Structured Thinking Key to Case Interviews

Acing the Case Interview & Guesstimates
A Primer to
Structured Thinking
By CareerBright
1
Interview process of various type of functions
Case Interview
Consulting Guesstimate HRQ
(2-3 rounds)
Marketing HRQ Guesstimate Marketing case
Product Guesstimate PM tech case HRQ

Management
General HRQ
Situation
General case
Management analysis
Notes: Above information is produced to be best of the instructors knowledge 2

What do you see common in all the interview types?
Case Interview
Consulting Guesstimate HRQ
(2-3 rounds)
Marketing HRQ Guesstimate Marketing case
Product Guesstimate PM tech case HRQ

Management
3
General HRQ
Situation
General case
Management analysis
Notes: Above information is produced to be best of the instructors knowledge

Why learn ‘Structured Thinking’?
Never taught but

always evaluated
during interviews
4
Source: Google Images
Why learn ‘Structured Thinking’?
Top candidates
demonstrate it.
5
Let us understand through an example.
Company’ hiring costs have gone up.

● What could the the reasons?
6
Source: CareerBright | Acing the Case Interview & Guesstimates
Example #1
Company’s hiring costs gone up

● Unstructured approach:
○ Company did advertising which did not benefit due to COVID
○ Bought expensive subscription did not benefit
○ No of people recruited went down
○ Hiring senior leadership positions which is usually expensive process
7
Example #1

● Unstructured approach:
○ Company did advertising which did not benefit due to COVID
○ Bought expensive subscription did not benefit
○ No of people recruited went down
○ Hiring senior leadership positions which is usually expensive process
8
Source: Google Images CareerBright | Acing the Case Interview & Guesstimates
Example #1

● Structured approach:
○ Problem could be with no of people hired or with cost per hire
9
Example #1

● Structured approach:
○ Problem could be with no of people hired or with cost per hire
○ Let’s says it was no of people hired.
○ It can further be split into hiring for
(1) replacing natural churn (people resigning or getting terminated) or,
(2) Meeting expansion plans
10
Source: Google Images CareerBright | Acing the Case Interview & Guesstimates
Case #1: Profitability
Our client is a major retail bank facing declining profits and is unable to compete. You have been
approached to find the problem and suggest changes.
11
Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

• Problem specific to a
Profit
particular branch
Revenue Cost
12

Profit
particular branch
• Issue with costs
• Fixed cost of employee
salary higher than Revenue Cost
competitors
Fixed Costs Variable Cost
13

Profit
particular branch
• Fixed cost of employee
salary higher than Revenue Cost
competitors
Fixed Costs Variable Cost
Maintenance Bad Customer

Rent Costs Salaries Debts Handling Costs
Depreciation, Utility Exp
14

Salaries
particular branch
• Fixed cost of employee No. of Salary per
salary higher than
competitors
employees employee
Same salary structure
15

Salaries
particular branch
salary higher than
competitors
employees employee
Lower Management Staff

Middle Level Staff
Level Staff
16

Salaries
particular branch
salary higher than
competitors
employees employee

Middle Level Staff
Level Staff
Comparing with ex.1

You don’t have to
break things in same
way every time
17

Salaries
particular branch
salary higher than
competitors
employees employee
• Low efficiency of Same salary structure
employees
• Multiple visits by customer Middle Level Staff
Level Staff
for any service
Customers more Employee

demanding efficiency
Customers visiting Training is less
multiple times
18
Questions for practice.
Try breaking these problems in structured manner.

● Revenue of a AC Manufactured went down. Diagnose.
● Estimate environmental impact of a car.
● Ad revenue is down for a Media company. Diagnose.
● Should a Pharma company enter into US markets?
● Should Cadbury launch a new chocolate category?
19
How could you have thought about
Ex #3. Estimate environmental impact of a car.
1 2 3
Before Use During Use After Use
Raw Assembling Sales

Material
Disposal Recycling
Service
Manufacturing Spatial Cost Running Cost Cost
20
How could you have thought about
Ex #4. Ad revenue of a media company.
21
Learn exhaustive methods to break problems in structured manner in our course.
22
Learn exhaustive frameworks to approach different types of cases in our course.
Methods of segmentation
23
Value chain framework
24
Framework for identifying right synergies in M&A
25
How to decide mode of market entry
26
Assessing market attractiveness
27
Many more frameworks for different case type
e.g. new market entry, growth, product launches
28
Register for our course ‘Acing the Case
Interviews & Guesstimates’ click here
Early Bird Discount till May 15, 2020

Course Start May 23, 2020
Alternative link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JVVPFW8
29
Our Course Portfolio
Acing the Case Interviews and Guesstimates (Consulting)
Telling stories with Data using Analytics & Visualization (Data Analytics)
Equity Valuation & Applied Investing (Finance)
To know more & register
Early Bird Discount till May 15, 2020

Course Start Date May 23, 2020
Alternative link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JVVPFW8
www.careerbright.in
30
End note...
Structured thinking is an acquirable skill, once acquired

helps throughout the career.
31

Structured Thinking Key to Case Interviews

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Structured Thinking Key to Case Interviews

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Acing the Case Interview & Guesstimates

Marketing HRQ Guesstimate Marketing case

Product Guesstimate PM tech case HRQ

Notes: Above information is produced to be best of the instructors knowledge 2

Marketing HRQ Guesstimate Marketing case

Product Guesstimate PM tech case HRQ

Notes: Above information is produced to be best of the instructors knowledge

Never taught but

Company’ hiring costs have gone up.

Company’s hiring costs gone up

Company’s hiring costs gone up

Company’s hiring costs gone up

Company’s hiring costs gone up

Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

Fixed Costs Variable Cost

Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

Fixed Costs Variable Cost

Maintenance Bad Customer

Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

Lower Management Staff

Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

Lower Management Staff

Comparing with ex.1

Interviewee Notes Approach Framework

Customers more Employee

Try breaking these problems in structured manner.

Ex #3. Estimate environmental impact of a car.

Raw Assembling Sales

Ex #4. Ad revenue of a media company.

Value chain framework

Framework for identifying right synergies in M&A

How to decide mode of market entry

Assessing market attractiveness

Early Bird Discount till May 15, 2020

To know more & register

Early Bird Discount till May 15, 2020

Structured thinking is an acquirable skill, once acquired

You might also like