ISB Consulting CaseBook - 2013 PDF

CONTENTS
Sl No. Topic Pg No.

1 Letter from the Presidents’ 3
2 CV/Cover Letter Preparation 5
3 Case Interview Overview 10
4 Case Frameworks 14
CASE EXPERIENCES
5 Accenture Management Consulting 43
6 AT Kearney 60
7 The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 82
8 Booz & Company 142
9 Deloitte 153
10 McKinsey & Company 185
11 Oliver Wyman 282
12 Parthenon 314
13 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 337
14 Siemens Management Consulting (SMC) 344
15 ZS Associates 363
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FROM THE PRESIDENTS’ DESK ……..
Dear Consulting Enthusiast,
I take immense pleasure in sharing Co2013 case book with you and I hope this document acts as
a good guiding document during your placement preparation process. With non-consulting firms also
slowly shifting towards case based interview, I feel that case interview preparation is a good starting
point for any type of interview preparation.
As with the standard consulting practice of ‘Rule of 3’, I have three messages that I would like pass on.
1. Consulting as a Career should be a carefully made decision – In a school like ISB, which is known
for a high percentage of consulting jobs, it is easy to choose consulting as a career option
without much thought. If you were to track the career evolution of the alums that joined
consulting firms at ISB, you would find a slightly different story. Hence, I would strongly urge you
to shed the herd mentality and evaluate the consulting as a career option very carefully.
Please ask yourself these questions before choosing consulting as a career –
- Have I done adequate research about consulting jobs or am I choosing it because it is

‘preferred’ by all students?
- What is a typical work week? What’s the Career progression and what are the exit options?
- Does my current situation suited to get into a consulting job (Family situation, years of work
experience, location & travel etc.)
- What do I want to do in long term? Can I start doing that right away after ISB?
2. Start early, Stay Focused – Preparing for consulting shortlists / interviews is by no means an easy
job and the competition makes it even tougher. You should have a ‘placement mindset’ right
from Term 3 to be able to put your best foot forward. Later in this document, you’ll find tips
around resume writing along with tips for case interview preparation. Few basic rule of thumbs
that I would want to leave with you
- CGPA is important and most firms (not just consulting firms) would like to look at it. Don’t
focus on CGPA just for the sake of it, but try and ensure you’ve internalized all the concepts
taught in the core terms – this helps a lot during interview preparation.
- Networking, by itself, will not get you a shortlist – it just provides you with necessary
information to equip yourself better for a shortlist / interview.
- Excess networking not only confuses you with multiple opinions, but sometimes makes alum
feel that you’re being intrusive.
3. There are no set rules or frameworks to crack a consulting interview – Although this case book
outlines a lot of best practices and frameworks, there’s no best framework to solve a case. You’ll
notice in the case interview experiences that different candidates use different frameworks to
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solve the cases. I would strongly encourage you to use these frameworks are guidelines and
prepare your own frameworks that you’re most comfortable with.
I would also push you to go through case books from previous 2-3 years while you’re preparing for
the interviews. Books like Case in Point etc. are also a good source of case interview questions. But the
best preparation for case interview is repeated case practice with your case group. While the ideal
number of students in a case group is arguable, a three to five member group would be best to work
with. The ideal time to start case interview preparation would be immediately after the first few
consulting shortlists are out (typically during mid to end October, if Day 1 is scheduled mid-December).
I wish you all the best with you placements and sincerely hope you get your dream jobs. I’d like to
thank all my colleagues who contributed their case interview experience for this case book. I’d also like
to thank the alumni involved in guiding us through our placement process as well as contribute ideas to
this case book. I’d also like to thank my core team especially Prateek Trivedi, Anshul Singhal and
Apeksha Khandelwal in drafting Co2013 Case Book – without you guys, this case book would have never
taken shape.
Warm Regards,
Manoj Muthu Kumar & Ankur Seth
Presidents, Consulting Club, Co2013
4
CV/COVER-LETTER PREPARATION
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Introduction
Resume building marks the start of the placement preparation at ISB. It is the pamphlet you will need to
advertise yourself to every potential recruiter of interest. A resume is a tool which effectively
communicates your story and differentiates you from other candidates. It is ‘not’ a laundry list of
achievements you might have had in your life. Rather it should be a list of 3-4 strong points which are
able to highlight your key skill sets and achievements required for a successful management consulting
career. It is advisable to make extensive use of the KM portal & start your CV preparation immediately
after Term 3.
Expectations of top consulting firms from a good resume
Each consulting firm on campus has its own subjective/objective criteria of shortlisting of resume. It
completely depends on how you can highlight the relevant skill-sets better than others and convince the
firm that you have the ‘spike’ in your resume. Typical characteristics that firms look for in a candidate
are:
1. Analytical skills
2. Problem solving horsepower
3. Communication
4. Leadership
5. Client/Senior Leadership management
6. Business/Commercial knowledge
7. People Skills
8. Creativity
9. Quality of work experience
10. Non-Academic initiatives
STEP 1: Making the first draft
A good way to start preparing your resume is to write down all the achievements you have had on a
piece of paper. Once this activity is done, start prioritizing your achievements. Make sure you give equal
weightage is given to all the sections of your resume – academics, work experience and extra-curricular
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while selecting your achievements for the resume. You have only one page to advertise yourself. Use
every line of your resume wisely. Make sure that your achievements are recent but more importantly
give an underlining story about you as a person.
A good framework to draft your bullet points in an effective and impactful manner is context-action-
impact. For a good bullet point, make sure all these elements are mentioned. Impact if quantified
through numbers or comparison with known references leaves a better impression than an unquantified
one. For e.g. “Youngest to get promoted in 2 years” is good but “Youngest to get promoted in 2 years
against an average of 4 years” makes it even more impactful.
What constitutes a ‘spike’ in your resume?
You will hear this word umpteen number of times and still would fail to understand what it actually
means to have a ‘spike’ in your resume. The boundaries surrounding the ‘spike’ are very vague as you
guys will find out as your ISB journey goes along. In all humility, let me try and pen down my
understanding of this mysterious word. You need spike in any one of the three sections to get attention
of the reviewers:
Spike in academics: If you are among the top 10% of the ISB class. Extraordinary grade in your
undergraduation. Extraordinary GMAT score.
Spike in work experience: Brand value of your previous organization. Role and responsibility handled in
your previous job. Any significant value addition to the organization.
Spike in extra curriculars: Any significant position of responsibility (in ISB or outside). Extra-ordinary
achievement in sports/cultural events etc. can be used here. It is noteworthy not to write something
very inconsequential. Remember what you write as an achievement is reflective to the company of what
you think is an achievement? (THINK RELEVANT)
This illustration by no means implies that if you don’t have these things on your resume, your chances of
getting shortlist are by any means less. These are hygiene factors in resume which enhance your
chances of getting a shortlist from a consulting firm.
STEP 2: Quick Tests to check your CV’s effectiveness
“So what?” test
For every bullet point you write, you should ask yourself “so what if I did ___”. For e.g. if I have led a
team of 5 people on xyz assignment resulting in 10% cost saving. Now you should ask yourself “so what
if I have done this”. Is this a strong enough differentiator for it to come on my CV? Does it suggest a
strong skill required for consulting which gets communicated through this point and appears nowhere
else on my resume? Is it something which sets me apart from the rest or makes for an interesting read
for the reader? If answer to any of the questions above is yes, then keep the point or else discard it.
Half Page test
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Once the first draft of your resume is done, take a printout and fold it into half along the longer side
such that only the first half of every bullet point is visible. See whether the first half of every bullet point
gives the reader an idea of the content of the bullet point. If yes, the bullet point is correctly framed or
else you have to reframe the point in such a way that the first 4-5 words describe the point.
This rationale behind the test is as humans, we tend to focus more on the initial part of sentence while
scanning. Details in the middle part or the latter part of the sentence tend to get missed out when we
are hurrying through things.
30 second Test
This should be done when you have almost reached your final version of resume. Give your resume to
one of your friends who hasn’t seen your resume before for exactly thirty seconds. Take back your
resume after 30 seconds and ask him/her what he/she remembers about your resume and looking at
the page, what he/she can make of you as an individual in one line.
This test gives a check of whether the storyline you want to communicate through your resume is
actually getting communicated to a third person. If not, you need to focus more on the points which
reflect your skills sets and leave an impression on the reviewer.
STEP 3: Making the final draft
Once you have the draft resume with you, make sure that it sees enough eyes other than you so that
you get a feedback on whether your resume communicates the messages you want it to convey or is it
just another laundry list of bullets. Share your resume with your friends/family and ask them to
comment and ask difficult question. This is where your alums can be very helpful. Reach out to them
and seek their advice on how your resume can be improved. This process is very iterative and takes
most of the time in resume building.
Some Dos and Don’ts
Do’s
1) Think about your story in one line much like the positioning statement of a product funda of
marketing and make sure that your resume resonates with the theme
2) Check and double check any spelling mistakes. Take sample printouts to check for the margins.
3) If possible, stick to the ISB format. Don’t try to be extravagantly different in format.
4) Get constant feedback from family/friends/alums on your resume.
5) Visit the KM portal and look at previous years’ resumes of people who were shortlisted and
finally got the offer.
6) Use informational interviews rather than company presentations and websites to find out what
is really different about each firm, and why you would be a good fit.
7) Think carefully about which of the three typical CV formats (Chronological, Skill-Based or Hybrid)
you should use – there is no one “right answer” for everyone.
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Don’t
1) Mention anything fake or something you would not be able to pull off in the interview.
Remember, honesty is always the best policy.
2) Inflate numbers or your responsibility/work area. Interviewers have been shortlisting resumes
every year and can differentiate actual from inflated.
SUGGESTED TIMELINE TO BE FOLLOWED ….
The ideal time to start with your resume first draft is somewhere near mid-term 3. Take at least a week
to figure out your story i.e. how would you like to put forth your candidature. Have a look at various
resume of previous years on KM Portal. Also, get acquainted with ISB resume format by end of term 3.
First week of term 4 should start the iterative process of refining your resume. Contact alums/consulting
club members/family/friends and start taking their opinions about the resume.
Towards the start of term 5, make sure you have a semi-finished draft in your hand. There will be a lot of
resume review workshops conducted by CAS/ professional clubs/ consulting firms. Make sure that you
take full leverage of these workshops to fine tune the shortcomings in your resume.
COVER-LETTER
It is your expression of interest for the job posting and is very important for some firms like Booz,
Parthenon etc. Few points to note while writing expression of interest are:
1) Give a personalized reason in your cover letter for why you are the best candidate for the job.
Be sure to make a bridge between what you have done, where you want to work and how the
particular job posting help you to achieve your career goal.
2) You need to exhibit some knowledge about the firm and demonstrate a fit between the
company and yourself. Previous years’ EOI on KM Portal, alums working in the firm and
company’s website might come in handy for gathering information about the company.
3) Address the EOI to the right person and the firm ☺.
4) Do not copy letters or pieces of letters from sample sources. Recruiters do recognize them
easily.
5) Do not exceed 1 page for the cover letter.
6) Do not use any fluffy or generic statements about yourself or your experiences (e.g. excellent
interpersonal skills, team player) unless you back them up with tangible examples.
7) Do not use generic statements about the company you are applying to (e.g. leading firm,
excellent reputation, blue-chip company etc.). For one, this also applies to most of their
competitors. For another, this shows that you have not done your homework to identify why
you really want to join the company.
8) Get your cover letter by at least two other people to check for spelling mistakes, grammatical
errors and ease of reading.
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CASE INTERVIEWS
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CASE INTERVIEW OVERVIEW
What are case interviews and what do firms look for?
These are typically excerpts from the business problems consultant solve for their clients. In such
interviews interviewers gives the candidate a problem and asks what should be done to solve it. The
interviewer expects the candidate to logically approach the problem and attempt to solve it taking care
of all angles. These interviews can be divided in two types – guess estimates and business problems
Guess estimates are focused towards assessing the analytical skills of a candidate. The business cases
been used in interviews mostly do not have a pre determined answer and candidates are evaluated
based on how he/she deals with the problem. Assessment is done based on how one approaches the
problem and if one can reach a well supported conclusion. Ability to prioritize issues and exercising
judgment based o the business context is crucial to the process.
Approach to the case and insights been demonstrated helps a candidate in showcasing his/her potential
and earn brownie points.
How to prepare (Tips)

• Read through few cases to get an understanding of what case interviews are like
• Form a case group (3-4 people)
• In each case practice session, 1 person act as interviewer, 1 interviewee and 1-2 observers
• Try to develop your own customized frameworks for different types to cases (can use the
frameworks in the book as a starting point)
• Take feedback from the observers to improve your solution
• Take feedback from alums ☺
CASE SOLVING APPROACH

Case solving can be divided in five steps –
1) Problem definition and scoping
2) Structuring
3) Analysis
4) Synthesis
PROBLEM DEFINITION & SCOPING

Understand the company and its business. You should be able to create a mental image of the
company and its business. Figure out where the business is operating. What does the company do?
How is it placed competitively etc?
Analyze EVERY WORD of the problem statement and ask clarifying questions w.r.t. that.
Understand what caused the problem and what has been the impact.
Keep the 3Cs (Customer, Company and Competition) and 2Ps (product and price) in mind at all
times when solving a case. Whenever you’re stuck, revisit these.
Think along basic cuts like:

a) Internal vs. external
b) Short term vs. Long term
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c) Current state vs. desired state (desired state can be understood through objectives/
goals/motivations of the management)
Segmentation: This is one of the most crucial and often overlooked steps. Always break the problem by
company segments before applying any standard framework. Understand which part of the business
the problem lies in. For e.g. think along the below segments:
a. Customer segments
b. Product segments
c. Geographic segments
d. Segments in terms of different parts of the value chain
e. Different channels of distribution
At this point, you should’ve a pretty good hold of defining what the actual problem is. It helps to
paraphrase or summarize the problem statement more tangibly at this point.
Problem Structuring:
1. Build out a quick approach of what the key issues are that we need to tackle, and what is the
sequence you intend to follow.
2. Communicate this approach to the interviewer
3. Then build out a MECE structure.
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When building a structure:
Note making clarity is important
Visualize the case. Put yourself in the CEO’s shoes. It helps!
Don’t try to force fit frameworks. Always approach a problem based on first principles.
Frameworks will support your analysis.
Communicate the structure to the interviewer and get his buy in.
Analysis:
Develop a hypothesis for where the problem might lie. Then ask questions and collect more
information to prove/disprove it
Make it a collaborate process. Do not treat it like an interview. It’s not meant to be that. Treat it
like a real project and that you’re working with a colleague on the project.
Ask for numerical data at every level of structure before going deeper. This is required until you
figure out whether it’s a numerical problem or not.
Speak with conviction and bring creativity into your solution.
In case of numbers, take your time. Do not sacrifice accuracy for speed.
Synthesis/summary:
It is effectively an answer to the client’s problem. Make your recommendation and provide 2-3 strong
supporting reasons for it. Follow it up with considerations / risks that may be involved with the strategy.
Overall synthesis should not exceed a minute ideally.
Important Tips:
Always define the problem again and ask if your understanding is correct
Always take a buy-in on your framework before you proceed
Show the inherent excitement to solve the problem – your eyes should sparkle once you
identify an issue
Once you identify a core issue – always think “Why” is it happening – shows that you want to
really solve
Use interesting representations for communicating your ideas such as graphs, it is important to
get the interviewer interested in your solution. Implementing various concepts taught in classes
would also come handy.
While solving a case think yourself as an equal to the interviewer and try to build a personal
connect with him/her. This would make you feel comfortable and interviewer more involved. At
the end of the day, interviewer should be comfortable working with you in his/her team.
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CASE FRAMEWORKS
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PROFITABILITY FRAMEWORK
Profitability cases are the most common type of cases that you will see. The importance of the case
stems from the fact that profit-making is the final goal of every business problem. It is always
recommended to think on first principles when you approach a case-problem. Here we will try to run
through the anatomy of a profitability case.
Breaking profitability down to its simplest components is the key in consulting cases. Dividing
profitability into components such as revenue and cost can be helpful in discovering the causes of a less
than favorable bottom line. It is to be noted that many a time, the interviewer will not specifically
mention the type of the case. The candidate is expected to follow a sequence of logical steps by
gathering information (by asking relevant questions). The structure shown above will be useful in
exploring how to go about exploring the case.
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Deconstructing the case-problem
The profitability problem is very vast and generally comes in varied dimensions. Thus, scoping of the
problem becomes very important in order to make a structured headway in the case. This could be done
by asking a sequence of logical questions. The idea behind these questions is two-folds – a) to scope the
problem, b) to gather relevant information available with the interviewer.
Defining the problem
1. What is the magnitude of loss/profit? Since when has the trend occurred?
Also, it is noteworthy to inquire if profits are declining or profitability has been affected. (These are two
different things. Profits are merely a difference of Revenues and Cost, while Profitability is a measure
of profit margin.
• Gross profit, operating profit and net profit
Profit = Revenue-COGS - SG&A + R&D + Restructuring + - Dep/Amort + Interest + Tax +

Licensing and regulatory Writeoff + Losses/gains
Blue: Gross profit

Red: Operating profit
Green: Net profit
Q2) Ask if gross margin/operating margin or net margin which is facing the decline?
Now, going ahead with the framework, we first define profits as ‘Revenues – Cost’. Thus, it is a function
of two drivers. We deep dive into one driver and hold on to the second one for the time being.
Q3) What is the target of profit / profitability? Any other constraints or secondary objectives (eg market
share)?
Q4) Is there a timeline that the company wants to solve the problem in?
Q5) Just to get a background of the company, I would want to know the product mix and revenue
streams for the company.
Q6) Ask for data on trends of each product and ascertain the product(s) which is leading to the
problem.
Q7) Is the profitability problem across the industry and trends for the product? If problem is across the
industry ask for context
• Demand
o Macroeconomic factors
o Changing priority of customers – change in demographics
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o Regular market disruptions
• Supply
o Regulatory – change in policies
o Increase in fragmentation (high supply, low demand) – leading to commoditizing the
product
Q8) Competitive landscape – No of competitors, market share and its trend
Define and reiterate the statement: Improve Profits in X product from A% to B% by n years.
A brief structure as below would help to landscape the problem -
Structure
The problem may lie in two areas - revenue and costs. What are the trends of revenues (up or down)
and costs (up or down)?
Depending on the response, choose which one to go in first and take buy-in of interviewer
REVENUES
Revenues are dependent on two factors –
Average Price
Thus, if revenue side has been affected then either Average Price across the product mix has decreased
(majorly due to competition or company policy). Quantitatively, we can see that –
Average Price = Price of all the products/Total number of products
Here, the advice is to stick to first principles and be aware of the fact that Price of the products in the
product mix and total number of products could also affect the revenues.
Internal factors -
Company tried to reduce price to increase revenues but it backfired
• Increased price because costs increased

• Transfer pricing (may be relevant if problem is limited to a division of a company)
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External Factors
• Price war
• Other stakeholders demanding more in value chain eg – increased distributor margin
• Government regulation (price cap)
• Customer preference changed. Had to reduce price
Resolution:
• Product Differentiation –
1. Better features
2. Better brand
3. Better packaging
• Innovative Pricing Methods
1. Loss Leader Pricing/ Captive Pricing (Razor Blade),
2. Bundle Pricing
• Different methods of pricing:
1. Value based Pricing (Premium Pricing & Price Skimming)
Aspirational value of a similar product
Opportunity cost of not getting the product/service
It is also a function of the size of the target customer segment. As larger size would
allow us to charge lesser than the maximum aspirational value in order to penetrate
into the new market
2. Cost plus Pricing
R&D Costs
Manufacturing/servicing/construction costs – Fixed and Variable Costs
Break-even costs, WACC
3. Comparable (Parity) Pricing
Existing products with similar features => Marked Price + Mark-up
Existing products with superior features => Marked Price of the existing product + Value
of additional feature to the customer
If no similar product exists, then consider => NPV of substitute product
• Bundling & Cross selling
• Consolidation: Acquire other markets players – Charge premium price, Have more units sold.
In case Product/Service mix – volume has changed….
Identify which product’s relative volume increase has led to overall revenue decrease. For that product,
following parameters could be assessed –
Product Related Problem
• Poor product quality

• Problematic product mix
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• Inadequate breadth of product line
• Depth of product line
• Network effects with other products/complementary products
Service Related Problem
• Poor service quality

• High cost of service
• Training adequacy
Curriculum
Frequency of training
• Depth and Breadth
Volume
Ascertain changes in number of units sold. The two potential reasons for a volume decline are –
a) Market share decline b) Market size decline
If Market share declines...
Market Share = %Aware X %Preference Buyers X %Available X % Time for adoption X %Repeat Purchase
• Price
o Have these increased? What is the elasticity?
• Product
o Share of Mind(Likeability)
Poor quality
• network effect with other products
• substitutes
• product mix
• better product in market
• quality of service
Perception of poor quality but good product
• check perception and preference map
o If problem in perceptual map, check for accuracy in positioning
• training adequacy (curriculum or frequency of training)
• Remember – The final consumer might not always be the purchase
decision maker. There might me other stakeholders involved, for whom
we might need to make the product attractive.
• Promotion
o Share of Voice (Awareness) – how to increase awareness. Check for failures in each of
the following stages.
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o Promotion schemes for enabling purchase – eg financing options, discount coupons etc
SOV x SOM X SOD = Availability x Product Offering (Likeability) x Accessibility
One must try to think in terms of consumer purchase funnel -
• Place
o Share of Distribution (Accessability) – penetration, trade mix, lead time, distributor
margin (agency problem), sales force (less or not trained), Skill and will of sales force
If market size decline…
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• Demand (mature stage in PLC)
o Check product life cycle
o Demographics change
o Product obsolescence
o Usage rate gone down
Solution – Ansoff Matrix
Same Product - New Market (Geographic New Product - New Market (Diversification)
expansion) • Related diversification – developed
Which geography? market
Consider risks such as • Unrelated diversification – developing
• attractiveness of overseas market market
• can the firm establish competitive • Look at synergies (asset utilization)
advantage by replicating the strategy
• identify the right geographies
Price: Play with elasticity (skim vs penetration)
Same Product – Same Market (Market New Product – Same Market (Product
penetration) Development)
Capture market share: 4P, Product Mix • Vertical integration
• New product development based on
attractiveness, capability (asset
Increasing the pie: New target segment (user), utilization)
different application (uses), per customer
consumption (usage). This is more applicable
in mature/declining phase of industry life cycle
• Supply (still in growth stage of PLC)

o Are you the only supplier and constrained by supply?
Are the SKUs being offered being liked by consumer? Change in consumer
preference for another SKU
Solution:
o Short term
Increase distributor margins
Target new segments
o Long Term
Launch new SKUs
COST
Break the costs into
a) fixed costs and variable costs
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a. In a high fixed cost business there is very high temptation of price wars (Remember
MADM fundas). For Fixed Costs, following considerations need be made –
a) Capacity Utilization
b) Increasing the scale of business/manufacturing – What causes it?
c) Complex Product: High Costs - What causes it?
Complexity arises from additions to number of different products produced or activities

managed -
Often without increase in overall volume

That cannot be added at low marginal cost or minor adjustments in
production/staffing
Complexity can arise in numerous parts of cost structure –

Manufacturing: machine change-over and setup; increased inventory
- Starter runs: Machine changeover and setup
- Higher inventories: especially if little interchangeability
- Additional/longer product lines: often at lower volumes
Sales/distribution
- Sales force requires in-depth knowledge of full product line
- Increased storage facilities, distribution logistics
Administration
- Tracking and coordination issues
b. Remember it can be a product specific problem or a product mix problem something

such as that we are selling more of higher cost product
b) Albeit simpler, FC and VC approach is considered limited in considering the entire set of costs
related problem. Here Value Chain analysis helps us to consider all the costs in detailed.
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The value chain depicted above represents a manufacturing setup. However, thinking on first
principles one can easily construct a value chain for any business mentioned in the case. For
starters, think of Suppliers, Distributors (inbound/outbound), storage/warehouses, end-
customers (VERY IMPORTANT)
c) Costs income statement wise (COGS, SG&A, Interest, Depreciation, Tax)
What is the percentage split of costs across these different processes?

• In case one particular head has highest % say 50% or more then you can ask the interviewer that
you would want to look at this head to start with.
• Many a time there might not be one major head and there could be two heads with 30%-30%
split. In these cases you’ll need to explore both heads and also see that the profitability decline
could be partly because of one and partly because of another.
Exploring each head one by one

In case of manufacturing Industry,
• Raw Material Cost:
o Start by asking type of good (Perishable/durable)?
o Where does Competitor source from – does it get better prices?
o If says same price, ask about efficiency of utilization – conversion
ratio/wastage/efficiency for us. If efficiency is improved => less RM lead to reduced costs
o If the problem is higher price or higher overall procurement cost then:
o Resolutions
Specification
• Substitution (Different Raw Material)
• Cheaper material - indigenization/rationalization?
Quantity
• Value engineering (Use lesser Raw Material)
Per unit price
• Same Supplier
o Better Negotiation/Bulk Order – Can you provide something in
return for a better price?
o Time of Sourcing (Opportunistic) – Buying when prices are low
• Alternate supplier
o Currency Hedging – Use forwards/futures if prices are expected
to rise. Also use call or put options for the variable part of future
demand.
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o Standardization of Parts– ordering more of same type of good
o Backward Integration
o Cheaper supplier - china etc?
• Inbound Logistics:
o Do you and your competitor use the same Mode of Transportation?
o Do you incur the same rates and same overall cost?
o Explore Distance Travelled – could be that the rates are same but your factory is further
away from the supplier base.
o Are you ordering at the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) – Trade of between Set up cost,
holding cost and expected demand
• Production/Operations:
o Explore Labour cost and efficiency vis-a-vis competitor.
o Inventory Cost (EOQ)
o Overheads such as Electricity/Rent same or higher?
o Machine Utilization: % Downtime - High?
Machine broken? Maintenance/spare cost
Power outage?
Labour unavailability?
Total availability will be a function of (% of time labour, % time machine
available, % Idle time)
o Resolution – additional dimensions:
Outsource
Economies of Scale/Learning curve
Labour cost arbitrage
• Distribution/Outbound Logistics:
o Explore same as (Inbound)
• Post Sales Cost:
o Installation
o Service or Warranty cost?
• Gross margin is same but Operating margin has reduced:
o Marketing & Administration – SG&A
o R&D cost
o Restructuring cost
o Licensing and regulatory costs
• If NOPAT is down
o Depreciation & Amortization
o Interest Expense
o Tax rates – which geographies (VAT) does our company operate in?
o Inventory Write off
o Gains/losses or external investments
24
o Loss due to some catastrophic event.
25
MARKET ENTRY FRAMEWORK
To put it very simply, there are two basic considerations for market entry – a) Is it a good idea? b) How
to enter? We will try to put together a framework which strives to answer these two questions quite
exhaustively.
Structuring the problem
Structuring a market entry case problem is a four step approach –
1) Deciding on the Goals/Objectives – a) Strategic Intentions b) Economic Intentions
2) Evaluating whether to enter the industry or not is a function of three parameters – a) Industry
Attractiveness b) Financial c) Strategic Intentions.
The 3 parameter approach helps one to answer the two fundamental questions associated with market
entry – a) Where to invest: Value chain wise, Geographically b) How to Invest: Mode of entry
1. GOALS/OBJECTIVES
Q1. Motivation behind entry?

a) Why into new industry?
b) Why into this particular industry?
c) Anything other than profits a motivation?
Q2. Target for profitability? Timelines?

a) Cost of capital? Target Rate of Return?
b) Target market share?
c) Target revenues and target profits?
Q3. Any constraints on investment and scope of thinking?

a) Levels of investment
b) Geographies of investment
Q4. Understand the company, line of businesses and the existing business model
26
a) Will help from the synergies point of view
b) Corporate structure/Organization structure
2. SHOULD WE ENTER?
Evaluation Parameters Affecting Factors

- Market Size
- Growth/life cycle
- Value Cycle: competitors, substitutes, suppliers
INDUSTRY ATTRACTIVENESS - Customers – WTP, Demand-Supply, price elasticity, backward integration,
switching cost, brand loyalty
- Barriers – Regulatory, forward integration, economies of scale
- Risks – PESTLE Analysis: External Vs Internal
- Quantitative analysis to evaluate on the Financial Metrics (Mentioned
FINANCIAL GOALS
Below)
-Organization Design/structure
- Sustained competitive advantage: VRIO framework, Brand Equity, Market
STRATEGIC GOALS share gain, Patent/Proprietary Technologies
- Cost-Benefit of entry: Economies of Scale, Supply Chain/Distribution
Synergies, Breakeven is aligned with goals, competitive advantage
Industry Attractiveness – ANSWERING THE ‘SHOULD WE ENTER?’ QUESTION:
This part of the structure tries to determine how attractive the industry is? Sometimes one may be
asked to evaluate/compare more than one option. At other times, you might be required to generate
the options and the case opening can be vague. In such cases, the best option is to draw the value chain
(with the help of the interviewer), and identify which part of the value chain the company should
enter. A short-listing criterion like top decile of return and bottom decile of risk can be used. Whenever
you have to make a choice, remember you need to develop a choice rule or mathematical metric of
evaluation. However, the choice cannot be made entirely based on qualitative analysis and quantitative
metrics need to be developed in order to exercise the choice. The metrics of evaluation could be –
27
Investment (Upfront, Change in Working Capital)
ROI/IRR/Payback Period
NPV/Profit
EVA – Economic Value Added: NOPAT – WACC x Invested Capital
Opportunity Cost of Investment
Real Option
Projected Cash flows
Terminal Value
Risk
A best case/worst case analysis can be performed if required.
Based on the above analysis, we can move towards evaluating the market entry case by using a
Fundamental Attractiveness Vs Relative Competitive Positioning graph –
Fundamental Attractiveness:
o Barriers to Entry
Government Regulation
High Capital Requirements
R&D – IP/Patent
High Brand Equity
Human Capital – High Costs
Economies of scale/scope
Switching costs – Network Effects
Distribution Network
o Competition
Consolidated/Fragmented Market
Market Share distribution among competitors
Supplier/Distributor Channel – Strength & Weakness
Contractual customer lock-ins define market trends
o Buyer
Segment Growth
WTP – f(demand)
Distributor Channel Preference (Outbound Logistics)
Demand-Supply Gap (Important)
Price Sensitivity – Ascertains whether to go for Premium Pricing or not
Threat of forward integration – VERY HIGH SUPPLIER POWER
Needs w.r.t current product mix being offered in the market
o Value Chain & Substitute products
28
Switching cost of buyers/suppliers
Threat of backward integration – Competition might acquire vendors to control its supplies of
RM et al.
Manufacturing Resources – Talent/Expertise availability?
Availability of substitute products?
Consumer Behavior evolutionary trends
Relative Competitive Positioning: f (Financial Goals, Strategic Goals)
Also, it is prudent to assess the relative competitive gains for our client on following parameters –
Brand Equity
Economies of Scale
Supply chain/Distribution Synergies
Market share gains
Patent/Proprietary Technologies
Organization Design/structure
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Strategic Goals
Strategically, does it make sense for the company to enter the market?
Short Term (FIT) :

Prior Experience in moving to new markets
Synergy with existing operations
Tactical Decision – 4Ps
Game Theoretical perspective – Strengths/Weakness of each player
Competition Response
Long Term :
How to build a sustainable competitive advantage?
Create Barriers to Entry/Exit
Create Customer Lock-ins
Now for case solving purposes we might as well plot the graph between Fundamental Attractiveness Vs
Relative competitive positioning and mark the client’s positioning on the graph on the basis of both
qualitative and quantitative assessment made above. Graphical presentation of your analysis earns you
more points –
29
4. MODE OF ENTRY – Evaluation matrix
Evaluation Metric Greenfield JV Franchisee/Licensing M&A Other Strategic position (for eg. outsourcing)
Purpose of Entry
Goals
Short Vs Long Term √
Strategic
Management Control
Operations & Manufacturing
Synergies Revenue √ √
Financial
-Technology
- Political
Risks - Legal/Policy
-Backward/Forward Integration √ √
- Financial
- Culture
- Incentives
Organization - Org Structure √
30
Modes of Entry – ANSWERING THE ‘How to Enter?’ QUESTION:
• Evaluation Matrix
*Weights mentioned above are subjective to the Evaluative metric(s) above
Also, following parameters need be considered to ascertain how the weights are to be distributed -
• Risks
Financial Risks –
Cash position of the parent firm?
Impact on the financials of the parent company if this new venture fails?
Technology Risks
Political Risk
People Risk
• Management Control
Keep in mind that nature of questions for Market Entry cases could be different –
1) Should I enter? – Assess only Industry Attractiveness

2) Which method to enter? – Assess Modes of Entry as well
31
3) Exactly where should I enter? – Use above mentioned frameworks Sector-wise priority assessment,
Geographical priority assessment (Parameters mentioned in ‘Industry Attractiveness’).
32
M&A FRAMEWORK
SYNERGIES AFFECTED PARAMETERS RESOLUTION

ΔP Charge high price due to improvement in quality
Charge high price due to lower
Revenue Bundling
Improve Quality of existing products
ΔQ Cross Selling
Combine capabilities in different parts of the value chain
Vertical Integration - low cost RM by mitigating holdup
COGS Sharing IT Technology
Pooling manufacturing technology
Common sales and distribution force
SG&A Combined advertising & Marketing spend
Costs Improve reinvestment ratio - Some new projects can now be undertaken
Investments Improve in working capital - Operation Cycle
Improve return on capital (Reduce common assets & improve revenues)
Depreciation Assets purchased will be written up to market value => More Tax-shield
Greater Tax Shield - Depends on tax laws
Tax Shield Tax loss carry forward
Diversification will lead to reduction in probability of default
Bankruptcy Cost Better Ratings
Financial Agency Cost Earlier ignored positive NPV projects will now be taken up
Low cost of debt
Internal/External Funding Low Beta (Risk)
Improved D/E ratio
Cost of asymmetric information Internal capital allocation will be more efficient than external
33
Defining the Problem
Q1. Have the decision to merge/acquire been taken or not?
If the decision has to be taken then the above framework need only be used. Also, strategic and
economic intent of the merger also has to be assessed. (Market Entry framework)
However, if the decision has been taken then above framework need only be used.
Q2. Understand the business model of the acquirer and the target?
To understand synergies
Ask what assets (tangible and intangible) the target firm owns?
Q3. Motivation of the acquisition?
Structuring the case
Stakeholders – Acquirer stakeholders and target shareholders: It has to be decided during the case that
whether the target shareholders would continue to exist after acquisition or not. The next job is to
evaluate synergies, and how synergies would be split between Acquirer Shareholders and Target
Shareholders.
EV (Enterprise Value) = Market Capitalization + Market Value of Debt - Cash
Valuing Synergy:
1. Calculate standalone values of target [1a] and acquirer [1b]. Use FCFs discounted by WACC to get the
value of the firm [Valuation done using FCFs]. Also, valuation could be done using multiples i.e. P/E,
MV/EBITDA, EV/EBITDA, Price/Sales etc.
2. Calculate the value of target when optimally managed
3. Calculate value of the combined entity, with synergies accounted for [Acquirer + Target].
Synergy = 3 – [1a + ab] = Value of “Acquirer + Target” taken together – Value of “Acquirer” – Value of
“Target”
If there are two acquirers – A1 & A2 ….
Synergy = Value of “A1 + T” taken together – [ Value of T + A1 (given A2 acquires T) taken separately]
Here, calculate –
Standalone A1 (given A2 acquires T)

Standalone A2 (given A2 acquires T)
34
There accounts for the opportunity cost of not acquiring the target as well.
Price of Acquisition = Value of Target + Percentage of Synergy
SOURCES OF SYNERGY: As shown in the framework above.
Cash Vs Stock Deal in M&A

If stock of Acquirer is over-valued => Use Stock
If expected cost of Financial Distress is high, the debt financing is costlier => Use Stock
If Acquirer is very large and has excess cash => Use Cash
If size of acquirer ~ size of target, then large cost of financial distress => Use Stock
If D/E ratio of the Acquirer is very high => Use Stock
35
DIVESTITURE FRAMEWORK
What is the product/service that the client wants to divest from? Is it high/low margin
business?
Since when are they in this business? Was it organically developed or acquired? Or is it a JV?
Why does the company want to divest from this business?
Is it based out of any metrics, such as ROI, ROA, and Profit Margin?
• If yes, what has been the trend of this metric/profitability for the company?
Is the market shrinking?
Who are his key customers for this product?
Who are the main competitors? What is the company’s standing in this competitive
landscape?
Has something changed in the business landscape? Technology? Government Regulation
Structuring the problem (A concrete framework for the case would be ascertained once the problem has
been defined on the basis of the questions above)
We have identified three basic causes for divestiture –
Lack of Profitability
Need for capital
Identification and hence getting rid of the non-strategic unit
Analysis of the above three parameters can be done considering the framework mentioned above.
Further following are important questions to analyze after the ‘WHY/SHOULD DIVEST?’ question has
been answered using the above framework -
36
• EVALUATION OF DIVESTITURE OPTIONS
Potential Buyers
Valuation of the Company – a) DCF Valuation b)Multiples Valuations
Reservation Price
• RISKS
Loss of strategic business entity
Loss of economies of scale/scope
Change in the cost structure could negatively impact the business
Loss of Vertical Integration due to divestment
Long term growth plans are affected because of divestment
37
*Cases requiring a Sales Force Effectiveness framework mentioned below have seen an increased
incidence over the last couple of years. We have tried to put together a comprehensive approach
towards tackling such case problems.
SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS FRAMEWORK
38
PRICING FRAMEWORK
PRICING
COST BASED COMPETITIVE VALUE BASED
COGS & Expected Margins Proxy Industries or Products Select Target Segment
Breakeven / Payback Period for any new products List alternatives and
Price Elasticity Information about Industry substitutes for the segment
Distribution & Logistics Cost structure (consolidated vs Calculate Willingness to Pay
Product Mix / Line Details Concentrated; price wars range for the segment
Activity Based Costing etc.) Beware of Supply & Demand
This is usually the Upper Limit for
This is usually the Lower Limit of This is usually in between Cost the Pricing problem
the Pricing Strategy and Value based
Tip: Many Pricing cases also turn out to be masked ‘market demand estimation’ cases.
Identify if it’s a bidding, auction or a straightforward pricing problem

Get a clear picture of the product and the target customer segment
o Single product or product line?
o Commodity or differentiated product? Identity what value the client is adding to the
customers?
o Is the product Luxury or Necessity? Is the product patented? Is it imitable easily?
Get a clear picture of the firm and their objective with this product
o First time entrant? Does the firm want to grow the market share or Top-line?
o Does the firm want to push the competitor out? Does the firm want to play price war?
Structuring the Case
The framework to solve pricing problems is relatively easy one

o Once the framework is laid, start getting in-depth in each bucket (Cost, Competitive and
Value based
o Establish the border constraints (e.g. policies & regulations etc.)
39
o Once you calculate the lower and upper ends of the pricing, offer a rational explanation
which price range you would choose
o Price lower than Value based pricing and above Cost based pricing calculations. Reason:
Customer switching costs, fluctuations in WTP etc.
Tips:
1. Many pricing problems are masked ‘market size’ estimation problems. When the
conversation goes in that direction, ensure you specify that you’d calculate the market size
before pricing the product
2. There’s no single price – Always offer a price range. Mentioning the sensitivity metrics in
calculations would fetch additional brownie points.
3. Think about competitive reaction in the market
4. Topics like bundling and other innovative prices (discount scheme etc.) will fetch brownie
points
40
PE INVESTMENT FRAMEWORK
Following key aspects need to be evaluated in case any PE firm is considering making an investment in
any industry/company. We need to start our assessment with the fund’s motivation to invest and
analyzing the attributes of the firm –
41
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES
42
ACCENTURE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
43
Name Ankush Gandotra
Company Interviewed With Accenture Management Consulting
Name of Interviewer and Senior Manager, don’t remember the name
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second (I had a total of 6 rounds, only first two were case
round) based)
Personal interview No PI questions in this round
Questions(with indicative Straight to the case
answers if you choose to share
them)
Case Question It was a hard core operations case (a possible indication
where they want to place you). An iron ore miner transports
the ore from the plant site to the sea via small boats. At the
place of mining, there is a machine which constantly pours
the ore into the boat. As soon as the boat is filled up, it
carries the ore to the ship via river. The ore is transferred
from the boat to the ship via cranes and the boat returns to
the mining site after this. It takes a total of 40 hrs for one
complete trip of the boat including loading and unloading.
You have to reduce this boat cycle time to 30 hrs.
Narration of the case interview Approach: I asked for some data about boat size, ship size
(please be as etc. He gave me some numbers but I soon realized that
descriptive as possible) problem is only to reduce the time. I then asked for some
time to structure my thoughts and drew the whole chain
(very important step as they want to see the structure, so
write clearly and boldly). Four important steps were 1)
loading at mining site, 2)ore transport to the sea, 3)
unloading at sea and 4) back to the mining site. He gave me
data that first step takes 4 hrs, second takes 6, third takes 4
and last step takes 6 hrs. That makes it a total of 20 hrs. I
figured out that rest of 20 hrs is because of the queue at
loading and unloading site. Now, I took each step separately
and discussed how we can reduce time at each step (again,
the structure is important, go one by one).
Step 1: Faster loading, loading ships from two sides, two

parallel sites for loading etc.
Step 2: Boat might be older and slower, take alternate route

for transportation etc.
Step 3: Similar suggestions as step 1
44
Step 4: Similar suggestions as step 2
He agreed with all of them but told me that think of

something else. I asked him how boat drivers are paid. He
told that boats are contracted from third party and paid per
hourly basis. I took some time here and figured out that
number of boats employed by the contractor are far more
than what was optimally required and hence the queue. So,
reduce the number of boats.
What do you think went right Laid the structure well
for you in the in this Always communicated my thought process (talk when you
interview? are stuck, it helps)
Any tips for the future batches Structure is important than the result
based on this Keep the interviewer engaged, he would help you if you talk
Interview experience. to him
Always keep the goal in mind and ask only those questions
which are relevant. In this case, it was how to reduce time
and nothing else.
Go through the frameworks but don’t force fit them into
cases.
45
Name Anubhav Jha
Company Interviewed With Accenture
Name of Interviewer and Kaustabh (not sure of designation)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First

round)
Personal interview The interview started with a case which has been detailed
Questions(with indicative below. Once the case was over, the interviewer asked a few
expected PI questions -
answers if you choose to share • You seem to have done some good work in finance
them) and risk earlier. Why do you want to shift to
consulting?
• Why Accenture?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
The interviewer was an ISB alum and was quite picky about
the answers I gave (especially strengths and weaknesses). He
appreciated the fact that I seemed honest about my
weaknesses (emotional, argumentative, underconfident) and
mentioned that he disliked the typical MBA responses to
these questions. However, be sure to show that you have
worked on your weaknesses by stating examples.
Case Question The interviewer mentioned that the client was a large UK
based beer manufacturer that had been losing market share
and asked to identify the possible reason(s).
Narration of the case interview I clarified the objective and the interviewer stated that the
(please be as only objective was to identify the reason for the decline. I
asked a few basic questions regarding the company’s
descriptive as possible)
operations –
Q1) Is beer the only product that the company

manufactures?
A) Assume that to be true
Q2) How long has the company been in operation and is UK
the only market with which we are concerned?
A) The company has been in operation for many years
and is an established player. Yes, UK is the only
market.
Q3) When you say the market share has been declining, what
exactly does that mean? Are we talking about volume or
46
value?
A) Both volume and value have been declining (he gave
me figures for the decline which I don’t remember
now)
Q4) Who are the main competitors? Has there been any
significant change in their operations strategy over the past
2-3 years?
A) Surprisingly, the competitors have done nothing
special over this period.
Q5) Has the industry been growing?
A) Yes
The interviewer seemed happy with the line of questioning.

Once I had noted down the details I outlined my structure. I
mentioned that it seemed like the problem was internal to
the company and competitor action was not the cause of the
fall in market share. To identify the possible reasons I said
would like to explore different aspects of the company’s
business to study past trends and see if the company had
made any changes. At this point the interviewer urged me to
draw out a MECE structure for analysis before I began. I
outlined Product, Customers, Operations, Regulations and
Competition and made several bullet points under each. The
interviewer was happy with the structure and asked me to
take up customers first. This gave me a hint that the problem
may lie here and I dove into a line of questioning based on
the points I had made.
I asked about main customer segments and explored the

trend within each. It turned out that the company’s main
customer segment (80% of sales) were individuals above 50
years of age. The trend for other segments had been stable
but sales to this segment had been declining. Taking this
point forward, I asked if there had been any changes to the
product in the recent period. The interviewer responded that
the company had changed the colour of their beer (by
reducing the wheat content) to a lighter shade. The main
customer segment considered lighter coloured beers to be
not strong enough and for “sissies”. This basically concluded
the problem identification question and the interviewer
seemed happy with the line of questioning that led to the
answer.
47
The interviewer went on to ask a few questions regarding the
company’s best response and how it can best go about
implementing the recommendations (increasing wheat
sourcing, launching a pilot to test the revised product).
What do you think went right I had a great discussion with the interviewer throughout
for you in the in this interview? which I felt was the key element. Even when I was stuck I
kept the conversation going rather than stay shut and
because of that he was willing to throw me a few hints. I was
pretty calm and easy going through the interview which
might have helped.
Any tips for the future batches Engage the interviewer. Keep sharing your thoughts while
based on this solving the case, even if they are not spectacular insights.
Prepare well for the PI and be genuine! My personal
Interview experience.
suggestion would be to stay away from the typical MBA
responses to such questions and say what makes sense to
you personally.
Outcome – Made an offer after a subsequent skill based and

Partner round (did not go through an HR round)
48
Interviewee Name Prashant Yadav
Company Interviewed With Accenture, Consultant

and Role
Name of Interviewer and Kapil, Kaustubh, Nilesh(Partner)

Designation

round)
Group Discussion (write NA if NA

not applicable)
Personal interview 1. Three important learnings at ISB

Questions(with 2. What would I want to do post ISB and why
indicativeanswers if you 3. A walk through the resume
4. A brief intro to my industry – upstream oil and gas
choose to share them)
exploration.
5. Parallels between upstream oil and gas services
industry to other services industries.
Narration of the case interview 1. Define a typical cycle for any oil reserve development
(please be asdescriptive as process.
possible)
2. Estimate time breakup at each stage and levels of
risks for the operating entity.
3. Which stage of this value chain presents the greatest

opportunity for efficiency improvement and why.
Any other interview round Round 3 (HR):

(please mention the format
1. Three things about me that were not on the resume.
and questions as part of your
experience) 2. Three learnings at ISB those were not academic or
professional.
3. Would I have any reservations about travel or work

location
4. Recent updates in the oil and gas industry and their

repercussion on future business opportunities.
49
Round 4 (Partner):
1. Three aspects those are most critical to any offshore

drilling services firm.
2. What qualities do I bring to Accenture, functionally

and in terms of industry knowledge?
3. How can Accenture improve Project Management

delivery for clients?
4. How would I identify inefficiencies at various stages in

an upstream procurement and operations project?
Which data would I investigate first and why?
Outcome Offer was extended.
What do you think went right 1. Most of the discussions were highly focused on
for you in the in thisinterview? industry.
2. I asked for specific information in certain cases and

the interviewer was more than happy to explain in
great detail.
3. Familiarity with business verticals and conversations

with alums in Accenture that I could allude to while
answering PI questions and as a general conversation
in case interviews.
Any tips for the future batches Clearly, my interviews and case exercises were industry
based on this interview specific although they did pepper in a few general business
experience case questions.
50
Name Viraj Vikram Singh
Company Interviewed With Accenture Management Consulting (AMC)
Name of Interviewer and Don’t Know

Designation

round)
Personal interview I came to Accenture right after giving 4 rounds at another

Questions(with indicative firm. AMC kept calling me since long and so I rushed to the
spot without having lunch.
answers if you choose to share It was chiefly a first level screen and the interview was over
them) in 15 minutes.
1/ Tell me about yourself

I told about my professional experience with a touch of
personal information
2/ Why Consulting more so when you have semiconductor

design experience?
I drew my organizational design, showed my interactions
with stakeholders within the firm and tried to justify as to
how the consulting role was similar to the uncertain nature
of project and client management work in my previous
organization.
He looked convinced and agreed to all my points
3/ Any questions for me?

I asked few clarifications on the differences between GTIN
and IB and he was happy to answer in detail.
Narration of the case interview No Case was asked

(please be as
51
What do you think went right I spoke confidently and gave structured responses which he
for you in the in this liked.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Prepare well for basic questions like “Tell me about yourself”
based on this and “Any questions for me”. People were filtered in the first
round itself. I urge future classes to focus on PI as much as
they do a case. Know basic differences between GTIN and IB
(only for AMC) and your priorities before the interview.
Name of Interviewer and Mansi

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second

round)
Personal interview Just after the first round, I got the SMS that I have not been
Questions(with indicative selected in the last firm I interviewed with! I maintained
composure soon as I was told to appear for the next round at
answers if you choose to share AMC.
them)
Few basic PI questions were asked. Mansi appeared very
serious and kept filling the evaluation sheet throughout the
interaction. I was a bit anxious at the prospect of being
evaluated continuously!
1/ Why Accenture
I have attended the PPT and have done a lot of study online
about it. She was satisfied with the response
2/ Have you not done any projects?
52
I realized that she was asking for ELP and I pointed to that
section in resume and discussed it briefly.
After the Case:

3/ Are you comfortable with traveling?
I said I love to travel and it goes hand in hand with my
photography!
4/ Tell me about your family?

I think she was planning to decide between GTIN and IB for
me.
Narration of the case interview It looked a real case. Mansi was poised and narrated the case
(please be as in great detail
descriptive as possible) Case: There is a client of us in commercial vehicle segment.

The client is the market leader. They launched a ~1 Ton
capacity mini truck some 5-6 years back that has done very
well.
The company is now thinking of entering the used vehicle

market for this 1 Ton capacity truck.
The problem is that the used commercial vehicle market has

too many brokers and no big firm has entered this market.
Also there is a difficult for financing as banks give 50% of

the price while buyers of used truck want nearly 85%
What will you suggest broadly? (There were some other

nuances which I can’t recall)
Response: I restated the problem as too many details were

given and ensured that I have understood it well.
Then I asked some clarifying questions like the location

(India) and whether they are leaders wrt unit or revenues or
both etc
I took a moment to structure the case. I knew structure may

not be very important here and that the case may not have
numbers since Manasi said she wants to know my solutions
‘broadly’.
53
I said that a cost-benefit analysis must before entering into
this market. Also, the point that no big firm has ventured into
this space is not a major worry and client can be the pioneer
in this domain.
Since she asked pointed questions, I had to provide one-to-

one answers to each question but still classified them broadly
into external and internal.
The further sub classification done was:
1/ Brand Dilution Issue:
I suggested keeping a separate branding for used truck

business to avoid brand equity dilution in existential market.
2/ Target Market and Cannibalization:
Although the targeted customers may be different from that

for new trucks, there may still be some cannibalization.
The customers who are buying it from us as they can’t

afford a new truck: Cannibalization is not a major
issue here.
Customers who can afford new truck but chose to buy

used trucks from us as that fits their purpose:
Cannibalization may hurt here but we can also draw
customers who may have purchased new competitors
truck (may offset)
3/ Pricing, Guarantees and signaling:
I mentioned that client may offer guarantee (for limited time)

to differentiate it from other brokers by signaling quality. The
markup may be higher to cover higher costs and also for
signaling/differentiation. They may do 20 or 30 point check
as Maruti True Value does etc. Consumers may flock to us
given our reputation and assurance and may be willing to pay
slightly higher prices.
4/ Supply side and dealing with brokers:
54
To ensure supply of good used vehicles, we can offer
schemes such as people can sell back their trucks after a
shorter period (say 4-5 years when the life of truck may be 8-
9 years). We can then offer discounts on new trucks. This
boosts the sale of new trucks as well and will provide us a
continuing supply of used trucks which are in decent
condition. The customer loyalty and retention will be high.
We can also work with larger brokers who can refer their
clients to us for commission.
5/ Up-selling:
We can cajole customers who we feel can pay for a new truck
and can refer them to our new truck showrooms.
6/ Marketing and Sales force:
We should do targeted marketing to reach out to potential

used truck buyers in India
We must ensure a good team of sales force who can explain

the benefits of ‘n’-point checks that has been done on used
vehicle and show as to how our trucks are different from
trucks offered by brokers.
7/ Location:
We should set up the stores in location (cities and towns)

that are close to target customers (Low income group, small
commercial setups etc) and minimize the transportation
costs. It may be located away from new truck showrooms.
8/ Financing:
Since LTV of 85% is needed we may tie up with financing
firms. We can provide EMI schemes. Collateral will be the
used truck etc
At this point she stopped me and said that these were the
key points that they told the client. She continued with other
PI questions.
55
What do you think went right I believe she liked the case analysis and then was keen on
for you in the in this knowing me more. She made some jokes too towards the
end!
interview?
Any tips for the future batches For cases: Come out with your own structures on the fly if
based on this need be. Always take a moment to gather your thoughts
before venturing in with a proposal. Try to figure out from
your interviewer (indirectly of course!) whether numerical
analysis is needed.
Name of Interviewer and Nilesh (Partner, India Business) along with HR Manager
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Third (Partner round clubbed with HR)

round)
Personal interview Nilesh had come in PPT at Hyderabad

Questions(with indicative
1/ I will not ask you Why consulting or Why Accenture as
answers if you choose to share you may have responded to that already!
them) So why do you think you fit in this role given your prior
experience?
I again described my role and asserted that it involved other

soft skills which are transferable.
2/ Your experience may not be directly utilized so we may

have to discount that up. Is it ok for you?
Since I was keen to switch career to consulting I replied in

affirmative.
3/ As per you what attributes are most important for a
56
consultant?
I said customer empathy is very important but then we

should not get biased by client thought process and must
offer fresh perspectives and dimensions.
Problem solving is an obvious attribute.
Finally rapport is key to having a long term relationship.
4/ Can you describe me a new product development flow

and tell me the areas where firms go wrong? (I was into IC
module design and so this question came up)
I draw the complete flow that I had at my last firm and

discussed factors that cause failures. It was a detailed
discussion.
5/ (After I mentioned focus group somewhere and used

movie as an example) But Mr XYZ (a famous Indian
personality!) too tried focus groups and the movie was a
flop?
I said that focus groups shall be formed correctly and

discussed some attributes of it. Then there was a long
discussion on uncertainty!
6/ So what’s the point, if there is uncertainly still remaining

after you do all research etc?
I said that even both of us will live to see the world tomorrow
is not 100% certain (Nilesh smiled at that!). We are talking of
improving the degree of certainty here.
When AMC says “From Issue to outcome with pace, certainty
and strategic agility” you don’t mean to offer 100% certainty
to clients but what you mean is that you improve the chances
of a favorable event happening. (He gave a mysterious smile
and offered HR Manager to ask other questions)
Questions by the HR Managers

5/ But I will ask you again as to Why Accenture?!
I mentioned client engagement aspect. I used the PPT data

that 99% of AMC clients spend 5 years with AMC and 95%
spend up-to 10 years which speaks volumes about the nature
57
of solutions that AMC proposes.
Fact that AMC focus on personal development. I mentioned

that AMC has spent $1B on it in the last year (as told in PPT)
Chance to work across real strategy projects across different
verticals and the learning it brings.
There were few other generic questions which I can’t recall.

They discussed the domain that I may fit into and asked to
leave and finally gave the offer.
Narration of the case interview No Case (Case is usually not done at Partner or HR round)
(please be as
What do you think went right The fact that I attended the PPT and thoroughly studied abut
for you in the in this AMC helped me to strike a chord with Nilesh. I again saw all
the videos (on YouTube) that were shown in PPT and
interview?
understood about the business of AMC well through its
website.
Any tips for the future batches You must know the partners well to have a personal touché
based on this while interacting. Partner is only looking at your ability to
have intelligent discussions with your clients. HR round is
mainly for role and culture fit.
Besides, traveling to Mohali a day before may be very tiring

and you may not get a proper sleep a night before.
Since Mohali campus was new for Hyderabad folks, we have

to search for the venues mainly at the start of day and there
were some confusion. So do visit the campus even before
your scheduled time if you are staying in hotel and roam
around the place to identify your interview venues.
Do carry chocolates, fruits or whatever energizes you as you

may have to run from one interview to other without a break
in between.
58
Do remember that almost everyone gets placed by the end of
placement process so do not let any reject affect you mainly
when you have further rounds scheduled later in the day.
Finally do enjoy the sumptuous Chandigarh cuisines if you

are new to the place!
59
AT KEARNEY
60
Name Tarang Bakshi
Company Interviewed With A T Kearney
Name of Interviewer and Mr. Ram , Principal

Designation

round)
Personal interview o Read my resume in front of me. I had some

Questions(with indicative lean six sigma certifications from University of
Michigan. Ram was a U of M alum; asked me
answers if you choose to share about which professor taught me and what all
them) he taught me.
o Asked me about something that was not on
the resume; I talked about my backpacking
trip before joining ISB.
Case Question Your client is a global pharmaceutical giant; currently they
have a blockbuster drug X that constitutes a significant share
of it revenues. The patent for these drugs expires in 6
months. The next potential blockbuster drug is 2 years away
from market launch. Can you help company sustain its top
line and bottom line?
Narration of the case interview The problem was simple; company’s cash cow would be
(please be as coming under attack from competition in near future. I asked
about other drugs that the company was currently selling,
but ram told me to focus on maintaining revenue from this
particular drug X.
I wrote down the drivers for the sale of this particular

medicine and ram quickly picked sales force reallocation as a
major concern. We talked about how sales force can be
reallocated to sustain sales of drug X. (don’t remember much
of this case, but none of it was rocket science)
What do you think went right This was my first interview of the day and I don’t think it
61
for you in the in this interview? went very well.
Any tips for the future batches If you get an opportunity to make a small talk with the
based on this Interview interviewer, grab it. Make him like you ☺
experience.
Name Tarang Bakshi
Name of Interviewer and Mr. Nitin Chandra, Manager

Designation

round)
Personal interview o I and Nitin had talked for a while during the
Questions(with indicative pre interview dinner event. I was comforted
seeing Nitin as my next interviewer.
answers if you choose to share o Typical tell me about yourselves questions;
them) asked about other interviews that I was giving
on Day1.Given my other interviews, it was
obvious that ATK was my first choice so I
didn’t get any ‘why ATK?’ question
\Case Question An Automobile manufacturer from south east Asia imports
car into the Indian market. It is now planning to setup a
manufacturing facility in India. Should it go ahead with the
idea?
Narration of the case interview I started asking questions about the company and the kind of
(please be as cars it was selling. Nitin said that the company was exporting
compacts to India. I had a surprised look on my face and Nitin
questioned me why. I said that it made little sense to import
compact cars; he corrected him selves and said that the
62
company imported midsized sedans. I also asked about the
sales volumes, prices and margins.
This was a go/no go decision and I made a simple cost-

benefit analysis of the situation. I talked about the cost
associated with setting up a manufacturing plant in India
(fixed set up costs, potential drop in quality, difficulty in
getting suppliers, moving backwards on the learning curve,
regulatory issues). Then I talked about the benefits of setting
up a plant in India ( manufacturing flexibility, better manage
demand fluctuations, elimination of import duties,
opportunity to manufacture & support more car variants)
Based on the numbers that Nitin gave me, I calculated the

breakeven volumes. Based on current sales, the breakeven
period came to be around 3 years, which I thought was a
good number.
We ended the case by talking about ways to start

manufacturing operations in India; we primarily discussed
about JV’s on the lines of HM-Mitsubishi and Toyota-
Kirloskar.
What do you think went right The case was simple; ATK was looking for people who could
for you in the in this interview? engage clients into meaningful discussions.
Any tips for the future batches Talk to people during dinner events before interviews. At a
based on this minimum knowing your interviewer beforehand makes you
comfortable during the interview.
Name Tarang Bakshi
63
Name of Interviewer and Mr. Kaushik, Partner
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Third

round)
Personal interview o Again, we had talked during the dinner event

Questions(with indicative so we knew each other a bit beforehand.
o Asked ‘about yourselves’,’ why consulting’,
answers if you choose to share ’how would your colleagues describe you’
them) o He figured it out from my resume that I was
kind of a ‘solo’ guy .i first complemented him
by saying that he was right in thinking so, but
also told how this side of my personality did
not affect work in any way.
Case Question Very open ended case. Employees of company X are
unhappy. Why?
Narration of the case interview The only question, I asked was about the company’s financial
(please be as performance. Kaushik said, the growth had been stellar in
past few years.
I tackled this case with a people, process, technology
framework
People: -
• HR policies
• How managers were promoted and evaluated
• How employees were evaluated, promoted and
compensated
• Work hours, work environment
Process:
• Were job roles defines properly?

• Org structure; poor co-ordination between
departments\
• Level of Autonomy with the management
• Hire and fire policy
Technology:
64
• Old assets/machinery
• Frequent breakdowns in operation
The fact was that speedy growth had put strain on company’s
people, processes and technologies. Each of this bullet point
was discussed in this context.
e.g – if the company did not fire inefficient people during the
growth phase, then the efficient people (who would be fewer
in numbers) would be under enormous stress to achieve
growth targets.
What do you think went right There was no right answer to this case. It as a casual
for you in the in this interview? discussion and pretty much everything went right ☺
Any tips for the future batches

based on this
Name Tarang Bakshi
Name of Interviewer and Mr. Vikas, Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Fourth

round)
Personal interview o Did not ask me much, in fact he asked if I had

Questions(with indicative questions for him
o I asked him to reflect back on his career in
answers if you choose to share consulting ; Vikas gave a pretty insightful
them) answer
65
Narration of the case interview Case: No case
(please be as
He told me to fill up an income statement template for a
descriptive as possible) cookie manufacturer and for a mining company (as% of
sales).
I used some common sense to fill it up. Since the mining

business was more risky, I arrived at a higher net profit for
the mining company than the cookie company.
That was the case and he started discussing the offer with
me.
What do you think went right All my interviews went in quick succession, so I was in the
for you in the in this interview? zone and ready to tackle cases. In this case, just a basic risk-
reward principal was all that I needed to keep in mind. Keep
it simple ☺
Any tips for the future batches If you are to ask the interviewer any question, make it as
based on this personal as you can. In a 30 min interview Vikas spent 15
mins talking about himself and in an excited manner. Engage
the interviewer, listen to him, and make him like you.
66
Name ANSHUL SINGHAL
Company Interviewed With A.T. KEARNEY
Name of Interviewer and

Nitin Chandra (Principal)
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third
Round 1 Interview 1
round)
Personal interview Started the interview with three questions

Questions(with indicative 1) What makes you distinct from other ISB grads?
2) Why is IIT GPA on the lower side?
answers if you choose to share 3) Why is ISB GPA so good?
them)
Some chitchat about my work experience and the kind of role
I was doing in my previous company
Case Question Since my background is from power sector, he asked me a
power sector case
Case Statement: Our client wants to set up a power plant in

India. How would you go about it?
Narration of the case interview Started by asking the objective of setting up the plant. I also
(please be as asked about specific details like land and money availability
etc. It turned out that client had a lot of cash and had no idea
of how to set up the power plant but wanted to do it
anyways.
I broke down various stages of setting up power plants as –

1) Approvals and Resource acquisition stage 2) Construction
stage 3) Operation Stage
He asked me to concentrate on the first stage. I listed down

key criteria like land acquisition, fuel linkages, power
purchase agreements etc. He seemed to be satisfied with my
approach and stopped me on the case. He then checked
about my sector knowledge by asking few general questions
like Price/Mw for various types of power including
renewable, general industry trends, gas price trends etc.
67
What do you think went right
The interviewer was mainly checking my industry knowledge
for you in the in this
through PI as well as the case. Luckily, I had revised these
interview? things before the interview and hence could answer them
well.

based on this Get your industry knowledge very thorough. Also be ready
for not-so-standard cases where you need to improvise a
structure and solve the case.
Name ANSHUL SINGHAL
Name of Interviewer and Vikas Kaushal (Partner)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round 1 Interview 2

round)
Personal interview He did not ask any PI questions and directly jumped to the
Questions(with indicative case.

them)
Case Question Case was about a minerals company having two divisions:
mining and smelting. He gave a set of numbers and asked
profit margins for each of the divisions (typical MADM
transfer pricing). Then he asked me whether these profit
margin numbers made sense considering the nature of their
businesses of these divisions.
Narration of the case interview I started by understanding the value chain of both the
(please be as divisions. I told him smelting would have higher return as it is
more capital intensive and adds more value than a labor
intensive mining business where one just digs the mineral
out. Turns out the solution was mining is a riskier business
68
than smelting because of uncertainty in amount of mineral
and govt. regulations etc., hence investors would demand a
higher return on mining division than for the smelting
division.
He drew a blank income statement for both divisions. He

wrote the final net income number for both of them and
asked me to go bottom up on the income statement and fill
the rest of the numbers. We had a long discussion on each of
the line items on what the reasonable number should be and
how does it differ among divisions due to the nature of their
business.
What do you think went right He drilled really deep into MADM and FADM concepts and
for you in the in this luckily I could answer all the questions confidently
(sometimes incorrectly too). Vikas and I had a good
interview?
discussion on power sector after the case which ended the
interview on a very positive note.
Any tips for the future batches Learn your accounting well as it can come anytime to haunt
based on this you☺. Read about the interviewer’s area of interest before
as it helps to make intelligent talk in the interview.
Name ANSHUL SINGHAL
Name of Interviewer and Ram Kidambi (Principal)

Designation

round)
Personal interview Standard PI questions

Questions(with indicative 1) Tell me something about yourself?
2) Strengths and weaknesses.
69
them)
Case Question A large multinational company has declared its last year’s
financial results and has exceeded all expectations. Your
client, CEO of this company, wonders that despite good
performance, the discontent among its employees for the
organization is increasing. Help him identify the reasons and
possible recommendations to counter the situation.
Narration of the case interview Divided the possible causes using the People Process
(please be as Infrastructure framework which he instantly disliked. He said
you are the 6th person from the morning drawing the same
framework. Nevertheless, he asked me to continue with it
and identify the causes. I came up with quite a few possible
causes of discontent among employees. He kept on pushing
me to think more and come up with few more. I didn’t know
whether he was looking for a specific cause or not but after I
identified 1-2 more, he asked me to switch to
recommendation of tackling these causes. I came up with
things like employee engagement, 360o feedback etc.
What do you think went right Nothing except that I did well in PI part of the interview. In
for you in the in this the case, once the framework thing happened, I was playing
catch up all the time. However, interviewer was satisfied that
interview?
I had covered all aspects of the problem and didn’t give up
even when pushed to think for more possible reasons.
Any tips for the future batches Try and avoid standard frameworks as interviewers tend not
based on this to appreciate it. Rather show a logical approach of solving
the problem rather than get bound by the boundaries of the
framework. Frameworks can act as a guide in your mind.
Make sure that you are at ease and make a conversation

rather than Q&A session. Having a connect with the
interviewer really helps.
Name ANSHUL SINGHAL
70
Name of Interviewer and Kaushik Madhavan (Partner)

Designation

round)
Personal interview 1) Tell me something about yourself?

Questions(with indicative 2) What is the biggest challenge you have faced in your
life and how did you face it?
them) After giving me the case, Kaushik enquired about my role at
L&T and asked me questions like revenue and net profit of
L&T for last year. We had a long conversation on Chinese
competition entering Indian markets and which internal L&T
group companies were getting affected the most. We
discussed on possible solutions of countering this problem.
At the end of the interview after asking a lot of L&T specific
questions, Kaushik told me that he used to work with L&T.
Case Question He made a case out of my resume points. I had done a power
plant bidding process optimization in L&T resulting in a
reduction of cycle time by 2%. He said your problem
statement is to make it 50%.
Narration of the case interview I laid down a flow chart depicting the process followed at
(please be as L&T. Then, I calculated the estimated time taken for each
process and focused on most time consuming process first. I
tried to identify potential sources of delay and went about
suggesting solutions. In the end, I gave the recommendation
that only around 10% reduction was possible and that 50%
reduction in time is unrealistic at this moment. Kaushik
seemed satisfied with my analysis.
What do you think went right The conversation seemed to be flowing and there was a
for you in the in this comfort level for me as he was talking about my work
experience almost all the time.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Don’t try to blindly follow the standard case structures as
71
based on this they might help you to a certain extent. For me, almost all
the cases were pretty non-standard and I had to improvise
the structure. Be confident and always take a buy-in from the
interview on what you are doing.
Also, if you have multiple shortlists, get your pecking order

very clear in your head as you might not have time to attend
all the interviews on that day.
Outcome: Made an offer
72
Name Indrajit Mal
Company Interviewed With A. T. Kearney
Name of Interviewer and Vikas Kaushal, Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 1st interview, Round 1 (First interview of the day)

round)
Personal interview None. It was my first interview of the day. He introduced himself and
Questions(with indicative jumped into the case without wasting any time.
answers if you choose to
share them)
Case Question An integrated copper producer (mining to smelting to selling copper bars)
was experiencing losses for last 3-4 years.
Narration of the case Approach: Started off by asking basic questions about the company
interview (please be as operations, industry. Used the profitability framework to try and pin down
descriptive as possible) to revenue or cost side. Drew a value chain to understand the entire
operations. Several numbers were provided by the interviewer.
Solution: Even after doing all the typical stuff for a profitability case, I was
not able to pin point the issue and was only able to identify a broad
problem. The interviewer provided the solution at the end. I was completely
baffled by the answer because then I realized that I had misunderstood
some facts and made some wrong assumptions right at the problem
definition stage. I have not included details of this case here for the same
reason (should be available in others records).
What do you think went right Almost nothing!
interview?
Any tips for the future 1. The day’s first interview can be a bit tricky, it is extremely important to
batches based on this pay high level of attention when the interviewer is explaining the case
interview experience. or giving data. I even asked for the same data point more than 2 times –
Never forget to take notes. It might even be worthwhile to do a practice
case before getting into the first interview room.
2. While nothing went right in this interview, this experience provided me
73
with a very important takeaway – “Do not let the earlier interviews get
into your head, during anytime of the day”. It may sound very obvious,
but it’s not easy, I have seen many of my friends getting affected by this.
If an interview goes bad, just remember the term ‘sunk cost’.
74
Name Kiran Kumar G
Company Interviewed With AT Kearney
Name of Interviewer and Partner - Kaushik

Designation

round)
Personal interview Mostly CV based questions and general interests. PI went on

Questions(with indicative for more time than I expected so couldn’t get to the case.

them)
What do you think went right PI went really well, all the effort on tell me about yourself
for you in the in this paid off spectacularly.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches You need to give a lot of time and effort to the PI questions.
based on this Most of the time the differentiating factor tends to be PI as
everybody generally does a decent job on cases after a
month of preparation. This especially true for Booz, AT
Kearney etc.
75
Name Kiran Kumar G
Name of Interviewer and Mayank Bansal (Principal)

Designation

round)
Personal interview Generic CV and work-ex related stuff again

them)
Case Question The case was described as follows: “You are meeting Cyrus
Mistry as he is taking over the reins in Tata group. What
suggestion recommendation will you give him going
forward?”
Narration of the case interview I started out with looking at the existing businesses and plot
(please be as them on a 2*2 with Return vs market size as metrics for
businesses but quickly realized that Mayank wanted me to
give a future outlook for Tata group rather than improving
current profitability which the CEO might know of anyways.
So tried to plot the existing industries in a single 2*2 with

ROE vs. market size kind of metric and moved on to looking
at potential new business opportunities for expansion of the
tata group on a Risk adjusted return on investment vs.
Potential market size kind of 2*2. Had a lengthy discussion on
why risk adjusted return makes sense rather than just using
ROE (which tends to be higher for riskier businesses). Then
worked on mapping the goals on a short, medium and long
term perspective. Short term included more metrics on
existing businesses and medium term focused on new
avenues to enter.
The other discussion we had was around how to manage
76
such broad diversification as financial markets in India
continues to mature. This point was well appreciated in
terms of the long term perspective.
What do you think went right I judged what Mayank was looking for from the case pretty
for you in the in this early and tweaked the usual BCG matrix to include risk
adjusted return based on my experience. I was able to
interview?
personalize the answer from my experience in subprime
business and the way we do capital allocation across
subprime and up market businesses which got Mayank very
interested.
Any tips for the future batches There seems to be lot more broad based cases nowadays so
based on this Interview it pays off to be calm and make it into a good discussion with
experience. many potential solutions rather trying to find that one good
solution.
77
Name Kiran Kumar G
Name of Interviewer and N/A

Designation

round)
Personal interview Jumped right into the case


them)
Case Question There is an electric motors company which has seen its
profits and revenues decline over the past 5 years.
Narration of the case interview I started with laying out the value chain as follows:
(please be as
Raw materials -> inbound logistics -
descriptive as possible) >manufacturing/assembly ->outbound logistics -> customers
I soon realized the falling revenues were due to delayed

shipment of orders and that it was problem due to poor
manufacturing performance and the COO was worried about
this.
Diving into manufacturing and assembly, I came to realize

that it was a company which made electric motors (which are
used in fans etc.). Used the People, process, infrastructure
framework to identify the root cause. But the interviewer
was interested only in the laundry list of potential bottle
necks:
So listed it down under: 1) Capacity and 2) Efficiency, then

went into the concepts learnt in operation management
starting with: 1) Poor set up times 2) High cycle times due to
bad batching 3) Frequent breakdowns of bottleneck resource
78
(mentioned power cuts as well considering the Indian
scenario, interviewer appreciated this ☺) 4) Highly Variable
demand and production times 5) Supply chain (ERP) 6) Labor
skills
What do you think went right Was able to give all the potential issues and he kept
for you in the in this interview? encouraging me saying things like “We found set times to be
the issue what else?”, so had confidence to go further
Any tips for the future batches Jagmohan Raju’s material and Operation strategy are the 2
based on this Interview most important courses that you need to know very well. It
experience. helps tremendously while solving cases.
79
Name Kiran Kumar G
Name of Interviewer and Partner – Vikas Kaushal

Designation

round)
Personal interview It was my fourth continuous interview of the day with AT

Questions(with indicative Kearney and PI was again some generic questions on CV and
Work-ex.
them)
Case Question An integrated mining copper mining and smelting company

has been making losses for the past few years and we need
to suggest a turnaround plan for them.
Narration of the case interview As I was trying to draw the value chain I realized that the
(please be as problem was with the mining unit and the smelting unit costs
were on par with the industry average. Basically realized that
the transfer price charged by the mining company to the
smelting unit was much higher than the industry. We then
tried to do a profitability analysis by breaking down revenues
and costs into P&L statement: Revenue – expenses = EBITDA
+ Interest + Depreciation = PBT. Was analyzing this for both
mining and smelting when the time of interview was up and
was given an offer.
What do you think went right By this time I knew I had done well enough to get an offer
for you in the in this one of the good decisions I took was to stick out and finish all
four interviews together rather than finishing only 2.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches For people with multiple shortlists be prepared with a list of
based on this top 4 companies you will be interviewing with. Higher
80
Interview experience. shortlists only leads to confusion and I realized that 4
targeted companies is better strategy than trying to fit all
companies on the D-day and get rejected as you couldn’t
make it on time. Be prepared to make compromises that day,
as AT Kearney told me that they would only give me offer if I
stayed back but I took my chances as my next interview was
McKinsey and walked out after saying so. Not sure if you can
control this aspect of the interviews but be prepared, I was
totally surprised by this on the D-day.
81
THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP (BCG)
82
Name Devesh Trivedi
Company Interviewed With BCG
Name of Interviewer and Ramesh Jha, Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second ( I can’t remember anything from Round 1 )

round)
Personal interview No Questions

Questions(with indicative Tip #1: BCG interviews primarily focus on cases. There is very
answers if you choose to share little PI.
them)
Case Question A real estate company that sells apartments in Gurgaon

wants your help to reduce its working capital requirements.
The company has 3 kinds of apartments- Regular, Deluxe and
Super Deluxe. The company wants to invest $5 MM on
marketing which would lead to quicker sales of apartments.
Should the company go ahead with this and on what
apartment type should they concentrate their marketing
efforts?
Narration of the case interview I think my Round 1 went very average. So much so that I do
(please be as not remember what case was discussed in that round!
Hence, it was very important for me to crack this case. The
key mistake I made in Round 1 was that the framework that I
had used restricted my thought process and I could not come
up with practical recommendations.
I laid down the following formula for this problem:
Working capital = ( accounts receivable, prepaid expenses,

inventory, and securities ) – (accounts payable, wages,
dividends, and taxes)
After I put this on page, Ramesh asked me what I meant by

Inventory here and I told him that inventory was actual
number of unsold apartments.
Tip #2: Avoid using generic terms such as “Inventory”. While

solving case, use terms specific to the case i.e. use “ # unsold
83
apartments” in place of “inventory”: Account receivable-
Delay in payment by people who buy apartments. Account
payable- Payments that is to be made for construction
Ramesh then introduced me to a chart that showed the

prices of the 3 apartments. He then asked me which
apartment type should the company concentrate its
marketing efforts?
I then asked him whether we had data on how quickly can

each of these apartments be sold. Ramesh smiled and
showed me the next chart that showed that regular
apartments are easier or quicker to sell than super deluxe
ones.
Tip #3: Asking the right questions was the key to solving
cases.
Ramesh asked me whether there was any other information

that I needed. I then asked him whether he had any data on
the payment schedule for each apartment type. Ramesh
smiled again and showed another chart that should that
payment schedule for super deluxe apartment allowed very
late payments.
Finally, I was asked to do a bit of calculations that showed

that company should focus marketing efforts on regular
apartments because though their prices were lower, they are
easier/quicker to sell and payment schedule allows faster
payments from buyers.
Tip #4: Take your time with calculations. It’s better to take
extra time than to get into miscalculations.
What do you think went right Probably the best interview of the day! I asked all the right
for you in the in this questions in the chart analysis and did correct calculations.
interview? Made it to next round!!! ☺
84
Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Sachin Kotak, Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 3rd

round)
Personal interview I was somehow very calm and composed for this interview.
Questions(with indicative The 1st question the interviewer asked was “Why are you so
answers if you choose to share relaxed?” ☺
I replied that I was generally a very relaxed guy!
them)
Tip #1: A lot of people talk about establishing a “connect”
with the interviewer. Though the “connect” ultimately does
depend on personality types of 2 people, a relaxed state of
mind is a necessary for establishing the “connect” with the
interviewer
Case Question An automobile manufacturer has a sole supplier of

automobile parts. This supplier has been causing lot of
problems for the company by delaying the shipment of
several parts. This delay in supplies causes a lot of loss to the
company. Advise them.
Narration of the case interview Sachin had a very unique way of describing the case. He told
(please be as the case in the form of a dramatic story. Though this for
entertaining for me to hear, I made sure I didn’t miss out on
any important details.
I suggested that we need to find ways to help our supplier by

improving its operations. He agreed with this and told me
that it was not possible for us to change the supplier.
I drew the following value chain for the supplier and started
identifying each of the problem areas-
Supplier’s supplier/OEM > Inbound Shipment > Inventory >
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Labor & Machinery > Inventory > Outbound Shipment
To this Sachin asked me to analyze problems pertaining only

to the operations inside the factory i.e. labor and Machinery
Post this, I was asked about various problems with labor and
machinery that could be causing delay.
I broke down the problem into 3 parts. There is either

problem with 1) labor, 2) machinery or 3) operations plan
Following this, I came up with various problems that could

have been occurring. To each, Sachin asked “What Else?”
Labor- Might not be well trained, could have issues with

salary, unionization, lack of proper food, accidents in factory,
transportation facility for labor and so on
Machine- new machines for which labor is untrained,

problems with electricity supply, overload on machines, lack
of proper maintenance, lack of replacements parts such as
drill bits etc
Operations – Utilization rates, identifying bottlenecks etc
To each of my ideas, Sachin replied with “What Else?” This

went on for 20 minutes until I gave up. ☺
Post the interview, I got a very positive response from Sachin.
Made it to final round!!! ☺
Tip #2: I talked to a couple of more people later to find that

same case had been asked to multiple candidates. I think I
did 2 things well-
a) I analyzed the supplier value chain instead of the

automobile manufacturer’s value chain.
b) Try not to use the PPI framework. A lot of people from ISB
tend to use PPI framework for all operations related
86
problems. Interviewers find it tiring to hear the same
framework being used over and over again! I would
recommend the use of value chain over PPI on the interview
day. Value chain covers all aspects of operations. PPI can be
used at the back of the head while coming up with
recommendations.

interview?

based on this
87
Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Navneet Vasishth, Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 4th and Final

round)
Personal interview Tell me about a time when you had to face failure? – This
Questions(with indicative was a standard question. I had prepared an answer for this.
Give me 3 things that you learnt from this? – I was not
them)
prepared for this at all. But I was able to give a genuine
answer to this which impressed Navneet. Having your story
straight helps you to tackle unexpected questions
Case Question A big conglomerate in India wants to enter the IT sector. We
need to identify Joint Venture partners for the conglomerate
that would enable them to do so.
Narration of the case interview I asked Navneet some preliminary questions about the
(please be as conglomerate, possible joint venture partners and
conglomerate’s expectations from this venture.
I then laid out the following structure-
1. Financial stability of Partner - Growth, profitability,

size and future prospects of company
2. Capability of JV Partner- Whether the JV partner was

capable enough to help the conglomerate.
3. Power over JV partner: In any venture, the company

needs to have bargaining power over the JV partner.
This could be accomplished by being the Only JV
partner in India, Willingness to sign Contract etc
4. No conflict of interest – No competition with JV

partner at least in the IT sector in India
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5. Other factors: Profit sharing with Joint Venture
partner, Motivations of JV partner, Cultural fit etc
Navneet found this structure very exhaustive. We then had a

general discussion on each of the above 5 criteria and how
would we go about actually identifying the partner with the
above 5 criteria.
To this I said we need to perform the selection in 2 steps:
1. We need to eliminate a lot of firms based on criteria

that are easy to define. We could easily eliminate
firms on the verge of bankruptcy or firms that were
too small etc
2. We then need to create a scorecard using the above 5

criteria and rank order the prospect partners. Once
top prospects are identified, negotiations with
prospects would help us select the partner.
Offer was made!! ☺ ☺ ☺

interview?

based on this
89
Name Apeksha Khandelwal
Name of Interviewer and Yashraj Erande, Principal
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round 1 – Interview 1
round)
Personal interview I had interacted with Yash over BCG dinner, so didn’t have a
Questions(with indicative usual start to the interview. Being the 6th interview of the
answers if you choose to share day, he gave me some time to settle down and we talked
about ISB in general.
them)
Questions I asked –
As Yash leads strategy practice in India, I asked him about the
kind of work BCG is doing in strategy domain?
Narration of the case interview A bank is planning to start a cash management system for its
(please be as descriptive as corporate clients. They want to know how to price this
possible) product?
The new system does the following things (eg. Vodafone is
your client)–
1) Rental collection from vodafone’s customers– pick up
from stores, ATMs
2) Float – smart MIS system
3) Dispatch/payments – Salaries and other payments
Once I laid down a basic pricing model in terms of various
ways of pricing the service, Yashraj recommended me to look
at cost+ approach.
I calculated the costs for all the three stages and put a
markup of 10% for the bank.
Collection stage- FC (infrastructure – Vehicles, IT system ), VC
–( people cost, monthly rentals, fuel etc) == Based on the
cost numbers and the life of the products we calculated the
annual costs for the bank
Float – just 1 time setup cost of developing the smart MIS
system
Payments – FC of 75L overall for once across all customers
Based on this we calculated the cost/ customer /year with
the assumption of 50 customers.
After this analysis, Yash asked me how the bank can sustain
this business over a long term i.e. how can it raise entry
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barriers for other firms in the industry and protect their own
clientele.
This was a tricky question, I came up with 4-5 ideas . Here are
few of those-
• Develop their smart MIS system such that the client is
getting lot of value out of it. As the bank would have a
huge amount of data of the client , they can provide
analytical solutions to the client. Eg. good visibility into
bad loans, payment history which can help the client
develop their future business strategy. This would increase
the value of the product for the client and also raise
switching cost as the firm might lose out on lot of data.
• Make the firm employees open salary account with the
bank and link them with the product for direct salary
transfers. This would increase the switching cost for the
firm as they’d need to make lots of change to changes just
1 MIS system.
• Make end customers of our client used to the interface.
• If the firm offers this service to multiple service
companies, end customer would be able to make all their
payments from 1 online account which would make it
easy.
After this discussion, Yash asked me that what is the
minimum return a firm expects from a project, based on
which they decide if they should invest or not?
I replied that the rate is determined by the opportunity cost
of capital (WACC) the firm is going to invest.
What do you think went right Right – almost everything. It was a very difficult interview
for you in the in this interview? though as Yash kept asking tricky questions one after the
other and wasn’t only about solving a case.
Wrong – It took me a while to come up with a strategy to
develop competitive advantage for the firm
Any tips for the future batches Be thorough with your courses. Keep your cool in tough
based on this Interview interviews like this.
experience.
91
Name of Interviewer and Navneet Vasishth, Partner
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round 1 – interview 2
round)
Personal interview Not many as I had spoken to Naveen earlier.
them)
Narration of the case interview Case: A big Indian conglomerate “X” (operating in telecom
(please be as descriptive as infrastructure, manufacturing and financial services sectors)
possible) is looking at investing $500 Mn in IT services industry in the
next 5 years. How should they go about making this
investment?
On asking clarification questions, I learnt that X operates in

India & middle east and around 40% of their business comes
from outside India. Firm is looking at the investment aiming
4-6% growth rate.
I leaned that firm wants to invest in an existing IT services
firm. Now the question was what kind of firm they should
invest in. He explained that IT industry has primarily 4
segments –
1) Global biggies - Rev $12-15Bn, margin 6-10%. Eg. IBM,
HP, Accenture
2) Challengers – Rev $3.5-10 Bn, Margin – 12-25%
a. Twitch - Indian players like Infosys, TCS
b. Regional – Europe, Canada, Japan
c. Horizontal – BPO sector (Service segment)
3) Emerging – Rev $0.5-3 Bn , Margin- 5-25%– Large
number of players
4) Long tail – much smaller firms (start up stage)
As it was a big investment I recommended that inorganic
mode of entry via JV or M&A seems like a better option.
At this point interviewer told me that I have an excel sheet

with a list of 3000 firms across the world. I had to narrow
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down to a few for detailed investigation by filtering the data.
So, essentially I had to decide the filters to be applied on the
dataset.
Here I gave him a list of few filters I thought would be
applicable and went into a detailed discussion discussing why
a particular filter should be applied and what needs to be
filtered out.
Filter 1: Firm operating in India / outside india - The idea was
that by acquiring an oversees firm, X would get entry into
some other markets and the IT company can also expand in
Indian markets.
Filter 2: Industry segment and size: As “X” is willing to invest
INR 500Mn, they had to decide on the size of the firm to get
majority stake ( if they are interested in it).
Filter 3: Market share and growth: The market share of the
firm in the industry segment and the growth rate of the
segment would define how much the firm can grow further.
A firm that is 3rd-4th biggest would make sense (10-15%
m.s.)
Filter 4: Product pipeline: If the conglomerate can find firms
with product pipeline that can be useful for the other firms in
the umbrella of X. For example, financial services products
We discussed around 7 and 8 such filters and Navneet

seemed to be happy by the discussion.
What do you think went right The discussion on the filters was appreciated by the partner
for you in the in this interview? and he liked the thought process.
What went wrong – I took some time in the beginning of the
case to understand what Navneet wanted me to do in the
case. Had to ask quite a few clarification questions to
understand it correctly.
Any tips for the future batches Keep your calm in the interview and if you get stuck take help
based on this Interview from the interviewer to understand problem well. Also,
experience. solving the case in form of a discussion would be very helpful
in interviews as it helps in building connect with the person.
93
Name of Interviewer and Ramesh Jha, Principal
Designation
round)
Personal interview Ramesh is an ISB alum so we just chatted about the campus
Questions(with indicative for 10 minutes.
them)
Narration of the case interview Everything, frankly it was a straight forward case with lesser
(please be as descriptive as chances of screwing up. Was made an offer ☺
possible)
What do you think went right Rini Chordia

for you in the in this interview?
Name BCG
Company Interviewed With Sachin Kotak
Name of Interviewer and First

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third He asked me if I am stressed out from other interviews then

round) he would ask some PI questions. However I insisted on
jumping straight to the case. (Don’t know y :P)
Personal interview The interviewer didn’t allow us to take the paper with us,
Questions(with indicative hence don’t remember the exact question. However it was
about a manufacturing plant and the question was to
answers if you choose to share diagnose the issues it could be facing
them)
Case Question . After some preliminary questions I started with the PPI
framework, which really got him mad. He had asked the
same case questions to some 5 candidates before me and
everyone used the same framework. Then I drew a value
chain and decided to look at issues at each step. This made
him more furious. He kept grilling for something else and I
had exhausted all possible frameworks, out of the box things
94
I could come up with. He wasn’t happy ☺
He specifically asked me to write in the next years consulting

case book warning the coming batch to not use the standard
frameworks like PPI, value chain. Develop your own
framework and think from the first principal.
At this point I just smiled and told him that the way this
interview is going I don’t think I will get a chance to write in
the consulting case book ☺ Finally he smiled back!
Narration of the case interview He was trashing all my ideas and I realized in the beginning
(please be as that its a stress interview. So the idea was to keep my cool
and keep trying. That is what I did and I think it worked
What do you think went right Different interviewees might test different things. Not
for you in the in this everyone is looking for your case cracking abilities or your PI
skills. Make sure you don’t panic if things don’t go your way.
interview?
As someone has written in the earlier casebooks – its day 0, it
will have 0 effect on your career in the long run. Work hard
and the best will come your way ☺
95
Name Rini Chordia
Name of Interviewer and Jitesh Shah

Designation

round)
Personal interview Jitesh is a PL in BCG and I had interacted with him during the
Questions(with indicative BCG dinner. Although that interaction didn’t help much
during the interview as he didn’t ask any PI questions. I had
answers if you choose to share discussed about his work and recent assignments and was
them) expecting case question to be on those lines.
Case Question A financial services company provides car loans. Their market
share has gone down from 35% to 30%. Diagnose the
problem
Narration of the case interview I started by asking some clarifying questions. If the fall in
(please be as market share is specific to
descriptive as possible) 1. Any particular Region – Not relevant
2. Any particular Customer segment – They served only

one customer type
3. Time period – last one year
Then I decided to look into key Internal and External factors
External Factors –
1. State of economy – going through a bad phase, the

whole market had shrunk
2. New competitors – No new competitors
3. Change in demographics – No such change
Internal Factors – SOV*SOM*SOD
SOV and SOM were unchanged. Interviewer asked me to dig

deeper in the SOD
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At this point the interviewer informed me that the way it
functioned was that our sales people would sit at various
showrooms where cars are purchased and offered loans. So I
decided to look at the following and benchmark each with
our competitors
1. Reach
- No. of Showrooms covered
- No. of sales people/showroom
2. Efficiency – No. of car loans/ Showroom
3. Any role of showroom in pushing for car loans of a

particular provider
On benchmarking with the competitors, the Efficiency of our

sales people was lower than the competitors.
Efficiency could be impacted by Training, Attrition, Incentives
We decided to look at the incentives. The interviewer gave

the following numbers for the salary structure of the sales
people
No. of cars loans Our Client Competitor

sold
Fixed INR 8000 INR 10000
0-5 INR 250 /Car INR 300 /Car
6-10 INR 500/Car INR 300/Car
>10 INR 1000/Car INR 700/Car
On analyzing the above we can conclude that
0-14 car loans/sales person – Competitors salary structure is

better
>14 cars loans /sales person – Our client salary structure is
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better
In last one year as the market has shrunk, the number of cars
loans per salesman has gone down. Hence our client is facing
more attrition. The star salesman are leaving the firm and
going to the competitors for higher pay. Hence our market
share is shrinking.
At this point he asked me to come up with some solutions. I

listed down a few- but before I could go into details he said
we should wrap up the case and its solved. He then told me
the solution they proposed and asked me if there is any
specific question about the firm I would like to ask.
What do you think went right The case went really well. I was able to diagnose the problem
for you in the in this without much guidance and the interviewer was quite happy
about it.
interview?
I was told immediately that I would be called for the next
round!
Any tips for the future batches Different interviewees might test different things. Not
based on this everyone is looking for your case cracking abilities or your PI
Name Rini Chordia
Name of Interviewer and Vipin Gupta

Designation

round)
Personal interview We jumped straight to the case
98

them)
Case Question An Indian IT company is facing higher employee cost than its
competitors that is making them less competitive. We need
to help them!
Narration of the case interview Clarifying questions:
(please be as
1. Location of company: Bangalore
2. Nature of work: Three stages – Planning, Design,
Execution
3. Define Employee cost – He said we look at it as a

percentage of revenue generated per employee –
which has gone up.
I listed down various cost and benchmarked with the

competitors
1. Training cost
2. Salary – Fixed & Variable
3. Employee Benefits
4. Office
5. Other expenses
He directed me to look at the salaries. He gave the following

numbers
Skill Level Salary
High 8000/Month
Medium 5000/Month
Low 3000/Month
99
I concluded that there could be 2 issues for high cost
1. Efficiency issue
2. Utilization/Mismatch/Over-skilling
He indicated to look at the issue of over-skilling.
Demand Side Supply side
He mentioned currently one person handles a particular

project at all three stages from planning to execution. He
gave me following numbers then
Planning Design Execution
High Skill 5 hrs 35 hrs 60 hrs INR 4850
Med Skill 7.5 hrs 50 hrs 80 hrs INR 4000
Low Skill 10 hrs 80 hrs 90 hrs INR 3000
Optimum INR 200 INR 1500 INR 1800 INR 3500
Given the salaries and the time taken we calculated the

minimum cost at each level and the desired skill set required.
He was quite impressed with the quick calculation, which was
the purpose of the case I think.
What do you think went right Overall the case went well. I did not get stuck at any stage
for you in the in this and we were constantly discussing ideas and solving it
together.
interview?
I was told that all my cases had gone well and I need to go for
a last interview with a partner.
100
Interview experience. skills. Make sure you don’t panic if things don’t go your way.
Name Rini Chordia
Name of Interviewer and Kaustav Mukherjee

Designation

round)
Personal interview Kaustav was a partner at the firm and specializes in the
Questions(with indicative energy sector. I was expecting an interview with him as I
come from the energy sector. He started with general
answers if you choose to share discussion about the energy sector and asked few questions
them) about the work I had done. I had prepared my resume, so it
went well.
Case Question A European power and gas supplier wants to enter the Indian
market. He needs our help!
Narration of the case interview Clarifying questions
(please be as
1. What part of the value chain he wants to enter – All:
descriptive as possible) Marketing, distribution, retail
2. Objective – Growth and profits
I decided to look at the following things
1. Industry attractiveness
- Growth rate – Demand End
- Size
- Competition – Supply End
- Barriers to Entry
101
- Differentiation
2. The current company capability – thus look at

whether to enter organically, JV
3. Key Risk/challenges
He asked me to analyze the Demand first
I listed down various sources for gas demand
1. Power
2. Fertilizers
3. Industries
4. Household
5. Commercial
He mentioned power and fertilizers comprises 70% of the

demand. There was some more data he gave which I have
forgotten :P
Following this it was more of discussion and we were

bouncing off ideas. Since I was familiar with the sector, I
mentioned how this sector is currently regularized but given
growing energy needs the govt will find it very hard to
subsidize it in future and then it will become a lucrative
industry to enter. Then we discussed some substitution
effect that can take place which will further make it more
attractive
He then asked me to list down the various factors for

deciding the location – Price we can charge, Proximity to
supply sources, Govt support
He then asked to list down the various factors to consider

while deciding
1. Which end of the value chain we should enter
102
2. Choosing the right JV partner
I listed down a few for each and then he asked me if I have

any questions for him. I had read about his background and
asked a related question
What do you think went right I knew about my sector and work, which helped. The case
for you in the in this went well and he looked happy.
interview? A big mistake I made was I did not eat anything since
morning. Post interview I got the feedback that all the cases
had gone really well, however the partner feels my energy
level was low. So the alums asked me to take some time out,
eat, relax and then go for the final interview with another
partner
Name Rini Chordia
Name of Interviewer and Navneet Vasishth

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Fifth

round)
Personal interview Navneet was extremely nice and he was probably the first
Questions(with indicative interviewer from BCG who started off with PI. He asked me
few things about my job. How will I manage the hectic
answers if you choose to share consulting life while being married☺ Jobs that I have
them) switched and the reasons for them. I answered all the
questions, although I was really exhausted and tired by then.
Narration of the case interview He then asked me a case which I did in a disinterested
103
(please be as manner. But I was really exhausted by then and hate to recall
it now too :P
What do you think went right I don’t think this interview went that well. They gave me the
for you in the in this offer but I was asked to practice shouting at my husband
more frequently and keep my energy levels high ☺
interview?
Name Twarit Anand
Company Interviewed With Boston Consulting Group

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 1st round, 1st interview

round)
Personal interview • Tell me about yourself
104
Questions(with indicative • Why consulting?
• Case
• Any questions you want to ask?
them)
o Difference between consulting German vs
Indian clients
Case Question Your client is a conglomerate that wants to diversify into IT
services. How would you help them?
Narration of the case interview Started by asking basic questions like

(please be as
• Which sectors is the conglomerate currently in:
descriptive as possible) Consumer electronics, manufacturing, and two other
unrelated sectors
• Competition: Mainly three segments of competition
in IT services viz big medium and small players. He
gave me typical revenue figures for such players and
their share in the Indian sector
• Motivation: To reach 10 year revenue target
• Target customer: Not decided. But I suggested here
that internal customers are well possible
• IT services type: Not decided
Then, I laid out the structure on what all aspects to think
about the problem.
1) To decide the service offering, first we will have to be

clear on Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of
the service
2) Strategy of the division: Low cost or differentiation
3) 4Ps – Product, price, place and promotion
He agreed to all and asked me to focus on how will we
implement?
I again gave another framework to think
Green Franchise M&A JV

field
Management
control
Cultural fit
Risks
Financial
105
He agreed to this and told me to concentrate on the JV
option. Here we had a long discussion, where I illustrated him
how to evaluate partner firms based on size,
values/reputation, services offering. He said that if credibility
and size are the parameters, then you will be partnering with
companies like Infosys and TCS. He said that scorecard thing
will not work if there is a list of 1000 companies that the firm
can have business partnership with and we need to come
down to 30. How would you do it?
Then, I laid out certain elimination criteria like companies

with similar aspirations (linked it to the data he gave me on
the medium sized firms). I also added other practical criteria
for elimination. The case ended.
What do you think went right The day had just started and I was happy it started with a
for you in the in this positive note. Thorough understanding of frameworks
helped. One thing I had learnt from my buddies was that
interview? there will be a focus on how practical you are in
recommending solutions/approaches, which was tested.
Any tips for the future batches Focus on being absolutely clear in the concepts taught in the
based on this core terms. However theoretical they may seem, they are
always useful.
At the end, if the interviewer smiles while answering your
question, you have managed a “Tsaheylu” ☺
Name Twarit Anand
Company Interviewed Boston Consulting Group

With
Name of Interviewer and Prashant Agarwal

Designation
Round 1st round, 2nd interview

(First/Second/Third
round)
Personal interview • Doesn’t it feel morally or ethically wrong to be working for

Questions(with indicative a tobacco company
106
answers if you choose to • Mini Case1
share them) • Mini Case2
• Any questions you want to ask?
o How was it working with Tony Blair
Narration of the case Case1: Estimate the number of flights in air in India right now (it
interview (please be as was 8:45 am at that time).
descriptive as possible) I started by stating that I would like to tackle this using a supply
approach rather than demand, to which he agreed. So, I took one
airport (say Delhi T3). I stated that the rate will be determined by
\the bottleneck resource which is the runway in this case.
Considering a runway is occupied for 15 mins for a flight to takeoff
(he asked me to take it as 5 mins). Total time for which passenger
aircrafts are busy on the runway is 18 hours (morning 6 to
midnight 12). Total number of flights that can take off = 18*60/5 =
216. Assuming 80% utilization ~173 flights. I asked him if there is a
separate runway for arrivals, to which he said yes and asked me to
ignore it. He asked me to calculate the flights flying right now (I
realized I had deviated a bit). So, I took average flight time of 2
hours and calculated number of flights taking off from T3 Delhi as
2*60/5 = 24 flights.
Then we had to calculate the same for the entire country. I did
another mistake as I took 26 states and assumed one airport in
every capital city and multiplied 26 with 24. He said that this would
clearly overestimate the number of flights and asked me why? I
said that the utilization of smaller airports will be low. He said that
we should only consider 6 major airports in the country and asked
me why. I thought and said that and flight originating from a small
airport will definitely land on a major airport and hence
considering only 6 major airports will fit the bill, to which he
agreed.
Then he asked me to do the calculation, which I initially fumbled

(some silly mistake) and the corrected to his satisfaction.
Case 2: You are consulting a company like ITC that has a lot of
surplus cash. How would you decide on what to do with the cash?
I thought and said that we should maximize the shareholder return

by investing in projects that give IRR greater than what the
shareholders can earn elsewhere and give off the rest as dividends
(the regular CFIN funda). He said, assuming this does not happen,
107
what do you think could be the reasons. I said that we should look
at the motivation of the decision maker. If his pay is based on the
revenues or total profits, then, he will be incentivized to undertake
projects which are negative NPV for the shareholders, this being
an agency problem. He agreed to that and the case ended.
What do you think went I was thinking logically and the interviewer also helped in
right for you in the in this structuring the thinking. It was really a joint problem solving
process.
Interview?
Any tips for the future Show your thought process to interviewer
batches based on this
Name Twarit Anand
Company Interviewed Boston Consulting Group

With

Designation
Round 2nd round, 1st interview

(First/Second/Third
round)
Personal interview • Case

Questions(with indicative • Discussion on why BCG and its differentiating factor (focus
on strategy)
share them)
Case Question Your client is a banking company that has usual baking operations
(loans and deposits). They are planning to offer customized
collection services to firms. How should they price them?
Narration of the case I started asking questions for scoping. Yashraj is a sort of a stress
interview (please be as interviewer and questioned me on why I was asking each question
for scoping. I first understood more on current operations of
company, what are collection services? He told that as part of this
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descriptive as possible) service, banks will be aggregating/collecting payment cheques
received from customers and do all banking related transactions
for the telecom company.
Then I told the usual framework on pricing: cost based, value

based and comparable. He said that there are no comparables and
they want to look at cost based pricing. So, I made the value chain
on how the services will happen, what extra resources are needed
at each stage and their costs.
Some discussion on: there are a few employees that are

underutilized now. If we use them in this service, should we
account for their costs also. The answer to that was yes, because if
we don’t use them in this service, we could have used them for
some other work at a later date, which would in-turn lead to some
cost then.
Finally, I calculated the total cost (which was simple calculation;

there are numerical details that I am not remembering now). Then
he asked me how to finally arrive at the price form this cost? I said,
we could look at the average price markup that is charged in the
industry, to which he agreed.
Then, he asked me to suggest ways that can lead to sustainable

strategic advantage to the company. I talked about having a
contract, with a non-competitive clause. Then he probed me to
think in different directions. I said that the bank can also provide
the same service to the telecom company’s customers, suppliers
and try to serve the whole value chain and find ways to efficiently
integrate them. He was happy and we discussed other solutions.
What do you think went What could have gone better:

right for you in the in this
• I was not able to justify why I asked 2 scoping questions,
Interview? which I straightaway conceded
• Some probing was required for me to come to final
recommendations for sustainable advantage
Any tips for the future By the interview day, everyone will be prepared enough to find the
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batches based on this correct framework to be put. The thing that will differentiate you is
your idea generation once the problem has been identified, your
Interview experience. comprehensive nature of problem solving, how engaging are you
with the interviewer, how effectively are you able to walk him
through.
Name Twarit Anand
Company Boston Consulting Group

Interviewed With
Name of Sachin Kotak, Principal

Interviewer and
Designation
Round 2nd round, 2nd interview

(First/Second/Thir
d round)
Personal • Case
interview • Discussion on why BCG
Questions(with
indicative
answers if you
choose to share
them)
Case Question Your friend is a purchasing manager at a manufacturing location. There

are big issues with quality, delivery and cost. How will you go about
solving his problem?
Narration of the Sachin was very friendly and offered me coffee ☺. This was my 10th
case interview interview since morning.
(please be as
I started scoping the problem, to which he said that there is no further
descriptive as scoping. You have to solve all problems. What will you do? He said that I
possible) have to do all the talking from now and no further data is to be given to
me.
I started by stating my approach of doing a FMEA (Failure Mode and

Effects Analysis), something which I learnt during my previous job. So, I
walked him through the whole value chain within manufacturing. I
identified all the inputs at each stage and tried to find the ways in which
they can fail, trying to be comprehensive. He was happy with the approach
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and questioned me on a few things.
Then, I gave specific recommendations on what can be done for each

failure mode using the following approach: either reduce the number of
instances of failure of lead indicators or improve systems for detection of
failure.
I drew the following process for the vendor (whose process, we need to
improve)
Following is the approach listed down for two steps in the above process:
Step Input Characteristi Failure Improvement

c of input Mode recommendatio
n
Raw Raw Raw material Ad-hoc -Handholding

Material Material inventory system of vendor in best
order level inventory inventory
planning / management
monitoring practices
Inventory Incorrect -Training

planner inventory
levels due -Employee
to performance
unskilled / review and
not compensation
properly based on
incentivize inventory
d demand met
employee
Processin Scheduling Demand vs Improper -Have top

g Planned planning priority for your
process manufacture
-facilitate the
vendor in
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planning
process
Operators Skill Training
Will Incentive
Maintenanc Skill Training

e fitters
Will Incentive
Ancillaries -Quality Monitoring
-Presence
when
required
Quality Systems Improper

check sampling /
testing /
reporting
And so on……
During my previous work, I had interacted a lot with purchasing managers

and was aware of the best practices and systems. Hence, I always had
good points to add.
What do you Previous work knowledge in six-sigma helped. I was doing most of the
think went right talking, but was taking his buy-in from time to time. Sachin was also very
for you in the in supportive.
this
Interview?
Any tips for the Know your work-ex well. It is very important to brush-up whatever you
future batches have done in your previous profile. Take out time to revise stuff and read
based on this about the company, best practices in your work area, concepts applicable
etc. If a case comes in that direction, you are expected to be the best in it.
Interview
experience.
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Name Amrita Dutta
Name of Interviewer and Sachin Kotak, Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round one

round)
Personal interview The interviewer didn't seem interested in PI. However I went
Questions(with indicative on introduce myself since I had read up earlier on the
answers if you choose to share interviewer's profile, which was similar to mine. This helped
build an initial rapport.
them)
Case Question This case is a slight haze, however I will try to summarize it.
Our client is facing certain delivery issues with its suppliers
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and has come to us to help them out.
Narration of the case interview The interviewer mentioned upfront that he did not want me
(please be as descriptive as to use any conventional frameworks, but discuss the problem
possible) using fundamental concepts.
I initially asked a few questions on the supplier/ vendor

profile of the client - no significant concentration noted and
the issue was being faced across vendors.
I decided to break the problem into internal and external

reasons for the delays. Internal being where the client was
facing issues within the organisation in terms of co-
ordinating supplies on time, accurate and timely forecasting
of demand, production bottlenecks, labour / staff issues,
quality issues etc.
External reasons where primarily issues with the vendor not

supplying on time. The interviewer asked me to focus this.
After some discussions I drew the value chain of a supplier,
basically the entire cash conversion cycle. We then discussed
possible reasons for delay in the entire value chain from raw
materials, work in progress to finished goods. The
interviewer appeared to test our basics, more than seek for a
single right answer.
What do you think went right The interviewer kept acknowledging the reasons, but asked
for you in the in this interview? me to go on with the analysis. I was unsure about how the
interview progressed throughout. However, I had gauged the
feedback from the interviewer early and tried to stay away
from conventional structures.
Any tips for the future batches It is great to know frameworks, but they should be applied
based on this Interview cautiously. Stay focussed despite your analysis being put
experience. down..they do it sometimes to gauge our confidence.
Name Amrita Dutta
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Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round two

round)
Personal interview About 10 minute PI session - on introducing myself, why BCG,

Questions(with indicative previous education. Tried customising my answers to BCG
answers if you choose to share (which was well appreciated), especially after attending the
interview prep sessions and talks with BCG alums. Always
them)
helps to have your individual story, customised with your
prior experiences and what you are looking to do ahead.
Narration of the case interview Case: Pricing

(please be as descriptive as
(i) Our client is a Bank, which proposes to launch cash
possible)
management services (i.e. mainly cash and cash equivalents).
It has recently set up a division to manage cash collections
and payments to assist the management of their customers,
to optimally manage their MIS. BCG has been approached to
suggest a suitable method to price this service.
Response: Started off my pricing structure - explaining that

there are three ways of pricing typically - cost based, value
based and competition based (ruled out at the outset after
consent of the interviewer).
(i) Value based - based on opportunity cost, willingness to

pay, percentage of value added
(ii) Cost based - aggregate relevant costs of the division and

decide fee based on the number of clients/ time involved.
Asked to find out the monthly cost, assuming 60 clients are
acquired p.a.
Listed out the typical costs: (i) People costs: additional

manager (say 1), additional staff (say 5), Management time -
total salary of staff was ~INR 1 crore p.a,(ii) IT platform
(assume INR 5 cr over 7 years, amortise p.a.), (iii) Marketing
and advertising costs (asked to assumed ~4% of revenues),
(iv) Overheads (~5% of people cost), Dispatch costs (~5% of
revenues).
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Total costs worked out to ~INR 4 lk/ customer p.a.
Mentioned that the bank may want to charge a margin of
~20%, and hence we could charge a fee of INR 5 lk/ customer
p.a.
(ii) What could be the possible rationale of the Bank to

extend such services?
Came up with the following reasons:
(a) Leveraging on economies of scale (same people working

on multiple clients, can help especially if clients are in the
same sector since there would be an overlap in the suppliers
and customers).
(b) Extending banking services provided to clients with lean

finance teams, by adding a new division (several costs could
be shared such as office space etc). Potential opportunity to
cross sell services to existing customers.
(c) Competitors are entering this space, and there is

increased pressure on the bank to extend such services.
Could also be a mechanism to retain clients.
The interviewer seemed to be looking out for another reason

and asked me to think further. Took a few minutes off and
with the help of the interviewer, drew a value chain - then
came up with an explanation that perhaps the bank was
seeing to access to the suppliers and customers of its clients -
to potentially acquire new customers. The interviewer
seemed pleased finally and said that this was the exact
reason why the bank was seeing to provide such a service.
(iii) Firm value is 100 cr, Equity of 50 cr and Debt of 50 cr.

Return on capital of client is 20 cr and cost of debt is 10%.
What is EBT?
I computed interest on debt = 5cr, and hence arrived at an

EBT of 15cr (return on total capital i.e. debt and equity less
interest cost).
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If ROC is 5%, then EBT is 0. The interviewer mentioned what
the ROC could indicate - I responded that it could be the IRR
or the hurdle rate for the investment opportunity.
What do you think went right Was able to lay out the structure, and customise it to the
for you in the in this interview? problem. However, took slightly long to get the calculations
right, due to the numbers involved and nerves!
The interviewer was however pleased with the cost heads

and logic. Last question was on corporate finance to test
basic skills.
Any tips for the future batches Moved to round 3.

based on this Interview
Very important to get the numbers right, stay confident
experience.
especially given the stress levels on that day. Take a little
extra time if required, especially with dealing with zeros!
Don't let the stress of calculations affect the rest of the
interview.
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Name Amrita Dutta
Name of Interviewer and Burjor Dadachaji, Project Leader

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round three

round)
Personal interview Had a long 20 minute PI session. The interviewer also had a
Questions(with indicative similar education background, and was keen on knowing my
answers if you choose to share college experience. This helped build a connect and we went
on to discuss interests (piano etc) and finally how would I add
them)
value to BCG. It is great to be able to figure out interests of
the interviewer for a PI discussion.
Case Question Case: Market sizing - What is the market size of paintings in
India.
Narration of the case interview Lay out the structure that a market can be sized in three
(please be as descriptive as ways - (i) demand side, (ii) supply side and (iii) triangulate the
possible) two above using secondary research/ third party reports.
Ruled out demand size with the consent of the interviewer,

since paintings are a creative expression that is difficult to
generalise. However, drew the Indian population pyramid
(1.2 billion population, divided into ~40% below the poverty
line, ~40% lower middle class, ~15% upper middle class and
5% representing the rich) and suggested we could do some
primary research if required for the individual segments of
rich and upper middle class.
Focussed on the supply side i.e. based on the number of

professional artists and average number of paintings sold (x
the average cost per painting).
Divided Indian into tier I cities (~10), tier II cities (~20) and
tier III (~70). Mentioned that paintings are mainly sold either
in galleries or galleries. There could be smaller painters who
sell directly from their home, but the interviewer agreed that
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they could be ignored.
In a tier I city, estimated and agreed with the interviewer that

there are on an average 20 prominent art galleries/
exhibitions (capacity of ~100 paintings) and about 30 smaller
set ups (capacity ~30 paintings). Sale of paintings are likely to
happen for atleast 15 days in a month. Assumed an average
utilisation of 80% for the larger set ups and 50% for the
smaller ones.
Carried out a similar analysis for tier II and tier III cities, and
arrived at the total demand for paintings.
Then suggested we take an average cost of a painting for the

three categories of cities (further classified between large
and small galleries), and multiplied it by the individual
demands to arrive at the market size of paintings.
The interviewer asked whether I had missed out anything in

the calculation - I requested for a few minutes off and
mentioned that were other sources of purchasing a painting
such as auctions, institutes etc. He seemed happy to hear my
thoughts on auctions.
What do you think went right Initial rapport with the interviewer and a good PI discussion
for you in the in this interview? helped bringing down the nerves. Structured the case well
and got the calculations right.
Any tips for the future batches Moved to round 4.

It does not matter how accurate your assumptions are, the
experience.
interviewer is primarily testing your thought flow and
rationale.
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Name Amrita Dutta

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round four

round)
Personal interview I was aware that this was the crucial round.
Questions(with indicative I had met the partner in the elevator in the morning while
answers if you choose to share exploring the campus, and he remembered our conversation
while I entered for the interview. Navneet also has a friendly
them)
personality, which definitely brought me at ease.
Started off with a 10 minute PI of how employees are very
critical to an organisation such as BCG and hence they are
very critical about selecting a candidate.
Asked me a few questions on my prior work experience, and
particular relating to leadership and team work experience.
The remaining time was spent on a generic discussion on
certain sectors on which I had worked.
Case Question Case: Portfolio diversification strategy
Our client is a large conglomerate with revenues of $15

million. It has diverse interests in financial services,
insurance, and some other manufacturing sectors. It wants
to decide whether it should enter the IT industry, where it
proposes to make $500 million in 5 years. Suggest the
various filters that can be applied.
Narration of the case interview I confirmed whether he only wanted me to touch on filters
(please be as descriptive as for evaluation, or discuss any other parameters of market
possible) entry such as rationale for entry, risks, constraints, mode of
entry.
He suggested discussing mode of entry - I suggested that

with the aggressive growth plans, it would be suitable to
either look at an acquisition or a joint venture with an
existing player (lower risk).
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There were no constraints of hurdle rate required from
investment, and it was a five year plan. He also added that
there were a list of 3,000 potential companies/ targets that
the client could choose from (i.e. we need to filter to ~30-50
names).
I asked for some details on the conglomerate - he mentioned

that it was famous for ethical standards, employee friendly,
operationally efficient, financially prudent and believed in a
long term vision.
Took a few minutes off to decide and prioritize the criteria

(planned to use each of its strengths as a filter for my
analysis).
Initially started off with operational efficiency i.e. mainly

profitability and growth and drew a 2x2 matrix to indicate
where a good fit should lie (had a long discussion on this -
ideally the target must have high growth and profitability,
however high on profitability and moderate on growth is also
acceptable, since the conglomerate value by leveraging on its
management expertise and networks).
Second criteria was employees - key performance indicators

that is important in the IT sector such as employee
productivity, attrition levels, employee policies (qualitative
factor). I also emphasised on the organisation's outlook
(management) and ethical reputation (since the
conglomerate was high on these factors).
Third was capabilities match - R&D capabilities, product

history. We had a detailed discussion on some of these
metrices and how they would be critical to meet the growth
projections.
The interviewer stopped me at this point, and said that no

matter how good a candidate is at problem solving etc, they
look to hire someone who can make a partner someday. I
sought to probe into this further. But after a long pause, he
said that he had good news and was happy to welcome me
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to the BCG family. Offer made :)
What do you think went right Constant communication with the interviewer, to gauge
for you in the in this interview? whether I was going in the right direction (especially since
the case was fairly open ended).
Any tips for the future batches Consider the interviewer to be a peer that day. At the end of
based on this Interview the day, they are looking to hire someone with who they can
experience. have an engaging discussion.
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Name Amit Garg
Name of Interviewer and Yash Erande

Designation

round)
Personal interview He went through my resume and asked some basic resume
Questions(with indicative questions and jumped to case very quickly. After finishing the
case he just asked me one thing “Why BCG”. By the end of
answers if you choose to share my case I realized that Yash is a person who looks for clarity
them) and very pointed answer so instead of giving the usual 3
point prepared answer I chose to say only one reason which
was most significant for me. He was happy with my answer
and sent me to next interview. I also asked him some
question regarding his background and his interests ( you will
get brief one day before – Please read it before meeting the
interviewer)
Case Question It was kind of a pricing case. There is a bank (financial firm)
which provides one stop solution to various firms like
Vodafone. The services it offers are collection of payments
from customers, billing, payment processing, managing
account payables and wealth management. So how much the
firm should charge Vodafone for these kinds of services.
Narration of the case interview I started the case trying to understand basic background
(please be as information of bank. He stopped me and asked why I want
these information (I could not give great answer as I was
trying to follow the framework.) With his pointed questions I
realized I need to use first principle rather than any
framework. I further discussed the pricing to be based on
cost based, competitor based or value based. He liked this
approach and mentioned that there is no competition. Then
he asked me to proceed with cost based. I drew value chain
to understand what all cost elements are for the firm. He
gave me data on the various elements of cost like sales agent
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cost ( Rs 10K, can be used for 20 customers), collection agent
cost ( same like previous), how many customers do they
serve (200), technology cost, retention cost etc. He also
mentioned that firm has purchased a new technology for 15
lakhs with linear depreciation in 5 years. Using all these
figures I quickly calculated the breakeven price for any client.
He was looking for something else. So I started discussing if

this is right answer, then he pushed me to go back to the
question and see if other than cost heads are there any
possibilities of revenue. It then clicked me that the firm a
bank and when it is dealing with capital it can utilize that
capital for its own purposes like loans etc. We then further
discussed and arrived to the point that the firms will actually
give these services free of cost in lieu of these added benefits
which actually get more revenue than the cost incurred.
At this point he seemed to be satisfied and we went to the

last leg of the case which was more of a discussion. He asked
me how the firm can sustain its business. I brought the point
of differentiation and low cost leadership but he was
expecting something else. I then pursued the point of long
term contract and also developing engagements in other
areas like employee salary, insurance etc. Engaging in various
financial aspects will make Vodafone more and more
dependent on the client and will increase the switching cost.
At this point we ended the case and he further elaborated on
this.
What do you think went right I think he liked my approach of solving the case along with
for you in the in this him and quickly changing my though process as per his
direction rather than just following any typical framework.
interview?
Straight forward answers in PI were also liked by him.
Any tips for the future batches Will summarize in the end of all cases.
based on this
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Name Amit Garg
Name of Interviewer and Navneet Vashisth

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First round ( second interview)

round)
Personal interview This started with very casual chat about Chandigarh and the
Questions(with indicative experience of 450 students travelling to Mohali. He is from
Chandigarh so we chatted a few minutes about it. Since I
answers if you choose to share read in his bio that he loves acting, I diverted the discussion
them) to movies somehow and then we had great chat about the
movies which actually made the atmosphere very friendly.
He actually did not ask me any specific question on resume
and it was only a friendly chat. The last question was again
“Why BCG”, I gave the same answer which I gave to Yash. It is
important to maintain the consistency in your answers. In the
end I asked him some questions on his projects.
Case Question We were discussing that there are case books which capture
the cases done previously. He gave me a case, which I soon
realized that he had given similar case in 2010. I told him I
know the answer of this case, which he really appreciated
that I was being honest. He then modified some parts of it.
The case is there is 500 million FMCG firm which wants to
start an IT division how they can go about.
Narration of the case interview I gave three main options – JV, Green field, M&A. To which
(please be as he asked if I get a database of some 500 firms and have to
look for JV possibilities what main aspects I will look for to
reduce the list to say 50 firms. I somehow got distracted and
started taking about the aspects u need to see in M&A. He
listened to me for a while and then asked me if I am doing for
M&A or JV. I accepted my mistake and started working again
on JV aspects which I was not very confident of. He liked my
M&A aspects a lot. (Thanks to CCMA class of Prof Subbu – A
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must take for anyone aspiring for Consult jobs.) We ended up
doing further discussion on same.
What do you think went right I think being honest about the case, accepting mistake
for you in the in this quickly and adapting quickly to new situation gave me good
brownie points. On the top of that I interview started very
interview?
well with discussion on our favorite topics like movies. It’s
very important to read about the bio of the interviewer just
before the interview, you can connect easily (Keep a printout
ready and read it before entering the room, you will get 5
minutes to go through it.) This interview went very well and
alums from firm gave me a hint about my good performance
and told me to come back for 2nd round interview with
another partner.
Any tips for the future batches Will summarize in the end
based on this
Name Amit Garg
Name of Interviewer and Kaushik Mukherjee

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second round ( only one interview)

round)
Personal interview It was a very discussion based interview. He liked my resume

Questions(with indicative and asked why I decided for MBA now rather than waiting for
some more time. He asked me to highlight some important
answers if you choose to share points of my job experience. We discussed a lot on how BCG
them) is working these days with govt. and how these projects are
creating impact. During discussion I discussed about my
experience with BCG events, people and why I am looking for
BCG. In the end I asked him what still motivates him to be in
the job rather than taking the path of entrepreneurship. He
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was very happy with the question and discussed with me his
future plans.
Case Question It was not a typical case, but more of a discussion. As Aadhar
project was in news that time and he is working in this
directly the question was surrounding that. He asked me
what can be done to remove the burden of huge subsidy
which goes in Petrol/Gas/Diesel which is used by all classes of
society.
Narration of the case interview Here I used the same principles of cash transfer scheme and
(please be as highlighted other aspects too which can reduce the
consumption of these commodities. As this was more of
discussion case so, we kept on discussing other issues of
Aadhar.
What do you think went right Ability to hold up conversation right from beginning and
for you in the in this correctly identified what kind of discussion he is looking for
really helped me. I think this interview was the best one as it
interview?
was very chill discussion. As soon as interview was done, I
was given the offer. It was 12 noon and I was the first one to
get offer from BCG, so overall it was great day for me.
Any tips for the future batches 1. Read the profiles of interviewer, it helps in building
based on this the conversation.
Interview experience. 2. Try doing multiple types of cases and some generic
cases when u have some grip, it really helps when you
are doing some non standard case like what I got.
3. Keep your priority order ready at that time, I had

another option but I choose to go with the one, I had
already decided a day back.
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Name Farah Sarfraz
Name of Interviewer and -

Designation

round)
Personal interview This was my first interview with BCG and third interview of
Questions(with indicative the day. Usual PI questions. Nothing out of the ordinary.

them)
Case Question We started with the case immediately after some quick
introductions. Was told that this was a real case just
completed with a client:
Problem Statement: Client is Punjab National Bank and it is
facing INR 40cr in loss from ATM operations.
Narration of the case interview Questions I asked:
(please be as - What does PNB do? Was told that it was one of the largest
public sector banks with banking services across all
dimensions. No special information there.
- How many ATMS does it have? Was told a ratio of ATMs
and clients. Forget exact figures, but was a clue to explore
utilization at a later stage (over/under capacity).
- How does an ATM make/lose money for a bank?
Interviewer was glad I asked this question, which was the
main core to the problem. A bank loses money every time
their account holder withdraws from another banks ATM,
and makes money when another bank account holder
withdraws from its ATM. This is through a transaction fee
paid out to the bank owning the ATM, and customers are not
charged anything extra,
- I tried benchmarking the loss/revenues with other banks,
but this wasn’t very relevant and the interviewer just re-
iterated for me to concentrate on the core fact that PNB is
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paying out 40cr additional in net transaction fees, which is its
loss.
- Questions about customers? Who? Where? Motivation? I
mentioned that I’d like to explore factors of Awareness-
Intention-Availability. This yielded useful answers as the
interviewer steered me to first identify reasons a customer
uses a particular ATM: Location convenience, waiting time,
service availability (out of order time). I then went on to
benchmark each of these factors with competitors and found
that PNB ATMs were generally located in similar locations but
back alleys, waiting time was not unusual, out-of-service time
was 65% compared to 90% industry average. Issues
identified!
Identifying solutions:
- Identified service labour force and technology as two
possible reasons behind out-of-order time. Interviewer
explained more about process of ATM operations.
Replenishment by staff, shortage of cash in ATM alerted by
main system, SMS sent and staff would react by replenishing
cash.
- Explored the two areas of prevention and failure
management.
- Prevention: Technology, Maintenance/Refill Crew,
Security/Staff Alert. Was told that refill crew were PNB staff
for onsite (at bank) and outsourced for offsite ATMS. Service
levels for offsite were as per industry standards.
- Failure Management: Response time, Reporting
Mechanism, Outsourced partner response.
Tying up the loose ends:
- The main problem seemed to be the onsite ATMs. We had
more discussions about why this was the reason. Subdivided
problem into Man/Machine related.
- Man: Shortage of staff, Coordination
- Machine: Older machines
- Interviewer seemed satisfied with the conclusions and said
that interview was officially over, but would like to continue
the discussion. He asked to delve into the people factor more
and asked probing questions which led me to the factor of
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incentive mismatch.
- This was the final key. The bank employees in-charge of
replenishing ATMs were not incentivized to do so and were
50-55 year olds who did not appreciate breaking their work
routine to replenish. Hence the task would be low in their
work priorities.
- The solution proposed and implemented was to outsource
this task onsite as well.
What do you think went right - The interviewer was very helpful and collaborative.
for you in the in this - Keeping an open mind and not being bogged down by rote-
learnt frameworks.
interview?
- Clear structuring of every step on paper.
- The interviewer ended the discussion saying that he was
happy with how it went especially as I didn’t try to
paste/force-fit a framework.
Any tips for the future batches - The interviewer is more your ally than rival. They will help
based on this you and will channelize the discussion to guide you towards
the ‘solution’. Pay attention to little hints/words/reactions.
- Display clarity of thought through how you write on paper
and breakdown the problem.
- This was one of the most comprehensive cases I got on the
day with almost a ‘right’ answer that the interviewer was
looking for. While it was fun to eventually reach the solution,
I did get stuck a couple of times. This happens with everyone.
Just stay friendly, be collaborative and not get frazzled. The
interviewer will usually help you out.
Name Farah Sarfraz

Designation

round)
130
Personal interview This interview was with a partner. Very conversational and
Questions(with indicative more PI than case. We started with PI and ended with it as
well. I had the usual PI questions about why consulting and
answers if you choose to share why BCG. Additionally was asked:
them) - Tell me about a time when you failed. Not a small mistake,
but a real failure/regret. I mentioned a work related faux-
pas, which the partner congenially dismissed as not a failure
enough. At this point I was very candid and talked about a
personal situation which I regretted and considered a failure.
The PI in general was very relaxed and conversational, and
broke the ice for the case.
Case Question Problem statement: Client is a conglomerate looking for a

new investment for long term growth. Narrowed down to
starting an IT services firm. Has a list of top 3000 IT
companies to acquire. What filters could be applied to
reduce this list by 90% to 30-50 companies.
Narration of the case interview Questions:
(please be as - I began by asking what the conglomerate brings to the
table. Was told brand, capital resources, talent and patience.
- I didn’t have any other major questions at the onset, so I
dived right in.
Exploration:
- Was thinking aloud and wrote down some possible filters to
explore: Profitability/Revenue, customer base, similarity of
fit, financials such as under valuation, P/E (growth/mature),
attrition rate expected (as this was a service firm, the value
of the firm would be highly linked with the ability to retain
talent). Broadly looking at the parameters Acquisition +
Implementation Costs + Opportunity Cost < Value of firm +
Synergies.
- Interviewer asked to concentrate on the size of the clients
being served by the firm. He then said, let’s take a slight
detour and consider three types of IT service firms: A with 3
$1b clients, B with 4 $50m clients, C with 250 $4m clients.
Which one would you prefer and why? We then discussed
various factors to consider such as differing/replicability of
solutions required, acquisition/retention cost per customer,
bargaining power of customer, cost to service (due to factors
such as coordination/transaction costs), threat of non-
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payment/bad debt/bankruptcy, threat of client moving to in-
house service, growth potential of firm etc. There was no
obvious right or wrong, but this was just a discussion to
gauge whether the thought process was logical and
comprehensive enough.
- After this discussion, we then took another detour. The
partner suggested that considering that we have finalized on
a firm/service type, how would it now enter. This was usual
market entry and we discussed the benefits and risks of each
approach.
- This marked the end of the case, and the partner ended
with explaining that the IT industry may be divided into 4
major types: (1) Giants such as HP, IBM, Accenture which
have revenues of $12-15b with av. profits of 6.5-10%.(2)
Global Challengers which are $3-10b, av. profit 15-25%.
These could be subdivided into regional specialists (eg. India,
US) or horizontal specialists. (3) Emerging: Rev $.5-3b,
variant, sometimes struggling companies, (4) Long Tail: Less
than $0.5b.
What do you think went right - Collaborative two-way communication.

for you in the in this - The conversation was very engaging, and I felt that I’d
picked up some interesting learning at the end of it.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches - While you can take a minute or so to think in between,
based on this make sure that you think out aloud and keep things
conversational. Both you and the interviewer will enjoy it
more!
- The thought process and approach is more important than
just arriving to an answer, so make sure you are able to
communicate that.
- The interview may not always be a clear cut single case. Be
comfortable and quick with changing tracks if the interviewer
requires it.
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Name Vipul Bansal
Name of Interviewer and Mukund Rajagopalan , Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round I , Interview I

round)
Personal interview This was my second interview of the day. The interview
Questions(with indicative started with a short PI with Mukund asking me questions
from my resume. It mostly revolved around work experience
answers if you choose to share – the projects I had led at ITC, challenges, key learnings, etc.
them) He then picked up a particular point on my CV regarding
‘change management’. He told me that he had done projects
in the area of change mgmt, corporate turnarounds etc. He
asked me how should one go about implementing change
management in an organization? I started with my practical
experience at ITC citing examples wherever possible. Then I
cited the “Lewin’s Change Management framework” we
learnt in the MGTO course. I told him that we can
systematically structure the process in three key phases –
1) Unfreeze
2) Change
3) Refreeze
In the first phase you create awareness about the required
change and so on…. I cited examples from my practical
experience wherever possible. Mukund was visibly very
impressed by my response and told me that such projects
are carried out on similar lines ☺ He then told me that we
proceed with a case. He told that he would prefer to keep it
strictly time bound – 20 min for the case and 10 min for any
follow up questions and closure.
Case Question A bank wants to improve the “availability” of its ATM
network.
Narration of the case interview I first clarified from him what the term “ATM availability”
(please be as descriptive as meant exactly. He told me that it’s a measure of
possible) effectiveness of an ATM and is defined as the percentage of
time an ATM can dispense cash. I began with first asking
general questions about the bank – scale, geographic
presence, private or government owned , etc. I then asked
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him what is the current “average availability” of its ATM’s .
He told me that it is around 75 %. I asked him what is the
competitive benchmark? He told me its above 95 %. I started
with structuring the response as Internal Vs External factors.
Internal – which are due to reasons under bank’s control and
external as due to reasons/circumstances not directly under
bank’s control. I started with typical internal reasons – cash
out problems due to poor cash replenishment cycle, poor
infrastructure and maintenance of ATM machines &
surrounding conditions , etc. He told me that yes these are
part of the problem and improving them would increase the
‘availability’ to 90%. He then asked me what else? Then I
went to cite external factors not directly under bank’s control
– security of ATM’s, mishandling by customers and Power
availability (the main factor). We started discussing the
Power issue. He told me that most of the ATM’s facing issues
were in tier 2 cities where Power shortage in peak hours led
to a massive drop in availability and hence a source of
customer dissatisfaction. We then discussed probable
measures to circumvent this problem – by putting in place
cost effective infrastructure to combat power outages. He
told me that he was pretty much satisfied with the discussion
and wanted to end the case here. We then discussed few
current issues related to the banking sector – primarily the
risk associated with NBFC’s and the recent regulations in the
Indian banking sector.
What do you think went right Almost everything.

Any tips for the future batches The first few minutes of PI are quite critical in my view and
based on this they set the tone for the rest of the interview. My interview
started on a good note as I was able to engage with Mukund
from the start and hence was in control of the rest of the
interview.
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Name Vipul Bansal
Name of Interviewer and Yashraj Erande , Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round I , Interview II

round)
Personal interview Yash started with typical PI questions from my resume. We

Questions(with indicative discussed about my previous work - ex for a few minutes
then he asked me my grade in Corporate Finance. I told him
answers if you choose to share that I got an A. He told that lets solve a small Corp Fin
them) problem. He asked me “ What is the sustainable growth rate
(SGR) for a company?” I told that it is g= ROE x (1 - dividend-
payout ratio). He then gave me some numbers to calculate
the same for a company. Capital = 100 , D/E = 1 , Operating
Income = 10 , Interest rate = 8% . The catch was to subtract
the interest expense (= 4) from Op. income before
calculating ROE. ( It was assumed that Dividends are zero
and taxes absent). He then immediately jumped on a case.
Case Question A company wants to Price its ‘ Cash management Service ’
Narration of the case interview I asked him more about the service. He asked me to guess
(please be as descriptive as what it can be? I told that such a service would require a
possible) technical platform and then would involve manual
operations which would be used to help enterprises manage
their cash – typically collect cash from credit customers and
payment of cash to suppliers, managing the cash in the form
of investments and cash reserves. He told yes. I asked that
whether it’s a first of its kind service ? – to which he told yes.
I told that since it’s a first product of its kind we can’t go for
comparables / competitive pricing. We can either do cost
based pricing or Value based pricing. He asked me to go for
Cost based pricing. I understood that we need to identify all
the major costs associated with this product. He asked me to
identify the same. I told that costs would be associated under
3 broad heads :
1) Product development costs –> one time cost of developing
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the product platform
2) Operating expenses -> yearly expenses associated with

managing the cash operations for a client
3) Manpower Costs –> annual employee salaries, etc
He told good and asked me to proceed. I asked him the

product development cost –> he told 1 Crore. Operating
expenses ? -> he told 5 % of the product development costs.
That amounts to 5 lacs. Manpower costs? He told me that
there will be 1 product manager and 4 junior associates
managing the servie. He gave me their salaries –> product
manager = 50000/month and junior associates =
20000/month. This amounts to roughly 15 lacs yearly more.
However, this manpower team would serve multiple clients
so I asked him how many clients do we expect to serve
initially? He told 5. Hence for one client cost allocation = 3
lacs approx. Total yearly variable costs / client = 5 + 3 = 8 lacs
approx. I told him that now based on our target breakeven
period we can charge a suitable margin on this variable cost /
client so as to cover our product development costs and
eventually generate profits. He told good. He gave me some
breakeven number of years and we did some more
calculations to arrive at the final pricing. During all this time
Yash was moving around the room and I was not sure if I was
engaging him and doing a good job on the case. At this point
he told that I had done a good job so far and lets proceed
further on other aspects of the case.
He asked me how can we attain “sustainable competitive

advantage” on this service offering in future? I started with
saying that we need to give superior returns to our clients –
in the form of managing their cash better from creditors and
suppliers and also superior returns from cash investments.
He told that it would only achieve ‘parity’ as any competitor
could do the same. I told him that we may price the product
competitively in future – to which he again told that
completion can imitate the same. He asked me to think
136
more. Then I remembered Prof. Kale’s comp. strat classes –
to achieve sustainable competitive advantage one needs to
align all elements of the value chain so that it becomes – “
unimitable” ! I laid out the value chain - suppliers , client (
junior , mid level and senior management) , customers ,
banks and other investment institutions. I told him that we
need to “lock in” all players in the value chain . It would
require delivering value not only to the client but suppliers
and customers as well so that they don’t want to depart from
us . Cash being a valuable asset, trust is paramount as well as
there are risks associated with its management. I told him
that it would also require building relationships and trust
with middle management of the client so that we ward off
competitive threats. After a brief further discussion he ended
the case and asked if I had any questions.
What do you think went right There were stressful moments in this case as Yash was
for you in the in this interview? moving fast with the case and the numbers were coming in
frequently. Keeping my calm and sticking to the basics while
being spot on calculations helped me sail through.
Any tips for the future batches Expect heavy numbers in BCG cases. Practice some number
based on this heavy cases. Revise core terms thoroughly – this is extremely
important. Be calm in stressful moments.
Name Vipul Bansal
Name of Interviewer and Ranjan Kant , Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round II , Interview I

round)
Personal interview This was my best interview of the day. Ranjan was very
informal, put me at ease and we connected instantly. He
137
Questions(with indicative asked questions regarding my undergrad at IIT, interests and
about my work experience, why I wanted to join BCG, etc.
answers if you choose to share He discussed his experiences as well – why he stuck to BCG
them) all through ( BCG had been his only job since MBA !) . After
quite a while we proceeded to the case.
Case Question A bank recently made a 50 Crore loss and wants our help.
Narration of the case interview I asked him more about the bank – it was a nationalized bank
(please be as descriptive as with PAN India presence. I asked if the problem was in a
possible) particular branch / set of brances or across the board. He
told it was across the board. I used the Profitability
framework here and started with citing the sources of
revenue and costs for a bank. Revenue sources : interest
income, credit card income from penalties and cash
withdrawals, transactional income from debit card based
purchases , etc. Cost sources: interest payments , transaction
costs , operating costs , etc. He asked to elaborate on
transaction costs. We discussed various transactional costs
associated with debit and credit cards – the critical one being
charged to a bank from a non-partner bank when its
customer uses his/her debit card in a non-partner bank’s
ATM. From further discussion it emerged that our customers
were using more of competitor bank’s ATM’s than ours,
leading to a net loss. He asked me to cite possible reasons for
the same. I laid them down as follows:
1) Unavailability of adequate ATM’s in key areas.
2) Cash out problems – Not enough cash in ATM’s
3) Infrastructure issues , etc
He asked me to elaborate on Cash out issues. I told him

various reasons – Poor demand estimation, Inadequate cash
replenishment cycle leading to frequent and abrupt cash outs
in ATMs , gaps in cash replenishment operations ,
management negligence, etc. He asked to elaborate on gaps
in operations. On further discussion it emerged that there
were serious gaps in cash replenishment in ATM’s adjacent
138
to an actual bank branch. I then asked what about ATM’s
away from bank branches – to which he told that a third
party services was contracted by the bank to replenish the
cash in far off branches. I told that we can do couple of steps
to mitigate the problem:
1) Create awareness regarding the problem to bank’s

management and tie employee’s KPI’s to ATM availability.
Ranjan told that it was tried but management is not bothered
and same mistakes were reperated !
2) I then told that since the bank is unable to take it up itslef,

we can outsource these branch adjacent ATM operations to
the same third party handling other ATM’s
He told that’s exactly the solution BCG gave and they solved
the case in exactly the same way ! ☺
What do you think went right Almost everything. I got a very positive feedback on this
for you in the in this interview? interview.
Any tips for the future batches I solved the case using first principles which was appreciated
based on this by Ranjan a lot. However in doing so, it is important to
outline your steps clearly while solving the case – take help
from interviewer wherever you need one. Taking interviewer
buy in at each major step / assumption is critical in this
technique otherwise you may go way off !
Name Vipul Bansal
Name of Interviewer and Navneet Vashishth , Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round III , Final Interview

round)
139
Personal interview This was my 11th interview of the day. The interview started
Questions(with indicative with a short PI with Navneet asking me about my interests
and how I was doing in other interviews, etc. Then he
answers if you choose to share jumped onto a case immediately !
them)
Case Question I don’t remember the finer details of this case. It was a long
discussion but the prime issue was “ A multinational
conglomerate was looking to enter into the IT services
domain and was looking for JV partners ”
Narration of the case interview After a brief info on the conglomerate – motives , presence,
(please be as descriptive as portfolio businesses etc, it emerged that the main issue was
possible) to select appropriate JV partners. I started enumerating
levers on which to select or eliminate potential targets, few
of them being -
1) Target’s Geography of operation
2) Financial health of the target – distressed or financially

good
3) Assets – both technology and manpower
4) Company stage - startup or mature
We discussed few levers on which we can eliminate targets

one by one. For ex: Financially sound companies doing well in
IT services domain might be a tough target as they may not
be willing to share proprietary technology, etc. Similarly we
discussed how we can JV with targets with good technology
and manpower but poor financial health – through cash
injection and process improvements. The idea was that our
company brings some core capabilities to the table and the
target brings some complementary ones. We discussed that
a relevant metric to define the health of IT companies is
Revenue or Profit / Employee. He then gave me some
numbers – a target to reach 100 MN in revenues in 5 years
and gave some Revenue / Employee data. He asked me to
calculate the number of employees required to be added
yearly to achieve this target. As I have mentioned above, I
don’t remember the details adequately, but this was the case
140
more or less.
What do you think went right This was a long discussion but the good thing was that I
for you in the in this interview? constantly came up with ideas to keep moving in the case.
Negative was that I made some calculation errors in between
owing to day long interviews.
Any tips for the future batches A candidate with multiple shortlists would probably end up
based on this giving more than 10 interviews. Though its easier said than
done, it’s important to keep your cool and presence of mind
towards the end. It would be a good idea to practice some
diversification and Joint Venture Cases as well as they are
frequently asked !
141
BOOZ & CO.
142
Name of the Twarit Anand
candidate
Name of Nikhil Bhandare, Principal

Interviewer and
Designation
Company Booz & Co.

Interviewed With
Round 1st round 2nd interview

(First/Second/Third
round)

Questions(with • 3 strengths, 3 weaknesses
indicative answers • Case
if you choose to
share them)
Case Question A traditional regional European gas and electric utility company wants to
backward integrate into gas supplies and acquire stake in a L&G project
in west Africa. What all do you need to consider before, during and after
the project?
Narration of the I asked scoping questions. Following is the summary of information that I
case interview got: The company was based in Germany, was buying supplies from
(please be as Russia using long term contract. Due to the deteriorating political
descriptive as condition in Russia, they wanted another stable alternative. Currently,
possible) they were buying L&G at $20/unit. The current consumption was being
done by household (20%) and captive power plants (80%).
I said that the we need to look at this problem as any investment decision
and take issues from there. FCF/(r-g) is the terminal value. FCF = F( profit
margin, revenue, capex, working capital increase). R=f( risk free rate +
risks) and g = growth rate.
He asked me to elaborate on the risks.
I listed down some of the risks in following heads:
1) Technology
a. Integration / transportation
b. Supply – safety, efficiency/loss
2) Geopolitical
a. Govt/regulatory
143
b. Political uprising
c. Stability of institutions
d. Bribes
e. Natural disasters
3) Financial
4) Operating
He asked that given you are not in the extraction business, how will you
mitigate the operation risk?
I asked him about the upstream process steps.
I gave some recommendations like contracts, audits and safety CAPEX. I

also recommended partnerships. What he was looking for was to
outsource the operations to a third party and pay it for extraction and
transportation.
What do you think It was a collegial discussion and I was able to follow the signals. In the
went right for you end he said that you were close to the answer and hence stopped the
in the in this case.
Interview?
Any tips for the -

future batches
based on this
Interview
experience.
144
Name Indrajit Mal
Company Interviewed With Booz & Company
Name of Interviewer and Sukeert Shanker, Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 1st interview, Round 1 (Sixth interview of the day)

round)
Personal interview Tell me something about yourself

Questions(with indicative Weakness
answers if you choose to Some work experience related questions
share them)
Case Question Credit Card Company in Malaysia experiencing lower margins compared to
competitors
Narration of the case
interview (please be as Approach/Solution: Sought clarification on margin figures – competition
descriptive as possible) was at $800/customer and client was at $700/customer.
Started by listing the Revenue and Cost drivers for a credit card, Revenue
side: annual fees, merchant transactions, Interest income. Cost side:
Acquisition charges, retention, operational / admin etc., interest expense &
bad debts.
Asked about product mix, interviewer mentioned that the product is same
but there are two types of customers – transactional and revolvers, and it
was based on credit rating. Transactional customers yielded $500/customer
compared to $1000 from revolvers. The main impact of credit rating was on
the amount of bad debts.
I asked whether we should look at increasing the yield/customer, he

refused. Interviewer wanted me to look at how the customer base mix
could be changed and what is the ideal mix.
Took data from him regarding the existing shares and calculated the ideal
mix. Discussed few points on what steps the bank could take to discourage
transactional customers and encourage revolvers.
What do you think went right PI had standard questions and I had already answered similar questions in
for you in the in this previous interviews.
145
interview? Case structure and the working were right.
Any tips for the future 1. Practice cases from different industries and sectors
batches based on this 2. Make a plan for the interview day i.e. in terms of prioritizing interview
interview experience. schedules. I reached for this round 1 interview after lunch and by that
time they were done with multiple rounds for several candidates.
146
Name Kiran Kumar G
Company Interviewed With Booz and Company

Designation

round)
Personal interview It was my 7th interview of the day and the PI was typical to
Questions(with indicative CV. One question which caught me off guard was mention 3
strengths and 3 weaknesses and he was listing it down right
before me on paper to get me under pressure.
them)
Case Question It was very generic sizing case on calculating the number of
manhole covers in the world.
Narration of the case interview I went with the following approach:

(please be as
Geographies – urban vs rural further split into developed,
descriptive as possible) emerging markets and underdeveloped countries. I was
trying to estimate manholes/population kind of metric based
on the above factors. Started with a population of 6 billion
and took the example of US in the beginning with a
population of 300 million to calculate this metric. I zeroed in
on a city first where I looked at 3 ways to calculate the
number of manholes – 1) volume of sewage handled 2)
distance to be transported 3) # of manholes per KM. I used
this data considering a circular city of 300 km^2 area to come
up with an estimate. Overall he was happy with the approach
and then asked me how will I confirm the figure, I gave the
following methods:
- Look at suppliers of manholes and quantity sold
- Volume of sewage and the amount of piping required
- Take samples of 10 KM^2 radius and check the

number of manholes and prove statistically whether
147
overall number makes sense
The last approach clinched the interview for me!
What do you think went right Coming up with unique solution on the spur of the moment
for you in the in this helped me and my good PI initially laid a great foundation.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches By the time I started interviewing with Booz it was 1:30 PM,
based on this Interview do not delay the first interview too much as most of the
experience. consulting companies close their first round by 2 PM. So plan
your schedule carefully and avoid interviews which are not a
priority.
Name Kiran Kumar G
Company Interviewed With Booz
Name of Interviewer and Partner – Abhishek

Designation

round)
Personal interview This was my final eighth interview of the day and it was
Questions(with indicative completely focused on my experience at CapitalOne and why
I wanted to move to consulting. There was no case interview
for me as Abhishek had already made up his mind to give me
them)
an offer and we had very good discussion on future plan for
Booz in India.
Narration of the case interview No case

(please be as
What do you think went right All efforts on PI paid off well in the end and was made an
148
for you in the in this offer which I accepted.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches I came to know later that people were happy with me during
based on this my chat at Booz dinner, so luckily I didn’t have to go through
any more interviews. Try to make it to all consulting dinners
and have a good time with folks. Be your natural self, don’t
panic on the D-day and it will work out well!
149
Company Interviewed With Booz & Co.
Name of Interviewer and Nikhil Bhandare, Principal, Mumbai
Designation
round)
Personal interview Tell me about yourself.
Questions(with indicative Questions related to my work ex.
Questions I asked :
them)
Current project portfolio of firm other than Oil&Gas sector?
Some of the interesting projects done by Nikhil.
Narration of the case interview An oncology products firm is considering increasing their
(please be as descriptive as sales rep visit frequency to doctors from once a month to
possible) twice a month. Should they do this?
Clarifications I asked for: they came up with a new patented
product which is 5 times more expensive than the other
alternatives available in the market but no insurance firms
cover it. Product provides lesser pain and is quicker as
compared to the alternatives. Hence, they are targeting only
the high end customers who can afford it.
After all these clarification questions, I mentioned that firm
should look at the possible ways of increasing the market
share of their prescriptions. M.S. = f( Share of voice, share of
mind , share of distribution). SOV can be determined by
examining the top of the mind recall and aided recall of the
product by a doctor. If the recall rate is high, increasing sales
rep visit frequency wouldn’t help. Otherwise client can look
at increasing the rep visits.
After solving this case, I was been told that it was just a
question to check my level of clarity about pharma sector.
And then I was been given the next case to solve ☺
Case 2: A PE fund is looking at investing in a radio taxi cab
service in Mumbai. Should they or should they now?
Step1: Demand estimation and growth projections
(guesstimate)
Step2: Revenue and cost analysis to come up with
150
profitability figure
Step 3: Ballpark return calculation for return estimation
What do you think went right The interview went very smooth. Almost everything went
for you in the in this interview? well as I could read it from Nikhil’s expression.
Wrong- the first case was not supposed to be a case. It was a
general question been asked by Nikhil which I interpreted as
a case. Though it didn’t harm, it would have been better to
cross check with the interviewer before starting the case
analysis.
Any tips for the future batches You can get multiple cases ( e.g. 2 small case-lets in one
based on this Interview interview)
experience. Be thorough with your resume and the industry you have
worked for. It can come handy for having an intelligent
discussion with the interviewer during PI which makes your
life easy.
151
Company Interviewed With Booz & Co.
Name of Interviewer and Abhishek Malhotra, Partner, Mumbai
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third ) Round 1 – interview 2
Personal interview Usual questions.
Questions(with indicative What I asked –
answers if you choose to share What type of projects was Abhishek working on in India?
What is the difference between Booz India and US practice
them)
(with regards to the type of work and culture)?
Narration of the case interview Starbucks is planning to open a store in a Banjara hills mall.
(please be as descriptive as The mall already has CCD and costa coffee store. How should
possible) Starbucks price its coffee? (clarifications: all 3 coffees are
same, costa coffee and starbucks have equal brand value)
Aim: To maximize profit
I started to look at different ways of determining prices (Cost
+, value based, competitor based). In this scenario
Competitor based pricing seemed relevant.
I asked for the demand functions of the customer based on
prices. Based on the customer price elasticity I analyzed the
price point.
I wrote a profit maximization function for Starbucks.
Post this: I mentioned that this entire analysis is based on the
fact that competitors wouldn’t revise their prices once
Starbucks enter into the market.
So I drew a game theory matrix for Starbucks and
competitors and showed how the equilibrium be reached.
What do you think went right Right – Everything. Interviewer was very impressed by the
for you in the in this interview? game theory approach taken by me. PI also went very well.
I was made an offer after this interview. ☺ I told the firm to
wait for some time till I finish my round 1 interview with
other firms. I didn’t want to block any offer. As soon as I got
another offer, I personally informed the firm to consider
other candidates.
Any tips for the future batches I believe using theoretical concepts learnt in MBA in your
based on this Interview solutions leave a very good impact on the interviewers (e.g.
experience. the game theory approach here). One should revise main
courses before placements and use different solutions.
152
DELOITTE
153
Name Roohi Sood
Company Interviewed With Deloitte
Name of Interviewer and Two members in the first panel. A senior member (likely, a
Designation partner) in the second interview
Round (First/Second/Third Two Rounds

round)
Personal interview Not much PI, general questions based on type of work
Questions(with indicative experience, and how it would be relevant to the current
profile.
answers if you choose to share I had already thought about what features of my previous
them) profile would be helpful in the consulting role. So, did not
face much pressure with these questions.
Case Question The case was a scenario where I was explained a company’s
operations (and in the process told who all worked in the
company and for the company). The problem statement was
that just prior to the release of a new product (on which X
millions) had been invested; a competitor released the same
product with the same specification, and at a similar price. I
was supposed to diagnose what went wrong in the whole
process and how could it be corrected? What should the
company do in the current scenario?
Narration of the case interview I started the problem by analyzing the key people and
(please be as “equipment” involved in the company’s operations. I asked a
few questions, based on which I concluded that it looked like
the company critical information had been compromised and
that either people or processes were responsible for this. I
then presented the possibilities concerning intentional data
leakage by employees and unintentional information sharing
either by the employees or through carelessly handled
equipment.
As a solution, I recommended that we need to plug in the

leakage sources so that no new projects faces these
circumstances. Post all this analysis, I provided my
recommendations. I focused on following parameters
154
1) Data Safety though Devices – I talked about the
technologies available for risk mitigation related to data
sharing (such as encryption and some other technical
concepts that I knew about content management) and
restricting access of BYOD (Bring your own device) inside
premises . I also talked about cloud computing and how it
would be better to store data in a central location rather
than on individual employee devices (although, in describing
this, I also mentioned that cloud computing has its own perils
that we need to address)
2) Employee Awareness – I discussed something about

generating awareness amongst employees on how to be
conservative about sharing information related to critical
projects. I also discussed some other features like remotely
clearing all content on an employee’s device in case it is lost,
to avoid data getting compromised. I was careful not to
restrict too much content for the employees, since it would
make the working environment very unfriendly for
employee.
3) IT Risk Management Team – I also questioned that since

such instances had been happening, the organization should
also check if it has an IT risk management team (and
processes) in place which can do the due diligence at every
stage of the IT projects. (and then mentioned a lot of things
about why this important, did some oral cost benefit based
on assumptions)
4) Migration - My last strategy (which I only alluded to, but

did not discuss in detail, because we began discussing my
first two proposals) would have related to the migration of
workforce to the competitor, which might also result in
sharing of information about critical projects. I would have
proposed suitable non-disclosure agreements for this
problem.
What do you think went right I think being structured and having reviewed Deloitte’s case
for you in the in this studies in the ITES field helped a lot. Also, reading through
155
interview? internet about risk management strategies in general
boosted my confidence when the case scenario was
presented. So, I could answer the cross questioning on my
proposed strategies, and defend each one convincingly.
The case is not numbers heavy. I felt that the interviewers

were analyzing if I can think through the various possibilities
and link them to the available technological resources for
resolution. Their focus seemed to be the depth of my
situation analysis than any numerical calculations.
Any tips for the future batches Read a lot about risk mitigation. Refer to Deloitte’s case
based on this studies on its website. Do not just scratch the surface of the
problem and then leave the problem unresolved. Focus on
both the breadth and depth of an issue, and provide a
comprehensive solution as a closure.
156
Name Arjun Jindal
Name of Interviewer and Balaji

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 1st

round)
Personal interview • Tell me something about yourself besides your

Questions(with indicative education and work experience
• Tell me about your experience as a management
answers if you choose to share consultant
them) • Since I am a salsa instructor he asked me, “as a
consultant how would you break down the salsa
lessons for the participant”
Narration of the case interview None
(please be as
What do you think went right I was able to comfortably talk about my work experience and
for you in the in this because I had attended the dinner with Deloitte I was able to
strike a good conversation with him.
interview?
He was also happy to know that I had done my research
about Deloitte and was able to ask him questions which he
liked and was really interested in
Any tips for the future batches Read well about the company. Also, the dinners and talks
based on this organized by the company are rich conversation playgrounds.
Do attend them
157
Name Arjun Jindal
Name of Interviewer and Santosh Anoo

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 2
round)
Personal interview • What all companies are you interviewing with

Questions(with indicative • If you were to choose between all the consulting
companies you are interviewing with, which one
answers if you choose to share would you choose- I answered Deloitte and spoke
them) about the great work culture, the opportunity to do
both strategy and implementation, and the global
exposure that Deloitte offered
• Are there any reasons why you would not join
Deloitte- I said there were no reasons and I was
positive about the role and the company
• He asked, “If I were to make an offer, would to accept
it”- I aptly replied
Case Question It was a case which involved a lot of numbers and checked
concepts from INVA and CSTR.
The case was related to the reduction in carbon emissions in

a particular company and the savings associated with it. This
was followed by an investment analysis to gauge if the
methods which were to be deployed for carbon reduction
were profitable or not.
Narration of the case interview We had quick discussion about the ways I suggest to reduce
(please be as the carbon emissions and soon enough the interviewer
introduced an excel sheet with lots of numbers in it.
The first part was to analyze the savings from carbon
emissions. He gave me a list of places- hotels, outlets, etc. -
where the carbon emissions (primarily because of electricity)
would happen. The electricity used in each of the units was
given in the following format
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10 Hotels 100 KW
15 Outlets 200 KW
Also given was that the total bill was $xyz and total carbon
emissions were “ABC” (some number I don’t clearly
remember). Based on this the $/KW could be found out.
Another table was given with an increased number of hotel

and outlets and the total electricity and carbon emissions
were to be computed. The percentage increase in hotels, etc.
translated to the % increase in the electricity (assuming no
investments to save electricity) and with the increased units
both the increased costs and carbon emissions were
calculated (assuming them to be directly proportional to the
increase).
The second part involved two methods to reduce the carbon

emissions. The investments, cash flows, growth rates and
WACC were given and the NPV was to be computed.
After the NPV calculations, there were questions around

which is a better strategy (method A involved a lot of capex
and the cash flows were coming in a perpetuity, method B
had lower capex and the cash flows were coming for 5 years-
also after computations it was found out that method B had
a NPV of $200k more than Method A)
I advised Method B was good both from the NPV perspective

and from a strategic standpoint. We had a 5 minute
discussion on the pros and cons and strategic implications of
both methods.
What do you think went right I did well in the case- both the qualitative and the
for you in the in this quantitative part. The interviewer also remarked that I was
good with the numbers and was quick and thorough with the
interview?
strategic analysis of the case.
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I had met the interviewers before at ppt’s etc. and that also
created a positive impact on the interview.
Any tips for the future batches Stay calm, don’t rush with the case. Structure it, think out
based on this loud and mention the assumptions you’re making. Be careful
with the numbers- round them off for simpler calculations
and ensure you don’t make calculation errors.
Be honest in your replies in the PI. Do your research about

the company and the interviewer- It helps and shows your
interest in the organization.
160
Name Mansi Joshi
Company Interviewed With Deloitte TSA
Name of Interviewer and Don’t remember

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First – Questions on CV

round)
Second – Case
Third – Partner Round
Personal interview Was asked about previous experience and its relevance for
Questions(with indicative the role in question.
Why Deloitte? Why TSA?
answers if you choose to share What do you think will be the next big thing in telecom
them) industry?
Hobbies
Case Question A telecom service provider in the US offers an unlimited

music download service during holiday week and sees a
massive rise in customers; however they decline rapidly in
the next week. Why did this happen? How will you figure out
if it there is an internal lapse or the external vendor is not
able to bear the load or keep up the service?
Narration of the case interview Don’t remember too many details. But I started by thinking
(please be as along the customer mindset, as to when they unsubscribe
after the holiday week, is it because they don’t have too
much time/interest now that they are back to work or is
someone offering better services. They told me to think
about the competitors.
For detecting whose fault it was, I spoke a lot about server

load and bandwidth issues due to which customers leave.
They kept telling me to come out of my comfort zone (talking
about bandwidth and quality of service, since I came from
Cisco).
I asked about competitors and prices offered by them. It

boiled down to competition offering better prices and also
the switching costs were very low. Hence, the issue.
161
What do you think went right I had prepared well how to link my previous work experience
for you in the in this with the current role. This helped in clearing the 1st round.
interview? For the case – I drew flowcharts and wrote bullet points
which kept everything very clear.
Any tips for the future batches Talk only what you are confident about.
based on this
Express keen interest in the company and role.
Think before jumping to answers/solutions.
Ask questions.
162
Name Aditya Dayanand Mallya
Name of Interviewer and Round 1 interviewer was someone named Nikhil. Can’t
Designation remember the names of the two Round 2 interviewers
Round (First/Second/Third 2 Rounds in total

round)
Personal interview PI questions were asked in Round 1 – I was asked to walk the
Questions(with indicative interviewer through my resume. He asked me brief questions
about specific projects but did not press for details. I had
answers if you choose to share mentioned extracurricular interests on my resume, and he
them) asked me about these. He was jovial and easygoing. I got the
impression that he was just trying to gauge my personality
without asking the standard questions about strengths,
weaknesses, regrets, goals etc. These questions only lasted
about 10 minutes.
Case Question Round 1 contained a guesstimate after the PI questions
mentioned above. I was asked to estimate the yearly
revenues of the Marriott hotel in Chandigarh.
Narration of the case interview I broke the problem down into revenue streams into
(please be as
Accommodation – Assume number of rooms, occupancy rate
descriptive as possible) and average charge per room
Food and Beverages – Here I said that based on my

experience, F&B was usually a certain multiple of
accommodation (say 80%)
Souvenir Shops/Spas – Assume percentage of guests who

visit these and average charge
Business Conferences – Assume number of conferences per

week and average charge, extrapolate to yearly figure
The interviewer was not interested in my actual calculations,

and told me not to bother with figures. He did hint that I was
missing a major revenue stream, which I was not able to
guess. As a final hint, he played music on his phone, and I
realized that I had omitted to mention parties and
celebrations.
163
Round 2 was an exclusively case-based round. I was told
that an apparel company, at $10 billion in sales, wanted to
get to $15 billion in five years time, but also reduce carbon
dioxide emissions simultaneously as shareholders were
concerned about sustainability. I was asked what kind of
qualitative questions I would have to consider to answer this
question:
I mentioned that to grow with this objective we would need

to do more with less. To reduce emissions we would have to
analyze the value chain thoroughly, checking transportation,
materials used etc. I said we could do an energy audit and
see which processes could be made energy-efficient. I also
said that we could collaborate with partners in our value
chain to introduce more efficiency into the process. All this
took about a minute.
At this point, they gave me a sheet of paper with data for two
possible projects the company was considering to achieve
their target. The projects had different investments, time
frames, scale, finances, etc and would produce different
impacts on revenues and emissions. The rest of the interview
was just 20 minutes of them asking me rapid fire questions
such as:
• If we want to reduce cost from A to B, what

percentage reduction in emissions do we require?
• What would be the NPV of the projects? Which would

you choose between the two?
• How much additional infrastructure spend would

project 2 require? What percentage increase is it over
the present scenario?
Essentially the case interview was all about doing quick

calculations under pressure. In contrast to Round 1, the
interviewers here were not friendly and very business-like.
They pushed me to calculate quickly, and did not accept
164
approximate answers. When I tried to give a rough answer,
one of them even asked me “Are you an engineer or not?” In
the middle of one calculation they would often ask me to
scrap it and ask me another question entirely. They also had
me answer some qualitative questions while I was
calculating. This round was designed to test mental agility
and poise under pressure.
What do you think went right I realized in Round 2 that the interviewers’ tough attitude
for you in the in this interview? was part of the process, and this enabled me to be calm and
calculate as I would normally. I did make some mistakes, but I
was not afraid to admit and correct them immediately. I did
not rise to the bait when they asked hostile questions and
responded patiently. I was also lucky that I was not mentally
exhausted and was able to think and calculate quickly. It
could have been a different story if this had taken place late
in the day.
Any tips for the future batches • Practice case interviews where the interviewer puts
based on this pressure on you to calculate quickly. I had not done
this, but luckily was still able to do it. It can be a
disconcerting experience if you are not prepared for it
• Try and stay mentally fresh for your interviews. It can

be very hard as you will have multiple interviews on
the same day and will keep moving around. All this
added to an already stressful experience can tire you
out by the end of the day, but keeping yourself fresh
is very important. Conserve as much energy as
possible and eat/drink well.
165
Name Ketaki Gupta
Company Interviewed With Deloitte Consulting (TSA)

Designation

round)
Personal interview - Run me through your resume

Questions(with indicative - What apart from work do you have interest in?
- What do you think about Bharti Walmart (FDI)?
answers if you choose to share - Do you think Smart Grid can be implemented in India
them) in the same way as the US? (This is because I
mentioned working on a smart grid project in my
previous role)
- How do you decide on a project who and how many
people work onsite v/s offshore?
Case Question Q: CFO of a firm tells you that his technology expenditure is
35%. What advice would you give him?
Narration of the case interview • Find out the industry average

(please be as
• Why the expenditure is high
• Look for solutions to reduce it – like cloud etc…
• Fit it with the business model and see if it works for it

and not try force fitting it. Many cloud
implementations have failed for this reason
What do you think went right Approaching the problem in a structured manner which
for you in the in this came from some amount of case prep.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches You don’t need extensive case prep for TSA, but you should
based on this have done the basic bit to know how to approach a problem
in a structured manner. They appreciate that the most. The
166
Interview experience. technical knowledge will of course come from your
experience and interest in technology.
Name Ketaki Gupta
Company Interviewed With Deloitte Consulting (TSA)

Designation

round)
Personal interview - Run us through your resume.

Questions(with indicative - Are you part of the consulting club?
- If your interest was consulting why do you have a
answers if you choose to share major in marketing?
them) - Give us three words that don’t describe you.
Narration of the case interview They gave me a one page case to read. It was about an
(please be as organization where functions were not integrated and
worked as silos. There was descriptive information about
descriptive as possible) some of the functions and problems
I proposed an ERP implementation since that typically

addresses a firm that does not work in an integrated manner.
I mentioned different technologies and looking externally to
see if the same technology has worked for a similar firm. I
mentioned resource allocation and effective change
management being key factors.
They cross questioned me regarding the costs of an ERP

implementation.
I answered saying that initial costs are needed to ensure long

term increased profits and uninhibited growth.
What do you think went right Knowledge of ERP implementations from my previous job
for you in the in this role and again, talking about the problem in a step wise
manner. Also PI prep helped me give good answers.
interview?
167
Any tips for the future batches Some amount of case prep and knowledge of technology
based on this strategy implementations like cloud, ERP etc… in companies.
168
Name Hariharan Sabarish
Name of Interviewer and Sudhir Aray and Karthik Kuchimanchi

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First round

round)
Personal interview Walk me through your resume

Questions(with indicative Work:
• Details of past experience in market and credit risk
answers if you choose to share projects
them) • Which portfolios did you work on?
Expectations on professionalism given there would client
interaction
What would you bring to the organization?
Narration of the case interview None.

(please be as
What do you think went right Surprisingly no case.

Any tips for the future batches No time wasting for standard questions – walk me through
based on this your resume, strengths, weakness
Interview experience. More of a conversation than an interview.
Name Hariharan Sabarish
169
Name of Interviewer and Srikanth + Another Partner
Designation
Partner
Round (First/Second/Third Second round

round)
Personal interview What’s your story?

Questions(with indicative What did you do in market risk validation?
• Experience with Bloomberg, Calypso and Wallstreet
answers if you choose to share Systems and the instruments validated
them) • What is your familiarity with SAS and VBA?
• Why did you switch from market risk to credit risk?
Responsibility/ how many people were reporting to you and
how did you monitor their work?
What do you want from your career?
Tell me a conflict situation that you encountered at work and
how did you resolve it.
Tell me something about yourself that’s not on the resume.
Narration of the case interview None.

possible)

Any tips for the future batches Be prepared for follow on questions and give examples
based on this wherever possible. Stick to your responses.
Interview experience. Be prepared with your questions for them.
Good.
170
Name Vikram Sharma

Designation

round)
Personal interview - Tell me about yourself


them)
Case Question I had indicated interest in my resume in sports. The case was
about a related field. It was a quick market sizing case.
How many people in India would be able to complete the 42

km full marathon as on that day
Narration of the case interview After the basic scoping questions to understand the problem
(please be as a little better (like completing in a specific time, terrain, time
of the year - climate for running etc) I jumped into the case.
Approach I chose was on two heads - professions where such
people (physically fit with stamina and strength enough to
complete 42 kms) and amateurs who would be pursuing
running out of interest.
Under professions I chose the relevant professions
- Sports persons
- Defense forces
- Other professions where a lot of strength and stamina

is required - farming etc
Under amateur head I started from running clubs across the

country estimating from the number of such clubs in
Hyderabad (Bottom-up approach)
171
He liked the overall structure but asked me to quickly give a
number in 2 minutes.
I swiftly applied some percentages and the bulk of the

number was coming from the defense forces. He seemed
happy with the answer
Finally, the interview was concluded after discussing my work

in Microsoft.
What do you think went right I exhibited quick problem solving skills. Ease under pressure
for you in the in this went well, when he asked me to give the final answer in 2
minutes. Connected well with the interviewer.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Do case prep well, break things down logically and remain
based on this positive in the interview.
Outcome Moved to next round
Name Vikram Sharma
Name of Interviewer and 2 interviewers, 1 from technology background (same

Designation background as mine)

round)

Questions(with indicative - How was your day - this was 1 of the last interviews of
first day of Day1 (my 9th interview) - I looked a little
answers if you choose to share tired.
172
them)
Case Question Case was about carbon emissions and an NPV calculation
based on a lot of available data.
Which investment strategy would you suggest given this

data?
Narration of the case interview This was a standard NPV case but accuracy was important
(please be as and the interviewers wanted to check rigor in the approach.
descriptive as possible) I started in the standard way and was careful not to make
mistakes. Perpetuity formula came in handy - prep basics of
Fin!
After the NPV calculation, we also discussed the right

strategy for the firm given the circumstances.
What do you think went right Accuracy was important in this interview and carefully
for you in the in this solving the problem went in my favor.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Don’t hurry things especially when dealing with data.
based on this
Outcome Made an offer
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Interviewee Name Karan Aneja
Company Interviewed With Deloitte – S&O

and Role
Name of Interviewer and S&O Manager in each round – Don’t remember the names
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First – Estimation Case

round)
Group Discussion (write NA if NA

not applicable)
Personal interview Purely resume based (15-20 mins). Why did you move back
Questions(with from US? Tell me about your previous consulting experience?
indicativeanswers if you What did you like and dislike about consulting? Why MBA
when you already have a Masters degree?
Case Question After general PI, he picked one line from the extra-curricular
section of my Resume and created an on the spot estimation
case for me to solve. I had expressed interest in driving sport
cars and he asked me to estimate the number of Maserati
Quattroporte that can sell in India in one year. Based on that
the company will decide whether to start production in India
or not.
Narration of the case interview I followed a typical Demand based approach as I was
(please be asdescriptive as specifically asked to estimate demand without considering
possible) supply considerations. I started with the overall Indian
population and drilled down to determine a subset that
would be interested in buying the Maserati sports cars based
on some assumptions. Following are the splits I considered to
estimate further: urban vs. rural; Within urban – low, middle
and rich class; Within rich – uber rich and rest; Within uber
rich – sport cars fanatic and rest; Within sports car fanatics –
Maserati fans and not; And finally within Maserati fans –
proportion that will actually buy
My first estimate came out very high and before the

interviewer could say anything, I expressed that this cannot
174
be true and I need some additional time to review my
numbers. He said you have 1 more minute to fix it. I
mentioned that I overestimated the rich class proportion and
that needs to be fixed and gave him the revised number. He
said that even the revised number seems a little high but he
was happy with the approach and the considerations I made.
Selected for round 2.
Any other interview round Second round – Brief PI followed by a full Case
(please mention the format
At first, there was 1 S&O manager and while we were waiting
and questions as part of your
for the 2nd manager to join, we engaged in general chitchat.
experience)
The manager happened to be from the same Functional line
(infrastructure operations) where I expressed interest to join.
He also currently resides in Manhattan where I used to reside
a couple years back, so there was a positive connect that I
was able to form from the get go. Besides general chitchat,
he asked me about my previous experiences in Infrastructure
Operations consulting. I also used this opportunity to ask a
few questions about the same domain to the interviewer to
show keen interest. He was happy to throw light on some
pressing issues in the industry.
By this time, the 2nd Manager joined and without wasting any
time, he gave me a handout of the case and asked to give me
1 figure as the answer. The 2nd case was about carbon
emissions and there was some data on a firm’s current
carbon emissions and its growth plan. The question was to
calculate carbon emissions after 5 years. This was very
simple arithmetic. He then gave me some additional
information on two carbon emission reduction projects that
are available along with their payoffs throughout the next 5
years. He asked me that if the firm has enough capital to only
fund 1 project, which one should it be? This was again very
simple (NPV calculation, they have even given the formula). I
calculated NPV of both the projects and selected the one
with the highest NPV. Finally the last question was that if
there are no constraints on the number of projects that the
175
firm can fund, what should the firm do? I was almost
humored at this point, as the case was way simpler than I
thought. I said both projects as they both had positive NPV.
That was the end of the interview and they both said you did
good. I was not sure how to react but I thanked them and
left.
Outcome Given FIF – Last round was just a formality and everyone got
offers.
What do you think went right It was clear that they were focusing on interpersonal skills,
for you in the in thisinterview? confidence and ability to connect and have meaningful
conversations. Pretty much an airport test rather than a skill
based test. I knew that I have to score in these areas anyways
but I cannot ignore an element of luck, which definitely
played its part in terms of surfacing some common interests
between the interviewers and myself, and that helped me
establish an instant connect with them.
Any tips for the future batches Spend at least as much time in honing your soft skills as on
based on this interview case interview preparation. Confidence and interpersonal
experience skills will help you a long way with Deloitte interviews.
176
Name Savita Muley
Company Interviewed With Deloitte US India
Name of Interviewer and Tushar – Manager

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First (duration 5-10mins rapid fire) – for most this was a 5
round) mins interaction however given my experience this stretched
for about 15mins
Personal interview o Tell me about yourself

Questions(with indicative o Why consulting?
o Resume related question on one project
answers if you choose to share mentioned
them)
Narration of the case interview o What are few issues in Cloud usage in BFS?
(please be as Answer : Relevance of cloud, Security/Data
confidentiality, cross-border data, public vs. private
descriptive as possible) cloud, costs considerations
o Small case on how Social media ties into BFS

– how can a bank use Social media and what will be
role of service providers like Infosys?
Answer : Customer facing functions can use social
media to engage customers, customer acquisition.
Internal employee social interactions can be
enhanced through social features on internal portals
etc. Collaboration software can be enhanced
What do you think went right Was very relaxed and at ease before the interview so was
for you in the in this able to think coolly despite the high pressure of rapid fire.
Interviewer found more content to talk about given the
interview?
extensive experience in BFS which was also his area of work.
Questions were getting increasing challenging but was able
to handle well owing to preparation and reading in the areas
I had worked in.
Any tips for the future batches Be relaxed , confident and smile a lot. The consulting first
based on this round interviews are more about personality assessment
than anything else. If you are tensed and it shows, you are
177
unlikely to leave a good first impression.
Name Savita Muley
Company Interviewed With Deloitte US India
Name of Interviewer and Manager

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second ( Duration 45 mins)

round)
Personal interview o Resume related questions on last project mentioned

Questions(with o Some enquiry about Infosys as interviewer had worked
indicative with Infy before

share them)
Case Question Case on a non-profit organization with global operations who

had two issues –
a) Struggling to increase revenue
b) Challenges in IT portfolio and considering replacement
of isolated systems with integrated ERP. Details of
current costs etc were mentioned and CTO concerns
on costs were also specified.
Narration of the case

interview (please be as This was given as a 1 pager to read. Upon enquiring which
part was to be addressed on priority, interviewer
descriptive as possible) requested discussing problem a) on revenue. Standard
revenue generation techniques as applicable to non-
profit organization were discussed.
Subsequently IT issues in typical people-process-
technology framework and current costs, mechanism
to reduce costs, relevance and need of ERP
implementation etc were discussed as in a typical case.
What do you think went right I additionally liked the two problems – lack of integrated
for you in the in this information systems led to fragmented view of the
organizations resources and with some data integration,
178
interview? organization can look at deploying adequate resources
towards revenue generation. Also, some updates to IT
portfolio may also help in online fund-raising options apart
from assisting in tracking leads and conversion etc. Again my
involvement in Net Impact Diffusion event and the learning
about non-profit firm’s challenges helped me think of
relevant issues instead of very generalized resolution for the
problems.
Any tips for the future batches Again, preparation prior to the interview helps a lot but
based on this keeping a cool mind is paramount. Also, try to see where you
can bring in your individuality to the case – all candidates are
likely to solve cases as per the preparation material. But if
you can show that you are able to draw from your prior
experiences or use some creativity, it gives you additional
brownie points.
179
Name Sawan Kumar
Company Interviewed With Deloitte (TS&A)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First – 15 minutes, 1 interviewer

round)
Personal interview The interview lasted for about 15 minutes. From the
Questions(with indicative experience of previous interviewees I had gathered that it
answers if you choose to share was a casual run-me-through-your-resume conversation.
However, once he saw my resume and saw that I had had
them)
relevant experience at Oracle, he decided to skip the work
experience part altogether:
Q. So apart from work what are you interested in?
A. (Talked about a few things out of which he found my love
for Tennis interesting…)
Q. So if you were to open a tennis academy anywhere in
India, how would you go about it?
A. (Talked about market sizing, about zeroing in on a location
based on demand and lack of supply, about teaming up with
a big name like Mahesh Bhupathi to lend credibility etc. He
seemed quite happy with the answer)
Q. A question amounting to “why should we hire you”?
A. (Told a few points since this was a general PI question that
I had expected)
Q. A situational question based on a situation at work
wherein I have 10-12 hours of work to be completed on a
current assignment and yet another manager has asked me
to help him out with his work the same day. I am desperate
to please this other manager since I want to eventually
move to his team. What would I do?
A. My first responsibility is towards my current team so I will
finish off the current work on my assignment. At the same
time, I will try to find a more free resource to help the other
manager with his work. After asking a couple of follow up
questions, he seemed satisfied.
Q. How adept are you with current affairs?
A. I told him I am quite adept and he could ask me what he
wanted. He asked me to talk about any industry of my
interest so I talked about telecom. The recent spectrum
auction failure, the burst of smartphones in India, the 4G
180
network and its implications etc.
Round (First/Second/Third Second (case-based) – 30 minutes, 2 interviewers
round)
Case Question They provided a sheet of paper which had a brief narrative of
the case situation followed by specific questions to be
answered.
The Case: Our client is a major telecom operator in the US

with a pan-national customer base. It had recently
announced a special scheme of downloading music to the
phone and charging on a per-song basis. In the first week,
around 20,000 customers signed up. However, by the end of
week two, 15,000 customers had withdrawn and had shifted
to other carriers. Upon inspection it looked like the network
elements were unstable and several other factors were
identified as potential culprits. The CIO was immediately fired
and a new CIO hired.
1. List all possible reasons that might have led to the

current situation.
2. How would you leverage social media to stem the rot

of customers leaving the carrier for other carriers.
3. If you are the new CIO, how would you convince the
CFO about what measures you take and the need to
fund them
4. What is the 30-, 60- and 90-day plan as the new CIO
Narration of the case interview A. I had prepared hard for this company, reading up all
(please be as descriptive as previous case studies that are available on its website,
possible) solving a few tech cases and preparing a generic
People-Process-Technology framework to cater to
different variations of cases possible in such tech
cases.
181
So I started off by laying out the various elements
that I would look into starting with the People,
moving on to the Processes and then the Technology
aspect. But, 3-4 minutes into my narrative, I was
stopped and asked to specifically answer the
questions listed. So I re-gathered my thoughts and
tried tackling each question individually
1. Possible reasons could be – the network elements

unable to handle the sudden spike in demand, the
quality of songs not being upto the mark, the
other network carriers had started rival schemes
at a better price/quality etc. A few follow-on
questions based on my responses but they were
overall satisfied with the reasons
2. Took elements of the ‘United breaks Guitars’ case

of SAIT course and told them how the utmost
thing is to win customers back and retain the
existing ones. So social media could be leveraged
by engaging on a pan-social-media effort and by
quickly acknowledging whatever is being talked
about on all the social media like FB, Twitter,
YouTube and responding back in a timely and
friendly manner, possibly with some free goodies.
3. They were looking here for a basic cost-benefit

analysis. Not the numbers per se, but just had to
mention that one should weigh the benefits
against the costs of operating new systems and
structures and show these figures to the CFO
4. Consolidated the previous pointers into this

answer. 30-day plan is to engage customers and
win their confidence back. 60-day is to look at
why the network elements are unstable and
provide possible replacement solutions. 90-day
plan is to strengthen the current customer
acquisition and retention schemes in place,
182
possibly by an ERP solution
Round (First/Second/Third Third – 5 minutes, 1 interviewer

round)
This was a general fit round with the Partner with questions
like strengths and weaknesses, why Deloitte etc. Very casual
and very short. If you are prepared with your PI (i.e to say,
you know your story) then this should be a breeze
Got FIF after this
What do you think went right I was well prepared. This was the role I was looking for when
for you in the in this interview? I started my preparations and hence spent a considerable
amount of time preparing for it. What went right was that I
was confident because of my preparation and that showed in
all the interviews. It was also evident that I was really looking
forward to working with them.
Also, I had read the Deloitte website thoroughly, especially

the Case Interview samples and the real-life Case Studies.
The Deloitte website is the best resource to prepare for this
interview. I could use what I had read in the interviews and
could relate with the interviewer.
Any tips for the future batches A lot of people (not surprisingly, even the dean’s listers)
based on this interview make the mistake of not knowing what they want when they
experience. start their interview preps. The peer pressure gets to them
and they end up applying to many companies without
thinking about why they want that role and how it relates to
what they have done and what they want to be doing later in
their career. Be very sure of what you want to do. Start early
in the year at ISB if you are unsure about it. It helps a lot
during the placement season to particularly target certain
companies and roles. That way, your preparation will be
focused, which is very important
Start early with the case preps. Get a feel for it once Term 5
begins and then get into full-fledged case interview prep
soon after. ISB casebook and other B-School cases are the
best way to prepare, apart from the Deloitte website for this
183
particular role. Form a case group with people who have
similar ambitions and are similarly motivated.
Divide your prep into resume-based, PI, case and current

affairs (read ET, should be enough). It helps to properly plan
the days leading up to the placements in terms of what you
want to accomplish and by when.
All the best!
184
McKinsey & Co.
185
Name Shwaitang Singh
Company Interviewed With McKinsey & Company
Name of Interviewer and Dr. Sirish Sankhe, Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round – First Interview

round)
Personal interview • Walk me through your resume

Questions(with indicative • Why did you decide to join ISB from JP Morgan?
answers if you choose to share • At JP Morgan, I was part of a leadership development
them) program – there was a discussion on what all I’d learned
as part of that.
• Which experience did you find more challenging – being
at IIT or being at ISB?
• What did you like most about your experience at ISB so
far?
• I used to debate in college - there was a discussion on
debating techniques. Asked me describe a challenging
motion that I’d defended.
Case Question A set of real estate developers have a piece of land in the
suburbs of Mumbai that is not yet developed. The
government had laid down a couple of restriction. Although I
do not remember the exact numbers of the, I’ll describe the
key aspects of the case.
Narration of the case interview The government had laid down the following constraints:
• There was a cap on the FSI (Floor Space Index)
possible)
• Part of the land had to be given to people below the
poverty line (who could afford to pay full price – houses
would be allocated as part of a urban slum relocation
program)
• 30% of the land would be left unconstructed (not sure

about the exact percentage)
I asked a few clarifying questions such as: where exactly is

this land situated (i.e. how far from Mumbai)? What are the
possible uses for this land? How big is this land? Do the
186
developers have a target rate of return?
The answers to the above questions (in short) were:

developers can use the land only to develop residential real
estate. The developers did not have a target rate of return.
Location of the land for the purpose of this case was
irrelevant.
Then I defined the problem for the RE developers to be that

of choosing between selling the land and developing it
themselves. I would compare the two alternatives on profit
potential, risks involved and impact on future business
opportunities. The interviewer asked me to focus on profit
and risks. At this stage, I missed out a key parameter i.e.
nature and timing of cash-flows. Discussed in detail in the
later part.
The first part was about knowing how much floor space could
be constructed. Where I got bogged down was the
conversion between acres and square foot. The land area
was quoted in acres, but apartment rates are quoted in price
per square foot. The interviewer asked me to come up with a
conversion factor (obviously I did not know this). I knew that
the Mohali campus was about 70 acres in size. I tried to
estimate the area in square foot and then come up with a
conversion factor. In hindsight, this was a guised
guestimation question.
I then calculated the total constructed areas a follows =
(Total Land Area - % mandated to be kept free)*FSI
Then I calculated the profit for the builders:
• Revenue = % that can be sold at market rate *

constructed area
• Profit = cost of construction per square foot *

constructed area
Cost would have certain fixed cost and certain variable costs.
187
The next guestimation exercise was regarding the cost of
construction of a typical flat. I had no idea about this. To
begin with, I quoted a very high price. I was immediately
countered on that one. The key fact to remember was that
the cost of construction per square foot is likely be the same
throughout the country (there would be minor variations in
cost, such as labor – cost of materials is likely to be the
same). Hence, the upper limit on the cost of construction
would be the lowest per square foot price in the country.
Again, the exact number may not be that important, but the
interviewer was testing how one arrives at this number.
Post this, the case was about the calculations. Post the initial
round, the interviewer changed the initial numbers and
asked me how my answer would change (similar to doing a
sensitivity analysis – eg: if the government decides to allocate
5% extra space to the slum relocation program – what would
be the impact on your profit).
The last part of this case was about discussing cash-flows. I’d
missed this part completely from the calculations. He asked
me to recalculate how profits would change if the payments
(the revenue for the flats) would come in 5 installments
across a period. This required estimating the discount rate
for the project (I assumed it to be 25%) and recalculating the
net present value of profit.
What do you think went right This my very first consulting interview of the day. Since I had
for you in the in this interview? participated in a group discussion just before the interview
for another firm – I was warmed up and my initial discussions
regarding my background and career aspirations went very
well. The momentum carried on in the case discussion – even
though I didn’t exactly crack the case, the fact that I was
confident came through to rescue me.
Any tips for the future batches In hindsight – the first interview of the day can be very tricky
based on this Interview as one (at least I was) can be jittery. Being aware of this can
experience. help.
The personal interview part of the discussion is extremely
188
important. While they are guised as ice-breakers, questions
are not random and they are aimed at understanding (and
evaluating) you better as a candidate – hence, do pay due
attention to this part of the preparation.
189
Name Shwaitang Singh
Name of Interviewer and Navtez Singh Bal, Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round – Second Interview

round)
Personal interview • Walk me through your resume.

Questions(with indicative • How was your first interview?
them)
Case Question The case was literally written on the board behind my back.
When I walked in the room (a faculty’s room being used for
the interview) I did not see what was written on the board.
Navtez asked me to look at the board behind me, which had
the following points mentioned in bullets:
• Indian company owns coal mines in Australia. Mines are

not developed yet.
• The D/E of the company is 3. Cost of debt was x%
• The price of coal has fallen by more than 40% in the last
six months
• If it started today, it would take 5 years for the company

to develop the mines and make it production ready
• What should the company do with the mines?
Narration of the case interview I asked a few clarifying questions on the background of the
(please be as descriptive as company, when did it acquire the mines and did it have a
possible) target rate of return from the mines. The interviewer
mentioned that the mines were purchased about a year
back, and that the company had experience in operating coal
mines in India.
I mentioned that I’d like to structure the problem as the NPV
190
of developing the mines. If NPV>0 then develop mines. Other
options would be to develop mines later, or sell now. The
simplistic NPV equation would consist of (1) costs of making
the mine production ready (2) Profits and cash-flows from
operating the mine (revenues and costs) and (3) Discount
rate to be used for cash-flow. This would require an
estimation of the life of the mines (which was mentioned,
exact number irrelevant to the case’s solution) and the total
capacity (again, was mentioned, exact number irrelevant). I
also mentioned that at the initial stage I would like to just to
back-of-the-envelope calculations and not get involved with
things like capacity utilization etc. He seemed happy with this
approach – so I continued.
There was a brief discussion on the appropriate discount rate

to use. I mentioned that we shouldn’t use the firm’s WACC
and instead try and approximate the WACC of the project i.e.
the coal mines by looking at WACC of other coal mines in
Australia or the world. (worth mentioning here that stating
the D/E and Cost of Debt, mentioned in the information
provided before, would have been a mistake – knew this
thanks to the Corp. Finance course)
He then asked me to calculate the NPV. As I was writing

down the equation: I kept asking him for the numbers I
needed, such as the cost getting the mines ready etc. Very
soon we hit a roadblock. The key issue was: What would be
the price of coal 6 years from now? And how would it
evolve? At this stage, I restated the problem and said the
decision to operate the mine or not would hinge on us
knowing the price of coal in the future – essentially we need
to forecast the price of coal. The point about recent drop in
coal prices suddenly made sense.
So he asked me how we should go about determining prices

of coal in the future. At this stage, I impulsively said that we
should consult experts and financial analysts in this domain –
to which I received the following reply ‘You are the expert,
how can you say that to the client? (The interviewer had an
191
exasperated look on his face)’. This was a pressure tactic. I
was now venturing into unchartered waters. I said that if we
can’t look at reports that predict the prices for us, then we
would need to estimate the global demand and supply for
coal ourselves and find the price as the intersection of those
two curves. He asked me to begin by estimating demand. At
this stage I went out on a limb and said that we can look at
the current demand of coal in the world and see how that
would evolve. Which countries would be likely to change
their energy mix and how would that change the demand for
coal. There were a few questions back and forth in the next
couple of minutes – by the end of which he seemed satisfied.
He next asked me to estimate the supply of coal.
This bit was tricky. My first approach was to use a forecasting

technique based on historical data (had just completed a
course on Forecasting Techniques by Prof. Galit Shmueli) and
used heavy jargon. Again I got reprimanded (yes, the
interviewer did not use a gentle tone) for using jargon. He
mentioned that clients prefer de-jargonized language. So I
tried repeating the same in a simpler language – but hit a
brick wall. The interviewer mentioned that these methods
are not very reliable and said that the client ‘will’ not be
convinced by a technical argument such as this. At this stage I
was well and truly in a corner.
At this stage I said that we can estimate the supply curve by

knowing the cost of operation and capacity of various mines
in the world (this information is available). The argument I
gave was as follows. Assume that the price of coal is $10 per
unit. At this stage only those mines would be in operation
whose cost of operation would be less than $10. It we knew
the capacity of these mines – then we knew that the amount
of coal that can be offered in the international market at $10.
Now we repeat the same or another price, say, $15 per unit.
At this stage mines that would operate are those where with
cost of operation <$10 (i.e. the ones in the previous case) +
additional mines whose cost of operation was in the price
192
range [$10, $15]. This quantity offered would obviously be
higher than that of the previous case (i.e. quantity offered at
$10). Hence if we plotted the price of coal per unit on the y-
axis and quantity of coal offered on the x-axis, for every
price, we would know the quantity that would be offered and
an upward sloping curve would emerge. This curve could be a
proxy for the supply curve.
See figure below:
With the demand and supply curve now with us, we could
estimate the price of the coal and check, if at the prevailing
prices, it would be profitable for the mine for operate or not.
When I was done explaining this, finally the interviewer

smiled. He congratulated me and said I was through – and his
demeanor changed dramatically. He then went on to explain
how they helped the client resolve this (on the similar lines
as proposed above).
What do you think went right I was presented with a lot of data and I tried to simplify the
for you in the in this interview? problem at the very beginning. That helped focus the
discussion on the key part of the problem and not get bogged
down with extraneous details (the case was done in
approximately 20 minutes)
Not losing my cool when the interview told me that the

solution I was proposing was impractical and could not be
193
accepted.
Any tips for the future batches It is ok to admit that you are at your wits end in an interview
based on this Interview – you are more likely to receive help from the interviewer.
experience. The less favorable situation is where one ends up speaking
something extremely stupid that can act as a deal breaker
during to the interview.
Maintain your calm during the interview, most importantly

when you are stuck and it becomes obvious to the
interviewer that you have nothing more on your working
sheet. If you hit this stage, think out load and explain your
thought process – more often than not, you’d have a missed
a very minor detail which is acceptable.
194
Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Mr. Renny Thomas, Partner

Designation

round)
Personal interview No Questions


them)
Case Question A cement manufacturer wants to reduce its packaging

expenses. The company transports cement in plastic cement
bags using trucks.
Narration of the case interview Tips # 1: Creating some customized frameworks helps. They
(please be as might not get you the exact solution but they can help you to
structure the analysis well. However, one has to be careful
that one does not blindly follow whatever framework one
has in mind. Generic frameworks just allow one to structure
the solution while the real solution comes from
understanding the specific problem at hand.
I started drawing the following framework on my sheet:
Total cost = Price * quantity

Quantity:
o Substitute
o Utilize efficiently
Price:
o Shipping cost
o Alternate transportation
o Quantity change
o Unfilled trucks
o Different contracts for logistics
195
o Breakage
o Actual raw material
o Replacing Supplier
Find alternate suppliers
Import
Backward Integration
o Reducing cost with existing supplier
Standardization
Quality reduction
Negotiate a lower price
Time of sourcing
Bulk discounts
EOQ
The interviewer mentioned that there was no scope of

reducing shipping cost or actual raw material cost. But he
liked the ideas that I had put forward regarding lowering the
actual raw material cost.
The interviewer wanted me to explore ways to reduce

“Quantity” or number of bags used. Finally we arrived at 3
recommendations –
1. Substitute with cheaper plastic material: Easiest of the

recommendations. A cheaper plastic bag with decent
quality can reduce the cost of bags for the company.
2. Recycle: This one took me a little more time. Recycling

used bags could reduce cost significantly.
#Tip 2: The framework could not have gotten me to the

“Recycle” recommendation. It is very important to keep in
mind the context of the problem and then come up with
solutions.
3. Change shape of the bag: I could get to this only after

being given significant hints by Renny. The idea is that
changing the shape of the bag could reduce the cost for
bags. Bags tend to have some extra plastic at its 2 ends.
196
We might want to remove/reduce this extra plastic to
lower our costs.
What do you think went right - Structured problem solving

- Calm demeanor
interview?
- Practical ideas
Any tips for the future batches Already given above

based on this
Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Shirish Sankhe , Director

Designation

round)
Personal interview None. Just a few questions to make me feel comfortable.

them)
Case Question A cement manufacturer uses trucks to transport material in a

certain state of India. The company wants to reduce its
transportation cost.
Narration of the case interview Tip #1: I did not have any idea how to approach this problem
(please be as with a proper structure. A proper structure is more
important than solving the case itself. I jotted down some
random ideas that could help in reducing the transportation
costs such as shorter routes for trucks, tighter packaging of
bags in a truck etc. Once I had some of these ideas noted
197
down, I created following 3 categories of possible solutions.
Following were the 3 categories:
- Improve Utilization of trucks

o Reduce idle time for trucks
o Fill each truck to its maximum capacity
o Using right sized trucks for each route
- Route for trucks
o Optimal route to reduce transportation cost
- Cost per truck
o Find ways to lower cost per truck by
negotiating, finding alternate transport etc.
Shirish told me that this was one of the actual McKinsey

projects and I need to come up with 6 recommendations that
McKinsey had given to the client.
After a lot of back and forth, I could identify 4 of the 6

recommendations that Shirish had in mind. We arrived at
these recommendations after discussing each of the 3
categories described above.
1) Negotiation ( under cost per truck) : Renegotiate to

get cheaper rates from the company that supplies
trucks
2) Hub and Spoke (under Route for trucks) : Create a

hub and spoke system to transport cement to places
far away from the factory
3) Proper Truck size (under utilization of trucks): Need to

send the right sized truck to each destination. We
may want to send larger trucks to major warehouses
under the hub and spoke system
4) Improve wheel time (under utilization of trucks): A lot

of trucks may be lying in the garages and are not
being used.
198
2 recommendations that I could not identify were-
1) Backhaul: Use empty trucks coming back to the

factory to transport supplies for the factory
2) Increase market size in nearby areas: I think this one

was the toughest for me to get to as the structure
that I had put in place excluded this. The idea is to
concentrate marketing efforts in nearby areas and
lower sales in far away areas. This too can reduce
transportation costs significantly.
Tip #2: Many times I felt that Shirish was trying to corner me
during the discussions. Keep a cool head and don’t get
intimidated ☺
What do you think went right This interview went much better than the previous one. I
for you in the in this think the “Hub and Spoke” recommendation was the most
important one. I had a feeling that I would get to the next
interview?
round.

based on this
199
Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Noshir Kaka, Managing Director

Designation

round)
Personal interview This round was completely PI. I was not surprised by this as in
Questions(with indicative my previous rounds there had been no PI at all.
This was my 11th interview of the day and I was extremely
them)
tired. I was fumbling for words throughout the interview. I
think Noshir understood this and was a bit lenient towards
me in the interview.
1. Why McKinsey? – If one wants to do consulting, no other

place like McKinsey
2. What does leadership mean to you? –

a) Personal leadership
b) People leadership
c) Thought leadership
Gave examples from my life for each of the above. This was a
very long answer as the Noshir wanted me to elaborate on
each of the 3 examples.
Tip #1: It’s very important to be enthusiastic while talking

about the work you did. A bit of energy helps as the
interviewer gets bored after hearing 100s of answers in a
single day!
3. You stayed at both campuses- Hyderabad and Mohali.

Compare both campuses – I was prepared for this question
☺
Tip #2: Look at all PI questions in last 2-3 years casebooks.

Create 2-3 bullet points as answers for each of the questions.
Revise the bullet points a day before the interview. Don’t
200
write complete answers because otherwise the answer might
come out as too rehearsed.
Tip #3: Practice random PI questions with you case buddies.

Practicing with friends is better than doing it on your own.
Offer was made \m/ \m/ \m/
Narration of the case interview No Case

(please be as
What do you think went right PI prep helped a lot. It’s important to get your story straight
interview?

based on this
201
Name Nitika Nathani
Company Interviewed With Mckinsey

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round

round)
Personal interview First interview of the day - started with tell me something
Questions(with indicative about yourself. Do prepare for common PI questions – it
helps you get started!! PI went on for quite some time and I
answers if you choose to share was able to connect well with the interviewer.
them)
Case Question The case was about Coal auctions and devising strategy for a
company which was going to participate in the auction. Coal
is an important raw material for our client (iron & steel
industry). Client has three options – procure coal from the
auction, import coal, or decease the production level in
absence of coal). Further these auctions are on a per mine
basis, which means you have to decide two things – 1) Q for a
particular mine 2) Limit Price that you should pay in the
auction. Transport cost will be different for different mines
depending on the distance from plant.
Narration of the case interview Interviewer gave me a bunch of rules of the auction which I
(please be as am unable to recall. Based on the rules, we were supposed to
formulate a strategy and come up with the price limit that
our client should place to source coal from the auction.
Interviewer told me that this was based on a real case which

he was doing. Case had a lot of numbers and rules, and the
interviewer kept on simplifying it based on our conversation.
It was more of a joint problem solving that was happening.
Further the case was quite unconventional and I was not able
to use any framework or structure.
202
What do you think went right Overall the interview went well.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Sometimes you will find unconventional cases and it won’t be
based on this possible to use frameworks while solving them. Just focus on
first principle and don’t hesitate in asking clarifying
questions.
Be structured in your PI responses as well.
Name Nitika Nathani
Name of Interviewer and Dr. Jaidev Sanjeev Rajpal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round, second interview

round)
Personal interview

them)
Case Question Client is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. CEO believes

that the operations / facilities are quite old and he wants us
to give suggestions to upgrade them to 21st century
operations.
Narration of the case interview Opening statement was quite vague and hence problem
(please be as definition & formulation was an important part of this case.
Started with understanding the value chain – R&D ->
Manufacturing -> S&M
Manufacturing plants are of two types - specialty chemical
203
and formulation. Supply chain part is efficient and I was
asked to focus on the manufacturing side. Facilities are old
and breaking down. There are safety issues, quality and also
environment issues. CEO wants to make the facility world
class and wants to know what to do for the same.
I asked the CEO’s definition for modernization –
- No Manual operation
- No open operation
- No discharge in environment
We also established that specialty chemical forms a major of

manufacturing operations and hence we should first focus on
that.
At this point, we narrowed down the problem definition to

focus on the specialty chemical manufacturing facilities of
the company to suggest how to modernize them keeping in
mind the above three objectives. We would try to
understand the process, figure out what are the manual
operations and why are they being done manually. Some of
the factors that we will consider while doing this analysis are
–
1. Cost – Benefit analysis (budgetary constraints) i.e.

Cost of technology
2. Feasibility of automations / risks
3. Number of people employed, implications of

automating (will we be able to lay off people, or
utilize the workforce in some other area)
At this point, interviewer changed the case a bit and asked

me to do a small mathematical exercise –
Capacity at one of our plants is to produce 1 million units

“type A” chemical. We want to upgrade the plant to produce
3 types of chemicals in future – say A, B,C such that 60%
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capacity is for type A, 20% for type B, and 20% for type C.
Total future capacity will be 10 million. We need to calculate
how many new machines will be required and what will be
the outlay for Type B chemical?
At a comparable plant, one machine produces 10,000 units of

type B product. 1 machine costs INR 100,000.
Simple Calculations – We need to produce .2 X 10 million

units of B
2 million / 10,000 = 200 machines
M/C cost = 20 million
Then I was asked to calculate a couple of ratios, simple

arithmetic!!
What do you think went right Problem definition was an important part of this case which
for you in the in this went well.
interview?

experience.
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Name Nitika Nathani
Name of Interviewer and Sasi Sunkara, Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second Round

round)
Personal interview I was asked to tell about a leadership experience / challenge

Questions(with indicative – Interviewer went into the details of how I managed the
situation and what I learnt from the experience.
answers if you choose \to
share them)
Case Question Our Client is an automobile loan company. Our number of

loans per sales force is lower than the industry average. How
do we improve it?
Narration of the case interview Further questioning gave me the following information about
(please be as the company –
descriptive as possible) - Our #loans per sale force per month is 6 while the
industry average is 10
- We serve two categories of customers – New Vehicle

owners and Used Vehicles owners. Further we
provide loans for mainly two categories of vehicles –
LCV ( light commercial vehicles) and medium sized
vehicles
- Our sales force get leads from brokers and road

transport agents. Then they approach potential
customers based on the lead. Around 80% of them
finally get converted. Our competitors also work in
similar fashion - they also get leads from same agents
and finally convert a fraction into customers.
- Now since everything else is similar, and we are
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getting lesser number of customers per month, the
problem could be with the number of leads we get or
with the conversion ratio. I was told that conversion
ratio for competitors are around 90%. We can do the
following calculation now –
-
- Hence we getting both lower number of leads
compared to industry avg and our conversion
efficiency (80%) Is also lower.
- It turns out that the agents prefer to accept cash

payments for providing the leads. We prefer cheque
payments and our current payment process system is
such that the sales staff need to take special
permission from the regional HQ for any cash
payment which leads to delays in payment. Hence
they are able to get fewer leads per month from the
same agents.
- For the efficiency part, it turns out that our sales staff
travel a lot compared to competitors. We need to be
more efficient in terms of planning and assigning
geographies to our staff.
- Last question – what should we try to improve first

(which will have more impact on improving the final
numbers) – conversion efficiency or #of leads
(payment process)?
Payment process will be more impact on the final
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numbers
What do you think went right Both case and PI went well
interview?

based on this
Name Nitika Nathani
Name of Interviewer and Noshir Kaka, Managing Director

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second Round

round)
Personal interview This was my final interview. It was more conversational and
Questions(with indicative PI focused. One of the questions was - “Why Mckinsey”?
Coming from technology background with work-ex at
Microsoft, I was also asked if I was passionate about
them)
technology, perhaps to gauge my interest in joining the BTO
practice.
Narration of the case interview The case was short. I was asked to list down some factors
(please be as that will influence sales force efficiency in IT companies like
Infosys and Cognizant.
Factors –
• People related factors –
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- Hiring
- Training
- Age / Experience
- Incentives Structure
• Process issues –
- The way geographies / clients are assigned to sales

force
- Collaboration / Competition
• Infrastructure issues
• Other business / strategic differences in the kind of

business / contracts / customers in the two companies
Then the conversation went into case mode wherein sales

force efficiency (defined as revenue generated per sales
employee) of one company was higher than the other. It
turned out that the portfolio size of customers was bigger in
one company. As part of the strategy, they focus on doing IT
projects which are high value and long duration. There are
small number of customers of bigger size. Sales force
efficiency is higher in this company.
What do you think went right Got an offer after this interview!
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Maintaining energy levels in the second half of the day is very
based on this important.
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Name Akhil Ravi
Company Interviewed With McKinsey
Name of Interviewer and Jaydev
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round – 1st interview
round)
Personal interview o Tell me about yourself
Questions(with indicative Gave a quick 30 sec brief (Childhood – IIT – Sports – ITC –
answers if you choose to share Entrepreneurship)
them)
The interviewer’s profile was not mentioned in the booklet
given to us, so before going ahead I politely asked him to
briefly introduce himself and the work he did. He mentioned
he worked primarily in pharma space and Operations
Strategy.
He said since “both of us have a background in Operations,

lets do a Ops case”.
Case Question The CEO of the pharma company approached McKinsey and
asked for our help to re-design the company’s Operations
strategy to the 21st century level.
Narration of the case interview Initial thoughts: Before going ahead think what all are the
(please be as elements of the question and what information is given and
descriptive as possible) more importantly what is missing.
Question – “Design” operation strategy and “21st century”–
what does it mean? First we need to understand how the
company operates, thus I needed to understand the value
chain: RM – Logistics – Production – Distribution. Since this is
a pharma company, there was an R&D step as well.
Second ambiguity was what is “21st century” mean. So I
thought once I understand the value chain, I’ll just ask the
interviewer what he meant by it and take the case where he
would guide me.
Solution: With Jaydev’s help, we (emphasis on the “we” part
here) drew out the value chain on the company.
RM – Formulation – Transport of formulation –
Manufacturing of pills/medicine using the
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concentrate/formulation – distributors – Final sales channel.
Not 100% confident about numbers, but there were about 4-
5 formulation units, 10+ manufacturing units and 50+
distributors. He gave some info about RM as well. Before
proceeding ahead I asked him whether I should look at the
end-to-end value chain or limit my discussion. He asked me to
limit it to RM-Formulation-Mfg (Very important to narrow the
scope of the problem – saves time!).
I asked some info about how formulation happens, what
machines are used, how many machines are there in the
manufacturing sites etc. (probably was’nt relevant here but
was looking for some clues where to go as I was getting
nervous here).
Finally I asked him, what does “21st century” mean?
He gave 5 points:
1. Quality: needs to be improved
2. Environmental standards: decrease emissions
3. Cost: reduce variable cost of production
4. Accidents: few accidents had happened in the past, he
wanted to eliminate these problems. (Most Important in
Client’s perspective)
5. Labor: reduce manpower
Aha ! now I was little more clear where to go next, figure out
“how much” to improve above parameters, benchmark to
competition and mutually figure out what is causing the
problems and give potential recommendations.
I analyzed each part of value chain independently and I think
we figured out that machines were old (cant remember
further). You may implicitly use the People-Process-
Technology framework to identify problems in one of these
three areas in a mfg setup.
He said great and lets do some analysis.
Some pretty simple math calculations, he said company is
producing only one product A and now wants to product
Product B and C as well. How much should one invest to but a
machine to produce product B.
After getting stuck up a bit, I asked how much B to produce,
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how much does a typical machine produce, what is the
sourcing cost of such a machine.
He then asked if there is a budget limit X, how much should
the throughput of the machine be increased by to produce
the same amount.
Here I was doing a longer method of calculation, he asked if
there was a shortcut – since this was the 1st interview, I was
little nervous and told him sir I’ll do it in my own way (which
was little longer). I came up with right answer; he then told
me some shortcut.
What do you think went right Engaged the interviewer throughout, drew out the issue trees
for you in the in this and wrote down all points given by interviewer. I was flexible
interview? in the direction he was taking me, as initially I had limited
information on what to do.
At the end of the interview, I was not sure how it went, as it
was a pretty vague case with loads of discussion in between
about manufacturing, operations etc. Some experiences
about ITC and manufacturing knowledge were useful to make
it a more interesting conversation.
Improvement: Very minor point, but could have done the
calculation faster.
based on this
Name Akhil Ravi

Name of Interviewer and Dr. Shirish Sankhe, Director Mumbai office
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round – 2nd interview
round)
Questions(with indicative Gave a quick 30 sec brief (Childhood – IIT – Sports – ITC –
answers if you choose to share Entrepreneurship)
them)
• Why did you leave ITC to start your venture
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• Tell me about your venture?
My startup was in the sports education sector, and one of
the services was a fitness test to students. I took one of
these report cards to the interview room to showcase it
to him. It was a gamble to leave some impact on the
interviewers, and luckily most of them had a healthy
discussion around it. Most people could now visualize
what we used to do and would probably remember you
for it.
I also drew the business model of our venture and
showed two key reasons for its failure. It clearly helped
them understand what I did and what happened.
• What was specifically your role in the venture?

• What was most significant academic achievement?
It was a rapid fire PI as he told me they were running little

late, but luckily I was comfortable with all the questions and
had a seamless discussion.
Case Questions Client is a large tire manufacturer; he has experience low
profitability in last few years. Recommend solutions.
I asked what current profit% of company is and what the
industry benchmark is. He said it was about 2-3% and
industry was 6-7%.
Narration of the case interview I asked some basic questions about product mix and product
(please be as wise profit margin. He first gave Revenue% and asked me to
descriptive as possible) guess profit margins product wise. Since 90% of rev comes
from truck tires, obviously the profit margins of that segment
must be low – question took me slightly by surprise, but
thankfully got my act together. He then gave margins of all 3
products. He said growth for all three products was good
Profit
Product Revenue %
Margin
Truck Tires 90 1.5%
4 wheeer 5 6%
2/3
5 8%
wheeler
Immediately I told that one of my hypothesis was the

improper product mix of the organization was leading to
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lower profit margins and changing product mix would
improve profitability.
After this initial analysis, I told him that I would analyze the
revenue and cost side in more detail to help improve
profitability. I asked him whether I should concentrate on any
one of them, he said I should do both.
REVENUES: I think he mentioned that prices cannot be
changed so it implied profit margins cannot be improved by
increasing prices. Next we discussed my earlier hypothesis
about improving product mix.
We had a discussion about improving sales of 2/3 wheeler
and car tire market. I used a SoV*SoM*SoD framework to
analyze how to improve sales.
He asked me to focus on 4 wheeler market first. We first
analyzed the question, where all does 4 wheeler tires are
used(SoD):
1. New cars
2. Car Mfg – service stations
3. Independent service stations
4. Tire dealers – company outlets and unorganized market
Then analysed Why does a customer purchase tires – what
factors go into his purchasing decision (SoV and SoM)? Trust,
Quality, Brand, Price, Availability/Convenience, Service
station recommendation etc.
To further the analysis, we had a discussion about current
distribution system and realized we need to tap new
channels to service the market. Similarly to launch 4 wheeler
tire, we need to focus on advertising/marketing to build a
trusted brand in the market.
During the analysis I missed out on Tubeless tires and Radial
tire discussion, which he pointed out later.
COSTS:
We drew out the RM inputs and cost value chain for the
company. He asked me to tell the RM – rubber, black carbon
and steel (lining inside tires). We assessed that sourcing is
from commodity market and thus not much scope for cost
reduction.
Then talked about Mfg costs. After applying PPT framework,
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realized that technology was old, needed some upgrades.
Another point he mentioned was Capacity Utilization was low
and thus there was enough capacity to mfg new tires (for
2/3/4 wheeler market).
He asked if we increase capacity, why would cost decrease.
Told him that FC would be unitized over a larger base. He
seemed satisfied and ended the case here.
What do you think went right Called for 2nd Round.

interview?

based on this
Name Akhil Ravi

Name of Interviewer and Jaidit Brar, Partner
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 2nd Round
round)
Personal interview Context: I got to know from alums that my first two
Questions(with indicative interviews were excellent and since Shirish had given his
answers if you choose to share approval, I needed only one more partner interview to go
well before making an offer. Helps to know what is expected
them)
in the interview, the mistakes you’ve made before and
mentally prepare yourself to minimize surprises.
In a PI, its very important for you to guide the interviewer

what the next question should be and not the other way
around. The following questions and answers of my Round 2
215
interview will hopefully give you an example of what I mean.
• Tell me about yourself

IIT – ITC – Sports – Entrepreneur – ISB
• Tell me about your work at ITC

Project management – talk about work at Paper
board division. Spoke about the cultural and technical
challenges working across 4 factories in PSPD.
• Why did ITC launch the paperboard division – purely
backward integration or do they have other clients?
Important to have knowledge about the company you
came from, useful to back it with some data and live
examples. Info such as revenue mix, profitability,
clients etc. must be known about your ex-empoyers.
• Why did you leave ITC?
• Tell me about your startup?
Talked at length about our product and business
model. Drew out the value chain to him which helped
him visualize. Ended the conversation with
“unfortunately we did not anticipate a few surprises
and that’s the reason we failed”
• Why did your startup fail?
Two reasons: 1. High acquisition cost 2. Widely
distributed client locations in Tier II and III cities which
exponentially increased Operational cost. Constraint:
WTP was same across all schools (clients).
• Why do you think your clients were mainly from Tier II
and III cities?
Told him two reasons (pre-prepared for this question)
• Why don’t you want to be an entrepreneur again?
I opened the answer by saying I’m open to being an
entrepreneur again but needed three things to fall in
place. Gave Reason 1, Reason 2, Reason 3 (was
expecting this question). Ended it by saying consulting
was one of the avenues to fill the gaps (be honest
here, don’t faff around).
In the end he told me that if we make you an offer now, what

is your preference order? ☺ End of interview!!
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Narration of the case interview No Case.
Made an Offer ☺
What do you think went right Once we started talking about my areas of interest (sports
for you in the in this and my startup), it was very easy for me to energize myself
interview? and give him very pointed answers for the questions.
Drawing out the value chain, explaining the risks and learning
at each stage, showing him some material from my startup
etc. helped us to be engrossed in this conversation for a long
time. This was definitely the most enjoyable interview of
them all.
Any tips for the future batches Personal Interview:
based on this • PI is in your control, be well prepared and practice
Interview experience. guiding the interviewer with interesting insights and
prompt the next question.
• Given pointed answers to questions if possible instead of
long winding story, it helps him remember what you said
and dig deeper in those aspects.
• I’m sure all you will have some areas of passion, show it
during the interview – you’ll have a long day, remember
so did the interviewer! So keep his interest level high with
your energy
Case Interview:
• Whenever you’re stuck and no framework will help you,
remember the simple questions: Why, Where, What,
How! Trust me it will bail you out innumerable times.
• Be flexible to where the interviewer takes you, in my first
interview I had no clue how to start, luckily picked up the
cues from the interviewer and developed a structure as
we got more information.
• Very Important to clearly draw your structures in
interviews, helps you and interviewer visualize what’s
going in your head. Neatly label important info which will
help you in your synthesis.
• Practice: Along with the help of my prep group and other
friends, we practiced we about 100 cases together –
being the role of interviewer and interviewee are equally
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important, you’ll get insightful learning playing both
roles.
• Case interviews are conversations to understand your
thought process: so before asking for info, tell the
interviewer what you’re thinking (hypothesis), why you
need that info (to prove/disprove the hypothesis) AND
then ask for the info.
218
Name Farah Sarfraz

Designation

round)
Personal interview General questions about why consulting and my past work
Questions(with indicative experience.

them)
Case Question Problem statement: The Chief Minister comes to you and
says that we have big plans for the next 5 years for
development so that we win the next elections.
(please be as - Probed into what he meant by development. Was told to
suggest a means of creating 1 million jobs.
- Suggested that we could look into reforms in political,
economic, infrastructure, education, technological or
legislative spheres.
- Interviewer probed to look into something brand new,
rather than reform.
Exploration:
- Suggested creating economic free zones in outskirts of the
state’s major city. Jobs would be created through
construction of buildings, roads and companies and how
many employees they would hire. These free zones could be
dedicated to education, IT, media, BPO or industry.
- Interviewer probed to explore and estimate specifically how
many jobs would be created and whether this would reach
the 1m mark.
- Quite a bit of guesstimation and number crunching.
- Another suggestion at some point during the conversation
was hiring labour for infrastructure building/maintenance
219
(eg. clean-ups).
What do you think went right - While I wasn’t able to hit the 1m mark, the interviewer
for you in the in this appreciated the ideas and approach.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches - Don’t expect conventional ‘framework’ cases. Interviewers
based on this are highly cognizant about how candidates prepare types and
will often throw you off with a completely different case.
Don’t be taken aback. Keep your wits and rely on logic,
structure and creativity. Don’t try and force fit frameworks.
- PI is very important!
Name Farah Sarfraz

Designation

round)
Personal interview General questions about why consulting and my past work
Questions(with indicative experience.

them)
Case Questions Problem statement: What if you were to open your own
leadership training institute? How would you go about it?
(please be as - Clarified if there were any constraints, expectations etc.
Interviewer mentioned that there were none, other than of
course profitability.
Exploration:
- This was a more creative rather than a textbook case
220
question.
- I explored positioning the institute as a premier training
provider. I suggested concentrating on corporate training as
the training may be conducted at the client’s site, saving high
rental fixed costs as well as sales/coordination/acquisition
costs that may be expected to be higher per person for
individuals rather than corporations. Points of differentiation
include hiring part-time trainers with highly credible
backgrounds (eg. Managers from top b-schools who have an
interest in training), building brand awareness through
marketing, gaining endorsements/accreditations, providing a
guarantee for attrition (eg. replacement training if the
employee leaves within 3 months of training).
- Divided costs to hard assets such as office (lower as
corporate clients and no need to rent classroom space),
supplies, marketing collateral/cost, website etc. and soft
assets such as full-time, part-time trainers and other support
staff (administration/sales and marketing/finance etc.).
- Then went on estimating costs based on my prior
experience, and analyzing the number of clients and prices
required for break-even. Based on a conversion rate that I
had witnessed in my workplace, went on to check if market
demand would be enough to support break even.
- Some quick quant about costs, revenue and break even.
What do you think went right - Interview was heavy on PI.

for you in the in this - Case was related to my past work experience, so I was quite
comfortable and confident about the topic.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches - Bring out intriguing facts/learning/analogies from your past
based on this experience.
- Make sure you always bring in some interesting
suggestions. Once you’ve already thought of the
ideas/factors, push yourself to think of 1-2 more that aren’t
obvious or conventional. If you can bring out something that
is new, chances are you will be a more memorable candidate.
221
Name Farah Sarfraz

Designation

round)
Personal interview This was with a partner. I don’t recall the exact PI questions
Questions(with indicative at this point, but it was a general discussion about what I had
done, what I wanted to do and what consulting is about.
them)
Case Question Problem statement: How would you value Khan Academy?
Questions:
- Asked some clarifying questions about what was meant by
valuation. Received clarification that potential to earn. Usual
NPV of expected future cash flows. What was expected was
to look into revenue generation ideas and then to value the
firm.
Narration of the case interview Exploration:
(please be as - Looked into revenue generation options such as advertising,
freemium content/features, paid subscription, publishing,
training centres/offline, consulting/tech solutions for schools,
test prep, private/skype tutoring, advanced online education
options in collaboration with reputed universities.
- Discussed pros and cons of all the options. Iterated
importance of maintaining the sanctity of the very mission of
Khan Academy which is to provide free accessible education
through the internet. Downgraded options such as paid
subscription, freemium on the basis of this.
- Looked into market potential. How many customers Khan
Academy could potentially attract based on internet
222
penetration worldwide, target age group of 12-22 years,
English speaking etc.
- Returned to the options and made a counter suggestion to
support the case for freemium content. Giving the analogy of
TOMS shoes that give a free pair of shoes to a deserving child
in Africa for every purchased pair, suggested that Khan
Academy may also charge affording customers for its content
without violating its mission for making education accessible
and affordable to the masses.
What do you think went right - This was my 8th or 9th interview of the day and I was
for you in the in this completely exhausted by then. The interviewer could sense
this and the interview was more a discussion than a ‘test’.
interview?
- I loved the question that I was given as this was an
organization that I had always deeply admired and was very
well aware of. I really enjoyed thinking and discussing about
it. The enthusiasm showed and I suppose this went right for
me!
Any tips for the future batches - Again not your conventional case. Frameworks will not help
based on this you.
- Think of interesting/offbeat analogies or ideas that may
apply.
- Be generous with your enthusiasm! It will be appreciated
and reciprocated.
- As you progress further in the rounds, PI becomes
extremely important as the firm tries to not only assess
competence but most importantly fit.
Name Farah Sarfraz

Designation
223
round)
Personal interview This was my last interview of the day with the MD. It was
Questions(with indicative more a discussion than anything else. We spoke about my
past experience, leadership and challenges.
them)
Case Question This was a minor part of the interview, weaved in and flowing
from the discussion. Something along the lines of: You often
see different types of people at the same workplace. How
would a BPO keep that employee at the desk productive?
How would you value Khan Academy?
Narration of the case interview I mentioned the importance of linking the factors of
(please be as performance, goal and incentives. Can you accurately
measure the right metrics of performance? Is your goal
descriptive as possible) aligned with this? Is the goal achievable? Are the incentives
desirable? Is reward certain if performance occurs?
Then I explored some possible sources of why employees

may perform differently and how organizations may support
these factors to generate the level of performance they
need.
1) Employee satisfaction levels
2) Long term growth prospects
3) Incentives, including the non-monetary often ignored
incentives
4) Training/Expertise
5) What employees define as part of their job. Broad vs.
narrow feeling of responsibility. Function of both
organizational work culture and past
experience/socialization.
What do you think went right - After 8hrs+ of continuous interviewing, I was completely
for you in the in this spent out. The interviewer was sensitive to this and it was
more a conversation than a formal interview.
interview?
- I enjoyed the discussion and this hopefully showed.
Any tips for the future batches - Day 1 is going to be grueling. Expect it. Keep your stamina
and push yourself to not let your energy levels or enthusiasm
224
based on this drop.
- Try to enjoy the discussion and engage with the interviewer.
It would be terribly boring for the both of you otherwise.
225
Name Indrajit Mal
Company Interviewed With Mckinsey & Company
Name of Interviewer and Major Sanjeev Yadav, Sr. Engagement Manager

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 1st interview, Round 1 (Second interview of the day)

round)
Personal interview This was the second interview of the day after an hour of waiting. It was the
Questions(with indicative longest PI type interview of the day followed by a case.
answers if you choose to a) Tell me something about yourself – including several counter questions
e.g. how did one of my personality traits help me at a workplace
share them)
b) Lot of resume related (inter personal, leadership, team player,
influencing skills etc.) questions e.g. give me an example when you
made a difference to the outcome of a team without being involved in
the task directly
c) General discussions about extra academic activities (e.g. why am I so
passionate about sports etc.)
The PI part went on most of the time (there were also some general
personal conversation after the case got over).
Case Question Problem: Say you are the Chief Minister of West Bengal, how would you
create 1 million jobs in next 5 years
Narration of the case Discussion: I did not have any readymade framework to use so I had to rely
interview (please be as on general structured thinking and some learnings from similar case preps.
descriptive as possible) Took a minute to think through before starting the conversation.
Opened the discussion with broad questions about what is the motive, what
triggered this need for jobs, can it happen by doing nothing, what are the
constraints etc. I mentioned that we can look at this sector wise, since the
actions to be taken will vary substantially between the broad types
(Agriculture, Manufacturing, Services). Just after I started talking about
types of jobs in agriculture sector, he asked me to ignore that and focus
only on industry & services.
Told him that we can start discussing around each sector, keeping in mind
that we need to look at where the gaps are in creating jobs and what other
pro-active steps can be taken. He asked me to proceed with the
manufacturing sector in detail. To maintain a structure in the conversation I
used PPI (People-Process-Infra). Explained about the gaps in each area and
226
recommendations on what could be done. Covered the following points:
Infra – talked about Land, basic utility services like electricity, water etc.,
transportation and connectivity etc. Process – investment norms, approvals
and governance related issues etc. People – talked about talent
development at management level, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labor.
Added some recommendations and observations regarding skill
development requirement from my job experience.
Then he asked me tell him which all industries to target within

Manufacturing. I took time again to think about how I should approach this
industry selection problem. Since the final objective was ‘number of jobs’
and not just industrial growth, I told him that I would make a Qualifier
criterion and then look at the Differentiators. For Qualifiers, I mentioned
that industries which might not be able to add too many people in job
market (say highly specialized area) or those which cannot be setup
immediately (5 yrs constraint) would not qualify. Then I explained that I
would use Employment scope (in terms of labor intensive), Investments
requirement, Time required, Resource availability etc. as differentiators. He
asked for couple of examples to test the framework and it seemed to work.
Interview looked quite happy with the overall discussion.
After listening to all this he asked: say we plan to do all of the above, how
would you then attract investments in the state. To this I talked about how
the government should send credible signals to communicate its intentions
and the initiatives taken.
Then he asked how I could make the signal credible. I explained what a
credible signal would be based upon and then discussed examples like 1)
Announcing Policy changes 2) Investment amount commitments. His next
question was: how you would communicate this to investors – I spoke
about aggressive advertising through brochures, TV, conferences etc. The
interviewer hinted that he had found all the points he wanted to hear.
What do you think went right PI: I think we spent more time on the PI during the overall interview.
for you in the in this Understood what people meant by ‘built rapport with the interviewer’ in
interview? the previous casebooks. We had a really good conversation where he was
trying to know me better and I also asked him some questions. The
placement coordinator had to put an end to the interview because it went
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on for way more than the planned time. It was my best PI of the day.
Case: What went right was that I always tried to paint a picture of ‘how’
was I thinking about the problem. Given that it was a very open ended case,
displaying structured thought process helped.
Any tips for the future 1. Practice open ended cases (you will find many in the previous
batches based on this casebooks) during case prep. It might not fit into the exact scenario but
interview experience. it might help your confidence. When faced with unknown type cases, try
to think afresh, you would be more comfortable doing that rather than
going on a framework hunt in your memory.
2. PI is extremely important, the earlier you realize the better it is. The
best guidance was provided by the ‘buddies’ (assigned by various
companies after shortlists) about it. Practice PI questions with them.
Never keep the PI prep for the last week.
3. Be ready with experiences/stories which link to your resume or your
personality based answers (like strength, leadership quality etc.).
Name Indrajit Mal
Name of Interviewer and Jaidit Singh Brar, Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 2nd interview, Round 1 (Third interview of the day)

round)
Personal interview Very general PI questions

Questions(with indicative 1. Tell me about yourself
answers if you choose to 2. Few questions around work experience, about extra-academic activities
(e.g. what were the new things which I did while holding a position of
share them)
responsibility)
Case Question Problem: Pricing of a new variety of cement
Approach: It was normal pricing case and I used the pricing methodology.
The interviewer provided lot of data and wanted me to take him through
the entire calculation.
Narration of the case Solution: Additional information provided by the interviewer during the
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interview (please be as initial stage:
The main characteristic of this new product was that it reduced the
probability of seepage when used in any building. I asked how it was
different from existing application on buildings – answer: when this cement
is not used, construction supervisors mixes certain local ingredients to
reduce seepage issues.
I talked about Cost plus, Comparable and Value added approach of pricing.
Described in brief how I would go about using each of these approaches. He
told me not to consider comparable.
Started working on the cost plus direction after taking buy in from him –
asked him how was this new cement different and how is its cost different
from other base products. Had quickly drawn a small cement manufacturing
process map. Interviewer started throwing cost numbers for both types of
cement. Added other data points to arrive at floor price.
Moved to Value based approach and explained how value can be derived
i.e. from reduced seepage, reduced supervisory costs etc. For each item he
wanted to know clearly how I would calculate the benefit. Once he was
satisfied with the answers, he asked me to calculate and gave me more
numbers on probabilities of the level of seepage (severe, minor, none) and
cost of repair etc. Followed on with more data on supervisory costs. Did all
the calculations to arrive at ceiling price.
He asked how I can charge more than the ceiling price i.e. how could I
charge more premium. Took some time to think and told him about how
longevity of building can also be considered as a part of value added etc.
Interviewer hinted that I should look at the type of customers; from which I
described how we can do some kind of customer segmentation based on
risk profile, i.e. there may exist some customers who would be willing to
pay higher prices to avoid even a small chance of seepage. He looked
satisfied with the complete analysis and also the accuracy of the
calculations.
What do you think went right PI: I was confident throughout. Engaged in real dialogue rather than letting
for you in the in this it to be a question answer round.
interview? Case: The overall structure was pretty standard, what additionally went
right were all the sub points which I identified. I guess, explaining my
thought clearly on how to go about doing the cost benefit calculations
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worked.
Both the round 1 interviews were good enough to put me through to the
next round.
Any tips for the future 1. Be your natural self in the PI; it will not only keep your confidence high
batches based on this but will also let you be more comfortable during the conversation.
interview experience. 2. Pay attention to the data provided by the interviewer, especially the
units. In this interview the data points were not directly usable and
needed some adjustments. Accuracy in calculation is a must.
Name Indrajit Mal
Name of Interviewer and Jatin Pant, Partner

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round 2 (Fifth interview of the day)

round)
Personal interview Most of the PI questions were about my work experience. He asked
Questions(with indicative questions around what I did in each role, achievements etc. Followed by
answers if you choose to why I quit the job for pursuing an MBA – Jatin had also started his career
share them) with ITC, hence it was important I conveyed how exactly I felt and was also
quite blunt. Had a chance to ask the same question before leaving the
interview room.
Narration of the case We discussed 3 small cases/problems. For each of these he wanted to
interview (please be as explain what I was thinking and not get into finer details.
1. Estimate the number of footfalls at any airport in a day
Asked if he wanted me to consider both people going in and out – he

said yes. Interviewer then asked me to calculate the same for any city. I
picked Mumbai and made some assumptions based on reasonable
estimates about the number of flights and capacity. Factored average
occupancy level and came up the number.
Next he asked me to estimate the average number of people in the
airport at any given point in time – used the inventory formula from
operations course to calculate the number.
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2. A bank has a sales force of 2000 who sell 1 credit card/day on average.
How can we increase it to 4000 cards/day?
Asked about any constraints – interviewer mentioned that we could not

increase sales force, only way was to increase cards sold per day per
person. I wanted to get into detail of how the sales process works but
the interviewer told me to skip that part and directly come to actionable
recommendations. Mentioned the following points which could
potentially increase chance of converting into sales – approaching the
correct target segment, approach during right time of the day/week,
cross selling using right product mix.
Additional information provided was that these sales persons physically

go and meet the potential customers. Based on this I told him that they
should reduce the travel time to increase reach by optimizing the
salesman routes.
3. A bank needs to decide between putting up their own ATMs or

outsourcing the complete ATM service (from building to operations)
Discussion was about In-house vs. Outsourcing. Talked about pros and
cons of both options under financial and strategic considerations.
Interviewer helped me with couple of points here.
What do you think went right PI: I was absolutely upfront while answering the PI questions. It helps the
for you in the in this interviewer to know you better.
interview?
Cases: All of these were small cases where he wanted me to avoid detailed
frameworks and was more like general discussion. The conversation went
well eventually leading to an offer.
Any tips for the future 1. Practice guestimates (by actually solving it to the final number) with
batches based on this equal importance as other cases. Be ready to justify your assumptions
interview experience. while doing guestimate cases.
2. Revise learnings from practice cases towards the end of the preparation
period – you will find them helpful.
3. Core courses concepts are absolutely critical and use it whenever
possible.
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Name Kanika Gupta
Name of Interviewer and Renny Thomas

Designation
Partner, Mckinsey & Company
Round (First/Second/Third First Round, Interview 1

round)
Personal interview The interview started with a brief introduction –‘Tell me

Questions(with indicative about yourself’ and we got down to the case within 5
minutes.
them)
Case Question The interview was primarily case focused.
Problem: The client is a big cement manufacturer and wants

to reduce its cost of operations
Narration of the case interview Problem Definition Started with the basic questions on
(please be as where the client is based out, how many plants does he have,
etc
By how much the cost needs to be reduced (any targets ??)
What is the timeline? Have the costs increased recently?
Structure of the case analysis – Used the value chain as the

starting point to divide the costs under different heads –
• Asked for the distribution of costs under the different

heads
• Bechmarking wrt the competitors – is our client the

only one facing high costs? or is it an industry wide
problem ?
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• Was told that the manufacturing costs have gone up –
broke that down into DL, DM and OH costs.
Based on the facts provided by the interviewer, all the other

costs were inline but -
• Packaging costs had increased quite a lot.
Then focused on answering why packaging costs have

increased?
Asked about the relative split of cost of different materials

used in packaging and found that the plastic bags used in
packaging were causing an increase in costs.
Asked about the suppliers of the plastic bags ( few or many ),

their bargaining power with us, relative size, contracts etc.
Renny told me that the plastic bags were being supplied by 5-

7 small plastic bags manufactures and they had little
bargaining power with us as we were their biggest buyers.
Here I suggested that it could be the case that the cost of

plastic might have increased and they were themselves
facing the brunt of the increased price pressure. [ This was
the root cause of the prob ]
After indentifying the root cause, I started giving

recommendations-
• Bulk Buying of plastic by the cement manufacturer

using his industry clout and connections, for his
suppliers and setting long term contracts with the
suppliers
• Use of alternate plastic compounds to make cement

bags ( value engineering)
• Collection and recycling of used cement bags
• Improve operational processes in bag suppliers

manufacturing as well as in our client’s plants to
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reduce pilferage/wastage
• Opportunistic buying of plastic – buy when the prices

of plastic are low
• Backward integration by our client to set up his own

bag manufacturing unit
Renny asked if anything could be done with the design of

the bag to rationalize the plastic used in making bags ?
I suggested a potli design of cement bags instead of the

regular rectangular (cuboidal) bag..The spherical structure of
the potli would minimize surface area for the same volume.
Even drew a sample potli and Renny was all smiles ☺ ☺ and
the case ended there.
Regular cement
bag
What do you think went right • The interview was more of a conversation
• Quickly got down to the root of the issue and spent
more time giving recommendations and possible
alternatives, which I think was liked most by the
interviewer
Any tips for the future batches • Try to engage the interviewer in your solution
based on this
• Be innovative/creative in your recommendations
Interview experience
Name Kanika Gupta
234
Name of Interviewer and Noshir Kaka
Designation
Managing Director, McKinsey& Company, India
Round (First/Second/Third First Round, Interview 2

round)
Personal interview This was one long interview ( lasted almost an hour !! )
Questions(with indicative Half n hr was spent on Personal Interview only…
• Tell me about yourself
answers if you choose to share • Example of entrepreneurial initiative or trait
them) • Lot of questions on almost every bullet in my resume
[ I think this may be the case because I came from an
IT background and Noshir being directly involved in IT,
had lots of things to ask ]
o Mostly questions on ‘what did I do in a
particular achievement/Task that I listed on
my resume’
o What was special about a particular
achievement ?
Case Question First case: What could be the possible reasons that two IT
firms with same process, technology, work in the same
location, had 2X the cost of one software engineer as
compared to the other?
Narration of the case interview Cost of 1 software engineer => Total cost to company
(please be as
Different reasons could be –
• Compensation & Incentive design
• Bonus Plans & Stock Options
• Difference in skill/expertise level – one takes twice

the longer time to complete the same work
• High bench strength of one company which increases

the overall cost of 1 resource
• High Attrition rates leading to increase in training and

professional development expenses
• High Recruitment costs ( HR policies could be too
235
restrictive/selective, which could increase the overall
cost of hiring an engineer )
• Increase in low performers in the company – who are

growing by virtue of being in the company for a
longer time. Such resources also demand a higher
salary with respect to a new hire that is hired at the
market competitive rate.
• Difference in resources at the disposal of every

engineer ( 1 computer vs 3 machines + 1 laptop )
• # of Leaves/absenteeism in one company vs other
I explained each of the point with examples and reference to

my experience with IT firms.
( I also gave a couple of more points, but don’t remember

them now ☺ Also, note that this question was asked to me
when a very IT specific PI was going on , so I didn’t realize
that this was actually a case – therefore the lack of structure
!)
Second Case – ( Quickie – 10 min case )
Suggest how you would advise TATA motors to create a

scaled down version of Tata Indigo to create TATA Nano.
I had already read this case and you can refer to ISB casebook
2010 for detailed analysis.
However, the only distinction was that this case was just
given to check my quant skills and my problem structuring…
Rest I think was immaterial.
Was given lots and lots of numbers for calculating the

%savings in cost that could be achieved.
What do you think went right • Noshir is an amazing person to have an interview
for you in the in this interview? with. There is no stress, gives you time and wants you
to perform at your best ! All these things helped me a
236
great deal to do my best ☺
• My IT background & industry experience helped me

to strike interesting discussion with him..such as I
talked about his NASSCOM reports on IT in India that I
had read and had questions on.. even at the end of
the interview, which I think Noshir liked ( based on
amateur face reading skills ;) )
Any tips for the future batches WORD OF CAUTION !

based on this
• When Noshir is taking a case, he would not say ‘Ok,
Interview experience. lets do a case !’, he would casually ask you a question,
while discussing your resume, which would seem a
very general question and not really a case !
I completely missed the first case that Noshir asked

me! I answered that orally, without structuring my
thoughts on paper… and it took me a little longer to
come up with all the points that he wanted me to tell.
However, because I did eventually come up with quite
a lot of possible reasons (based on my IT experience),
I was given the benefit of doubt and he asked me the
second case to just check my structuring and quant
comfort ☺
Name Kanika Gupta
Name of Interviewer and Souvik Chakraborty

Designation
Engagement Manager, Mckinsey & Company
Round (First/Second/Third Second Round, Interview 2

round)
Personal interview - Example of a challenging situation that you faced at

work and how did you handle it
237
Questions(with indicative - Gave me a hypothetical case situation and asked me
what would I have done in that situation
them)
Case Question Problem => This was a basic Market entry case where a
global FMCG company wanted to enter India.
Narration of the case interview Case Analysis & narration
(please be as
Problem definition –
• Understood the company, underlying line of business,
and the business model
• What is the motivation for the entry? What are the

objectives/expectations?
• Any constraints on resources/location/ etc ?
Structure – Pure MARKET ENTRY
Solved it just like any other market entry problem, by laying

down the framework for market entry.
• Performed Industry Attractiveness
• Relative Strength, weakness of the foreign player

with respect to the Indian competitors
• Competitive advantage of the FMCG player
• Mode of entry
• Market Sizing ! Sized the FMCG market in India using

the numbers provided by Souvik. There were lots n
lots of calculations in this one and was primarily asked
to check quants ability.
• Even calculated (1.8)^5 and 3.64*1.79 and

0.0375*560 in the interview
Case Takeway => Just Calculation Intensive with basic Market

Entry framework as the underlying structure
238
What do you think went right • Maintained my cool and just calmly did the numbers
for you in the in this interview? for 20 minutes!
Any tips for the future batches • Some cases can only be asked to check your quant
based on this abilities and calculation prowess ;) so prepare for such
cases during your case prep where all you do is just %,
/,*,+,-
• Doing calculations slowly & carefully can reduce the

possibility of an error. I don’t think the panel was
testing the speed of calculations, just checking
whether I was comfortable with numbers or not
• Even if stressed in a particular interview, please don’t

show it .. try your best to stay calm and put up a
brave face ☺
Name Kanika Gupta
Name of Interviewer and Sasi Sunkara

Designation
Partner, Mckinsey & Company
Round (First/Second/Third Second Round, Interview 2

round)
Personal interview - General conversation openers, followed by Tell me

Questions(with indicative about yourself
- Example of leadership skills that you have displayed in
answers if you choose to share your career (went on for 10 mins ☺ due to Sasi’s
them) interest in trying to understand what I really did from
a technical point of view) He even checked the same
from my resume to see whether I have that
mentioned or not !
Case Question Problem: Our client is an Investment Banking firm and it is
239
facing a problem because the traders are not signing off their
Profit and loss accounts on time. Please suggest what they
should do
Narration of the case interview Problem Definition: Since I did not have much information
(please be as on the way traders work in an IB firm, I asked for details on
the entire process as to ‘what do you mean by signoff ?’
‘when should the signoff be done?’ ‘By how much is the
signoff being delayed?’ ‘what departments other than
traders are involved in the sign off process?’
Apart from this, some basic questions on where is the

company located ? Since when is this problem being
observed ? ( Is this a new problem or has been there for
quite some time ? )
I drew the process diagram for the PnL signoff process and
got the no. of resources involved in each of the activities, in
Sign-off
order to understand the capacity utilization.
PnL Traders Sign-off

Processing
Office
(Although I do not remember exactly), the process flow was

that Processing office had to collate data on the day’s trade
and create a PnL and then send to the Traders for
validation/confirmation.If the trader, finds an issue in the PnL
filed, they send it back to Processing office and then the
processing office corrects the mistake and signs off the PnL. If
there is no error in the PnL, the trader signs off the pnl.
Here data was given to me in the form of what was the time
taken by the processing office to perform a PnL validation,
time taken by Trader to send the corrected record back, %
PnLs with mistakes, etc.
Case Analysis & Structure
240
Used the People, Process and Technology to diagnose the
issue
(Gave some ideas for potential People issues (incentive

alignment problems, lack of motivation, behavioral issues,
etc ), Technology – Inadequate support systems in use,
system failures causing delay etc.. But deep dived in Process
to begin with )
Process Analysis -> 1) Checked the capacity utilization to

identify bottlenecks in the system [ Did some math to check
this and found that the resources were adequate and there
was in fact excess capacity ]
2) Asked, which of the two ( traders / Processing office ) had

the maximum backlog of PnL records to be signed off.
Found that the traders had a lot of PnLs that were not signed
off.
To investigate further, I asked about the daily time schedule

of the trader. When does he get the PnL, when does he come
to office, what % of the time is he fully occupied in trading, at
what time does the reports are sent to the traders, etc.
Sasi told me that the traders came at 7:30 a.m and the
reports are generated by an automated batch process which
takes 3 hours to complete and is fired at 1:00 a.m. in the
morning. The results are obtained after every half an hour
starting at 4:00 am, 4:30 am… till 8:00 am. Post this, the
processing office needs to create the report and send the
final PnL to the trader by 10:30 am. The signoff had to be
done by 12:00 every day.
The catch was –
• The traders didn’t spare even a minute

once trading started at 8 am to sign off the PnL.
• So, suggested that the final PnL report

should be made available to the traders by 7:30 am in
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the morning, so that the first thing they do in the
morning is to sign off PnLs and then start with the
day’s trading at 8 am.
• Asked if the PnL report processing process

done at 1:00 am could be optimized/improved. But
Sasi said it was already the best that could be done.
Final Recommendation => Outsource the PnL processing

work to developing countries such as India because the time
difference is also 6 hrs and the Indian office could ensure
that all the reports are created and mailed to the traders in
London by 7:00 am. This would also reduce the cost of
operating the processing backoffice.
Here, Sasi closed the case saying that this was exactly what
was done for one of his client. ☺
What do you think went right • Everything ! This was my best interview and the most
for you in the in this interview? important one as this interview could decide whether
I would join the firm or not. Despite being a little
jittery, I tried to look relaxed and was instantly able to
connect with the interviewer through the PI questions
in the beginning of the interview.
• I was constantly thinking on my feet and asking

questions and I could feel that Sasi was enjoying our
case discussions very much.
• Infact after a point, even I was enjoying solving the

case !
Any tips for the future batches • Do not apply known case solutions to problems you
based on this think you have done before. There are many different
solutions or analysis to the same problem and the
interviewer might be expecting an all together
different solution than what you had previously done.
So BEWARE ! Always attack the problem in the same
structured way as if it’s a new problem, even if you
242
have done/heard of it before.
• Smile often. B enthusiastic. B+. B urself.
• Good Luck. You WILL do your best if you just try ☺
Name Kiran Kumar G
Name of Interviewer and Director – Shirish Sankhe

Designation

round)
Personal interview Process at Mckinsey was rushed through after getting an

Questions(with indicative offer from AT Kearny, with the first interview being a make or
break with the director of Mckinsey. PI was general questions
like how many interviews have you done today and what
them)
does leadership mean to you in addition to the usual CV
related questions. It went really well till then.
Case Question The case was about a cement manufacturing firm which
wanted to reduce its logistics cost.
Narration of the case interview I laid out the usual value chain and identified the input raw
(please be as materials and output cement supply chain as the potential
avenues for reduction. Sirish wanted me to focus only on the
customer outreach part. I tried to look at improving routing
of the shipments but it turned out that they used trucks for
transportation which could only be used from point to point
(routing improves efficiency only for high capacity modes of
transport like trains). For trucks I tried to take is as an
optimization problem in DMOP where I solved for minimizing
243
distance travelled from plant to warehouse and from
warehouse to customers. And suggested some
recommendation like backhauling etc. I completely forgot
about using case structure from here on which proved to be
a mistake.
What do you think went right PI went really well and Sirish remembered me from the
for you in the in this interview? McKinsey dinner which went well for me.
Any tips for the future batches Whenever you feel stuck get back to putting a case
based on this framework as soon as possible to reach a solution. Sirish
expected simple answers like using a higher capacity trucks
on the same route, using just-in-time deliveries to reduce
warehouse costs altogether and supplying to customers in
the close vicinity first (100 km radius) before moving onto
other customers. I somehow panicked considering that it was
a director taking the interview and went for complicated
solutions which did not go very well for me.
Another tip would be to not use very quant intensive

approach when talking to very senior folks, they like to keep
it simple and at a strategic level. Coming from a quant
background I did the mistake of changing the case into a
DMOP problem early on!
Name Kiran Kumar G

Designation

round)
Personal interview I had fluffed the interview with the director of Mckinsey so
Questions(with indicative this interview was a mere formality for me, but ironically it
244
answers if you choose to share went well. I had a good PI and then moved onto a case in the
them) energy sector.
Case Question This was a case about oil strategy for India, he gave me the
following figures (fictional):
Oil is a crisis commodity and only 1 company meets the

countries oil requirement and it imports 40% of oil. Current
oil demand stands at 1MM barrels/day and we want to
increase the supply to manage till 1.4 MM barrels/day
Narration of the case interview I came up with the following ideas:

(please be as
- New sources 1) geographies 2) Companies
Identify potential opportunities to check unexplored
sites (which has following risks: Financial, country,
Operational, Regulation, Probability of success) or
buyout the existing oil fields
- Import with better contracts (might not be feasible

for long term)
- Improve throughput from existing oil fields: As I am

not from oil industry we had a chat on what can be
done and I discussed things like improving efficiency,
loss elimination, deploying new technologies etc.
(giving examples like avoiding water flooding – taken
from movies ☺ etc.which the interviewer
appreciated)
What do you think went right Case went really well.

Any tips for the future batches It sometimes helps to interview with an engagement
based on this Interview manager before moving onto partner as they will be much
experience. more liberal and willing to help you in case you get stuck and
it also gives you the time to hit peak in solving cases specific
to each company. I did the mistake of going directly for a
round with the director which did not work out for me.
245
Name Kunal Tara
Company Interviewed With McKinsey & Co.
Name of Interviewer and Jaidit Singh Brar

Designation
Partner – Leads Electrical Power & Natural Gas sector
practice in India
Round (First/Second/Third First (I/II)

round)
Personal interview • While walking down from a common place to the

Questions(with indicative interviewing room, I myself asked him a question on how
did he like the Mohali campus? Has he been to Hyd
answers if you choose to share campus etc.? By the time we had reached the room, we
them) had a good conversation going. After sitting down he
soon slipped into the interview question mode, on why
consulting? Why McK etc? I had my answers prepared in
bullet points which I could elaborate well because I was
already comfortable in the discussion.
• How has the ISB experience been? I spoke passionately
about the learning, the facilitating environment
(housekeeping etc.), access to great careers, and the
teamwork part of things.
Case Question In the middle of a great conversation ( at least I thought it
was great), he said as you know we have to do a case, it is a
norm so we should get it done. There were 25 odd minutes
left and I knew the time that I have for the case is around 20
min – gives you an idea of what granularity you should
246
expect to go in the case.
Narration of the case interview We are consulting with the power ministry of the country
(please be as about the power situation in the country and they complain
about the peak loads and the lack of capacity in the country.
The situation looks something like this (X-axis: Jan-Dec, Y-
axis: Power demand (GW)). Now, the government is asking us
for a solution to this problem. How would you go about
thinking on this problem?
I took my 2 minutes and said I will approach the problem in

the following way: First, I will try to determine what is the
extent of the shortage and determine what level is
acceptable. Second, I will try to think of ways to match this
gap. There are two ways I can think right now: Demand
management and Capacity management. Third, I would like
to choose a course of action by evaluating the various pros
and cons of various demand, capacity management
techniques and determine the best course of action. It could
also be a mix of both. I can think of the following parameter
for now on which to rank order the options: Effectiveness,
Cost, Technology, and scope of the government to influence
these. Also, while taking these decisions it is important to
keep the long-term view in mind as the capacity is lumpy and
the changes that we do noe are unlikely to be changed in
near-term.
He said I like the approach, why don’t you start applying it to

the scenario. I started with the first step of assessing the
shortage and determining acceptable level. Here he said why
do you say acceptable limit, what can be an acceptable limit
in electricity, it should be 100%. I said that I understand the
concern, and took time-out to think about this. Later, I said,
this is because the capacity that we provide for peak demand
will have low utilization and thus will have high costs. Thus,
we cannot endeavor to provide 100%. He said good thought
but think of yourself as the consumer, if you don’t have
electricity as an industrial consumer and the government
says that I could not give you electricity because we would
247
have had low utilization levels, would the consumer accept
that. I said probably not. Then he said, does that mean we
should endeavor for 100%? I said I need more time to think.
Then I said, in this argument I was ignoring the fact that the
power supply has flexible capacity, that is to say it is not X
GW around the year, it varies according to seasons, flexible
capacity would be plants using wind, thermal and solar
plants. So, in presence of these, I think we can endeavor for
100%. HE appreciated it and said do you see an immediate
problem here? I said yes, the flexibility of the capacity is not
really in our hand but rather the forces of nature, eg. It is
possible that on the peak demand day there is no wind and
hence, flexibility works in the opposite direction and our
available capacity is actually reduced. Looking at the graph, I
said, we can also arrange the graph in terms of hours on the
Y-axis. Now, when we draw the line of capacity on the same
graph, we will have the number of hours on which we are
focusing on (upper right hand corner of the graph).
Moving to the next step, he asked me to just list down the

things we can do in demand and supply management of
power. I mentioned that government has various tools that it
can use such as advise on power consumption schedule, peak
tariffs, limits on power consumption and penalties in case of
non-compliance etc. to manage the demand side. Further, I
listed down some hygiene points on demand management
such as reducing energy consumption itself by the use of
more efficient appliances such as A/Cs and CFLs. He said OK,
now focus on the supply side and here you mentioned
technology as one of the evaluation criteria, can you
elaborate on that. I asked for some time here to think about
this. I said that as I see it, the conventional power plants on
coal and nuclear are high fixed cost and hence require high
utilization to be economically viable, it is clear that we
cannot use these to meet peak demand. He said, that is true
and we call these as the base capacity. I said, this can be the
baseline in the hour graph that I was talking to you about. He
looked impressed. I said further, the technology that we are
248
talking about must have lower fixed costs and variable costs
as a proportion of total costs of production may be higher in
these ‘peaking plants’. He said OK, what other factors need
to be looked into? I listed some points such as ease of
startup, ability to sustain longer durations of shutdown,
reliability, and most importantly, the motive force should not
have any correlation with the demand. He asked me to
elaborate on the last point. I said, let me take an example of
hydro, as shown in the graph, the demand for electricity is
low in the months of monsoon this is because the agricultural
as well as cooling load on the grid is low but I would assume
that hydro can produce the maximum power in monsoon as
the rivers have high flows. So technologies such as these
have a very high negative correlation with the demand. This
is not ideal technology for peaking plants. He asked me to
mention a technology that can be used. I said, on top of my
mind I can think of diesel based power generation. The
technology is reliable, has high power density and is hence,
low fixed cost, can be easily started or shutdown and the fuel
is available round the year. He said OK. Now, assume that
the government understands all this and we have to make a
case for them to install such power plants, how would you
convince the? Took time out and said I would use the counter
factual argument. I said we should look at what economic
output are we loosing by not producing this electricity. Let us
say there is a textile mill and it has reduced production due
to shortage of electricity. Then the worth of output is
theoretically the opportunity cost of not producing this unit
of electricity. Having said that I understand that it will be
difficult to measure such lost output across all industries and
the exercise will become extremely challenging when we go
into commercial offices or residential calculations of
shortage. I suggested that we have proxy for this, the costs
that the businesses bear of producing electricity on their
own. Most of residential, commercial and industrial
consumers have backup power which is very expensive. Eg.
Cost/unit of electricity for diesel based backup is around Rs
17, so this is the minimum that the consumers will be willing
249
to pay in peak demand times.
He said very nicely done and ended the case here.
What do you think went right I was myself in the interview (not to say that I am great but
for you in the in this that is the best I could have been in the interview). This
helped me to have a normal interaction in the interview and
interview? think straight. This can be because of three reasons:
• Belief in the preparation I had done
• Had a great job before going into the interview
• The lovely whether at Mohali on the day
Any tips for the future batches Remember: Personalize your PI answers! Generic
based on this benefits/drawbacks are a good point to start preparing but
that’s it, you answers to the interviewer’s questions have to
be personal. Eg. ISB has great faculty -> Generic. How did it
help you? Eg. I had the opportunity to work with Proff XX on
my ELP and he stretched the boundaries of my thinking to far
wider levels, this was imp. Because I come from YY
background and it was not intuitive for me to think from that
perspective.
Do not learn your answers word-by-word, the interviewer

has to see the passion in your eyes when you speak be it
about yourself or his firm or consulting (he is pursuing it,
would like to hear your take)
It is absolutely okay to take your time but come up with

something that interests him and sounds logical and of
course MECE during case interview. It is unlikely that you
would see a case that you have done in the case preps.
However, case preps should be seen as a way to develop this
approach.
Name Kunal Tara
Name of Interviewer and Noshir Kaka

Designation
McK MD – India office
250
Round (First/Second/Third First (II/II)
round)
Personal interview • Started with why consulting etc.

Questions(with indicative • He looked at the resume and asked work experience
related questions – I had a field work-ex and questions
answers if you choose to share were centered around time mgmt in projects and
them) importance of planning
• I had a tab on the resume “Leadership”, he said I would
like to hear your growth story in the previous firm and
talk about leadership. I gave a brief growth story and
then he leaned back in the chair and said now tell me
what is leadership to you. I had something on this
running in my mind while preparing for interview-prep
and divided leadership into five facets: team
management, traditional view (defining goals and
motivating coherent actions towards that goal),
personnel management (handling idiosyncrasies of
individuals in the team), responsibility and reward (what
sort of rewards to what people, similarly for
responsibility) and finally mentorship and training. We
talked about this for a good 15 mins after which he
turned to the case.
Case Question You are consulting for a large tire manufacturer in India and
he is having problems with variability in sales.
Narration of the case interview I asked him questions upfront such as sales are unit sales or
(please be as Rs sales (units is the answer), is he a national or a regional
player? (National) etc. then I took time to develop a
structure.
I conjectured that sales in this setup are a function of market

demand, supply from the manufacturer. Within market
demand, sales are a function of industry demand (which can
be seasonal in itself), consumer preference for the brand (can
have different requirements in different seasons), the
marketing variables that the firm is employing and
competitor actions. Also, mentioned supply side factors such
as competitors order fulfillment, our fill rates and supply of
major raw materials such as Rubber.
At this point, it becomes important to understand the
251
industry structure and the company in focus. I started with
industry and asked questions on competitive scenario,
industry structure, substitutes, type of consumers and many
more. It came out that there is only one other competitor in
the organized segment of the market and there is an approx
30% market which is in the unorganized segment with re-
treaded tires etc., also this 30% number is stable, this means
the variability is driven by either market variability or market
share shift between the organized competitors. There is
seasonality in demand such as peaking in monsoons due to
faster wear and tear due to damaged roads but the firm in
focus is witnessing variability over and above seasonality. We
have to focus only on the B-2-C segment and the sale
mechanism here is multi-brand retail shops and own brand
retail shops. The sales/dealer is also varying and the no. of
dealers is constant. I asked whether the trend is in both types
of retail to which he replied yes but it is accentuated in multi-
brand retail shops. I also asked the type of products being
manufactured and sold by the company and it turned out
that the problem is in the large commercial vehicles tire
segment (trucks etc.)
I said that at this point it seems that due to arms-length

trading between multi-brand retailers and the firm, it maybe
that we are not able to supply the materials at the time when
they are required and hence, leading to lost sales and hence
reducing margins and variability. He said that is not the case
and in fact out fill rate at the retailer is better than the
competition. This was an intuitive problem that I proposed
and when this was rejected, I took time to think.
I said, let me think from the point of view of such a retailer,

his focus is to earn the maximum profits and he has two sides
to handle: the cost side and the revenue side. The costs in
such a setup would be primarily retail space costs, labor costs
and inventory costs. I explored this a bit further and said that
retail space is a fixed cost and is not relevant to this problem,
it may have been a problem if the no. of dealers were
252
varying, but since the dealers are fixed. I would focus on the
other two. The labor cost will be a function of the form of
delivery that he gets and the form of sales that he needs to
do.eg. Does he have to unpack, re-pack etc in our tires and
not in the competitors, does he have to segregate front, back
tires himself? Noshir said, there is same amount of work
required in both the competitors’ products. The last item was
inventory costs and a few exploratory questions showed that
these are also the same.
Then I focused on the revenue side of the retailer. I said that

it is driven by volumes and margins. It was clear from the
segment in focus that the customer would be highly price
conscious and that the quality of the product is similar across
the two firms. I asked whether we change prices according to
the segment or the margins which could change the
incentives of the dealer to sell our products. He said no we
have a stable pricing and margins policy. I felt a bit lost but
after taking time, I concluded that there is only one more
possible reason to explore which is the incentive plan of the
competitor. At this Noshir gave a slight smile and a nod of
the head. I asked about the incentive mechanism offered by
the competitor. He said that the competitor gives a stable
margin of 10% (lower than our margin of 15%) and gives a
reward in case X units are sold by the dealer. I thought about
it and said that the dealer will be incentivized to push his
product in the seasons that he believes he can achieve X
units otherwise he will push our product for better
margins/product sold. He said absolutely right! At this point
he ended the case here.
P.S.: After coming back from Mohali, the first class I attended
was the LSCM class and the same theory was discussed in the
class about the hockey stick effect in sales effort and why it is
a problem for supply chains.
What do you think went right • Round 1.1 was good and this 1.2 happened right after it
for you in the in this so I had the momentum going right from the start.
• Cliché but still important: Striking the chord with the
253
interview? interviewer, all you have during the interview prep is the
chance to prepare your PI part well and rest hope for not
having an idiosyncratic mismatch
• I didn’t know till after the interview that he was MD-India
office so didn’t have that nervousness ;-). Not
recommended though.
perspective.


approach.
Name Kunal Tara
Name of Interviewer and Dr. Shirish Sankhe

Designation
Director in Mumbai Office, works in public plicy, petroleum
mining.

round)
254
Personal interview • How are you feeling?
Questions(with indicative • How were the first rounds?
• How are your interviews with other firms going?
answers if you choose to share • How has ISB been?
them) • How were your interviews with firms before day1? What
were the results?
• What are your opinions about McK?
• What can be possible reasons for you to not join?
Soon I realized that this indicates probable selection and that
from now on I can only screw it up by having a bad
conversation or showing preference for something that McK
cannot offer. I asked some hygiene questions such as the
option of working from the same city later in the career
when one gets settled, work-life balance, mentoring, career
progression, options to explore a field of interest (business),
asked about the position I will be joining into, how is it
decided etc etc.
30-40 minutes of these questions only. The Q&A session was
primarily to judge what will I do if I ha an offer? Will I choose
some other firm over McK etc.
Narration of the case interview No case ☺
(please be as
What do you think went right • Soon realized that the only way I can take the process
for you in the in this here is downwards. I don’t have to impress in this
interview, I just have to maintain a hygiene level of
interview? conversation to get the offer.
perspective.

255

approach.
Name Ashvini Jakhar
Company Interviewed With Mckinsey & Co
Name of Interviewer and Souvik Chakraborty: Since joining the firm in 2009, Souvik
Designation has worked extensively in the insurance and retail banking
sectors across multiple functions like strategy, marketing and
sales, operations and organization for clients in India and
South East Asia.
Round (First/Second/Third First Round, First Interview

round)
Personal interview My interview was scheduled early in the morning, 0830 hrs.
Questions(with indicative After exchanging the niceties, Sauvik suggested how we
could effectively utilize next 30 mins. He suggested that we
answers if you choose to share spend 15 mins on a quick case followed by 15 mins on PI,
them) which I of course gladly agreed to!!!
Case Question Client is an FMCG player and wants to enter India. Help?
Narration of the case interview I started by scoping the problem.

(please be as
Asked him more about our client ( Giant US FMCG player $ 8
descriptive as possible) billion Annual revenues, operating in several other European
countries) Clarified that client wants to enter in the regular
FMCG segment such as one managed by Reliance or Bharti
Asked Motivation for entering India: Main objective-
256
Growth, profitability is desirable
Objective: Told that imagine Indian FMCG industry is $20 B

(When asked about competition, he told that, say, two main
players with $ 5 B share each and rest is fragmented.)
Here, took some time off and drew the standard market
entry framework.
1. Market Attractiveness (Geography, Size, growth,

profit margins, competition, regulation)
When I asked him about market sizing, he told me to do the

same. Before I could make any assumptions, he gave me
some quick numbers to calculate the same. ($ 20 B was
organized retail size and industry potential was much more)
The present players captured only a part of total retail
industry potential size, which offered a good opportunity.
Market sizing: total population (households)* %

penetration of organized retail* Average household income*
% of that income spent on FMCG products annually
2. Client’s competitive positioning: What is client

bringing to this market and what the client lacks.(
Client has economies of scale (procurement),
experience curve of managing such business across
geographies and resources for investing.
I suggested him what could be the possible differentiators

for the client here:
• Lower price
• Better quality & Service
• Brand Power
3. He told me that good and asked me how our client

should enter the market. Suggested him ways
• Green field (Start from scratch): difficult, takes time,
257
high level of uncertainty, high risk high return
• JV’s
• Acquisitions
{It would depend upon Clients growth strategy as such (

Organic vs Inorganic), Risks and return expectations,
potential acquisitioned, regulatory aspects and timeline for
attaining growth target (I had missed this point in scoping
part)}
Here he grilled me a lot on should the client be partnering

with a big player or acquire a smaller player.
After giving some rational but unstructured reasoning, I

suggested him that the client should partner with a Big player
rather than a smaller player though it would be difficult to
form such partnership (thought of Bharti-Walmart here).
The main reasons I gave were:
• Synergies of supply chain and procurements
• Wider and broader access to market base
• Faster growth once entry made
• Easy to obtain approvals and overcome regulatory

barriers ( by virtue of being friends with big brother
on home turf)
He asked me what the partner would get out of it. Main

points
• Brand (Co-branding)
• Learning curve of a global player
• Supplier synergies and economies of scale and scope.
He stopped me here and we moved on to PI
PI was somewhat too structures: asked
258
“ tell me one situation in life where you faced a personal
challenge and how you dealt with it”
He asked me to take a moment and structure my thoughts.

After few seconds, I told him that I am ready and should we
talk. He told me that why don’t we structure the PI, which I
of course gladly agreed to!!!
So he asked me: Tell me one sentence
What was the challenge?
What was your role?
In one word:
What was the most difficult part?
What I would like to go back in time and change? (My

actions)
What do you think went Overall case experience: Average

right/wrong for you in the in
- Messed up some numbers in Market sizing ( Simple
this interview?
mistake but could have been avoided)
- In write up it looks like a good case structure but I

couldn’t walk him through my thoughts equally well
because of 15 mins time constraints (constraint put
up very much before starting the case)
- Good thing: despite time constraints, I was able to

take him till partnerships and JV. Was able to give him
my recommendation within stipulated time.
(I was working on decreasing my speed of talking

and solving cases throughout the preparation time
but it was speed only that eventually helped me sail
through this round of interview)
PI experience: Very Good (Could handle tough questions,

maintained calm demeanor and poise)
259
Any tips for the future batches - Extensive case preparation helps during time
based on this Interview constrained case interviews.
experience.
- Ensure that PI is equally strong.
- Maintain Poise and be confident during interview.

They like people whom they can talk to as colleagues
rather than very traditional interviewer-interviewee
relationship.
Name Ashvini Jakhar
Name of Interviewer and Renny Thomas is a Partner based in the Mumbai office of
Designation McKinsey & Company and is the leader of McKinsey’s
Corporate Finance and Strategy practice in India and a leader
of the consumer banking practice in Asia. Renny has a B. Tech
degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA
from IIM-Ahmadabad – both completed with honours
Round (First/Second/Third First Round, Second Interview

round)
Personal interview Before going for second interview, I was worried about the
Questions(with indicative fact that since I had messed some numbers in first interview, I
would be tested on numbers in this round.
them) The interview started with Renny introducing himself briefly
and then he asked me to so the same. I walked him through
my profile briefly, which he seemed to like a lot ( post –
Tsunami Rehabilitation, 26/11 Mumbai episode and my stint
as a Training Officer with the flagship paramedic training
school of Indian Navy)
After small chit-chat, he proposed that why don’t we do a
quick case, which I gladly agreed to!!!
260
Case Question Client has a Hotel chain in Dubai and his market position is
deteriorating. Help him?
Narration of the case interview I started by asking him about Client: Large player, various
(please be as hotels. Asked more about type of hotels and the presence :
Domestic player and mainly in luxury segment
What does he mean by Deterioration: He told me I need not
worry about numbers but imagine that its decreasing at a
steady pace over last few years
(I was actively seeking numbers here to make up for a lost

opportunity in first interview but I wasn’t given. So there was
a sigh of relief) May be the feedback from 1st interview
wasn’t bad?
What does he mean by market position: Market share (%) is

decreasing (Further clarified as per following matrix) It was
second situation. Industry was growing and our client was
losing customers instead of gaining.
Overall market Client market Client market

size (in absolute Share (in share (%)
numbers) absolute
numbers)
Constant Decreasing Decreasing

(Losing
customers)
Increasing Constant or Decreasing

decreasing or
increasing but
with rate less
than industry
average
Decreasing Decreasing at a Decreasing

pace more than
industry average
261
Here I also asked him about the customer mix: he told me
that the customer mix was 50:50 (International vs Domestic)
but is gradually shifting to 30: 70. First hint
I gave him my first hypothesis here itself that the main

driver of the industry growth could be mainly international
customers which we are not able to attract: rather we are
losing. (he happily agreed to it and told me that indeed this is
so)
Here I asked him if this were the main reason, should I now
try to figure out why this was happening. He agreed
Here I summarized the narrowed version of problem

statement to the interviewer.
“ that a large luxury hotel chain domestic player based out of

Dubai is losing customers & also not gaining new
international customers amid a growing industry over last
few years and we have to help him”
He nodded once I read it out to him and I requested for a

minute to structure my thoughts. I put down the structure of
decrease in market share (%). It proposed it could be related
to
Share of voice
Share of Mind or
Share of distribution
These could be assessed by looking at the following

attributers. I offered him hypothesis around each one of
them:
1. Product ( Ambience, Hotel services – types, mix,

quality, price, quality of property)
-everything at par with competitors
2. Promotion ( online and offline, marketing and

promotion campaigns, associations with hotel chain
262
and leading travel & tourism cos around the world)
- everything at par with competitors
3. Place: location of hotel chains, only domestic presence
- everything at par with competitors
4. Brand positioning: (being a luxury hotel) Here I asked

him that branding could be an issue esp when
presence is only domestic)
( I followed STP here) Are we segmenting, targeting

and positioning properly?
He asked me to dwell more on it. I said: Positioning

can be affected by each one of the above attributes
however, since most of these are at par, other issues
could be regarding our associations with non-luxury
players, Logo or naming of the hotel chain.
Here the interviewer told me that the name of the

hotel chain was very regional and conservative
looking, which international visitors did not prefer.
I thought case would be over now but Renny asked me

how we can increase international visitors to our
hotel. (other than rebranding the hotel)
I asked him about the international visitor mix in

other hotels/industry vs our hotel and their revenue
potential. He gave me the break up, which I collated
in this form. ( he was visibly happy to see this)
Visitors Visitor Visitor Mix Revenue

Mix (Our (competitor) potential
hotel) of the
visitors
American 30% 50% High

Revenue
263
generating
European 40% 40% Moderate

rev
Generating
S-E Asian 30% 10% Low

Revenue
Generating
After we mutually collated the data it was amply clear our

product mix was changing besides decrease in customer
growth. Here, he asked me draw a plot this data on also,
which I could do.
Here, he told me to close the case and asked me if I had any

questions for him. Since Renny was partner in charge of
overall recruitment in India and was engaged in same for
almost one and a half decade, I asked him what keeps him
motivated to engage with youngsters like us. We talked
about it over 2-3 mins.
What do you think went right Everything. (Picture perfect case and personal interview)
Any tips for the future batches Bring practical perspective during case solving. A traditional
based on this framework may fall short sometimes.
Name Ashvini Jakhar
264
Name of Interviewer and Navtez Singh Bal is a Partner in the India office of McKinsey
Designation & Company. Since joining the firm in 2000, he has helped
global majors across sectors like cement, basic materials and
industrials with strategy development, business building,
operations transformation and organization redesign. Navtez
specializes in turnaround and transformation programs and
leads McKinsey’s Capital Productivity Practice in India
Round (First/Second/Third Round 2, Interview 1

round)
Personal interview In second round interview also, I was one of the first
Questions(with indicative candidates to interview with Mck. I did not have any other
answers if you choose to share consult shortlist but had interview for four more firms lined
up through the day, which I had finished by now except for
them)
one. Also by now, I had offers from Amazon (pathways) and
Philips (CLP), so I was relatively at ease.
Case Question Market Estimation: Size of Glucometer market in India?
Narration of the case interview Navtez got up and walked up to the door to receive me
(please be as descriptive as (Speaks very highly of his humility and humbleness). He told
possible) me briefly about himself and then told me that he has read
about me and finds my profile very interesting.
He asked me specifically about my interview with Souvik. I

told him that it was not as good as I would have expected it
to go and I had made some silly mistakes with numbers. He
smiled and told me that there is nothing to worry. (Game
theory..I didn’t know what Souvik had written in his feedback
but I wanted to be honest with Navtez so told him truthfully
about my first interview)
At this juncture, he suggested that we do a quick case!
Scoping: Walked him through the people who are the likely
consumers of this product.
Suggested Approaches: Suggested him few approached to
265
calculate the same
1. Population* incidence of Diabetes (Both Type I and

type II)* % of affected likely to buy * % actually
buying* average cost of one glucometer
2. Market share of leading glucometer maker and

extrapolation of the same
3. Analogy from similar markets
4. Extrapolation from size of market of Glucosticks (Used

in glucometer)
5. Analogy with Hypertension measurement equipment

buyers (HTN and diabetes are closely related and
have similar patient profile)
We talked about each one of them and then decided to go

with first approach. In first approach, he wanted me explore
more on % actually buying. He asked me how I will figure
that out.
Suggested him following approaches:
1. Cost benefits comparison with alternate approaches.

Spend if tests conducted in Laboratory vs done by
Glucometer at home. Talked about
- Opportunity cost of time
- Travel Expenses
- Inconvenience caused
2. Cost benefit comparison of not doing the diagnostic

test: Here, I suggested that we can compare the cost
a patients is likely to incur in emergency treatment
and or extended treatment if he/she doesn’t follow
the regular diagnosis and treatment regime
(He was happy with these approaches but was not

satisfied with these approaches. He asked me to think
266
about some more approaches)
3. % of disposable income spent on the treatment: We

calculated the acquisition cost of glucometer and
recurring costs of glucosticks here to come up with
the annual spend by a patient who owns glucometer.
Glucometer cost: INR 2000
Glucosticks cost : Cost of one glucostick* no of

glucostick used per month * 12 = INR 20*30*12=
7200/-
Considering the middle class household income of 6L/annum,

it makes up more than 1% of house hold income.
It’s a very high figure considering that it’s the diagnostic cost
of only one of the disease for one member of the family ( in
Healthcare also, main costs such as consultation with doctor,
medication, admission, other tests costs and insurance costs
are still left out)
He was happy after I brought out this point. He told me that’s

the reason that the adoption of glucometers was much less
than as predicted by one of the live studies.
After this he told me to conclude the case. He also told me

that the firm is very happy to engage with me and told me if
there are any queries that I had about the firm. I told him I
have engaged with alumni extensively over last few months
and really excited about the firm and have don’t have any
such queries around it.
He again got up and told me that since I have already met

two partners, I need not give any more interviews. Also, he
mentioned that I can relax now and hope to hear some very
good news in the evening.
I was hoping that he would tell me – Welcome to the firm!
267
( eventually Dr Shirish and Jaidit said that while making the
offer)
What do you think went right Pretty much most of it.

Any tips for the future batches Please spend good amount of time in guesstimate questions.
based on this We should be able to defend each and every assumption that
we make along the case discussion.
These cases test more of your common sense and
understanding of external milieu than numbers. Numbers are
fairly straightforward most of the times.
Name Vikram Sharma
Name of Interviewer and Ruchi Kalra. EM

Designation

round)

Questions(with indicative - How would your learning from tech background help
in a consulting career
answers if you choose to share (Prepared Answers)
them)
about a related field.
- India is competing in 2025 Olympics and wants to

double its medal tally. How should we do it?
Narration of the case interview After the basic scoping questions to understand the problem
268
(please be as a little better (like simple doubling or a preference in terms
of gold/silver/bronze, any preference for which sport etc) I
jumped into the case.
I looked at the problem from 3 angles. Increasing medals in

sports we are doing well currently (like boxing, badminton,
wrestling, shooting etc), getting medals in new sports
(prioritizing on basis of strengths) and trying to get new
sports in Olympics where India has traditionally done well
(kabaddi, cricket etc)
She liked the structure. Wanted me to focus on the first

head. I dived deeper into the first head - increasing medals
from existing sports.
We discussed why India is doing well in badminton and one

of the reasons was good facilities like Pullela Gopichand
badminton academy - next to ISB in Hyderabad. She wanted
me to calculate the cost of setting up such a facility in Delhi.
I started with various heads the costs would belong under

like:
- Construction
- Facilities
- People costs
- Equipment etc
Looked at per sft cost and estimated the total area of the
facility - did some numbers at the end.
She concluded the case with final estimate of cost. Finally she
wanted to know if I had any questions for her. I asked her
about experience working for McKinsey and what kept her
going.
269
What do you think went right Maintained a very light and positive environment throughout
for you in the in this the interview. That helped in breaking the ice and the
interview moving ahead like a conversation.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Do case prep well, break things down logically and remain
based on this positive in the interview.
Name Vikram Sharma
Name of Interviewer and Sasi Sunkara, Partner

Designation

round)

Questions(with indicative - Lots of discussion about the Windows Phone - the
product I worked on at Microsoft. He was very
answers if you choose to share interested in its prospects, I presented strengths and
them) weaknesses of the product and overall market
response.
- This discussion went on for a good 10 minutes
about a related field.
- India is competing in 2025 Olympics and wants to

double its medal tally. How should we do it?
Narration of the case interview Case was about a financial services firm where traders were
(please be as not signing off on daily P&L records. We had to diagnose why
and present a recommendation.
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I broke the issue into three heads.
- Unawareness - People don’t know they need to sign

off.
- Don’t want to signoff- Incentive may be misaligned

resulting in people not signing off.
- Cannot signoff- People are not able to sign off due to

a complicated procedure/lack of time etc.
We evaluated don’t want to signoff first and I came up with

various reasons why one would not signoff. Lack of
correctness was one issue we discussed for a while. Finally,
we came out of this branch and realized it was not an
incentives issue.
Moving into cannot sign-off - we evaluated busyness first.

People might not be having time to sign-off. After some
discussion we understood this was not the problem. Some
more aspects were also analyzed but nothing seemed to be
the issue!
Finally, he asked me to take a step back and think about

cannot signoff again. I took a step-wise approach - what are
the various steps involved in the signoff. I looked at each step
and analyzed failure cases in the step. One of the first steps
was - an email was sent asking people to signoff.
It turned out that the email was not reaching everyone! We

decided to test it using an experiment where we received a
notification every time an email was delivered to the inbox.
The failure rate was exactly the same as people not signing
off.
What do you think went right I displayed a lot of passion for my work - in the previous
for you in the in this organization and this came across well. I also connected well
with the interviewer and had a healthy discussion at each
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interview? point of the case.
Sasi is a very friendly person, this set the tone very well from
the start and the interview was a very pleasant experience.
Any tips for the future batches Remain positive in the interview and be energetic and
based on this enthusiastic. Case prep of course is important ☺
Outcome Moved to Round 2
Name Twarit Anand
Company Mckinsey & Co.

Interviewed With
Name of Noshir Kaka, Managing Director, India Office

Interviewer and
Designation
Round 1st round 1st interview

(First/Second/Thir
d round)
Personal • Tell me about yourself

interview • Case
Questions(with • Tell me about a leadership experience
indicative • Any questions?
o What drives you?
answers if you
o Discussion on ISB (as he was involved in setting up ISB)
choose to share
them)
Case Question N: Are you comfortable with and know about IT services industry?
T: I don’t know much but I would want to try.
N: Your client is Infosys and their sales force productivity is low. They want
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to improve it to improve their profitability.
Narration of the T: (I asked scoping questions like how much it was. And what was the
case interview target and how had they set their benchmark?)
(please be as
descriptive as
possible) N: It is half that of cognizant.
T: (asked about the difference in services and types of clients of Infosys vs

cognizant)
There wasn’t much of a difference. I also asked for numbers and metrics
that were used to measure productivity and suggested the metric - #leads
converted / #sales force. He gave me the number for Infosys, say X (this
was not used in the case later). The motivation was to drive down costs.
I took time to think about the problem and came up with the following
structure:
I told him that will look at the entire process of client interaction by the
sales force and try to find reasons for deficiencies in the same, comparing
those with the competition at each step. I also assumed a push model for
the sales force, to which he agreed.
I drew the following process:
At each stage, the following can go wrong:
Lead Generation:
• Efficiency of getting more business from current clients

• Efficiency in getting new clients
Interactions
• Needing more interactions to convince the client of the business

• Skill and incentives of sales team
Specification Design
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• At the time of deciding technical feasibility, or designing the
technical specifications with the clients
o Technical infeasibility
o The technical team interface is improper
o Skill and incentives of technical team
Negotiation
• Being too stringent

• Cultural differences between India and the client country
Final Deal
• Internal systems are bureaucratic and take time
After discussing all the above points with Noshir, he stopped the case.
What do you • Noshir is a very down to earth and intelligent individual. He made
think went right me feel at ease and that helped a lot during the interview.
for you in the in • I was confident and was taking the interviewer along at every
this stage.
• Was able to show my industry experience in my PI
Interview?
Any tips for the • Ensure that by the interview day, you have done at least one case
future batches for each industry. It is not essential and expected to know about
based on this the industry, but it makes you comfortable, increases confidence
and gives you clues to think about the problem.
Interview • Drawing out the process and thinking about the attributes at each
experience. stage helps you in being exhaustive. It also gives confidence to the
interviewer that even if you have not found the crux of the issue, if
probed more, you would be able to find the problem.
• PI is very important. It is very important to know yourself and your
story very clearly. At the end of the case, if the interviewer is
smiling and is happy taking your questions, the interview has gone
well.
Name Twarit Anand
Company Interviewed Mckinsey & Co.

With
Name of Interviewer and Jaidit Brar, Partner
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Designation
Round 1st round 2nd interview

(First/Second/Third
round)

Questions(with indicative • Case
• Why consulting?
share them)
Case Question A cement company has improved the hardening property of the
cement through addition of a chemical and wants to price it. What
should be the price?
Narration of the case I tried to scope the problem first.
interview (please be as
T: What is the benefit? Will less cement be required?
J: No. Hardening is done today by adding a chemical during use. In
this case, it will be added during manufacture.
T: What is the process currently?
J: 0.2% chemical is added in cement during preparation before

application at the site. A supervisor is needed to overlook.
T: Pricing can be done in following three ways: Cost plus, value

based and comparable based. We can calculate using all three and
try to consolidate to one price. Is there a comparable product
already in the market?
J: No such product exists. Lets restrict ourselves to value based

pricing. I can tell you that the cost of manufacture of this new
cement will be Rs 200/bag (each bag is 50 kg).
T: I would like to know the current price of base cement,

supervisor hourly cost and chemical cost.
J: Current price is Rs 220/bag. Supervisor cost if Rs 200/hour. In

one hour he can supervise processing of 10 bags. Chemical cost is
Rs 500/Kg.
(Note- The numbers are not exact as I don’t remember them

correctly)
I did all the simple calculations and told that supervisor cost per
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bag is Rs 20 and chemical is Rs 50.
T: Is there any other important cost like storage, procurement etc

which we have not considered in the above.
J: No
T: OK. So then the value based price, wherethe customer should

be indifferent should be 220+20+50 = Rs 290
J: Think again. Is this the only aspect of the new product.
T: Oh. There could be other improvements from this product eg-

less application needed, less repairs in the future.
J: Yes. Since the material is much better than the current chemical
available in the market, there is almost no chance of damage in the
building during its lifetime.
T: What is the current chance of damage, frequency and the

estimated cost of repair in a building.
J: You can assume that with 10% chance, the building gets
damaged once in a lifetime involving a repair cost of Rs 50,000.
T: Can we take 50,000 as thye NPV of the damages? How many

bags are required to build a house?
J: Yes. 100 bags are required.
I calculated that Rs 50/bag will further be allocated for future

repairs. This will be saved with our new product. Hence, I
calculated the value based price as 290+50=Rs 340/bag.
Then, I drew a line indicating cost (200) and value based price
(340) and current price (220). I asked who is the customer –
retail/institutional. It will be very difficult to convince a retail
customer to pay 340 for something for which he is paying 220.
Although logical, but it will be very difficult to show him the value.
Hence, I suggest that though 340 is the maximum possible price,
we should charge somewhat less (around 300).
J: In fact, the client is saying the opposite. He says that you can
play onto the minds of the risk averse Indian consumer saying that
a home is built once in a lifetime and it has to be sturdy. Show him
the downside risk and he will be willing to buy the cement for even
more than 340. He wants to charge even more.
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I contested that Indian consumer, though risk averse is also value
conscious and the maximum value that he can get out of it is 340.
To convince him that much is even a harder task, let alone
increasing the price. I gave some other arguments and we had a
small discussion. Finally he smiled and agreed.
What do you think went Calculation were easy I I was smooth in getting them right first
right for you in the in this time.
Interview? I defended my point of view and was able to convince him.
Any tips for the future Prepare all possible types of cases with frameworks. Be confident
batches based on this on the interview day. If you think your point of view is correct,
speak up and voice your concern.
Result Moved to Round 2
Name Twarit Anand
Company Interviewed Mckinsey & Co.

With
Name of Interviewer and Dr Shirish Sankhe, Director

Designation
Round 2nd round 1st interview

(First/Second/Third
round)

• Why Mckinsey?
• Elaborate on the most substantial achievement
share them)
• Anything you want to ask
Narration of the case NA
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What do you think went It was just a nice conversation. I was frank in all answers and he
right for you in the in this was happy in answering my queries.
Interview?
Any tips for the future


Name of Interviewer and Naveen Unni; Partner ( Australia office)
Designation
round)
Personal interview Tell me something about yourself?
Questions(with indicative Tell me about a situation when you had to convince a team
answers if you choose to share on your point of view?
them) Tell me about a challenging situation you have faced in life?
Work ex related questions – what was your exact role? How
did you get management buy –in?
Questions I asked:
How big is the Perth office? What are the type of projects
they are working on?
How is the social life in the country? And how big is the
Indian community there?
Case Question A hotel wants to increase their profits. What would you
suggest them?
Narration of the case interview I used the standard profitability framework here. Interviewer
(please be as descriptive as asked me where I would focus first revenues or cost. I gave
possible) my rational that I’d concentrate on revenues first as it seems
278
to have higher impact on profitability. Then I analyzed the
possible revenue streams for a hotel – room rentals,
restaurants, banquet catering, other value added services
like spa, gym. Once again, room rentals seemed to impact
the revenues most and hence I decided to focus on it first. I
gave this logic and interviewer seemed happy. He insisted on
reason for everything I did in the interview and made me
think.
To increase revenue from room rentals, I listed down two
ways –
Increasing the rent
Increasing the utilization ( higher occupancy)
Then I asked if that if the hotel is priced lower than other
hotels in the same category. Here, I found out that our client
has priced it similar to competitors. So I decided to focus on
utilization. I listed down the following ways to increase
utilization/attract more clients –
Supply demand mapping – ensuring number of rooms in each
category are aligned with the demand
Improving Quality of the rooms/service to attract people
Promotions
Loyalty programs
Naveen told me to focus on the supply demand mismatch, if
any.
Here, we discussed that how we can optimize this by
understanding the price elasticity of the customers. Also, I
suggested that few of the rooms can be converted in basic
rooms to attract slightly lower rentals paying clients too.
What do you think went right PI went very well.
for you in the in this interview? Case: My approach was quite spot on and interviewer liked
it.
Any tips for the future batches Be MECE with your structure.
experience.

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Name of Interviewer and Christiaan Heyning; Partner ( Australia office)
Designation
round)
Personal interview Tell me something about yourself?
Questions(with indicative Tell me about a situation when you had to convince a team
answers if you choose to share on your point of view?
them) (Quite similar to interview 1 – It seemed as if interviewer
was trying to check the consistency of my responses)
Questions I asked:
How has been your experience working with McK Perth
office?
Case Question My interview started little late, hence interviewer gave me a
short case.
Case: Mortgage bank A is considering if they should work
together with mortgage companies. Mortgage companies
take deposits from banks and give it to consumers at a higher
rate. Such companies were becoming very popular recently
and bank wanted to decide if they should get into this
business.
Narration of the case interview Not being very familiar with the industry, I preferred
(please be as descriptive as discussing and understanding the industry by asking
possible) questions to the interviewer. I understood that bank is
looking at the option as it would help them extend more
loans in the market.
Interviewer told me that I have 3 people working under me:
in order to take the decision, what analysis I would tell these
people to do?
My solution was:
Person 1 – what is the current deposit/loan health of our
bank? Do we have excess deposits to give away as loans and
increase our profits?)
Person 2- How is industry approaching this situation? Have
any other banks done it till now and how has it shaped up for
them?
Person 3- If we go ahead with this deal, how would it shape
up in long term?
Interviewer liked my approach and asked me how I would
280
analyze the third question regarding the long term picture. I
mentioned that we need to understand the long term vision
of the bank and see how this deal fits in. The deal would help
in extending higher mortgage amounts for now, but it would
make the mortgage companies as the front end (i.e. reduce
the bank’s direct customer interaction). If bank wants to get
into retail banking then it might not be desirable for them.
Interviewer was very happy and told me that this was the
exact recommendation they gave to the client.
What do you think went right Everything
for you in the in this interview? Got a go ahead front Perth office. Moved to round 2 for India
office as I had indicated that as my preference.
Any tips for the future batches Don’t try to force fit frameworks. Just approach the cases in a
based on this Interview logical manner and you’d be fine.
experience.

Name of Interviewer and Noshir Kaka; Managing Director (India office)
Designation
round)
Discussion Was been called for a final discussion with the firm to close
down on the offer. Had a discussion with Noshir Kaka. I told
him not to extend an offer as I had an offer from BCG by then
which I wanted to accept. I did this to reduce offer loses and
to ensure that other students get their dream job.
281
OLIVER WYMAN
282
Company Interviewed With Oliver Wyman
Name of Interviewer and David Bergeron – Associate Partner
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Round 1- Interview 1
round)
Personal interview There was no PI in this interview. It started and ended with a
Questions(with indicative case.
them)
Case Question BMC (Bombay Municipal cooperation) is considering
auctioning Floor Space Index (FSI) rights in the city instead of
giving it to everyone for free. How would you go and pitch it
to BMC? Look at Pros and cons. Evaluate risks associated
with the plan.
Narration of the case interview It was a very broad and different case where no standard
(please be as descriptive as frameworks would fit. To understand the case I asked few
possible) clarification questions?
What does FSI exactly mean?
(floor space/land area – it defines the number of floors a
builder can build )
How is it given out currently?
(when ever BMC decides to allow more construction, they
increase the FSI number. Everyone naturally gets this right
for free for the land they own)
How do builders obtain these rights currently?
(If people want to make high rise buildings, they can buy
these rights from other people with smaller buildings)
What is the Mumbai real estate situation?
(Highly concentrated towards south Bombay whereas
western and northern areas are less dense)
What is the overall idea behind auctioning the rights?
(BMC can get more money)
Based on these clarification questions I understood the
overall situation and took some time to lay down a structure
of analysis.
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Pitching auction
Who gets to auction
Money flow
Current system
How do property owner sell?
Owner development
Others (such as charging premium for to
restricted/regulated)
Based on these what would be the govt revenue and
distribution of these rights.
After explaining the entire structure, he asked few
clarification questions that how I’d achieve the answer from
this.
After this discussion, he wanted me to approach the case in a
different manner. We did a cost benefit analysis of the
proposition. Points of discussion:
Revenue sources for BMC: Property tax, transaction tax,
money from auction
Costs: developing supporting infrastructure in the city for
higher population density in areas
During the discussion, I highlighted few interesting
observations regarding the level of control govt can have in
both scenarios and the risk analysis.
Current system: No control on the distribution of the rights
leading to much taller buildings in south and shorter
buildings in rest of the city. This leads to heavy traffic and
congestion in south Bombay. Also, we discussed that builders
have so many people to buy the rights for, and hence they
get it for cheap and make huge profits.
Auction: companies forming cartels and reducing the prices
at auction. But if planned well, government can control it
better. They can have area wise auction and minimum bid set
in a manner that cartels are not effective. Also, differential
pricing for different parts of the city would be very effective.
Government can control the overall distribution and timeline
of this distribution better by releasing the rights in a
controlled manner over time.
We stopped the case in here as we exceeded 40 minutes of
284
allotted time.
What do you think went right Clarification questions were very good and helped me get a
for you in the in this interview? direction fast.
David liked the insights been provided regarding cartels and
higher level of control by BMC as we had long discussion on
that.
I didn’t attend OW PPT and that could have gone against me (
I would recommend you all to not skip PPTs if you plan to
apply. )
Moved to next interview.
Any tips for the future batches Oliver wyman cases are different from usual, specifically if
based on this Interview you are interviewing with David ☺
experience. Don’t try to force fit framework in such cases. Even after the
interview I wasn’t very sure how it went. There was no PI at
all .

Name of Interviewer and Parijat Banerjee - Junior Manager
Designation
round)
Personal interview Tell me about yourself?
Questions(with indicative After my 90 second pitch, Parijat asked a few clarification
answers if you choose to share questions about my work at Realization. We also discussed
them) about what I did at IIT.
(The discussion went very well as I could connect well with
the interviewer and clarify all his doubts. This helped me
while solving the case.)
Case Question After graduating from ISB, your friend suggests you to not
take up a job but become a real estate broker. How would
you go about taking a call?
Narration of the case interview It was a very straight forward case, so I asked couple of
(please be as descriptive as clarification questions and then started laying down the
possible) structure.
I decided to break it in two heads-
How does the economics work? (short term and long term)
285
Is this opportunity a good fit for me?
For part 1 –economics - I assumed a salary number that I
expect to get and attached growth rate to it. Then I did the
similar analysis for broker business. Here, I looked at the
number of apartments in the building complex and the
number of sales and rentals made every year. Based on the
brokerage rates and competitors I calculated the annual
revenues. Then I calculated the costs (employee salary, office
rentals, overhead expenses, licensing fee, advertisement).
This helped me an annual profit number.
For part 2- Fit - I listed down the skills required to run a real
estate brokerage business and matched them with what skills
I have. Skills that I listed down were-
Relationship building
Team management
Negotiation skills
Managing an unorganized business
Parijat seemed very happy with the analysis and he asked me
another question at this stage. For the rental business, as a
broker would I like to finalize the deals at a higher price or
lower price. (support the house owner or the customer)
I said that for higher rents I’d get more brokerage fees and as
my constraint is that I am dealing with only 1 complex, it is
important for me to maintain better relationship with the
house owner. But, I also mentioned that the demand supply
angle would also be important while taking this call.
Eventually the aim should be to maximize the firm’s profits in
long run.
After the case got over, Parijat gave me a puzzle to solve in
the interview: there are three dispenser machines (machine
1: coffee, machine 2: tea, machine 3: coffee /tea
alternatively). All of them are wrongly labeled. How many
times would I have to use the machine to correctly label
them?
It took me a couple of minutes to solve the puzzle and come
to the answer 2.
What do you think went right Everything. It was an extremely long interview (around an
for you in the in this interview? hour) but the interviewer seemed impressed throughout.
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Shortlisted for round 2 (final 5)
Any tips for the future batches PI is a very important part of an interview, as it helps you
based on this Interview build a bond with the interviewer. Do prepare well for it.
experience.

Name of Interviewer and Prachee Dubey
Designation
round)
Personal interview I had interaction with Prachee before the interview as she is
Questions(with indicative an alum. Hence there was no PI in the interview.
them)
Case Question The company owning panama canal wants to finalize the
price it charges to its customers for crossing the canal.
Narration of the case interview I started the discussion by looking at the best alternative for
(please be as descriptive as the cargo owners for sending goods to the other side – either
possible) by taking a long route by the ship or by using alternate mode
of transport like road/air. We discussed customer’s
willingness to pay by considering time as a factor for
perishable goods.
After some discussion here, Prachee mentioned that the
company owns the ship themselves and now how they
should go about pricing the product. So the case changed
completely as we shifted from analyzing canal’s profit
maximization to that of the entire system. Here, we
discussed the proportion of large and small ships to be used
by the owner and the pricing for that.
What do you think went right Right: I was able to give few good insights
for you in the in this interview? Wrong: I didn’t scope the case very well and that led to
confusion while analyzing the case. Interviewer wasn’t very
287
friendly and didn’t help much while solving the case, so it
was tough to really understand how I was doing while solving
the case.
Any tips for the future batches Focus well on scoping as at times that is the essence of the
based on this Interview case.
experience.

Name of Interviewer and Phil – Partner (London office)
Designation
round)
Personal interview Basic introduction
Questions(with indicative Questions I asked:
answers if you choose to share How is the firm structured?
them) What difference he sees between India office and London
office in terms of type of work they do?
At entry level, do people get to work on international
projects?
Case Question The case required good understanding of numbers and
graphs. It was as follows:
There are two countries – Olivia and Wymania: How would
you go about calculating the growth rate of population for
these countries?
Narration of the case interview Q1- I asked if we have any historical data that can be used
(please be as directly for projections? Answer – NO
descriptive as possible) Q2 – Do we know the birth rate in the country? Answer – No
data is readily available. BOlivia = 2* BUK and BWymania = 4* BUK
Q3 – Do we have numbers on the death rate in the country?
Answer - DOlivia = 2* DUK and DWymania = 3* DUK
After getting this data, I told my approach that I’d estimate
the birth and death rate of UK to come up with the
population growth rate numbers. I laid down an approach –
Age 0-20 20-50 50-80
% population 30% 50% 20%
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Interviewer told me to consider uniform age distribution for
simplicity and calculate the birth rate and death rate based
on that.
From here, I got the numbers for the population growth rate
for Olivia and Wymania.
Then he told me to plot a graph of population of the three
countries over time assuming that at today’s date the
population is same-
I drew parabolas curves as the increase in population
increases with time as the growth rate is constant.
After that, he asked to draw the population distribution 100
years from now. (% population vs age group )
I drew a straight line with negative slope.
What do you think went right Everything. I could establish a rapport with the interviewer,
for you in the in this interview? approached case in a very systematic manner without
missing out on any major points. He tested me on numbers
and seemed happy with the response.
Any tips for the future batches Keep talking to the interviewer and think aloud in an
based on this Interview interview. That helps in ensuring that you have the
experience. interviewer’s buy-in and interest throughout.

Name of Interviewer and Atul Khosla – Partner and India Head
Designation
round)
Personal interview Basic introduction. This was a very unusual interview – kind
Questions(with indicative of stress interview by the interviewer.
them)
Case Question He asked what my fantasy in life is. I replied traveling around
the world.
Case: Tourism minister of Switzerland has asked you how to

promote tourism in Switzerland by looking at other countries
289
like Spain and Italy. <He had picked up the locations based on
where all I had traveled.>
Narration of the case interview I approached the case in the standard manner by identifying
(please be as descriptive as the types of tourists ( youngsters, families) and drivers for
possible) promoting tourism –
1. what all does the place has - Historical monuments,
adventure sports, Natural beauty
2. Money
3. Popularity
4. Language/food – tourist friendly
5. Ease of getting Visa
I wanted to take it from here and analyze by comparing

countries across these measures and deriving insights. But
here, interviewer interrupted and said that he just wants an
answer not the analysis. I realized that there has been a
mismatch in my understanding and his expectation. He was
trying to put me under stress and see how I respond. I
accepted my gap in understanding and kept my calm.
Then we moved on to a resume based discussion where he

wanted to understand what I want to do in my career etc. Do
I want to work in India /Abroad? What is my motivation to
join OW?
At this point I asked Atul few questions about the firm.

Future growth plan for India office? Role of a consultant?
How is the integration between Financial services and rest of
the firm coming along.
What do you think went right Right – That I could keep my calm and not take stress. Was
for you in the in this interview? made an offer ☺
Wrong – That moment it seemed that everything went
wrong. But later I realized that everyone had a stress
interview with Atul.
Any tips for the future batches You can get a stress interview at times. Keep your calm and if
based on this Interview you are stuck somewhere, ask the interviewer for direction.
experience.
290
Name Twarit Anand
Name of Interviewer and Parijat Banerjee, Junior Manager
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third R1- Int1
round)
Personal interview • Walk me through your CV
Questions(with indicative • Some discussion on music. Parijat is an electric guitar
answers if you choose to share player
them) • Case
• Related to my ELP – What are the supply chain
challenges specific to India
• Anything you want to ask?
o What are the differences between consulting
in finance vs strategy
Case Question Instead of joining consulting after ISB, you decide to become
a real estate broker in an urban complex. How will you make
your decision?
Narration of the case interview Define: Started scoping the problem by asking how big is the
(please be as complex, where is it located, what are the revenue streams
descriptive as possible) for a broker? The complex is large (don’t remember exact
number of rooms), located at a posh place, broker earns
revenue either by selling a flat for a %share or finds people to
stay on rent and earns a %of rent.
Structure: I stated that the problem can be seen as a typical

investment problem and if NPV is positive, we should go
ahead with the proposal. So, NPV = FCF/(WACC-g).
FCF = f (Revenue, Cost, CAPEX, NWC)
WACC = Rf + Risk
g = Growth rate of this business in the city
We discussed on Revenue streams and how much should we

earn from each type of deal. Costs were mainly fixed in
nature. Minimal CAPEX and NWC requirements.
I divided risks into Financial, Operational & Geopolitical and

elaborated on them.
Parijat then asked me, with whom will the loyalties of the
broker lie – seller or the buyer?
After asking some clarifying questions, I said seller, because
broker will get the %cut from the sales price and he will try to
291
drive it up to increase his earnings.
What do you think went right The interviewer seemed happy with the analogy that I could
for you in the in this draw between a practical decision and corporate finance.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches OW cases are not the usual types. When you get a case and
based on this have understood the problem well, try to make an analogy to
Interview experience. a theoretical concept that you have studied. This will help
you in structuring the problem well.
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Name Twarit Anand
Name of Interviewer and David Bergeron – Associate Partner
Designation
round)
Personal interview • Some discussion on Kolkata, where I had worked last.
Questions(with indicative • Case
answers if you choose to share • Anything that I wanted to ask?
them) o Why do you recruit for the global pool while
other consulting firms recruit for India office?
Case Question Why is it that the guava hawker has only guavas on his cart
while other fruit hawkers have all sorts of fruits on one cart?
Narration of the case interview David told be before starting the case that this is going to be
(please be as an unusual one. I first confirmed my understanding of the
descriptive as possible) problem by asking some basic questions. Then, unable to
think of a structure, I told him that I will give him hypotheses
on why it could happen and we can discuss one by one. He
agreed with the approach. Then, I took some time to think of
hypotheses. I thought of some demand and supply related
things like
• Economies of scale in guava
• Demand of guava is concentrated in one location
• Sourcing of guava is from a different location
• Sourcing requires resources, which hawkers usually
don’t have
• Others….which I don’t remember now
After some discussion, he pushed me to a different direction,
which was to look at some demand side factors. There were
two main reasons:
• Guava is a very fast moving item. So, it finishes
quickly. Hence, a small space allocated to guava in a
cart will result in frequent stock out
• Guava is cheap and has lower margins. Hence, a high
volume business is essential
• Guava has different state of ripeness, liked by
different individuals. Hence, this is a multiple SKU
situation. So, its technically not one “product” lying
on the cart
• Guava preservation uses some chemicals, which are
perceived by consumers to have negative effect on
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other fruits
What do you think went right I was thinking out loud and clearly articulating my
for you in the in this interview? hypotheses, taking the interviewer along
Any tips for the future batches OW cases are not the usual types. When you get a case and
based on this have understood the problem well, try to make an analogy to
Interview experience. a theoretical concept that you have studied. This will help
you in structuring the problem well.
Don’t be perplexed if you get an unusual case. They are just

checking for your clarity and logic of thought.
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Name Twarit Anand
Name of Interviewer and Don’t remember - Manager
Designation
round)
Personal interview • Run me through your work experience
Questions(with indicative • Questions on my musical pursuit – elaborated
answers if you choose to share chronologically
them) • Case
• Anything that I wanted to ask?
o Difference in financial consulting in developed
vs developing markets?
Case Question Your client is a credit card company that targets high earning
individuals. To their current customer base, they are already
providing life insurance. They are trying to target same
consumers to provide other insurance products. Then he
showed a big exhibit which had 7 countries where this
company was currently operating in, data on their total
credit cards used in each country, penetration of their life
insurance product amongst its current credit card user base
and some other data. How should they go about deciding
their strategy to choose the country to launch in?
Narration of the case interview This was a relatively a big case, with a few numbers. I don’t
(please be as remember them exactly, but I will try to capture the essence
descriptive as possible) of the points that were discussed.
I started first by scoping the problem and asked relevant

questions, which he was looking for. He was quite happy with
my questions. The motivation to move to a new product was
to explore a new opportunity as the old established market
was undergoing threat of a new technology introduction.
Different countries were in different states of maturity in
credit card market and insurance market. He also gave me
the target market share to reach in next 3 years.
Next important point was that the customer targeting was
only possible through telemarketing.
I started with the standard market entry framework, looking

at attractiveness and capability with following factors to look
at:
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Attractiveness: Market size, profit margin, growth rate, Risks
– financial, regulatory, operational, competition,
substitutes….etc
Capability: ST – Synergies, LT – ability to create competitive
advantage
He asked - how will we decide the target market, considering

the telemarketing channel?
I said that our current customers are high worth individuals
and will be highly irritated with random telemarketing cold
calls. We should have an upper cut-off in terms of income.
We also discussed by segmenting based on age, but it did not
work out.
Then he asked me to identify regulatory challenges in

telemarketing. Following came out of the discussion (in
which he helped me a lot):
• Calling from one country to other, could be treated as
inter-country trading, which might not be allowed
• Telephone numbers of all customers might not be
known
• The telephone records with the credit card company
might be inaccurate
• Certain individuals might have registered the phone in
do not disturb mode
• People might not pick up phone calls from random
numbers
I understood that this is like a funnel from which you keep on
losing customers at each stage.
Then, he asked me which is the other most important thing

that we needed to consider before going into a country?
I thought and gave some reasons. He was looking for the
maturity of the credit card business in a country. Eg – if in
Australia and New Zealand, the credit card market was
declining, it would not make sense to provide other
insurance products to already shrinking base.
What do you think went right Interviewer was happy with my scoping. I could have done
for you in the in this interview? better in the later stages. But, overall, the interview went
well.
Any tips for the future batches This case was a combination of diversification and new
based on this market entry. It is important to do such cases as no case will
Interview experience. be standard and will have combination of multiple concepts
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to be applied.
Name Twarit Anand

Name of Interviewer and Atul Khosla – Partner and India Head
Designation
round)
Personal interview For this interview, stress interview would be an under-
Questions(with indicative statement by far.
them) Atul: So Twarit, I have read your CV and its impressive. Tell
me something different about yourself.
Me: Gave the usual answer of three things that define me as
an individual.
Atul: (literally in Hindi) yaar maza nahi aaya…ye to tum

consulting club ke rate hue answers de rahe ho. Sahi mein
batao ki kya hai?
(My last point was that I was motivated by process and not
by outcome and he caught me on that)
Me: Tried to explain him again by giving him examples
Atul: There are two ways in which one does problem solving
in consulting – hypothesis driven and issue tree based.
Hypothesis driven approach is mostly used in consulting as
the other one is very time consuming. Tum to issue tree hi
banate reh jaaoge aur usi mein ghus jaaoge….project to
khatam hi nahi hoga
Me: But, how do we ensure we get to the correct
hypothesis…somebody has to take care of that too. I also give
other logical examples.
Atul: We have discussed enough on this issue and we will

keep on going. In the interest of time, lets do a short case. I
was involved in setting-up ISB and worked along with Rajat
Gupta and Pramath Raj Sinha to make the ISB proposal. At
that time, we had thought that ISB will become similar to
Harvard or Stanford in 10 years but obviously it hasn’t. You
have 10 more years to do it. With Mohali complication added
in, how will you do it?
Me: I tried to find all stakeholders, metrics to decide the
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rankings, current level of Stanford and ISB and started
discussing on each aspect as to how we will improve.
Atul: Yaar maza nahi aaya. Ismein to structure hi nahi hai.

You know what you are doing? You are re-inventing the
wheel. I would just take out FT and see the metrics they have
used in ranking. Then he started explaining how we can build
more on research, infra etc.
Then we discussed more things. My each statement was

replied back with a harsh comment.
Finally, he asked me to ask a question.

Why Oliver?
Any other questions?
I said No. He said – “Aray pooch lo yaar”
Then I again asked something that I don’t remember now
Narration of the case interview Refer above
(please be as
What do you think went right I didn’t know what he was testing and how I did. I
for you in the in this interview? remembered my 1st year engineering ragging days.
Any tips for the future batches If it is a stress interview, your response to stress is what
based on this matters. Identify early that the interviewer wants to stress
Interview experience. you out and respond in a calm fashion and try to ease the
situation. I was always very calm in every situation during the
interview.
This interviewer usually does these type on interviews. Be
careful.
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Name Twarit Anand
Company Interviewed Oliver Wyman
With
Name of Interviewer and Fil – Partner, London office
Designation
Round R2- Int3
(First/Second/Third
round)
Personal interview • Directly jumped to Case
Questions(with • Any questions for me
indicative o Difference between India and London projects
answers if you choose to o What drives you
share them)
Case Question Case Question: There are two countries- Olivia and Wymania. How
will you compare the population growth rates between these
countries?
Narration of the case Damaged from my previous interview, I asked if we have any
interview (please be as population data readily available. He said no.
descriptive as possible) I started giving other ways in which we can know the growth rate:
• Sample a region over time and measure growth rate and
extrapolate
• Try to predict growth rate using growth rate of some
products like consumer durables, fmcg products.
• Top down / bottom up approach
He asked me – lets calculate the population growth rate of UK,
given population is 60 million. What would you like to know if you
want to estimate this?
I said – number of births per mother
He said And?
I thought for a while and beat around the bush. Finally, after a hint,
I said – death rate (oh shit! such commonsense)
Anyways, he told me to calculate birth rate. So, I started with a
uniform distribution of population and assumed that a woman will
give birth to a child only during 28 to 35 years (7 years). During
these 7 years, she will give birth to 2 children. Hence, probability of
giving birth for a woman in this age range =2/7. Total women in this
age range = (60/2) *(7/60). So birth rate = prob of birth in a year *
no of women in that age range. = 6/7 ~ 1.5% of the population. He
said the death rate = 1%. So g=0.5%
Now Olivia has b=2xUK, d=2xUK
Wymania has b=4xUK, d=3xUK
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So, g-olivia = 1%, g-wymania = 1.5%, g-UK = 0.5%
Now, he asked me to draw graph of population vs time assuming
same starting point for both countries. I drew the following graph:
Then he asked me to draw the age distribution of population. I

drew the following graph after a correction:
He asked me the intercept on y-axis and I said that this should be

equal to the birth rate. He then asked me on financial services
offering that can be provided in these countries. I said, that the
younger demographics can be offered credit card and savings
services in Wymania and relatively older demographics in Olivia can
be provided life insurance products.
The case ended.
What do you think went Wrong – should have thought of the death rate. One correction was
right for you in the in needed in age distribution
this interview? Right – Everything else
Any tips for the future Just keep discussion with the interviewer. Don’t go into the shell
batches based on this while solving cases. The interviewers really help a lot and case
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Interview experience. solving is almost mutual. But, you have to drive it.
Name Devesh Trivedi
Company Interviewed Oliver Wyman

With
Name of Interviewer and Parijat Banerjee , Manager

Designation
Round 1st
(First/Second/Third
round)
Personal interview None

Questions(with
indicative answers if you
Case Question This was a VC interview from Mohali campus. A chemical

manufacturing company causes pollution in nearby areas. Farmers
in nearby areas want to sue the company for this. The company has
an option of buying a $1MM machine that could get rid of all
chemicals that cause pollution. Advise the firm.
Narration of the case I came up with following types of recommendations-

1) Buy the machine- This would be a huge investment but the
descriptive as possible) company would get rid of the pollution problem forever
2) Ignore farmers- Save cost of machine but risk litigation by
farmers
3) Innovative solutions-
a. Buy land from farmers
b. Compensate farmers for crop loss
Parijat was satisfied with this solution structure. We talked mostly

about what other innovative solutions that can be used.
The 2nd half of the interview was about role playing. I was the CEO
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of the company and I needed to convince the Board of Directors to
go ahead and buy the machine. This went on for 15-20 minutes. I
was cornered many times by Parijat but I survived.
Made it to next round ☺
What do you think went

right for you in the in
this
interview?
Any tips for the future

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Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Ashish Wadhwa, Manager

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 2nd

round)

them)
Case Question A credit card company can use 2 kinds of mail services-
Regular or Premium. These mails are used for customer
acquisition marketing campaigns. What mail service should
this company use?
Narration of the case interview The answer to this depended on- Price of each mail services,
(please be as acquisition rates for each mail services and customer lifetime
value. I laid down an equation for this and concluded that the
company should use Premium mails.
Post this, Ashish changed the parameters of the equation and

asked to me reassess my results multiple times. I made a few
mistakes because I was doing very rough calculations
Tip: It’s very important to do calculations neatly on your

piece of paper especially when there are follow-up questions.
Then came an interesting puzzle- Can 2 dogs in the world

have same number of hair? I took some time to think
through this and came up with the following-
a) Assume surface area of dogs body be 1m2
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b) Assume average space taken by a strand of hair is
1mm2 ( this includes space around the hair)
c) This implies the maximum number of hair that can be
on a dogs body is 1 billion ( 1m2 / 1mm2 )
d) Population of humans in 7 BB, assuming there is 1 dog
for 5 human beings – Number of dogs in the world is
1.4 BB
e) Therefore, as maximum number of hair on a dogs
body is 1 BB while Number of dogs in the world is 1.4
BB, 2 dogs in this world CAN have same number of
hair
f) Later I found that this was called the Pigeonhole
principle
Ashish was very satisfied with the solution. Though the

numbers may not have been accurate, he appreciated my
approach.
Moved to next round, Called to Mumbai office ☺

interview?

based on this
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Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Partner ( from UK office)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 5th

round)

them)
Case Question Unlike other firms, Oliver Wyman likes to take very quant
heavy cases.
Describe factors that affect the growth in population of any

country?
Narration of the case interview 1. Demographic Factors: Sex ratio, current population, %
(please be as youth, number of married couples etc
descriptive as possible) 2. Cultural Factors: Use of protection, preference for a boy

child, expected number of children per family
3. Development Factors: proper facilities for lowering

maternal and child mortality
Q1) There are 2 countries – Oliveria and Wymania. Their birth

rates are 2% and 3%. How would their population change
over time?
Very simple question. Assuming both populations start with a

base of 100. It was important to ask the death rate. It was
1% for both countries
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Population
W
O
Time
2) If countries have been growing at 2% and 3% respectively

for last 100 years. Draw a chart for % population vs. age
buckets ( 10-20 years, 20-30 years and so on)
This one was quite tricky as lot of other interviewees got this
wrong. Let’s say population 10 years ago was X. Number of
children with age 10 years now would be 0.02X.
Population 9 years ago would be 1.02 X. Number of children

with age 9 years now would be 0.02*(1.02X).
% Population W
Age ( 0 to 100)
Moved to the final round!

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interview?

based on this
307
Name Devesh Trivedi
Name of Interviewer and Atul Khosla, Head of India

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 6th and Final !

round)
Personal interview This was an extremely unexpected stress interview with no

Questions(with indicative case discussion. I was asked a lot of tough questions-
a) Why didn’t you go to Harvard/ Insead?
them)
b) Why did your GPA fall by so much suddenly at IIT?
c) You seem to be an overconfident person. Why is this
so?
And so on …. ☺
I was a bit flustered by such questions and fought back quite

hard. Though I was thoroughly bashed, Atul did mention at
the end of the interview that he appreciated my chutzpah ☺
Why Oliver Wyman was a very important question. One

needs to understand what makes this firm different from
other top consulting firms such as McKinsey, BCG etc
1) Focus on finance services

2) Common Global pool: Unlike other consulting firms, I
would get exposure to international projects
3) Fast Career growth: A lot of people reach the partner
level very quickly after exceptional performance.
Offer was made!! ☺ ☺ ☺
Narration of the case interview

possible)
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interview?

based on this
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Name Kiran Kumar G
Name of Interviewer and Prachi

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round

round)
Personal interview Usual CV related questions on past experience and why I

Questions(with indicative would be a good fit for Oliver Wyman. Prachi was curious to
answers if you choose to share know why I would join Oliver wyman with such a good
pointer and background over other consulting firms. It was a
them)
tough sell for me after that. some trick questions were asked,
framed as follows: Would you be open to working on
operations and I said yes, but she took it as a sign that I
preferred broader consulting firms over Wyman which
majorly does only financial services consulting.
Case Question Case was about an independent ATM maker who wants to
offer ATM as a service for banks by setting up independent
ATM’s themselves instead of selling it to banks.
Narration of the case interview Essentially it was a simple calculation of breakeven with the
(please be as following data:
descriptive as possible) Cost of each ATM: 10 Lakhs, Operating costs: (rents,

electricity etc.): 2 lakhs per month. Revenue source from
interchange for each withdrawal of Rs. 20 (Any withdrawal
gets the company Rs. 20). Calculate the number of
transactions needed to breakeven with these costs and
justify if it looks like a reasonable number. Other part of the
question was to look at other possible solutions for
enhancing revenue from the setup. I came up with:
- Mobile recharge service

- Agriculture related services in rural areas on the lines
of echoupal for a fee (as there will be internet
connectivity)
What do you think went right I solved the case study very quickly and moved on to bigger
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for you in the in this interview? questions which worked in my favor
Any tips for the future batches Be prepared with a good answer for why Oliver wyman? As
based on this Interview their focus is predominantly financial services
experience.
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Name Kiran Kumar G
Name of Interviewer and David

Designation

round)
Personal interview Lot of question revolving around my CapitalOne experience

Questions(with indicative and the importance of my role – to check the depth of
answers if you choose to share knowledge in financial services. My focus on existential
literature caught his eye and we talked about Albert Camus
them)
and his fixation with Algiers for a bit. Just know every bit of
your resume end to end.
Case Question David talked about staying in Mumbai and he had noticed
this phenomenon among Fruit sellers. He noticed essentially
3 kinds of fruit sellers: 1) people who sold only guauva’s 2)
People who sold seasonal fruits like Mango’s 3) people who
sold other assorted fruits.
Narration of the case interview The question was about why do people stick to selling only
(please be as guavas and not move into selling other fruits (irrespective of
profit margins. I came up with the following possible
scenarios:
- People sticking to what they know based on their

knowledge over time and their relationships with the
seller of guavas but we discussed that this might not
be the strongest of arguments as it really is not high
enough barrier to entry (basically looking at suppliers
and competence of guava sellers)
- Game theory perspective: where in a long term game
people stick to what they do as shifting to other fruits
will damage their niche (ex: when the prices are good
others will start selling guavas as well leading to
higher competition)
- Consumer relationships: Where I was arguing that
people know the guava sellers and stick to these
sellers
- At this point David gave me a clue that guava’s are
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consumed after being cut and with mirchi in it. Than it
hit me that basically it’s a self selection mechanism
where people looking for snacks go to the guava
sellers and others might be indifferent to any fruit
seller. So selling only heaps of guava on a trolley is a
kind of signal that you can consume it on the spot.
What do you think went right PI went really well where I was able to justify my work
for you in the in this interview? experience and talk about the financial services sector in
India compared to US
Any tips for the future batches David has reputation of asking weird cases so be open and
based on this Interview look out for clues. I was very late to pick up on it, at IIMA as
experience. well he asked a question on Indian railways choosing broad
vs. narrow gauge.
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PARTHENON
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Name Jaspreet Singh Rikhraj
Company Interviewed Parthenon

With
Name of Interviewer and Danesh (Principal, Mumbai office)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First interview with Parthenon (6th of the day)

round)
Personal interview None in this round. I was already late for the interview so Danesh dived
Questions(with indicative into the case straightaway
share them)
Case Question Your client wants to acquire a pre-K company. Analyze and Recommend if
it should.
Narration of the case I started by asking a lot of questions about the company, its business
interview (please be as model, operations etc. Here are some details:
Target market: 2-5yr old children, Geography: North and West India. The
company operates on a franchise model and provides brand, teacher
training etc. The franchisee pays 2L upfront fees and 25% royalty.
After understanding the business a bit more, asked about the

revenues/costs of the firm in order to estimate the profitability of the
company. Danesh kept asking me questions about why I need the data
etc. and asked me about the thought process. Told him I’ll first evaluate
the company’s profitability, the growth in the market and whether the
company can scale to achieve that or not. Based on the results of this
analysis, I’ll make my recommendation whether it’s a good buy or not. He
seemed satisfied with the approach.
Profitability analysis: I was provided these figures after identifying each

of the drivers of my calculation
Revenue: current # of students = 37,500. Avg. fee/student/year =20,000.

Royalty =25%. Hence, royalty based revenue = 20,000*25%*37,500 =
18.75 Cr/year (this doesn’t include the 2L upfront fees)
Costs: Rental: paid by franchisee. Teacher: 200/student. OH =

800/student/year. Sales and Marketing: 5 Cr/year. Total costs/year = 5 Cr
+ 800*37500 + 200*37500 = 8.75 Cr/year
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Even w/o the upfront fees, the company seemed to be hugely profitable (I
was surprised with my #s and double checked with Danesh. However, this
was the first hint that the real issue in the case was something else ☺)
Growth: I asked about the market in general. Wanted to estimate a

market share figure (current and future) to see if there is room to grow.
He gave some figures and I calculated the current MS = 25%
Next there was some discussion about how the growth trajectory in the
industry will be like. (basically he made me draw some curves on how the
market will grow)
Wrote down the assessment so far:
• Hugely profitable business
• There is room to grow in both current market (NI/WI) and new

market (SI/EI). How? (gave some suggestions using the 2x2 Ansoff
matrix)
Started talking about scalability issues – brand, product standardization

etc. However, Danesh stopped me in the middle and dropped a bomb –
you’ve not discussed competition! My heart skipped a beat. What did I
miss?
I asked him about market share trajectory and he said the company’s
share has dropped from 40% to 25% in a year. This new information
changed the whole story. He asked me why the share is declining. I was
already more than 30 mins into the interview and didn’t want to go into
the lengthy framework of market share decline. I remembered my
calculations about the huge profit margin and said that it’s possible that
the company is squeezing the franchisees too much and they’re not
making enough money themselves. That could be a reason why they’re
dropping out. It turned out to be true ☺. Made some quick comments
about changing the business model etc. and that our client shouldn’t
acquire the company before that happens
Was out of time so didn’t summarize the case
What do you think went The fact that I got the crux of the case right. Also kept the interviewer
right for you in the in this engaged through the whole interview.
interview?
What do you think went I wasn’t very structured in my analysis and took a long time to get to the
wrong for you in the in this final issue (that to after the interviewer had to remind me).
interview?
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Any tips for the future Highlight the key discoveries you make in the case so you’ve a better
batches based on this chance of remembering them when needed. I’ve often seen people miss
Interview experience. points they themselves came up with.
Outcome Called for next interview

With
Name of Interviewer and Aastha Bajaj (Principal, Mumbai office)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 2nd interview with Parthenon (7th of the day)

round)
Personal interview The interview started with some questions based on my resume (5-7
Questions(with indicative mins). We dived into the case after that
share them)
Case Question Your client is an Intraocular lens (IOL) manufacturer. They want to enter
India. Suggest if they should and if yes, then how.
Narration of the case Started by asking a few questions to know more about the company, the
interview (please be as business etc. IOLs are used to treat cataract. There are 3 kinds of lenses:
descriptive as possible) 1) Hard, plastic ones which are very cheap, 2) foldable ones – semi soft
and 3) multi-focal which also have other uses. The client doesn’t
manufacture the first kind. It’s a global company based out of US. The
foldable lenses cost INR 2k/piece and the multi-focal ones cost 10k/piece
This was a very standard market entry case. Laid out the framework which
you’ll find in all the casebooks.
1. How attractive is the market?
2. Does the client have the capability to capture the opportunity?
3. Can the client build long-term competitive advantage?
4. How should they enter?
Under market attractiveness, started by sizing the market of cataract

surgery in India (using the population method). Assumed some % breakup
317
for use of foldable and multi-focal lenses. I got my assumptions checked
by Aastha at every stage. Finally came up with a figure close to 120 Cr.
She asked me what’s missing? I wasn’t sure and couldn’t figure out what
was. Turns out I had only taken the estimate assuming each patient will
use only one lens whereas typically surgery is done on both eyes. So final
market size = 120 Cr*2 = 240 Cr.
The market sizing part was bulk of the interview. The size of the market
seemed big enough to enter. Discuss other things like regulation etc. and
concluded the market was attractive to enter
We went through point 2 very quickly and started talking about existing
competition.
Under foldable lenses, 30% MS is with local players and 70% with
International players (divided among 6-7 players). Under multi-focal, the
situation is reverse. However there are only 2 companies accounting for
70% of the share. After some more discussion about the competition,
suggested that the client should first focus on multi-focal lenses. She
seemed satisfied with the answer. She asked how should they enter. I
made the following table (she asked me to ignore the franchise option)
and discussed the pros and cons in each option
Criteria JV License Own Acquire
Brand -- --
Control -- X
Cost of
X X
investment
Scalability X
After some discussion, settled on a “JV” or “M&A” as the 2 most

preferred ways of entry. Summarized and closed the case
What do you think went It was a long case but a standard one. Covered most of the points and was
right for you in the in this fairly thorough with the market sizing
interview?
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What do you think went Nothing really
wrong for you in the in this
interview?
Any tips for the future This was a market entry case but had an inbuilt component of estimating
batches based on this the market size. Instead of asking the interviewer “how big is the market”,
Interview experience. state that you would like to estimate the market size and lay out the
framework to do it. In real cases, such data is not readily available and
you will look more “aware” if you follow this approach. If the interviewer
is not interested in making you do doing the sizing, he’ll let you know that
(I suggest this only for Parthenon as their interviews tend to be longer
than the standard 20 min interviews for other firms)
Outcome Called for the final round

With
Name of Interviewer and Abhinav, Jitin and Ashwin (Partner)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 3rd and final one with Parthenon (10th of the day)
round)
Personal interview None. I was very late in reaching for this interview as I was stuck with BCG
Questions(with indicative Round 2 interviews. By the time I reached, they were about to wind up.
answers if you choose to Was presented with a case (a bunch of slides with lots of facts/ data
about a company) right away.
share them)
Case Question This round isn’t there in some of the other consulting firms. I was given a
bunch of slides with data about a company and was left in the room with
it for about 25-30 mins. There were no specific questions asked – instead I
was given general questions: a) What do you think is the CEO’s biggest
worry, b) What are the different hypothesis you can suggest and c) How
would you test them
Narration of the case I used the whiteboard to chalk out different points (2-3 under each of the
interview (please be as 3 broad questions). After 25-30 mins, Abhinav came into the room (with
descriptive as possible) Ashwin and Jitin observing at the back) and asked me to walk him through
the solution. There were cross-questions on some points and I answered
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them.
Case outline (don’t remember the details): Chemicals manufacturer, 4

markets under consideration – one was a high growth branded market,
one was mature, low growth (of cheap chemicals), and other 2 were of
specialized chemicals (with high growth). Our client was present in the
low growth market. There was one dominant player in the high growth
market (with a strong brand) and couple of new players in the specialized
markets. Our profits had been stable for a long time (very little growth).
We also had excess capacity in our plants.
The crux of the case was that the CEO was worried about future growth.
Recommended different options to achieve that.
What do you think went Everything. I was structured and was able to address the main issue of the
right for you in the in this case in my solution.
interview?
What do you think went Nothing

wrong for you in the in this
interview?
Any tips for the future You don’t need to do anything different to crack this round. You’ll be
batches based on this given a lot of data but try to focus on what you feel is the big issue (it
Interview experience. won’t be obvious, so try to have 2-3 options). Apart from problem solving,
they’re also trying to test if you can handle presentations in front of a
client and handle cross-questions under pressure. Try to stay calm and
quote facts from the case wherever possible to support your answer (you
can access the slides during Q&A)
Day 1 will be a unique experience for most of you. My day started at 8 AM

and I was running around till 7pm with non-stop interviews. If you’ve
multiple shortlists, your day will look similar so it’s very important to
prepare for the day in advance:
• Have a very clear idea of your priorities. CAS only schedules your
R1 interviews and schedules are often changed on the fly. There is
a chance you might end up skipping interviews because of
schedule. So be clear about your preferred companies
• Have a friend/SO handle your phone. It is invaluable. When you’re

in interviews and other companies are calling you, you’ve to talk
to the schedulers to make sure they wait for you
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Good Luck!
Outcome Was made an offer ☺
Name Piyush Agarwal
Company Interviewed With The Parthenon Group
Name of Interviewer and Abhinav Mittal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round – First interview

round)
Personal interview None. Wasn’t asked any PI questions


them)
Case Question Fairly open ended problem statement to begin with: “There is
a chain of schools which is not doing well lately. They want
your help”
Narration of the case interview Note: Interviewer answers in italics

(please be as
I began by asking questions to better understand the
descriptive as possible) problem statement. Below are some of the questions I asked:
1. Not doing well means what? - Revenues have
stabilized
2. Since when? - Revenue stabilized 3 years ago. Have
been flat since
3. What kind of chain of schools? - Pre-nursery schools
4. Geography? – India. Based mostly out of metro cities.
Hardly in tier 2 cities yet
5. How has the market been doing? - Market is growing
6. Is the market growing in the metros or in the tier 2
cities? – Both places
7. That means market share has gone down? –
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Obviously
So the problem narrowed down to understanding why is the
market share going down and what can be done to arrest the
decline
8. Have we fiddled with our prices? - What do you mean
by price of a school?
9. I meant fees – No. Fees have been increased as per
the industry average. No big change
10. You mentioned it is a chain of schools. How many
schools are there? – 40
11. So since, the market is growing and we are not, it
means either existing competitors are doing better or
new competition is coming in. Which of the two? -
New competition is coming in. International chains
have opened schools in India
So, the problem further narrowed down to understanding
what is it that the new competition is offering and we aren’t.
I took a minute to think about all possible items. Came up
with the value chain of the business. Drew the following
structure:
This diagram laid out

all the different
stakeholders
involved in the
business.
Started analyzing the

stakeholders one by
one to identify where is the new competition winning
Parents and students:

(a) quality of education
(b) teachers
(c) fees
(d) brand name and word of mouth publicity
(e) geographical proximity
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(f) marketing or promotion
(g) innovative teaching techniques
(h) parental involvement required
(i) favorable school hours
Teachers and staff:

(a) Incentives?
(b) Other benefits and amenities?
(c) Motivation?
Did not find anything in any of these levers. Was a bit puzzled
Interviewer gave a hint. Is the value chain complete?
Revisited the problem statement. “chain of schools”
Started asking questions again:
1. You mentioned chain of schools – Right
2. So you mentioned that prices haven’t risen a lot,
which means to increase revenues we need to
increase enrollment. Has the enrollment increased? –
No. [BANG!! Here lies the problem. All set to rip apart
the case]
3. So enrollment can be increased by enrolling more
students in existing schools or opening new schools.
Are we increasing enrollments in existing schools? No
4. Do we have capacity? – No
5. So then we have to open new schools. Have we been
opening new schools to match the industry growth? –
No. We hardly opened new schools last year
So, the problem further narrowed down to opening new
schools
I asked about the procedure to open new schools.

Interviewer asked back, what model do these schools
operate on? I said on a franchisee basis. BANG!!
Very clear hint that there is something wrong with the
franchisee model. Asked a lot of questions to understand the
economics of the franchisee model. The interviewer gave a
whole lot of numbers. Quickly did the math to suggest that
our offering is not lucrative enough for the franchisee.
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Hence, need to work on that.
Concluded by brain storming on what can be done to make it

more lucrative. Identified a few good ones:
1. Reducing the security deposit
2. Breaking up the down payment into 2-3 installments
3. Developing a team that can help set up the school
4. Centralize teacher training
Interview concluded with do you think the client should

expand into tier 2 cities?
Asked whether there was scope left in tier 1. I said as long as
we don’t exhaust the tier 1 market, might make more sense
to expand here. Parents in tier 1 cities are usually both
working hence lesser time for kids. Plus tier 2 market might
not be ready for entry
Interview overall went well. Skipped the second and third

interviews, moved directly to the final round
What do you think went right 1. Good paper usage. During the interview I used 12 A4
for you in the in this interview? sheets, out of which my framework spanned 6 sheets
and the other 6 were rough sheets. By the end of the
interview I had 6 A4 sheets arranged next to one
another such that the whole framework was there in
front of the interviewer. The 6 rough sheets were put
away. The interviewer was visibly impressed by the
display on the table
2. Taking hints that the interviewer gave was very

important. I got a hint about the value chain and was
able to expand on that. Not being able to take that
hint might have led to an unsuccessful interview
Any tips for the future batches 1. Be very thorough with the frameworks. For any
based on this framework, let say market entry framework, make
sure that you remember each and every branch by
heart. Make sure you have no issues recreating the
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framework in its entirety within seconds (at least for
the basic 5-6 frameworks). In the interview room,
forgetting one leg of the framework can be the
difference between getting and not getting your
dream job
Name Piyush Agarwal
Name of Interviewer and Ashwin Assomull (Partner, India office head)

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third Second Round – Final interview

round)
Personal interview None. Wasn’t asked any PI questions


them)
Narration of the case interview Note: Interviewer answers in italics

(please be as
Parthenon final interviews are conducted in a different
descriptive as possible) format compared to the other consulting interviews. I
was given a 40 page case and offered 30 minutes to
read and synthesize the case which was followed by
30 minutes of discussion with the interviewer.
Further, I was required to put down my ideas on a
whiteboard and present them to the interviewer
when the discussion began
The case had a high level problem statement: “Revenues

have flattened for our client and are growing only at
2-3% along with the economy”. In addition to this
problem statement, the case had huge amounts of
data, a bunch of interviews from various client
personnel and quite a few data tables (described
later)
~~~~~~~~~Highlights of information present in the
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case~~~~~~~~~
Hard to reproduce the entire 40 page case here. Also

can’t share much details since it was a live Parthenon
case. The key points are as follows:
1. The client manufactured a specific chemical that had

many uses across various industries
2. Four major client categories: home consumption,
animal feed, pharma, cosmetics
3. The same chemical was sold to the different client
categories at different prices after minor additional
processing. For example animal feed required the
chemical in lowest purity and at cheaper rates,
pharma and others required high purity
4. There are 5 companies in all producing this chemical.
We (B) are second largest
The case contained the following data:
1. Financial statements of all 5

2. Detailed break up of costs of our company and the
margins
3. Demand of the chemical in each of the 4 industries:
historical and projections
4. Sales and Marketing spend for each of the
competitors
5. Distribution strategies for each of the competitors
(eg: some competitor worked via distributors, while
some other competitor went deep down to
wholesaling or retailing)
6. Asset base for each of the competitors with
production capacity and production technology
employed
7. Consumer preference data (for eg: for each segment
what attributes are important)
8. Macro-economic data
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With this data, I was required to do 3 things:
1. I was asked to identify the challenges the client is

facing
2. Recommend the strategies that can help overcome
the challenges
3. Suggest analyses (using given data) that would prove
to the client that these are indeed the right strategies
Doing all this took a good 30 minutes. At the end I had

two main challenges on the white board. They were
followed by 2-3 ideas (strategies) to address the
challenges. Finally, I had 1-2 analyses that could
establish the efficacy of each idea (strategy)
~~~~~~A quick summary of what I had on the

whiteboard~~~~~~~
Challenges:
1. The client is strong only in one out of four segments,

i.e. Animal feed. Animal feed happens to be a very
price conscious segment and the margins are razor
thin
2. The other three segments which are more profitable
are dominated by the biggest player and our client
does not have a strong hold
Strategies for overcoming the challenge (and suggested
analyses):
1.1 Vertically integrate (by owning more of the distribution

system) in the animal feed segment to increase margins.
Showed using data on distribution and competitors (who
owned their distribution system) to show that this would
generate more margins than hands-off distribution
1.2 Lower prices in the animal feed segment and gain more
327
market share. Higher market share would offer
economies of scale for the vertical integration suggested
above
1.3 Focus on the other 3 segments. Launch an alternate
brand since current brand is perceived to be low on
quality
1.4 Buy out a smaller competitor. Used the M&A framework
here to suggest that there are significant synergies here
specially for entering the other 3 segments
Had a very interesting discussion with the interviewer on

each of these strategies that went on for a good 1
hour instead of the planned 30 minutes. The
interviewer was quite friendly and participated in the
discussion with a lot of enthusiasm. At the end of the
discussion the interviewer and me refined the ideas I
had put on the board to come up with solid
recommendations for the client.
Finally, I was asked that if I were a Principal at Parthenon,

what would be the team structure I would employ to
execute this project. How would I split tasks and how
would I manage the project.
Interview ended with a job offer.
What do you think went right 3. Being open minded was critical for the interview. The
for you in the in this interview? interviewer was EXTREMELY well versed with the case
so he was able to point out snippets of info that
refuted my ideas. Accepting this new piece of
328
information and moving on was critical. The further
discussion had to be done in light of this new piece of
info
4. Thinking broadly helped. I hit the bull’s eye with the

M&A suggestion. Thinking broadly and inspecting a
wide array of ideas (one idea on distribution, one on
pricing, one on marketing, one on M&A) was
appreciated by the interviewer
5. Being confident and positive is very important in such

an interview. The interviewer is not just judging your
ability to think but also your presence and ability to
present
Any tips for the future batches The interview format was a complete surprise for me. I
based on this had not expected this format which was a bit of a
challenge. I think a few things are critical for cracking
this type of an interview
2. Confidence! Being relaxed in an interview is very

critical. If a mistake is pointed out, accept it with
poise and move on
3. Energy. It might sound cliché but to maintain high

energy levels during a 1 hour discussion is not trivial
and very important
329
Name Indrajit Mal
Name of Interviewer and Abhinav Mittal, Sr. Principal

Designation
Round (First/Second/Third 1st interview, Round 1 (Fourth interview of the day)

round)
Personal interview Tell me something about yourself

share them)
Case Question Problem: A PE fund wants to acquire a pre-school chain (similar to Kidzee,
Eurokids etc.) – help them decide whether they should do it or not
Narration of the case Approach: Used a standard PE case structure asking about a) Fund
interview (please be as requirements b) Industry characteristics c) understanding the target
descriptive as possible) company d) how to generate returns
Discussion: Kept asking for various details under each head. For almost all
data points interviewer wanted to know why I wanted the data point.
We discussed at length about factors which decide the competitive

positioning of the school – location, curriculum, services, safety, teacher
quality, price etc. followed by performance of the target against its
competitors. He asked about what data I would look for to measure
performance. Based on the industry, competition and performance data it
boiled down to a revenue growth problem. Next he wanted me to look at
how to increase revenues.
First we discussed about the pricing – how would I know if the prices that
were being charged by the target company were optimum or not?
330
Discussed about the various pricing techniques. Interviewer wanted to
know what data I required at each stage. What are the factors to be
considered in value based pricing etc.
Then the discussion moved towards how to identify location (cities and then
location within a city) for new centers. It followed by discussion on the
target segment (i.e. parents). How to segment the consumers and how to
reach them.
While the factors are mentioned in brief, there was elaborate discussion on
all the points and was a long case interview.
What do you think went right It was a mostly focused on the case. I had a structure in place and was able
for you in the in this to explain at each place why each consideration/each data is important for
interview? the overall final objective.
Any tips for the future 1. In cases where the discussion pans across various aspects related to the
batches based on this problem at hand – be aware of the original question to be answered at
interview experience. all times. It is important to correlate how it is relevant in the context of
the problem.
331
Name Akhil Ravi
Company Interviewed With Parthenon
Name of Interviewer and Abhinav Mittal
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round – 1st Interview
round)
Personal interview Not much PI, but since I’d worked extensively with schools in
Questions(with indicative India through my startup, we had a brief conversation about
answers if you choose to share the kind of work I did.
them)
Case Question A school in Shanghai has experienced a drop in enrollments
in last few years. It has come to us for help.
Narration of the case interview Enrollments = #new_entrants - #exits
Initial analysis reveled its not an industry wide issue and only
pertains to this school.
#new_Entrants : is a function of many factors such as:

1. Awareness
a) Advertising
b) Messaging – Branding
2. Intention
a) Curriculum
b) Faculty
c) Price (admission fees)
d) Facilities/infrastructure
3. Convenience given intention
a) Location
b) Transport to school
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After analyzing each point and its sub-points, I realized Point
1 (awareness) and Point 3 (Convenience) was not a concern.
He said all the subpoints in Intention (Point 3) was also fine –
however he asked me whether I was missing something
there, hinting that there is some problem there.
After being stuck for a while, I took a minute and told him I’d
like to approach it differently. I told him that I’d look at all
the steps that a person goes through to enroll a child in the
school.
Drew the following in a value chain format and analyzed each

point.
I. How do you get aware of the school:

- Referrals (most customers were British expats as the
curriculum was UK)
- Advertisements in Papers
- Others
II. School Visit

- Parent visits school
- Does inspection
- How is his/her experience in school
III. Admission formalities given school visit

- Tests
- Fees
- Documentation
IV. Enrollment in School

- Experience of child
- WoM from other parents
- Any externailities (untoward incidents in last few
years?)
He said good, now what metric would you use to test which
area is the problem. I asked him if the school has data of
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Enquiries in last few years. He told me number of enquiries
has increased by about 5% (in line with industry). I then
asked whether they recorded number of footfalls in school.
He said the proportion of footfalls/enquiries has remained
same. Thus it appears that the Marketing Activity is not the
problem.
Next I asked, what experience does a parent go through

when they visit the school and I told him to compare it to
competition schools. We bounced off some ideas and figured
out some differences at this stage of the process which could
lead to the problem. I asked him enrollment/footfalls metric
and this had decreased a lot in last few years. The subpoints
of Point III and IV - WoM feedback, experiences of child in
school were briefly analysed and there appeared no apparent
problem.
Thus we concluded that the problem was in the school visit

stage where the parent was not satisfied with the
experience.
What do you think went right The initial structure helped to eliminate some basic concepts
for you in the in this but if I had continued on that path, I would’nt have
interview? understood the problem. After 10 minutes in the case, I
changed the approach a bit and it paid off. Be flexible where
the interviewer wants to take you and look out for hints.
based on this
Name Akhil Ravi

Company Interviewed With Parthenon
Name of Interviewer and Danish
Designation
Round (First/Second/Third First Round – 2nd Interview
334
round)
Personal interview Basic PI for a few minutes – nothing special
them)
Narration of the case interview Assume the case date is around the time when TATA Sky and
DTH services were just launched, Client is a Cable operator in
Mumbai. Should he get into DTH business and if so what
should be his entry strategy?
It was a interviewer led case style format. First he asked me

to estimate the market size. It was simple calculations where
I asked following info: the total customers, fees paid to
collection agents, fee given to cable company. The market
size appeared attractive.
Next we did some RoI analysis, where I asked FC to get the

technology, VC of setting up the DTH in each household,
Price per month (or CLV – cant remember now) and did some
profitability analysis. It was proven to be positive.
Next he asked me, there are last mile agents who collect
cash, install the cable services and maintain relationship with
customers in each locality; now that we’re moving into DTH –
should we keep these agents?
We had some discussion on this point and proved that it was
necessary to have these agents even though we’re losing
some margins to them. The reason being they are the ones
who maintain relationship with customers, thus losing them
could mean loss of business if some other DTH company
hires them. Even though cash collection could be made
online in the future, it is important to keep these agents
currently.
What do you think went right No mistakes in calculations, asking for relevant info and
for you in the in this telling at each stage why I need that info and what I intend to
interview? do with it.
Good flowing discussion
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Any tips for the future batches Was asked to move into the 2nd and Final round. Here you
based on this get a 25 page slide deck, which has to be analyzed in about
Interview experience. 30 minutes and you have to present the solution on a white
board to the Partner. It helps to highlight key info in a
separate page, make 2-3 quick recos backed with data. 10
mins before your scheduled to present, draw out the issue
tree with relevant data on the board so that you don’t waste
time during the presentation to the Partner.
Was made an offer, but I told them that “another firm (McK)
has given me a strong hint that they’ll make an offer and I am
inclined to join them, however I would inform you by end of
day about my position”. (Tip: you can use similar sentence if
you’re in the same situation)
Be honest with the interviewers, they appreciate it and it will

also help your batchmates. As soon as I got a written
confirmation from McK, I personally went and told Parthenon
that I would not be joining them. If I’d taken the offer and
not communicated upfront to the interviewer, my
batchmates might not have been made an offer.
336
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
337
Name Asawari Sathaye
Company Interviewed With PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Name of Interviewer and HR

Designation

round)
Personal interview HR round. Questions asked were general in nature, tell me about
Questions(with indicative yourself, asked detailed questions on my CV, my work, projects
done, problems/challenges I faced as a team lead, how did I solve
answers if you choose to share them, what are my 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses, extra-curricular
them) activities at ISB, ELP, and the b-school competition that I had won
Narration of the case interview This was a fairly easy round. Questions were all directly related to
(please be as my CV and my past work-ex.
st
What do you think went right for I was the 1 person to be interviewed. Since they started with me
you in the in this there was no anchoring effect and thus it was a smooth sail for me.
The added points on CV like ELP, b-school competition, VP-Music
interview? Club helped me speak a lot through the interview and that kept the
panel interested.
Any tips for the future batches Be genuine in your CV. Know your CV well.
based on this
338
Name of Interviewer and Anurag Garg, Principal Consultant

Designation

round)
Personal interview This was a case round. The first few questions were on my CV, and
Questions(with indicative the projects I had done before. Very detailed whys, hows, and their
impact. Then he asked me to estimate the size of bottled water
answers if you choose to share in India. Once I had an estimate for the same he extended that
them) to a case and told me to market the product in India, to
calculate the viability of the project
Narration of the case interview Case interview was too the point, no beating around the bush.
(please be as
What do you think went right for Preparation was the key. Also I started thinking from first principles.
you in the in this Thus forming the logic throughout the case was easier.
interview?
Any tips for the future batches Prepare lots of cases and start on first principles and build the case
based on this using your frameworks.
339
Name of Interviewer and Mr. Ranade, Partner

Designation

round)
Personal interview This was the partner round. Since he was not on campus it was a
Questions(with indicative telephonic interview. Completely conversational. He asked me
questions on my background, education, why isb, why consulting,
answers if you choose to share why PwC. We spoke on current affairs, his work experience with
them) PwC, projects he has worked on among other things.
Narration of the case interview None

(please be as
What do you think went right for Just being confident helped a lot. Also since this was a telephonic
you in the in this interview I had to maintain the connectivity in our dialogue and
discussion, so asking him relevant questions, not talking too much
interview? or too little, just enough to maintain his interest if not increase it.
Any tips for the future batches Again practice is the key. Think of good, relevant and different, non-
based on this clichéd questions to ask a partner. Keep the conversation
interesting and flowing.
340
Name Gagan Oberoi
Company Interviewed With PricewaterhouseCoopers
Role – Senior Consultant, Strategy & Research Division
Name of Interviewer and First Round – HR

Designation
Second Round – Anurag Garg, Principal Consultant
Third Round – Abhijeet Ranade (Director/Partner)
round)
Personal interview HR Round

Questions(with indicative • Mostly based on the resume
• Focused on the kind of projects undertaken in
answers if you choose to share my previous job
them) • Asked to detail-out how the analysis
conducted in these projects resulted in end-
benefits for the client
• Few questions on student competitions, non-
academic activities
Second Round – Case Interview (See Below)
Partner Round – More of a discussion than Q&A. Began with

the partner asking me to question him on anything that
wasn’t taken-up with the previous interviewers. Few are
mentioned below:
• Why has Strategy & Research not focused on financial

services as a domain area (I had earlier worked in the
341
BFSI domain in my company)
• The clientele split within PwC – new vs. ongoing
relationships
• The global CEO had mentioned APAC as a rapidly
growing office within PwC (quoted a few figures from
the interview and annual report) – How is the growth
expectation translating to the India office – do you
expect more focus on India, more expansion
happening (something on these lines)
• How often do different divisions work together on a
projects to deliver complete solutions – i.e. strategy
& research, operations and other PwC divisions work
in cohesion
The partner asked about previous work, interest areas

outside work and other general information
Case Question Devising strategy for a player planning to enter into fly-ash
brick manufacturing
Narration of the case interview Subject to certain conditions and company specifics
(please be as mentioned in the case, the decision points were:
descriptive as possible) - Whether the player should enter or not
- How best to enter (green-field, JV, acquisition etc.)
Eventually, the discussion went into the real-estate sector to

further decide whether the player should enter into the
construction business or not.
What do you think went right Knowing your resume in and out. I was asked to re-calculate
for you in the in this the market opportunity, done earlier as part of one of the
competitions mentioned in the resume.
interview?
Case round – Start by discussing broadly how you would
want to approach the case, listing all possible options. Take
time to think through and be confident of your answers – at
times the interviewer would deliberately challenge your
thoughts to check if you are sure of the suggestions – keep
the flow going, speak your mind so that the interviewer
knows of your thought process
342
Any tips for the future batches Keep the above in mind, practice cases, be thorough and
based on this prepare your answers to all possible PI questions
beforehand. Helpful to prepare a written note of all bullet
points you would want to include in your answers to the
typical PI questions (Why consulting, why strategy,
leadership experiences etc.) – helps formulate answers
better
A useful advice I got from an alumnus was to differentiate my

responses for a consulting interview than other
strategy/marketing roles. A consulting interviewer is not
concerned about your leadership experiences or how you
handled teams – it is more relevant to talk of your individual
contribution within that team, the kind of analysis you did for
the client, what was your value-add to the team
Partner Round – Sound confident, try to make a decent

conversation that shows you know the company and the role
applied to – ask questions for which answers are not readily
available over the website or in annual reports
343
SIEMENS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
(SMC)
344
Name Kunal Tara
Company Interviewed With Siemens Management Consulting (SMC)
Name of Interviewer and Ashwit Dias

Designation
Project Manager

round)
Personal interview • Started with introduce yourself

• Why SMC? -> used my technical background and work-ex
answers if you choose to share to justify this answer apart from the usual great things
them) about SMC
• Pointed questions on the achievements mentioned in the
resume. Some of them detailed, some cursory.
• PI part of the interview went on for approx. 40% of the 1
hour duration of the interview.
Case Question You are working on the first assignment at SMC under me as
an associate and say I tell you that there is a firm under the
umbrella of Siemens that wants to expand its workforce in
India. How would you go about advising them on this?
Narration of the case interview I took my time and said the first we should look at the
(please be as amount of increase they are expecting and why? Is
expanding workforce in India the only option i.e. has the firm
thought through its decision? Then we will look at the mix of
workforce that is required and the best place to recruit them
from? And then we can go into further details if required.
He said OK go ahead.
I asked by asking the usual question about the company. The

company is an equipment manufacturer, has global
presence, has 5-6 offices in the world, India being one of
them. The office basically carries out design services for the
firm. The equipment that they sell is part of a system and
that system is different for each setup of the equipment. The
firm sells equipment globally. India has in previous years
become an important part of this organization’s design
345
capability.
I started by trying to analyze the requirement for growth in

employees. He said can you quickly tell me some reasons of
why that could be? I said on top of my mind I can think of
three broad reasons: they are planning to expand in India;
they have manpower shortage in the system (worldwide) and
want to increase strength in India because of lower costs or
high expertise or they are going to launch some new product
that would require a different workforce composition. He
asked me how would you find out which amongst these is
the case. I said I will ask you as you are my boss. He laughed
on this and then said, that actually your work module is part
of a larger consulting assignment where the firm want to
grow revenues by 20% in India. I asked a follow-up question
on where is the 20% growth expected to come from? He said
it is by capturing a larger market share and also we expect
the industry size to increase in the next 2-3 years.
I then wanted to calculate the no. of persons that would be

required to cater to this growth. He asked me how would you
do that? I said I will look at the type of projects that the
company is performing and see the number of man-hours
required for each project and then come up with man-hours
required for each project. Then I would look at the projected
growth in the next three year and then work up a schedule of
trained manpower requirement. Also, I will take into account
the time required to train a hired engineer and then pre-
pone hiring by that duration. He gave me some nos. from
which I calculated that currently the office should have 200
design engineers. He said but the office has only 150 and is
delivering its work on time. Can you think of the reasons
why? I asked for time and said that it could be because:
1. Indians work more no. of hours than the global

average of the company.
2. Some of the work of a project is done outside India in

other offices this could be due to:
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a. Lack of Competence
b. Proprietary knowledge that the headquarters

do not want to part with.
3. The projects in India are smaller than the global

average which means that they require lesser no. of
hours
4. India office has been able to develop innovative

software/processes which reduce the man-hour
requirements for a project’s design phase.
At this point he said, Ok this is good, go on in your analysis.

He again gave me the projections and asked me to calculate
the number of people required 2 years down the line. I
estimated the number to be around 200 (after accounting for
lesser no. of hours required by India office). I confirmed with
Ashwit that India office will continue to require lesser no. of
hours, to which he said yes, that is a fair assumption. Then I
asked him
1. The time required to train hired engineers
2. The attrition rate of the firm
3. The expected layoffs during training.
He gave me these numbers and I calculated the number of

engineers to be hired by the end of next year to be 240. He
then asked, how would you hire these engineers? At this
point I thought the case is going into too much detail. Yet I
suggested to him that there are broadly 2 sources, campus
recruitments and outside engineers probably from
competing firms. He asked me to elaborate. I gave the
example of campus hires, I said there are trade-offs, on one
hand you can pay them lower but at the same time they
would need more training which is a cost to the firm. He said
ok, keeping that in mind, whom would you hire. I said
although I would like to run the nos. but for now I would
347
suggest hiring from campus because:
1. The firm has enough time, 1 year training period V/s 2

years planning period.
2. The processes are standardized and hence do not

require star performers, hiring lower cost better.
He said Ok. Do you think the firm should think about at this
point? I had this point on Signaling lingering in my mind and I
thought this was the right time to put it through. I said the
firm should also consider the signal it is sending to 1. India
office, 2. Other global offices, 3. Competitors. If a firm is
recruiting big time from campus then the competitor gets a
signal that the firm is pulling up resources and will attack its
market share. The signal to in the India office is that of the
firm’s commitment to the India office whereas that for other
offices is that the firm is shifting focus from them and this
may cause problems there.
What do you think went right • Case related to work-ex

for you in the in this • First interview for the day for the interviewer. He was
fresh and so was I.
interview? • PI helped to connect
Any tips for the future batches • One thing to note about SMC is that they are thorough
based on this with your resume before interviewing you. They have an
exceptionally well managed interview process and Round
Interview experience. 2-5 happen at their campus in Mumbai. They go to only
selective B-Schools in the country and have a small team
in India. It is expected that you will be well prepared for
the PI part as the interviews are 45 min – 1hour long. This
is challenging because we are in the middle of our preps
as day 1 is still 2 weeks away. So, focus on your resume
and build a consistent story before you start interviewing
with SMC.
• They have different cases than the ones we prepare for
during the preparation for other consulting firms. They
have well backed up data and slides to back any case that
they ask you. They will present the material when you ask
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for it.
• They are a feedback driven firm and expect feedback
after each round of your interview. This is to be used to
prepare and respond better in the next rounds. There
may be questions at the end of all the interviews on what
were the various feedbacks given to you and how did you
improve on those fronts. Also, a self evaluation in last
round on how do you think you fared with the different
interviewers.
• They have a very nice process, great opportunity to
professional feedback on your interviewing skills. They
are all very helpful and nice people. Don’t forget to enjoy
the interview process.that interests him and sounds
logical and of course MECE during case interview. It is
unlikely that you would see a case that you have done in
the case preps. However, case preps should be seen as a
way to develop this approach.
Name Kunal Tara
Name of Interviewer and Nagesh Goel

Designation

round)
Personal interview • This was the interview and Role play round only.
Questions(with indicative • The usual questions but he expected detailed and well
rounded answers. He prodded for detail.
answers if you choose to share • Listened very patiently to my answers.
them) • Some from the resume, some from the Introduce myself
and then the conversation continued from there.
• Key is to weave a single story in all your answers
Narration of the case interview It was a role playing round.
(please be as
I played the role of an SMC consultant and Nagesh played the
descriptive as possible) role of an employee in Siemens with a firm that I am
consulting for. The challenge was to get some information
349
from him and had made some recommendations to the
senior management about it. He was upset as his
recommendations were not taken seriously and now you I
am asking for the same information from him.
No point illustrating the conversation here, but I would say

what worked for me was that I could find out the root cause
of his anger and tried to address it by promises and limits to
which I will use the data.
What do you think went right • Be natural, don’t push the other person in role play.
for you in the in this • I performed the role play as I actually would have if I
were to be in that situation and not as the way SMC
interview? would have wanted me to be.
with SMC.
for it.
interviewers.
350
Name Kunal Tara
Name of Interviewer and Stefan Hegemann

Designation
He is the boss.

round)
Personal interview • Why did you choose to do engineering

Questions(with indicative • Why MBA
• Why now
answers if you choose to share • Why Consulting/SMC etc.
them)
Case Question Siemens is in the smoke detector business in India and is

competing with local as well as international firms for market
share. There are two types of detectors that are sold in the
market, ones with status indicator light and smoke detector,
the other which are intelligent and can do more than just
detect smoke, such as measuring the temperature. The base
model with the LED has a large market in India whereas the
market for the intelligent detectors is small. The intelligent
detectors are more popular in European countries and
Siemens may have an advantage there but due to the small
market, the focus is on the base model. The detectors are
currently manufactured I Europe and the price is say Rs 100,
whereas the competition sells it at 70. What do you think
Siemens should do?
351
Narration of the case interview I asked a few questions on the type of consumers purchasing
(please be as the products and the channel of sales.
descriptive as possible) I said that I see the market as a commodity market and there
is little (if any) scope of differentiation in the sector (this is
after asking questions or reliability, life etc.). This means that
if Siemens want to compete then it will have to lower its
price. For that I would need to explore the cost structure
more. At this point he handed me a slide which showed the
components of the costs and the costs were greater than the
competitor’s price. A large chunk of the cost was Import
duties. I said that we can either focus on reducing costs in the
plant in Europe or look at opening a new manufacturing
facility in India. He said that the costs in the European factory
cannot be reduced. Now, to setup a plant in India you will
have to give them a target cost to have according to which
they will decide the scale of operation and the type of
manufacturing technology to employ. I said that can be done
using reverse calculation. He said show me how. I said first of
we will have to determine the target price to have. I asked
for the price data in the industry and he showed me a slide
which showed the prices for the last three years for the
various players. I said that we should use the lowest price of
the competitor and look at the reduction in prices Y-o-Y in
the industry to estimate the target price. I estimated the year
on year drop to be 5% and I said that if we take a horizon of 5
years (2 years was the setup time for the factory), then we
will need to price it at 70*(0.95^5). While I was fiddling with
this calculation, he said use the calculator. After determining
the price, I had to come up with the target cost. I asked out
loud lets think what all goes on between manufacturing and
the actual sale. He asked me to try and guess. I mentioned
some costs such as storage, transportation, dealer’s margin
etc. he then said ok, take rough approximations and come up
with a number. I took some assumptions which were fairly
detailed (average # of detectors in a truck, distance truck will
travel etc.) and came up with a number (say 40). He showed
me the sheet which had his recommendations to the client
352
and the cost heads that he had taken. The number was
slightly lower than 40.
He gave feedback at the end of it and said that you forgot to

take the duty that would be required to be paid in China to
export. We will not be selling to China from the European
factory if we setup a plant in India. Would we? I understood
the point. The next feedback he gave me was that he liked
the way I did not go into the pre-set frameworks and was
thinking on my feet. Also, he said that although I had a
structure in my head and he could see it, I didn’t explain to
him my approach or put it down on paper. I started
blabbering something about why that was so and he
interrupted me and said “Never Feedback the Feedback”.
What do you think went right • Was thinking then and there, didn’t fit a framework or
for you in the in this structure to the case.
• Drew conclusions from the information given and
interview? decided on the price competition early on in the case.
with SMC.
for it.
353
interviewers.
Name Kunal Tara
Name of Interviewer and Maximillian Duerre

Designation

round)
Personal interview • Normal PI questions and my experience with the previous

Questions(with indicative employer, which was also a European firm and my
division was predominantly German
them)
Case Question One of the firms has approached SMC and is having a
problem deciding the future course of action for the firm.
Narration of the case interview They are into the business of manufacturing and selling HVDC
(please be as platforms for off-shore wind turbines. He explained how this
works, when we have large off-shore wind-farms deep into
the seat say 40-50 kms into the seat then we have two
options, wither to pull a cable from each of the wind turbines
to the shore and then collect the electricity and convert it to
HVDC to transmit or we can install a HVDC platform in the
middle of the farm, connect all the wind turbines to it and
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then send a single cable carrying the electricity to the shore
from where it is transmitted. It turns out that the second
option is cheaper for the developer and hence, the need for
the HVDC platforms. I asked about the competition in the
industry and he mentioned that there is only one more
competitor and he is only an equipment manufacturer,
whereas Siemens sells the complete solution including the
platforms and its construction and installation on site. He
said what would be the first thing you would do in order to
judge the future strategy. I said I would take an inventory of
the current projects executed, margins in the various parts of
the value chain and our best predictions about these
numbers in the future.
He said if I asked you to estimate the potential for this

industry then how would you do that. I thought for a minute
and then said that I cannot think of a way that will give me a
reliable number to rest the hypothesis of strategy on. He said
that this is good, and then what will you do? I said that since
we SMC are a part of Siemens and Siemens having a
presence in all the continents and an active player in the
power sector, the information would lie somewhere in the
organization. He said this is exactly what we did and we
talked to the bosses in the power sector in the various
regions and they came up with the current installed figures
for such plants and the projections according to them. The
numbers were not straight but rather were to be interpreted
to come up to the final estimated fot the various regions. The
final number seemed substantial and the market was
lucrative enough to be focused on.
The problem that the Siemens firm was facing was that the
platforms that they were building were not being completed
on time. The platform manufacturing firm was a third-party
and Siemens was sourcing from them. These were basically
vessel manufacturing facilities and were in part owned by the
governments. The governments were asking Siemens to
involve them as they were heavily underutilized as the
355
business was being given to vessel manufacturing firms in
South East Asia. He said that there was no option to contract
with the South-Eastern companies for delivering these
equipments.
I said that there are basically four options that can be

explored by Siemens:
1. Look at acquiring these firms.
2. Form a JV/Partnership with these firms to improve

efficiency.
3. Build own capability to manufacture the platforms.
4. Don’t build the platforms and become an equipment

supplier like the competitor.
After doing some calculations and talking about the size of

these firms, it was clear that they cannot be purchased by
Siemens. Building own capability was not an option because
that would upset the governments. However, the option of
JV was possible. We did some general gyan talk on how that
would look like and what will be shared resources with the
original firms. We talked a bit about the corporate structure,
financing, transfer pricing etc.
He asked me to summarize the discussion.
What do you think went right • Again, no frameworks, built them there and then and
for you in the in this fortunately it turned out to be right.
interview?
356
with SMC.
for it.
interviewers.
Name Kunal Tara
Name of Interviewer and Daniel Kirchleitner

Designation
He is not from Munich office.
Round (First/Second/Third Fifth

round)
Personal interview • Normal PI questions and my experience with the previous

Questions(with indicative employer, which was also a European firm and my
division was predominantly German
357
them)
Narration of the case interview I will present the case facts here and not necessarily the
(please be as chronological order of the discussion. This is because it was a
unique case and last case of the day so I don’t remember the
structure that I had built for this case.
You have met the CEO of a firm which manufactures mining

equipment and sells it all over the globe. The industry is
fairly stagnant in the European and American markets.
Most of the growth is coming from South East Asia,
primarily China and India. Looking at the impressive growth
numbers, the CEO is suggesting that they should shift their
headquarters to China. They have engaged SMC to advice
on this proposition.
It seemed a very odd proposition to me, shifting HW because

of growth in a certain market was a complete new concept to
me and I wondered does this happen in the market place.
But while thinking of it this way, I remembered from the
previous employer that they used to open offices in their
markets and with growing market in a particular region they
would start making them more and more independent and
also started making them centers of excellence in areas
which were critical for that market.
I asked the interviewer the potential benefits of making such

a move. He said this is you job, to get into the head of the
CEO and understand what is making him suggest something
so dramatic. I then began the usual process of understanding
the business problem. I asked for his help in drawing out the
functions in the organization and how does the firm operate
in the current setup. He said that the firm had:
• R&D center in Germany
• Engineering center at 3-4 locations around the worls
• Sales office in each of the markets
358
• Manufacturing in Germany and,
• Corporate and admin office in Germany
I said that I would like to look at each of these functions and

evaluate the impact of shifting the head office to China on
each of these.
R&D: The firm does its own R&D and has been doing so since
the start of the firm. This R&D is basically geared towards
making better machines, improving the designs of the
current machines that they sell. I the workforce is primarily
German and has very low attrition rates as Siemens provides
them a free environment and good compensation. I said that
in that case, in case we move the R&D center to China then
we can potentially benefit from the cheap labor force in the
country. But on the flip side, it is quite likely that many of the
current people employed in the R7D department may quit if
they are asked to go to China. I said that this may be a huge
cost to the firm as the value of R&D is mostly in the
workforce and it is quite impossible to capture this
knowledge through the Knowledge transfer route that is
prevalent these days. Also, the R&D center potentially
benefits from the Manufacturing center being nearby and
improves processes and suggests modifications, which is
relatively more difficult if the R&D is geographically far from
manufacturing. Overall I think we should keep the R&D
center in Germany.
Manufacturing: Although at the first instance, it seems

manufacturing in China will lead to lower costs but let me
explore this further. How many suppliers do we have or
sourcing the parts of these equipments? Where are they
located? What proportion of the final assembled product
comes from the outside suppliers. It turns out that Siemens is
basically assembling the parts together and most of the
components are outsourced to numerous firms in Europe.
These components are critical and Siemens’s R&D team and
process teams work in close collaboration with the suppliers
359
to enable them to manufacture the low volumes required for
Siemens’ requirements. This intricate relationship is difficult
to replicate in china and there is also the fear of proprietary
technology leakage. So, in my opinion, these two functions –
R&D and Manufacturing should stay in Gemany.
Corporate Headquarters: They are best located at the

location of the parent company’s headquarters as this allows
more integration in the overall strategy of the firm. Also,
there will be tremendous costs in terms of frequent fly backs
between China and Germany in case the HQ is shifted to
China. But, this decision would depend on the decision of
other departments, if more in China, then shift to China, if
more in Germany, stay in Germany.
Sales Office: They currently have a sales office in China, but

they are a dozen odd people and have limited rights in terms
of negotiating a contract, they need to get approval from the
head office and have to adhere to strict guidelines in terms of
negotiating a contract. There is clearly a need for more
autonomy here and because of a lower market share in the
growing Chinese market, the CEO is probably thinking about
shifting the HQ to China. I would agree that they must
increase their focus on China but a HQ shift may not be
required.
Engineering Office: They have an engineering office in India

and 2-3 other locations across the globe, this office
essentially designs systems in which these equipments are
sold and since every project is different, each one of them
requires engineering to find out the optimal solution. Also,
the Asian market is somewhat different in terms of its
requirements. I concluded that they need to also need to
establish an Engineering office in China to cater to local
requirements in terms of process as well as equipment
design. They need to work closely with the R&D center to
cater to the no bells and whistles designs which are needed
in the Asian markets.
360
At the end, he said now you have to present this to the CEO
of the firm who had approached you enthusiastically with his
ingenious idea of shifting the HQ, how would you put it to
him.
My response: The idea that you presented seems to be a

good solution to cater to the growing demand in the Chinese
and other South Asian markets and we concur that there is a
strong need for better sales and engineering support in the
country because of…. (reasons mentioned above) BUT the
need is not that big in the other functions because… (Reasons
above)… He said well done and ended the discussion.
At the end of this interview he asked me to self-rate my

performance in the previous interviews that I had given on
that day. And also the feedbacks that I had been provided
and how did I incorporate them.
What do you think went right • Again, no frameworks, built them there and then and
for you in the in this fortunately it turned out to be right.
interview?
with SMC.
for it.
361
interviewers.
362
ZS ASSOCIATES
363
Name Gaurav Ray Chaudhury
Company Interviewed With ZS Associates

(Business Analytics – Consultant)
Name of Interviewer and Round 1: Pinaki

Designation Round 2: Vineet Garg
Round 3: Panel of 2 senior members
Round 4: Managing Principal
Round (First/Second/Third Rounds1,2,3,4

round)
Personal interview Round1: PI

Questions(with indicative It was strictly a PI round for assessing the organizational fit.
The interview stretched for around 45 minutes. Some of the
answers if you choose to share questions asked were:
them)
1. Give instances where you faced challenges in managing
teams
2. Greatest disappointments in professional life
3. Strengths/weakness/ greatest achievements (with
examples)
4. Since I served US clients while in Deloitte and Indian clients
in E&Y, I was asked situational questions on the onshore-
offshore model of delivery and challenges associated with it.
Every answer had to be corroborated with sound
example/instances. Since ZS also works along similar
offshore business delivery model as Deloitte, it was easy to
draw familiarity and the interviewer was visibly impressed
with my PI answers.
Narration of the case interview Round 2: Case

(please be as Case type: Data Interpretation
The case contained 12 pages riddled with data and each page
descriptive as possible) contained questions, whose answers would lead to next
page. The interviewer offered a lot of help in understanding
the problem, and driving the case forward. Whenever stuck
with a question, I asked for time-out which helped in
gathering my thoughts better. No prior industry knowledge
was required. The interviewer looked for comfort with
handling data and accuracy in calculation.
364
Round 3: Case + Presentation
I was given a 45 page document to read and come up with a
presentation on flip charts. This was the most interesting
and challenging of all the rounds. The case was of a theater
company in US which wanted to evaluate whether it makes
sense to restructure their business. Given the volume of data
and information present, it was easy to miss out key clues. I
could not time my reading part well and as a result had to
prepare the slides in 7-8 minutes. However, while presenting
to the senior members, I did not fluster and employed
standard profitability frameworks to begin with. The seniors
would often fire questions related to any part of the
document. However, since I had read the case and made
notes of most of the information provided, I could field all
the questions and still stand by my recommendations for the
case.
Round 4: Case + PI
The managing principal started with regular PI questions
about why I wanted to join ZS, strengths/weakness, etc.
Then he gave a small case which I thought I struggled but
eventually cracked. The case required basic CAT level quant
concepts related to arithmetic and geometric progression.
By this round, I was totally exhausted and the interviewer
was straight-faced with whatever I said.
Final outcome: Offered a job
What do you think went right I think I was very well prepared with the PI questions and
for you in the in this could convince the interviewers of the organizational fit.
Also, I took frequent time-outs whenever I got stuck in case
interview?
interviews and that helped me to gather myself and crack the
cases.
Any tips for the future batches ZS employs the same format of interviews and rounds every
based on this year. It is imperative to go through the interview
experiences of previous batches and not be up for any
surprises on the D-day. Also, the entire interview schedule is
very rigorous and exhausting; hence plan your day
accordingly.
365
Name Akshat Narain

Don’t remember the name (2 panelists)
Designation
Round I (PI)
round)
Personal interview
Questions(with indicative Interview started with the usual tell me about you. There
were a number of questions on leadership, team-working
answers if you choose to share abilities as well as questions on the work experience.
them)

(please be as
No case asked

-
interview?

based on this
-
Name Akshat Narain

Designation
Round II (structured case)
round)
366
Personal interview
Questions(with indicative No PI questions in this round. The panelist was an alumnus
answers if you choose to share from ISB and dived straight into the case after introductions.
them)
As was told, the case was quite structured. The interviewer

carried with her a set of slides which had entire case laid out
in them along with questions to be answered on the basis of
information provided. The basic problem was of ‘allocation of
sales force’. The case started with introduction to the
industry and I was asked to go through the information
provided on the industry and identify key customers. It was
about a company that sells ad space to residential
communities and had recently started selling online ad space
as well. It had two kinds of sales force – on-ground and in-
house. There were other details about the market which I
cannot recollect
Next was a market sizing question. I was asked to come up
Narration of the case interview with a market sizing equation accounting for all the relevant
(please be as variables. I went for a top down approach and broke up the
US population into households and then assuming an
descriptive as possible) average size of a residential complex and average ad spend
per complex computed the formula. I was given data for all
of those variables and therefore calculated the final number.
On the next slide I was given information on various
segments within the residential complex markets and some
information of profitability of each segment and sales force
size required to address each segment and was asked which
segment should be targeted. I suggested the two segments
which utilized lesser sales force but gave higher volumes of
business.
Last was allocation of two kinds of sales force for a specific
segment. I could not get this piece right and fumbled with
the numbers but was finally able to get the logic right. As by
this time it was almost 45 minutes into the case I was asked
to synthesise the case and the interview ended here.
What do you think went right I think what went right was that I was able to grasp the hints
for you in the in this given by the interviewer and accommodate those quickly
interview? into my answers.
367
I think what was most important for this part was to not get
bogged down by the numbers. The slides contained a lot of
based on this
information and this was not the usual kind of cases that we
Interview experience. prepare for at ISB which are usually conducted in discussions.
Remain focused on the problem at hand and keep overall
strategy of the case in mind.
Name Akshat Narain

Designation
Round II (unstructured case)
round)
Personal interview
No PI questions in this round.
them)
In this case I was given a big set of slides with a LOT of

information. I was told I had 45 minutes to go through all of
the information and prepare a presentation on flip charts. I
will then have to present my findings to the representatives
of the company (role play).
The basic question was to come up with a growth strategy for
Narration of the case interview cinema business. The case presented information on its
(please be as financials, acquisition strategy, vision of the CEO etc. Also
presented were revenue model of the company, industry
information, information on consumer (demographics,
segmentation), recent trends in the industry and some
innovative steps taken by the managers in the company.
I started presentation with key aspects which were
recognized by the CEO as growth factors. I then jumped to
assessing situation, complication and key question – this was
really appreciated by the panelists.
I broke the case down using the usual growth strategy
368
framework – organic growth and inorganic growth. Inorganic
growth was further broken into acquisitions and geographic
expansion.
Organic growth was broken into:
• More uses
• More usage
• More users
• Other sources of revenue
I was able to quickly realize that segmentation of the market
was key to the case and rest of it was synthesized during
discussion with the panelists.
I think what is most important in this kind of case is the

structure – once you have broken down the case in situation,
complication, key question framework and then have at least
interview? applied a basic framework to answer the key question half
the work is done. Rest is to fit information in the framework
and the panelist is happy to work with you on this.

based on this
-
Name Akshat Narain

Don’t remember the name (partner)
Designation
Round IV (PI + Guess estimate)
round)
Personal interview
Questions(with indicative PI questions were largely around previous work experience
answers if you choose to share and leadership abilities
them)
369
(please be as Guess estimate based on Marginal Return of Investment on
sales force. Basically allocate capacitated sales force based
on marginal returns from two products.

-
interview?

based on this
-
370
Name Deepak Kumar Lakhwani
Name of Interviewer and Senior manager at ZS, don’t remember the name
Designation

round)
Personal interview Basic HR questions about work ex, education, ELP etc. The
Questions(with indicative interview was strictly based on resume and was more like a
Fit interview.
them) I was also asked what other firms I am interviewing for.
Narration of the case interview Basic fit interview. Interviewer was very chatty. Be ready to
(please be as talk at length about every line that you have written in your
resume.
What do you think went right Hitting it off with interviewer. It is important to understand
for you in the in this what ZS does and what is defined as business operations for
ZS because it is pretty different than what we understand by
interview?
business operations.
I kept my cool during the interview and made sure that I

leveraged my ELP in healthcare (even though I had no
experience in healthcare other than ELP).
Any tips for the future batches Make sure that you pick ELPs which will help you talk at
based on this length about it during a job interview. This goes a long way in
converting a job interview.
Cover letter is very important and this is the where you
portray how you fit the role and company you are applying
to. Put in lot of thought while writing cover letter. Your
resume should be as crisp as possible. Prepare well for
interview by researching what business the firm into and
what their strategy is.
371
I talked to alum to prepare for interview and helped me a lot.
Make sure you do too. You could also talk to some of your
classmates who come from ZS.
Name of Interviewer and Senior manager at ZS, don’t remember the name. (different
Designation than the interviewer in round 1).
Round (First/Second/Third Second – case based

round)
Personal interview Case based interview. I was given a deck of slides to analyze.
Questions(with indicative There were graphs to be analyzed and numbers to be
worked. Case was relevant to what I was required to do in
answers if you choose to share the job for the role I had applied to. I had applied for
them) Associate consultant, Business operations.
Interviewer passed on to me charts depicting sales of an

asthama product and another chart depicting the number of
doctors which prescribe our product. The number of doctors
prescribing our product remained constant while the sales
were going down. After analysis my hunch was that patients
were visiting doctors who did not prescribe our product and
our sales team should target a wider net of doctors.
Next I was given some numbers to work. I had to estimate

market size for the asthama product for a client. After
estimating market, I was also required to compute break
even analysis in terms of market share. A lot of data was
present in the charts but I was required to pick data which
was relevant for analysis.
Then I was given a business flow which I had to analyze and

give recommendations to optimize. Each process had three
variables such as WT – work time , RP – rerun probability,
and RT – run time. My recommendation was to focus on
processes that had high work time and rerun probability.
372
There were few processes that could be automated. A
process with same RT and WT is mostly manual as manpower
is engaged for the whole time the process is running. I gave
recommendation to automate some of these processes. The
process was regarding data processing. Some data was
collected, checked and then processed and returned back to
client with analysis. The process chart was huge, had 20-30
processes and had many fail safes (making it tough to
understand and analyze the entire process). I was also
supplied information about source of data and I gave
recommendations regarding ways to optimize data collection
processes.
Narration of the case interview Case analysis interview went on for 45 to 60 minutes. The
(please be as interviewer was helpful and even helped me out during some
of the calculations.
The case was presented in form of PPT printout and
interviewer kept flipping the chart and leading me from one
case to another.
What do you think went right While working the numbers I did a calculation mistake. When
for you in the in this I arrived at the answer I told the interviewer that the answer
doesn’t make sense and I want to recheck my calculations.
interview?
Interviewer not only helped me track back my calculations
but also prodded me to do few calculations again. It is
important to keep your cool during the interview and I think I
was able to do that. Doesn’t matter if your palms are sweaty,
but interview shouldn’t know about it. Look as relaxed as you
can and work your way through the case with a cool head.
Any tips for the future batches Keep your cool and think fast. Make sure that your numbers
based on this are correct. After you run the analysis, eyeball the outcome
to see if it makes sense. Do not be in haste to present it to
the interviewer.
Work with the interviewer. Keep him involved and let him
what you are doing and what is your approach. This will allow
him to help you if you if he wants to. Also this is what you are
expected to do, work with clients and not preach them what
373
they should or shouldn’t do. Get buy in from interviewer
often.
Name of Interviewer and Operating managing partner, Pune office Mr. Moorthy
Designation

round)
Personal interview Fit based interview again with one case.

Questions(with indicative Partner wanted to see if I fit into the culture and whether my
expectations from ZS met with what they had in mind for me.
answers if you choose to share A partner will always look at the bigger picture and make
them) sure that you make him see the big picture along with you.
Partner asked me about my family.
Then I was given a case. Partner told me that he had 50

licenses from municipality to open soft drink stands in
Mumbai. There are two alternatives, he could open coke
stands and the potential sales were 300 bottles\day for 1st
location, 297 for 2nd location and so on (in an arithmetic
progression). On the other hand he could open Fanta stands
with projected sales of 250 bottles\day for location 1, 249
for location 2 and so on (again in an AP). He asked me what
I thought about his business plan.
I did not remember any formulas for AP but I worked my way

through. My recommendation was that he should open first
17 stalls of coke and from then one coke stall for every 3
fanta stands. I used a mix of AP formulas (which I
remembered eventually) and brute force method. My
analysis was correct and partner was pretty happy with it.
In the end partner asked me if I had any questions and then

we had a long chat about future options for me at ZS.
Narration of the case interview Once again I hit it well with partner. I remained calm and
(please be as through I did not expect a case, I managed to sound
374
descriptive as possible) enthusiastic when he presented the case to me.
The key here was to identify that the fit that a partner looks
into is more about big picture and if I would fit into work
culture of ZS in long term. He wanted to know what my
future plans and I made sure that I talked about how I plan to
grow at ZS in long term.
What do you think went right Asked a lot of questions at the end of the interview when I
for you in the in this was given the chance. The questions were aimed at
understanding what my growth options at ZS were.
interview?
I remained calm and held my nerves. I was able to use humor
at right time to show that I was very relaxed during the
interview. I had a long chat with interviewer.
Any tips for the future batches Partner round is usually the last round. Do not jump the gun
based on this and get excited. Partner is the person who calls the last
shots. Make sure you talk about only the big picture to
partner. Be as chatty as possible. Expect anything during
partner round, you could also get a case like I did. These
cases would usually be very different from what you have
prepared for.
Make sure you ask lot of questions when given a chance.

Questions should more be aimed at what you would be doing
in that firm and how you would grow instead of what is the
strategy of firm. Asking questions sells it to partner that you
are seriously considering spending a long time with them.
Understand the culture of the firm you are interviewing with
– talk to alums. The more you understand the culture,
crispier your answers would be during partner interview.
375
“ALL THE BEST CRACKING CASES!!!!”
- Class of 2013
376

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CONTENTS

Sl No. Topic Pg No.

Please ask yourself these questions before choosing consulting as a career –

- Have I done adequate research about consulting jobs or am I choosing it because it is

Manoj Muthu Kumar & Ankur Seth

Presidents, Consulting Club, Co2013

Expectations of top consulting firms from a good resume

2. Problem solving horsepower

5. Client/Senior Leadership management

9. Quality of work experience

10. Non-Academic initiatives

STEP 1: Making the first draft

What constitutes a ‘spike’ in your resume?

STEP 2: Quick Tests to check your CV’s effectiveness

“So what?” test

Half Page test

STEP 3: Making the final draft

Some Dos and Don’ts

SUGGESTED TIMELINE TO BE FOLLOWED ….

How to prepare (Tips)

CASE SOLVING APPROACH

PROBLEM DEFINITION & SCOPING

Think along basic cuts like:

Defining the problem

• Gross profit, operating profit and net profit

Profit = Revenue-COGS - SG&A + R&D + Restructuring + - Dep/Amort + Interest + Tax +

Blue: Gross profit

Q8) Competitive landscape – No of competitors, market share and its trend

A brief structure as below would help to landscape the problem -

Revenues are dependent on two factors –

Average Price = Price of all the products/Total number of products

Company tried to reduce price to increase revenues but it backfired

• Increased price because costs increased

In case Product/Service mix – volume has changed….

Product Related Problem

• Poor product quality

Service Related Problem

• Poor service quality

a) Market share decline b) Market size decline

If Market share declines...

SOV x SOM X SOD = Availability x Product Offering (Likeability) x Accessibility

One must try to think in terms of consumer purchase funnel -

If market size decline…

Solution – Ansoff Matrix

• Supply (still in growth stage of PLC)

Break the costs into

a) fixed costs and variable costs

c) Complex Product: High Costs - What causes it?

Complexity arises from additions to number of different products produced or activities

Often without increase in overall volume

Complexity can arise in numerous parts of cost structure –

b. Remember it can be a product specific problem or a product mix problem something

c) Costs income statement wise (COGS, SG&A, Interest, Depreciation, Tax)

What is the percentage split of costs across these different processes?

Exploring each head one by one

Structuring the problem

Structuring a market entry case problem is a four step approach –

1) Deciding on the Goals/Objectives – a) Strategic Intentions b) Economic Intentions

Defining the problem

Q1. Motivation behind entry?

Q2. Target for profitability? Timelines?

Q3. Any constraints on investment and scope of thinking?

Evaluation Parameters Affecting Factors