Some companies may have a pre-interview
evalua on of candidates either through the cases done with buddies or through interac ons during workshops and dinners. It is important to be proac ve throughout the
process and maintain visibility. However, your performance on the day of your nal
interviews is the most important criteria for your selec on.
the problem, reaching the solu on using a structured approach and asking the
right ques ons) and numeric skills (comfort with numbers, business sense, speed
& accuracy). In addi on to this, the interviewer may want to evaluate your presence &
personality in general while you are interac ng with a client.
HR:
It is extremely important to know your CV inside out. You can be asked anything related
to your CV. In fact, there are mes when you are asked cases based on themes/sectors
in your CV. The ques ons that you must prepare for are – basic introduc on, your reasons for wan ng to join consul ng and why you want to join the par cular rm you are
interviewing with. How the job ts into your short-term and long-term plans may also be
important ques ons to re ect on. All in all, through this component of your interview,
the interviewer tests how good a t you are for the rm.
In most cases, the buddy process is what you make of it. Thus, you should try to maximize your gains out of this process.
3.
Final Interviews
On the nal day, you will have 2-3 case interviews back-to-back. While they maybe elimina ve for some rms, others may hold the same number of interviews for all candidates before rolling out o ers. Each interview typically lasts for 45 mins for nal placements while the summers process may have shorter interviews las ng for around 20
mins. It comprises of a case and HR ques ons.
Case:
For this component of the interview, you are evaluated on your communica on skills
(clarity of thought, ar cula on & crisp communica on), problem solving skills (scoping
2
Introduction to case interviews
• Case interview helicopter view
• Personality, fit & work experience related questions
• Major case interview categories
3
Case interview helicopter view
Pre-Case
Conversation
•
•
•
•
3-4 minutes of
informal
conversation
Some hygiene
questions on
candidate’s level of
confidence
Fit questions (HR)
Questions related
to work experience
Higher level
understanding of
client situation
Case Introduced
Case issued generally
falls in the following
buckets
• Profitability
• Market entry
• Pricing
• Abstract
• Estimation
•
•
•
•
Understand the
problem
statement
Probe interviewer
to get context on
the current
situation
A solid framework
to use- CPCCP
Ask relevant
questions
Deep dive into
case for diagnosis
•
Get into the details
of the case
• Tools at hand
• Value Chain
Analysis
• PORTER’s 5 forces
• PESTLE
• If not able to
diagnose, move
backward, try
thinking of other
frameworks
Potential Solutions
/ Summary
•
•
•
•
Suggest
problems to the
interviewer
Identify 2-3
solutions of the
problem
Summarize and
synthesize
Don’t push
infeasible
solutions
4
“Personality”, “Fit”, “Work experience” related questions
▪
Personality
▪
▪
Fit for the firm
▪
▪
Work experience
▪
Questions to gauge a higher level understanding of candidate’s skills-communication,
knowledge and experience related
Sample questions:
o Tell me about yourself? – (Ice breaker. Your chance to take the interviewer to your strengths)
o Things that you are passionate about? (Your ability to deep-dive into your interests)
o Situational questions- Handling a crisis, negotiating with colleagues and others
Questions to assess if the candidate can fit in the culture of the firm. Since consulting firms put
high emphasis on their culture, this area is a make or break
Sample questions:
o Why firm “X”? (To understand your knowledge about the firm’s culture)
o How do you solve a problem? (Assessing how you approach problems- 70% of early career)
o What is your greatest achievement? (To assess how you measure impact )
Questions around candidate’s work experience/internships- assessment of overlapping areas of
work with the interviewing firm, responsibilities handled and impact delivered
Sample questions:
o Things that you liked about your previous firms? (Identifies your optimism about workplace)
o Most interesting project? (Knowing your expertise in the area of work)
o Why did you leave your previous job? (Triggers that reduce your motivation about workplace)
5
Major case interview categories
Revenue
Cost
Market
analysis
Market sizing
Pricing
Profits
Market
Entry
Case
Categories
Mode of entry
Growth Strategy
Others
Performance
improvement
Product launch
Abstract
M&A
6
Case Frameworks
Case frameworks are a good place to start your case prepara on from. They provide an ini al founda on for the much talked about 'mutually exclusive and collec vely exhaus ve' or MECE
thought structure that is looked for while solving any case.
Basic frameworks such as the ones provided below can help you in a situa on where you face a roadblock in terms of how to start solving a case. As you go along your case prac ce culmina ng in the nal interview, you will soon learn to adapt these basic building blocks or frameworks as per the industry on which the case you are solving is based. Also, by the end of your case
prepara on journey you should have built your own 'MECE' framework for every typical case structure that you could encounter in a case interview.
The frameworks given below are each followed by sample cases demonstra ng how a framework is actually used while solving a case. It is advisable to prac ce more cases and try to apply
these frameworks there.
7
Irrespective of case type, the problem statement can generally
be probed by deploying “CPCC”
Problem Formulation
Company
Product
Customer
Competition
• SMART objectives
(constraints,
priorities)
• Scope of the problem
• Since when are you
facing the problem?
• Magnitude of the
problem
• Why certain decisions
being taken now?
(Market Entry Cases)
• Business lines &
revenue segments
• Locations – Plant,
Sales
• Business Model &
Distribution model
• Scale of operation
• Type of player – Low
cost or differentiated
• How old is the
company?
• SKUs – types,
variants, sizes
• USP of the product
• Revenue share by
product
• Is the problem
specific to a product?
• How are the
customers
segmented
• Customer segments
served?
• Different customer
and consumer?
• Revenue contribution
of channel partners
• Is the problem
specific to a customer
segment?
• Who are the
competitors and
what are their market
shares?
• Who are the indirect
competitors?
• Fragmented vs
concentrated
industry
• Are competitors also
facing the issue?
Points to
remember
Why clarifying questions are important?
• Better understanding about the client & industry
• Scoping and segmenting the problem
• Generating inferences from the information
gathered. Accordingly, customize further
questions and case solving structure
To-Dos
• Contextualise the questions as per the case (product,
industry etc.)
• If you have any prior understanding, always state it and get
it validated, rather than asking a question.
8
Frameworks to conduct industry analysis
PESTLE- Macroeconomic analysis
Porter’s 5 forces- Microeconomic analysis
Political
Environment
Economic
PESTLE
Analysis
Social
Legal
Technological
Many a times, a sixth force i.e. compliments is also considered during analysis.
Refer to the additional information section for detailed PESTLE analysis
9
The 4P framework – generally applicable across all business
cases
Product
Place
• What are the product’s
differentiating attributes?
• Why does the consumer
purchase the product?
• How is the product
distributed to consumers?
• What is the distribution
supply chain? (distributor,
wholesaler, retailer) –
Commissions, product
push, time to transport etc.
• What new methods of
distribution are available?
• Product placement at retail
outlet (Right place, right
way, right environment,
right quantity)
•
•
•
•
•
Features
Quality
Packaging
Brand
Support services
(installation, after sales
support)
Promotion
• What promotions are being
used – advertisements,
sales/trade, PR? (Mode,
Message, Messenger)
• Any negative PR recently
• What is the most effective
way of “getting word out”?
• Evaluate each promotion
mechanism by reach,
frequency, impact
• How it helps in creating
brand loyalty, preferences
• Sales & Trade promotion
• Advertising – ATL/ BTL/ TTL
• Personal Selling
Price
• How is the product
priced?
• How are its competitors
priced?
• What pricing strategy?
• How the customers pay
(channels, payments
modes)?
• Discounts, loyalty
schemes
• Cost based, value pricing,
competitor based
• Premium pricing
• Skimming pricing
• Penetration pricing
10
Profitability framework- Revenues are declining
Profits
Revenues
Costs
Refer Profitability-costs framework
Price
Quantity
Internal factors
Product, Promotions, Place
Approach
Refer 4P framework
Product
• Need served?
• Features &
Quality
• Brand
• Packaging
• SKUs
• Consumption
frequency
External Factors
Customer Journey
Approach
Refer Customer Journey framework
Promotions
Place/ Distribution
• STP
• Modes of Distribution
• Core message and content
• Direct - Online, Offline
• Modes
• Indirect - Online,
• Advertisements – Online, offline
offline
• Sales Promotions
• No. of customers in each
• Trade Promotions
mode
• Public Relations & sponsorships • Average value of purchase
•
•
•
•
•
•
Macro Economic
factors
Industry level factors
Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental
•
•
•
•
•
•
Supplier
Customers
Substitutes
Threat of New Entrants
Competitive Rivalry
Complements
11
Profitability framework- Customer Journey approach
Need
Necessity
• Alternatives
available?
Yes/No
• Utility good
Awareness
Trade
Promotion
Discretionary
• Alternatives
available? Yes/No
• Luxury good
• Channel
Incentives
• Salesforce
effectiveness
Sales
Promotion
•
•
•
•
Mode (Media)
Message
Messenger
Perception/PR
Experience
Purchase
Experience
• Vendor Selection
• In-store exp. –
Ambience,
salesmen
• Payment process
• Delivery
Post Delivery
• Unpacking
• Installation
• Usage – Draw
parallel to product
need and customer
satisfaction
Accessibility
Coverage
• Reach
• Logistics
• Channel
Management
Product
Placement
• 4Rs
- Right Place
- Right way
- Right Environment
- Right Quantity
Affordability
Customer
Service
• Feedback
• Problem
- Help (Customer
Care)
- Solution
(Warranty/NonWarranty)
Pricing
Strategy
• Base/Premium
• Discounts
• Loyalty/
Subscriptions
Payment
Options
• Credit –
Credit card, EMI
• Non-Credit – Cash,
Debit card, wallets,
etc.
12
Customer Journey Approach in practice
It is not always necessary to follow the standard buckets while mapping the customer journey
The candidate should step into the shoes of the customer and solve it through first principle
Example: Mapping the customer journey on an e-commerce platform
Home Page
Features
Ease of Use
Search
History
Results
Suggestions
Product
Aesthetics
Repairs
Features
Placement
After Sales
Instalation
Product Page
Product
Price
Reviews
Suggestions
Payment
Delivery
Returns &
Replacements
Time
Quality
Credit
Non-Credit
Reach
13
Profitability framework- Costs are increasing*
Costs are increasing
Operational
Secondary
Primary
Warehousing,
storage &
Transportation
In-bound Logistics
Raw Material
Quality
Non-Operational
Quantity
Transport
Storage
Distribution, marketing
& sales costs
Wholesaler
Retailer
After sales
service costs
Consumer
Production Process
Material
Man
Machine
Non-operational cost
•
•
•
•
Depreciation
Amortization
Bad debts
Finance costs
Method
Measurement
Secondary costs
•
•
•
•
Research & development
HR and admin costs
Infrastructure costs
Technology development
•
•
Classification depends on industry
Refer to additional information for detailed classification
14
Market entry framework (1/2)
Proposed framework for market entry:
A. Qualifying questions
A. Understanding context - Qualifying questions
B. Decision to enter –
• Market attractiveness
1. Quantitative Analysis
1. Market Size & Growth
2. Breakeven Analysis (NPV, IRR, Payback period)
2. Qualitative Analysis
1. Country (macro) & Industry analysis (micro)
• Need-gap analysis & STP
C. Mode of entry
D. Operationalizing (optional)
Motive
Basic info
Constraints
•
•
•
•
Profit increase
Market share expansion
Diversification
Other reasons - welfare,
charity, etc.
Any reasons why the chosen
country?
Why now?
• Company
• Products/
services
• Time period
• Investment
B. Entry decision - Market attractiveness1
Country analysis
Political
Legal & regulatory
Economic
Socio-cultural
Industry analysis
Technology &
infrastructure
Environmental
1Quantitative – Market Size & Growth, Breakeven Analysis (NPV, IRR, Payback Period)
Suppliers
Consumers
Substitutes
Complements
Competitors
Barriers to entry
15
Market entry framework (2/2)
B. Entry decision - Need-gap analysis & STP
Identify segments
•
•
•
•
Perform need-gap analysis
• Define product/ services
• Identify USP
• Target segments whose needs are met
Geography
Demographic
Behavioural
Psychographics
C. Framework for market entry mode
Costs
Time to
profitability
Autonomy/
control
Risks
Organic
growth
M&A
JV
• Market Size (potential guesstimate)
• Growth
• Lifecycle
D. Operationalizing
Rate comparatively for each factor on 3-level scale: High, Mid and Low
Factors for
various
options
For each target segment, identify
License/
Franchise
Setup the business for the firm:
1. Establish value chain
• Sourcing
• Manufacturing
• Logistics (Transportation & Storage)
• Distribution
• Marketing
• Customer service
2. Product/ services related: (4 P Approach)
• Product/ Service
• Pricing
• Promotion plan
• Place
3. Identifying Risks & Synergies
16
Market Sizing/ Guesstimates
A. What do interviewers look for
in guesstimates?
1. Approach (Reduction factors,
assumptions made) – Most important
2. Market/ consumer/ industry specific
insights
3. Calculations – Speed, correctness
• Perform approximate calculations to
save time & reduce chances of error
C. Does the final answer matter?
•
The final answer need not be accurate
•
Try not to arrive at numbers with large
deviations (10x, 100x) (validating final
answer through any other ball-park
estimation). In case of error, don’t hesitate to
go back to the approach & include any other
factor or review the numbers taken
B. Types (Decide based on constraints/ limiting factor)
Demand Side
Supply Side
• Example – Mobile phones sold, Ketchup
consumed etc.
• ‘Consumer Centric’ approach –
• Imagine yourself as a consumer of the
product and identify consumer insights
• Usual reduction factors –
• Population (Or any other consumer)
• Age, Gender, Income
• Religion, Ethnicity
• Urban/ Rural or location wise
• Consumer usage related factors
• Units per person
• Substitutes & other options
• Complements
• Replacement Rate
• Competition
• Example – No. of flights landing in an airport
• Usual Reduction Factors –
• Production capability
• Infrastructure facility
• Time, Resource, Capital
• Units per facility
• Competition
• Substitutes & Complements
D. Process
Scoping &
Clarification
Define the approach
(reduction factors),
draw issue tree & get
buy-in from interviewer
State all the
numbers and back
it up with any
suitable rationale
Apply 80/ 20
Rule – Only
proceed with
major segments
Perform
calculation &
adjust minor
segments ignored
Validate the answer
through other approach/
benchmark (ball-park
estimation works)
17
Pricing framework
R&D Cost
FC
Cost based
Production cost
VC
Breakeven period, WACC
Similar product in the
market
Pricing
Competition based
Substitutes
Opportunity cost
Value based
Value of similar products
18
Mergers & Acquisitions & Due - Diligence
Proposed framework:
A. Pre-Offer
A. Pre-Offer
• Why merge/acquire?
• Valuations
B. Offer
• Due-Diligence
• Synergies
• Deal Structuring
C. Post-Offer
• PMI
• Strategy & Exit
Valuation
Motive
Operational
Financial
• Asset Seeking
• Overcapacity
• R&D
Managerial
• Acquiring an
undervalued
firm
B. Offer
Due Diligence1
Use SMIOLF Framework
• Strategic
• Marketing
• IT
• Operations
• Legal
• Finance
Synergies
A+B > A,B
• Compare the value
chains of both the
firms and identify
synergies
Can use any method
for valuations:
• DCF
• Segment
• Market Value
• Agency
issues
• Monopoly
C. Post-Offer
Deal Structuring
PMI
• All Cash
• Cash + Stock
• All Stock
• Debt
• ……
& similar combinations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Strategy
Culture (Values)
• Cost
Systems (Cost)
• Redesign
Strategy (Synergies)
Structure (Leadership)
Staff (Attrition)
Style (Decision makers)
Skills (Talent)
Exit
• When
• How
1. Flow of Due Diligence
Macro
Micro
Margins
Competitive Advantage
Legal
Strategic Fit
19
Selected Case Interviews
20
Profitability- Interview transcript
An Oral Hygiene Products Manufacturer facing declining profits in India
Case transcript
Your client is an Oral Hygiene Products manufacturer. They have observed declining profits. Help find the
solution to their problem.
I would like to begin by confirming the problem statement, and asking some clarifying questions from our
client. As per my understanding our client manufactures oral hygiene products, and has faced declining
profits. Is that correct? How long has the client been facing this problem?
That is correct. The client has been facing declining profits since the inception of the firm 2 years ago.
Thank you. What all products does the client manufacture? Also, where does the client operate?
The client manufactures two products toothbrush, and mouthwash. They are present only in the Indian
market.
Let’s focus on the Revenues for Toothbrush.
Now Revenue issue can be a market share issue where your firm is facing declining revenues whereas the industry
is performing well, or a market value issue, where the market itself is not performing to the par. Where do you
think the issue is here?
I think it’s a Market Share issue, the Toothbrush market has maintained its growth levels otherwise.
Thanks, now Revenues can further be broken down into Price, and Volumes. Has there been a decline in the
volume of the product being manufactured or has there been some change in the prices?
The prices have remained constant focus on the volumes here.
What are the competitors faced by the client, and where is the client situated in the competition?
Ok. So if there has been a fall in volumes, it could be because of supply side issues, where the demand exists but
the client has not been able to meet it, or a demand side issue with the problem at the consumer’s end. Could you
help me understand, on which side the issue could be?
Since they have established their operations recently, the client is still market follower, and is placed 4th
in terms of national market share for oral hygiene products.
The client believes that there has been a fall in demand.
What is the sales split of the two products manufactured by the client? Further, have both of seen a decline
in profits?
The client manufactures one standard type of Toothbrush (A) and Mouthwash (B) each, which contribute
75% and 25% of the total sales, respectively. Both are being hit in terms of profitability.
Does the client operate across the value chain or in a specific part? Also, will it be safe to assume that the
end consumers of the client’s products are majorly households?
Yes, the client operates across the entire value chain; and, could you elaborate which households?
Sure. Assuming the client is competing nationally, I believe the toothbrush sales should be majorly driven by
middle-income households. Whereas, Mouthwash demand emanating largely from upper-middle to highincome households. Is this assumption fair?
Alright then. This fall in demand can then further be attributed to internal factors innate to the client’s product
such as branding, product specifications, and after sales service or external factors that have emerged from
outside the client’s control, like substitutes, complements, with taste and preferences. Is there any segment you
would like me to focus on specifically?
Begin with product specifications
The Product specifications can further be broken down into functional aspects (i.e. the bristles, grip, length of the
toothbrush etc.) and experiential/symbolic factors like colours, packaging, unique features. Could there be a
reason for us to believe that the client’s product is different from the industry in the above factors?
Yes, it has been found that the bristles and the length the toothbrush has not been satisfactory. Can you
highlight what issues could there be?
Fair, you may proceed further.
Since there are two products with their respective sales contributions, I will begin with toothbrush since it
has greater contribution, and then proceed to mouthwash
Sure, go ahead.
So, Profits can be broken down to revenues and costs. Since profits are declining, it could either be revenues
declining, costs increasing or costs increasing greater than the revenues. Which option would you like me to
proceed with?
Sure, Indians are known to brush their teeth rigorously, and mostly in the morning for freshness. I believe there
could be an issue with the quality of the bristles or the area of bristles that could either make the experience
hurtful, or not allow adequate toothpaste to get a satisfactory brushing experience.
For the length, due to the brushing pattern as stated above, rigorous strokes are made. If the length is longer than
expected, it could either damage the gums, or not make the toothbrush flexible enough to provide the experience
the customers are looking for.
21
Profitability- Interview transcript
An Oral Hygiene Products Manufacturer facing declining profits in India
Case transcript
These could certainly be plausible issues; but changing product specifications is a lengthy process, and requires research. What would you recommend the client?
Alright. The decline in revenues for toothbrush is largely coming from product where the client may have difficulties in finding immediate solutions. In that case I would recommend fringe benefits to customers in the short run
to make the product more lucrative until specifications can be met with. These could be:1. Explore bundling of products to make the bundle attractive and drive sales in both products
2. Niche promotion that could address this myth, or make the brush look like a differentiated offering
The recommendations seem feasible. Now explore the mouthwash segment. Focus on external factors, and it is a market share issue.
Thank you. Since it is an external issue, it implies, the client’s product is facing issue in the business environment. Would it be safe to assume that the issue with Mouthwash being faced, at the same time as Toothbrush too?
No, it is a more recent phenomenon.
Sure, since it is a customer driven (demand) issue, external factors could be Affordability, Availability, Accessibility, or Likeability. Is there any specific factor you would like me to consider first?
Explain what you mean by likeability?
Likeability are the factors that would affect the customer’s propensity to buy the product provided it is available, affordable and accessible. These could emergence of substitutes, tastes and preferences, or complements.
Yes, it has been found that our mouthwash brand is endorsed by a famous Hollywood actor who is also endorsing a tobacco brand in a significant country, and has faced global criticism for it, which may have affected
preferences here. This was a constructive interaction, thank you and all the best!
22
Profitability- Case Structure
An Oral Hygiene Products Manufacturer facing declining profits in India
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
Profits
Oral Hygiene Products
manufacturer facing
unsatisfactory revenues
Revenue
Price
•
2 Products – Toothbrush
(A) (75%) and Mouthwash
(B) (25%)
Customers – Middle
Income Households for A
and Middle to High for B
•
Placed 4th in the Market
•
Problem since inception, 2
years ago
Promotion
Product
Functional
Supply
External
Internal
Case facts:
Costs
Volumes
Demand
•
Quantitative data & analysis
None
Likeability
Product
Availability
Substitutes
Accessibility
Complements
Affordability
Tastes and
Preferences
Experiential
Problems and recommendations
Toothbrush – Product Specifications Issue in Bristles and Length. Niche
promotions and bundled sales until product redesign
Mouthwash – Taste and Preference Issue because of Brand Ambassador
Interviewee feedback
The case assesses the ability to extend and structure a revenue side issue in the
most extensive way. The key is to cover most filters first, and then explore the
breadth before depth while searching for the issue. Structure is prioritized over
recommendation
23
Profitability- Interview transcript
Our client is a biscuit retailer. Of late, they have experienced a decline in profit. Why is this happening?
Case transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I would like to understand more about the retailer. Where is our
client’s business based out of? Where are the retail shops located? How long has the retailer been facing this
issue?
We get our supplies from the same wholesaler for last 5-6 years. There has not been any major change in any of
these. You may move ahead.
Good. The retailer is based out of India. The shops are located in the residential areas of Lucknow. It’s a
well-known shop. The client has been facing this issue since last 3 months.
The retailers own a few trucks. There have been a few structural changes like increase in fuel costs but it has
impacted the overall industry. Go ahead.
Alright. I would like to understand more about operating model of the client. Does our client manufacture
the biscuits as well?
Now, next step is to unload the biscuit packets. There could be issues related to mishandling during the process.
Interestingly, our client procures the biscuits from the manufacturer. He stores it in the warehouse and
then sends it to the respective retailers.
No, I don’t think there is any mishandling at this stage. What else?
Okay. Could you please elaborate a bit on the competition faced by the biscuit retailer? And are the
competitors also facing this issue?
There are no major competitors in Lucknow. People heavily rely on our client’s products. No, the
competitors are not facing this issue.
Now, I would like to know more about the different types of biscuits being sold by the retailers? And does
our client serve only households?
As of now, our client sells only one type of biscuits. It is being consumed by the middle class families.
(Asked for a few seconds to develop my structure) Based on our discussion, the client is facing issues in the
profits. Profits can be declined because of two reasons: a) decline in revenues b) increase in costs. Do you
want me to focus on any particular area?
Yes, I would like you to explore costs first.
For costs, I would like to see what are costs being incurred by the retailer at each point of the value chain of
the retailer. As per my understanding, the client will first procure the biscuits from the retailer. For which,
some inbound logistics will be required. After unloading, the biscuits will be stored at a warehouse. From
there, they will be transferred to the retail shops. Is there anything I am missing out?
Great. I think you have covered all the points. You may start with your this structure.
Sure. I would like to start with the procurement of biscuits from the wholesaler. Has there been any change
in the price charged by the wholesaler or any other terms and conditions?
Sure. I would like to understand the modes of transportation used by the retailer to procure the biscuits from the
retailer.
Next, I would like to understand how the storage of the packets takes place?
Good. We own a warehouse nearby the city. We are using the same warehouse for last 8 year. What kind of
problems can you think here?
There could two possible problems in storage. A) Human issues B) Non-human issues
Interesting, can you walk me through the possible issues under each head.
Sure. Under human issues, there could 3 possible problems:
i) Mishandling which includes damage due to the labour
ii) Stealing of the packets by the labour
iii) Management of the inventory i.e., using LIFO for a perishable product may affect the old packets
Absolutely. Inventory management is one issue due to lack of training in new employees. Can you think of some
non-human issues?
Under non human issues, there are two possible issues:
i) Spoilage due to climatic conditions ii) Damage due to rodents
Yes, there has been a lot of damage due to this monsoon season. Great, can you recommend some possible
steps to combat this issues observed?
Sure. In short term, we can: i) Employee training in inventory management ii) undertake regular pest controls to
prevent the damage from rodents.
In long term: i) installation of CCTVs to keep a check on workers ii) renovate the warehouse to make it water proof.
Certainly. It was a great discussion. Do you have any questions for me?
24
Profitability- Case structure
Our client is a biscuit retailer. Of late, they have experienced a decline in profit. Why is this happening?
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
Profit
Biscuits retailer facing issues
due to increasing costs
Revenue
Procurement from
Warehouse
Inbound Logistics
Unloading
Cost
Storage
Load on Shelf
Transfer to Shop
Case facts:
• Located in residential areas
Human Issues
Non-Human Issues
• One product and no
competitor
• Middle class families
Stealing
Mishandling
Inventory
Management
Purchase by
Customer
After-Sales Service
Spoilage
Damage
• Problem since last 3
months
Problems and recommendations
i) Human issues: Poor inventory management by personnel
ii) Non-human issues: Spoilage due to the monsoon season
Recommendation:
i) Training in inventory management techniques
ii) Make the warehouse water resistant
Interviewee feedback
The case revolves around the back-end work of the retailer. It is not always
necessary for a retailer to face customer related issues. Therefore, it is a
recommended step to clarify the operating model. Using the value chain can
help in identifying the problems easily at each stage.
25
Profitability - Interview transcript
Client is an NBFC. Its sales have been declining for the last few months. Help identify the reason.
Case Transcript
Client is an NBFC. Its sales have been declining for the last few months. Help identify the reason
Okay. Since the problem only occurs with you, I am going to start from the broker. Are we offering the
brokers competitive commissions ? Are our checks stricter?
Could I know more about the client? Where is it operating, for how long, how are sales defined, which
customer profiles it serves and is the competition facing a similar issue?
Both our commission and checks are competitive.
The client has been operating in India since 2000. It’s HQ is in Mumbai. As an NBFC, it offers loans which
have seen a decline. My competition, which includes other private NBFCs and banks, are not facing the
problem. We provide both retail and corporate loans, both of which are facing the decline.
Okay. So, then there is a problem with the final conversion of customers. And since the brokers are
neutral, are we taking a lot of time to get back?
How do we provide loans to our customers?
That’s correct. Our competitors have upped their process of verification, that has significantly reduced
their get-back time and covert the customers. That’s good, we can end the case here.
We provide loans directly and through DSEs which are like brokers for banks.
Thank you.
Has there been a decline in the DSE channel?
Yes. Significantly.
Has there been a fall in the applications? Could you tell me how this channel works?
The number of applications have been the same and yes the product is still competitive. The DSE
channel works like this – customer goes to broker – broker shows them all the options, including ours –
broker sends back applications – we review the applications – get back to broker – broker conveys to
customer – deal is signed
26
Profitability - Case structure
Client is an NBFC. Its sales have been declining for the last few months. Help identify the reason
Qualitative information
Client has been
operating
for 25
Case
background:
years with two
NBFC
facing
declining
strong
brand
revenues in DSE
names. It faces
(independent) channel
indirect
Case
facts:
competition
from
the beer and fresh
• Problem specific to
cocktails.
client
•
Here, sales mean
sales
It isloan
a unique
• Loans provided by
product
client are competitive
Case framework
Consumer
Approaches DSE
Broker presents
loan options
Broker sends forms
back to NBFC
Loans Reviewed
Deal Signed
Client Accepts
Bank takes longer time
to review offers & give
clearance
NBFC gets back
Problems and recommendations
Interviewee feedback
Clients’ loan application verification process time is significantly slower than
the competition and is having trouble converting customers.
It is always good to ask for value chains of a business you have less knowledge
about. The case did not follow any conventional structure, hence it is extremely
important to solve cases using first principles.
27
Profitability- Interview transcript
Our client is an automotive manufacturer and has been facing a decline in profits. Help us find out why.
Case transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I would like to understand the magnitude of the problem better.
Since when have the profits been declining and by how much?
Okay, I would like to know if there has been any major change in the location of the manufacturing plants /
suppliers you’re procuring from / product mix / target customers in the recent past that could have led to a
change in procurement costs for the firm?
The client has been facing this issue since the past 1 year and the quantum of fall has been 10%
Yes, we have recently changed our suppliers owing to a change in procurement policy which aims to localize
procurement closer to Chennai plants.
I would like to understand the company’s business model and how long it has been in business for?
The company is 50-60 years old. It typically procures parts, assembles it and sells the final product in
markets across India
Where are the company’s manufacturing plants located? And where does it procure parts from?
It has 5 manufacturing plants. One each in Pune, Kolkata and Lucknow and two in Chennai. Distribution
happens from all across India while procurement sites are aggregated closer to Chennai
Does the company have its own stores or does it distribute through third parties? What is the share of online
and offline distribution?
We distribute through our own stores as well as through third party distributors. The share of offline sales
is around 95% and rest is taken up by online sales.
What is the type of automobiles that you manufacture? And what is the share of revenues you get from each
of these product segments?
The client manufactures commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles and is also in the business of spare parts.
The revenue mix is around 50%, 50% and 5% respectively
And what is the kind of clientele we are targeting with the products?
With the passenger vehicles, the client is targeting the middle income group and the typical clientele for
commercial vehicles is trucking aggregators and other businesses
Alright, in terms of competition, who are your major competitors in the market and where are you placed
among them? Have they been facing a similar issues?
We are among the top 3 players in the market and you can assume all three of us have equal market share.
I am not aware if our competitors are facing similar issues or not.
I’d now like to delve into the case and identify reasons for decline in profitability. So since you said your
profitability has been declining, it could either be a function of decline in revenues or increase in costs.
There has been an increase in costs
Okay, I would like to break down the costs into Primary and Secondary costs. Primary costs will include costs
related to R&D, procurement of raw materials, in-bound logistics, warehousing of raw materials, processing,
warehousing of finished goods, outbound logistics, marketing and any reverse logistics/spare parts.
Secondary costs will include HR, admin etc. costs.
That sounds exhaustive. I would like you to begin with procurement, our R&D costs haven’t had an impact
on profitability.
Okay, so one of the reasons for lower profitability be the additional transportation costs you are bearing to
transport the parts from Chennal plants to other manufacturing facilities located pan-India?
Yes, that is correct. But at the same time we are lowering raw material procurement costs for Chennai plants.
The transportation cost as a proportion of total costs has gone up from 5% to 8% while the raw material cost
has gone down from 15% by 17%
Okay, that means that the change in raw material cost has been ~1.73% of total costs and so the net increase in
costs has been 3%-1.73% = 1.27%. So this is one of the reasons for a spike in costs and decline in profitability.
Right, now I would like you to tell me how the findings so far can impact warehousing costs.
Warehousing costs could be further divided into human and non-human costs. Human costs include any changes
in number of employees, skill level of employees, wages of employees in the warehouse. Non-human costs will
include costs associated with inefficiencies in inventory management (inventory carrying cost) or related to
general maintenance/security of warehouse
There has been no change in human costs. However, the inventory carrying cost has been impacted. Could you
suggest why?
Is it because the number of days taken for the inventory to reach your Lucknow, Pune and Kolkata plants has
increased, thereby increasing the number of days that the inventory is in transit?
That is right. Now, we have also been facing a lot of complaints post-purchase of vehicles. How could this be
having a cost implication?
Okay, so complaints could be of two types, one, that requires only servicing and doesn’t require additional spare
parts, the other can be where spare parts are required. The implications of these can again be two fold - one,
increase in manpower costs for handling these complaints and second, cost of storing/transporting spare parts on
demand (Depending on how your model works)
Yes, so there has been an increase in the costs related to transporting the spare parts to these service centers
since earlier the anticipated demand for spare parts was lesser than what it has been over the past year. The
new supplier seems to be providing more defective parts. Could you summarize the case for me?
Sure. We were trying to ascertain why an automotive company is facing declining profits and we found out that
one, there has been a change in procurement policy of parts which is leading to an increase in inbound logistics
costs, second is the increase in inventory carrying costs because inventory in transit is taking longer now and lastly,
servicing costs have gone up due to the new supplier supplying more defective parts
28
Profitability- Case structure
Our client is an automotive manufacturer and has been facing a decline in profits. Help us find out why.
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
Automotive manufacturer is
facing an increase in costs
primarily due to a change in
procurement policy of the
company
Case facts:
Quantitative analysis
Profit
Revenue
Procurement
from suppliers
Inbound
Logistics
• 5 manufacturing plants
located in Lucknow,
Kolkata, Pune and 2 in
Chennai
• Makes Commercial
vehicles, passenger
vehicles and in the
business of spare parts as
well
Raw material costs (previous) =
15% of costs
Inventory
warehousing
Human Costs
Maintenance &
Equipment
Change in
Supplier
Increase in
Distance
Problems and recommendations
Change in Procurement Policy has resulted in:
1) Net increase in inbound logistic costs
2) Inventory carrying costs has increased
3) Servicing costs increase due to more defective parts
Mode of
Transportation
Decrease in raw material
procurement costs = 17%
Cost
Processing
Finished
goods
warehousing
Non Human
Costs
Theft
Transfer to
shop
Servicing
Inventory
Management
Inventory carrying
cost
Service
Center
Spare Parts
Thus, change in raw material
costs = 1.73%
Transportation costs (previous)
= 8%
Transportation costs (new) =
5%
Thus, change in transportation
costs = 3%
Net increase in costs =
3%=1.73%=1.27%
Interviewee feedback
The case requires you to link one problem to another and arrive at multiple cost
implications of a change in procurement policy of the organization. Being
exhaustive in asking preliminary questions and laying down the entire value
chain helps the interviewer to lead you in the right direction, otherwise the case
can get extremely messy and lengthy
29
Cost Optimization Problem- Interview transcript
Our client is a major IT company. They want to optimise their costs. Help them
Case transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) Firstly, I would like to understand what the client means exactly by
optimizing their costs.
The client here wants to cut costs wherever possible by 10%
Okay, does the client have a timeline within which they want to achieve this?
2 years.
So, I would like to better understand this IT company in terms of their scale and services
The IT company is based out of 15 cities in India. They provide maintenance support for software as well as
are into product development. You can think of them like any big IT firm you are aware of.
Then I am looking at a firm like a Wipro, Cognizant, TCS etc. Is it a correct assumption that most of their
clients would be based in the US and Indian operations would be their offshore business?
Yes, that’s a correct assumption. 90% of their clients are US based.
Well, I would look at the following factors here. Firstly, introduce adaptive staffing as per the SDLC requirements
on projects. As per my experience, when projects near ‘go live’ periods they require more manpower, however,
during more relaxed phases this man power may be billing hours to the client without putting in enough work as
they have more idle time. So, possibly we could look at an adaptive staffing system which would ensure that there
are firstly minimum number of people on the bench at a time, optimum number of people per project and lastly
we could look into the performance evaluation system. Strict monitoring and improving accountability in terms of
hours billed to client and actual work done through a tracking system can be introduced. Lastly, if I were to try to
reduce the number of hours billed per team, I would also look at upgrading from legacy systems using outdated
software to more recent software systems.
Ok.
In terms of the average cost per team, I would look into the team compositions in terms of work done at
each hierarchical level. Increasing the number of junior employees while reducing the number of senior
employees, will help optimize costs especially, if the technical skills required are similar across lower and
middle level employees.
Any other factor that you would look into while tweaking team composition?
Moving to the IT competitive landscape, as per my understanding there are numerous firms in the industry
and all of them offer pretty much standardised services.
Fair enough. Our client is one of the biggest players, however, the management feels that cost
optimization will help them grow at a faster rate.
Sure, I would like to now move into breaking down the costs so as to exactly pinpoint areas wherein we can
cut costs. For this I would be splitting the costs into operational and non-operational costs. Since, I
understand that the major cost driver in the IT industry is the employee costs (part of operational costs) I
would like to start there.
That’s a good observation. You may proceed.
I would like to express employee costs as the number of employees multiplied by the cost incurred per
employee.
But, how would you proceed from there?
As I understand cost per person could be calculated easily when we look at teams. I would further express
the cost per person as the product of the number of teams, average cost per team and number of persons
per team.
Good.
First, taking the number of teams, as I understand this would be determined by the number of projects? Or
am I misinterpreting the structure of the organization?
The number of teams is not the same as the number of projects, as there are certain large projects with
sub teams and smaller projects with just a few members. Why do you need this information?
I would look into the number of onshore and offshore employees. Onshore employees will tend to be more
expensive to maintain for the company as compared to offshore employees. Hence, firing one onshore employee
will be almost equivalent to let’s say firing 10 offshore employees. However, I am unsure of how the labour laws
work for onshore employees. Within India also, I could look at hiring as well as relocating more employees to Tier 2
cities where the cost of living is less. This would not only help in decreasing salaries for employees possessing the
same competency and skill set but also decrease my other operating expenses.
Fair point. What else?
I would next like to move into the number of people at a time per team. As the IT sector sees large attrition rates,
training costs will increase if the client’s attrition rates are higher than that of competitors. Hence, if possible
having lock-in periods in line with project completion timelines will help. Secondly, especially in areas such as
testing, increasing automation testing and decreasing manual testing will help improve time, quality and costs for
project delivery.
Do you think you are missing out on any important factor?
I would look into the pay structure of the employees to optimize fixed & variable components of the salaries.
I think we have covered sufficient ground in terms of employee costs. Can you briefly list a few other areas
where costs can be significantly reduced?
Sure. Firstly, I would look into the sales team, in terms of efficiency, number of clients converted (retention of old
clients and generation of new business) and look at any reductions there. Next the infrastructure costs in terms of
rent paid, options of co-working spaces, work from home etc.
30
We have run out of time. Thank you
Cost Optimization Problem- Interview transcript
Our client is a major IT company. They want to optimise their costs. Help them
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
Costs
Major IT company looking to
reduce costs by 10% in the
next 2 years.
Operational
Non-Operational
Case facts:
Infrastructural
Costs
• Works on a typical
offshoring model like a TCS
Sales &
Marketing Costs
• Optimising of costs directly
linked to future growth
Employee Costs
Number of
employees
• Operates out of 15 cities in
India
Number of
teams
Finance Costs
Bad Debts
Depreciation/Amortiza
tion
Cost incurred per
employee
Average cost
per team
Number of employees
per team
• 90% of clients are based in
the US
Change in
staffing system
Change in
employees on
bench
Change in time
billing system
Change in team
composition (skill)
Problems and recommendations
The major cost driver in the IT Industry is employee costs. Recommendations:
1) Increase automation, upgrade software systems
2) SDLC adaptive staffing, decrease attrition through lock in periods
3) Increase team efficiency, employee efficiency - review of appraisal system
& pay structure, tracking systems for monitoring client billed hours
Change in team
composition
(location)
Introduction of
lock-in periods
Introduction of more
automated methods
Interviewee feedback
Cost Optimization problems can be easily solved if there is a prior understanding
of the major cost driver of that particular industry, in the case of IT, it would be
the employee costs. It is advised to clarify with the interviewer beforehand, if
the emphasis should be on the major cost driver. Secondary cost drivers can
then be touched upon at a later stage. Competitive benchmarking can also help
31
Market entry- Interview transcript
A global investment bank wants to enter India. Help it out.
Case transcript
I am the MD of a global investment bank. My bank wants to enter India. Help me out
I will need to understand more about the investment bank. Can you tell me which country it is headquartered
in, what geographies does it cover and why does it want to enter the Indian market?
Good question. I am a US based top 20 investment bank. I am strongly present in US and European markets
and have small presence in Asian markets. US and European markets are slowing down while Indian markets
are picking up so we want to expand our business in India.
That’s interesting. Can you help me in understanding your revenue sources, their break-up and your customers.
Definitely. We have four major products- ECM, DCM, M&A and FX markets. We also do private IB advisory.
Our major revenue drivers are M&A, DCM and FX. Our customers range from fortune 1000 companies to mid
size multi-million dollar firms. We also cater to high net worth individuals. Further, though there is
competition, we expect to gain a good market share.
I understand. Looking at the situation, I will base my decision on the following factors:
i)
Macroeconomic outlook for India: India is in a strong growth phase. Over the next 10-20 years, the
same is expected as well.
ii)
Banking regulations and environment: Banking regulations are reasonably liberal and the fin-tech
innovations have made the financial sector more efficient.
iii)
Further, number of HNIs, fortune 1000 firms, multimillion firms are also increasing significantly.
To conclude, the market appears welcoming.
Yes, the overall market is great. What other things should I look at?
Based on our discussion, we understand that Indian market is attractive. Now I will like to focus on IB business.
We need to identify what market shares will we be able to capture across our product mix. Will the growth in
each of these businesses be sustainable? Given that there are potential clients- Firms etc. present, what are the
resources available to
capture them. What will be my break-even period, expected revenues, costs, ROE etc.?
Above analysis will help me quantify the investment decision.
Interesting. Anything else that you will like to look at.
Two more things:
i)
Overlap between our current operations: Will a entry into India be able to leverage our existing
operations? Do we already have an existing office that can cater to the Indian demand?
ii)
Mode of entry: Since we are a US bank and may lack local market understanding, we can either partner
with a another player through merger/acquisition. Or we can also enter directly, given we have a
background with the market/government and our prior experience of entering other geographies.
Great. Can you help me in estimating my expected revenues in the first year of operations
Definitely. Your total revenues for the first year of operations will be:
Revenue earned per deal* Number of deals.
Given that there are multiple products, we have to calculate the above based on each product.
We can calculate the number of deals per product based on- Total number of deals in that country* Expected
market share. To identify revenue earned per deal, we can identify deal size and multiply it with the margin per
deal.
You are right, Let me give you some information. I want to do business in M&A, DCM and ECM. I expect to
do 3 M&A deals, 4 DCM deals and 10 ECM deals in the first year. Expected deal size for M&A is $5 bn., DCM
is $2 bn. And for ECM is $1 bn. Our margins on each are 5%, 3% and 2%.
Sure. Given this information We can simply calculate the revenue as:
Margin*deal-size*Number of deals per product.
Makes sense. Thanks for having this discussion. You have any questions for me?
32
Market entry- Case structure
A global investment bank wants to enter India. Help it out.
Qualitative information
Case background:
US based top 20 global
investment bank wants to
enter Indian due to slowdown of US/European
markets
Case framework
IB entering India
Indian market
conditions
Macroeconomic
factors
10 year growth
rate
Expected market share and
key financial metrics
IB industry
factors
Average margins
and deal sizes
Case facts:
Four products: DCM, ECM,
FX, M&A
Key customers: Fortune 1000
firms, other multimillion $
firms and HNIs
Quantitative data & analysis
Expected 1 year revenue:
Number of metros
Number of HNIs/
multi-mn $ firms
Banking
regulations
IB growth rate in
India v/s other
markets
Product-wise
market share
Financial
projections
Expected share
and projections
Revenue and cost
projections
ROE and break
even analysis
Synergy with
bank’s current
market portfolio
Risk ratiosVaR,
CFaR, Capital
ratios
Number of deals by product:
M&A:
Product
Direct entry
On-shore/Offshore operations
Revenue breakup by each
product
Problems and recommendations
Since we discussed the factors that will drive entry into the market, we can say
that the decision will be contingent on the result of the proposed analysis in the
case.
Recommendation: Conduct the mentioned analysis quickly to converge to a
decision
Mode of entry
JV/
Acquisition
Niche player
acquisition/
Partnership with
local bank
DC
M
M&A
ECM
No. of
deals
4
3
10
Averag
e size
($bn)
2
5
1
Margin
3%
5%
2%
Revenues=
4*2*0.03 + 3*5*0.05 +
10*1*0.02 bn. $
= $ 1.19 bn
Interviewee feedback
Though the case statement may appear complicated and might give the
impression that a knowledge of Investment banking industry is required, the
fundamental mechanics of the case is very simple. Probing the interviewer with
right set of questions and ability to handle difficult jargons can be very useful.
33
Market Entry – Interview transcript
Ratan Tata returned from Germany where he observed 3rd party authorized car service. He wants to see if he can start the same in India. Help him.
Case transcript
(Clarified the problem statement) Could you please explain what 3rd party authorized car service means?
Sure. A 3rd party authorized car service is an independent car service provider. It provides all services
provided by car OEMs (Other Equipment Manufacturers) to their customers, providing a suitable
alternative to car owners.
That’s correct. Although you should also know unorganized players provide very poor service leaving customers
frustrated with multiple service for same problem.
Sure. This means customers ideally would like to have the following in their car service: insurance that covers their
service, authentic service, cost-effective and time-saving.
Yes. That’s correct. Let’s look at the supplier aspect.
Does this mean this provider offers car services for different brands and is adequately adept at dealing with
issues belonging to different cars such as hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs or vans?
Sure. In my opinion, firstly we will need repair parts suppliers from various car brands OEMs. Do the OEMs that
manufacture the car also manufacture the repair parts?
Yes. The provider can service any car brand or type as it has professionals and experts that have worked in
service department of various car brands. Additionally the provider has contacts with various suppliers for
repair parts and refurbishments.
Yes that’s correct. However, we do not have a lot of control over them. Car brand OEMs drive a major part of
their revenue through services and would see our operation as threat to their operations.
Great. Thanks for the information. Now I would like to understand the objective of Ratan Tata for setting up
such a similar car service in India?
Ratan Tata is primarily looking for profitability and revenues through this venture.
Are there any constraints that I should have in mind while analyzing the problem? Any profitability targets,
time period or investment constraints?
I see. That means the car brand OEMs cannot be relied on as suppliers for parts. Correct?
No. The car brand OEMs can supply to us. But they will charge higher price.
There are two aspects. Either the customer will come to us through insurance or through their own pockets. The
insurance won’t support us because we will be charging higher service cost. Similarly, the customers won’t spend
higher because they have cheaper and authentic option available through car brand OEMs service centers. Either
way, we will not be cost-effective.
No. There are no constraints as such. The venture is funded well, although we would like to see
profitability as soon as possible.
That’s right. We will provide more expensive service.
Sure. Now I would like to explain you my approach. I would like to break the analysis as follows: Market
attractiveness 🡪 Need-gap analysis & STP 🡪 Mode of entry 🡪 Operationalizing the firm.
What about other 3rd party suppliers that we can source parts from? Additionally, can we manufacture the parts
ourselves?
Interesting. How will you evaluate the market attractiveness in India?
We do have 3rd party suppliers but their quality is not reliable.
Producing in-house is not an option.
To analyze the market attractiveness, we must break down the analysis into macro factors affecting the
country & then the micro factors that affect the industry. The idea is to look for factors that enhance and/ or
limit our entry into the car service market.
Okay. Since producing in-house is not an option, it appears our only source of repair parts are 3 rd party suppliers.
Since their quality is not so good, are their prices lower than car brand OEMs?
I think the macro factors are taken care of as TATA group is well established in India. You may begin with
micro analysis.
Sure. I would like to first understand the current car service market in India through the following aspects:
Customer demands + Supplier availability + Competitors + Substitutes + Complements + any other Barriers to
Entry. Could you tell me a little bit about the consumer demands?
So currently the car customer are served equally by organized segment (serviced by brand OEMs) and
unorganized segment (roadside car fixers).
Could you please explain the difference in the two segments? What are the benefits of each?
If my understanding is correct, then, organized sector would be primarily driven by customers who have car
insurance and want authentic repair/ service. While the unorganized sector is usually for cheap, time-saving
service.
Yes their prices are lower.
So, since we can’t compete with the organized retail segment on price, we can perhaps compete with the
unorganized sector through 3rd party supplies. Could you tell me the quality differentiation between the repair
parts from these 3rd party suppliers and from unorganized players? Also what is the price difference?
The quality is the same actually. Prices however will be expensive at our end.
Oh. Then we will not be beneficial to our consumers again as our prices will be higher and quality wouldn’t have
any difference.
So what do you think?
Since we can neither compete with organized segment nor with unorganized segment because of suitable supplier
that can provide better quality at lower cost, we shouldn’t enter this market.
34
Market Entry – Case structure
Ratan Tata returned from Germany where he observed 3rd party authorized car service. He wants to see if he can start the same in India. Help him.
Qualitative
information
Case background :
Ratan Tata wants to start 3rd
party authorized car service
in India
Quantitative data
& analysis
Case framework
Market
attractiveness
Macro analysis
Need-gap
analysis & STP
Mode of entry
Operationalizing
the firm
50-50% market
split between
organized and
unorganized car
segments in India.
Micro analysis
Case facts:
• 3rd party authorized car
service is an independent
car service provider
• Provides all services
offered by car brand OEMs
service centre
• Service has professionals
from various car brands to
deal with all car problems
Customer
demands
Supplier
availability
Insurance
Competitors
Substitutes
Car brand OEMs
Authentic
•
Cost-effective
•
Time-saving
•
BTE
3rd party suppliers
Competes with the car brands
OEMs directly
Seen as threat to car brands
OEMs business
Expensive for insurance
companies and consumers
Problems and recommendations
Broke down the micro analysis into suitable components. Deeply studied
customer demands and then delved deeper into supplier availability. Identified
that lack of suitable supplier is not conducive to market entry as customer
demands won’t be met
Complements
•
•
Offers low quality car part
repairs
Similar quality to roadside car
fixers but more expensive than
them
Interviewee feedback
The interviewee/ candidate carefully analyses the market entry operations into
several segments and then further breaks down the problem for micro analysis.
Based on the analysis, the interviewee identifies the crucial reason why the
market entry won’t be sustainable and hence recommends against it.
35
Market Entry- Interview transcript
Client is a Football club owner. Its planning to enter China. Help identify whether it should enter or not.
Case Transcript
Client is a Football club owner. Its planning to enter China. Help identify whether it should enter or not.
This is a potential risk. Is the client willing to take such a risk?
As of now, consider the client is willing to proceed. Lets move ahead.
Could I know more about the client? Where is it based out of, which other geographies does the club has its
presence in and why does it want to enter China?
The client is based out of USA. It has previously participated in the European Premier League and Singapore
Premier League. It wants to enter China because it thinks the market in China is lucrative and untapped. It
wants to gain broadcasting rights, look for new players and earn through ticket and merchandise sales.
Next I would like to look at the football industry, starting with the competitors both direct and indirect. Direct
would include International and Domestic teams along with their USPs. Indirect would include local clubs.
Next we need to analyze the availability of Chinese football players and club’s own players. Also, the
possibility of other sports such as Table Tennis substituting interest in football should be considered. Football
stadiums and merchandise suppliers are important complements along with the people’s interest in football
as compared to other sports.
What are the timelines and are there any financial constraints?
The Chinese premier league is scheduled within the next 6 months and our client wants to participate in it.
There are no major financial constraints.
The client’s players are used to playing on synthetic grounds. However, in China grass grounds exist.
I would first like to analyse the country level macro factors, then the sports industry particularly Football in China,
then estimate the market size and if everything is suitable, I would further delve into the team specific dynamics,
potential risks and mode of entry.
This might affect the performance of US players in China and raise safety concerns as well. However, this can
be overcome by practice as we still have 6 months before Chinese Premier League
Good. Now estimate the market size.
Sounds good. Go ahead.
So first I would like to analyse whether China, being a closed economy, is open to foreign clubs entering their
country. Also the FDI options along with legal requirements need to be considered. Next, the overall GDP of
China and growth in the sports industry would be important. Also, how US players are treated in China, the
perception of US clubs in China and the performance of Chinese players needs to be considered. Suitable
technology and infrastructure for broadcasting, compatibility with US standards are a few other factors.
The market size can be estimated as the total number of football viewers in China. Do we have any data on
the percentage viewership?
It is estimated that a total 35% viewership exists out of potential 1.5 cr people.
As such the total market size comes to be approximately 50 lacs. What is the clients international benchmark
in terms of market size?
The client has entered where the market size is greater than 40 lacs.
China has recently allowed entry of foreign clubs and the sports industry in booming in China. Also no major
difference in perception of players exist in China and the technology is compatible to US standards. However,
the club is owned by the same client which has a legal case pending in China.
So it is feasible to enter. Next we can consider the team dynamics such as number of Chinese and US players
in a team, coaches and practice sessions in Chinese grounds.
That is sufficient. We can end here. Thanks
36
Market Entry- Interview transcript
Client is a Football club owner. Its planning to enter China. Help identify whether it should enter or not.
Case framework
Case background :
US based football club
wants to enter China
Market
Attractiveness
Case facts:
•
•
•
Country
Analysis
Prominent club of US
Wants to look for new
players apart from
earning revenues
Major competitors
are 3 International
teams and 5 domestic
teams.
Political
Closed
Economy
Economic
FDI &
Legal
GDP
Sports
Industry
Industry
Analysis
SocioCultural
Perception of
US Clubs
Problems and recommendations
Problems: a) The club is owned by the same client who has a legal case pending
in China. b) The client’s players are used to playing on synthetic grounds.
However, in China grass grounds exist.
Recommendation: Since a lot of factors are to be analyzed in Market Entry case,
always list the various factors and ask then the interviewer which area to focus .
Technology
and
Infrastructure
Competitors
Direct
Broadcasting
Stadiums
Indirect
Availability Of
Players
US
Players
Substit
ute
Sports
Spectators
Chinese
Players
Interviewee feedback
The case looked different but followed any conventional market entry case
framework. Hence, it is extremely important to stick to basics and seek help
from the interviewer wherever required.
37
Pricing- Interview transcript
A pharmaceutical company has recently developed an Anti tobacco pill. Assess whether you should launch the product or not.
Case transcript
(Clarified the problem statement) I would like to understand more about the company first. Where is it based
and what type of pharmaceutical company is it?
The company is a leading Generic Drug manufacturer operating pan-India. It has been in operations since
15 years and caters to a wide variety of diseases.
Sure. Starting with the cost based, I we would first understand the variable costs and fixed costs. In variable costs,
I’ll look at costs across the value chain – raw materials, manufacturing, sales and distribution. The long term costs
such as R&D for the product will be spread over multiple years and would have to be factored in. Based on the
above analysis, we can get per unit cost. After getting a per unit cost, we would decide on a margin to price the
product.
Good. What about the substitute based pricing?
What is the current business model of the company? Is it similar to a usual pharma company’s value chain –
where the manufacturer sells it’s products through sales representatives
Yes. The company operates as a typical pharma company
Although there are no direct competitors, there might be some de-addiction courses that help in stopping
tobacco. We can evaluate the time frame for such courses and fees for the same before pricing our product
Could you please elaborate a bit on the competition in the pharma industry and specifically in the anti
tobacco pill
Alright. We feel that exploring value based pricing might be better. Can you walk me through that
There are 2-3 major competitors in the industry. 60% of the market is organized. For the Anti tobacco pill,
there is no direct competition since it is the first of its kind pill
Since it’s first of its kind, do we also have patents for the same?
Yes, it is a patented pill
I would also like to understand the product better. Is it a OTC or prescription drug? How should it be
consumed? What is the suggested consumption pattern?
It is a prescription drug that is to be taken once a day for 4 months. It needs to be simply taken with water.
Our research shows that the success rate is 50%
Lastly, I would like to clarify the objective of launch. Is the firm looking for capturing market size or profit
maximization? What is the time frame?
The firm is interested in maximizing market size and profits, both in a span of 2 years
I would like to breakdown the problem into assessment of Market size & opportunity 🡪 Macro Analysis 🡪
Micro/Industry Analysis 🡪 Launch strategy
Interesting. Let’s explore the Market Size & Opportunity
Sure. I would start by breaking down market size into Price and Quantity. Do we have any data on either.
No. We don’t have any data. But I would like to understand that how can I price my product.
We can price the products in three ways – Value based, Cost based and based on any substitutes
Great. Can you walk me through each of these
Under this method, I would like to understand the benefits and the costs. Starting from the basic, a person would
first save the price of the tobacco packet that they consume. Second, they would benefit from the positive effect
on health - they would have lower chances of life threatening diseases such as lung cancer, heart attacks. Also,
there would be a lower number of general physician visits because improved immunity. Lastly, they would also
save on the price of the mouth fresheners that they buy
Interesting. How can we work out the numbers here?
So starting with the cost of tobacco, on an average my friends consume 2 tobacco units a day which roughly costs
Rs. 10 each. Thus, over an year, they consume tobacco worth 2x30x10x12 i.e. Rs. 7200. With each tobacco packet,
they need 1 mouth freshener of Re 1. Thus cost of mouth freshener for an year would be 2x30x1x12 i.e. Rs. 720.
Total comes out to be around Rs. 8000 a year. We should also include long-term cost savings.
Go ahead
Smokers have a higher chance of chronic diseases. For such a disease, they might incur expenses nearing 3 lakh.
Considering that the probability of contracting such disease in 10%, we need to factor 30,000 into the calculation.
So the total cost per year would be Rs. 38,000. We would have to divided by the total amount into the Total
number of pills. Total number of pills are 1x30x4 i.e. 120. Thus, the total amount per pill would be around Rs. 300.
Doesn’t this number seem significantly high?
Yes, this is high since this is the maximum that the consumer would be willing to pay considering he takes into
account in all the above factors. Since the customers do not think of long term effects at once, they might not be
willing to pay this. In case we just want to include the short term savings, we would divide 8000 by 120 i.e. Rs. 66.
We can use these figures in addition to figures from the other two methods to price our product
38
Pricing - Case structure
A pharmaceutical company has recently developed an Anti tobacco pill. Assess whether you should launch the product or not.
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
Price of anti-tobacco
pill
Pharmaceutical company
which has recently developed
an anti-tobacco pill.
Case facts:
Quantitative data & analysis
Cost savings on tobacco per
year = (# of tobacco packets per
day x days x price of tobacco
packet) =
2 x 30 x 12 x 10 = 7200
Cost Based
Substitute Based
Cost of additional mouth
freshener per year =
2 x 30 x 12 x 1 =720
Value Based
Generic drug manufacturer
based in India
First of its kind pill –
prescription drug with 50%
success rate
Cost of tobacco
Cost of mouth
freshener
Gain maximum market share
and profit in 2 years
Cost of treatment of
chronic disease
Cost of treatment in case of
chronic disease = 3 lakh
Chances of contracting = 10%
Expected Cost = 30,000
Total number of pills to be
taken = 1 x 30 x 4 = 120
Price per pill (based on longterm consideration)=
38000/120 ~ Rs. 300
Price per pill (based on short
term consideration)= 8000/120
~Rs. 66
Problems and recommendations
Interviewee feedback
Identified the pricing approaches through cost based, substitute based and
value based methods. In value based methods, derived prices by specifically
looking at long term and short term considerations of customers
Although this appears to be a market entry and launch strategy case at start,
the interviewer is primarily looking to grill on pricing and wanted to drive to
value based approach specifically.
39
GTM Strategy- Interview transcript
Client is an Alcohol manufacturer. It has recently developed a readymade cocktail line. Help them take the product to the market.
Case Transcript
Client is an Alcohol manufacturer. It has recently developed a readymade cocktail line. Help them take the
product to market.
Sounds fair. Can you help us determine a price basis this?
The client has been operating in India for 25 years. It is known to operate in the whiskey and rum market
under popular brands. The cocktail is a new and only product in the market. It is ready to launch.
Sure. There are three methods of Pricing – competitor based, cost based and value based method. Since there
are no competitors and the product is unique, we shall be using the value based method. We are indirectly
competing with the strong beer and readymade cocktails, hence we have a range. A strong beer comes at
around Rs. 70, since our product tastes better at the same content and we have a brand name, our cocktail
should be priced above this. The product is closer to a fresh cocktail (avg. price of Rs. 330) but lacks the
freshness because of preservative which also give it a longer life. Hence the product should be priced at around
Rs.220.
What are the objectives and constraints of the client?
Alright, what next.
The client wants to maximize revenues as soon as possible. There are no major constraints.
I would like to discuss available distribution channels and the promotional strategy.
As a part of the analysis let us understand the product. Could you describe the composition, taste (flavours),
USP, SKUs and packaging?
The client has an existing network of distributors, i.e. restaurants, super markets and clubs. Give me some
brief campaign ideas and we’ll close the case.
The product is a pre-mix cocktail which comes in a 250ml bottle in four flavours, mojito, screw driver, LIIT
and Bloody Mary. It has preservatives, hence doesn’t taste as fresh as actual cocktails. However, our product
can be stored for 3 months. The alcohol content is the same as a strong beer, comes in a same looking glass
bottle. The bottle is transparent to show the colour of the cocktail with a white label.
Sure, we’ll target the clubs and supermarkets first, as there our products will not be cannibalizing the sales of
fresh cocktails like in the restaurants. We can host parties, offer free samples, drive social media campaigns
with youtubers etc.
So, our product is trying to be a substitute to both fresh cocktails and a strong beer. So we should identify
potential customers on the basis of this. Fresh cocktails are mostly consumed in high end restaurants by women
of the upper middle class. Similarly, strong beer is consumed mostly by pub going youth. Hence, we can target
these customer profiles and place our product in pubs, restaurants and direct retailers.
These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
Could I know more about the client? Where is it operating, for how long, what products is it known for,
competition that the client is facing?
40
GTM Strategy - Case structure
Client is an Alcohol manufacturer. It has recently developed a readymade cocktail line. Help them take the product to the market.
Case framework
Product
Mixture
Preservative
Alcohol content same as
strong beer
Taste
Almost like fresh
cocktail
Target
USP
One-of -a-kind
3 month life
SKU
Clubbing youngsters
Upper middleclass social
women
Price
Cost based
4 flavours in 250
ml bottles
Competition
Channel
Promotion
Value based
Price between 70
(Strong beer) and 330
(Fresh cocktail) at 220
Factors:
Brand name
Life
Conveniences
USP
Qualitative information
Interviewee feedback
Client has been operating for 25 years with two strong brand names. It faces
indirect competition from the beer and fresh cocktails. It is a unique product
To come up with the strategy it is important to know about the product,
competition and target. Based on this you come to the price, channel and
promotion strategies. The target can be determined in more detail by doing
market sizing.
41
Growth Strategy- Interview transcript
Client is a media service provider- Netflix . Help him increase its market share in India
Case Transcript
Client is a media service provider- Netflix . Help him increase its market share in India
Okay. What about pricing and channels?
Could I know more about the client? Is it the Netflix we know? What are the timelines and constraints of the
client? What is its current share?
As far as pricing is concerned, Netflix can come up with customized bucket options where price sensitive
customers can subscribe to a few TV series and movies. Also, it can offer a limited subscription model in
terms of languages or content. In terms of channel, Netflix can launch an application for android and IOS. It
can also come up with something similar to a Firestick which can be plugged into any TV or a device similar to
Kindle designed for Netflix.
Yes, it is the Netflix we know. The client wants to increase its market share by 20 % in one year. They are
no major constraints. There are two other major competitors and the current share of Netflix can be taken
to be around 25 percent.
As per my knowledge Netflix entered India two years ago and caters mainly to college students and young
professionals. Its differentiating factor is its in-house produced local content and is positioned as a Premium
offering. Is this a current assumption? Also can you let me know about the current subscription plans?
What can be the possible drawbacks of customised bucket options?
Yes, it is true. Currently the company has three subscription plans, single screen for Rs 500, two screen for
Rs 650 and four screen for Rs 800.
Fair point. Do you think a Netflix only device can compete with the already existing tablets and mobiles?
So, I would like to break the problem in two parts. First I would like to analyse the new offerings possible in
terms of products, promotions, price and channels. Then I would like to analyse which offering would be
suitable for which geography.
Depends on how it is positioned and priced. It can be a major attraction for those who prefer to binge watch
content on the platform. Some videos can be pre-fed and users can have an option to download videos later
and watch them later as per their convenience.
Sounds good. Go ahead.
Good suggestion. Go on.
So, in terms of products, Netflix should focus on in-house production and diversify into regional languages
and create content for kids also. This would help attract a new customer segment. It can also include cooking
and dance sessions. Netflix could license TV series and movies which are all time classics. It could also
purchase rights to broadcast any sport such as football and develop a niche in it. Since the overall internet
speed is low in India, Netflix can upgrade to a low speed platform something like ‘Netflix lite’ so that
streaming can be done without buffering. In terms of promotion Netflix could offer loyalty programs, tie up
with schools, offices, airlines, hotels, etc. and follow a referral strategy. They can also offer a first episode
free of various TV series so that people have an option to try and then subscribe.
Next I will look at geographies and product combinations. Since the majority of its current subscribers are
from Metro and Tier I cities, Netflix needs to follow a penetrative strategy in these areas. Here tie ups, loyalty
programs and sports content might help. However as Netflix expands to Tier II and III cities, it needs to focus
on Netflix lite and regional app based content.
Since, generally people watch one or two TV series at a time, it is possible that majority of the subscribers
shift to the customized bucket option.
These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
42
Growth Strategy- Interview transcript
Client is a media service provider- Netflix . Help them increase their market share in India
Case framework
Case background :
Netflix wants to increase
market share in India
Netflix
Case facts:
•
Launched two years ago
in India
•
Struggling to gain market
share
•
Faces direct competition
from Hotstar and Amazon
Prime.
Products
Content
In house
production
Netflix Lite
Promotion
Tie ups
Referral
Price
Customised
Bucket
Channels
Limited
Subscription
App Based
Netflix
Device
TV
Purchased
Problems and recommendations
Interviewee feedback
Identified the various new offerings in terms of products, promotions, price
and channels to attract new customers and increase retention in existing ones.
Subsequently analyzed which offering would be suitable for different
geographies.
This case can also be structured with the Ansoff Matrix in the following way:
1) How to acquire new customers
2) How to increase retention in existing customer segments
3) How to enter new geographies and develop new technology.
43
M&A- Interview transcript
A traditional pharma company wants to acquire a biologicals startup. How should it go about it?
Case Transcript
Our client is OldPharma, a major pharmaceutical company with revenues $10bn. Its corporate HQ and
primary R&D centers are in Germany with regional sales offices worldwide. It has had a successful history
developing and selling small molecule drugs (which is the major variety of drugs today.
It wants to enter a new rapidly growing segment of drugs called “biologicals”, that can treat conditions not
treatable with traditional drugs. Since competitors are way ahead of OldPharma, it wants to jumpstart its
biologicals program by acquiring Biofuture, a leading biologicals startup based in San Francisco area.
Biofuture was founded 12 years ago by prominent scientists and employs over 200 people. It is publicly
traded and is valued at $1bn.
What factors should the team consider whether the team should acquire BioFuture?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Value of Biofuture’s current pipeline - # drugs in development, likelihood of success, revenues and profits
Future drug pipeline – R&D capabilities (scientific talent, IP – patents)
Marketing/sales capability – Relationships with physicians KOLs
Acquisition price
Existing partnerships with pharma companies
OldPharma’s capability gaps in biologicals, R&D, sales and marketing
Other potential targets
1. Scientists do not have overlapping disease interests
2. Integration into process driven OldPharma culture may hinder the entrepreneurial culture that is key to its
success
3. Language barriers hinder communication and sharing of information
4. Key scientific talent may leave Biofuture after acquisition
Post acquisition, OldPharma believes it is necessary to consolidate all biologicals R&D into one center either
Germany or San Francisco. It currently does not have any biologicals R&D practice in Germany.
Germany – Overall better integration of OldPharma and Biofuture
1. Better coordination with non-biologicals R&D
2. Better coordination with other business units like sales/marketing
3. Easier transfer of scientists in biologicals and traditional R&D
San Francisco –
1. Less likely to see flight of talent – Relocating to Germany could be tough
2. Easier to retain entrepreneurial spirit at Biofuture at SFO
3. No need to rebuild manufacturing plants, research facilities etc.
What issues should the team consider while evaluating the existing drug pipeline?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Market size, share, Costs – manufacturing and selling
Perception in the medical community
Likelihood of clinical trials, winning regulatory approval, side effects and legal exposure
Emergence of substitutes – Time to market, Loss of exclusivity time
Strength of patents – How likely is it a competitor can copy BioFuture’s drug?
BioFuture’s existing pipeline is very limited. OldPharma is interested in its potential to become a biological
research engine. What risks exist for integrating R&D functions?
A week into the engagement, the VP of business development meets you in the cafeteria. He asks your
team’s perspective on the acquisition and next steps you are planning to take. How would you respond?
(Summarize the case)
44
Due Diligence - Interview transcript
Your client is a PE Firm. It wants to take up a stake in a chain of restaurants. Diagnose and recommend whether it should go
ahead with the acquisition
Case transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I want to understand the client’s business. What is the average
portfolio, the expected growth rate and exit time?
The company has a mixed portfolio of different sized investments and is looking for a 30% growth rate on
this investment. It wants to make a quick exit in about 4-5 years.
Alright. I would like to know why the firm is considering a chain of restaurants for investment?
Interestingly, our client does not have any investments in the hospitality sector and this investment may
help us complement a future investment.
Okay. So, can I know some details about the restaurants? Exactly how many restaurants are being run as of
now and where?
There are 6 restaurants in different metropolitan and Tier-1 cities as of now.
Okay. I would like to know more about the cuisine served by the restaurants and their experience in food
service.
The restaurants provides quick service and authentic Spanish and Italian cuisine. They’ve been in the
market for the last 5 years adding one new city each year.
Thanks. Now, I will move on to the supply and demand aspect. Is there a significant demand for these
cuisines in the cities this restaurant chain is operating?
Yes, there is significant demand from consumers towards food and cuisines they haven’t tried before.
Alright, now I’d like to know the number of competitors serving a similar cuisine in the locations served by
the restaurant chain. I’d also like to know their market share.
Yes, I would like you know that there are only 4-5 competitors serving authentic cuisine in these cities with
equal market share.
Is there a significant difference in pricing of these restaurants?
The competitors also serve in the same price segment. Going ahead, I would like to know how would you
value the investment?
Sure. I can value the company by analysing the current performance of the restaurant chain and what is the
future growth expected. I can find the NPV of the profits by guesstimating the revenue and cost figures.
Further I can try to come up with an annual growth rate and compare it to our expected growth rate to check
feasibility.
That sounds reasonable. Lets focus on revenue as of now. How will you compute the revenue from the
demand side? You can focus on the restaurant present in Delhi.
Okay, from the demand side, revenues will depend on the accessibility to restaurant, affordability of food and
experience. In terms of the accessibility, the focus is chains currently present in Metros and Tier I cities. Hence, our
consumer base would primarily be middle class and above segments.
For affordability, there would be different dishes available according to customer budget; the consumers who
could afford it would depend on the price available.
Assuming that the average price of a dish at INR 150, I can estimate demand in a month through the price per
meal*potential market*frequency of visits. The potential market would be about 20% of the population of
Delhi(20 million) i.e. the high income & middle income in service sector. In order to estimate the frequency of
visits I could split the customers into three groups; 1) 10 visits per month, 2) 5 visits per month, 3) 1 visit per
month
Okay, can you evaluate the risks associated with the investment?
The biggest risk comes from food delivery services such as Zomato, Swiggy etc. Since this gives the customers the
easy of ordering food from anywhere at a discounted price . Therefore, it could result in less demand for quick
service food and reduced margins..
Additionally, there is traveling expense associated with going out to eat. So, customers would be less willing to
travel to one of these restaurants frequently unless located nearby.
An added risk for quick service restaurant is the changing perception of consumers towards healthy food.
Consumers are moving away from processed food to healthier options like salads.
Great. Can you tell me what due diligence should be done?
For due diligence, we’ll discuss the various levers involved in the restaurant functions or operations. These would
be:
Financial: Which stores are the most and the least profitable? Is each store maintaining its gross profits, or are
increasing revenues and profits the result of reducing prices or adding stores that are unprofitable or only
marginally profitable?
Operational: Revenues at restaurants are tied closely to location, so determine the risk to profitability if something
about the location changes.
Legal: Such as a landlord unwilling to extend the lease on a highly profitable store
HR: Is the current management operating the stores at sustainable personnel levels? Has there been a recent
change in salaries or benefits of employees or any change has been promised?
Strategy: How would the deal fit in with the client’s overall growth strategy? Are there any past or future
investments from which synergies can be leveraged?
Yes, well done. How would you finally come to the investment decision? Also, conclude the case for me now.
The one last thing that is left is comparing the estimated growth rate of the NPV with our estimated growth rate.
The former would basically be our estimates of the restaurant’s organic growth and how much we can add to it
through inorganic growth. If the sum of these two is not less than 30%, and the NPV of the recurring profits seem
adequate, the PE firm should go ahead with the purchase.
45
Due Diligence - Case structure
Your client is a PE Firm. It wants to take up a stake in a chain of restaurants. Diagnose and recommend whether it should go
ahead with the acquisition
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
• Investment fund – 30%
growth rate in 4-5 years
Quantitative data & analysis
Population of Delhi = 20 mn
Target customer segment (2050 years) = 50%
Middle and higher income
segment = 60%
Population employed in service
sector = 70%
Potential market =
50%*60%*70%
= 21% (~20%) of population
• Explore viability by
estimating revenues (demand
side, supply side)
Visit frequency = 20%*10 +
40%*5 + 40%*1 = 4.4
visits/month
Revenue
The client specifically looking
to invest in a restaurant chain
Case facts:
• Identify risks associated
with the investment
• Explore potential due
diligence steps
Supply Side
Demand Side
Price per meal
No. of cities
Potential
Market
Total market potential =
250*4.4*(20%*20 mn) = 2,640
mn/month = INR 2.6 bn/month
Growth rate
Italian/Spanish cuisine = 2-3%
of market potential = INR 66
mn/month
Restaurant/city
Problems and recommendations
Identified the valuation of the company using Supply and Demand approaches.
Identify indirect competition while exploring risks associated with the
investment by specifically looking at long term and short term consumer
behaviour. Always remember the original motive of the client (in this case, 30%
growth rate) while identifying risks, synergies and different levers for Due
diligence.
Visit frequency
Interviewee feedback
The case had a wide number of things that could be analyzed; key was in
understanding the interviewer’s questions one at a time and focusing on the
available information for that question.
46
Business Abstract- Interview transcript
Our client is a low cost airline carrier. It has been facing an increase in turn around time at the Mumbai airport. Find out why
Case transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I would like to understand the magnitude of the problem better.
Since when has the TAT increased and by how much?
Okay, once the aircraft reaches the parking spot, the passengers deplane. Has there been any change in the
seating capacity of the plane because of which deplaning is now taking time? Or has the airline rolled out some
schemes for the aged or disabled because of which deplaning is taking time?
The client has been facing this issue since the past 3 months. TAT has increased from 30 to 45 mins
What exactly do you mean by turnaround time?
It is the time that a plan takes after landing to the next take off.
How many flights does the airline operate at the Mumbai airport? And since when have you been present at
the Mumbai airport?
The client operates 10 airplanes and has been present at the airport for the past 10 years
And do you operate domestic or international flights or both?
Only domestic flights
Is this problem being faced only at the Mumbai airport or other airports as well? And by our airlines only or
by other airlines operating at the Mumbai airport as well?
No, we have not changed the plane capacity since the past 10 years. There has been no increase in the time
taken to deplane as such.
Alright, so as the passengers deboard, the ground staff is also engaged in offloading the baggage. There could have
been a possible increase in this due to increase in freight/baggage allowance or delays by the staff due to lack of
training or experience
There is no increase in off-loading time. The ground staff and maintenance staff has remained more or less the
same. Any hire/fire doesn’t impact TAT significantly
Sure, in that case I’m assuming there hasn’t been any change in the cleaning time before the aircraft is ready for
the next set of passengers to board?
Yes, you may proceed further.
Only Mumbai airport. Only our airline as far as I am aware.
Alright. I would like to take a few minutes to lay down the entire journey of a plane from the time it lands at
the airport till the time it takes off again and then try to ascertain where the problem lies
Now before the plane finally takes off there are three more things that are to be done. One is fuelling and second
is crew change and then finally getting the passengers for the next flight on board. Has there been any increase in
the time taken to fuel the aircraft?
Sure
Please let me know if my understanding is correct. The plane first lands on the runway, goes on to its parking
spot. After this the passengers deplane and the ground staff helps in offloading the luggage. The
maintenance staff possibly cleans the plane. The plane is fuelled. Once the plane is ready for the next flight,
passengers on-board, luggage is on-loaded again, there is also some time for crew change. After this the
plane goes to the runway from where it finally takes off. Am i missing anything?
Yes. What could be the possible reasons for this?
Well, there could be either an increase in tank capacity or the speed of fuelling could have reduced.
I think this is an exhaustive process. We’ll figure out if anything is missing as we go deeper into the case.
You can start exploring all buckets post landing.
The tank capacity has remained the same and the speed of fuelling is also the same. Could you think of
something that also links to the previous finding of yours?
Okay, after the plane lands it reaches its parking spot. Has there been any change in this because of which
the time taken to reach the parking spot from the runway and subsequently the time taken to go to the
runway from the parking spot has increased?
Previously we had discovered that the parking spot had changed. So the possible effect it could have on the
duration is that it could be taking the oil tanker longer to reach the plane in its new parking spot because of which
the time was increasing.
Yes. The parking spot has changed, but it is now closer to the runway and the boarding gates. Because of
this actually we are saving 5 mins of our time in total
Correct. Now if you could do some quick math for me, if the speed of the tanker is 3 km/hr and the distance of
the plane from the tanker is around 1 km then what is the delay time?
Okay, is it then fair to assume that then whatever is causing this increase in TAT is because of a delay of 20
mins and I need to ascertain what it could be?
Correct.
If the tanker is covering 3 km in 1 hr, it’ll cover 1 km in 1/3rd of an hour which is 20 mins. Since we had figured out
earlier that the time saving due to the changed parking spot is 5 mins, the overall increase in the TAT is 20-5=15
mins.
That is right. Thank you, we can end the case here.
47
Business Abstract- Case structure
Our client is a low cost airline carrier. It has been facing an increase in turn around time at the Mumbai airport. Find out why
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
Quantitative analysis
Decrease in TAT because
of reduction in distance
from boarding gates = 5
mins
TAT
Low cost airline carrier facing
high turn around time at the
Mumbai airport
Case facts:
• Been facing increased TAT
since the past 6 months
Landing
Deplaning
Baggage
offloading
Fuelling
Cleaning
Staff
Change
• Increase of 15 mins in TAT
Change in
tank size
• Ideal TAT should be around
30 mins, thus its total turn
around time at the
moment is 45 mins
Decrease in
speed
Increase in distance of tanker
from plane
Increase in
freight/bags
Increase in
seating capacity
Increase in time due to
human delays caused by
ground staff
Onboarding
/Onloading
Decrease in time
due to parking
spot being closer
to boarding gates
Take-off
Could have an
impact due to
change in
distance from
runway
Increase in distance of
fuel tank from plane’s
parking spot = 1 km
Speed of fuel tank = 3
km/hr
Therefore, increase in
fuelling time
= 1hr/3=⅓*60 mins=20
mins
Change in airline’s parking spot
Increase in older
/disabled passengers
Problems and recommendations
1) Inform the fuelling department in advance to cut down on the time taken
for the tanker to reach the parking spot
2) In the longer term - try to quantify the losses vs savings of retaining the
new parking spot
Interviewee feedback
The value chain approach seems to be the most exhaustive in this case Also
try to understand if the problem of change in parking spot is temporary or for
a longer duration and why it was changed in the first place - after that give
suitable recommendations
48
Abstract Case- Interview transcript
Our client is the Ministry of Shipping. They have less than 1% market share in the global ship repairs industry. Help them identify
the reasons why for such a low share and suggestions to increase the same.
Case transcript
I’d like to understand the client and the concerned industry better. Can you describe where do they operate
out of, what all do they do under the purview of ship repair, and what competition is the client facing?
That’s a good list of factors. Documents for immigration arrive much slower than they do in other nations. Apart
from this, the client uses labor intensive processes, but this is true for competitors’ processes too. Our processes
just take longer.
The client has been operating out of a dry dock in Gujarat. It provides ship repair services on dock, which
broadly encompasses wear and tear maintenance (major operations) and basic breakage (minor
operations). They serve ships travelling through South East Asian routes, so they usually compete mainly
with ship repair service providers in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Okay. Addressing the paperwork issue first, I’d like to understand how this documentation is dealt with at our end
and at the government’s end. I’m assuming this process is carried out through online means for reasons of
viability. Is that correct?
This could be because of multiple reasons- because of our labour based processes lacking efficiency, or because of
them having efficiency but lack of enough quality leading to lower repeat business over the years.
Do we have any data on what are the crucial service factors in this industry? How are we doing on these
parameters relative to competitors?
Yes, that’s correct.
Yes, the time it takes to repair the ship is the most important criteria. Currently, the client takes 4-5 more
days than competitors for providing comparable services. Distance from the port and price of services are
secondary factors which may become relevant. One of the other important factors client is not doing well
on is port space utilisation.
Okay. Then the problem could be due to the systems at either end or the red-tapism originating inside the system
on account of bureaucracy. Now, addressing the second part, there could be multiple reasons- labour based
processes lacking efficiency, or because of them having efficiency but lack of enough quality leading to lower
repeat business over the years.
Okay. Let’s try to see which parts of the ship repair process create this time lag, given these may provide
insights as to how market share can be increased. As per my understanding, the process should entail ship’s
docking on the port, paperwork (given international borders), the process of carrying out the repairs once
the ship is docked and ship’s exit from the port. Is there anything I’m missing in this process?
You’re right about quality of workers causing inefficiency. Most of the workers employed in these ports are
unskilled or not specifically trained for the job. Can you suggest some measures that will help address these
issues?
This sounds fine. You may go deeper into the process and try to understand where our problem originates.
Sure. When the ship enters the port, docking needs to be time efficient. Once the ship has entered, is the
time taken to obtain necessary approvals/paperwork at par with competitors? How is this process different
from theirs? What about the immigration process for people onboard the ship? Does dry docking increase
the time taken to provide these services? Finally, the method of doing ship repair- is that labour intensive or
tech intensive?
Sure. There are two sets of issues we need to address. To address the inefficiency in the current business, we can
try moving to using skilled workers. We can employ people with similar experience, who are technical specialists in
the field. In terms of long run efforts, the Government should aim to simplify the procedural clearances in case of
ship repair customers. They could go for an improved IT and clearance system to facilitate faster relay of
clearances as well. Finally, the Government should aim to increase port utilisation by increasing the range of its
services, quantum of its services or using it for domestic ship related services
These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
49
Abstract Case- Interview transcript
Our client is the Ministry of Shipping. They have less than 1% market share in the global ship repairs industry. Help them identify
the reasons why for such a low share and suggestions to increase the same.
Case framework
Case background:
Low market share in the
global ship repairs industry
Process
Case facts:
• Current market share – 1%
• Slower ship repair process
than competitors (by 4-5
days)
• Prioritisation criteria for
service takers is time taken
for ship repair
Docking
Documentation
Goods on-board
People on-board
Repair process
Labour/Capital
Intensity
Undocking
Dry-docking
Technical Expertise
Standard Efficiency
Qualitative information
Problems and recommendations
Client is the Ministry of Shipping. You have been appointed to increase the
client’s market share in the global ship repairs industry. Time to repair the ship
is the most important criteria, client takes 4-5 more days than competitors for
providing comparable services.
Process approach followed, with key recommendations for these steps:
- Paperwork for goods and people on board > Improved clearance system
- Repair process > recruitment of specialised labour
Additionally, to address Port Utilisation, they should consider up-selling
additional services or rent the space out to private service providers as well
50
Abstract Case- Interview transcript
Our client is the State Government of Maharashtra. They want to improve the traffic conditions in the state. Help them
Case transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I would like to understand how the client defines traffic conditions.
Also, is the client targeting any particular cities/towns in the state?
Well, that would still increase the traffic congestion due to private taxis such as Olas & Ubers. I believe there
should be laws around the number of vehicles per cab operator allowed to operate on non-share basis per locality
per city at a time.
Traffic conditions is defined as the number of vehicles per unit time, a measure of road congestion as well
as their implications. The client wants to decrease this by 15% from the current levels in each of three
metro cities and five Tier 2 cities that the government is focussing on.
Fair enough. You may continue
I would next like to understand the current road conditions in the metro cities and Tier 2 cities respectively.
Metro cities are connected with the following types of roads- National highways, State Highways, Existing
2,4, 6 and 8 lane roads. All these are 90% concretised with seasonal pothole issues requiring maintenance.
Tier 2 cities are connected again with national, state highways and the internal 2, 4 lane roads are 60%
concretised.
So, as I understand, the stakeholders in both the Tier 2 and metro cities would be the same but the issues to
be addressed may differ slightly. Hence, I would like to break the issues down depending on the stakeholder
to be liaised with.
Yes, this approach should be fine.
I have 2 more questions before I step into solving the case. Firstly, what is the timeline that our client is
looking at to achieve these targets. Secondly, I am assuming that there are no budgetary constraints
Yes, that’s a correct assumption. Regarding the timeline, the government has a tight 2 year target to
achieve the reduction in congestion
Thank you for the clarification. I will now like to list down the 4 major stakeholders that I can identify namelyThe citizens , the municipal corporations, the traffic police and lastly the construction lobbies.Would you
want me to look into any particular stakeholder first?
Fair enough. You can explore each of these one by one.
Sure. Starting with the citizens of each of these cities, I would like to divide the issues possibly contributing to
congestion on the basis of transportation type i.e public and private modes of transport.
Ok. Identify the issues and the possible solutions also.
Alright. In the private modes of transportation, I would look at two wheelers and four wheelers separately.
As I understand, two wheelers would be more predominant in Tier 2 cities. From my observations, illegal two
wheeler registrations, unlicensed drivers and environmentally non-compliant vehicles are some of the issues.
Four wheeler congestion would be more a problem in metros, possible issues arising out of peak office hours,
increasing disposable income & hence an increase in car ownership while possibly the capacity of city roads
have not increased proportionately.
What about the recent decrease in the sales of private automobiles?
Some solutions would be- tighten the regulations to procure a license, increase the PUC check points with
frequent checks by the traffic police and set up a checks system for the sale of non compliant second hand vehicles
which are environmentally non compliant. To decrease four wheeler congestion, offices in a pin code could if
possible stagger their discharge times, incentivise workers to car-pool, borrow the odd-even policy implemented in
NCR , have more restrictions regarding roads and timings after which heavy vehicles such as trucks, lorries can
enter. Also, streamline traffic, by creating one ways during peak hours on 2 lane & 4 lane roads, such as those
implemented in certain parts of Mumbai
I think we can move onto the other stakeholders you mentioned.
Sure. Moving on to the police, I would like to break this down into centralised systems and decentralised systems.
Within centralised systems I would look into infrastructural and environmental factors. Infrastructural issues could
be lack of proper sign boards, CCTV cameras, improper functioning and inadequate signals, improper lighting etc.
In the environmental factors, I would look into the AQI monitors, noise pollution control systems etc.
Decentralised systems would include the traffic police functioning at every signal/intersection. Are they equipped
with speed sensors, quick response systems to decongest roads due to accidents, stalled vehicles, processions etc
to prevent bottlenecks.
That sounds exhaustive. I would like you to now move onto how the conditions of the roads and the seasonal
factors mentioned will be dealt with.
I will look into these under the Construction Lobbies stakeholder bucket in my structure. As construction of roads
is mainly given on contractual basis to construction companies, I would look at increasing the concretised roads for
the Tier 2 cities as there are currently just 40% of concretised roads. In the metro cities ensuring that construction
companies finish existing projects on time as per deadlines as also providing suitable diversions due to the
construction work so as to not create further congestion. Undertaking construction of more expressways and
broadening of existing lanes would also fall here.
Ok. But, what are the duties of the Municipal Corporations then?
Agreed. The last stakeholders, the Municipal Corporations would have the responsibilities of identifying these new
infrastructure projects, executing them and most importantly addressing seasonal issues such as potholes before
the monsoons arrive. To increase accountability by the municipal corporations to the people, we could look at a
partnership with the local communities to identify locality wise road issues causing congestion. Also, have a citizen
portal where with the help of Google Maps there could be an identification of constantly congested roads and
collaborate with residents on how to improve these.
Sure, I hope your suggestions help improve the traffic conditions of our client. We can end the case here. Thank
you.
51
Abstract Case- Interview transcript
Our client is the State Government of Maharashtra. They want to improve the traffic conditions in the state. Help them
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
The State Government of
Maharashtra is looking to
decrease the traffic
congestion by 15% in 3 metro
cities and 5 Tier 2 cities.
Case facts:
Stakeholders
Citizens
Public modes of
transport
Private modes
of transport
• Congestion is the number
of vehicles per unit time on
the road
• Metro cities have 90%
concretised roads while
Tier 2 cities have only 60%
concretised roads
• Seasonal issues such as
potholes causing
congestion in metros
Police
Centralised
systems
Infrastructural
Costs
Two
wheelers
Four
wheelers
Cabs, taxis
Municipal
Corporations
Construction Lobbies
Decentralised
systems
Existing
projects
New projects
Environmental
Costs
Tier 2 cities
Metro cities
Privately
owned cars
Problems and recommendations
Stakeholder approach, with following recommendations:
1) Citizens : Carpooling, limited taxis per city, stricter licence checks
2) Police force: Provision of quick response systems
3) Municipal Corporations: Existing projects speed-up, citizen inclusion
4) Construction Lobbies: Concretisation in Tier 2 cities
Interviewee feedback
The case requires the interviewee to come up with the maximum number of
problems and their respective solutions. Idea generating cases require depth as
well as breadth. In very open ended abstract cases wherein there is a
requirement of a long term plan, the stakeholder approach helps being
exhaustive and looking at the case from multiple points of view.
52
Abstract- Interview transcript
A Hollywood film producer has called in a consultant to develop a successful film. Help it out.
Case Transcript
A Hollywood film producer has called in a consultant to develop a successful film. Help it out.
I would like to know more about the producer. Can you tell me how old they are and where they’re based
out of?
Secondly, in the production phase, we need to look at developing a convincing set by hiring a good art
director. The cinematography and screenplay will also be a key aspect into developing a good film. This
will be taken care of by the direction team, cameramen and the actors. We shall also need good
soundtracks, both background and main, for which we shall need good music directors, lyricists, singers.
Finally, a good editor, who shall finalize the film.
It is an old production house with 90% success rate, based out of Los Angeles.
Can you define the parameters of success for me?
Alright, what next.
Two objectives:
a) Break even in 3 years.
b) Receive critical appreciation
Lastly, I want to look at the post production phase. This shall serve two purposes. First, to promote the
movie to the audiences, and in a way to gather some funds to reach our break even objective. We can
look at endorsements, promotions in target audience areas like malls, universities etc., and a good trailer
and music launch to generate interest for the film.
Does the producer have a theme in mind? Also, is there a Director and have other cast and crew members
already been signed?
Okay, this seems good. Let’s quickly look at the factors you want to consider for the break even part.
The theme revolves around a teenager who committed suicide. They don’t have a director in mind yet,
and the cast & crew will be selected by the director, although we may choose to give opinions.
Sure. Considering that critically acclaimed films may not be box office successes, I would want to divide
my approach into 3 buckets. 1) Maximize revenue from sales, 2) Other avenues of portraying idea, 3)
Ancillary sources
1) We should look at maximizing distribution to theatres, pay-per-view services, online mediums and
through CDs and DVDs. 2) We should aim for film festivals worldwide and look at options to convert our
story into a play or even a novel. 3) Finally, we can use ancillary sources like merchandise and goodie
sales. Also, we can organise suicide awareness camps, as it connects to our theme directly.
To start off our analysis, I would like to begin by discussing how to achieve critical appreciation, first. We
can divide this timeline into three major phases- Pre-production, production and post-production.
First, in the pre-production phase, we need to develop a good story and script around our theme. Hire a
director who has made such successful films before and allow him to choose the cast and crew best suited
for the film.
These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
53
Abstract- Case structure
A Hollywood film producer has called in a consultant to develop a successful film. Help it out.
Qualitative information
Case background :
Case framework
Successful Film
Production company with
90% success rate. Based out
of LA.
Critical Appreciation
Commercial Objective: Break
even in 3 years.
Non-commercial Objective:
Critical appreciation.
Case facts:
Story line: Teenager commits
suicide.
Appointment of cast and
crew to be done by director
on recommendation of
production house (if any).
Breaking Even
PreProduction
Production
PostProduction
Film
Distribution
Other
Avenues
Ancillary
Story & Script
Set/Live
Location
Distribution
Theatres
Film Festivals
Merchandise
Director &
Writer
Cinematogra
phy & Sound
Brand
Endorsement
Pay-per-view
Live
Plays/Shows
Suicide
Awareness
Cast (Lead
and Support)
Performance
Trailer/Music
Launch
CDs/DVDs
Novel
Crew
Editing
Promotions
Online
streaming
Problems and recommendations
Interviewee feedback
We need to target the different areas as mentioned in order to maximize our
objectives. Since we have a 3 year break even period and a critically acclaimed
film might not be a box office success, we should look at converting the film
into a novel or a play as well.
It is important to concentrate on both aspects of the case. In the short time we
have, one generally tends to forget one of the two aspects. Listing down factors
is a key for abstract cases. For break even analysis, the candidate can choose to
do a quick guesstimate of the number of viewers and of revenues & costs.
54
Additional Information
55
PESTLE Framework to conduct industry analysis (detailed)
Political
Economic
SocioCultural
Environment
• Forms of Govt.
• Stability of Govt.
• Stability/ Continuity of Law
• Outlook towards industry
• Current political scenario
• Is economy growing?
• Sectoral growth
• GDP per capita (especially of our target
customers)
• Credit availability
• Investment Environment
• Expenditure/ Discretionary Spending
• Societal/ group level
• Religion
• Caste/ Ethnicity
• Gender
• Individual level (Habits)
• Existing Product Usage
• Demographic Patterns – Gender, Income,
Region based, Rural/ Urban
• Environmental Regulations
Technology
• Core Technology
• Technology Availability
• Manpower
• Enabling Technology
• Internet
• Smartphone
Legal &
Regulatory
• National
• Entry barriers
• One time permit
• Compliance requirements
• Taxes & Duties
• Police & Judiciary
• State/ Federal – Within state and Inter – state
• International
• Trade Agreements
• Trade Barriers
• Import restrictions
Infrastructure
• Product/ Service specific infrastructure (exavailability of stadiums if launching a sports event)
• Enabling Infrastructure
• Transport Connectivity
• Land & Buildings
• Utilities – Water, Electricity
• Waste Disposal
56
Cost Value Chain (detailed)
1. Raw Material
2.
Transportation
(In/ Outbound)
3. Storage
• What? - Quality Specifications, Quantity, Types –
Product & Packaging related
• How? - Procurement process
• 1st time/ one time – Market Survey, Policy,
Approvals, RFP, Tendering, Selection and Contract
terms, Payments
• Repeat procurement – Demand Forecasting,
Purchase requisition process, delivery & returns,
payments
• When? – Demand forecasting, seasonality, lag time
• Who – Suppliers
• No. of suppliers, Quality (capability &
performance)
• Cost
• Where – Distance, route, transportation mode,
damages & pilferages
• Transport mode and route factors
• Service provider related factors
• Operating factors
• Warehouse facilities/ features, Cost
• Accessibility of warehouse, availability of space
• Process of storage, Inventory Management, (LIFO/
FIFO), Inventory levels and Inventory control
4. Production
5. Distribution,
Sales &
Marketing
6. After Sales
Costs
7. Other Costs
•
•
•
•
•
Material
Manpower
Machine
Method
Measurement
• Trade Promotion
• Salesforce – Size, Efficiency
• Channel Incentives (Commissions) – Monetary
& Non Monetary
• Advertisement - Modes (ATL/ BTL/ TTL), Cost per
impressions, effectiveness
• Discounts, offers, loyalty schemes
•
•
•
•
•
Installation
Customer Service (Online, IVRS, E-mail support)
Service Centres
Returns & Warranties
Feedback Mechanism
• Research & development (Manpower, equipment,
patents/ IP, Trials)
• HR and admin costs
• Infrastructure costs (Machinery, Land, Building –
Factory, Warehouse, retail outlets, offices)
• Product/ Technology development
57
Key Data Points for Guesstimates
A. Population
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
India: 1.3 Bn (130 Crores)
Lucknow: 3.3 Mn
Uttar Pradesh: 220 Mn
Delhi UA: 16 Mn
Mumbai UA: 18 Mn
Kolkata UA: 14 Mn
Bangalore: 8.5 Mn
Growth Rate: 1.2%
Birth Rate: 20/1000
Death Rate: 7.5/1000
Life Expectancy: 70 years
B. Area (In Sq. Km.)
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
India: 3.2 Mn
Lucknow: 2500
Uttar Pradesh: 0.25 Mn
Delhi: 1500
Mumbai: 600
Kolkata: 205
Bangalore: 700
C. Rural v/s Urban
A. Rural: 70%
B. Urban: 30%
C. Top 10 cities – 7%
F. Sector- wise (%age of GDP)
A. Agriculture: 15%
B. Industry: 30%
C. Service: 55%
G. Occupation
D. Age
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
<35 years: 65%
<25 years: 50%
0-6 years: 15%
7-14 years: 15%
15-25 years: 20%
25-35 years: 15%
35-65 years: 30%
65+ years:5%
E. Income
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
BPL: 29%
Low: 25%
Lower Middle: 30%
Upper Middle: 15%
High: 1%
A. Agriculture – 50%
B. Industry – 20%
C. Services – 30%
H. Others
A. Literacy Rates
A. India – 75%
B. Youth (15-24 years) – 85%
C. Male (83%), Female (65%)
B. Religion
C. Hindu (75%), Muslim (15%), Others
(10%)
D. Car Penetration – 20/1000
E. Internet Penetration – 400 Mn
F. Mobile Phone Penetration – 650 Mn
G. Smart Phone Penetration – 300 Mn
58
How to make the best use of Interview Experiences?
The interview experiences are categorized as per di erent companies. This will give
readers a chance to understand and di eren ate the type of cases asked by each company, the depth into which they want you to go and what domain to companies tend to
focus on
There are instances when the same problem statement was given to mul ple candidates and thus di erent approaches to the same case have been wri en down. This
will enable students to get diverse perspec ves on the approaching the case
CASE EXPERIENCES
(SUMMERS)
The case experiences have been provided in a format that is closest to the actual conversa on that went down on the day of interviews and hence students can go over the
case transcripts to set their expecta ons of the case interviews right so that there are
no last-minute surprises
This book can also be used to create a bank of HR related ques ons that can be asked.
Since the background of each candidate has been provided alongside the HR ques ons
asked, you can nd candidates with similar pro les as yours and try to gauge what type
of non-case ques ons you can expect in the interview
Names of candidates and their pro les have been provided so that readers, if need be,
can reach out to the relevant person to be able understand the par cular case be er
or for any other assistance that they may require with respect to placement preparaon
Note – All men ons of ‘C’ refer to Candidate while ‘I’ refers to Interviewer in this book.
59
Aayush Kumar
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NIT Rourkela
Electrical Engineering
ZS Associates - 35 months
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Introduce yourself; Men on your top 5 skills.
What have you done during your college life?
What challenges did you face while working on your NGO?
How did you land up at ZS?
The transi on from Engineering to consul ng?
So, you have worked at Tata Steel. What did you learn over there?
How would you determine the pro tability of an investment?
Why do you want to join Accenture?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Use of analy cs in launching FMCG products
Case Problem: Use of analy cs in launching FMCG products
I: Godrej wants to launch FMCG products (soap and shampoo for this case) and wants to leverage analy cs for the same. Where all can we use analy cs.
C: Where do you want to launch the product? Any USP for the product?
I: Pan India. Consider generic product here and anyway I am looking for ways where we can
deploy analy cs – not par cularly around product speci c analy cs. So, be as diverse as possible.
60
C: (Asked for a minute)
Okay, so these are the following areas where we can take the help of analy cs –
To start with –
i)
Demand forecast
ii)
Supply chain management & inventory op miza on
iii)
Marke ng mix
iv)
Salesforce deployment
v)
Customer service - Sen ment analysis & feedback
vi)
Pricing strategies
(Interviewer stopped me in between and asked for more details on demand forecast and
salesforce deployment)
Case Interview 2: GTM strategy for drug launch
Case Problem: GTM strategy for drug launch
Approach:
Talked about the steps we followed during the drug launch and which part of it we worked
on. Started with segmenta on, pilot launch, co-launch with exis ng team and then fulledged targe ng.
Went on to talk at length on targe ng.
Demand forecast – I would take data from compe tors’ sales which have been opera ng in
our product category. Plus, there are industry speci c reports by several rms which can
guide us with the same. This would enable the company to manufacture op mum quan ty of
goods thereby reducing inventory costs. Input from the local sales team will also act as an
input while crea ng the forecast.
Salesforce deployment – I would create two teams for salesforce.
Wholesale team – Focused on major brands such as Dmart, Big bazaar, Star Bazaar and so on.
If we can push for the shelf space in just the HQ, it would ensure that we have ample shelf
space in all their branches.
Retail team – Focused on retailers. Iden fying the right set of retailers or wholesalers to have
a e up with. Analy cs can also be used to iden fy the right margin for them. Concentrated
sales team would be required in places with high demand and analy cs can be used to decide
upon the frequency of visit based on rela onship, in uence of the retailer, and generated
sales.
61
Aayushi Agarwal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Ankit Gupta
IIT Kanpur
Chemistry
American Express (22 months) – Risk Management
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
BITS Pilani
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
EXL Services (46 months) – Data Analy cs
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Walk me through your resume.
Asked me about my hobbies and interests. What do you want to pursue at IIML?
Candidate led ques on: How Accenture leverages other ver cals like Accenture
Venture into their projects?
Why Consul ng?
Why Accenture?
Why not research a er gradua on?
Tell me something about yourself
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guesstimate
Case Problem: Estimate the revenue generated by Domino's pizzas delivered in Lucknow
Tell me about the commi ee you are part of at IIM Lucknow. What all have you
done ll now for that?
Tell me about the work you did in your previous company
Why Accenture?
Did you appear for any process before this? Which company did you sit for and
how was the process?
You said that you are into reading. What was the last book that you read and what
did you learn from it?
What do you write? Can you recite some of your wri ngs?
Case Experiences
Interview – 1: Discussion on Accenture’s used cases in the airline industry
Case Problem: NA
62
Interview – 2: Measuring and improving IVR server robustness
Case Problem: NA
I: Did you do engage in any academic projects in your college?
(Talked about my internship experience, basis which I was given a very small 3-4-minute case. I was
asked to list down the factors that need to be looked at to ensure the e ciency of the project. I had
previously worked on tes ng of IVR servers to improve the e ciency of the system)
C: 1. Call drop rate during a call: Should decrease
2. Average length of the call: Should increase
3. Load factor of the server: How many calls can the server handle simultaneously
4. Hit to miss ra o: While tes ng, you make hits on the server which are random in nature and as
per the system design, they either pass or drop. Hit to miss ra o is an important metric.
Questions asked to the interviewer (if any)
I asked about the work life balance at Accenture and told them about my expectations.
Also told them the kind of culture I had in my previous organization and what my expectations were
Kunal Gupta
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
BITS Pilani
Manufacturing Engineering
Trident Group (35 months) – Corporate Strategy, Opera ons Maagement
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Walk me through your resume.
Asked me about my hobbies and interests. What do you want to pursue at IIML?
Candidate led ques on: How Accenture leverages other ver cals like Accenture
Venture into their projects?
Why Consul ng?
Why Accenture?
Why not research a er gradua on?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market Entry
Case Problem: I am a Mobile Handset Manufacturer. A marke ng associate has suggested selling my new mobile phone in the South-East Asian market. Help me quickly
decide on this. Run me through the factor and the evalua on. Highlight any risks in
the entry.
C: I want to know more about your company. Where are you based?
I: We are headquarters in the USA.
C: What are your current scale of opera ons?
I: We are one of the world’s largest mobile phone seller and operate globally except for South East
63
Asia. We have excess manufacturing capacity in China. The demand globally is slowing down except for
in South East Asia and hence we want to enter South-East Asia.
C: What is the product you want to enter with? You said you have developed a new mobile phone
which you want to sell in South-East Asia.
I: Yes. We have a new phone. It is a replica of the new iPhone with a slow processor, low resolu on
camera and a non-HD display.
C: So, I can assume it is a mid-range priced phone targeted at the middle class.
Also, what are the key goals to achieve while entering the SEA market. Should revenue growth be the
major driver or something else?
I: Vacant capaci es in China force us to expand. While revenue growth would be a target. We also
want to maintain a high margin of pro t on our products.
C: Perfect. Given that we have vacant capaci es and global demand elsewhere is slowing elsewhere,
South Asia is a rac ve economically. However, let’s check for any poten al risks in entering the geography in terms of other factors (PSTL).
I: Yes. Please go ahead.
C: The region would be looked at in various dimensions. We can make the following matrix for evaluaon purposes.
Factor Score
Poli cally Stable
-4
Posi ve In uence of US on trade -3
US Brands are posi vely viewed -3
People try out new product- 3
Ease of Doing Business-3
The region looks good to enter based on this. Given the scores this market is good enough to enter.
Let’s move to evalua ng the industry?
I: Yes, this looks good to me (IDK when he placed - ‘comprehensive’ and ‘Objec ve’ in the conversa on
here. Just highlight if you feel there are any risks by the industry environment?
C: I would evaluate the risks across compe on, subs tutes, and risks carried by poten al new entrants and measure their impact on my key goal. The target geography consists of smaller countries
and have a di erent cultural setup as compared to the USA. Given we will enter just higher than the
Value for Money segment, also want to maintain high pro tability, the products owing in from China
and Vietnam which are local electronics manufacturing hubs, can create a lot of challenges.
The semi-organized nature of trade also creates localized players who can enter and leave the market
with new products sourced from Chinese Manufacturers.
Also, the number of subs tutes in the VFM category is very high. If we can create a di eren ated posi oning and create a good distribu on, we can win in the market on the back of our brand value
and control on product quality.
I: Yes. How do you suggest we set up the distribu on channel? Suggest any partnerships based on your
experience with the market.
C: This region is highly trader dominated who work across countries. The online channels in this region
are also penetra ng very quickly. This is a product for the masses and masses are everywhere (IDK
where I came up with this from). While we can leverage our brand, recall based on our global operaons. We cannot a ord to miss any channel. To cover di erent channels, we could partner with di erent en es. A trader could be chosen to help with the general trade, while any exis ng partnerships
with Amazon in the US (or any other E-Com giant) can be leveraged for the e-commerce channel, we
can choose to set up a C&F to manage supply to Central Group, Parksons, Metro and Isetan stores in
the organized retail.
I: Thanks. Any ques ons for me?
C: How do you allocate business between Accenture Strategy CN and IB and Accenture Consul ng in
Technology Strategy and Implementa on Projects like a SAP S4/HANA implementa on.
(It again turned into a conversa on - Included my experience with BPR and Implementa on for HANA,
SAP and Technology implementa on projects in general and SAP vendor space at Trident).
64
Case Problem: Iden fy the causes and recommend solu ons to the current pollu on
problem
in
Delhi
K. Mokshitha
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
VNRVJIET
Electronics and Communica ons Engineering
Deloi e (36 months)- Assurance and internal audit,
an -money laundering
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Approach:
-Began by rst iden fying the causes. Gave around four to ve causes for the pollu on levels.
-Noted down my points on his sheet ( I was not provided a sheet to solve the case and was doing it
orally).
- I next iden ed causes based on ease of implemen ng solu ons, me taken , reduc on of pollu on
levels if the cause is eliminated and rules & permissions required to provide a solu on.
Tell me about yourself
Brief about your previous work experience
Why consul ng?
Why Accenture?
What are your hobbies?
What are the technologies you dealt with during work?
Technical work experience ques ons - including what is EBITDA, what is a nancial
statement, how do you proceed with a client, what is risk?
Tell us about your MBA experience
What is most signi cant achievement in your life?
What is the most di cult challenge you have faced in your life?
Situa on where you rose up to a di cult situa on/problem and how you overcame
it.
What is your favourite and least favourite subject in MBA?
Which subject intrigues you the most?
Which specializa on are you aiming at?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Pollu on levels in Delhi
65
Monika Sahu
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Approach:
BIT Durg
Electronics and Telecommunica ons Engineering
Phyzok Learning Solu ons (12 months), BIS Research
(12 months), OZiva (12 months)
-I rst went on asked clari ca on ques ons about the educa on industry in Bangladesh. What
kind of products have already been in use and which ones are the most popular.
Next, I made the product launch case framework on a sheet.
-Suggested innova ve methods which the company can have like ipped learning, experien al learning, e-up with schools so that they can cut cost on infrastructure etc.
Finally discussed the normal and premium pricing that can be used for explicitly learning through these
new methods.
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Case Interview – 2: Market Entry into smart watches industry
Tell me about yourself.
Case Problem: A case on Designing a Go to Market Strategy for a tness product and
also on strategizing a social media campaign for the same
Tell me about your Hobbies
Why do you want to join Accenture?
Why Strategy?
Describe every job experience.
Why so many job changes?
Questions asked to the interviewer (if any)
I asked about the work life balance at Accenture and told them about my expectaons. Also told them the kind of culture I had in my previous organiza on and what
my expecta ons were
What's your specialisa on? Any strategy subjects?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Educa on content material product launch in Bangladesh
Case Problem: Launch an educa onal content material (e- learning course) in Bangladesh. You are a start-up and you have covered a niche market in India. How will you
go about expanding it to Bangladesh?
66
I: How would you di eren ate the company from other compe tors?
Pooja Yadav
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
(Spoke about the quality and cost aspect to di eren ate the seller from local electrical stores)
Na onal Ins tute of Technology, Calicut
Computer Science
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (34 months) – IT
Interview – 2: Shi from tradi onal Oracle servers to Hadoop servers
Case Problem: What will be the ROI if you were to suggest your client to shi from
tradi onal Oracle servers to Hadoop servers
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
Was originally asked to pitch the idea of shi ing to Hadoop servers to my client. Later, I was asked to
quan fy my answer based on ROI
Hobbies
Tell me about the highlight of your day
Asked the story about a debate from my CV
Was asked to explain my projects during Bachelors
Tell me about your hobbies and your me in Bangalore
Tell me your journey at IIML so far
Where do I see myself 5 years down the line?
What has been your biggest achievement at work?
Case Experiences
Interview – 1: Data Analysis of sales of an online electrical supplier (CV based)
Case
Problem:
NA
Asked about the seller and the market (CPCCP ques ons). Structured my answer around the data insights that we can get about the consumers
67
Prashant Dangi
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
RGTU, Bhopal
Engineering
Bank of Baroda (39 Months) – PSU Banking
Cas ng Pro (16 Months) – Media & Entertainment
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Fixing Subscrip on Plans of an OTT Pla orm
Case Problem: You’re a new OTT pla orm in India. How would you x your subscripon plans?
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell us something about yourself.
Did you ever thought of joining the army?
Why have you done so many dissimilar things? Were you confused?
Could you please explain your work in the cas ng? How was it di erent compared
to your experience in the bank?
Why did you move into such an unconven onal eld?
Talk about some challenges faced by you at your work place?
Did you come up with any innova ve solu ons during your s nts?
Are you planning to leave us as well a er some me, if selected?
Why MBA now? Where do you see yourself in future?
What is digital marke ng? How can an organiza on bene t from digital marke ng?
Why do you think Amazon ventured in the OTT space with Prime?
What is the revenue model of Ne lix? Who is more successful & why?
Why is prime more successful in India?
What changes would you bring in the content, if given an opportunity?
Is IIM Lucknow stressful for you given that you’re coming in tradi onal setup a er
7-8 years?
What do you do to de-stress?
Can you recite a poem of yours?
68
Shubhendu Trivedi
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Ishita Vishnoi
University of Lucknow; Ins tute of Chartered Accountants of India
Commerce
EY (48 months) – Financial accoun ng and advisory
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
Why MBA?
Why Consult?
What is your typical work day like?
How do you see e-commerce audit de ciencies?
How do you work on Change accoun ng advisory?
What is the impact of changing accoun ng standards on an economy?
Are you comfortable leading bigger teams?
When you're not working, what do you do? Why didn't you pursue a career in
cricket or music?
Any setbacks in life?
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
DTU
Computer Science Engineering
United Health Group, Optum (23 months) – Data Science
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Give me a brief introduc on about yourself.
What would you say is one of the most important achievements in your life?
Who would you say are the key in uencers in your life?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Why should we hire you out of all the people who are here?
What drives you the most?
Why do you want to join Accenture?
Tell us about the projects undertaken during work ex.
Talk about machine learning projects done in healthcare sector.
Do you have any exposure to IoT, Blockchain?
Tell us more about the unmanned vehicle project that you did.
69
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: VC rm acquiring an Agri Based Start-up
Case Problem: Your client is a VC rm, wishes to invest in an Agri based start-up. what
all factors should they look into?
I: Your client as a VC rm wishes to invest in an Agri based start-up. What all factors should they look
into?
C: Ques oned about the VC rm's previous investments if any in this domain, general inves ng por olio of the client.
I: Irrelevant, but say your client does not mind venturing into new domains and does not mind diversifying its por olio.
C: Asked ques ons about the Agri based start-up, where does it operate in, what stage of start-up, revenue model and possibili es of idea expansion.
I: Agri start-up's idea is to work as an online aggregator for all purposes including raw material procurement by the farmers, advice on best farming prac ces, nancing from the banks and coopera ves, selling the nal product in the market.
C: Did an industry analysis rst which seemed to be a posi ve opportunity. Then looked into each of
the possible sources of revenue for the start-up, and drilled down further into how the networking
would work with the stakeholders, convenience for the stakeholders or the need to switch to this new
pla orm etc, possibility of expansion of idea to meet other Agri based needs of farmers.
I: Thank you so much! This is it.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
Given the scale of global projects, does having a separate IB division really help?
How well is it integrated with the work Accenture does globally?
How well integrated is the IB division with the global work of the organiza on?
Monideepa Shaw
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT BHU
Ceramic Engineering
Tata Steel (9 months)- Management Trainee; ZS Associates (12 months)- Business Analyst; Zomato (12
months)- Business Analyst
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
What value do you think you can add as a consultant?
Why consul ng?
Tell me one thing from your CV that you are proud of.
What kind of projects did you do in ZS Associates?
What are your Strengths?
Are you comfortable reloca ng?
Since you were a Management Trainee at Tata Steel, how do you think technology
can play a part in improving the training?
With whom did you work at Tata? Do you know what Accenture is doing for Tata?
What can be improved in Tata's training program?
Why do you think diversity is important in Leadership roles?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Compe
on Analysis for Dominos
Case Problem: How do you think Zomato and Swiggy can be a threat to major restau70
rant chains? Suppose I am a Dominos loyalist. Can the food aggregators be a threat to
Dominos
even
when
it
comes
to
the
loyal
customers?
Approach:
-Men oned a few problems that Na onal Restaurant Associa on of India has highlighted in customer
data masking, lack of transparency in display order, heavy discounts, cloud kitchens, etc. There was a
discussion around each issue.
-Food aggregators have data about food preferences and priori es. They can provide customized opons to the customers. They know our ea ng habits and me when we prefer to eat out. With proper
ming and customiza ons, they can even change the preference of the loyal customers by providing
op ons, discounts etc.
I related the case to my work-ex and highlighted the step by step details of the parameters we
looked into for launching the drug. Even for segmenta on of the customers, I laid down the detailed approach I followed in my project.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
How was your experience in Accenture? What kind of industries have you worked
for? (The interviewer was a consultant for Tata) How was your experience with Tata Steel? my expecta ons were
Case Interview – 2: Guess mate on Pizza outlets in Lucknow
Problem:
1. Guess mate the number of Pizza outlets in Lucknow. Follow the household method.
2. If there are only 35 dominos outlets in Lucknow and they do not have delivery service available, then es mate the market size of Pizzas in Lucknow
Case Interview – 3: Go To Market Strategy for a new drug launch
Problem: Design a GTM strategy for a new drug launch? How do you usually go about
pa ent segmenta on? Have you done any work on nancial modelling? (GTM menoned in my CV)
Approach:
71
(Repeated the ques on to avoid any missing pieces)
Vivek Kumar
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Kharagpur
Science/Applied Geology
ZS Associates – Business Consul ng
Central Square Founda on – Public Policy
Coal India Ltd. – Resource Explora on & Mining (Total:
36 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself.
What is applied Geology?
Why consul ng?
What was your role as a geologist? Which sta s cal technique did you use during
forecas ng?
How have you used technology in your projects, given that Accenture works primarily on technology?
How can technology transform the mining industry?
Case Transcripts
C: Asked about geography (India or Global). Asked about any speci c crawler (bulldozer mid size,
small size, mining machinery).
(Took 30-40 seconds to layout the process.)
Asked if he would like a speci c number. Interviewer only wanted the process.
C: Divided the industry into three major segments based on usage - Heavy machinery (ship
building, mining, Dam construc on), Infrastructure & Construc on (Buildings, Roads, Parks, Complex
etc.), light machinery for transporta on (Municipal Corpora ons, warehouses, small me hiring).
Assumed the average lifespan of crawlers to be 5-8 years. Emphasized on the me parameter of rst
and second segment and maintenance parameter of third segment for revenue genera on.
Moved to es ma ng the current eet in the market through source-based demand analysis (no of mining projects, output capacity).
I: How will you es mate the current number of bulldozers used by each source?
C: Spoke about Indian context, took example of Na onal Highway Authori es of India, availability of project status, es mated me of comple on of crawler per stretch of road.
Gave another example of the value of products passing through each port and quan ty handled per
crawler.
Gave a third example of building construc ons (assumed no usage of crawler in single residen al buildings) by dividing the ci es on er basis, followed by income, no. of households and another assump on
on me taken by average household of each income level to buy an apartment in a complex.
Case Interview – 1: Market Size of Bulldozers in the next ve years
Case Problem: Es mate the market size of crawlers (bulldozers) in the next ve years.
C: Sure.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
What is the possibility of ge ng a project basis the work experience?
72
Akanksha Agarwal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NSIT, New Delhi
Biotechnology
Boston Consul ng Group (22 months) – Consul ng
(Healthcare)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
The partner was trying to understand my background, asked me about my parents'
background, my engineering background, ques ons around my experience at BCG.
Why are you seeing ATK's process before BCG despite having worked in the la er
rm?
How my day looked like while I was working at BCG, my precise job func on, few
basic ques ons about the industry I was working for (Healthcare)
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Pro tability case on agricultural equipment manufacturer in
Finland
Case Problem: Analyse a case on combine harvester manufacturer, which is located in
Finland and is struggling with making pro ts.
Approach:
The case was super technical, and was thus largely driven by the interviewer himself. He guided me
throughout the case with relevant and mely inputs
73
-Firstly, the interviewer showed me an image of the combine harvester on his phone - it's a normal
machine used for harves ng crops. The interviewer was kind enough to lay down all the steps involved
in the en re manufacturing process: Sheet Metal - Assembly - Paint Shop - Finish Unit - Quality Run.
-A er a basic discussion on the rm and its compe ve environment, the interviewer revealed that
they were struggling with cost of manpower and wanted to reduce the same.
-I asked if the slash needs to be made across all units or any speci c unit. The interviewer narrowed it
down, asked me to focus on the Paint Shop Unit. He explained the exact process inside the paint shop,
number of people involved at each sub-step, and made me do a simple calcula on for capacity u lizaon inside the shop, as well as list down several levers to op mize manpower (# of hours, # of units
produced, skill level, hierarchy levels, # and dura on of shi s).
-The simple deduc on a er these two steps was to reduce the # of shi s from 2 to 1 since the capacity
u liza on was low (around 30-33%, and there seemed to be no other way to improve it). Alternate
recommenda ons included se ng strict produc on targets, o ering training programs, restructuring
hierarchy levels if required.
Arooshi Bajaj
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Guwaha
Chemical Engineering
NA
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Had a discussion around Chandigarh (my hometown) and my family as he too happened to be from Chandigarh.
Was asked my strengths and weaknesses as would be described by my manager,
friends and siblings.
Tell me about yourself
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Business problem on local tea vendor vs Starbucks
Case Problem: There is a chai stall just below your hostel which runs throughout
night. It is the only outlet open at night so many people have his products. His revenues are worth 30k and costs amount to 20k. The pro t he earns gets u lized to ful l
all his family expenditures. Now, Starbucks wants to open an outlet there, and would
pay a rent of Rs 10k to the college. If the chai-wala wants to stay, he would also have
to pay a rent of 10k now. What can he do to survive?
Approach:
(Solved it like a pro tability case and suggested various ways to increase his revenue and improve his
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services.)
I: Considering he can’t pay the rent even now and there are the following 2 op ons to choose from:
i) Director wants Starbucks
ii) The chai waala is kept but then the scholarship of one of the students will be removed
Which one would you go with and why?
C: Keep the Chai Waala itself considering the fact that it is more feasible in the long run as he o ers
cheaper products.
(This was more of a discussion where I was constantly suppor ng one of the things, even when he was
changing the condi ons constantly. Boarders were my main priority throughout the case.)
Case Interview – 2: Abstract case on India winning FIFA World Cup
Problem: How can India win the FIFA World Cup in the long run.
Approach:
Covered all the points from a me-frame approach, star ng from the awareness about the sport at
school level, infrastructure development at school and rural levels, coaching, funding, mo va on etc,
rela ng it to my experiences as well. (as I have a sports background since long).
Rahul Shah
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies
Management
The Smart Cube (18 months), A.T. Kearney (18
months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself? Tell me something interes ng. Who all have you
interacted with from ATK and what cases did you do with them?
Tell me 3 key projects you worked at ATK. What was your role?
Did you read the newspaper today? What were the headlines of today's ET?
Do you recognise the equa ons and graphs on the board?
Do you know anything about the pain ngs in the room?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Price a drug that will increase life by 50 years
Case Problem: Price a drug that will increase life by 50 years
Clarifying ques ons
Company
C: Who are the producers?
I: It’s a med-tech start-up in the US
C: Creden als of the founder?
I: How is this relevant?
C: Background of the founders is a crucial element in pricing, credibility of the product and raising capital as well
I: Okay! In fact, we need to price the drug for a VC to raise funds. The founder is Harvard Med School
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with experience of 5 years at a pharma company
Product
C: Is it a miracle pill that needs to be eaten only once?
I: Yes. It is a capsule that needs to be eaten just once. Hence you can focus on pricing just 1 pill
C: Does it also cure all diseases?
I: Yes, it does! Only issue is that it doesn’t cure lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes
C: What stage of product development are we at? Is it patented?
I: We are just on the verge of star ng human trials post which we will get an FDA approval and we can
start se ng up produc on. We can patent the drug a er FDA approval
C: Any side e ects?
I: Nope! Only that it can't cure lifestyle diseases
Consumers
C: Do we have a target consumer in mind?
I: Nope. Can you give sugges ons on this?
C: Sure. The clients can be the governments or rich people. This was followed by a 2 min conversa on
on why no other segment can be a target. The interviewer was sa s ed
Compe on
C: Are there any other similar drugs
I: Nope. We are the closest to launch the product
C: I think I have su cient informa on to move forward. Thanks!
Structure for pricing
C: Cost-based, Compe tor-based and Value based. We can remove compe tor-based pricing since
there is no compe on. Let's start with cost based pricing
I: Sure
C: Costs will include costs of human trials, costs of FDA approval and se ng up plant
Interviewer gave numbers. Did some number crunch and basic calcula ons. Ignored NPV for simplicity.
I: Are you sure about your calcula ons?
C: I have ignored NPV for simplicity but can incorporate it if required. I believe that is the only caveat
with these numbers. Do let me know if there is something I am missing out
I: I just wanted to check whether you are considering NPV or not. You may proceed
C: I then move onto value based pricing. For this, we need to essen ally give a monetary value
to the addi onal 50 years.
I: We are running short on me and since you have done numbers already just walk me through the
parameters you would consider
C: Okay. The biggest parameter here would be the addi onal income of 50 years that the customer
would earn. Besides that, since the magic pill will cure all chronic diseases, the price should also incorporate costs that customers would have otherwise incurred.
I: Anything else you want to add?
C: Yeah! So the above calcula ons will give a gure. Post arriving at that gure we can charge more or
less depending on some others parameters. I would like to classify them as value generators and value
destroyers
I: Go ahead!
C: Value creators can be the creden als of the founder, success in FDA trials while value destroyers can
be the inability to cure lifestyle diseases. We can allot a percentage to each of these parameters and
apply on the benchmark gure to arrive at the nal value-based price
I: Assume the price comes to be around 2 Mil USD. You have calculated the cost-based price at 250
USD. What price would you charge?
C: Since our target is rich people, we should charge the en re 2 Mil. We are a for pro t organiza on
and should charge as much as a customer is willing to pay
(Ideally, we would have taken a price in between value-based and cost-based. However, since there
was a huge di erence between the 2 prices, taking an average did not make sense)
I: What are the risks associated with the products
C: Failing the FDA trials, retalia on from the pharma industry.
I: Let’s focus on retalia on
C: Sure. Since the magic pill will essen ally make all medicine for chronic diseases redundant, the compe on can react nega vely. The ‘Big Pharma’ can use lobbying to hinder the FDA approval process.
Big Pharma can also use their clout to hinder VC funding.
I: Great! Do you have any ques ons for me?
C: No. Not really. Thanks!
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Case Interview – 2: Cost vs Bene t Analysis between Chaiwala and Starbucks
I: Suppose you are back to college and there is a tea shop in your college. The tea shop has been there
since the past 25 years. The tea shop sells chai and samosas in one corner of the campus. He manages
to earn around 10k monthly through this shop. However, this is not a legal setup. Starbucks now approaches your principal to open a store in place of the tea shop and is ready to pay rent of 10K. The
principal is now considering removing the tea shop and bringing Starbucks to campus. But the owner of
the tea shop reaches out to you for help. How will you help him?
(Since the partner had given a lot of context, did not spend me on clarifying ques ons)
C: We can tackle this in 2 ways. We can either increase the spend of exis ng customers or increase the
number of customers. In the rst bucket, we can increase the price depending on elas city or we can
look to increase the frequency of purchase/
I: Elas city is an interes ng point. Can you tell me factors on which elas city depends?
C: Elas city is nothing but the slope of the demand curve. It is essen ally dependent on the customer
preferences. If a customer prefers a brand while buying shoes for eg., he/she won't mind paying extra
for the same brand. In our case, if the experience of having chai with friends is that important to customer, or talking to the tea vendor, or the taste of the chai/samosa we can charge more than the exis ng price
I: Anything else that in uences the price elas city?
C: Compe on and subs tutes. If the next place for chai is very far o , the students won’t mind paying
extra
I: Sure. Move on
C: We can also provide bulk discounts for par es in hostels. To increase # of customers we can add new
products such as chips and cigare es.
I: Okay! A er all this, you manage to increase the income of the tea vendor by 100k and he can now
pay that amount to the principal. However, Starbucks now comes back and says that they are ready to
pay 30K as rent
C: Increasing revenue is no more an op on Abhishek. I think the only way to tackle this now is to take
this up directly with the principal, sugges ng the students want to keep the tea vendor on campus rather than Starbucks
I: Okay. Suppose the principal asks you to conduct a vote for this decision. Half of the students want to
keep Starbucks and half of the students want to keep the tea vendor. You are the nal vote. Your decision will be implemented. What would you do?
C: I would vote for the tea vendor primarily because the tea vendor will lose his livelihood over
this and since he is old, se ng up a new stall at a newer loca on will be tough. In contrast, Starbucks is a for-pro t organiza on that will con nue to earn money and can easily choose another locaon around the campus. From the students’ perspec ve, in case they want to have something other
than the chai and samosas, there are always op ons ordering from Swiggy and Zomato. So it looks like
only the tea vendors is in a posi on to lose a lot, whereas all the other stakeholders can survive.
I: Now the principal says that keeping the tea vendor will cost the fee of 1 student’s scholarship and
hence one student will have to be removed. Will your decision change?
C: The basic premise of the principal’s argument seems a bit awed and it might just be a tac c to put
pressure to sway the votes in favour of Starbucks. Essen ally, there has been no increase in costs. In
fact, we have increased the revenue of the college by increasing the sales of the tea vendor and enabling him to pay the rent of 10K to the college. The ‘addi onal cost’ that the principal is referring to is
an opportunity cost of 20K from Starbucks. However, opportunity costs come into play when we are
focussing on economic pro t and accoun ng pro t. The scholarships would be a ected only if the accoun ng pro t goes down.
I: Thanks for your me!
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Palak Singhal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Daulat Ram College, DU
BA Psychology (Hons)
Fresher (0 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Why MBA a er psychology?
What di erent will you be able to bring ot the table?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Pro tability of Mint manufacturer
Case Problem: Our client is a mint manufacturer; they have been a market leader in
the industry and their pro ts are slipping.
I: I’d want you to solve it from psychology’s perspec ve and see what insights you can draw here.
C: Okay, I’d like to view the problem from the customer’s journey perspec ve then.
I: Sure, go ahead.
C: Before I begin exploring, help me be er understand the problem. I have a few ques ons to ask.
I: Shoot
C: Declining pro ts can be a func on of either rising costs or declining revenues. Which of these is the
case for us?
I: Our costs have remained fairly stable in fact reduced a li le, but revenues have fallen.
C: Revenues are a product of price and number of mint candies sold. Which of these have declined?
I: Price is same. There isn’t much scope of changing prices in an industry such as this. It’s a standard 1-
rupee candy. The number of candies sold has fallen.
C: Asked few more scoping ques ons to arrive at following data – Pro ts declining for past 7-8
months and our compe tors aren’t facing this issue. We are a market leader in the mint industry with
2 other compe tors, and our size of the pie is declining. Our product, the mint is a standard avoured
candy sold for Re 1.
As I men oned earlier, I’d see this problem from the customer’s vantage point. And for that I need to
know who our major customers are. On need basis, mint is typically eaten as a mouth freshener a er
food, or smoking. Is it fair to focus on this segment?
I: Focus on the smoker segment.
C: Okay then I am imagining myself as a typical customer who smokes and then needs to buy mint.
Divided the journey into buckets:
Need -> Awareness and desirability of product -> Accessibility to Sale Point -> Buying Process
Asked few ques ons to arrive at the following conclusion:
Need has been established. In terms of awareness, the promo ons have been bare minimum since
beginning, but since we have been in the market for the longest me, the brand recall is highest for
our product. Clearly, there isn’t an issue with these buckets. In terms of accessibility, the major sale
points are small kiosks and pan shops where a big chunk of smokers buy cigare es from. The distribuon channels have remained fairly constant. Clearly no issue in any of the three buckets.
C: Exploring the buying process now. There are two possible scenarios:
a) Customer buys mint.
b) Customer gets mint in exchange for change.
Case (a): Analysing the transac on…Typically the customer will ask for mint from the kiosk owner and
the owner will hand it over to the customer. Psychologically speaking, the mint is a low involvement
product, hence the customer will not think twice before accep ng the brand that owner hands over.
Hence, the customer may not necessarily be the actual decision maker here.
Case (b): Again, while handing over the change, the kiosk owner will hand the mint over to the customer himself.
Hence, if the vendor is ge ng a be er margin o another mint brand, he is more likely to promote and
sell it. Is this a fair assump on?
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I: Yes, good enough. This in fact is the case. Now, can you analyse how could this be? How is our compe tor able to o er a be er margin?
vides. People visit CCD to spend me when they need to work, have a mee ng or simply read a
book. Thus, its posi oning is sugges ve of it selling an overall experience.
Case Interview – 3: Cost vs Bene t Analysis between Chaiwala and Starbucks
(This opened another Cost based case)
I evaluated the value chain of our compe tor’s manufacturing process to see where they could have
cut costs be er than us. I was asked to focus on the Raw Materials tab. Saw raw materials under following major buckets and then explored each.
a) Type of Raw Material – Same as ours.
b) Procurement Cost – Slightly costlier than ours
c) Percentage composi on of each material in product – Fairly standard.
d) Overall grammage – Shape and content – Could our compe tors be selling a slimmer version of the
candy which would reduce their grammage per piece?
I: Yes, that is the case. They have been able to save 10 paisa per candy, out of which they are able to
give 5 extra paisa as margins to sellers.
Case Interview – 2: Costs of CCD
Case Problem: Our client is CCD. Help cut costs.
I was given various overhead costs and had to see the scope of cu ng cost under various ver cals. I
solved the case using my own experience at CCD.
C: Through my rst-hand experience I could delve deep about nuances such as what are the non-peak
hours so that ACs be switched o during that me, how much me does the waiter take before asking
for the order and what is the e ciency of the payment process.
The case was meant to test both quan ta ve and qualita ve reasoning.
In order to test the comfort level with numbers, the interviewer expected me to clearly de ne in percentage terms how much cost is cut at each touch point.
C: Can the op on of delivery work for CCD? Why or why not?
I: I told how CCD is not really known for the taste of its beverages/food but for the experience it pro-
I: There is a Chai Wala at your college who holds a stall for many years. He sells only Samosa and Chai.
The college does not charge him any rent for that stall. Your principal has received a proposal from
Starbucks to set up their stall at that loca on for 10k per month as rent. The Chai wala only earns
enough to meet his basic needs hence can’t shell out any money. How can you help the Chaiwala?
C: Having established that increasing Chaiwala’s revenue is the best possible scenario, I structured the
ways of doing that as follows:
a) His exis ng opera onal hours and exis ng revenue stream (Eg: Raised prices, new op ons of food to
cater to health-conscious trend of students)
b) His exis ng opera onal hours and new revenue stream (Eg: Can cater to sta room tea demands,
can partner with student bodies for fests and events)
c) His exis ng revenue stream and new opera onal hours (Eg: Night hours for hostellers, early morning
hours for campus joggers)
d) New revenue stream and new opera onal hours (Eg: Part me jobs a er stall hours, Skill mapping)
I: Due to your sugges ons, the Chaiwala is able to double the income and earn extra 10k to pay for the
rent. You go the principal to inform her about the news. She tells you that Starbucks is now ready to
pay 20k instead. What will you do? Will you let Starbucks put up a stall?
C: Okay, having tried the best to pull up his revenues, there isn’t much scope of it le anymore. But I
realise that the Chaiwala is an important part of the ins tute so I will s ll try to save the day. I will
speak to student bodies in order to persuade the principal.
I: Let’s say, a poll was taken among students. 60% in favour of Starbucks and 40% in favour of
Chaiwala. What will you do now?
C: I will run a marke ng campaign (cited few details of the same) for the Chaiwala to arouse student
concern on the campus for the Chaiwala who has served the ins tute for be er part of his life and is
79
part of our family. I am con dent that I can persuade enough to garner that requisite 11% vote.
The interviewer further put me in strategic ethical situa ons such as - how will my decision and ac on
change if I am told that the 20k Starbucks was paying would have gone to sponsor educa on of an underprivileged child.
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I: Okay, go on.
Aprajita Kashyap
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT (BHU), Varanasi
Metallurgical Engineering
Wipro Technologies (10 months) – IT
C: Then I would like to iden fy the concerns of each stakeholder. And a er that we can make a
roadmap of the whole process with poten al road blocks.
(Did that, don’t remember exactly)
I: Now that you have made the whole structure and iden
cess. Would you like to suggest some alterna ves?
ed the major problems in the current pro-
C: Yes. I would like to suggest 4 alterna ves and their pros and cons as well First two are based on meline and the next two are based on logis cs constraint.
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
How much me has it been since you joined IIM Lucknow?
Do you think its jus ed that summer placements happen only a er 3 months of
joining?
How did you decide upon which domain you want to join?
What do you want me to look at in your CV?
Swap Lateral placements and summers with each other. Gives rst years more me to decide upon the domain and well-suited candidates for companies. It will be di cult for second year
students though as their stex might get jeopardised.
Shi the whole process ahead. First HEPP, then nals and then summers. Again, STEX will be an
issue.
HEPP and summers together, but logis cally di cult for administra on.
Cluster model and HEPP and summers together.
I: Okay, thanks
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Abstract
Case Problem: Improvements in IIM L Placement process. Suggest alterna ves
I: Suggest improvements in IIML summer placement process.
C: I would rst like to iden fy the stakeholders in the placement process - Students, Companies,
Placement Commi ee and IIM L administra on.
I: Okay, go on.
C: Then, I would like to iden fy the objec ves of each stakeholder.
For students it is ge ng placed in minimum me, for companies it is ge ng the best candidate, for
placement commi ee it is ge ng all students placed as soon as possible and for the administra on it is
smooth func oning during the process so that the ins tute's reputa on is maintained.
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Chandra Sekhar Ajay A
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Guwaha
Chemical Engineering
Cognizant (22 months) - IT
(Below are the ques ons asked and responses received)
In what class is the child currently studying in? (Class 8)
What is the gender of the child? (Male)
Does the child have any siblings? (Yes, a younger sister)
What is the nancial status of the family?
Typical middle-class family from Andhra Pradesh
No family assets and proper es
How good is he in academics? (Does fairly well – within top 10 in the class)
How good is he in sports? (Already men oned in the case statement)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
C: Let me start with the Pros and Cons of each of the career op ons
Walk me through your resume
Why did you choose educa on over sports as your career?
I: (Expec ng me to start with the decision tree framework) Do you usually conduct the pros and cons
analysis while taking decisions?
C: Not always. But it helps to have a qualita ve view before going ahead with the decision-making
situa on.
Case Transcripts
I: Okay. Go ahead
Case Interview – 1: Abstract
C: There is one important ques on I failed to ask earlier. What is the nal objec ve of this career
choice decision making?
Case Problem:
I: What can be the objec ve?
(The interviewer had a quick look at my resume and iden ed that I was an athlete
during undergrad. He then went on asking about the events I do, my best performance and the Indian na onal record in those events.)
C: I can think of the following:
I: Ajay, let us assume you have a rela ve whose child is also an athlete like you. Knowing that you
chose academics over sports as your career choice, he reached out to you for sugges ons on how he
should go about his child’s career plans. How will you help him?
Some of these might be di cult to quan fy but these are broadly what I can think of.
C: Can I have a minute to gather my thoughts around this?
I: Sounds good. Let’s consider all those factors you just listed
I: Sure
(Made a table of pros and cons against the above three factors for the two career op ons)
(A er taking a moment to draw a brief structure on how to go about this)
C: I would need some more informa on around the situa on. Can I ask some clarifying ques ons?
I: Sure
-
Higher Income (and proper es)
-
Societal status
-
Self sa sfac on
C: Now that we have a broader view, let me start by iden fying the uncertain es and decisions
involved. Assuming that the decision has to be taken as soon as possible, we have 2 uncertain es and 2
decision.
Uncertain es:
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Whether or not he performs well in academics in future
Whether or not he performs well in sports in future
3)
Decisions:
Should the parent consider sports as a career op on
If yes, should it be given more preference? In this case, we have two alterna ves
Join him in a sports academy with lesser focus on educa on
Work on educa on and send to sports coaching everyday
Focus more on educa on with coaching only on weekends
I: Looks good. What would the decision tree look like?
C: First comes the decision 1 with two branches. If the parent doesn’t choose to consider sports as an
op on, there is nothing much le . However, if he chooses to consider it, the branch will further have 3
branches (each to the respec ve op ons listed above). For each of these 3 branches, there will be uncertainty 1 and uncertainty 2. In the end, there will be outcomes of each of the branches.
Ex: Parent chooses to consider sports and joins him in a sports academy. What is the probability that
he will do well in sports and do well in academics?
We will then assign probability to each of the branch and calculate the expected value of the outcomes. The decision can be based on these values.
Start a business. Can be one among below
a.
Hotels
b.
Amusement parks
c.
Malls
I: Good. Can you summarize this?
C: Sure. The following things should be considered for making a decision
1)
Mode of making money (Lump sum, Stream of cash ows)
2)
Time un l which you can wait for money to start coming in (Long vs short term)
3)
Type of business to invest in (compe tor analysis, SWOT)
I: You men oned cash ows. Are you aware of cash ow statement? What does it tell about?
How to prepare a cash ow statement if I give you income statement and balance sheet?
C: Explained and solved a small numerical which the interviewer gave with reasons behind why some
line item is subtracted and why others are added to get the nal net cash ow.
I: Okay Ajay. Let’s end this here
C: Sure
(A er few minutes of conversa on on campus life, the interviewer again asked a case)
I: I have a piece of land with me. What should I do with it? How would you approach this problem?
C: Sure. I would start with asking the objec ve of using this land. Following are the few I can think of
1)
Make a lump sum money immediately
2)
Generate constant stream of cash ows
3)
Invest in the long term
Based on the dura on before which you would expect the money to start owing in, we can
choose one of the above. For each of the above op ons, following can be done:
1)
Sell the land
2)
Lease the land to some other corporate en
es
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C: Told about buddy and manager interac ons and the cases that were discussed. Also told that
the work they are doing sounds interes ng.
Shubham Bansal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Indian Ins tute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi
Metallurgical Engineering
Wipro (10 months), ZS (24 months) – IT, Business Consul ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Who did you interact with at Auctus so far? How did it go?
What do you know about Auctus? Let's do a role play. You are at a black suit event
which has high pro le CEOs in a endance. You being a Consultant at Auctus have
to introduce yourself to a CEO. Go ahead with it.
Why did you join MBA and nally why do you want to come to Auctus. Do you
think you will get the required jump from your previous work experience? How?
What do you want to do in the long run? How will Auctus help you in that?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: M&A
Case Problem: M&A Case: Client is a highway developer and is looking to sell a toll
asset but is unable to convert any poten al deal. Help him with the case.
I: Hi, how are you doing? (With a smile) Is it too early morning for you?
C: Greeted with smile and normally answered the ques on.
I: Tell me something about yourself.
C: Told about background and work experience.
I: How has been your interac on so far? Whom did you interact with so far at Auctus? What did they
tell you about Auctus.
I: What work did the buddy tell you about?
C: He helped clients with a M&A. It was really exci ng to know how big scale changes are driven at
Auctus.
I: Since you nd M&A interes ng, let's do an M&A case.
C: Sure, with a smile said that will try my best.
I: Client is a highway developer and is looking to sell a toll asset but is unable to convert any poten al
deal. Help him with the case.
C: Reitera ng the problem statement. Asked about the client's market posi on and history.
I: Client is in the highway construc on business for 10 years and is one of the major players in the market. He is looking forward to sell a toll asset and is unable to sell it.
C: What all comes under a toll asset?
I: So, government gives a highway contract to a developer and the contractor gets a licence to collect
toll tax from the riders for a period of 10 years. When you sell you give that licence to the buyer? Assume it to be Delhi Chandigarh toll plaza near Zirakpur.
C: ok, so how long have you been trying to sell it?
I: 6 months
C: Ok, so is it that the deal is not ge ng any interested par es or par es are there but not buying.
I: The par es are interested but a er looking at the asset they don't want to buy.
C: Ok, let us look at both the revenue and the cost side for the buyer. It may be that the revenues are
unable to compensate for the costs incurred. Let's look at the cost side rst. The toll will have opera ng costs like salaries of operators at toll, cost of electricity supply, cost of maintenance of machines,
toll gates and the en re toll plaza area.
I: There will be another set of costs. What are they? Repair of highway is also taken care of by the toll
asset owners.
C: This will become a separate cost which can be calculated as = Total length of highway x Cost of repair per km x Frequency of repair
I: Okay, great we can assume that there is no problem on this side. Do you want to look into cash
84
ows?
C: Okay, Cash ows are of 3 types, cash ow from opera ng ac vi es, cash ow from nancing ac vies and cash ow from inves ng ac vi es with in ows and ou lows in each of them. Which one would
you want to look into rst?
I: So, cash ows from opera ng ac vi es is ne. Let's look into nancing ac vi es.
C: ok, so in in ows there, we will have any loans received, and ou lows we will have any outstanding
debt repayment in terms of interest or principal amount repayment.
I: So, what happens if there is outstanding debt at the me of buying the asset.
C: During the deal, the en re assets and liabili es will get transferred to the buyer. So, any outstanding
debt also gets transferred to the buyer.
I: Where will the ou lows for nancing ac vi es be funded from?
C: It will be from the opera ng ac vi es. So, if the opera ng ac vi es are unable to nance the loan
repayment, the buyer will not be interested in buying the toll asset.
I: Great! Have you heard of Net Present Value? What is it?
C: It is the sum total of all the monetary value that can be availed from an asset in its future years + its
salvage value.
I: Conceptually bang on. But how do we calculate it. What will it be in this case?
C: In this case it will be nega ve or zero. Therefore, the poten al buyers are not going with the deal.
I: Congratula ons! You have correctly solved the case.
Case Interview – 2: Market Entry
C: ok great. Let's do a na on level analysis (macro) and industry level (micro) analysis in terms
of the market.
I: Sure, let's look into the industry.
C: Started applying Porter's 5 forces? 1) Suppliers: Are there adequate suppliers in the for construc on
of telecom towers?
I: Yes, supply of raw materials is not a problem.
C: 2) Let's look at the customers. Telecom operators will be buying the services. How does the telecom
landscape look like currently?
I: It is a duopoly. There are 2 major players serving majority of the demand.
C: Do they need more towers? Do they have any expansion plans?
I: What do you think is the concern of players in a duopoly?
C: To expand the market.
I: But the market is fairly saturated. What would be there concern now?
C: To increase market share by trying to take over other's market share.
I: Market share is not a concern. Prevent entry of newer players. It is this simple.
C: I am sorry. I assumed the infrastructure cost of telecom towers is already high that would create
barriers to market entry.
I: Yes, correct. So, what would happen if we go ahead with this idea?
C: I get your point. Because of the availability of rental telecom towers, the barriers will no longer be
there. Hence the telecom operators will not be interested in buying the service.
Case Problem: Client is a serial entrepreneur. Has recently sold of a business and is
now looking forward to move into the Telecom Towers business. Help him.
C: What was the previous business that the entrepreneur was in? Which geography is he looking to
target?
I: He was in building construc on business. He is a Filipino na onal looking to enter in Philippines.
C: What is the telecom towers business. Can you tell a bit more about it?
I: He is planning to build telecom towers and rent it out on a monthly subscrip on basis.
85
Anoushka Banavar
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NIT Nagpur
Electrical Engineering
Deloi e Consul ng USI—10 months
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Quickly introduce yourself/ Tell me about yourself
Asked about my role and project
Few CV related ques ons around childhood & upbringing as well as Bharatanatyam. A er this discussed about the work done during an internship. Finally,
ques ons around past few months at IIM Lucknow and the consul ng prep journey
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Cost Reduc on – IT services rm
Case Problem: Your client is an IT services rm and they are incurring rising costs.
Iden fy the reasons and give recommenda ons for the same.
I: Since you have worked in IT consul ng, let’s do a case from there. Your client is an IT services rm
and they are incurring rising costs. Iden fy the reasons and give recommenda ons for the same.
C: Before I delve into the various possible costs associated with the industry, I understand that the labour cost is a key cost driver in the IT Industry. Hence, should I rst focus on this area?
I: Yes, I would want you to focus on reducing labour costs. We can look into other costs if the me permits.
C: (Asked for a minute and started drawing a cost structure)
I: Let’s have a discussion. Leave aside the pen & paper.
86
C: Okay, so I would rstly form an equa on for the total costs as the number of o ces*number of projects/o ce* number of employees/project* average cost/employee. I would then look into both these
areas. Firstly, to start with the number of o ces, I would divide this into onshore o ces and o shore
o ces. Should I look into either one in par cular?
I: Look into onshore o ces
C: (Was a bit surprised, as was expec ng an o shore answer!) Okay, so as I understand, there would be
less sta in the onshore o ce as the salary/employee would be higher there. So, benchmarking against
compe on, do we have more onshore employees and how do our salaries compare?
I: Yes, there is scope for reduc on of sta . Salaries are at par with compe
on.
C: Okay, so maybe we can then look at decreasing the number of sta in onshore o ces and possibly
replacing those numbers through our o shore opera ons?
I: Ok. What else?
C: Within India, I could look at shi ing to cheaper loca ons where standard of living is lower such as
Tier 2 ci es.
I: This has already been implemented.
C: Moving on to the number of projects, is the type of projects controllable or set by industry? Also,
slightly devia ng from track, but this can also help reduce client acquisi on rates?
I: More or less these are standard across the industry. But yes, we could look at op mizing the type of
projects we take up and the sales methodology.
C: If I were to now look at the number of employees/project, I would like to know the sta ng model
used at our client’s rm.
I: We have 4 levels of employees sta ed on each project. There is a sequen al ow of work from the
lowest level to the highest level.
C: And what would be the skill level required for employees at Level 1 to Level 4?
I: Technological skills are similar. Experience enhances managerial skills and hence they receive a higher pay.
C: Okay, so I could look to reduce the number of Level 4 employees/team as well as start automa ng
processes that are currently being done manually, such as some stages in tes ng.
I: What else?
C: I would also like to look into the e ciency and u liza on of members within a team as well as the
coordina on within teams.
I: How would you measure this?
C: I would look into the performance review system across projects as well as possibly conduct an
anonymous employee feedback survey or retrieve similar informa on from HR.
I: Anything else?
C: I could look into number of hours being reported by teams vs actual number of hours required to
complete assignments by teams through a weekly me tracker.
I: Not sure I quite understand this.
C: (Got into a discussion on this, revolved around work ex. Also spoke about methodology to op mize
number of people on the bench and a ri on rates. At this point there was a knock on the door)
I: Quickly list down all other employee costs that you can think of and then wrap up the case.
C: (Divided it into Salaries and Other perks. Within Salaries listed the xed component and variable
incen ves/bonuses etc. In perks, spoke about other facili es provided such as insurance, travel expense, food cards etc. Summarized with recommenda ons)
I: Thank you, Anoushka. We're done here.
Case Interview – 2: M&A – Food & Beverages
Case Problem: Your client is the na onal market leader in the tea beverage segment.
You are looking to acquire a player in the malt beverage drinks segment. Evaluate if
this is the correct decision for your client.
87
I: Your client is the na onal market leader in the tea beverage segment. You are looking to acquire a
player in the malt beverage drinks segment. Evaluate if this is the correct decision for your client.
C: Just to be er understand the problem statement at hand, I would like to clarify if a malt based beverage drink would be something along the lines of Bourn Vita?
I: Yes, the rm we are looking to acquire deals in similar powder-based drink mixtures. Could you name
a few other such drinks?
C: Milo, Horlicks, Pro enex, Complan.
I: Yes, I think we are on the same page now.
C: Is there any par cular objec ve that our client is looking at through this acquisi on? Also, do we
have any budget constraints and what is the me horizon that we are looking at?
I: Pro tability would be the main objec ve. No, there are no constraints on money. Looking to close
the acquisi on in the coming 1 year.
C: The company that we are looking to acquire, do they have any other revenue sources apart from
malt beverages? Also, what is the scale of their opera ons?
I: No, they are one of the market leaders in the malt beverage industry and have pan India opera ons
mostly focused in urban areas.
C: So, I would like to go about this in the following manner. Firstly, I will analyse the malt beverage industry to see if it is a lucra ve industry to enter at this stage. Secondly, I will look into how the company we are looking to acquire has been performing nancially over the past few years. Third, I would
look at synergies across both the companies. Lastly, I would like to value the company to come to a
decision.
I: Sounds fair.
C: (Asked for a minute to layout my structure.) I would like to look into the following aspects of the
malt beverage industry:
Compe on
Customers
Subs tute products that may replace tradi onal malt beverages
Complementary products (if any)
Any di cul es we may face as a brand entering into this industry
Is there any par cular area that you would want me to look into rst?
I: No, you can explore each one by one.
C: Sure. To start, I would like to know if the industry as a whole has been growing?
I: Yes, but it has been seeing a slowdown from the past year or so.
C: Looking into the rst parameter at hand, the compe on. You men oned that we are the market
leaders, but what share of the pie do we command vs our compe tors?
I: There are around 4 top players each holding approx. 20% of market share. A number of smaller players holds the rest 20%.
C: And has there been any sort of change in the market share of any player?
I: Yes, the top players have been seeing stagna ng or falling market shares while some of the smaller
players are picking up on market share.
C: (Made a mental note of this as it seemed to be an important point). At this stage I would like to do a
top-level compe ve analysis of the product, the pricing of each product, the marke ng and distribuon channels of the company we are looking to acquire. (went through each individually lis ng down
further factors in each)
I: (Got following informa on at a broad level) All top players operate similarly in terms of all the parameters you listed. The small players price their products cheaper, have less extensive distribu on
channels and sell more local avoured products.
C: Okay, now that I have a fair understanding of the compe on, I would like to look into the customer
segments that the company serves. I assume it would be majorly mothers and children. Or are we even
looking into maybe speci c target groups like women, the elderly etc who would need certain nutrient
based malt drinks?
I: Children in urban areas are the main target group. There is signi cant brand loyalty for the product
88
among mothers.
C: As I see there is a scope of expanding our current consumer base in regards to this parameter, as
well as can target our 'tea-drinking mothers' target group. Hence, we can move to being perceived as a
family brand. ( Gave some MM-1 brand posi oning alterna ves here!)
I: Good! We can look into these later.
C: Sure. Moving to any subs tute products that may serve as an indirect compe
tetra pack based milkshakes and avoured milk in bo les as well.
Ayush Mai
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Netaji Subhash Ins tute of Technology
Instrumenta on and Control Engineering
EY & IPAC - Consul ng (36 months)
on, we are looking at
I: Okay, I think we can now move into the synergies.
C: Moving on to synergies, I would like to split it into Financial and Opera onal Synergies.
I: Concentrate on Opera onal Synergies.
C: (Went through the en re value chain while iden fying how the company to be acquired and the
client’s rm operated di erently or similarly. Came to certain conclusions based on data given)
I: Good. Move on to the next step.
C: Okay. That would be the nancial analysis of the company. (Took a minute). I would look into following growth rates in the past 3-5 years as well as the forecasted trends for the next 3- 5 years while
benchmarking against compe on.
Sales (volumes) - (Concentra on in terms of geographies, income levels etc)
Pro ts
Certain key nancial ra os (named all the relevant FRA ra os I could remember!)
Plot a Risks vs Rewards for the company (looking into how the company has dealt with external
shakeups in the industry and economy)
Look for any liabili es in terms of bad loans taken etc.
I: Given that we don’t have further me to come to a more comprehensive conclusion, based on the
informa on at hand, can you quickly summarize the case and give your recommenda on to the client?
C: (Mentally heaved a sigh of relief that we didn’t get into valua on and gave my recommenda on of
acquisi on based on synergies iden ed)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
What impact have you created through your ini a ves in Student Council?
Why Bain?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market Entry Strategy for Medical Devices Company
Case Problem: I am a Chinese medical ar
Indian Market. Please help me out.
cial implants manufacturer and seller. I want to enter the
C: What is the objec ve to enter India? And why now?
I: Markets in China have stagnated. Hence, want to enter India to increase revenues
C: In how many years do we want to reach our target revenues?
I: In 4-5 years
C: When was the company established?
I: It is present from the past few years and is one of the established players in the exis ng market
C: What are the various products which are been o ered by the rm?
I: Knee Implant, Spinal Implant, Trauma related ar
cial limbs
89
C: I understand that hospitals and doctors mostly suggest these implants. Hence, our sales and marke ng as well as distribu on channel are supposed to be focussed around them. Please suggest whether my understanding is correct or not
I: Sure. Go ahead.
C: I would like to proceed with this es ma on based on demand of such product -
I: Yes, your understanding is correct
C: What is the compe
ve landscape in India in our segment?
I: There are 2 major brands with about 45% and 30% market share each. There are few other players in
the market capturing rest of the market
C: (A er taking a minute to assimilate the informa on)
My overall approach to solve the case will be: 1) De ne client’s objec ve of entering; 2) Then I will ascertain whether we should enter, for which rst, I will es mate the market size and determine how
much we can tap into. And benchmark it against the client’s expecta ons. Second, I would try to understand if I can enter by doing country and industry analysis; 3) If Answer to point 2 is yes, then I will
try to understand how should I enter? This will include analysis on mode of entry and launch strategy
4) Iden fy Risks
I: This seems to be a good approach. Let’s focus on market analysis rst.
C: In market analysis, I would like to rst start country analysis. On poli cal front, government is stable
and there is no speci c bias of the government towards our product or rm. On economic front, economy is on path of slowdown but medical industry usually remains untouched by business cycles, hence
it should not be a cause of concern. Also, considering overall rise in middle class, urbanisa on and
booming medical industry (including medical tourism), it seems to be a good opportunity. On regulatory front, medical devices might have some import restric ons, hence need to check that. Social – people don’t have any inhibi ons towards using any of the implants. However, people consider surgery
and such ar cial replacements as a measure of last resort.
(I felt that technology and environment were not important here, hence didn’t analyse.)
Overall, I don’t see any challenge in entering into Indian market. Now I would like to analyse the industry
I: (Stopped me here) This seems to be a fair analysis. Now let’s move on to the market sizing part. Consider any of the products and calculate the poten al market for it.
C: Okay, I will choose knee implants. I will rst discuss with you my approach and then get into the calcula ons
90
Factor
Numbers
considered
130 Cr.
Ra onale behind the numbers
(Out of this, there was one gure, which I calculated wrong. However, I was quick to realise that. I stated my mistake and rec ed it. They took it posi vely)
Fact
I: Numbers seem to be fair. Proceed ahead with the calcula ons.
Age
15%
Above 55 years
C: (130 cr.*0.15*0.8*0.25*0.5*0.15*1.5*(1+0.05))/20 = ~2.5 Lakhs (as per approximate calcula ons
done at that me)
People having knee issue
80%
In my residen al colony, 20 old
couples live (40 people). There are
only 6-8 people who don’t have
knee related issues.
Out of 40 people, I have witnessed
7-9 people in deep pain or struggling to make basic movements.
Not much ra onale. But considered equal likelihood. Also, stated
gender bias of going for such expensive procedure.
Hence, the market size will be 2.5 L * 2 L (price of knee implant) = 5,000 Cr.
Sub-factors
India’s Popula on
Target Popula on
A ordability
Number of implants
No. of knee implants per year
People having severe
knee issue
25%
People who need and
willing to go for knee
implant (considering bias
against surgeries and
50%
People who can a ord
knee implant (A knee
implant costs INR 2L+)
15%
No. of knees a ected
1.5
Replacement of knees
5% (Add on
overall
number)
Divide by average range
of ages of the target
group
20 years
Higher, Upper middle class and
middle class who are in formal employment (have employee given
insurance)
Average of 1 knee and 2 knees (in
the lack of exact data)
Life of ar cial knee is 10 years.
Person ge ng implant at 60. Average Indian die at 70. Also, these
procedures are expensive, hence
repeat surgery will be very less
quan ty
75 years-55 years = 20
C: As per my sense, this seems to be quite o as per my knowledge of market sizes. Can I please recheck my approach and calcula ons?
I: Yes, please do that. (Later on, a er my selec on, interviewer appreciated my business sense, accep ng my own mistake and revisi ng the calcula ons again. Hence, I recommend candidate to cross
check the nal number through either your prior knowledge or ballpark es ma on through any other
approach. If the number is quite o , try to revalidate the approach and the calcula ons)
C: I understand that this market is constraint on both the sides – demand & supply, and not just on the
demand side as considered by me earlier.
I: Correct. So, what addi onal factors will you consider?
C: As the treatment is highly specialised and only done in er-1 metropolitan ci es and that too in best
hospitals, hence access to such treatment is very restricted. Negligible people from rural areas will
travel to city to get this treatment. Even within the urban areas, mainly the er – 1 metro ci es (~10 in
number) will have the major market for the same. Hence, 15% for India’s urban popula on (30% in
actual) residing in er 1 ci es. Also, we can take 5% for people living in rural areas (70% in actual).
Hence, overall, I will consider at best 20% popula on ge ng access to such treatment.
Hence, our revised number will be 50,000 knee implants, which translates to INR 1k cr market size.
I: This seems to be fair number
C: Also, in medium term (2-3 years), we should be able to capture 10% market share on conserva ve
levels. Hence, we can expect sales of INR 100 Cr (5,000 units) in next couple of years. Does this meet
client’s expecta on?
I: Correct. Yes, 100 Cr fairly meets client’s expecta on
C: Market seems to be a rac ve. Also, the overall market doesn’t seem to have other challenges. Hence, I recommend that client should enter Indian market
91
I: Correct. We can close the case now. Do you have any ques ons to ask?
Case Interview – 2: Feasibility of establishing petrol sta ons
Case Problem: Let us consider Delhi Karnal highway. I want to start a petrol and diesel lling sta ons
on this highway at appropriate loca on. Is this a good idea?
C: Do we have any prior experience in this domain?
I: No
C: Then why we are entering into this domain?
I: I have some money to invest. In addi on, I can get a license from government easily
C: I understand that we will be o ering petrol, diesel as our core products. We will also be providing
maintenance related services. Addi onally, we might o er food and shopping related services.
I: Yes, your understanding is correct.
ons) on this route; 5) Bargaining power of supplier and buyer are not much relevant considering it
being a regulated sector with standardised products and services.
To summarise, rise of CNG and electricity-based vehicles is one of the major issues to be considered.
Government push for such vehicles is also signi cant.
I: Good analysis. As commercial vehicles are set to rise or remain steady, let’s size the market based on
it and see whether we can breakeven and also match the minimum revenue expecta on.
S: Sure. My approach would be following
(This guess mate was bit di cult because of many variables considering a transporta on problem,
which involves complex networks, hence I tried to stay bit away from numbers and engage as much as
possible on approach level discussions)
(Ini ally I took a demand side approach)
Buses on this route are few. Trucks capture major por on of commercial vehicles. Hence, we can take
certain percentage of upside over our calcula on of trucks.
C: What is the availability of other such lling sta ons on this highway?
I: There are many such lling sta ons.
C: (A er taking a minute to assimilate the informa on) My overall approach to solve the case will be as
follows: 1) De ne client’s objec ve of entering; 2) Whether should I enter will depend on my analysis
of the dynamics of the market/ industry, as well as the Market Size and whether there is scope for 1
more petrol lling sta ons to enter. Lastly, will check if the client’s expecta ons match with the same?
I: This seems to be a good approach. Let’s focus on market analysis rst.
C: In market analysis, I would like to consider 1) Subs tutes: In case of private vehicles, there can be a
possible shi towards CNG and electric vehicles over the next decade. However, in case of commercial
vehicles there shall be increase in tra c over the years considering rising industrialisa on.; 2) Complements – Usage of private vehicles might reduce if the share of public transport increases, which depends upon government policies; 3) Barrier to entry – as we can get licenses without much hassle, I do
not see much of an issue; 4) Compe on – There are other lling sta ons in this route. However, we
need to es mate that whether there is scope for addi onal capacity increase (new petrol lling sta92
Factor
Number of industries
Truck requirement
E ec ve truck usage
Price di eren al
Fuel requirement
Sub-factors
Remarks
Distance
(We had a very intense discussion on the approach of guess mate. Eventually, interviewer realised that
it’s a complex transporta on related problem. Hence, he gave a simpli ed formula and data, and told
me to calculate. He wanted to check my understanding of those numbers and my calcula on)
Industry density
Average truck requirement in 1 factory
Source & des na on of Trucks –
I: (A er making the calcula on) What can be other ways to do the same market sizing?
Within regions on the highway
Outside regions on the highway
Adjoining states
Far states
Average distance covered on this road
1.
Calculate number of lanes present in the highway. Consider 2/6 lanes e ec vely used by commercial vehicles. Consider frequency of trucks. Accordingly, calculate the trucks entering and
leaving the highway.
2.
If I would have been in Bain, then I would have considered the toll data available to analyse the
number of trucks entering and leaving the highway.
Truck covering full journey
Truck star ng from Delhi/ Karnal but
leaving highway in between
Truck entering highway in between but
reaching Karnal/ Delhi
Truck entering and leaving highway in
between
Price of diesel in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, UP
and Rajasthan.
3.
Consider the data of inter-state taxes collected/ GST e-way bills transacted at the nearby state
borders.
4.
Number of lling sta ons already present on that highway and frequency of re-fuelling of commercial vehicles on those lling sta ons.
Fuel Tank capacity
Mileage of trucks
Twice the distance between Delhi and Karnal
C: We can analyse the same problem from supply side
I: That’s impressive. Five di erent approaches to solve the same problem.
Considering the fact that
trucks might me refuelling in such a manner
to take bene t of lower
fuel prices in certain
states.
C: Thank you sir
I: Now let’s consider we nd upon analysis that we have su cient demand to open a lling sta on and
we decide to open one. Which loca on should we consider for opening it? What factors will you look
into?
C: Please give me a minute to think on this.
(A er 40-50 seconds) I will consider 1) Distance between adjoining lling sta ons; 2) Centrality of lling
sta on (As fuel is cheap in Delhi, hence fuel sta on near to Delhi border will receive less demand); 3)
Industrial density in adjoining areas; 4) Presence of small towns and big villages in vicinity, so that regular residents can also come and fuel their vehicles; 5) No. of commercial and private vehicles ge ng
lled at adjoining fuel sta ons (A good proxy to determine how the tra c is owing)
I: Good. Now can you tell me that once you start the fuelling sta on, how will you ensure more ow of
tra c to your fuelling sta on?
93
C: As of now, as we have mainly done our analysis for commercial vehicles, hence I would restrict my
recommenda ons to that for now. We can later analyse the private vehicles.
I: Sure. Go ahead.
C: As the price is xed in this industry, we will have to make our product di eren ated. However, fuel
we supply is standard across petrol pump. Hence, we will have to di eren ate ourselves by providing
addi onal services.
I: Seems like the right approach. Go ahead.
C: To iden fy addi onal service, I will triangulate the ideas using two approaches. First, I would like to
analyse customer journey and iden fy various need gaps. Second, we will match it common facili es
present in a fuelling sta on.
Customer journey of a truck driver –
Truck driver gets ready for long/ short distance trip ->Starts and travels in his truck -> Pass through tolls
and state borders where documenta on and veri ca on are required (Wai ng me is prevalent in this
case) -> Get trucks refuelled -> Reach des na on -> Take rest for the day and stay at that place
One of the key themes, which I can observe across the customer journey is driver’s wait me and
place. Hence, I suggest following measures –
Nipun Agrawal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NIT Warangal
Mechanical Engineering
Fresher (0 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
How is your day
Some hobbies of mine
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market Entry - Online food delivery
Free/low cost res ng/ wai ng area with TV
Case Problem: Market Entry- Indonesian player wants to enter online food delivery in
India
Drinking Water facility
I: Let’s do a case. I am an Indonesian food delivery service. I want to enter Indian market.
Food & Beverage facility
C: (Understood about the company, its USP, capital constraints and preferences. Applied PESTLE and
PORTER for market and industry a rac veness (disguised it using a 2 by 2 matrix))
Maintenance & repair services
Pan and cigare e shops
Pollu on check facility
In addi on, we can e-up with some of the industries and fuel their vehicles, and charge the rm directly.
I: Sounds good. Please tell that to mi gate the risk of electric vehicles in private vehicle segment, what
can we do?
I: Let's es mate the market
C: (Done a guess mate using basic lters and ordering frequency and average order size to nd total
revenue.)
I: Let's do cost analysis in unit economics
C: For unit cost, we will consider fuel cost and labour cost
I: Ignore fuel cost
94
C: Can you please tell me about the salary. Total number of delivery persons can be found using the
demand calculated in the guess mate divided by the total number of orders per driver per day (using
peak and non-peak hours)
Pranjal Bangani
I: Tell me which metrics can be changed so that it becomes a pro table venture.
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
C: 1) Increase number of orders per person by op mising delivery routes to reduce number of delivery
man
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
(Found the company to be in loss.)
2) In non-peak hours, use delivery man for other things, like logis cs delivery.
I: That'll be all
Case Interview – 2: Market Entry – Medical Devices
Case Problem: Market entry- Chinese medical devices manufacturer wishes to enter
India
This interview was very conversa on based and mostly HR. Tried to include how I really liked the culture at Bain and how suppor ve they have been throughout the process.
There was a small market entry case in the end for about 6-7 mins which also turned mostly into a conversa on.
I: Let’s do a small case. A Chinese medical device manufacturer wants to enter India.
C: Understood about the company, their reasons for entering (unu lised capacity), product por olio
and compe ve landscape for the same. Turned into a conversa on about how the medical industry is.
Performed analysis on the major factors which would indicate market a rac veness. Emphasised more
on the PORTER to understand the industry as well.
IIT Bhubaneshwar
Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
Fresher (0 months)
Tell me something about yourself.
Why consul ng?
What shortlists do you have?
Why Bain at 9 AM?
CV Ques ons
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Margins are lower than the industry standard
Case Problem: Your client is an IT service provider. They have discovered that their
margins are slightly lesser than the industry standards. Help them get to the root
cause.
I: Let’s do a case. Your client is an IT service provider. They have discovered that their margins are
slightly lesser than the industry standards. Help them get to the root cause.
C: *Clari ed the ques on* and asked preliminary ques ons about the company.
I: You may use TCS as a proxy. Well-established rm with interna onal presence.
C: Quantum of the margins for us and our compe tors.
I: We’re opera ng at 13%. Our compe tors are opera ng at 18%.
95
C: Our primary revenue streams – fee for building projects from scratch and fee from maintenance fee
(debugging and upgrading and stu ). Right?
I: Yes. Margin problem persists across both streams.
C: I look at margins as selling price minus our cost. Where do you think we‘re underperforming when
benchmarked against our compe tors?
Deploy more teams and spread your top-level people across, hire more at the bo om – ensure
pyramid structure. This depends on whether you can get enough projects to keep them all busy.
Fire top-level sta whom you don’t need, if ring isn’t a taboo at your rm.
I: Good. Top 2 parameters will I decide whom to re and whom to keep?
C: Past performance, Skill/knowledge relevance in today’s world
I: I want you to explore costs.
I: Alright. Thank you. Any ques ons?
C: *Drew value chain* I think these are the di erent stages of developing a solu on. We could be performing under par in terms of costs in one or more of these ver cals.
C: *Basic ques ons*
Value Chain: Sales Pitch -> Problem evalua on -> Solu on Design -> Solu on Build -> Tes ng -> Deployment -> Debugging/Server Maintenance -> Value addi on/Upgrada on
I: The value chain is ne, but it is a ver cal segmenta on of the organisa on – basically di erent divisions and teams. I want a horizontal segmenta on. What are my biggest cost drivers across all teams in
the organisa on?
C: As an IT service provider, I guess your biggest costs are payroll and infrastructure. Are you looking
for anything speci c?
I: Payroll. I’m paying more to my employees than Infosys is. What factors determine the size of my payroll for one par cular team of say n people?
C: Feedback
I: Good PS, VC; Li le nervous to begin with; Avoid using world like “I guess” and informal llers like “x,
y and stu ”- but that will come to you with me
C: Shall work on it. Thank you!
Case Interview – 2: Sales Strategy – Real Estate
Case Problem: Your client is a high-end real estate developer in Gurgaon. They have
recently completed an apartment project and want you to come up with a sales strategy to sell all the 100 ats within one year.
C: I can think of 3 factors – composi on of the team, size of the team, average wage per employee for
each posi on as benchmarked against the industry standards. Apart from these, there are bonuses and
variable incen ves.
C: (Asked basic ques ons about the developer – credibility, established or not, ques ons about the
project/ apartments.
I: Good. Infosys and I have the same team size of say 10 people each. We pay more or less equal money at the similar levels of seniority. Equal bonuses and stu as well. My payroll is s ll bigger. Can you
gure out why?
I: All apartments are similar. 8500 sq. . each. Cost is Rs. 23,000 per sq. . All ameni es are present. It
is in prime loca on in Gurgaon. All facili es - commercial loca ons, malls, schools, hospitals are in close
proximity. Apartments are ready for possession.
C: Maybe our teams do not follow a pyramid structure and could be a li le top heavy.
C: So, the cost of the apartment is 20 Cr. Adding 25% for other costs like registra on, membership, etc.
The nal payment cost would come up to around 25 Cr. Is that ok?
I: Yes, that is the reason. Good. What do I do about it?
C: You could do either of the two things –
I: Good. Yes.
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C: So, we are obviously targe ng HNIs, right?
I: Absolutely. Gurgaon is growing fast in terms of the number of people with well-paying jobs. We wish
to target them. There is a good demand for what we're o ering.
C: Fine. So, we're solving a par cular need, so that is obviously not a bo leneck. Any other similar project in the vicinity?
I: None. We are one of a kind.
C: Alright. Is it safe to assume that awareness about our project is an issue? There is demand but people are not aware of our project. If it is the case, then we want to make people aware of our project
and then convince them to make the purchase.
I: Yes. That is what I want you to work on.
C: Alright. We get our mileage when the buyer makes a decision to purchase from us. They could be led
to this purchase decision via 2 ways - promo ons from our end or recommenda ons from a third party.
I: Good. Explore both.
C: I will start with the Recommenda ons head. I can think of 4 par es who could play the role of an
in uencer here. Wealth advisors, banks, real estate agents and word of mouth/tes monials.
I: Fair enough. Tell me what your pitch to each of these would be.
C: Wealth Advisors- I know they advise HNIs on developing a por olio consis ng of both risky and nonrisky assets, which have their individual rate of returns. I would evaluate where my property stands
and what the rate of apprecia on could be and make a pitch accordingly.
Banks and other nancing rmsWhen such a high amount is involved, even HNIs do tend to go to banks for nancing due to security
reasons even if they have the money to make an outright purchase. We can develop a rela onship with
banks where they can put forward our project details whenever someone come to seek a high-value
home loan from them. There is a considera on here that someone seeks a loan only a er deciding
upon booking a property. Ge ng them to change their decision might be hard.
Real Estate Agents- They have a lot of in uence on what proper es people see and purchase. Incen vizing them to push our project to his/her customers could work well for us.
Tes monialsFrom in uen al people, people within their social circles. Campaign for this.
I: Sounds good. Proceed to the other head.
C: Here I am dividing my ideas as to whether I am in uencing the HNI himself or in uence his/her family.
The HNI can be in uenced by promo ons at various touchpoints in their lives. We need to iden fy
characteris c habits and ac vi es that are par cular to them and make sure we get visibility there.
I: Fair enough. What ideas do you propose for the same?
C: I am trying to go through the daily journey of the HNI to gather various touchpoints. I'd like to segment their daily rou ne into the following parts- personal me, travel, work, leisure, rest. We cannot
make promo onal headway into personal and rest me.
In travel me – I am thinking short dura on rides like going from home to o ce. Here, the HNI can
either take a chau eured cab or have his own top-notch vehicle like an Audi, BMW or something. In
both cases, we can enhance our visibility. We can have some sort of posters in cabs. We can also approach high-end car dealers and their exclusive maintenance centres as these touchpoints are frequented by HNIs only.
During travel for longer term, it is likely that the HNI stays or eats at 5-star hotels. We can have targeted promo on there as well.
In leisure me, they may seek to head to clubs where they can play sports or their choice with likeminded company. They head to such clubs because either they do not have the facility in their own
residences or they are seeking company. In either case, our value proposi on of providing facili es and
company of 100 fellow residents comes into play. Hence, we can target this crowd.
I: How would you target them?
C: I would hold a spor ng event; say a tennis tournament at our apartment facility for them. I see a lot
of scope for posi ve response if done right
97
Rohit Chhabra
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
SRCC, Delhi University | ICAI
B. Com. | Chartered Accountancy
Deloi e Haskins & Sells (27 months) – Audit; Oyo
Rooms (16 months) – Corporate Finance
C: Sure. (Clari ed the scope again and started with the structure). For valua on, I will ini ally need to
look at certain parameters like opera onal geography of the en ty, market size, and market share of
the en ty. I will then look at the en ty-speci c parameters and compare it with the compe tors.
I: How will factors like geography and market size be relevant?
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
C: It will indicate the prospec ve market for the product. For instance, it will nd a ready market in
developed economies like USA/UK/Europe, which would nd use cases in security and can thus have a
government as a customer. Unlike India, which will probably need some years to mature before using
this technology in a big way.
Tell me something about yourself (brie y walk through the resume)
Work ex related ques on – about the rm’s performance, business model etc.
I: Makes sense. The en ty is opera ng in USA. This is a growing segment and all the compe tors have
more or less equal market share.
C: Sure. And what are the pro ts for the en ty?
Case Transcripts
I: The en ty has reported a loss of $ 10 Mn. last year
Case Interview – 1: Investment Strategy & Valua on – AI enabled CCTV monitoring
industry
C: So, we cannot use tradi onal models of valua on like EV/EBITA or PE. We need to look at how compe tors are being valued.
Case Problem: Your client is a Venture Capital Firm. They want to invest in AI enabled
CCTV monitoring industry. Help them iden fy the right rm and valua on of the company.
I: I am an Indian conglomerate and want to invest, as a VC, about $ 20 Mn. in a start-up for a brief period (2-3 years). We are looking at an investment of above 10% in the share capital of the target company to get us a seat in the board, but not more than 20-25% since we do not want to get involved in opera ons and management. We have been looking into many op ons and have zeroed in on the AI enabled CCTV monitoring industry. The use case of this industry is that it not only monitors situa ons but
also gives insights on the ac vi es. e.g., it can issue alerts when it sees a congrega on of people in larger than normal numbers, or if someone has taken out a gun from his pocket. There are 6 start-ups currently in this segment, and we have zeroed in on one which is looking for Series A funding. To explain,
Series A funding comes a er seed funding has been raised, the company has demonstrated proof of
concept and is now ready to scale. Can you help with the valua on of this company?
I: Can you elaborate on why this would not work?
C: Since EBITDA is nega ve, EV/EBITDA cannot be used. Also, since the industry is new, there will not
be enough data around MP to be able to use PE.
I: Yes. So, we can use revenue as a base for valua on here.
C: Exactly.
I: Here are some numbers related to the revenue valua on mul ples of peers within the same industry. Co 1 (took some name) has raised seed funding at a revenue mul ple of 4. Co 2 has raised series B
at a mul ple of 10. Co 3 has raised angel round at a mul ple of 8.
C: So we can consider a mul ple between 8 and 10 (say 9)
I: You would also need revenue numbers. Here are the revenue numbers of the rm for the past years:
Year -2 - $ 0.2 Mn.
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Year -1 - $ 0.4 Mn.
Case Interview – 2: Cost Reduc on – Steel Pipe Manufacturer
Year 0 - $ 1 Mn.
Year 1 - $ 6 Mn. (es mated)
Case Problem: Your client is a steel pipe manufacturer. We need to reduce the costs
by around ~150 cr.
Now you have all the numbers. What would you es mate as the value?
C: (Reiterated and clari ed the scope of the problem.) What is the nature of the pipes that we make?
C: Considering an average of 8 and 10…
I: Good. That is the most important ques on. We import steel sheets and then bend, roll and weld
them in our plant to make tubes/pipes. These are further used to transport oil and gas by the consumers.
I: Yes, you can take 9 as a mul ple
C: Sure. So, we can es mate the value to be $ 54 Mn. This is also within our budget of around $ 20 Mn.
considering a less than 25% stake.
C: Sure. Which means that we cannot really compromise on quality of the product.
I: Will you call this overvalued or undervalued?
I: Yes
C: (was slightly confused) The mul ple was an average of the recent round of funding by compe tors,
so I am somewhat comfortable with the mul ple.
C: I would like to know a li le more about the company before diving deep into cost elements. How old
is the company, how many manufacturing facili es does it have, how is it placed in the compe on,
what is the level of automa on?
I: Yes, that is ne. But the second element, can you look at the revenue number?
C: (Understood I am being guided to revenue growth projec ons) Yes, the revenue growth seems ambi ous, considering there was 100% growth 2 years back, slightly more than 100% last year and 600%
es mated for the next year. So, we would need to be careful that the revenue growth is actually
achievable or not.
I: Exactly. Will you be comfortable with an es mated revenue growth of 6 mes, considering it has not
shown this kind of growth yet?
C: I will look at how the growth is being projected. E.g., if they had been concentrated on a par cular
geography, and are now looking to expand into many new markets with this poten al size, it may be
possible. (Linked it to my previous employment, which was a start-up and had expanded rapidly on
account of entering new countries). However, if they claim they are going to achieve this growth in the
same geography, it would seem impossible. So, we need to carefully examine how are they planning to
achieve this growth.
I: Great. That would be all.
I: (Answered all of them, but most details were not relevant to the case.) Company was 20 years old,
had one manufacturing facility, was a market leader in the compe on in terms of market share as
well as cost structure (so it was not about matching compe on but real innova on).
C: (Made the cost structure as per the pro tability framework. Opera onal-Value chain; NonOpera onal Costs). I’ll look at it in terms of opera onal and non-opera onal cost (clari ed this included nance cost, taxes, etc.). In opera onal cost, I would look at it in terms of materials, labour, conversion (machines), packing and quality control, distribu on, sales and marke ng.
I: What is labour cost?
C: Salaries and wages paid to labour involved in the manufacturing process.
I: But that is covered in the conversion costs itself. I don’t think that is a valid sub-head.
C: (Was probably being tested for being an open listener) Sure. I hope I have covered everything? Am I
missing out on anything important?
I: No, I think you have covered all elements.
99
C: Do you want me to focus on a par cular element?
C: Since we are already ordering 1 per year, I would like to start o by increasing the order size to 2.
I: Yes, focus on materials cost for now.
I: And what would the order size be?
C: Sure. What percentage of the total costs is material?
C: Depends on the lead me and consump on levels.
I: Say 60%.
I: Okay. So, can we go ahead with 80-20 ra o, ordering 80% of the requirements in the rst order?
C: I believe that material cost can be broken down into per unit price and quan ty.
C: Yes, that would make sense. This would lead to some safety margin and reduce stock out costs
I: Okay, how would you measure price per unit?
I: Okay. So, we did this and observed that material u lisa on ra o went up from 85% to 90%.
C: In per unit price, I think it should be cost per roll. I would look into dollar cost per unit, terms of purchase (FOB or CIF), order size and order quan ty.
C: This means we have been able to cut down on wastage.
I: So, there is no scope of reduc on in cost per unit or FOB/CIF terms of purchase.
I: Yes. Can you tell me what can be the reason behind this?
C: So, it means we can focus on order size and ordering costs?
C: Well, it should not be damage to the material itself, since steel of this quality is usually not perishable. I would assume availability of the material for the en re year glosses over avoidable losses.
I: Yes, focus on that for now.
I: Sounds right. If I say I want to increase the order size further, what would be your recommenda on?
C: How are we ordering right now? Are we following EOQ?
C: We can probably pilot with 3 orders, but would need to be careful, since costs due to nonavailability of material would be higher than any further poten al savings.
I: Currently, we are ordering requirements for the en re year in one shipment.
C: But does that lead to excess freight costs or storage costs?
I: No. Our warehouse has unused capacity.
C: I would like to explore the possibility of reducing order size and increasing number of orders as per
Economic Order Quan ty (EOQ) Model.
I: How many orders? We cannot have an in nite number of orders.
C: What is the lead me from ordering to receipt of goods?
I: It takes a reasonable amount of me.
I: You might also want to look at the u lisa on of material. If I were to ask you how many orders
should I place, 1 or 2 or 3, what would your response be?
I: Okay. So, what is the amount we have saved?
C: I would need some data for that.
I: You have all the data needed.
C: Let me try to look it over (Long pause. Seemed a trick ques on, since total costs or sales was not
given)
I: Okay, so total costs were Rs. 1000 cr.
C: So, we have saved around Rs. 120 cr.
I: Great. I think we can stop here.
(By this me, the case had moved from my sheet to his sheet. He was wri ng this as he asked)
100
Samridhi Singhania
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
B.Com.
0 months (Fresher)
I: Let's rst look into the primary costs.
C: I drew the en re value chain - raw material, logis cs, process, sales and marke ng, a er sales service and asked if there was a par cular area where he wanted me to focus on.
I: Let's begin with the raw material rst as raw material and logis cs comprises of 65% of the overall
cost.
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
Case Transcripts
C: (I then classi ed the raw material in terms of price, quality and volume, and asked ques ons in these
three buckets)
Can you please tell me about the suppliers? From where do they source raw materials?
Case Interview – 1: Cost Reduc on – Steel rod manufacturer
Case Problem: My client is a steel rod manufacturer and my cost is higher than the
industry standard. Help me!
I started with clarifying the objec ve and then asked basic ques ons following the CPCCP approach.
Also, I asked about the working process of the business.
Interviewer told that the company is very old. It buys steel plates, then makes steel rods out of it and
sells it through B2B modes. The company has been facing this problem since past 9 months. Overall
cost gure is 6000 Cr. and the cost is higher by 2.5 percent.
C: Okay! Now that I have a fair idea about the company, I would like to classify costs into opera onal
and non-opera onal. I would further like to classify opera onal cost into primary and secondary costs
(explained what I meant by these terms). Should I explore each of the costs or focus on a par cular
area?
I: They buy it from the overseas market.
C: Can we change the suppliers to reduce the cost?
I: No
C: Is the client ordering enough quan ty in a go or not (and thereby not being able to avail bulk discounts)?
I: The company does not operate at 100 percent e ciency. So, if a project requires 100 units of material and we are opera ng at an average e ciency of 95 percent, then we place an order for the en re
105 kg (told to assume this gure to be correct) of product in one go. And the problem lies in this statement only.
C: Is it related to the holding cost?
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I: No
Case Problem: My client is an electric cable manufacturer and my cost is higher than
the industry standard. Help me!
C: Is it something related to the average e ciency? As the e ciency of each of the projects might not
be the same. Some might have a higher e ciency than the others.
Upon asking preliminary clari ca on ques ons, got some ini al data - The company was old, involved
in B2B business cost increased since past 6 months compe tors were not facing the issue.
I: Yes. The e ciency of the company is around 98 percent but the company is buying more than required. What can you suggest to solve the problem?
C: (Started as the previous one and drew the cost structure.)
C: Company should not order the en re quan ty in one go and rather analyse the e ciency and accordingly place the order.
Is there any par cular area should I look at?
I: You may start with raw material.
I: In that case, if given 5 op ons that a company can place order once, twice, thrice, four or ve mes,
then which one do you think is the best and why.
C: Second op on is the best as once we get to know about the e ciency of processing a par cular raw
material, then the next order should bring the remaining quan ty of raw material to avoid higher
transporta on costs (to be incurred if number of orders are increased).
C: Can you please tell me about the quality of the raw material?
I: They use very high-quality materials.
C: Can we compromise a bit on the quality?
I: Okay, Samridhi! One last ques on - how much do you think the company can save by adop ng this
method?
I: No. Manufacturing of electric cable requires certain regulatory requirements to be ful lled. The safety standard to be maintained is very high.
C: (Did the calcula on and the gure was around 1 percent.)
C: Can you tell me bit more about the norms?
I: So, this is what Bain does. One team would be looking at raw material some other team would be
looking at other cost area and in total we would reduce the cost by 2.5 percent.
Case Interview – 2: Cost Reduc on – Electric Cable Manufacturer
I: Electric cable requires an insula on. Say a wire may require 10cm of insula on as per safety standard
and our company is using 11 cm of insula on
C: In that case, we can reduce it. Since 10 is the minimum requirement, we can keep it at 10.2 or 10.3
to avoid any problems.
102
I: Sounds Good.
Sandeep Yakkala
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Madras
Civil Engineering (Dual Degree)
Urban Ladder (35 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
Work ex related ques on
C: First, I will calculate it for 1 restaurant and then extrapolate. Firstly, one need to consider that a cutlery has a average usage dura on of about 2 hours in any restaurant. Next, we need to consider the
replacement rate of cutlery (as it gets replaced due to damage or when colors get changed). Also, I
considered the number of restaurants (5, 4 and 3 star), for which interviewer provided numbers.
I: Sounds Good. What’s next?
C: Next, I will consider business places. Factors I will consider are number of people working, provision
of mess/ canteen facility and replacement rate.
(I calculated the numbers quickly)
For Others, I will just consider 20% extra.
I: Seems right. That would be it.
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess-es ma on
Case Problem: Es mate the number of plates required in Lucknow
C: Ini ally I started with clarifying/ scoping ques ons - type of plates, residen al/commercial etc.
C: I would like to divide into broadly two categories – residen al and commercial.
For residen al, I will consider popula on, household size, usage per day (daily and occasional), Purchase/ replacement frequency etc. Please let me know if I am missing anything.
I: It’s good. Proceed ahead.
C: Now I will consider commercial category, which consists of broadly 3 sub-categories - restaurants,
business place and others.
Case Interview – 2: Process e ciency - Manufacturing
Case Problem: Our client has a manufacturing plant, which involves digital imagery
prin ng technology. Their output has declined. There are some issues with the manufacturing plant. Help me out with nding the issue.
C: (It took me 5 min to understand the ques on). Can you please tell me bit more about the technology?
I: It is a technology related to prin ng on an aluminium sheet.
C: (Asked clarifying ques ons) How does the manufacturing work, loca on, process, product,
variants, ordering mechanism (make to order) etc.?
I: (Answered)
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C: I would like to broadly consider 5 factors – Man, Material, Machine, Method, and Money (I used the
5 M framework). Do you want me to focus on any par cular bucket or should I explore all one by one?
I: Let’s explore each one of them.
C: First, I would explore issues related to the manpower. Is there any recent wage related issues or
disrup ons due to union strikes?
I: No. We can explore next bucket.
C: Second, I would like to consider machine related factors –
Breakdown and maintenance me
U lisa on
E ciency
Changeover me
I: Let’s focus on changeover me.
C: What are the various variants of our product?
I: There are 6 steps involved in the process. (Explained them)
C: Can you please tell me about the produc on me at each step in the process and how do we compare to industry standard?
(Interview provided the data. I gured out the bo leneck process).
So, we have another issue here – the process step which is crea ng bo leneck. Do you want to me
move further and explore other issues?
I: No. That would be it. Can you please give me some recommenda ons?
C: Few of the recommenda ons are Automate the process
Deploy addi onal manpower
E cient produc on planning
Adding
I:
That
is
great.
In
fact,
we
more
have
few
of
machines
the
recommenda ons
to
the
client.
I: Our product has mul ple variants in terms of colour.
Case Interview – 3: Cost Reduc on – Steel Pipe Manufacturer
C: How do the produc on planning is done to account for various products? Is there any problem related to that?
Case Problem: Your client is a steel pipe manufacturer. We need to reduce the costs
by around 150 cr.
I: One of our machines involves changing of bo les for di erent colours, which involves lot of changeover me. Produc on planning is not e cient.
C: (Asked ini al clari ca on ques ons). I will take a few moments to organise and try to make a structure.
C: Changeover me in one of the machines is one of the issues. Should I further explore other factors
to iden fy other issues?
I: Sure
I: Yes, please. Go ahead.
C: Next, I would like to explore about the process (method). Can you please tell me the process ow
involved in manufacturing?
C: (Made the cost structure as per value chain). I will look at it one by one. First, I would like to consider Raw Material –
Price
Quality
Contractual issues
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I: There are no issues related to the above factors. You may move to the next bucket –
C: Next, I would like to consider transporta on –
Transporta on cost –
Distance (Interviewer told that we source from SE Asia and material is transported through
ships)
Frequency
Per trip cost
Waste/ Pilferage
I: There is an issue with frequency of the trip. Our frequency of ordering is high since we are a projectbased company; hence order as per the requirements of individual projects.
Also, our projects do not operate at 100 percent e ciency. So, our orders are dynamic and per project
basis, which is determined using 100/e ciency.
C: Got it. In that case, we should break down ordering into two.
I: Are you sure? Or should we break down into 3, 4 or 5 orders?
C: In that case, we might lose out on volume bene ts. Hence, we should break into 2 orders.
I: Should we order it in two halves or unequal volumes?
C: I think we should split it into halves.
I: No. Ideally, we should buy more in the rst order and less in second order as per our demand forecas ng.
Sanket Mandal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Kharagpur
Mechanical Engineering (Dual Degree)
Flipkart (12 months) – Finance
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
Work ex related ques on
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Pro tability – Beer manufacturing company
Case Problem: Your Client is the CEO of a Beer manufacturing company. He has asked
you to help him improve the EBITDA margins for the rm.
Scoping Ques ons:
C: Just out of curiosity sir, since the client wants to improve the EBITDA margins, is there an issue with
the current EBITDA margins?
I: No, there is no issue as such but the client wants to improve it further. So, our current EBITDA margins are 25% and we are doing great as far as industry standards go but we would like to see if that
could be further improved.
C: What exactly does the company do and where do we lie in the value chain? How long have we been
in the business? Where do we operate in terms of both supply and demand?
I: So, we manufacture beer and distribute it to the distributors, who then supplies it to the retailers.
We have been in this business for the past 100 years. We operate PAN India with respect to demand
and have one manufacturing unit.
105
C: What exactly is the product?
I: Could you elaborate on what all would be coming in these buckets you just men oned.
I: It is a simple beer.
C: Sure. So, in Direct Material we would be having all the raw materials required to make the bear plus
the material used for packaging it since we are not only manufacturing it but also distribu ng it.
C: What are the scenarios for compe
on? How are their EBITDA margins?
I: There are 2 other major players but they have lower EBITDA margins than us. Let’s focus only on our
client as it is more of an internal issue.
C: What is the segmenta on of our customers? Age and Income, I suppose would be a major demographic segmenta on
I: That’s correct.
C: I would now like to take a minute to gather my thoughts.
I: Sure, go ahead.
C: Since we want to improve our EBITDA margins, I would like to approach it from 2 perspec ves. One
way is we could either increase the sales or we could decrease the COGS and opera ng expense since
EBITDA is nothing but Sales-COGS-Opera ng Expense. Do you want me to focus on any par cular bucket rst?
I: We can’t improve sales in the short me frame (I forgot to ask the expected turnaround me by our
client in the scoping ques on but clari ed it at this stage) so let’s focus on the other 2 (COGS and opera ng expense). What metric would you need to priori ze your next step?
C: (Took a pause) The metric that would help me in deciding my next step would be the % of COGS or
Opera ng expense as % of sales.
I: That’s correct. So, COGS comprise of 50% of sales and opera ng expense comprises of 25% of sales
I: What do you think would come in packaging materials?
C: The bo les that we are selling our product, the labelling on the bo le and the large containers like
cartons if any to ship the products out to distributors.
I: That’s excellent. We will come back to Direct Labor and Indirect Labor later let’s focus on Direct Material rst.
C: So, do we have any idea on the break-up of Direct Material in the 50% contribu on of COGS?
I: Yes, the direct material contributes to 35% to the net sales. Let’s say Rs 100 is the sales, then Rs 50 is
the COGS and Rs 35 is direct material in that
C: And what is the breakup of Raw material and the packaging
I: Raw Material is Rs 10 and the rest is packaging.
C: That’s interes ng. Why do we have such a huge contribu on going to packaging?
I: Good Ques on. It is because we have two sources of ge ng the glasses for packaging. 50% is
through bidding and the other half is through direct purchase without bidding. For Bidding, we pay Rs
28 per Rs 100 of COGS and for direct purchase, we pay Rs 22 per Rs 100 COGS.
C: So, our cost is higher when we go for bidding because of compe
ons.
I: That’s correct.
I: Sounds good. What do you think will come in COGS?
C: Ok, so since we have established that packaging cost are higher and the Rs 25 of the packaging
comes from the average of the two modes of procurement of glasses. We could de nitely work on that
but before that I would like to see if we could further see the major cost drivers for this business and
see if they could be brought down as well to improve our EBITDA margins.
C: Ok, so COGS is nothing but Direct Material, Direct Labor and Indirect Labor. Do you want me to focus
on any of these rst?
I: I think that’s enough. Could you summarize the case and suggest recommenda ons with respect to
what we have established so far?
C: That’s interes ng. So, COGS is the major factor decreasing the EBITDA margins. I would like to start
with COGS and then move on to the opera ng expense if that’s ne with you.
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C: Sure. I would like to take a minute to gather my thoughts and get back to you with recommendaons. So, our client wants to improve the EBITDA margins and the major cost driver for them was the
packaging because of the fact that they had to pay higher amount for procuring the packaging material
through bidding process. I would like to provide a short term and a long-term recommenda on for the
same. The short-term recommenda on would be to nego ate with the current supplier for bringing
the price down by playing the economy of scale card and my long-term recommenda on would be
divided into internal and external factor. Internally, we could develop a full- me company that provides the raw material only for us and include them in our por olio and externally to remove the compe on we could acquire some players to force the exis ng supplier to charge less from us for the
packaging material.
I: That’s excellent. I think we can close the case. Do you have any ques ons for me?
Case Interview – 2: Es ma ng the number of plates required in Mumbai
Case Problem: Es mate the number of plates required in Mumbai.
C: When you say plate is it the ones, we consume food on?
I: That is correct.
C: And do you want me es mate all kind of plates ranging from steel, porcelain made, plas c, disposable etc.
I: Let’s focus on steel and porcelain made.
C: And do you want me to do both residen al and non-residen als.
I: Yes. So, what all would come in the non-residen al domain.
C: In the non-residen al domain, I would be looking at Hotels and Restaurants.
I: Anything that you are missing.
C: (Took a pause) suggested some other sources like airports, Ins tute canteens etc. but he was looking
for Ins tute mess in speci c, which he helped me out eventually.
C: Ok. I would take a minute to think on this and get back to you.
I: Sure.
C: So, for the residen al domain I would like to go from demand side approach. It would be based on
the number of households in Mumbai and then that would be segmented into di erent income
groups. Based on income, di erent household could have two types of requirements. One would be for
their regular use and the other would be for some events like mini house par es or get-togethers etc.
He was happy with my approach and made me do a lot of number crunching and come out with a
number for the residen al side market. Next, I tried approaching the non-residen al market also from
the demand side.
I: Are you sure that demand side approach would be the best prac ce for the non-residen al horizon
as well?
C: I immediately improvised on the hint and corrected myself into taking a supply side approach for the
non-residen al market.
We had a 15-20 min two-way interac on on the supply side approach. He constantly directed me towards considering one hotel/restaurant and then extrapolate the numbers. A er constant nudge and
help from the partner, I came up with the breakup –
No of plates required by restaurant= No of tables * Average capacity per table * Average occupancy
per table * Average number of dishes ordered per person * 2
During peak hours (i.e. all tables are occupied)
Note: Occupancy % of restaurants is di erent from occupancy % of tables.
The factor 2 in above equa on was taken for the worst-case scenario where all the people simultaneously vacate their table for the next set of customers during peak hours. Since all the tables have to be
replenished with fresh set of cutleries, we would be requiring twice the amount of plates required to
serve each table during peak hours. Once again, I had to do a lot of number crunching and the partner
pa ently wanted me to come up with an end number. To get to the above-men oned equa ons, I had
a lot of produc ve one on one interac on with the partner and did some mistakes in ge ng there.
Overall, I felt it was a stress interview with lot of number crunching and although I made some minor
blunders during the process but I kept my cool and had a very produc ve discussion with my interviewer to get to my answers.
107
Venkata Sainath Dadi
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Kharagpur
Instrumenta on Engineering
Nomura (37 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
Due to some logis cal issues, it took 10 minutes to set-up the room. So en re duraon was kind of HR interview about my aims, background, work ex, family business
etc.
cess)
C: Is it a sequen al process or parallel one?
I: Tell me in both the cases, what will be the bo leneck me?
C: (Iden
ed the bo leneck me in both)
I: Now suppose out of 30 days, 3 days is the ideal me and we want to change it. How can we reduce
that? (She gave me changeover me from one process to another process)
C: (I iden
ed the bo leneck changeover me and gave some sugges ons)
I: (She agreed to it and gave some sta s cs around u lisa on) If we reduce the bo leneck changeover
me (make it equal to second highest changeover me), then what will be increased u lisa on and
revenue
increase?
C: We need to xed and variable cost and exis ng revenue for that.
I: For not consider xed cost as zero. (She gave present per hour revenue also)
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Process e ciency - Manufacturing
Case Problem: Our client has a manufacturing plant, which involves digital imagery
prin ng technology. Their output has declined. Their ideal me has increased. Help
me in nding the issue.
C: (Calculated the bene ts out of improved u lisa on)
I: Next, now let’s consider we need to get INR x revenue, what should be the ideal me?
C: (Calculated the ideal me)
I: Can you give some sugges ons?
C: There can be two reasons - planned ideal me and unplanned ideal me. (Explained both)
C: (Gave few sugges ons, out of which 1 was implemented by the client)
I: Suppose, there is only planned ideal me.
I: It is a technology related to prin ng on an aluminium sheet.
C: In that case, I would like to explore about the process (method). Can you please tell me the processes and me required?
I: There are 5 steps involved in the process. (She also gave data regarding me required in each pro-
C: (Asked clarifying ques ons) How does the manufacturing work, loca on, process, product,
variants, ordering mechanism (make to order) etc.?
I: (Answered)
108
C: I would like to broadly consider 5 factors – Man, Material, Machine, Method, and Money (I used the
5 M framework). Do you want me to focus on any par cular bucket or should I explore all one by one?
I: Let’s explore each one of them.
C: First, I would explore issues related to the manpower. Is there any recent wage related issues or
disrup ons due to union strikes?
I: No. We can explore next bucket.
C: Second, I would like to consider machine related factors –
Breakdown and maintenance me
U lisa on
E ciency
Changeover me
I: Let’s focus on changeover me.
C: What are the various variants of our product?
I: There are 6 steps involved in the process. (Explained them)
C: Can you please tell me about the produc on me at each step in the process and how do we compare to industry standard?
(Interview provided the data. I gured out the bo leneck process).
So, we have another issue here – the process step which is crea ng bo leneck. Do you want to me
move further and explore other issues?
I: No. That would be it. Can you please give me some recommenda ons?
C: Few of the recommenda ons are Automate the process
Deploy addi onal manpower
E cient produc on planning
Adding more machines
I: That is great. In fact, we have few of the recommenda ons to the client.
I: Our product has mul ple variants in terms of colour.
Case Interview – 2: Sales Strategy – Real Estate
C: How do the produc on planning is done to account for various products? Is there any problem related to that?
Case Problem: Your client is a high-end real estate developer in Gurgaon. They have
recently completed an apartment project and want you to come up with a sales strategy to sell all the 100 ats within one year.
I: One of our machines involves changing of bo les for di erent colours, which involves lot of changeover me. Produc on planning is not e cient.
C: Changeover me in one of the machines is one of the issues. Should I further explore other factors
to iden fy other issues?
I: Yes, please. Go ahead.
C: Next, I would like to explore about the process (method). Can you please tell me the process ow
involved in manufacturing?
C: (Asked basic ques ons using CPCCP approach. Got to know that it’s a premium segment apartment
cos ng INR 22 Cr.) Can I consider it as a marke ng/ sales case?
I: You may assume that.
C: We need to target celebri es, higher-class people living in er-1 metro ci es and NRIs. Accordingly, I
would consider various channels where we can market and sell. Few of them are –
TV won’t help as it’s not targeted towards high end customers. We can however chose some selected channels.
109
Airport
Golf course
IPL Stadium like Wankhede where high class people come
Luxury cars (BMW, Mercedes) dealers
Within the ights in business class
Mobiles we can consider but today iPhones are bought by even middle class (I was giving both
type of points with logic to support and contradict it. It made the interview more conversaonal and also shown him my thought process as I was thinking out loud)
We can get email ids of high salaried people like partners in consul ng rm. But it can go into
spam. We can possibly e-up with rms and o er it to their employees. We give special o ers.
(There were few more ideas. Gave them idea regarding each target customer segment)
Next, I would like to understand about the nancing op ons. Do we have e-ups with banks for a ordable loans?
I: No, we do not have nancing related issues.
C: Okay. Even though there is no problem but s ll I would suggest that we should e-ups with some
banks for loan facili es.
110
-Only one revenue stream
Anjali Gupta
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies
Management
AON Consul ng Private Ltd. (35 months) – Talent Consul ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself.
What exactly did you do in Talent Consul ng at AON?
Please share more details on leadership development projects that you did?
Do you want to s ck to HR domain in consul ng or switch to other domains
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Cement Manufacturer Growth Strategy
Case Problem: I am a cement manufacturer, opera ng for 3-4 decades. The industry
is growing at 14% p.a. but I am growing at 12%. My margins are also 2 percentage
points less than industry average. I want to understand the reasons and improve my
current posi on.
-Operates pan-India, has mul ple plants
-Buyers are large construc ons companies/contractors/ins tu onal buyers (80%) as
well as retail shops (20%)
-Has many compe tors
-2 SKUs of Cement - 5kg and 10 kg (or something like that)
-organiza on wide problem - not speci c to any geo/sku etc.
(The interviewer had shared the en re CPCC (more actually) in one go and I was required to jump into
addressing the problem directly. The only clarifying ques on I had was if the metric for growth was
revenue or volume? (it was revenues))
C: So, you men oned that your growth and pro tability are the issues.
I: Yes, I am growing but not as fast as the industry.
C: Sure. Taking a simple approach, let's look at the breakup of your pro ts. (divided it into cost and
revenue). Would you like me to analyse the revenue side rst or the cost side?
I: Let's look at the revenue side rst.
C: Sure, revenues can be further broken into price and volume. How elas c is the demand for your
product?
I: Not a lot!
C: Has there been a case that your compe tors have increased their prices and are enjoying increased
revenues and margins since the demand is not as elas c?
I: No
C: Sure, then I would like to analyse the factors a ec ng the volume sales
A er this I applied the 5A framework. The interviewer asked me to quickly run him through all the
buckets and state what could be the problems/done be er to help the situa on before coming to the
distribu on bucket. Finally, under the distribu on channels, I drew a small chain of events from the
point of deal naliza on to point of delivery of actual product to large buyers (stated that I would focus on large buyers for now). In the chain, iden ed the major role that the salesperson would play
along with a strong feedback management system since this becomes cri cal when there is heavy reliance on a given set of buyers. At this point, the interviewer seemed interested and agreeing to what I
was saying. So, I elaborated more on providing value-added services, iden fying new buyers through
references etc. There was a second knock on the door that indicated we have exceeded our me.
I: Great, thank you. Nice interac ng with you.
111
C: Thank you, nice speaking to you too!
Case Interview – 2: Growth Strategy for a Mobile Phone manufacturer
Case Problem: The client is one of the largest mobile phones’ manufacturers in the
country. It has been facing compe on from the Chinese players. The client operates
in all 3 segments: high end, middle range & lower end phones. The margins are highest in the high-end category but the biggest share is in the mid-range phones. It operates through both online and o ine channels. The client wants to grow in the Indian
Market and also focus on its pro tability. What should it do?
I was shown a chart for all this informa on and was required to interpret it. This was a recent project
that the interviewing partner had closed.
Anurag Gupta
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NSIT, University of Delhi
Engineering
The Boston Consul ng Group (34 months) - Analy cs
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about what you've done at BCG?
Where are you from? (Delhi)
How do you nd Lucknow di erent from Delhi?
Approach:
-A er reading the chart, I quickly men oned pros and cons of each segment (high end: high margins,
limited buyers; mid-range: low margins because of high compe on, many buyers; low end: reasonable margins; currently low number of buyers)
-A er some more discussion, concluded that the focus should be mid-range segment since it is the biggest piece of the pie.
-Discussed the value chain of the segment and applied 4Ps. Evaluated each sub-bucket against Chinese
compe tors. Under the 'place' bucket, iden ed that Chinese compe tors rely heavily on online
modes while our client relies both on online as well as o ine modes which also adds to the cost. Menoned that Chinese players are able to capture the market by crea ng ar cial short supply through
ash sales and exclusive distribu on channels/partners which impacts the buying behaviour of the customer and increases demand for the product.
-At this point, the interviewer interrupted and said 'great, I have made my decision. Do you have any
ques ons for me?'
-I said: I have had detailed conversa ons with my buddy who helped resolved all my queries, so no
ques ons at the moment.
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Revenues are lower than expected
Case Problem: You're an Auto OEM, your sales are not as high as your compe tors.
Help me?
Approach:
I asked some preliminary ques ons about the company, industry, distribu on channels, compe tors
and the problem statement.
The interviewer then guided me to focus on distribu on channels. Our client was only selling through
service partners and our compe tors were also selling in the unorganized sector which is of a signi cant size. When I reached the answer, he pushed me to nd out what should we do to target this market. Speci cally, how to tailor the products for the new market, who to target and how to target.
112
Case Interview – 2: Diversi ca on ideas for an energy generator and distributor
Case Problem: You're an energy generator and distributor, you wish to diversify.
What businesses shall you explore and how shall you choose the best one?
Approach:
I asked some preliminary ques ons about the company, its mo va on for diversi ca on, the industry
& compe tors.
For preliminary sugges ons, I listed a few opportuni es for forward and backward integra on, the interviewer speci cally picked up a few businesses and asked me to list down criteria I would evaluate to
assess the a rac veness of those businesses
Diya Bha a
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
Economics
Deloi e Haskins and Sells LLP (23 months) – Transfer
Pricing
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about Kolkata
What is transfer pricing?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market entry - Animal Health-care market of the U.S.
Case Problem: My client is an Indian Pharma giant with opera ons in the States. They
have been experiencing stagna ng growth in the Human medicine market and want
to diversify into the Animal medicine market. Suggest on how they can do this.
C: Do we have any me or monetary constrains in the case?
I: No monetary constraint, but we are looking to enter as soon as possible with an upper limit of 7
years.
C: Can you please tell me more about the Animal health care market of the U.S.?
I: Sure. The health care market is divided into three broad segments: Grooming products, such as an ck powder; general medicines and vaccines and the cri cal care market for life threatening diseases.
Further, there are only few players in this market but the demand for pet products is increasing. Addionally, the medicines in the U.S. health-care market are known by their generic names such as paracetamol, not like crocin etc. in India. Hence, having proprietary medicines is an advantage. There are
many compe tors in this market.
C: What is our opera ons like in India and the U.S.?
I: In India, we are a well-established brand with a wide por olio of medicines for human. In the States
we have been opera onal only for some- me but with only our paracetamol.
113
C: So, we have never ventured in the animal health-care market before?
Designing à Tes ng à Feedback à Delivery
I: No
C: That means I have to consider the me for approvals and trails?
Each of these steps takes x,y,z number of hours and is undertaken completely by employee level A, B, C
with a per hour salary of p,q and r respec vely. (Don’t remember the numbers)
I: Yes
Now tell me, how will you bring down the cost.
(At this point we had spent a lot of me discussing the case instead of solving anything, so I panicked a
li le and jumped to recommending solu ons)
C: (Calculated the results of mixing labour throughout the chain and hiring a lesser quali ed employee
for certain steps)
C: Let us start discussing the pet grooming market rst. I understand that there are not many players in
this market and that it is growing. So, I suggest we can through a JV or acquisi on enter into the small
but high poten al market ini ally.
I: Okay, fair point. Why don’t we discuss the cri cal care market?
C: Sure. Do we have the capabili es to enter into the market?
I: Yes, we do. We have a lot of cri cal care medicines in our por olio.
C: But aren’t those for humans?
I: Yes, but the same can be used to cure animals.
C: Wouldn’t they need to be tested?
I: That’s great.
Case Interview – 3: Game theory
Case Problem: Let us consider a game theory scenario between US, India, China and
Europe where each of these is has a certain number of imports and exports along
with being either import or export heavy. Given the ongoing trade war between U.S.
and China, how can India seize the opportunity?
(The interviewer thought of the case on spot given that I am an Eco grad)
I: Yes, and approval will be required. The en re process will take 5 years.
I: You can ignore Europe. Now tell me.
C: Okay, so I suggest the Client should make its presence in the pet grooming market while simultaneously developing products for the cri cal care segment.
C: Well, India can expand its capabili es to serve both its own needs along with that of the States. Furthermore, in the short run it can act as a forwarder of the Chinese goods to the U.S.
I: That sounds fair, let’s end the case here.
I: Interes ng, don’t you think the U.S. would object to this?
Case Interview – 2: Cost reduc on in an IT rm
Case Problem: Client is an IT service company who has recently no ced that they incur 30% higher costs in tes ng so ware when benchmarked with compe on. Iden fy ways to reduce the same.
C: They would and this arrangement might not be sustainable for long but we can take advantage of it
ll and if we can. Further, U.S.’s behaviour is extremely poli cal, so the trade-o might not be a longterm issue.
I: Interes ng, that’s all then
I: Before you ask me, consider all factors such as labour, pay-structure etc, normalized. Consider the
following value chain:
114
like to focus the a en on on SUV's market share
Guneet Kaur
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies
Bachelors in Management Studies
Ernst & Young (19 months), Bain Capability Centre (12
months) - Consul ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
How are you liking it at IIML?
Some discussion around Term 1 Professors (since the interviewer was IIML alum)
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Declining Market Share – Automobile Manufacturer
Case Problem: Client is a leading automobile manufacturer but it's market share is
declining, help him understand why?
I: Client is a leading automobile manufacturer but it's market share is declining, help him understand
why?
C: Asked about the company (how long has it been opera onal, what geographies does it operate in),
product (what vehicle segments does the client cater to, should I consider only passenger vehicles or
commercial vehicles also), customer (what customer groups do each segment target) and compe on
(who all are the biggest compe tors, what is their presence in each vehicle segment that we operate in
and what are the respec ve market shares and how have they changed)- All these ques ons were
asked one by one as a conversa on
I: Company has been opera ng for more than 50 years, assume it to be something like Maru ; for this
case only consider India opera ons; focus only on passenger vehicles; the client operates in 4 major
segments: Hatchback, SUV, Sedan, MPVs; numbers for industry sales split for each segment for the
industry as well as for the client and each compe tor was shared, mul ple customers groups are catered to due to existence of client vehicles in mul ple segments
C: Looking at the numbers we can see that SUVs are a bigger problem area than other segments so I'd
I: Fair enough, let's talk about the market share for this par cular segment only
C: I'd like to look at the reasons for declining sales by looking at the customer journey (we had some
qualita ve discussions which suggested that client's revenues in the segment were declining whereas
that of compe tors were increasing and they were capturing the market share).
Drew out the customer journey and started going through each of the aspects.
When we reached the criteria of evalua on of car op ons for the customer, we started ge ng in an indepth discussion. I suggested criteria like aesthe cs, performance, safety, post-purchase maintenance,
payment exibility, car/ accessory customiza on, and so on.
I: Let's discuss the payment exibility bucket a li le further.
C: Sure, in payment exibility the major points are loan e-ups with banks, EMI payments, leases, credit card/debit card facility, net banking op ons, cash payment or rental op ons which are the recent
o erings of some companies like Zoomcar which aren't really auto manufacturers but have brought a
change in the auto industry
I: What do you understand about the rental o erings and how are they disrup ve?
C: Well, from my understanding, few major auto giants like Mahindra are now in collabora on with self
-drive car rental companies to provide their vehicles on a subscrip on-based model.
C: Exactly, so currently our client is not o ering this facility and due to the current habits and lifestyles
which promote the op ons to change things around them, more and more propor on of the populaon is shi ing and preferring this op on which is causing the client to lose out on its market share.
Case Interview – 2: Growth Strategy – Samsung
Case Problem: You're Samsung and you can see that you're facing tough compe on
in both- the low-priced segment & the high-priced segment. Suggest how will you
counter to achieve a higher share in the low-price segment
(The interviewer showed a couple of slides to explain the as-is scenario of market share and growth
poten al of each product segment. Due to paucity of me, he suggested we have a brief discussion
about how we can try to increase revenue in the low and mid-price segment by leveraging the retailers
that sell such devices)
115
I: This is probably because of the mistake of some associate. You can ignore this. Good observa on.
Raghav Sally
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Hindu College, Delhi University
B.com
BCG (22 months) – Research
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Why do you want to come back to BCG?
Tell me something about your experience at BCG?
Tell me something about yourself?
Did you work on anything wherein you created an end to end deck on the industry?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Growth Strategy – Mobile Phone manufacturer
Case Problem: The client is a mobile phone manufacturer. It is losing market share
since the entry of Chinese players in India. In addi on to the same, the margins of the
client are also less than the industry average. You need to devise a growth strategy to
increase the revenue growth as well as the pro tability.
I: Now that you know the problem statement and since you are from BCG, I can show you my client
slides that we presented to the client.
(Showed data around market size by segments with CAGRs of last and next 5 years. Also showed a couple of slides on the market share by segments. The client was performing well in super premium but
struggling in the rest.)
C: Sir can we go back to slide 1 with the market size and growth rates?
I: Sure.
C: I can see that the CAGR in mass segment was 97% in last 5 years, however it is expected to grow at
only 14% CAGR in the next 5 years. Why is there such a huge di erence?
C: Since super premium is only 7 % if the market and the client is doing well, we can skip this segment
for now and focus on the other segments. Similarly, the basic phones in the range of <Rs. 3-4k are expected to grow only at 3% p. a., hence, we can overlook this for now. However, I would like to take a
look at this once I look at costs.
I: Yes, makes sense.
C: Let’s focus on the mid and mass segment rst. I believe that one of the reasons why Chinese players
are doing good is that they are able to provide similar or be er features than our client. This is also
backed by the a ordability proposi on that they play on be it Mi, Vivo or Oppo.
I: True
C: This is can be because of the 2 reasons. First, they may be inves ng large sums in R&D. Second, they
also have a cost advantage as Chinese products are cheaper due to cheaper raw materials. I am excluding the rest issues like channels, marke ng here because I think the client is one of the oldest players in
the industry and hence, these should not be a problem. If you want, I can look at it later.
I: Agreed. What next?
C: How is the R&D spending of our client as compared to compe
terms of manufacturing units and sourcing of raw materials?
on and what is our cost structure in
I: We are spending a bit lower that the rest and as of now, we are sourcing some of our raw materials
from outside India.
C: Sure, I believe that we should focus more on the R&D as this can lead to both new and best-in-class
features as well as help develop cheaper ways to develop newer features. In addi on, we should also
start sourcing from India only as this way we will not have to pay the import du es ranging between
7% to 25% depending on the type of parts. In addi on, with the ini a ve of Make in India, the client
will be able to reap bene ts of other incen ves like tax holidays, export duty concessions, etc.
I: Okay, this is done. I want you to bring your consumer (work ex) perspec ve into this?
C: When we develop newer and be er products, we will have to launch them in the market. For this
we will rst do segmenta on, targe ng and then posi oning. These decisions.
I: You are using Kotler here. Bring in your perspec ve from your work experience.
C: Sure. When we develop product, we will have to keep in mind the customer preferences around the
devices and features they want. This will be done by conduc ng consumer research, be it through surveys, ethnographic interviews and/or focused group discussions. Post this, we should launch a pilot.
116
Pilot can be in some ci es or districts. Then, the feedback should be incorporated and if everything
goes well, we should go for a full scaled launch.
C: Before diving into the problem, I would like to understand more about the company, its products,
customers, compe tors and a bit about the industry.
I: Yes, what else can you think of?
I: This is all the informa on that you have. I am not sharing any other informa on.
C: One more thing that we can do is Por olio ra onaliza on. We can stop manufacturing and selling
the products which are not in demand any more. And this should be a con nuous process. Keep adding
be er and newer products in the por olio and remove the products driving costs up and not the revenue/pro tability.
C: Okay! Let me have a minute to structure my thoughts and then we can start diving deep into the
problem.
I: Okay Por olio ra onaliza on is another. Give me some more ideas.
C: There may be some products which may be in demand however, which demand high distributor or
retailer margin. We can reduce our channel costs by selling these products on only online channels.
I: Oh No No, the channels will not allow that.
C: Oh! This was just an idea, even I am not sure about the feasibility.
I:
No
worries.
Thanks,
Raghav.
I
think
me
is
up
as
well.
Case Interview – 2: Growth Strategy – Cement Manufacturer
Case Problem: The client is a promotor driven cement manufacturer opera ng in India since last 3-4 decades. The industry is growing at 14% p.a. while the client’s revenues are growing at only 12% p.a. In addi on, the margins are also 2 %age points less
than the industry average. You are required to devise a growth strategy to increase
both revenue growth as well as margins.
I: The client is a promotor driven cement manufacturer opera ng in India since last 3-4 decades. The
industry is growing at 14% p.a. while the client’s revenues are growing at only 12% p.a. In addi on, the
margins are also 2 %age points less than the industry average. You are required to devise a growth
strategy to increase both revenue growth as well as margins.
C: Let me just reiterate the problem statement. The client is growing less than the industry which
means it is losing market share every year. In addi on, the pro tability of the client is also 2 % points
less that the industry average. This means we have to focus on both revenues as well as costs.
I: Yes, you are right.
I: Sure.
C: Pro t is essen ally a func on of Revenues and Costs. In this case, we need to focus on both revenues and pro ts. Which one should I focus on rst?
I: It is totally up to you. I am interested in knowing your approach to the problem.
C: Sure. Let me start with revenues rst and then, if me permits, I will move on to costs. Revenues are
essen ally average price into number of units sold. I am assuming we have only 1 size of SKU. Let us
focus on quan ty sold rst. In quan ty, I want to look at majorly 3 things i.e. Product, Distribu on &
Communica on/ marke ng strategy.
I: Sure
C: Within product, I want to look at the Design, quality and customer experience aspects. In design, I
don’t have much clue about the industry but as far as I know, there are broadly 2 types of cement:
Grey & White. Maybe we can enter into the other category or alter our por olio mix to include more
propor on of the higher margin product. Another aspect of the design can be granularity of the product. If more granular cement is desired by the customer or not. If yes, we should make necessary
changes. Looking at the quality, I think some of the measures of measuring quality of cement is quickness to dry and strength. If we are not placed at par with the compe tor here, I would like to make
necessary changes in the product to make our product be er than the compe on. Under customer
experience, I believe that masons are our customers. So, maybe we can speak to them and do some
research and come up with a product which o ers be er experience. Should I move to distribu on
now?
I: Totally up to you. If you feel you have covered everything, we can move on to the next point.
C: I think I broadly had only this in mind as of now. Let me switch to distribu on. Under distribu on,
117
there are mainly 2 aspects we can look at, our exis ng distribu on and whether we can increase distribu on or not, this can be either in the same geography or a new geography.
I: Increased reach is a good point. How do you plan to look at the exis ng distribu on?
C: I would like to look at the trade promo on schemes here. What is the margin we are paying vis-à-vis
compe on? What margin structure are we following? Can we improve the same to provide more incen ves to distributors?
And this is an industry where purchases are in uenced by in uencers. We can e up with the contractors so that they can recommend our products over the others. In addi on, we can also go for ins tuonal sales by directly tying up builders and rms like L&T, DLF, etc.
I: Okay. Let’s move on to the next.
C: Sure. Under communica on, there are three things that we need to focus on, Mode, Message and
Messenger. By mode I mean the channels we are using for communica on. Message refers to what are
we conveying and messenger stands for whom are we conveying the message through. I would like to
explore op ons like celebrity endorsements, endorsements through architects or bigger builders, etc.
Ram Krishna Kumar
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Kharagpur
Mechanical Engineering (Dual Degree)
Flipkart (12 months) – Finance
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
Why you have done CFA?
You have good background in opera ons, why you want to switch?
I: Makes sense. Let’s look at price now.
Case Transcripts
C: Sure. In general, the prices are set by using one of the following 3 methods:
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate
-
Compe tor based
Case Problem:
-
Cost based
-
Value Based
1) Your client is VC head. You are a BCG partner. He wants to know if he should invest
in re ex nguisher equity or not (Guess mate the market size for re ex nguishers in
India)
Where are we placed in terms of prices in comparison to the compe on? I am assuming that there
will be a price range between the lowest and highest priced products. Where are we placed in the
range?
In case we are placed lower, then since we are improving our products as well, we can raise the prices
a bit and maybe place it as compe ve to the closest compe tor. This way we can increase our sales
without igni ng a price war.
For the cost-based approach, I would like to look at the cost aspects of the problem.
2) Guess mate the number of cricket balls in the air at a par cular me.
I: Ram, let’s do a case
C: Sure.
I: Your client is VC head. You are a BCG partner. He wants to know if he should invest in re ex nguisher equity or not
118
C: (Reiterated the problem and clari ed the objec ves)
(A er a pause)
I: Yes
I: Let’s do a guess mate.
C: Preliminary ques ons: About client, geography, investment constraints, me horizon, re ex nguisher equity, evalua on criteria (explained some of the criteria while asking)
C: Sure.
I: Client is big. Performed well in the past. There are no investment constraints. Time horizon is 5-10
years. He currently wants to know about a par cular equity in India. Required ROE is 25%.
C: I have an idea about the problem statement now. I will take 30 seconds to structure my thoughts.
I: Sure
C: (A er 20-30 seconds, I drew up a structure, and explained all the parameters required for reaching
the nal decision with the ra onale behind that (Market Size, Market Share, Growth Rate, Margins/NI,
Cash Flows))
I: Seems good
C: Is there any informa on about the market size?
I: Can you do a guess mate for the same.
I: Guess mate the number of cricket balls in the air at a par cular me.
C: Preliminary ques ons: About place, type of ball, par cular day and me
I: All over the world, any kind of ball, Sunday 5 pm.
C: Since I have to calculate for all over the world, I will start with India and taking popularity as proxy
will es mate for other countries where cricket is played.
I: Go ahead.
C: (Since, it was a pure guess mate, I was too focused on numbers. I started with popula on, rural urban, age groups and explained the ra onale behind whatever I was taking (as I started rst with rural) along with the calcula on of numbers.)
I: I am ne with calcula ons. Please go ahead without calcula ng the numbers
C: Sure. I will take 30 seconds to structure my thoughts for the same.
C: Sure. (Then made the structure to know the number of cricket players and con rmed with the interviewer.)
I: Sure
I: Seems ne. Go ahead.
C: (Started making the structure and explained the basic idea about how I shall be doing it. Then started telling him about each level, while assigning some numbers at the start).
C: (Then explained how I will divide these across day depending on team sizes and match dura on to
calculate number of matches. Then explained how will get the number of balls in the air out of these
matches.)
I: Ok. Let’s take an average market size to be X for next 5 years. (Interviewer was convinced with structure so he gave me the nal es ma on upfront.)
I: Perfect.
C: Sure. What is the market share?
I: 20%
Case Interview – 2: Digi za on strategy – OEM Manufacturer
C – (Asked about price and cost step by step to do calcula ons for margins and calculated the gross
pro t. Then I asked about other costs)
Case Problem: Your client is an automobile OEM. You have to digitalize, automate
and op mize its logis cs process.
I: Can you tell what you will be doing next?
C: (Explained the complete process of how I will arrive on returns and discussed about cash ows before deciding whether I would invest or not.)
I: Let’s do a case
C: Sure
I: Sounds good.
119
I: Your client is an automobile OEM. You have to digitalize, automate and op mize its logis c process
C- (Reiterated the problem statement and con rmed with the interviewer.)
I: Yes. Can you tell how will you go about solving the problem.
C: I will go through the current process, iden fy the improvement areas and then will decide how we
can improve them
I: Ok
C: I want to know more about client. What type of automobile it makes and what is the current process?
I: Assume that your client is Hero MotoCorp Ltd. Now go ahead. (I worked with Hero MotoCorp for 2
years)
C: Ok. (Went on to discuss the complete logis cs process of the Vadodara plant, and about the di erent ideas we could implement.)
I: Seems ne. Now tell how you will iden fy the value you delivered?
C- I will take 30 seconds to think on that. Then I wrote a mathema cal formula for the same
I: Ok. How will you get the values for the same?
C – (I explained from where I will get value of each term in the formula.)
I: Seems good.
Richaa Agarwal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
Economics
Deloi e Haskins and Sells LLP (23 months) – Transfer
Pricing
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me a li le about your life journey.
How has your IIM Lucknow journey been ll now?
Why Consul ng?
Which commi ee are you a part of?
Which Industry are you comfortable with?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Cost Op miza on – Logis cs
Case Problem: The client is the ministry of Logis cs of India. Develop a cost op mizaon strategy for the Indian logis cs.
C: (Started with clarifying ques ons) Why cost op miza on is required? Do we have any constraints in
terms of me and resources? Are we looking at both domes c or interna onal logis cs? (Asked one by
one)
I: India is spending a large percentage of its GDP on logis cs if compared to US. Thus, we need to nd a
way to reduce costs. We can look at both short term and long-term ways. No constraints in terms of
budget. Look at only domes c logis cs.
C: (A er taking around 30 seconds) (I told her about my structure) - logis cs consisted of two main
components (Transporta on and Warehousing) I would look at each of them separately. Under transporta on I would rst divide it into modes of transporta on and separately look at each of the modes.
Under warehousing again i would look at the current process that is being followed. Under each of
them I would try to iden fy the issues and from that I would develop a cost op miza on strategy.
120
I: India the most frequent mode of transport used was railways and buses whereas US used waterways.
(She asked me to iden fy the reason for the same. Also, she told me to concentrate on land as a mode
of transport and take the case of a cement industry.)
(He agreed and then asked me to focus on the cost side. He had assumed that I had studied MANAC in
term 1 and wanted me to use those concepts. When I clari ed that I hadn't studied MANAC yet he
asked me to draw a cash ow statement.)
C: (For the di erence between US and India - I spoke about connec vity, the di erence in the geographical area, me and cost. Taking land as a mode of transport I drew a value chain of the inbound
and outbound logis cs for a cement factory. I started analysing each aspect of the value chain and
iden fying the problems. I spoke about the me, cost, wastage, the condi on of the transport system
and the e ciency of the labour etc. The interviewer helped me with the required informa on from
me to me. I iden ed that in land transport - even though railways were cheaper the factories were
using trucks to transport their raw materials and nished goods because of me e ciency. I suggested
we could use a mix of both trucks and railways to achieve an op mum in terms of cost and me. Discussed a few more problems and solu ons at each step of the value chain. Then she suddenly stopped
the
case.)
(I started iden fying the opera ng, inves ng and nancing expenses and income for the conglomerate.
He suddenly stopped me and asked me to draw a cash ow statement for the conglomerate in case it
was planning to set up a new school. I spoke of the basic costs and income that I could iden fy under
each of the cash ow heads at that moment. Addi onally, I told that if the school is set up in a rural
area where there are no government schools, we can ask the govt to fund us since we are helping in
right to educa on. I also said that if the school is planning to use rainwater harves ng (my school had
planned to do so - I suddenly remembered) or solar energy then it would incur addi onal investment
costs.)
I: Good case.
Case Interview – 2: Growth strategy - Schools
Case Problem: The client is a school conglomerate. It was growing at a good rate ll a
few years back but suddenly it has no money le . Help me iden fy the following1) Why is the conglomerate in this condi on?
2) Where did the money go?
3) Help design a growth strategy for the conglomerate.
C: What does the conglomerate comprise of? (schools, smart classes, tui on centres, and sta onery
and uniform business) How long it has been opera ng? Where is it located? Whom does it cater to?
About the compe on it is facing.
(Interviewer told me that he would tell me about the compe tors once I had answered the rst two
ques ons)
There could be an issue with the revenue, cost or both. We can improve on revenues through current
opera ons or by nding an alterna ve (Like ren ng out the school space in a er hours)
121
C: Where is it based out of? How old is the fund? What is the cCriteria for funding? How big is the
fund? Usual areas of investment?
Shreyas Verma
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Roorkee
Produc on and Industrial Engineering
Quifers (24 months)- IT (Product Management)
I: Delhi, 5 years, ROI, no constraint on funding amount, no speci c area of investment.
C: Now I would like to know more about the re ex nguisher manufacturing company. How old is the
company? Where is it based out of? Where is it placed in the supply chain?
I: 1 year old, Delhi, manufactures and then sells to distributors
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
What does your mother do? What does she teach?
Walk me through your work experience
Case Transcripts
C: Other revenue streams?
I: None
C: Products and types?
I: Only re ex nguishers. Two grades: Residen al and Commercial (used in o ces and industries)
Case Problem: I am a VC fund and a re ex nguisher manufacturing company has approached me for funding. Should I fund the same or not?
C: I would like to begin by analysing the macro environment of the country and the industry a rac veness. In this I would compute the size of the market as well as the poten al market share, we could
capture a er capital infusion. A er this, I would like to analyse the company as a standalone en ty and
what are the di erent risks and synergies associated. Should I proceed or do you want me to analyse a
par cular aspect?
C: Sure, just to clarify; You, a VC fund, want me to evaluate whether to invest in a re ex nguisher
manufacturing company or not?
I: That sounds great. Why don’t you compute the market size for me? Concentrate on Delhi as the only
market for now.
I: That’s right.
C: Okay, sure. I will calculate the size of the residen al re ex nguisher market rst, then move on to
commercial ones.
Case Interview – 1: VC funding decision
C: Are there any other objec ves?
I: No
C: Okay, so to start with I would like to know more about your VC fund.
I: Okay.
I: Just concentrate on the domes c/ residen al market for now.
C: Sure. We can divide residen al buildings into: stand-alone homes and apartments. Now, considering
Delhi has an approx. area of 1400km 2, I can divide the whole area into Core(old)Delhi and Exterior Delhi, in the percentage 30:70. Now, old Delhi can be assumed to have 50% of its total area under residenal area and the ra o of these residences as 3:7 for apartments and standalone houses. Further, the
same approach can be used for Exterior Delhi part with the ra os of apartments and standalone hous122
es opposite, i.e. 7:3.
Further, we can divide the total residen al area by an average size for an apartment building and
standalone house respec vely to get to the number of houses. Next, all the apartments will have re
ex nguishers and can be assumed to have on an average 5 oors per building and 2 ex nguishers per
oor.
Similarly, only the really big houses of HNIs will have re ex nguishers which would be 5% of all the
houses and 1 ex nguisher per house.
I: That sounds good. I don’t need you to calculate the same. Thank you, that’s it!
Case Interview – 2: Increase market presence of a Hand Tools Manufacturer
Case Problem: I am a hand tools manufacturer. I entered India 3 years ago and have
only been able to gain 2 percent of the market share in that me. I am a market leader worldwide and the strategy I follow is that either I am one of the top 3 in the country or I exit that market. So, my global leadership has given me a deadline to break
into top 3 within 18 months or exit the country. Please help me.
C: So, to just clarify, you are a hand tools manufacturer and you want me to help you become one of
the market leaders, speci cally one of the top 3, within 18 months. Is that right? Any other objec ves?
I: No
C: Great, so to begin with I would like to know more about the company and its presence worldwide
and in India.
I: Okay?
C: How many countries have we expanded into?
I: 70
C: Headquartered at?
I: Germany
C: Do we only sell in India or do we manufacture here too?
I: Only import
C: Are we open to se ng up factories in India?
I: Yes, given we get the required volume
C: Okay, and whom do we sell our products to?
I: We sell our products to dealers who then sell it to our nal customers who are tradesmen.
C: Okay, and what are the products we manufacture? Like hammers, pliers, etc.?
I: Yes, those cons tute the hand tools division for us.
C: Okay, and how are we priced? Do we also manufacture other products or have other revenue
streams?
I: Compe
vely priced. No to both the other ques ons.
C: Who are our main compe tors?
I: There are three main compe tors, with 15,20,25 percent market shares. Rest of the market is fragmented with really small players
C: Got it, so the problem boils down to increasing sales of the company substan ally. I would like to go
forward and divide the problem into organic and inorganic growth strategies.
I: Okay
C: Under organic growth, I would like to analyse where the problem might lie. I would explore it under
5 heads: Need, Awareness, Accessibility, A ordability and Experiences. (Explained each head a li le) Is
there any par cular head you want me to see?
I: No, please go ahead
123
C: Now, since our compe tors are experiencing a strong sales growth, there is a need for the product
with the customers.
I: Okay
C: There might be a problem with the awareness of our products with our customers. Like we might
not have run enough ads or there might have been some PR debacle concerning the same.
Vishal Agrawal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Ahmedabad University
Commerce, specializa on in Finance
Fresher (0 months)
I: We have the highest ad spend among our compe tors and we aggressively adver se
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
C: How is our products’ percep on as compared to our compe tors?
Tell me about your biggest achievement in life.
I: The market leaders have already been there for the past 30-40 years and thus enjoy a certain brand
loyalty and percep on which we lack.
C: So this might be quite a substan al reason for the share they enjoy. And it would be very di cult to
capture their market share because of the strong brand loyalty and we might have to concentrate
more on the fragmented market.
I: Possibly
C: Okay, should I move forward to other heads.
I: So, our products don’t have any problems with their price, we have the most extensive dealer network and we get very good reviews for our products. What should be done now?
C: Since organic e orts to increase market share do not seem to be working, we can explore inorganic
methods like acquisitions, mergers or JV. Considering our presence as a global market leader and no dearth
of capital, acquisition of a company makes sense.
I: Okay, great. Sounds good! How would you go about marketing the products?
C: Since you mentioned brand loyalty plays a great part in the purchase decision of the consumers, I would
not take away the original brand. Rather, I would sub-brand the product under our name or sell the products of X company and list it as promoted by our company.
This would ensure the link to the original brand.
Why Consul ng?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Transforma on of Branch opera ons of a PSB
Case Problem: Our client is a public sector bank. We have been asked to transform
and improve their branch func oning.
C: Asked clarifying ques ons about the bank, details about its branches, what was meant by transforma on, if there was any speci c reason because of which the bank had decided that the branches
needed transforma on.
I: Explained that transforma on in terms of modernisa on and general improvement in func oning
was intended.
C: Asked if there were any metrics in place to evaluate the level of improvement?
I: No metrics are present as yet.
C: Divided the branch's opera ons into di erent ac vi es. Iden
there was scope for improvement.
ed the func ons and ac vi es where
I: Asked me to move on to a speci c set of problems that the interviewer then gave. These problems
were divided into customer experience/func oning problems and sta ng problems.
C: Delving deeper into the sta ng problems rst, I was asked to recommend solu ons to reduce the
number of leaves taken by employees.
124
Moving on to the other set of problems, began with the problem of long queues at the bank. Suggested two solu ons for the same, the rst one being a self-service kiosk for people comfortable with technology, and the second being the reduc on of the number of windows/desks the customers would
have to visit for a task for others.
Also suggested reducing the use of paper documents, to reduce the ow of physical paper work from
desk to desk.
The interviewer then asked me to summarise the case for the client.
Case Interview – 2: Toothpaste manufacturer declining pro tability
Case Problem: I am a toothpaste manufacturer and pro tability are declining. Iden fy
the problem and suggest solu ons.
Approach:
-Began by asking clarifying ques ons. Found that revenues and costs, both were increasing, but revenues were increasing at a lower rate as compared to costs, leading to declining pro tability.
-Analysed the reasons behind the slow revenue growth rst. A er this, was asked to write an equa on
for calcula ng toothpaste consump on for a given popula on and analyse if and how each component
could be improved.
-Post that, was asked to think of complementary products that could be launched along with toothpaste, was asked to analyse which one should be launched based on pro tability.
125
Adwait Wagh
Undergraduate College
Field of Graduation
Work Experience
NIT Trichy
Produc on Engineering
Cartesian Consul ng (24 months) -
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
Why consul ng?
What are your expecta ons from the internship?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Airtel customer dissa sfac on
Case Problem: I am Airtel and my customers are dissa s ed with payments. Analyse
the situa on.
Approach:
I listed down di erent interfaces where payments are done through such as website, app, physical
stores, customer care. Was asked to choose any one and explore more into that
Case Interview – 2: Insurance company data heavy business problem
Case Problem: I am an insurance company dealing with claims regarding damages
126
caused to workers of manufacturing rm. The applica on that my company uses is
facing problems such as that of informa on leakage. The users of the applica on are
not the workers employed in the rm but a di erent set of employees who handle
ling of such complaint on the system. Analyse what could be possible problems and
what could be the possible solu ons.
Approach:
Possible solutions and cost of implementing
Asked what Informa on Leakage meant.
Suppose a worker calls the insurance company and they le his informa on on the applica on but for
some reason the informa on is lost.
Modify current application
Cost required for completion
(This part would require number crunching; number of cost
components would be given
and your task would be to
calculate the total cost of implementing this solution)
% age savings on the annual
costs
Create a new application from
scratch
Cost required for completion
% age savings on the annual
costs
Buy a new application
Cost required for completion
% age savings on the annual
costs
Came to the following possible solu ons:
1. Make changes to the current applica on
2. Create a new applica on from scratch
Buy a new applica on
I was then presented with data for possible solu ons. This provided me with costs that were incurred
due to di erent problems faced at present by the client. For each of the possible solu ons data was
provided in a format similar to this:
Cost incurred annually due to following problems
Problem 1
Problem 2
5 mn
8 mn
Problem 3
13 mn
Was asked to calculate cost of implementa on and break-even period of any one alterna ve.
127
I. Here's the copy that has all the case data. Take some me and skim through it
Anish Lakhani
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
HR College of Commerce, Mumbai
Chartered Accountant, B.Com
Nomura (19 months), PwC (51 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
C. Okay. I'll take a look
C. Okay I think I've skimmed through the data. We can go ahead with the case problem statement
I. Okay. So, as you would have already come to know that this is a product launch case. We rst have
to iden fy the mode of market entry. Can you list down all the factors that would go in deciding the
mode of market entry?
C. Sure. Let me make a list rst. (took a minute)
What motivates you to be an entrepreneur?
C. I have iden ed the following factors that will be necessary for selec ng the right mode of entry.
Control over the rm, in-house competency, distribu on exper se needed, cost, me to enter, ini al
investment
Please tell me why would you like to work for Deloitte?
I. That's correct. Now tell us as per the qualita ve factors which mode of entry should be preferred.
Why do you wish to do management consulting?
C. Comparing the qualita ve factors, we can go ahead with developing in house capability.
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Data heavy product launch
I. Okay. Now so that we have decided that we would want to go ahead with in-house capability, help
the client decide which combina on of labour and technology should they choose. Handout contains
the meline details and cost details for each.
Approach:
C. Considering the me to enter is 6 months, project 2 will not reach produc on stage by the end of
6 months due to the high manpower requirement at the development stage. Also considering the
costs, out of project 1 & 3, project 1 is nancially feasible taking into considera on our budget constraints of ini al investment.
I. Hi. Please have a seat
I. That's right. We can close the case here.
Case Problem: NA
C. Sure.
I. How are you doing today?
C. It's been good
I. Let's solve a case
C. Sure
128
Ayush Agrawal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Kanpur
Chemical Engineering
Bank of America (36 months) – IT
Case Problem: A large, mul -part, number heavy case on payment period for
services rendered at a hospital chain. (Data with numbers provided by the interviewer). What can be the possible causes for delays in pa ents paying their dues?
Approach:
Selected a stakeholder approach and split the reasons among the Hospital, Pa ents and Insurance
Companies. For each one came up with the following reasons:
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Hospital - delay in producing bills/lacking communica on
Tell me about yourself
Pa ents - nancial limita ons/ease of making payments
Insurance companies - me taken in valida ng and processing claims
Why Consul ng
At this stage, the interviewer provided me with a table of average me taken across geographic locaons as well as certain other parameters. There were certain simple logical ques ons asked which
were answerable applying basic min/max/percentage/average formulas on provided data.
Why Deloi e?
Why do we select you?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Iden
ca on of factors in an acquisi on
Case Problem: Guess mate the number of people who watch The Family Man.
C - Is this show only on Amazon Prime?
I - Yes.
Approach:
Adopted a top-down funnel approach by spli ng the popula on of India based on the following lters:
a) Rural/Urban
b) Income Groups
c) Age
d) Genre preferences
Case Interview – 2: Case on payment period for services at a hospital chain
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I- Concentrate on the 4-wheeler Passenger Vehicles market
Chirag Mahawar
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Hansraj College, Delhi University
Commerce
Bain Capability Centre (15 months), Self- Employed (8
months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
How I am pursuing Handwri ng Analysis (CV speci c)
How was your Bain experience? 1-2 key projects you worked on
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate on Electric Vehicles on India
Case Problem: Guess mate market size of 4 -wheeler EV in India/USA.
Approach:
I- Es mate the market size for EV in India/ USA
C- Should I focus on one country or both
I- Take India only in that case
C- Should I focus on both the 2 & 4-wheeler market or any one in speci c?
I- Yeah that's good. Please proceed.
C - Arrived at total 4-wheeler demand using certain further lters.
I- What size of this EV market can you aim to capture?
C- Ini ally it'll be low due to low adaptability amongst customers but assuming a CAGR of Z% for EV's
Market Size and P% for 4-wheeler market we can expect D Units sale by 2022
Tell me about yourself
My speci c experience of winning Deloi e's Na onal Level Case Study Compe
and who all were there in the judging panel.
C- (Started with the popula on of India under various income groups in Urban and rural India
and arrived at the number of households)
on
I- That's a good number. Thank You
Case Interview – 2: Data heavy case on star ng a new venture
Case Problem: It was a printed case with some data points. Was asked to evaluate 4
new ventures and recommend one. Further, had to choose a single op on, which capability to focus on and how to develop other capabili es (Own investment, M&A,
JV).
Approach:
I- Our client is a big conglomerate and they want to enter one of the 4 sectors menoned on Page 1. Which sector should they choose and why?
C - IT seems to be a fairly easy op on. We can make a decision on the basis of the revenues the client
can be expected to generate in the next 2 years. Also, as the client wants to generate maximum pro t
in 2 years, we can see which project is most pro table a er discoun ng the cash ows
I- That's really good. As you have iden ed the sector now. Let's see which capability out of the 4,
should the client focus on in that par cular sector.
130
C- Give me 2 minutes to read through the same
I - Sure
C- We should focus on this capability, given the parameters. The client will be able to generate good
money here.
I- How can they start opera ons in that capability?
C- Out of the given 3 op ons among own capability, Acquisi on and Joint Venture, acquisi on makes
more sense as client is doing this investment for genera ng returns with a 2 years perspec ve and will
be able to have an easy exit through acquisi on.
Gaurav Mehta
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT BHU
Metallurgical Engineering
iQuan Inc. (15 months); Ola (21 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Why consul ng?
Why Deloi e?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Launching helicopter category for Ola
Case Problem: Ola wants to launch a helicopter category in India. What factors will
you look at? (I had previously worked with Ola, hence this ques on).
Approach:
I didn’t ask too many clarifying ques ons pertaining to the case as I had previous work experience in
the similar domain.
Factors discussed in the interview (in order) –
Geography of launch – Here I considered 2 factors:
Tier 1 ci es
Ola’s presence, percep on and performance in those ci es.
Supply – I es mated how much capital is needed for launching this category. Asked if there
were any capital constraints?
Return on investment (I just stated the factor as the interviewer did not want to delve deeper
into this)
Pricing – considering there is no benchmark
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Whether to focus on top line and bo om line?
User Interface
How to generate demand? (Here demand is not a constraint per se)
c. Maintenance
Demand forecas ng
d. Data Integra on and migra on
Target Audience iden
ca on
Cross-selling
Trial pricing
Case Interview – 2: Cost bene t analysis for xing in-house vs procuring
Case Problem: A company has a payroll (internal) applica on. They are facing certain
issues. So, to rec fy the same will you x it or en rely scrap the applica on and procure a new 3rd party applica on? Do a cost bene t analysis of both the op ons.
Approach:
There was a bit of cross-ques oning in between based on the factors I had told them. A er this, the
interviewer moved to a data-based problem-solving approach. I was presented with data related to a
few of the factors stated above based on which I had to make a decision. The data was based on simple calcula ons of various cost items, manpower hour requirements, manpower billing rates etc.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
How implementa on projects are executed in Deloi e? Are there separate
teams for it or S&O also executes such projects?
First, I started with a basic approach and stated all the factors that needed to be considered –
Op on 1- Fix it on our own.
Considered the following factors:
Calculated the total manpower cost
Risk of recurrence of the problem
Is it worth xing? (Whether the exis ng applica on is good enough – determined based upon
employee reviews)
Op on 2 - Outsource to a 3rd Party applica on
Considered the following factors:
a.Cost
b.User-friendly
Secured
Fast
Data handling capacity
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and understanding the constraints ( nancial or me) for entry.
Mayank Bansal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NIT Bhopal
Mechanical Engineering
Bajaj Auto Opera ons (34 months) - Opera ons
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Please take me through your CV.
Can you describe each of your func onal roles at Bajaj?
Why did you leave your job to pursue an MBA?
If you want to de ne Bajaj in 1 word, what would it be?
Detailed discussion about the di eren a on between Bajaj and Hero products as
one of the panellists was an Ex-Hero employee
Why didn't you get through the rms you sat for before Deloi e?
Macro level analysis of India as a market for ice-creams applying PESTLE framework.
Micro level analysis of ice-cream industry understanding compe
on, suppliers applying Porter's 5
forces model.
Market Sizing-Guess mate the market size of Choco Bar (Price-point Rs. 20) in India.
Followed a top-down approach on the following, applying the following lters:
1. Rural - urban split
2. Income groups (To di eren ate the a ordability)
3. Age group (To di eren ate on the basis of frequency)
Case was closed a er the guess mate.
Case Interview – 2: Revenue genera on problem due to delayed payment cycles
Case Problem: I am a US healthcare company and have a chain of hospitals across 5
states in the US. We are facing problems in revenue genera on due to delayed payment cycles of pa ents bills on credit. Please help us by providing recommenda ons.
Why did you rank those rms above Deloi e?
Why Deloi e?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market entry for an interna onal ice-cream manufacturer
Case Problem: I am an interna onal ice-cream manufacturer and want to enter Indian market. How should I enter?
Approach:
Provided me with 3 sheets of data one a er the other to understand and analyse the situa on.
Sheet 1: To iden fy the cri cal states among 5 to focus rst through data analysis. Sheet 2: To understand the payment cycles from Jan-Dec and understand the issue in depth. Sheet 3: To analyse the poten al areas of improvement among medical facili es like surgeries, emergencies, out pa ents etc.
Based on understanding the above situa ons, provided recommenda ons about how to solve this
problem of revenue genera on.
Approach:
Asked ques ons around the mo ve behind entering the new geography, company pro le, products
133
let's say once per month but high income could purchase it only once a week)
Shivam Sharma
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
PEC University of Technology
Mechanical Engineering
ZS Associates (12 months), Alstom Transport (10
months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
3) I talked about how chocolate is one of the basic avours others being vanilla and strawberry.
The ice cream ea ng set would have essen ally other avours as their preference. Hence, es mated
that 25% of the remaining market to chocolate ea ng set.
4)Finally added another lter of seasonality to account for di erent seasons in our country. Thus, I es mated that we can cater to market at an average of 6-8 months in the year.
Note: I was asked to just give the structure rather than calcula ons and they seemed sa s ed with the
response.
Tell me about your work experience.
Tell me something about the pharma industry and how do you segment physicians
based on their loyalty? (based on one of my projects)
Case Interview – 2: Container manufacturer business problem
I had done one project on pricing strategy based on discount card redemp ons and
the appropriate discounts to be given. Was asked how I went about it.
stores and malls. The consumer base has been increasing but the number of complaints received has
increased as well. Help me nd out why?
Why would you not go back to ZS a er doing an MBA?
Approach:
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Premium segment ice cream market sizing
Case Problem: Your client is a European premium Belgian chocolate ice cream manufacturer. I want to enter the Indian market. Guess the market size
Approach:
Reiterated the problem statement to make sure I understood it correctly.
1) Started with taking the demand side approach. Divided the popula on of India into urban and rural
segments. Discarded the whole rural segment reasoning that it's a premium brand.
2) Divided the urban segment on the basis of their income levels into low, medium and high. Explained
how this would lead to di erent frequencies of purchase. (Medium income would maybe purchase
Case Problem: My client is a cup and containers manufacturer who sells to large retail
I - Asked few basic ques ons about the company, product, customers and compe
year-old company selling plas c cups and containers.
on. It was a 10-
C - The complaints are mostly from the customers who are repor ng increased dissa sfac on.
I - In order to understand the kind of complaints I made the en re value chain with all the di erent
steps involved star ng from placing of an order , frequency of order placed , frequency of delivery expected , communica on channel , type of product (standard or customised) , quality issues or mismatch and order quan ty as per order along with delays in transporta on. (I tried to s ck to the basic
structure I had prac ced but most of the structure came as per the conversa on with the interviewer.)
I - Okay you seem to have done well so far (he then takes out a sheet with a table on it), this sheet has
ve customers with di erent sets of parameters on which customers are served.
1.Product (Standard or Customised or both)
134
2. Frequency of order placed (Daily, monthly, weekly)
3. Frequency of delivery expected (Daily, monthly, weekly)
4. Communica on channel (Mail, phone or both)
(Don’t remember the 5th)
Rate 5 customers based on their degree of complexity according to the given parameters.
Sukri Tewari
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies
Business Administra on
KPMG (48 months) – Consul ng
C - Explained the ra onale for how complex each factor would be (e.g Standard product would be less
complex while customised product would create more complexity)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
I - I need ranking of the 5 customers (asking me to quan fy the complexity).
Tell me about yourself.
C - We can take di erent percentages based on the importance of parameters.
Ques ons around projects, PORs, work experience on CV
I- Rate the factor under each parameter on a scale of 1 to 5 and calculate a number.
Why Consul ng?
C - Okay, assuming 50% for the product and 10%, 10%, 20% and 10% for others respec vely. Rated the
factors from 1-5, mul plied with respec ve weights men oned and arrived at the number.
Which domain do you want to work on in Deloi e?
Tip - Overall I was helped a lot on the way and it felt that their focus was on how I explained the raonale behind my structure and in the end the calcula ons I did.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
I asked them about Deloi e University and how is it making an impact in the career growth of incoming employees
Asked him about his mo va on to come to work every day
Asked about the case and their approach
If not consul ng, then what other op ons?
Why should I not hire you?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Iden
ca on of factors in an acquisi on
Case Problem: Pepsi/Coke want to acquire Paper Boat. What factors will you consider?
Approach:
Clarifying ques ons – Tried asking, but they didn’t answer much. (Deloi e’s format doesn’t encourage
much of the clarifying ques ons. They suggest you to go ahead with your exis ng knowledge.)
Went along with the following sequence of ques oning.
135
Present performance of Paper Boat – Good concept, good trac on
Cost Synergies
Coke has similar business, so produc on capabili es merged to increase the u lisa on
Revenue Synergies
Leveraging common distribu on channels
Paper Boat has mainly penetrated markets only in major ci es. Hence, Pepsi’s presence
pan-India will help Paper Boat enter new markets and grow.
Both have di erent target groups and use cases, hence chances of cannibalisa on is low
Post this analysis, the interviewer felt that there was no quan ta ve conclusion which I came up with.
Hence, they gave me a guess mate – to calculate the market size of Paper Boat in Lucknow. Used a top
down funnel approach applying the following lters –
Lucknow Popula on
Rural urban
Income
Family purchasing power – determining frequency of purchase
there was a problem. It was a er sales – service cost (customer care) which was increasing. Post
this interviewer provided a data sheet to validate this hypothesis. (In Deloi e interviews, interviewer always try to push you towards the solu on because data is related to that problem). The
datasheet had cos ng related data –
Level wise (director, manager etc.) cost per hour and number of working hours
There were 2-3 more data tables based on which I had to do the computa on
I was taking me in my calcula ons. However, my approach was correct and calcula on was in the
right direc on. Hence, they gave me the answer.
Now, he gave me another table regarding compe tor data. I had to do a compe tor benchmarking and
test if my hypothesis was correct. It was very simple data to compare. The rst part of the data consisted of companies and their revenue data. Hence, I had to rst gure out where my company falls
( nding the closest proxy), and compare it with that. Based on that, I gured out that manpower cost
was shoo ng up way above the standards.
Next, I was asked to give a few recommenda ons. I came up with the following:
Centralisa on of call centre
Automa on
Case Interview – 2: Declining pro ts for a manufacturing rm
Case Problem: Your client is a manufacturing rm. Their pro ts are declining. Your
boss has given you the problem statement. You have a call with him a er 2 mins. How
will you approach it? Prepare some talking points.
(I gave two more recommenda ons, which I do not remember.)
The conversa on then turned towards robots. Coming from non-engineering background, I did not
know much about it. I was then asked about the technology on which robots work. I responded – Ar cial Intelligence. He seemed sa s ed with that.
Approach:
On call, I got a bit of an understanding about the rm and the problem. They clari ed that it is a cost
problem. I only laid out a very basic structure. I was then told that there was another call regarding a
cost related discussion. I would have to now prepare for that.
I started by dividing the costs into opera onal and non-opera onal costs. I then went on to write down
a detailed structure of all the possible costs. I was able to eventually point out the correct head, where
136
Shamayita Saha
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NIT Durgapur
Computer Science Engineering
Analytics Quotient (12 months)- Business Analyst
(CRM )
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
What was my role in my work place?
What do you know about Everest group?
Brie y describe the revenue model of a hotel chain (as I worked with a hotel chain
in the CRM team)
Why Consul ng?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate on number of Dabbawalas
Case Problem: Es mate the number of Dabbawalas required if the same format like
Mumbai Dabbawalas is adopted in Bangalore
Approach:
C: Mumbai Dabbawalas is possible only because the city is connected by railways, but in Bangalore it's
not possible.
I: Consider the city is connected by metros
137
C: Metro doesn't have the coach for carrying goods, it's only for traveling and not commercial purposes
I: Assume we have the infrastructure and it's well connected by normal railways
C: Started by nding popula on of o ce goers, divided the city into 4 zones and calculated the number.
Vuchula Keerthi
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NIT Warangal
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Bank of America (24 months) – So ware Development
Case Interview – 2: Guess mate on number of readers of an English daily
Case Problem: Assume you will start a new English daily in U ar Pradesh. Find the
market size you need to target
Approach:
I started by asking basic qualifying ques ons like will it be an online newspaper or an o ine paper, will
it be distributed even outside U ar Pradesh, and then I applied the basic lters of household size, income, literacy levels etc.
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about your work experience.
What do you know about Everest consul
ng group? What exactly do we do?
What is the di erence between a consul ng and advisory rm?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate on revenue from App
Case Problem: Imagine you made an App that displays playgrounds nearby the customer, es mate
the revenue for three years star ng from now.
Approach:
C: (I took 30secs to structure my thoughts and then started discussing while simultaneously solving the
case. I men oned the technical details of how the app would be designed, how we could make the app
like Google maps which shows the recrea onal centres around our customer. And also op mising the
op ons by calcula ng the distances of how close each is to the customer.)
I: Ok Keerthi, the technical details are good but how would you earn your revenue from the app?
C: We would earn revenue in the following ways:
1) We could come up with a subscrip on for the app by having some high-end features for the up138
grade.
Case Interview – 2: Guess mate on number of garbage trucks
2) Another way would be by a liate adver sing, selling our ad space to other businesses, which would
be u lised by them to broadcast their ads while the customer uses our app.
Case Problem: Imagine you're the head of the municipal corpora on and you need to
give an es mated gure of the number of trucks your city would need to pick up garbage.
3. Also since we are making the playgrounds more visible through our apps, we can get a commission
by striking a deal with the nearby owners. (The interviewer liked the 1st and 3rd and probed more
around these)
I: So Keerthi let's add some numbers to these.
C: Sure Sir, since we're in Lucknow let's start our revenue es mate assuming the app is catering for the
Lucknow public.
I: Sure, any city of your choice will work.
C: So, let's assume Lucknow has around 20 such recrea onal areas which could be used for this app.
And each recrea onal area has various grounds, pools and other ac vi es. Our app primarily focuses
on grounds. So, we would strike a deal with the owner for a commission and we would decide upon a
percentage over what they earn through our app. If it's a football ground per se then we would charge
the customers on an hourly basis so if the owner charges 5000 for the ground we would take 10% that
is 500 per hour. Lucknow has a popula on of around 20 lacs and among which 40% would be youth
and 10% of them would be willing to play a sport. This will be our target market. If we assume, they
visit the ground we suggested then we would have at least 3 such batches visi ng per day and 5 such
batches on weekends. Based on these numbers I could es mate the revenue earned per day on an
hourly basis.
C: Ok Sir, I would go with Hyderabad this me. The popula on is around 30lacs. The urban popula on
is around 60%. Assuming we cater to this segment. So, assuming among the 1,80,000 there might be
80% of the popula on in families and the rest are bachelors. To get the number of households I would
divide the 80% of 1,80,000 by 4 and neglec ng the remaining 20% for the me being. So, the number
of households would be 45,000 households. And if each collects 3kg of Garbage assuming both dry and
wet waste from regular cooking and wrappers of items. This would sum up to 1,35,000kgs of Garbage
per day. We would be installing 2 huge garbage holding containers which could be picked by one truck.
Each of this container would be holding 500kgs of Garbage. So, each truck caters to 1000kgs of trash.
We would require 135 such trucks.
I: And how many trips and drivers would this need?
C: So that would be around 135 trucks per day. But considering the driver can take more than one trip
a day. And assume that each trip would take 3hrs to pick and drop the garbage outside the city we can
have 3 shi s a day by the same truck covering di erent areas. So, we need 45 trucks a day.
I: Ok Keerthi, we have had a long discussion and reached some conclusions, please wait outside and
we'll let you know.
I: Ok and how about the subscrip on for the app?
C: We could come up with some addi onal features for which the customer needs to get the subscripon. We can have the subscrip on for the app per month around Rs.10 and so for the year it will be
Rs.120. If we imagine the same target segment subscribing to our app as well as considering a few who
wouldn't we can forecast our revenue per year.
139
Harish R K
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
College of Engineering, Guindy
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Maintenance (36 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
What is mean and mode, rela on between SD and mean in a standard normal distribu on?
Why consul ng?
Explain OEE (Overall Equipment E ec veness)
What is lean framework?
In number of processes how you will nd non value adding ac vi es?
Will I be able to converse in Hindi? (I'm from TN and I don't know Hindi)
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Work-Ex based
Case Problem: Given a block diagram of a plant and asked what all areas I can improve produc vity, availability and quality (OEE)
Case Interview – 2: Rela on between u liza on & produc vity
Case Problem: An employee can enter one entry per minute he has to enter 420 entries. He works for 14 hours (take a cigare e breaks for 7 hours) and completes the
work. Find the OEE of the employee?
C: He completes the works hence the quality assumed to be 100%, available only for 7 hours - Availability 50% and takes 14 hours which can be done in 7 hours - produc vity 50%. OEE=availability *
produc vity* quality= 25%
140
Vishal Varshney
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
BITS Pilani
Electronics Engineering
NVIDIA – So ware (34 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate
Case Problem: 1. Es mate the number of people in India having the same name as
yours.
2. A er solving the rst guess mate, an extension of the above guess mate was given.
Es mate the number of new born in the upcoming year, 2020, who will be named
with your name. They wanted this to be found out with an approach di erent from
the approach used for solving the rst guess mate.
141
Sharad Pawar
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
University of Pune
BE Mechanical Engineering
NTPC Ltd. – Project Management, Opera ons (46
months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Walk me through your resume
CV speci c ques ons on recent project
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Analyse switch from Gasoline to EV
Case Problem: Your client is taxi eet owner, he thought about switching his eet
from gasoline to electric cars. Help him with that.
C: Sure! So, the analysis is about cost-saving with the transforma on and expected years?
I: Yes
C: What kind of gasoline cars are currently operated, mileage and opera onal years le
I: Assume these numbers and give me the ra onale
C: (Assumed these values as for a standard diesel hatchback and briefed about the ra onale)
I: Ok go ahead.
C: For these cars I need maintenance or opera onal cost, electric charges and daily distance travelled.
I: You could assume this daily average distance to be 100km, maintenance charges to be 5000/month,
for gasoline 2500/month
142
C: What is the size of his eet?
C: Instead of large investment approach use a poten al phase approach in development
I: Give me an approximate.
I: What are the liquidity ra os and pro tability ra os and its implica ons?
C: Calculated per km cost of running and gave comparison table for both cars.
C: Current ra os and acid test ra os, and ROA, ROE, ROI.
I: In how many years electric car is able to reach breakeven against gasoline cars.
(Almost 10 min went in ra os implica ons in the case before the interviewer ended the case)
C: In 5 years the total cost of ownership of gasoline surpasses electric car.
Case Interview – 3: Entering Renewable Sector
I: Further use your result for this eet owner
Case Problem: Business model for a new rm entrance in the renewable sector and
services segments.
C: Considering a eet operator in Delhi with a 15mn popula on with 50% middle class, 20% upper
class, 10% using taxis, so of 1.5mn, considering an average of 3 people per trip 5lakh trips and 10 km
of avg. trip resul ng in 10 trips per day .500000/10, 50000 cabs and considering 3 major players present this gives the size of eet to be 16000 cars. So, considering the eet size of 15000. Further calculated the transforma on cost.
Analysed stakeholders and implica ons, external factors of technology, policy and regula ons, a model
focused on self-owned and third-party-owned model
I: you might have you missed some cost?
C: Yes deprecia on, considering it a straight line for 10 years of life.
Case Interview – 2: Establishing Solar Power Plant
Case Problem: A company wants to set up a solar power plant analyse its break-even
performance with conven onal plant and revenue forecast.
Reiterated the problem statement & iden
ed the expenses and revenue buckets for both
I: Start assuming parameters and explain the ra onale
C: Considering the capacity as 100 mw, rate of return as 15%
I: What is the opera on cost of both plants?
(gave the opera on cost, ini al cost, the annual cost of opera on, revenue and overall pro tability)
I: Try to iden fy as many major expense heads? What about the investment approach towards these
projects?
143
Aashima
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Thapar University
BE Computer Engineering
Microso (31 months) - IT
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself.
What was your role at Microso ?
Why consul ng?
Why do you want to shi to consul ng a er technological experience in Microso ?
Why not con nue in technical eld?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Plan for India to be in Top 10 in next Olympics
Case Problem: What can be done for India to be top 10 by next Olympics? Assume I
am the Sports minister.
Approach:
I: Ask ques ons if any. Take 10 minutes to structure the case.
C: Are there any budget constraints or any other limita ons or restric ons with respect to sports?
I: No constraints or limita ons. Try to generate as many ideas.
Drew the rst level of structure as Process, Infrastructure and Promo ons.
144
Under process, discussed about:
- Players selec on- Selectors, Evalua on criteria, Selec on opportuni es
- Scheduling of coaches- Academy based
- Retaining exis ng players- Awards, Alloca on of promised bene ts
Abheek Jindal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
PEC University of Technology
Informa on Technology
Goldman Sachs (35 months) – So ware Developer
- Target smaller towns/ci es- incen ve based tournaments, scholarships for deserving players on pursing sports further, push through well-known personali es, awareness session for parents
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
- Target new sports- city level tournaments, introducing in schools
Tell me something about yourself.
Under infrastructure, discussed about:
Point out 5 key highlights in your CV.
- Coaching centres
- Facili es - Equipment- quality, quan ty
- Coaches- pro ciency level, ad-hoc basis hiring from other countries
Under promo on, discussed about:
- New sports- Awareness, IPL like tournaments, promo ons by other sports celebs
- Already prevailing sports- facili es quality, recogni on, iden fy reason for drop outs
Discuss about the extra-curricular ac vi es undertaken by you.
Why Mastercard Advisors?
How are you a good t for the role?
Explain your role in Goldman Sachs. A bit deep dive into one of my projects which
involved regulatory changes due to MIFID.
Quick descrip on of your role at GS & how that can help you in this role.
Case Interview – 2: Es ma on of Co ee Consump on in India
Case Problem: Es mate co ee consump on in India.
Approach:
-Started with total popula on. Divided it into urban and rural.
-For urban, divided it into income levels, then further divided into age groups and then consump on %
age for each group
-For rural, a small propor on to be considered for south India
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate on number of cards sold in a year
Case Problem: An interna onal airplane company wants to e up with a card company in Australia for royalty program for its customers. Guess mate the no. of cards
that can be sold in a year.
145
C: Does this airline has domes c ights as well in Australia or only interna onal ights?
I: Assume only interna onal ights
C: Are you looking for exact numbers or just the structure?
I: Structure is more important for me
C: Please give 2 min to form the structure
I: Sure
C: I'll split my customers into 3 major categories –
-students/youngsters ll the age of 23-25 who will be looking for travel points to get discounts on their
ckets
-Corporate Employees/Frequent yers - They will primarily want lounge access, etc.
-50+/senior ci zens - Similar requirement.
Post this I started sharing the fact that we can calculate the daily no of ights and the average no. of
passengers, etc.
I: I am okay with this. Thanks a lot.
Kri ka Nangia
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Delhi Technological University
Computer Science
Deloi e (9 months) – IT Consul ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Walk me through your CV.
Asked to explain work-ex and POR in detail.
Asked to delve deep into Crea ve wri ng and Reading (my hobbies)
Why consul ng a er computer engineering?
What do you know about Mastercard? Is it a payments company or a technology
company?
You don't have a single POR from IIM-Lucknow, why?
Will you be happy with an o er from Mastercard?
Case Interview – 2: Es ma on of Daily Co ee Consump on in India
Case Problem: Guess mate the daily co ee consump on in India in 2 minutes.
Approach:
-Divided into rural and urban regions as well as north and south
(Interviewer pointed out he doesn't need numbers)
-Urban - Maximum in corporate sector where we can assume 2 cups of co ee a day
-North India won’t have that much consump on apart from Urban sector by corporates and college
students
-South will have it both in rural and urban where we can say every family member consumes an average of 2 cups a day
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market entry case for a co-branded credit card
Case Problem: Your client is an Airlines company and they are looking to launch a Cobranded card at a par cular loca on with MasterCard. How would you advise the client to go about it and what are the factors you will look at?
Approach:
A er giving the case, the interviewer le the room for 5 minutes and asked me to complete my structure.
146
-I
divided
my
structure
into
macro-level
and
micro-level
analysis.
-I derived my macro structure on the lines of PESTLE with some tweaks customised to a payments card
and Airlines scenario. I checked poli cal stability to see viability of investments, economic propensity
(GDP, in a on and unemployment rate) and a ordability for air travel ( to understand growth in the
sector), Under socio-cultural I checked propensity for air-travel and digital payments ( speci cally asked
for card payments as well) and I checked Technical and legal infrastructure for payments using cards.
- In my micro analysis I checked if there will be a demand for such cards (if yes, then what kind: at
discounts, ge ng discounts on future trips), if our compe tors are doing something similar and if there
are any subs tutes. Finally, I recommended to check nancial feasibility (returns - investment required)
and any opera onal constraints (can’t give discounts on future
ights for example).
The interviewer just understood the structure and buckets and did not ask me to do any calcula ons.
Mansa Mudgal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Hans Raj College, Delhi University
Commerce
ZS Associates (20 months) – Consul ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Run me through your CV
Ques ons related to projects and pharmaceu cal industry
What exactly did you do at ZS Associates?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate on number of diet cokes sold in India
Case Problem: Es mate the number of diet cokes sold in India.
Approach:
Broke down the problem into a quan ta ve demand formula and then made the chart. Interviewer
was
impressed
and
even
overlooked
a
mathema cal
error.
Case Interview – 2: Market entry case for a co-branded credit card
Case Problem: Your Client is a European Airlines which is looking to launch a cobranded
Credit Card, to boost loyalty and customer base. Help your client decide, which market to enter?
147
Approach:
the me they decided to introduce the card to the actual introduc on. Went along these lines-
C: Asked clarifying ques ons: Geographical Loca on? Customers - present and poten al? About the
product. Compe on? Objec ve?
I: European Airline, only operates interna onal ights. Explained the meaning of a co-branded card.
The objec ve was to increase customer base. Was asked to create a structure within 2 minutes and
then he stepped outside
C: Drew the structure which had 4 componentsa. Country Selec on (PESTLE)
b. Industry Analysis (Porter's 5 forces)
c. Mode of Entry
d. The logical sequence of events
A er a 30 second summary of everything we already discussed, the next step would be to iden fy the
target customer base in the country we've selected. Based on our target market, we'll collaborate with
a bank that the customer likes and resonates with. Crea ng the perfect product with the needed funconali es and facili es would involve the understanding of our target base's needs and wants. We then
crea ng an o ering around this
I: Asked me to explain what each head would entail with more focus on the logical sequence of events
C: Gave a brief overview of the en re structure as follows
To create the perfect product, we'll have to see if we need to set up an R&D facility or if that would be
taken care of by the company, we hire to produce these cards. The next decision would be to see who
and from where we are hiring to produce these cards. A er the preliminary version of card is decided
on, we'll be rolling out the card on a test basis to a controlled group before the nal rollout. A er making necessary changes to our product based on the pilot programme's feedback, we would make a nal
rollout with improved services and would market it well. Ini ally, more services would be provided to
early adopters to s mulate demand. At the same me, we'll constantly be monitoring the environment
to see if there's any compe on popping up and the strategy to tackle that.
1. STP - First talked about how from a pool of South Asian countries, we should shortlist some based on
broad factors (sanity checks) and then do an analysis of the remaining countries. These factors could
be
a. Presence of the airline in countries
b. Customer base in each and revenue per customer
Countries standing at the top a er this scoring will be taken up
2. PESTEL - Poli cal Factors - Stability and current rela ons with the country. Economic Factors Enough purchasing power to e ec vely u lise the card. Social Factors - A tude and con dence in
these cards, also if the lifestyle would eventually support it. Technological Factors - Adequate infrastructure in place. Legal Factors - If the country would even let the airline introduce the card
3. Porter - At this point, the interviewer only asked me to explain what each header meant
4. Mode of Entry - Again, gave a basic overview of di erent modes of entry. The interviewer was interested in the logical sequence of events, so we sailed through this one
5. The logical sequence of events - I weaved this like a short summary of everything we've decided and
how we would go about introducing the card. This was basically the company's journey mapped from
148
Ashutosh Doliya
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
BITS Pilani, Pilani
Mechanical Engineering
Nestle' India Limited (23 Months) - Project Management
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Quick introduc on.
Choose any one industry, and if you are with one of the CEO of an MNC in that industry, what insights will you give him as a consultant? (5 mins discussion)
Explain your work in Nestle'.
What are three things that you would want to point out from your CV?
Brief descrip on of project work in Nestle'.
What are three things that you would want to point out from your CV?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Improving produc vity of port opera ons
Case Problem: You are a port authority and you have to improve the e ciency and
produc vity of port opera ons.
Ini al clari ca on on port loca on, types of services o ered & goods transferred and various operaons occurring at the port. Then, the interviewer told me to jot down di erent areas in which I would
break this problem and what parameters would I consider for each area. Taking a journey approach, I
jot down the journey from a ship/vessel arrival to departure and had a discussion on parameters for
each
category.
149
Case Interview – 2: Reducing opera onal costs for a pharmaceu cal company’s factory
Case Problem: There is a pharmaceu cal company and they need to reduce operaonal costs for one of their factories.
The interviewer told me that a pharma company wanted to decrease it's per unit opera onal cost, how
would I go about it. Ini al clari ca on on the factory, manufacturing unit, and goods manufactured.
Clari ed the scope of cost reduc on. Then divided the opera onal cost along the value chain and discussed
parameters
a ec ng
cost
in
each
func onal
area.
Case Interview – 3: Cost reduc on for a US based BPO
Case Problem: A US-based BPO needs to reduce costs. Please design the tree structure for di erent costs that can be considered.
Number problem:
Given the following data about a company in a transcript: number of accounts, the amount in each
account, xed cost and variable cost, percentage fee charged on each account basis the amount in that
account. Then they had given a revenue target and I was asked about the percentage increase in
amount per account so as to achieve that revenue.
Emil Benny
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
St. Stephen’s College, Delhi
Economics
Fresher (0 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself?
One thing that you are extremely proud of in your life?
Why management consul ng?
Ques ons related to college life and how did I perform there?
What are your main leanings from football and how it will help you in your job?
How was my last interview? Ques ons based on my internship? Why McKinsey?
Ac vi es you were a part of in college?
What are the things you would like to do post summers in IIML?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market Es ma on for an Online Game
Case Problem: Can you es mate the revenue of PUBG? OR the poten al revenue for
next one year?
C: Yes. Can I have 1 minute to structure my thoughts
(In the mean me, I was coming up with what all things I should es mate)
C: I think we can have 4-5 di erent revenue sources which are in-app purchases, Ini al app purchases,
adver sements in between the gameplay, tournaments (both in app and an external environment),
merchandises, revenue generated streaming of the game play, e ups with media enterprises for them
to leverage our exis ng fan base
I: We will look at each of this one by one, quan fy certain variables and try to use proxies/qualita ve
150
variables for other. Where do you want to start?
I: Let’s assume that you have es mated the market. What else do you need to look into now?
C: I will start with adver sement (Discussion went on to derive an equa on based on adver sement
frequency, no. of seconds, me of the day, the consumer segment)
C: I will start with es ma ng no. of people using PUBG. (Typical guess mate procedure. Also, we
looked at the average spending per consumer and reasons for that, which I answered as consumerism
and social pressure)
C: We should look at our exis ng capabili es and challenges we my face. The changes we have
to make in our system, new technologies, addi on of human capital, new distribu on and a er sales
mechanism, whether we have to start new showrooms for that. Challenges will mainly be focused on
crea ng a market in India, either based on superior technology or low cost, the marke ng and adversing techniques we should employ, the ini al investments we need and where exactly we enter into
the value chain
I: How do you calculate revenue from tournaments and merchandises?
I: Thank you, Emil.
I: Next we can look at the in-app purchases? Can you es mate that?
C: (It was mainly discussion of how to further mone se PUBG. I drew analogy from Avengers with respect to the merchandise sec on. I proposed to have regional/na onal level tournaments in collaboraon with di erent organisa on. Also having tournaments in Tier2/3 ci es was discussed.)
I: Now how do you think we can further mone se it?
C: Matches can be streamed through YouTube/social media and can be mone sed. (He wanted something more for which I came up sports be ng and how it can be made feasible here. The discussion
ended there)
Case Interview – 2: Market Entry into Retail Space in India
Case Problem: We are an established retail seller in India. We want to enter the
smart device segment? How would you proceed doing this?
C: (A er asking for some me, I explained the approach I will be following) I will be es ma ng the market size, looking at the current compe ve landscape and current capabili es & challenges.
I: Can you es mate the market for the products? Or the sales we can get per year?
C: I have used the typical top down structure with lters like age, income, employment, place of residence and average consump on to reach the number
I: This is the typical one. Can you come up with other di erent methods?
C: We can es mate the sales happening in a par cular showroom, in terms of no of people visi ng per
day, average buying per consumer etc. We can nd the total produc on if there exist a supply constraint, and es ma ng through that route. (He wasn’t very convinced. He asked to move on)
151
Gautam Shah
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
BITS Pilani
Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Masters in Economics
Microso (37 months) - Sales and Marke ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself.
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Disease Eradica on in African Country
Case Problem: You’re mee ng the Minister of Health of an African country. The agenda of the mee ng is to discuss a disease which impacts people below the age of 4 and
causes paralysis. It is also a life-threatening disease. The disease is preventable, there
is a vaccine for it. There are 4 doses that a child needs to get before the age of 4. And
this vaccine needs some cold storage and specialized distribu on capabili es. What
are the ques ons you’d ask? Create an issue tree out of it.
I: See, below 4 years of age, those who have the disease can’t be cured and those who don’t
have it need to be prevented. Above 4 years of age, those who have it can’t be cured and those
who don’t have it will not contract the disease. If we reduced the problem to just those who are prone
to ge ng the disease, what would your issue tree be?
C: In that case, I will look at it from the perspec ve of a lifecycle. First, is there awareness about the
disease, its symptoms and that it can be prevented through a vaccine. Second, how are the vaccines
administered – through drops or in hospitals. And are vaccines available at all health facili es? Third, I
will look at a ordability. Are the vaccines being subsidized and is the target group able to a ord the
same or not. Fourth, accessibility and distribu on of vaccines, does the country have the specialized
condi ons like cold storage etc. to ensure smooth distribu on & storage of these vaccines. And nally,
pa ent experiences. How easy or di cult is it to administer, are there any illnesses or side e ects a er
administra on. These are the issues that I’ll discuss with the Health Minister. In addi on to these, I
would also want to understand who is opera onalizing the whole ini a ve and get to more tac cal
things like campaigning etc.
I: Okay, this was very comprehensive. One or two things that you could’ve been incorporated were – i)
any prior ini a ves for similar diseases that the government had taken, how were they handled and ii)
Who are the people who can be collaborated with for this project. Now we have some data, I want you
to quickly do some es ma on of the total number of vaccines that need to be administered on the
basis
of
this.
Dummy data:
C: I’d like to rst understand what are the me constraints and capital constraints we are working
against?
I: Objec ve is to eradicate the disease completely in two years and we don’t have any capital constraints yet, we have to nd this out
C: Okay, broadly, I’d look at four pillars; i) children below 4 years who have the disease, ii) children below 4 years who don’t have the disease, iii) children above 4 years who have the disease and iv) children above 4 years who don’t have the disease
152
No. of vaccines administered
No. of people administered to
0
300,000
1
260,000
2
80,000
3
70,000
4
65,000
Gopish Gupta
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Madras
Chemical Engineering
EY (35 months) - Strategy consul ng, Commercial due
diligence
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself.
C: (Came to an answer)
I: Okay ne, now interpret this number for me
C: Assuming 300 working days in a year, X number of vaccines will have to be administered every day.
This seems to be on the higher side and we currently don’t know if it’s feasible since we don’t know
about the budget alloca on and how we will go about targe ng so many people on a daily basis
Tell me something good that you did in EY.
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Es mate revenues for Uber in Lucknow
Case Problem: Let’s say that Uber wants to enter the Lucknow city. Can you es mate
the revenue for the same?
C: Hi, Gopish. Are you feeling nervous?
I: Hello, sir. Well, I would be lying if I said no. But I think it’s the good amount of nervousness
C: Great. Why don’t we solve a case now? So, we are in Lucknow, right? Let’s say that Uber wants to
enter the Lucknow city. Can you es mate the revenue for the same?
I: Okay, so my approach to solving this would be to es mate the total popula on that uses Uber and
then mul ply it with average commission per trip and frequency of use
C: Okay, so let’s rst understand what all revenue sources does Uber have?
I: Commission from the rides, adver sing on app and cars, maybe some commission from payment
gateways, brand promo ons by using coupon codes
153
C: Are you missing one more thing?
rides from passengers coming to the Lucknow airport in a day.
I: Uber Eats. They have also started delivering food
I: Sure, sir. I’ll just take a moment to structure my thoughts
C: Yes. So, revenue from Uber will not be just trips – but also all these things. Now let’s focus on only
the revenue from car rides. What types of customers do you think will use Uber? Also tell me what do
you think about their frequency of usage?
C: Sure, take your me
I: Lucknow comprises majorly business class people. Among those people who will use Uber – they will
be people who have an income above a certain threshold. Low income people will take auto rickshaws
instead
The rich business class already have cars; hence they will use Uber for services like chau eur services
or if there is no parking available in the place. Assuming 1 trip to shopping mall and 1 to the restaurant
a week
The business class who doesn’t own a car will be using it for almost everything. From going to o ces to
restaurants.
Among the service class people, who are based out of Lucknow and also who travel from outside will
use these cabs. Since these cabs get reimbursed, they would probably use them all the me.
C: What else can you think?
I: They also provide rental and outsta on cabs – so people can use it when going for vaca ons
C: What else?
I: (A er 10 secs) My approach to solving this would be to es mate the number of passengers coming
out of Lucknow airport rst. Since all these would be high-income people who could a ord ights –
they can also a ord Uber. Next, I would segment these people into various categories (Home coming,
Corporates, Others) and mul ply by the average earnings per passenger
C: Sounds ne. Let’s proceed
I: Assuming Lucknow airport has 1 runway strip and there is a ight every 15 mins and the airport operates for 20 hours – that gives 80 ights per day. Now we have to see how many are direct/connec ng
ights
C: Assume all of them are Direct.
I: Okay. So, 80 ights per day. Now in each ight, 6 seats, 30 rows = 180 passengers. Assuming 80%
occupancy we would arrive a 10-11,000 passengers per day coming out of Lucknow Airport. Now let’s
es mate average fare per ride
C: Assume that people travel for 3 distances from Airport. 4 kms, 10 kms, 16 kms.
I: Okay, assuming that a passenger is equally likely to travel any of this distance – fare = 80 (for rst 4
kms) + [average (4,10,16)-4] *10 = 140 INR. Assuming 20% commission = Earnings = 28 ~ 30 INR. We
are also assuming that every passenger takes a separate cab – which might not be the right assump on
I: People also use it to drop their children to schools. Some mes, mothers don’t know how to drive and
they have to use Uber or autos for the same.
(Someone knocks at the door)
C: Okay, what do you think about the price sensi vity of each type of customer?
C: So, total earnings include 30*10,000 = 30,000 INR. Is there something else to be done?
I: Well, service class people will not mind paying more – as all of it is billed to the company. For the
business class people, it really depends on their income. People with lower income can use the Uber
Pool service as it signi cantly lowers down the cost. For children going to schools – for safety, the parents will send them in Uber even if they don’t earn much
I: Yes, so 30,000 INR is available for earnings for all. But Uber would be able to get only a share of it
C: Great. Now that we have a fair understanding, let’s es mate the revenue Uber would generate from
Service class people (20% of total passengers): These people don’t know the city. When they land, they
look for a cab immediately. Assuming that they will not take autos and local taxis are not there in Lucknow – they will either take Uber or Ola
Home coming passengers (75% of passengers): There people know the routes well and hence can bar154
gain with the auto rickshaws. Also, family members can come to pick them up. That would leave with
~50% share for cabs (25% for Ola and Uber each)
Others (5% of passengers): These include the people who have come for vaca ons. Lucknow will receive a very small share of these passengers. Assuming 2% here for the lack of data and also this would
be very insigni cant
That leaves us with ~37% of the passengers. That gives a daily revenue of .37*30,000 ~ 11-12,000 INR
I: Great. That would be it. Do you have any ques ons for me?
C: Not really, sir. I have asked all the ques ons to my buddies already. Thank you!
C: Sure, sir
I: So, you are a consultant to a bank – let’s say something like HDFC bank and they have come up
with a security whose returns are linked to returns of gold. That means you invest in cash and the returns that you will get will be same as the returns in the gold market. Who do you think would be customers of this security?
C: Okay, so just to clarify – if I invest 1000 INR in this security today, I will get x% return a er a year
that will be the return of the gold market
I: Yes
C: So, rst would be investors who would have invested in gold market would now buy this security.
Also, investors who would like to diversify their por olio
I: Okay. Who apart from investors?
Case Interview – 2: Iden fying target customers for a new nancial product
Case Problem: So, you are a consultant to a bank – let’s say something like HDFC bank
and they have come up with a security whose returns are linked to returns of gold.
That means you invest in cash and the returns that you will get will be same as the
returns in the gold market. Who do you think would be customers of this security?
I: Hello, Gopish. How are you?
C: Hello, sir. I’m good.
I: Great. How do you think your last case went?
C: I think it went well, but I could have done be er
I: What do you think could have been be er?
C: I should have asked more scoping ques ons and should have taken me in the beginning
I: No issues. Let’s do a case now. We’ll do a case without using pen and paper. Just a conversa on,
okay?
C: There will be people who want to hedge their posi on, like selling in the gold market and buying
here
I: That’s ne. Investors is one bucket. What else?
C: Government can invest
I: Okay, who else?
C: Households maybe. I’m just thinking out loud
I: Yes, that’s the purpose, go on
C: So, households have lot of gold. And they primarily use it in marriages. So, what if a family wants to
use certain amount of gold for the marriage a er 4-5 years – they can invest the amount and buy the
same amount of gold whenever they need in future
I: Excellent. So now you have this big bucket of investors and a small bucket of middle-class households. How would you pitch this product to each one of them?
C: For investors, if we can complete transac ons faster than the usual systems. Also, if we can charge
them lesser transac on fee on the account. We can also provide exibility in terms of the amount that
can be invested
155
For middle-class households, word of mouth plays a very important role in publicity. These people are
a very close-knit community and trust only when someone trustworthy can vouch for it. In such cases –
use cases, targe ng key in uencers will be the key to promo on.
ish soon. Also, the brand is being associated with tradi onal watches, so signi cant branding has
to be done for smart watches.
I: Okay, that’s great. I think we can end the case here
I: Correct. Good, Gopish.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
I would like to know more about you and the sector you work in
Case Interview – 3: Market Entry into smart watches industry
Case Problem: You are an accessories brand who also sells tradi onal watches
through owned outlets. You want to enter the smartwatch market in India. How
would you go about it?
C: Okay. (Asked him few ques ons). Sir, would you like me to ask ques ons or shall I assume certain
things
I: You can assume. Just let me know your assump ons
C: Sure, sir.
(Explained the market entry framework on how I would check for di erent things – spoke for ~ 3-4
mins)
I: Okay. What do you think are the key risks for this?
C: Macro-economic risk: Slowdown in economy leading to lower disposable incomes
Supplier risk: If the components have to be sourced from single supplier or imported
Compe
on risk: Already present players with signi cant share in the market
New entrants: Other countries are ahead in the innova on and their products/companies can come
into India
Other risks like – tech is a highly disrup ve sector and hence if you are not innova ng fast you will van156
I: Assume that we are dealing with a bank like HDFC that caters to a wide variety of customers
Medha Verma
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi
Economics
Ci bank (6 months) – Investment Banking
IPE Global (16 months) - Development Consul ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself quickly.
Why consul ng?
Asked about my work in Enactus - related to a dairy project; learnings; achievements, failures
What did you like the most about your experience?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Iden fying target customers for a new nancial product
Case Problem: Our client is a bank and it has come up with a new nancial product.
The product is such that the returns are linked to gold. We have to gure out what
the value proposi on is and who can be the customers for this product.
C: Okay, if I understand correctly, our client is a bank that has developed a new nancial product
wherein the returns are linked to gold and we have to ascertain what the value proposi on will be and
what customer segments we can target. Is there any other objec ve?
I: No, we can s ck to this for now.
C: Okay, I’d like to understand a li le bit more about the bank and its o erings currently and the kind
of customers it targets
C: Okay, now I want to understand the product more and how it works. And how is it di erent
from the other products available in the market?
I: It is like any other nancial instrument and in fact you should tell me what the value proposi on is
and what makes it unique.
C: Okay, could I take a minute or so.
C: So, I have listed down certain parameters on the basis of which we can evaluate the value proposion; a) me horizon of investment b) how risky is the investment c) what is the kind of support available from the bank to make and monitor the investment; d) how the product fares as compared to other nancial products in the market
I: Okay, but you have gone a level deeper, rst tell me why do you think makes this product unique?
Why do you think people would invest in it viz-a-viz other products? Leave the pen and paper aside,
let’s have a conversa on
C: One reason could be that in this case people don’t have to bear the hassle of storing gold in its physical form at home or in lockers. Second reason could be that the wear and tear associated with gold
will no longer be an issue if this product is invested in.
I: Okay, now who do you think will invest in this product?
C: Assuming that it’s linked to gold and it is supposed to be a safer and more secure investment, people who expect long term stable results. We can look at an exis ng investor class that invests in products with similar risks associated and households who are saving for the long term. Perhaps also jewelers who deal with gold as a business.
I: Let’s focus on households. Do your parents invest in gold? Think from their perspec ve. Why would
they invest in this product?
C: So typically, households invest in gold on auspicious occasions, on fes vals and weddings. Parents
start saving much in advance for these occasions.
I: Correct, so why do you think households will invest in this product as compared to xed deposits
which risk-averse households invest in normally?
157
C: Okay, so in this case, the risk associated with deple on of value of money ll the me they actually
require the gold from the me they start inves ng money, will reduce. That’s what makes this a desirable investment
I: Okay good, now tell me how you will market the product and posi on it for households?
of buses for example, the frequency, maintenance and rou ng can be worked upon. Safety of
public transport can also be worked on. (ii) To increase the demand for public transport; some
measures can be taken to limit usage and purchase of private vehicles like higher taxa on on purchase
or some regula ons that disincen vize usage of private vehicles
C: First, we should bring in the emo onal and family angle associated with the product. And parents of
young children should be targeted. Second, the products can be for di erent me horizons, shorter
ones for annual fes vi es and longer ones for those saving for weddings. Third, products can be of
di erent cket sizes, for people with di erent incomes and risk appe tes.
I: Okay, we will end the case now. What do you think about the case?
C: I think I could have been more structured in my approach
I: For the next interview, I’d suggest you get to the insights sooner, and you should be good to go
C:
Sure
Case Interview – 2: Mobility issues in the city of Pune
Case Problem: Our client has approached us to solve mobility issues in the city of Pune. The average speed of vehicles on the road has decreased, the me taken to commute has increased.
C: Okay, I’d like to know what are the exis ng modes of transport available in the city?
I: There is no metro. Only buses and taxis. And the number of private vehicles has increased mul fold
in the city. Another issue is that the commercial hub is situated a li le away from the city.
C: Okay, I will take a minute to draw out a structure.
C: Mobility issues could be because of a) increase in distances or b) conges on; To mi gate the rst
issue two things could be done: (i) construct highways or other connec ng facili es to reduce distances
to the commercial spaces (ii) in the long term – try to integrate the commercial spaces in such a way
that they are more accessible from residen al spaces; To resolve the conges on issue we could look at
it from the perspec ve of (i) current supply of public transport and how that can be improved. In terms
158
I: Just cars
Nishant Sharma
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
C: Seems like the road tra c is a li le more than what the capacity permits.
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi
Management
McKinsey Knowledge Centre (23 months) – Strategy &
Corp. Fin.
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Why do you want to move to a consul ng role with McKinsey?
What was your role working in McKinsey Knowledge Centre?
How did you nd your experience with McKinsey?
What did you like most about your experience?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Tra c Conges on along the Hinjawadi – Pune corridor
Case Problem: Pune is facing tra c conges on along the Hinjawadi-Pune corridor
(comparable with Gurgaon-Delhi corridor). Can you iden fy why that is happening
and how do we solve this?
C: Sure. Can you share a bit more context on Hinjawadi as a loca on?
I: It’s a suburb in the vicinity of Pune, where a lot of business spaces have been set up
C: And the people who’re traveling to this place are then mostly o ce goers?
I: Yes
C: How many routes exist for this passage if an o ce-goer wants to travel to Hinjawadi?
I: Just one
C: How many modes?
I: Correct. How do we solve for this?
(Took 30-40 seconds)
C: We can do this broadly by ‘Crea ng’ or ‘Controlling’. Depending on what our opera onal constraints
are, we can either create the requisite infrastructure to support excess travel or we can make sure this
travel doesn’t happen at the same intensity as earlier. Do you want me to look at any speci c bucket in
detail?
I: Let’s look at all of them one by one, and see what all ideas can be there
C: Sure, let’s look at crea ng rst, given that also promotes other ac vi es. Depending on the kind of
funds available, we can think of crea ng more modes of travel including metro rail. The other way is to
create more capacity road-space wise, which is a common measure when routes get congested.
I: Okay, what about controlling?
C: Within controlling, we can look at ways to incen vize people to use less of the road. Given these are
jobs, going to o ce will s ll be required. We can target more public or shared transport to make sure
that more people commute per unit of space occupied on the road. This could include buses, pooled
transport mechanisms (gave example of Shu le). Another op on is to follow puni ve measures
(maybe on the lines of Odd-Even scheme in Delhi) and limit number of cars on road.
I: Okay. So, crea ng such infrastructure will take me in the short run, though controlling seems ne.
What else do you think we can do within controlling?
(A er spending about 20-30 seconds on it and having received a hint from him)
C: We can also see if people need not travel to Hinjawadi on a daily basis. Apart from o ce spaces, are
there any residen al spaces and the requisite supermarkets, leisure zones for such audiences in Hinjawadi?
I: Some residen al projects have come up, but there is a dearth of requisite infrastructure (including
malls, supermarkets) around them.
C: Okay, one of the other steps then need to be to contain people within Hinjawadi on weekdays and
cut down signi cant travel where possible. Residen al projects in accordance with who the target audience is should come up, and crea ng public and private infrastructure around it is crucial.
I: Good. What bo lenecks do you expect for a residen al project builder and what can be done to tack159
le them?
C: There could be bo lenecks in the en re process from him procuring licenses to nally selling units.
Broadly, there could be land procurement issues (buying from exis ng owners, nancial angle, the
quickness of the process), economic viability of building the project at Hinjawadi (considering distance
from raw material sites, availability of workers) and nally, being able to sell it to the customers
(con rmed if Fitbit is a comparable, the interviewer said it is). So, if our smartwatch is designed
to cater to a speci c need like Fitbit, then we would have a large quantum of data at our disposal which is of immense value to a lot of other companies who build their STP from it. The ethical considera on of sharing this data is another factor, though
I: Okay, what else?
(He pointed out to bureaucracy in the process as one of the bo lenecks and the projects being economically not viable to some extent, and asked for ideas to tackle these)
(At this point, I men oned smaller revenue streams like complementary accessories and enabling crossselling on goods that can be operated in a networked way, like Apple’s)
C: Tackling bureaucracy is a long process. If the decision-maker is a government posi on-holder themselves, then they may be able to put some recommenda ons a er iden fying speci cs of why redtapism is so prevalent in Hinjawadi. Otherwise, they could forewarn developers in some way for them
to s ll meet expected melines. To improve the economic viability of the project, the Government
could help developers with reducing the costs of construc on or manage demand necessary to breakeven by reducing the nancial burden on the buyer
I: Okay, can you es mate the market we might be able to capture?
I:
Okay,
that’s
all.
Thank
you.
C: Sure, do we have es mates for the market size for smart watches in India?
I: Nope, no idea
C: Okay, do we have any data on the conven onal wrist watch industry and what % of it is consistently
taken over by smart watch industry in India annually?
(Provided gures for annual conven onal wrist watch industry and made me come onto a reasonable
smartwatch penetra on number)
Case Interview – 2: Market Entry into smart watches industry
C: Do we have any es mate as to how much of this market can we capture?
Case Problem: Our client operates in the small devices industry manufacturing products like watches. They operate out of India and would like to enter the smart watch
industry. Please iden fy the revenue streams they can target
I: Not at this stage.
C: Sure, who does the client sell to presently and through what channels?
I: Yes, let’s do that.
I: Majorly to any customer who wants a watch and through its stores.
(Assumed 25% share of annual market revenues, and asked for numbers around industry growth. Also
checked and assumed for a growing market share over me, included it in the 3 years revenues for the
client)
C: What does the current and poten al compe
I: Current compe
companies.
on look like?
on is a fragmented industry, but the industry they want to enter is dominated by 3
C: So, if it’s a growing industry with not enough compe
market as other compe tors 2-3 years down the line?
on, is it fair to assume an equal share in the
C: Thanks, that’s all.
C: Okay, do you want me to focus on what all is feasible or just see what all is possible for revenue genera on?
I: Let’s look at ideas without seeing if the company has resources/R&D to be able to do it at the moment.
C: Okay, so rst is the hardware sales of course. This could come from its own showrooms, or lis ngs
on e-commerce. (had a 1-2 mins discussion around the same) Next could be the sale of data.
160
trucks at A, loading is handled by the client’s client.
Gullapalli Ravi Teja
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Kharagpur
Electrical Engineering
American Express (21 months) – Strategy Analy cs
Essex Lake Group (12 months) – Business Analyst
(Consul ng)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Just give a brief of what you did in Amex? (spoke about membership rewards – related to interviewer’s background)
Tell me something that’s not in your CV.
Do you want to do a case or just want to chat?
C: Alright and how is the billing done?
I: Let us explore that further into the case
C: Is this problem speci c to us only?
I: Industry is doing pre y well. Our client is the market leader in terms of revenues. But while others
are making 8-10% pro ts, client is making 20% losses
C: What kind of customers does the client serve?
I: B2B model. Anyone can be the customer, primarily into trucking only. Would like you to get into the
details of the case now
C: First I’ll start with cost. I will explore xed costs, opera onal costs and any other miscellaneous cost
heads. In terms of xed cost, I’ll explore truck procurement, whether the client rents it or buys it
I: The client has his own eet. There is no issue here, you can move on
C: In terms of opera onal costs I’ll evaluate cost of fuel, drivers, wages, maintenance
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Pro tability of a B2B logis cs rm
Case Problem: Let’s do a logis cs case. The client is a logis cs rm that is into trucking. The way they operate is, they provide the complete truck to the company (B2B)
from a par cular loca on to another loca on. While their compe tors are making
pro ts, they are not. Find the reason and give sugges ons on how to turn their business around.
C: I would like to know more about the client and what is the kind of business they operate? Where are
they present and what is their business model?
I: The client is involved in transpor ng goods from one place to another. They have pan-India operaons. In terms of business model, imagine that there’s a loca on A and another one B. Client provides
I: These aren’t problem areas, move on
C: Okay, then I’ll explore any miscellaneous costs like HR, admin and if it’s an accoun ng issue
I: The issue doesn’t lie here either, move on
C: Okay, I’ll explore the revenue side now. If I was owning a trucking business, I would calculate revenues as = no. of trucks*no. of trips/day*no. of kms/trip/day*no. of days. In this respect, I’d like to
know if we have enough trucks, are our trips enough or we can do more trips, is there any lag in the
no. of kms the trucks travel or the number of days they operate for?
I: No, there doesn’t seem to be any issue here.
C: Okay, in that care should I go through cost again?
I: No, look at revenue only
C: Is the client’s turnaround me at par with compe
on? How do we charge our client’s client? Do
161
the trucks stay at the des na on ll there’s no one to bring back? What is the length of the trip?
I: So that’s right, we have shorter trips and lesser billable me as compared to compe tors. How can
we go about rec fying this?
C: We can look at netuning the exis ng business by scheduling be er to maximize truck u liza on
and plan for longer trips. Or we can try to modify the business itself i.e. instead of giving the complete
truck, it is possible to divert the truck and use it for mul ple clients and stocks.
Sauhard Gupta
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
IIT Delhi
B. Tech. Mechanical Engineering
Analyst, Goldman Sachs (2 years)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
CV speci c ques ons
Disha related ques ons
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Market Es ma on & Analysis for Lifestyle Manufacturer
Case Problem: Your client is a lifestyle manufacturer; it wants to enter smart devices.
What’s the value proposi on? What are the number of devices that it can sell in the
next 5 years?
C: I’d like to clarify what exactly you mean by lifestyle manufacturer and smart devices?
I: The client manufactures watches, jewellery etc.
C: Okay and what do you mean by value proposi on?
I: Tell me the possible revenue streams
C: Possible revenue streams could be: (i) Apps, (ii) Fitness App, (iii) Fitness packages, (iv) Partnerships,
(v) Data-related
I: Okay, what do you think are the costs that will be incurred for all that you’ve men oned?
162
C: For smart watches there will be associated so ware and hardware costs, cost of se ng up a producon line and distribu on channels. Apart from this there will be costs of app development team and a
salesforce for managing partnerships
I: What do you think will be market size in the next 3 years?
C: I will approach it this way – eliminate the popula on that will not be using such devices based on the
straigh orward popula on approach. Then divided the remaining on the basis of low cost, medium
cost and high cost watches (e.g. Mi, Fossil & Fitbit, iWatch respec vely). Es mated a size of roughly
20mn, further es mated that 10% can be captured by the client, making the target market 2mn. Further, assumed a 10% market growth rate, therefore in three years, approximately 7.3mn devices can
be sold.
Utkarsh Agarwal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
St Xavier's College, Kolkata
Commerce
Fresher (0 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me something about yourself
Why McKinsey?
What did you do in your internship?
Why basketball and what all have you learnt from the sport?
Which is your favourite team and favourite player in NBA?
Why consul ng?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Industry level problems and poten al solu ons
Case Problem: Iden fy the problems the industry (of your choice) is facing and suggest measures to tackle each problem and achieve growth.
I: Which industry do you want the case to be based on?
C: I have interned with a jute manufacturing company. Can we do that?
I: That's very niche. Do you have any other in mind?
C: Automobile or steel?
163
I: Since you said that you love reading the newspaper and are into quizzing, I am assuming that you are
aware about the current situa on of the automobile sector?
C: Yes, sir
I: Iden fy the problems that the industry is facing and suggest measures to tackle each problem speci cally and achieve growth.
C: I would like to take some me to gather my thoughts
I: I don't need the structure, just list down the problems
C: 1. Transi on to BS 6
2. Financial liquidity due to NBFC crisis
3. Customer sen ment is low
4. Increase in raw material prices and royalty payments to parent company
5. Threat of electri ca on of vehicles at a super-fast pace
I: That's great. Now, how will you go about solving them?
C: I would like to break down my solu on into internal and external factors- internal factors are directly
related to the automobile sector and external are macroeconomic in nature.
I: Give me speci c solu ons for speci c problems.
C: 1. For transi on to BS6, the auto companies have to adhere to the standards and as the date is also
con rmed by the Supreme Court, there will be no changing of that date. The company can manage
inventory be er to avoid huge stock of BS4 engines. Also try and develop in-house technology for the
same to avoid paying a premium to other companies.
2. Consumers don't have access to cheap source of funds despite repo rate reduc on. the industry
can lobby with the government to force banks to transmit the rate cut at a faster rate. The companies
can come up with their own nancing arm like luxury car makers (e.g. Mercedes) have. The companies
can look at leasing cars (Mahindra just started this model)
I: Great. That will be it.
Case Interview – 2: Improving basketball as a sport in India
Case Problem: Sports like cricket and badminton have their own popular
leagues, but in basketball only NBA is popular. Why does India not have its own
league?
C: The common link between sports that have a league in India like cricket, badminton, kabaddi is that
India is one of the best in the world at it, but in basketball Indian players aren't that good
I: How can we improve basketball in India?
C: (talked about how to improve from each stake-holders perspec ve)
1. Infrastructure- investment in infrastructure (new schools should have a basketball court)
2. Coaches- can get foreign coaches ini ally to build exper se, then develop coaches in-house
( nancial and non- nancial a rac veness to become a coach)
3. Public- improve sports publicity in the country
4. Players
I: How will you ensure players become be er?
C: I would like to talk about tangibles and intangibles - tangibles would cover the nancial aspects like
salary, job security (a lot of players play the sport for jobs in metro, railways, police etc.), re rement
bene ts etc.; intangibles would include payer development (making sure they have right resources like
equipment, coaches, infra), recogni on (public support)
I: That will be all
Case Interview – 3: Reviving the economy/increasing GDP growth
Case Problem: GDP growth has come down to 5.6%. How will you revive the economy?
C: I would look at supply and demand issues.
In supply, I would consider the companies that are responsible for produc on of goods and services. In
164
demand, I would look at how to revive consump on of country.
To increase demand, I would boost personal disposable income by reducing tax rates. I would also improve nancial liquidity in the country by pumping in money in PSUs and ensuring be er nancial inclusion. This would spur spending.
People would start buying consumer durables and even the automobile sector would revive.
I: What about the supply side?
C: The e ort should be directed to making the companies globally competent and ensuring they work
e ciently.
Removing all red tapes that are s ll existent, improving labour laws are some more factors.
165
Abhisek Parida
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
NIT Rourkela
Electronics and Instrumenta on Engineering
Oracle India Pvt Ltd (47 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself.
So, tell me Abhisek, how will your work ex help in Product Management role in Optum?
Tell me what does a product manager do? And how is it di erent from a project
manager?
What are your long-term and short-term goals?
Will you stay in a company for more than 3 years straight?
Abhisek, are you a mobile person or a desktop person?
Name 5 apps that you use frequently, and 3 features in one of them that you can
improve.
What is sen mental analy cs?
What is marke ng myopia? Give an example.
What is the di erence between sales and marke ng?
If asked to launch a new product, who all will be its stakeholders?
What is MVP?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
166
Case Transcripts
Utkarsh Pandey
Case Interview – 1: Short of Uber cabs post IPL match
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Case Problem: Let us solve a case. But solve it as a product manager and not as a
consultant. You are from Uber. A er IPL match ends everyone wants a cab and o en,
we see a shortage in cabs- how to address?
SVNIT, Surat
Electrical Engineering
Fractal Analy cs - 36 months
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Approach:
What is product management?
(I followed CIRCLES framework)
Why do you want to choose product management as a career?
Comprehend the situa on and ask clarifying ques ons. – Ask basic ques ons like- what is the goal behind this? (I: Pro tability) Should we focus only on Uber or other compe tors as well and government
regula ons? (I: Only consider Uber)
Explain brie y any one project that you worked on.
I – Iden fy customers – All customers present in the stadium – adult to old people; people coming as
singles, couples, a 2-3-member group and a joint family; also consider UberGo and UberPool
R – Report customer needs – to get seats in a cab; not all seats get lled up; Uber cabs go with one
member only and seats for 3 members go vacant. (UberGo)
Case Transcripts
C – Cut through priori za on – booking based on number of seats solu on to be given highest priority
Case Interview – 1: Changes in favourite applica on
L – List solu ons – listed down and discussed below
Case Problem: What is the favourite applica on that you use and men on any 3
changes in it?
E – Evaluate trade-o s - none
S – Summarize recommenda ons – 1. Booking of UberPool to be given more priority than UberGo. 2.
UberCommute where people coming with their own vehicles can lend a ride to others. 3. Using google
analy cs or any analy cs algorithm on Uber App to track tra c. People usually open the app and close
it again during the closure of the match if they see a cab 5-10mins away. They believe that they can get
the cabs even if they book outside the stadium and normally fail to do so. So, redirec ng cabs where
there is more tra c rather than having more cabs where there is less requirement. 4. Making drivers
take trips of people going to places near the stadium so that more cabs can reach the stadium. 5. Surge
I: Are you a desktop user or mobile user?
C: I usually prefer for laptop for work and mobile for social networking apps.
I: 3 applica ons that you use frequently on desktop and mobile.
C: Men oned the names for both.
I: Pick any one of these and suggest any 3 changes that you would want in it.
C: I picked Instagram and suggested the 3 changes using the framework learnt in Product Manage167
ment mock interview.
I: There are no technical issues with the applica on. Analyse each of the stages and suggest
solu ons.
C: Men oned that it requires internet connec vity for opening the app. This might be one of the
Case Interview – 2: Process problem of Uber at airport
Case Problem: The in ow of cabs for Uber is more than the ou low at one of the
airports. As a product manager you have to solve the problem and give solu ons. Also, explain what is the issue that the company is because of this?
I: Gave the problem statement.
C: Repeated the problem statement and then explained that since the number of incoming cabs is
much more than the outgoing ones there will be an increase in the number of cabs at the airport. Thus
they are losing out on the customers who could have booked it outside the airport.
I: Great. Now proceed with the problem.
C: Started with the framework of CPCCP for asking clarifying ques ons.
Is the issue only with us or is it for compe tors also?
I: For all.
reasons for decline.
I: Ok. So, as a product manager what would be your solu on for it?
C: One could be se ng up Wi-Fi-centres with limited access me. Another could be tying up with food
centres near exit to provide free-Wi-Fi where mostly people start searching for cabs.
I: How would in uence someone who is not used to this app technology?
C.: Uber as a brand is already known to most of the people of any age segment. The issue would be
to make it accessible for booking cabs. The people not used to do this would prefer either the public
transport or the cabs available in the airport. So, on the way to the cab booking a booth could be setup
where they could be assisted in booking. The point of di erence would be the safety and easy loca on
sharing and price transparency.
I: Works. Now analyse rest of the case.
C: Explained the other pain points and share the solu ons on that.
C: Has there been a di erence in the number for public transport also?
I: We don't have data for that. Please consider yourself as a product manager and think what data
might be easily available for solving the problem.
C: Sure. Has there been a change in the number of cabs booked of any type and what is the trend for
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
Most interes ng case you have worked on?
other types also?
I: The same trend can be seen in all the cab types.
C: Started with the customer journey approach to analyse the pain points of booking cab at airport.
Men oned the various stages of booking the cab at the airport from opening the app to the payment.
Then asked whether there was any decline seen in customers for each step. (The data for this could be
accessed easily)
168
Divij Kashyap
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi
Management
Ernst and Young LLP (24 months)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Asked about Cricket as it was men oned in the CV
Internship in treasury department (term loans and bonds di erence)
What are the di erent deprecia on methods?
How to value a company?
Di erence between FCFFE and DDM
Explain WACC
What is ROE?
Explain each factor in the CAPM model
What is beta?
Principle behind beta
Levered beta and unlevered beta
How to convert levered into unlevered and why?
169
Vaibhav Thakare
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
College of Engineering, Pune
Mechanical Engineering
Trident Group (18 months) – Consultant
SBI (19 months) – Assistant Manager
I: What about the collateral?
I: What are the di erent types of LCs?
C: Inland LC and foreign LC
I: What else?
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
I: Have you heard of sight LC?
Ok. So, tell us about yourself.
C: Yes, sight and Usance are other types of LCs.
I: Do you know the di erence between LC and BG (It was there on my CV)
I: Why did you leave SBI?
C: Yes. Explained what is LC and BG. Ended the answer with a statement – LC comes into
e ect due to performance of the party whereas BG is invoked due to non-performance.
I: Do you know about the di erence in project nance and corporate nance?
C: Explained on the lines of returns, discounted cash ows and constant debt
I: Please explain it more. How can you say that BG is invoked due to non-performance?
I: The evalua on of debt in cash ows?
C: Explained about performance BG and Financial BG.
I: Tata steel se ng up a big plant is project nance or corporate nance?
I: When will you suggest LC and when you will suggest BG to a customer?
I: Why project nance?
I: Is there any collateral?
C: Yes. In BG, the customer has to deposit the required amount with the bank.
I: Why not general management and you can’t go away from general management. Are
you saying that you won’t be working on strategy etc. in project nance?
I: What about LC? Is there any collateral there?
I: How well do you know FRA?
C: It depends on the rela onship of the customer with the bank.
I: What’s deferred tax liability?
I: What do you mean by the rela onship with the bank? If I have opened an account with
you, do you call it a rela onship?
I: When do you create it? Take help from the concept of deprecia on?
I: Interest and tax shield concept
I: How do you recognize revenue for long term contracts?
170
Case Experiences
(HEPP)
Akshansh Agarwal
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi
Economics
24 months – Insurance Consul ng/Actuarial Consul ng
EY – Consul ng
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself.
Describe the live project you’ve done
What did you do with Enactus?
Tell me about these movies you’ve made.
Almost all my clients were insurance companies, except one which was a supermarket chain. So, I was asked to explain why were we working with a supermarket
chain when our exper se was in the insurance domain.
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate for DSLR cameras sold in India
Case Problem: Guess the number of DSLR cameras sold in India.
Approach
(Just as I was about to start, he saw I had made to lms in college. So, he asked me about that and
changed the guess mate to es mate the number of DSLR cameras sold in India.
172
My approach was to divide the cameras by the usage i.e. Personal and Professional. Then, I used demographic factors. One important thing to consider was the life cycle. At rst, I forgot about it but he had
men oned the term earlier in the interview, so I was able to recall it and tell him how I would use it.
C: Yes, I just had one. I did ask my buddy on call about this as well but wanted to get your viewpoint
on the same as well. Given that this is Deloi e USI and most of our clients are US based, who is the
actual driver of the project and where are we in the hierarchy when it comes to making decisions.
Akshita Bhawini
Undergraduate College
Banasthali University
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
Engineering
TCS (IT), 25 months
Pidilite (Marke ng)
Case Interview – 2: Market entry for pharmaceu cal company
Case Problem: The case was for a market entry case. It was a Pharma company
which was launching a new drug in a new geography.
Approach
I asked about the drug and the company, and tried to understand a bit about the disease. They answered ques ons about the drug and the company, but said discussing the disease wasn’t relevant to
the case.
I did the normal macro and micro analysis. They did push me to give answers speci c to the pharmaceu cals industry. So, I spoke about the regula ons regarding price and molecule. They pushed on why
price is important, so I tried thinking in that direc on. Then there were numbers to calculate the market size and market share. They gave all the data and the calcula ons were simple.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
Given that this is Deloi e USI and most of our clients are US based, who is the actual driver of the project and where are we in the hierarchy when it comes to making
decisions.
How have consul ng and client expecta ons changed over the years?
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
How has the day been so far?
Tell us something about your work experience.
Tell me something about yourself.
You did a marke ng internship, why consul ng now.?
Given the choice between Tech consul ng and a new domain, what would you
chose ?
What if you're stuck in a tech project and another project of your main interest has
an opening for you, what would you do?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: IRCTC based business problem
Case Problem: I am IRCTC trying to introduce dynamic pricing for 1st & 2nd AC class.
Also reduce the number of stops for the train routes. Iden fy the impact on costumers.
173
Approach:
C- Let's divide the problem in 2 parts. One, dynamic pricing. Two, reducing the number of stops. Ran
through basic CPCCP ques ons.
I - The end mo ve is to increase pro ts. But let's just focus on the impact this decision will have on customers.
C- Divided impacts into nancial and non- nancial. Further divided nancial into price sensi ve & price
insensi ve. Then we deep dived into why a person prefers a train in comparison to ights. Came up
with various reasons.
I - Why do you think there is a need for a refund policy?
C- Asked for data on the di erence in the railway and airline refund policies. (Don't assume straight
away that there is a huge di erence. I didn't. Was later informed that I may assume them to be the
same)
Gave few more reasons and jumped to the second problem. This was mainly verbal. No paper work. I
was just sta ng possible impactsI - Let's conclude.
Ankita Arora
Undergraduate College
Chartered Accountant
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Finance
Tata Teleservices Ltd, SS Kothari Mehta & Co.,
(Financial planning and analysis, Statutory Audits), 25
months
RIL Treasury
Summer Internship
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Introduce yourself.
What was your role in TTSL?
Case Interview – 2: Reduc on of costs for a data centre
Case Transcripts
Case Problem: I want to reduce costs for a data centre. Iden fy solu ons.
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate on number of iPhones sold in the US
Approach:
C- Used a structure similar to that of the pro tability type structure. Listed down all possible cost elements. Divided them into three buckets, human resource, IT/technology and general admin expenses.
Listed deprecia on under general admin expenses and so ware and licenses under IT head.
I - If so ware license is a main IT cost, why are deprecia on and amor za on under general admin
expenses?
C
(immediately
realised
the
mistake
and
corrected
it)
Keep in mind that the so ware amor za on and hardware deprecia on will come under IT costs and
not
general
admin
costs
as
its
main
costs
for
a
data
centre
I – Can you list more cost elements?
C- (Kept lis ng elements ll the interviewer concluded the case)
Case Problem: Es mate the number of iPhones sold in the US in 2018
Approach:
I: I want you to es mate the number of iPhones sold in the US market in 2018
C: Started with popula on of US which I didn't know, and honestly admi ed, interviewer asked me
to take the basis of India's popula on and area. I took 1/4th of the popula on, which I jus ed and
started working, asked some clarifying ques ons regarding which model of the iPhone to consider,
whether
to
consider
both
rst
hand
and
second
hand
phones
etc.
On the basis of income groups, adop on rate and replacement cycle arrived at a number.
(forgot to consider age, which was incorrect!)
Case Interview – 2: Mergers and acquisi ons case involving balancing product
por olio, divestment and growth strategy
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Case Problem: Consumers product company trying to rebalance its por olio and
wants to look at raising capital
Approach:
C: I started asking about the company, products, and the need for rebalancing the por olio
I: Can you think of any reasons?
C: I need to know about the product por olio rst, then look into which products are making margins and which products are not as well as the growth poten al of each product
I: Any other reason why you need to know the por olio?
Ekta Sharma
Undergraduate College
JIIT, Noida
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
B.Tech. - ECE
Infosys Ltd. (34 months) – IT
PwC – FS and Digital Strategy
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
C: I can only think of margins and growth poten als
Walk me through your CV
I: How will the company raise capital?
Why consul ng as a career?
C: I started with conven onal equity, debt etc but was interrupted and asked to think from an M&A
perspec ve. That's when I said divestment!
I: (Provided some data on products, customer base, revenue, margins, future poten al.) Choose two
products to divest, and two products to expand on
C: Came up with 2 products in each. Lesser margins and declining market projec ons were the reasons to divest. The products with higher poten al and high margins were picked to invest further.
I: Further data pertaining to growth strategy op ons listed for one of the products picked for further
investment. Choose between the following op ons: own set-up, acquisi on company A, acquisi on
company B and a JV. Parameters given were me for steady growth, expected revenue, investment
amount,
risk.
C: Struck o each op on one by one, the key observa on was me to market wasn't given but it was
me for steady growth which was men oned. Thus, even the op on which took longer me could be
correct.
Biggest challenges faced during work experience
Any resistance faced while leading the team?
Few more ques ons from CV and work done in internships
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Guess mate on amount of cash carried every day on a speci c
metro route
Case Problem: You are travelling on Blue line of metro and person si ng beside you
is a pick pocket. He wants you to guess the amount of cash carried on Blue Line in a
day
(He asked this ques on because I had travelled in metro) (Ques ons on why certain
approach was taken and things that he think should have also been considered)
Case Interview – 2: Guess mate on amount of cash carried every day on a speci c
metro route
175
Case Problem: You have a start-up of ear-ring business in your hometown, es mate
your poten al customers.
Raghvendra Rajan
(He asked me to assume whatever I like regarding business model when I asked detailed ques ons about the start up. I believe he was interested in looking the approach and what all factors I'll be considering while making the assump ons instead
of directly telling what they are)
Undergraduate College
Haldia Ins tute Of Technology
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
Computer Science & Engineering
Infosys Ltd , (Applica on development),51 months
OLX India (Market Research)
Case Interview – 3: Merging businesses present across loca ons
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Case Problem: Your client has opera ons in 6 di erent loca ons and one day a
thought of merging everything to 1 loca on crossed his mind. How will you help him
decide if he should go for it or not and if yes, then how?
Introduce yourself.
How was your experience working with European vs US clients?
Brie y explain your work experience.
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
Currently Deloi e India has started a diversity drive in their o ces. Why this drive
speci cally and what is their target?
Is there any di erence in service to Deloi e's old and big clients as compared to
others?
Apart from Indian clients, what other geography's clients does Deloi e India serve
and what are the chances for travelling?
Explain the case and its solu on that was given in round 2 and also the logic behind
the proposed solu on.
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Internship speci c guess mate
Case Problem: Es mate the increase in annual revenue of OLX if the business problems you worked on during your summers are xed?
Approach:
Brief Background of my summers project: OLX's primary source of revenue in the cars ver cal is the
subscrip on packages that car dealers buy in order to post mul ple ads on OLX pla orm. The average
package cost would be roughly around Rs 8000 pm.
Guess mate Solu on:
In order to compute the increase in annual revenue for OLX, I used a number of dealers who were leav176
ing the pla orm due to the exis ng issues as a proxy and checked with the interviewer if it is ne to
proceed further with this assump on.
A er his consent I took average package costs and mul plied it with the number of dealers leaving the
pla orm annually and gave my es mate.
Case Interview – 2: Reduc on of IT budget for retail giant
Case Problem: It was a role play where I was the Deloi e consultant and my two interviewers were my clients. The scenario was like this: There is a retail client and they
have an IT budget of 800 million and they want to reduce their IT budget by 100 million in 3 years.
Approach:
I started with clarifying ques ons regarding the distribu on of IT expense and then they provided me
with the breakdown of the IT budget in 4-5 domains like employees expenses, so ware licencing, Hardware refresh, Infrastructure like Data Centres and user devices like computers, switches, routers etc
Among all the costs employee related expenses were the highest , hence I explored the exis ng structure of resources deployed in IT and the avenues of automa on to cut costs.
I also explored the possibility to do away with data centres in a phased manner and move the set up
onto Cloud to make the rm asset light. (I feel this worked for me because the interviewer seemed
impressed)
I also explored the possibility of developing so ware inhouse rather than purchasing licence but interviewers denied it saying it will increase the cost. In this whole process they were very par cular about
ge ng the numbers and then check if with the proposed changes I will be able to meet the required
target of reducing the IT budget by 100 Mn.
Raj Agarwal
Undergraduate College
PDPU, Gandhinagar
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
Civil Engineering
TATA Chemicals (Opera ons) , 19 months
YES Bank (Risk Management- Credit Risk)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Tell me about yourself.
Ques ons related to summer internship - what was the work around, what were
the recommenda ons suggested by you (the discussion went on for about 20 mins)
Why Deloi e?
Why SCM?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Data driven guess mate on freight charges
Case Problem: Es mate the freight charges (one way) for a 20-ton truck going from
Lucknow to Delhi
Approach:
I - Es mate the freight charges (one way) for a 20-ton truck going from Lucknow to Delhi
C – (Took 30 seconds to write the heads.) 1) Fuel cost 2) Maintenance Charges 3) Driver + Helper salary 4) Deprecia on Cost
I - Do you want to add more charges?
177
C – (I asked for 1 more minute to think of other costs.) Then I came up with 5) Insurance cost 6) Toll
charges 7) Any other taxes such as state tax for movement of commercial goods
(Calculated the values of each head by asking for suitable data from the interviewer)
Case Interview – 2: Three separate business problems
Case Problems:
1) Pro tability case - Client is a tyre manufacturer and is seeing declining pro ts (45-50 mins)
2) You are the project manager of a 5 crore project iden fy 5 KPI's to measure performance (8-10 mins)
3) What are the di erent cost heads in a typical manufacturing plant and how can you measure their
performance? (15-20 mins)
Approach:
5KPI's
1) Time - U liza on of bu er me and measuring it with respect to me u lized
2) Cost - Actual cost vs es mated cost
3) Leadership skills - was asked by the interviewer about how I would measure this. I said we could
carry out a survey within teams and among vendors about the project manager's leadership skills on a
scale of 1-10. Leadership skills being ownership, communica on, me management, etc. and assigning
a suitable weight to each of them.
4) Scope of work - can be measured by the number of changes you do to your ini al planning
5) Don't remember!
Manufacturing Cost
1) Raw Material - Contracts with suppliers
2) Processing Cost - Technology used, labour vs capital intensive, quality (measured by the number of
rejects)
3) Storage Cost - Electricity consump on, rent, labour, etc.
Pro tability Case
I - Client is a tyre manufacturer and is seeing declining pro ts
C - Asked all the clarifying ques ons about both company, customer, compe tors (forgot to ask about
the product and its types)
Started with the regular revenue and cost break-up structure. The problem was on the revenue side.
Probed more into the demand and supply side. There was no problem with demand (4P framework)
and supply (Porter’s Value Chain). (I was stuck and asked for a minute to gather my thoughts) Then, I
asked about the industry trends and product types and their CAGR.
I - There are two types of tyres namely Base and Radial. Radial is growing at a faster rate than Base.
C – (I was clear in my mind that the problem might lie in the product mix.) Hence, I asked about our
client's product por olio.
I-80% of the revenue comes from the Base tyre segment which is growing very slowly. Also, the industry is shi ing from base tyres to radial ones.
178
I: Let’s say we have decided to open it
Vikas Jha
Undergraduate College
NIT Patna
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
Mechanical Engineering
BPCL (36 months) – Marke ng, SCM
Cloudtail – E-Commerce
C: (Started asking about Market, compe tors etc.)
I: Let’s pause this. I want to calculate approximate daily revenue of this store. How can I do it?
C: (Started guess mate and said it can be done from supply side and demand side, but would be easier
from demand side.) So, should I go about exploring demand side?
I: If demand side is easy, let’s do it from supply side
C: Ok. (Started doing guess mate from turnaround me perspec ve and made a tree structure)
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
I: You have missed an important point in the guess mate
Walk me through your CV
C: (Told him the aw a er trying 2-3 guesses - I calculated revenue considering only one delivery person
and later corrected it to mul ple delivery persons)
Why consul ng as a career?
I: Agreed with the nal guess mate number
Why did you leave BPCL?
How was student exchange?
You have an interes ng surname. Do you know its story and origins?
Why did you choose to do MBA?
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
Asked about shared services specialisa on of Deloi e India
Asked about various roles o ered post requirement
Why did you choose NIT Patna?
What do you think about oil industry?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Speci c market’s entry strategy and market sizing
Case Problem: How would you go about opening McDonald’s store in Shipra Mall?
Calculate daily revenue of a McDonald’s store from supply side.
C: Before I proceed, I have some clarifying ques ons
C: (Started with market entry framework. First started ques oning as to whether we have decided to
open store or are we yet to decide it)
179
Apoorv Singh
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
ISM (IIT), Dhanbad
Petroleum Engineering
ONGC (30 months) – Drilling Opera ons
ReNew Power – New Business Development
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
Introduce yourself
Why consul ng?
Picked up 1 project from the work experience and asked to explain how I went
about it. What were the challenges faced and 3 key learnings out of it?
Asked extensively on some of the points men oned in work experience and how
did I come up with those numbers men oned in the CV
About hometown, how is the MLA doing there, some general poli cal discussions
Asked in depth ques on about the internship experience. Asked to explain the
whole model. How the bidding process in done, how the industry has transformed
over the years, tari s charged, model formula on etc. Then grilled again on the
work-ex related CV points. Asked about the posi ve and nega ve sides of previous
180
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 2: Strategy for usage of co ee planta on assets
Case Interview – 1: Network provider’s growth strategy
Case Problem: Suppose a rich business family buys all the co ee planta on assets of
late CCD owner. Help them with what to do next.
Case Problem: The network provider didn't have a clear strategy when it got into
business, and now the growth is stagnant. Help with the same.
C: What business does the family currently operate in?
C: (Reiterated the problem statement. Asked qualifying ques ons like which kind of services does it provide, who are the customers, which geographies it serves in, compe tors & market share, price sensi vity etc.)
I: It's in shipping business, it owns a eet of 10 ships and does import/export of goods
I: The client provides infrastructural network services to banks and other nancial ins tu ons. It is
based in Germany and operates across Europe & USA. There are 5-6 other players doing the same kind
of business and market share in fairly evenly distributed. Customers are price sensi ve
I: No constraint as such
C: (Took some me to structure the problem)
The growth strategy for the client can be looked from the aspect of Product & Market. Within Product,
I'd like to explore 2 avenues. First, the modi ca on of exis ng features or removal of redundant features, and secondly, addi on of new features. In the markets I'd like to focus on the exis ng markets
and the new markets
I: Fair, proceed with the product segment
C: (Took more clarity on the features of the product)
Gave some ideas on improving the product, such as digi za on, remote access, ease of payment opons etc. Removal of redundant features can help us to lower the prices, which will be helpful in the
price sensi ve segment. Subscrip on packs and feature speci c service op on can be provided
I: And how would you increase penetra on in markets?
C: In the exis ng markets, we need to cover more nancial ins tu ons. It can be done through promo ng the product. More sales force should be on-boarded and training should be provided for the
same, product can be featured at conferences etc. In the new markets, a basic module of the product
can be launched in South East Asian markets. Considering the client operates in US & EU where the
product needs to be more technologically sophis cated, in the new markets a low priced, basic feature
product can be pitched to the nancial ins tu ons so as to penetrate the market
I: Okay, that'd conclude our case
C: Do we have any constraints in terms of investment, me, or degree of ownership the client wants to
retain in business
C: Is the client having any experience in the co ee industry, or owns any other assets like re neries of
co ee beans or outlets? And, is the client willing to set up the business anywhere or in India only?
I: No, the client has no experience in the co ee business and preferably wants to operate in India. Tell
me the op ons
C: There can be 3 op ons. First, the client can re ne those beans and sell them through CCD/Starbucks
type retail outlets (Formed a value chain for the same). Second, the client can re ne the beans and see
the co ee to the customers directly, like Bru, Nescafe etc. Thirdly, the client can directly export the
co ee to buyers who are interested in the same
I: Evaluate the three op ons
C: The rst two op ons will require huge investment as the client has no re ning, distribu on or retail
facili es. Second op on will be rela vely cheaper than rst as we are selling only the packaged co ee.
Further, promo onal and selling expenses will be incurred in both. In the third op on, the client will
have synergies as it already operates in the shipping industry, and can directly export the co ee from
the planta ons to the buyers
I: Suppose the client wants to choose the model where it re nes and then serves the co ee through
the cafes such as CCD. How can we generate revenue out of it?
C: By selling the variety of co ees to be served there, selling the packaged co ee, other food items,
adver sements and selling other products like co ee mugs etc.
I: Can you es mate the number of people who will be going for the shop?
C: (Did a quick guess mate to arrive on the co ee drinking popula on in metros, and how many will be
willing to come to outlets)
181
I: How will be the ones coming to the outlet di erent from the ones only buying packaged co ee?
C: In terms of revenue being generated from them. The ones coming to the outlets are there not for
product but an experience which generates more revenue
I: Right. (Concluded the case a er a general discussion regarding the same)
Case Interview – 3: Iden
ca on of opportunity for investment
Case Problem: The number of football enthusiasts in India are rising rapidly. It's a
booming business. Suppose an investor wants to invest in some avenue related to
football, how will you help him out?
Rajat Gupta
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
Jaypee University of Informa on Technology
B. Tech (Computer Science)
Accenture (44 months) – Informa on Technology
NatWest Markets, Royal Bank of Scotland Technology Strategy
C: What business does the family currently operate in?
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
(Was given no pen or paper. The interviewer wanted to keep the case as a general conversa on, asked
straight forward to iden fy the op ons and choose any one to proceed)
Tell me something about yourself.
C: I'll try to list down all possible avenues of business related to football and the yearly revenue generated by all of the, the YoY growth and the customer base. There can be op ons such as inves ng in
construc on of football stadiums, football accessories, merchandise, local football clubs, organizing the
event etc.
Considering that the number of football fans have grown rapidly, suppose, I see that the football merchandise segment has seen a huge increase in revenues, we may proceed with the same. Next phase
will be to understand the legal or regulatory condi ons, if any, to operate in the business. Then I'd consider the industry a rac veness
I: Okay. Suppose this segment is a rac ve. How will you launch the product?
C: The product should be a di eren ated one so as to set apart from the compe tors. Including all
club/team jersey, sizes, colours, name personaliza on op ons need to be provided. The product can
me an eco-friendly one, as in the material used to make the product comes from recycled plas cs so as
to evoke the interest of the environmental enthusiasts. Awareness about the same can be increased by
promo ng the product through o ine and o ine media. In the o ine, product can be adver sed in
sports magazines, newspapers etc. In online channel, we can use precision marke ng to target ads to
the popula on who are interested in football based on their YouTube, FB page subscrip ons etc. Blogger can help with the same. Celebrity endorsement will help provoke interest through expert opinion
etc. The product should be made available through retail outlets and online channels.
Why do they use pink ball in test cricket?
Brie y describe the projects that you worked on at Accenture.
What is digital transforma on?
Which all SDLC models have you worked on?
Tell me something about the M&A cycle.
What is the di erence between V model and agile methodology?
How would your friends describe you?
Key areas of improvement?
Given your me at Accenture, if they were to give you an o er would you accept
it?
How do you feel about interna onal travel?
What if a company were to o er you a role in US? Would you accept it despite
PwC’s o er? Why consul ng and why PwC?
What are some of the challenges when leading a team and how did you go about182
resolving those?
Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Acquisi on strategy for applica on development company
Case Problem: Suppose you are an applica on development company A and you
want to acquire another company B. What will be your approach towards this acquision?
C: Before I proceed, I have some clarifying ques ons
I: Go ahead
Shravan Bhagirath
Undergraduate College
Field of Gradua on
Work Experience
Summer Internship
R. V. College of Engineering
Electronics and Communica on Engineering
Deloi e Consul ng India Pvt. Ltd. (32 months) – IT
Consul ng
Mars India – Brand Strategy
C: What is the purpose of this M&A?
HR and Work Experience Ques ons
I: Diversi ca on
How would you think you'd t in for this role at PwC?
C: What are applica on A’s and B’s o erings?
Majority of the ques ons were work-ex related and they were trying to gauge my
I: One is an e- commerce company selling consumer goods and another is an apparel company
understanding about each and every process related to my project, given my work-
C: Where are their headquarters?
ex was technology consul ng oriented
I: Both are based out of US
Technical discussion about academic project and publica on.
C: Sure, sir. I have most of the things I need now and would like to proceed
Deloi e o ers a similar role, then why PwC?
I: Sure, go ahead
C: The due diligence would be categorised into 4 parts- people, process, infrastructure (hardware+ so ware) and policies (went on to explain their components in detail)
I: Ok. So, now that the merger has gone through, how would you go ahead with the integra on of
these services?
Why Consul ng?
How do you manage con icts? Give an example.
Do you get angry? How would you like be managed?
Are you more e cient working in teams or working individually?
C: (charted a roadmap for integra on, wherein I de ned targets and metrics for each step)
How should I remember you?
I: Ok. Let's say, company B incurs a lot of costs on data centres. How would you go about this?
What are you passionate about?
C: (detailed the components of cost centre and asked whether the facility is underu lized)
I: Yes, it is underu lized at the moment
C: (Proposed moving the services to cloud as it o ers more scalability and cost reduc on)
How do you think you can contribute to the rm?
What excites you about Digital Transforma on?
Which industries in the US do you think have been the quickest at adop ng digital
transforma on and which ones are the slowest?
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Case Transcripts
Case Interview – 1: Opera onalising a merger
Telephonic Interview – 1: About work experience with Deloi e
Case Problem: Two mobile development companies, one which makes games for kids
and the other that makes games for adults, have agreed to a merger. Please tell me
what would be the basic steps for integra on? What would you ensure for Day 1
readiness?
I: I see that you've worked at Deloi e before your MBA, can you tell me more about what did during
your s nt there?
C: I worked as an Analyst in Deloi e's Technology consul ng prac ce, speci cally in the Systems Integra on service line, aligned to BFSI clients. Throughout my tenure at Deloi e I worked in a single project, a large-scale technology transforma on implementa on for an American Insurance client.
(Gave a detailed monologue about the whole project as he was interested in knowing more and asked
clarifying ques ons. Talked him through the details about the industry, how the client was performing
with legacy systems and processes, what technology-based solu on was advised by Deloi e and how it
was implemented. Told him about the tools, technology, frameworks and processes that were used)
I: What was the development model employed for this project and why? How did you co-ordinate development?
C: (Agile sprint-based development employed given the clients requirements were dynamic and the project was heavily me constrained. Talked about how we updated the client about progress every week
over call with walk-throughs for new features and objec ve alignment)
I: Can you explain the steps you took to customize an OOTB solu on based on the client's needs?
C: A step by step process which includes understanding the client's incumbent solu ons, their objecves which de ne their needs, choosing the right technology solu on, de ning the transforma on
strategy, integra on with external service applica ons
I: Can you tell me your understanding of what PwC does for IT M&A?
C: (Talked about few basic things that I'd read and researched about from their JD including their Tech
restructuring and transforma on strategy, risk and opportunity analysis, IT Integra on & separa on,
systems and process integra on, due diligence and nancial models for IT)
I: That's great. You men oned synergy savings and stranded costs, can you explain those?
C: (Answered it based on my research from online sources)
I: How do you think you'd t in the DDV IT prac ce at PwC?
C: (Talked about my work-ex being a strength as I gained experience interac ng and understanding the
client’s requirements)
C: (Talked him through the four stages of IT integra on: IT Environment Assessment, Gap/Fit analysis &
ra onaliza on, Funding/Sta ng and project deployment. Asked him clarifying ques ons within this
framework to understand the technologies (Hardware, Applica ons, data), the processes followed and
other capabili es that the two merging companies possess. First, I tried to map synergies, nd gaps
that need to be lled and integra on strategies for di ering aspects and suggested some basic suggesons for each of these factors. For day 1(Deal Close) readiness, the core data and applica on access
should be well de ned to avoid hiccups in core opera ons (game development) in the two companies,
solu ons for connec ng users. De ning and implemen ng business and nancial KPIs and repor ng
applica ons is crucial as it helps gauge the success of integra on and the merger as a whole and
whether the two combined en es are showing results as predicted. Support is crucial day 1 readiness
requirement)
I: What would you recommend pertaining nancial repor ng in the context of day 1?
C: (Told him that it's crucial to align nancial repor ng and KPIs to measure the nancial impact of the
merger on the revenue streams and the various costs pertaining to a game development company.
Understanding of the various nancial repor ng applica ons is crucial and decision on the best soluon of the combined en ty should be taken)
I: How would you manage contracts & licenses for the combined en ty? Would the merger be advantageous?
C: (First, the various contracts and licenses with external vendors should be audited to understand
whether they're required post integra on. Required contracts will have to renego ated with the vendors as the context has now changed and larger organiza on would mean that the organiza on now
has higher bargaining power in the contract nego a on. In case new contracts/licenses are needed,
the due process of need analysis, search, selec on and review should be done)
I: The combined en ty is facing a lot of down me due a locally located data server malfunc oning regularly. What would you suggest? De ne a basic cost model for the same.
C: (Triangulated the pain point being di culty in maintenance of the local data server. Suggested employing web service providers to take their data and applica ons onto the cloud. Talked about moving
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from a capex to opex model, savings in terms of eliminated down me and maintenance, costs in terms
of migra on and subscrip ons)
Ques ons asked to the interviewer (if any)
Can you tell me what an Associate in the DDV IT prac ce would be responsible for?
Which par cular industry would PwC consider to be its forte in terms of IT M&A?
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