Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Table of Contents
From the Presidents’ Desk .. ......................................................................................................................... 3
Some Gyaan – about major Consulting Firms!! ............................................................................................ 6
Consulting Club Calendar: 2013-14............................................................................................................. 10
CASE FRAMEWORKS ................................................................................................................................... 12
Profitability Framework .......................................................................................................................... 13
Market Entry Framework ........................................................................................................................ 24
PE Investment Framework ...................................................................................................................... 27
Sourcing/procurement cost reduction framework................................................................................. 28
Value Chain Analysis framework............................................................................................................. 29
Pricing Framework .................................................................................................................................. 31
M&A Framework..................................................................................................................................... 32
General Frameworks ............................................................................................................................... 33
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES .................................................................................................................. 36
ACCENTURE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING............................................................................................. 37
AT KEARNEY ............................................................................................................................................ 46
AMAZON ................................................................................................................................................. 51
APPLE ...................................................................................................................................................... 52
DELOITTE ................................................................................................................................................. 52
HUL – INTERNAL CONSULTING ............................................................................................................... 64
MCKINSEY & COMPANY .......................................................................................................................... 66
PWC ....................................................................................................................................................... 112
SIEMENS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING ................................................................................................ 119
THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP ...................................................................................................... 123
THE PARTHENON GROUP...................................................................................................................... 166
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From the Presidents’ Desk ..
We are pleased to present to you all, the ISB - Class of 2014 Consulting Case Book. This case
book has been compiled to provide you with the experience of students of Co2014 who had
placement interviews with the consulting firms. The ISB Case Book will give you a flavor of what
to expect in the interviews and come October, this book will be the most important preparation
material to crack the case interviews.
Consulting has been a premier career choice amongst the ISB students. The range of career
interests spans a wide spectrum of consulting areas including management consulting, domain/
vertical focused consulting and internal consulting roles within organizations.
The ISB Consulting Club is a student association, which seeks to equip the student body with
resources to make informed decisions on consulting careers, tools necessary to build successful
career in consulting and opportunities to promote extra-curricular excellence. The club anchors
these efforts by creating forums for aspirants to learn and imbibe skills and best practices from
industry experts and harnessing initiatives that enable students to assimilate the learning into
practical application. The club has over 500 members, who come from diverse backgrounds and
bring in valuable work experience.
Before we move onto the case frameworks and the case interview experiences, we would like
to give you all a brief about how the Consulting Club at ISB works. Soon after the President is
elected, the club will organize various on-campus events (alumni sessions, expert speaker
series), conduct multiple resume review sessions and coordinate case competitions to enable
you make the right career choice. Alums from different consulting firms will visit campus
frequently and you should feel free to ask any question relevant for your career choice or
preparation. This year the club took some new initiatives for its members – formulated a
“Mentor-Mentee” model where each club member was assigned to an alumnus (from the
consulting industry) so that the club member can reach out to the alumnus for any help
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needed. Also, the club designed a “Functional Champion Model” where club members were
told about the roles and firms available in functional consulting (e.g. Risk, HR, IT, Operations
consulting etc.).
The final interview process consists of two parts – Personal interview and Case interview. It is
the latter part where you would find this casebook extremely useful. Cracking a case requires a
thorough understanding of core term courses and decent level of familiarity with different case
types. Ideally, you should revisit your core term courses before you start with your case
preparation. The casebook captures majority of the cases asked during campus recruitments
and hence should sufficiently cover all types of cases you can expect in your campus interview.
Case preparation is best done in groups. Try forming group with people who are dedicated
towards case preparation and have similar class schedule to provide good preparatory time
overlap. This preparation would require different effort from different people so don’t
benchmark it with number of cases or number of hours you practice cases. The aim of your
case preparation should be to feel comfortable solving cases in general and you should stop
once you attain that level of comfort (don’t kill yourself with case preparation). Personal
interview (PI) is an equally important, if not more important, part of the final recruitment
process. Make sure you spend enough time preparing for your PI and are comfortable
answering general PI questions. Refer to the PI guide from the consulting club for common PI
questions.
Finally be prepared for the roller coaster ride and the hectic scenario of Day One. Students with
multiple shortlists need to get their priority ranking of the firms’ right and ensure that they
prepare in the best possible way for these firms. Please do sleep well before Day One and relax
because you can do only so much!!
We would like to wish you all the very best for the coming year and we sincerely hope you have
a great time here at ISB and from a career point of view move in your area of interest.
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Acknowledgements
We both would like to thank the Consulting Club Core Teams from Hyderabad and Mohali:
Nikhil Abraham, Anand, Ashok, Mark, Shisher, Sidharth, Saurabh, Ajay, Rohit Singh, Aarushi,
Anant, Aditya, Shrestha, Soumyopriyo, Nidhi, Rohit Lohani, Pranav and Shiva; for the work
they have put in not only to compile this case book but also for their fantastic efforts to
organize various activities for the members of the consulting club.
Also, congratulations and special thanks to our fellow batch-mates who got through the most
sought after consulting firms and then helped us in compiling the case book.
Best Wishes,
5
Some Gyaan – about major Consulting Firms!!
McKinsey
Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, McKinsey has grown into a global partnership with
over 6,000 consultants in more than 80 offices in more than 40 countries around the world.
McKinsey serves more than 70% of Fortune magazine’s most admired companies. It serves
governments in more than 35 countries and conducts 150 pro bono engagements each year.
Clients come to McKinsey for advice on their most critical issues – when they have major
strategic, operational or organizational challenges. The firm is comprised of a global network of
offices and practices led by a partnership group. Therefore, it is not tied to earnings pressures
or to increasing returns to shareholders. A strict professional code of ethics includes putting
clients’ interests ahead of McKinsey’s, upholding absolute integrity, keeping client information
confidential, telling the truth as they see it, and delivering the best to the client in a cost-
effective manner.
McKinsey is very effective in concentrating the global knowledge and expertise on the topics of
interest to their clients. It has also a loyal and important alumni community. As an example, 150
McKinsey alumni have become CEOs of companies with more than one billion dollars in annual
revenues. McKinsey is a non-hierarchical organization, where knowledge, insight and the
quality of ideas trump seniority. It is a merit-based organization, where advancement and
recognition is based on the merit of the individual’s contribution. There is various training
programs available and an ongoing, frequent review process tied to a strict "up or out" policy.
McKinsey typically recruits for generalist Associate positions, but also Associates for specific
functional practices namely Business Technology, Marketing & Sales, Operations and Corporate
Finance. In most offices, consultants are required to speak the local language. While the
majority of Associates do work as "generalists", with growing seniority – after consultants have
been given the chance to explore multiple industries and functions – specialization is a natural
progression. Overall, the firm has a culture of enabling consultants to determine their own
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career path, and maintains that with its broad reach across industries, functions and
geographies.
When hiring, McKinsey seek individuals with leadership potential, integrity, a sharp analytical
mind, creativity and the ability to work with people at all levels in an organization.
BCG was founded in 1963 by Bruce D. Henderson. Since its inception, BCG has grown from
Boston to a total of 61 offices in 36 countries (with 13 offices opened since 1999) and
approximately 2,900 consulting staff. The core of BCG’s work has been summarized as the
“virtuous circle of insight, impact, and trust”. It focuses on helping clients achieve sustainable
competitive advantage.
In BCG’s view, best practices, benchmarks and off-the-shelf tools are rarely sufficient to create
lasting value. Instead, each assignment consists in working with the client towards a tailored
solution, accounting for the unique set of opportunities and constraints of the specific
situation/background. For a newly hired MBA holder, this in practice means having the
satisfaction and excitement of helping a client break new ground: "I use BCG to see the unseen”
as says one of its clients' CEO. The low consultants-to-partners ratio and continuous training
programs stimulate the out-of the-box thinking. Working closely with the client is a key factor
to bring impact into projects, learn how to lead, and not just analyze.
As a result of its direct casework done with clients and intensive analyses within competence
practices, BCG has been pivotal in establishing that the sources of competitive advantage can
be systematically explored and applied. Beyond classics such as the Experience Curve, Growth-
Share Matrix or the Time-based Competition theories, 24 books published since 2000 by BCG
further contribute to changing how business is done.
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BCG generally encourages young MBA graduates to start as generalists. Many of them start
their consulting life – if they wish so - with projects in the industry of their pre-MBA job and
have therefore the satisfaction to leverage their previous experience, while learning a brand
new job. Typically 20% of BCG consultants serve on social projects across community, urban
development, health/social services, nature and arts. Consultants have opportunities to gain
further international exposure, either by choosing to work on projects outside the home office,
or by asking for a temporary 1-year, or definitive, transfer to another office. Generally,
knowledge of the local language of the chosen BCG office is required.
AT Kearney
A.T. Kearney is a global management consulting firm that uses strategic insight, tailored
solutions and a collaborative working style to help clients achieve sustainable results. Since
1926, AT Kearney has been trusted advisors on CEO-agenda issues to the world’s leading
corporations across all major industries. While A.T. Kearney has been serving Indian clients for
over 30 years, they opened offices in New Delhi in 1997 and subsequently, Mumbai in 2004.
Both offices have grown rapidly and are outstanding examples of the firm’s growth story in
India.
The Parthenon group is a boutique consulting firm focused in the education sector. The group’s
main theme is its belief that there is no silver bullet when it comes to solving clients' business
challenges. Customized solutions are the key to solving complex business issues, especially in
today's fast-paced, global environment. The firm preaches the right combination of analysis
from its myriad of analytical tools, generating actionable insights that deliver impactful results.
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Please Visit: www.parthenon.com
Accenture Consulting
Accenture became public in April 2001, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has more
than 146,000 employees in 49 countries, including approximately 4,500 senior executives.
Initially called Andersen Consulting, Accenture was formally established in 1989 when a group
of partners from the Consulting division of the various Arthur Andersen firms around the world
formed a new organization focused on consulting and technology services related to managing
large-scale systems integration and enhancing business processes.
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Consulting Club Calendar: 2013-14
June
July – September
Alumni Interaction Sessions; assigning of mentors to each club member (BCG, McKinsey,
Deloitte, Parthenon)
Expert Speaker Sessions (Diamond Consulting, Vector Consulting, AT Kearney,
Cognizant, Accenture)
Coordination of Case Competitions and other B-School Competitions
September – October
Resume Preparation
Resume Review Session conducted by McKinsey, BCG and Deloitte
Functional Champion Model and Handbook
October – December
November
Consulting Club Conclave @ ILS 2013; Topic – “Is implementation the real deal in
Consulting?”
Consilium 2013 (a business strategy case competition) – Consulting Club’s flagship event
December
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January
Day II and III (Please look at the updated academic calendar for this)
March
Please visit the below link to have a detailed insight about the consulting club’s activities
\\isbhdata\ISB_Common\Consulting Club 2014
Also, all consulting enthusiasts please join the ISB Consulting Club Facebook group. Here you
will find all the alumni from ISB
https://www.facebook.com/groups/194867853901398/
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CASE FRAMEWORKS
Note: The following section has been compiled by Nishant Kedia, Vijayalakshmi Vaithianathan,
Pranav Mathur and Sarvesh Rathi. This is a concise version of important frameworks that were
used by them. However we would recommend you to go through the earlier case books as well
to cover all possible case approaches used over the years.
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I - 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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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.
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.
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
(e.g. 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
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- Macroeconomic factors
- Changing priority of customers – change in demographics
- Regular market disruptions
• Supply
Define and reiterate the statement: Improve Profits in X product from A% to B% by n years.
- 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 –
1. Average Price - Thus, if revenue side has been affected then either Average Price across the
product mix has decreased (majorly due to competition or company policy). Quantitatively, we
can see that
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
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o Company tried to reduce price to increase revenues but it backfired
o Increased price because costs increased
o Transfer pricing (may be relevant if problem is limited to a division of a company)
External Factors
o Price war
o Other stakeholders demanding more in value chain e.g. – increased distributor margin
o Government regulation (price cap)
o Customer preference changed. Had to reduce price
Resolution:
- Product Differentiation
1. Better features
2. Better brand
3. Better packaging
2. Bundle Pricing
R&D Costs
Manufacturing/servicing/construction costs – Fixed and Variable Costs
Break-even costs, WACC
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- Bundling & Cross selling
- Consolidation: Acquire other markets players – Charge premium price, Have more units sold.
If 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 –
• Training adequacy
-Curriculum
-Frequency of training
2. Volume
Ascertain changes in number of units sold. The two potential reasons for a volume decline are –
Market Share = %Aware X %Preference Buyers X %Available X % Time for adoption X %Repeat
Purchase
• Price
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• Product
• Promotion
Awareness
Knowledge/Perception
Consideration
Preference
Loyalty
Advocacy
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• Place
Share of Distribution (Accessibility) – Penetration, trade mix, lead time, distributor
margin (agency problem), sales force (less or not trained), Skill and will of sales force
Market Size
Decline
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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:
Short term
Increase distributor margins
Target new segments
Long Term
Launch new SKUs
COSTS
Following approaches can be used for cost analysis:
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 –
Capacity Utilization
Increasing the scale of business/manufacturing – What causes it?
Complex Product: High Costs - What causes it?
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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
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.
Inbound Outbound
Raw Material warehousing Manufacturing Distribution Customers
logistics logistics
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)
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.
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
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Specification
o Substitution (Different Raw Material)
o Cheaper material - indigenization/rationalization?
Quantity
o Value engineering (Use lesser Raw Material)
Per unit price
o Same Supplier
Better Negotiation/Bulk Order – Can you provide something in return for
a better price?
Time of Sourcing (Opportunistic) – Buying when prices are low
o Alternate supplier
Currency Hedging – Use forwards/futures if prices are expected to rise.
Also use call or put options for the variable part of future
Standardization of Parts– ordering more of same type of good
Backward Integration
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:
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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
o Loss due to some catastrophic event.
SUMMARY
You may ask other questions as well depending on the problem type. Once you get a grip of the
problem start structuring your analysis as indicated below –
1. Market –
2. Customer –
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Segment customers
3. Competitors -
Segment competitors
Now proceed with the framework outlined above to identify the root cause of the problem
Market entry cases can be quite tricky if the basic factors such as basis of entry, company’s As-Is
position etc. are not understood properly.
This framework broadly outlines the major considerations in a market entry case. Different
portions of the framework may be important for different problems depending on case in
point.
1. Situation Analysis
2. Value chain Analysis
3. Industry Attractiveness
4. Entry Strategy
1. Situation Analysis
Situation
Analysis
Motive Expectation
Current business/
- Profit, Market Share, Current Customers - Target profit,
products
geographic expansion? market share,
geogrpahy etc.
- Which part of
value chain?
- Timeline?
If the situation analysis culminates into finding which part of value chain is appropriate for
entry, value chain analysis needs to be done.
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2. Value Chain analysis
After sales
Parameters Sourcing Manufacturing Distribution
services
Market Size
Sales Growth
Profitability
Competition
Customers
Technology/skills
Investment required
Value of Synergy
That part of value chain must be chosen which maximizes profits of the firm. It must be
in-line with the firm’s primary objective
3. Industry Attractiveness
Once the firm’s objective and its role in the market entry is understood it is essential to
evaluate the industry attractiveness. It has two major components:
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Industry Attractiveness
Increase in either of the parameters compensates for the decrease in the other for a threshold
level of attractiveness. A curve can be plotted as shown below:
Fundamental Attractiveness
Enter
Do not
enter
Competitive Positioning
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4. Entry Strategy
Entry Strategy
Mode of Entry
Resources Required
- Greenfield
- Financing
- Franchise
- Technology
-M&A
- Manpower
- Joint Venture
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Why? – Objective of investment: direct return from investment, incentives in the
current business, synergies, etc.
What? – What is the target rate of return from investment
When? – Timeline of investment
Once the expectation setting is done, rationale to make an investment can be evaluated as
follows:
•Financial
•Revenues, revenue growth
•Profits, profit growth
•Debt/Equity
•Price per share/ Earnings per share (P/E)
• Operational
•Products & Services
Target's •Capabilities - Sourcing, manufacturing technology, distribution, IP etc.
Potential • Management
•Vision
•Skill
Only if the industry is attractive, target has high potential and expected return from the
investment (from all sources) exceed target ROI, investment is justified.
The following framework can be used to analyze increasing sourcing costs and make
recommendations for reducing the same:
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Sourcing costs
Supply Demand
Value chain analysis is an extremely useful tool to solve many business problems. The basic idea
here is to understand different parts of the value chain and look for abnormalities/inefficiencies
at each leg of the value chain.
A general value chain structure is as follows (some parts may not be relevant for certain
industries):
After
Demand Warehous Logistics Manufact Logistics Distributi
Sourcing (outbound)
Sales
Forecasting ing (inbound) uring on
service
A few important questions to ask under each part of the value chain will result in insights for
problem solving:
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Demand Forecasting
Sourcing
Warehousing
Manufacturing
Logistics
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Efficiency of transport (TAT, load factor, quantity transported per trip etc.)
Distribution
VI - Pricing Framework
Product
Pricing
Start with the basic questions on the product, company, customers. Ask specific questions on
the product like –
2. Who is the consumer and who is the customers (customer and consumer can be different)
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Once you understand the nature of the product, then try to assess what kind of pricing
methodology would work best (in any case you should price the product based on all the
methods and give your final recommendation based on a price range based on the three
methods)
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.
4. Topics like bundling and other innovative prices (discount scheme etc.) will fetch brownie
points
5. Price the product based on consumer psychology (for example - use $5.99 as the price to
indicate that consumers are more willing to buy at $5.99 instead of $6)
The following are the main steps to evaluate a case which for an acquisition:
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List down some criteria to select the businesses to acquire and rank them. This
approach can be used either when there are multiple businesses to select from or same
business but different companies to select from. Some criteria could be as follows:
o Synergies from costs
o Synergies from customers in terms of revenue – you can add a wow factor that
you would generally be cautious here since revenue synergies are hard to
materialize
o Level of competition
o Extension of existing strengths into the new business
o Use of existing competitive advantage
o Risks in the business
Compute the net benefit of such acquisition based on the costs incurred to acquire
them v/s the potential synergies that could be realized. Remember to mention that
estimating synergies is a tricky business (this is the wow factor here)
Once you have identified the synergies you would like to focus on the valuation
o Discounted cash flows method
o Market multiple method (has the issues associated being a historical number and
also the possibility of being inflated)
The next thing that you would want to focus on is how you plan to finance the
acquisition
o Finance acquisition through stock – to be used when the acquiring company
stock is overvalued
o Finance acquisition through cash (a combination of equity and debt) - to be used
when the acquiring company stock is undervalued
o Finance acquisition through both stock and cash
The next step would be to perform the due diligence and then consummate the
transaction.
Prioritization Matrix (2 by 2’s): Can be used to evaluate any project/R&D activity. There are
number of ways to do the same a few are outlined below –
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Guess Estimates: Do not neglect this section and be thoroughly prepared with the same. A
guess estimate can be asked in multiple ways, even while solving a normal profitability case.
Once you have completed the guess-estimate then try to include the following to make your
analysis much richer –
a. Verification of data – Identify a few sources from where you can get the right numbers to
further refine your estimate.
b. Sensitivity Analysis – Conduct a basic sensitivity analysis and identify the most critical
assumptions you made.
Such an extended analysis shows that you have thought through all the assumptions made and
are not arbitrarily using any number to estimate. Although the numbers do not matter here but
having a basic sense of the numbers used and identifying the potential areas of over/under
estimating helps a lot.
Sales Force Effectiveness: You may use this to identify the reason for low sales force output.
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Sales Force
Effectiveness
Motivational Efforts/Skills
Organization
Incentives Career/Growth
Structure
Recognition/Awards
Sourcing Strategy: Such types of cases are relatively rare however can be solved using a
standard approach outlined below –
Sourcing
Strategy
Same Raw
Backward
Material Wastages Centralized Govt
Integrate
sourced
Quantity
New Suppliers
Bundling
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CASE INTERVIEW
EXPERIENCES
36
ACCENTURE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
Final recommendation / summary On cross questioning I realized that the client was
procuring 1000 bottles from 10 different suppliers at the
same rate. Suggested reducing the number of suppliers
to 2-3. Economies of scale would help in reduction of
cost for the supplier, a percentage of which can be
transferred to the client.
1. Interviewer mentioned that for the entire
supplier the entire capacity was occupied, to
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increase volume of client procured bottles the
suppliers would have to let go of other clients.
How will our client gain the reduction
Mentioned 3-4 improvements that will
lead to reduction in cost 1- Reduction in
number of set up times, 2- an injection/
blow molding toll with a larger number
of slots can be used to reduce cycle
times per bottle , 3- Reduction in overall
time spent in booking orders, 4- Delivery
to reduced number of customers will
lead to a reduction in transportation
cost
2. Interviewer then asked how I will select 2-3
suppliers from the existing 10 and why 2-3
instead of 1.
Drew a matrix on which each supplier
can be rated. Had used 3-4 performance
criteria ( do not exactly remember)
Mentioned the risks associated with
keeping a single supplier and also the
fact that keeping 2-3 supplier allows us
to play one supplier against the other
3. For Cost reduction by Design – I mentioned that
the design of the bottle can be changed to
reduce the material required per bottle and also
to improve the cycle times. Suggested changing
the raw material or using a blend of recycled and
fresh polymers
4. Suggested improving the efficiency of demand
prediction and a closer collaboration between
client and its supplier. Implementation of
Dynamic demand tracking system so that the
supplier knows when to expect order and can
accordingly plan his inventory
At every stage the interviewer was asking me to estimate what
percentage reduction would I be able to achieve with each of the
steps and at the end he gave me fictional numbers asking me to
calculate overall reduction
What do you think went right while I was able to keep the interviewer engaged throughout the
solving the case? analysis.
What do you think could have been While calculating the overall reduction I missed the reduction
done better while solving the case? which can be obtained by the reduction in set up times as I had
not written it down in my framework
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to Round 2
38
Name Aditya Shrivastava
Name of company interviewing with Accenture Management Consulting
Name and designation of the Amit – Engagement Manager Operations Practice
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third) Second
Personal interview questions (please 1. Introduction
write the questions only) 2. About my past work experience
3. Why I move from R&D to a B-School and why do I want
to join consulting
4. Details of all my Patents – expected business ,
commercialized or not etc
39
heavily. Also test marketing will help in identifying the
best way to push the product into the different markets
5. Organization Structure- Mentioned that the organization
should be centered on PD groups to ensure they get
complete support and have to face least resistance. This
would also be a method of signaling to other employees
about what is critical for Nokia
What do you think went right while Was able to leverage my previous experience in product
solving the case? development and launch to create a frame work after the
framework it was pretty easy to continue as it was mostly faff
and no cross questioning
What do you think could have been Should have touched on Android V/S Windows mobile and the
done better while solving the case? pros and cons of going with one or the other.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to Round 3
40
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Was made an offer
41
conflict placement scheduling concerns which I have been
managing for the past 2 hrs, which may have an impact
Case question (as narrated by the Relevant to my experience, The client is a Water treatment EPC
interviewer) company, and has grown exponentially in the last 3 years. But
the organization is now facing profitability concerns, they seek
your help.
How did you define the scope of the Profitability framework : Project Management
case
Case Analysis presented by you Me: Reiterated to the interviewer that though the revenues are
growing, the profitability lowering means that the costs are
rising at a much faster rate.
Interviewer : Obviously,
Me: I would like to analysis the costing increase now and I can do
the same in 2 methods:
1) The traditions Income statement method
2) The Value chain method
Also I would like to add that I would prefer analyzing the value
chain as it would provide a more thorough analysis.
Interviewer: Asked what matrix I would use to evaluate which
component is impacting the costing most.
Me: I would firstly use industry Benchmarks, followed by the
traditional costing when the company was showing acceptable
profitability.
Interviewer: Anything else.
Me: Thought about some time, could not come up with an
answer.
Interviewer: Ok I would really prefer the conventional financial
statement analysis but let’s proceed with the value chain one.
Me: I can work even with a financial statement analysis, if u
want.
Interviewer: No proceed with Value chain.
Me: Value chain Basis: Actual Bidding phase, Planning,
Engineering, Procurement: Technical/Commercial,
Manufacturing & monitoring, Quality Checks, Logistics,
Construction, Pre commissioning, Commissioning and Final
Testing before handing over to client.
Went about describing potential costing reasons in each
Interviewer: Please stop focus on the question statement please.
Me: I apologize, will constraint my analysis of what possible
increments possible due to work increments and would start by
focusing on various constraints and process de optimization due
to increasing requirements.
Interviewer: Let me tell u that the main reason for cost increase
was Procurement and construction costs, why is that so.
Me: Started by mentioning manpower and process constraints.
Interview: Don’t use generic terms, please tell me what is cost
basically
Me: Was taken aback. Responded Unit cost * Volume Quantity.
42
Interviewer: Tell me why there is an increase in both in this case.
Me: Quality concerns, wastage, theft and inventory
mismanagement at plant level.
Interviewer: Anything else.
Me: Management issues, coordination between different
departments might not be proper increasing costing and
quantity.
Interviewer: Anything else that may impact both. Unit cost &
Quantity
Me: Blank.. Could not come up with anything new. Told maybe
the contractual obligations may change in process, or initial
mistakes while bidding.
Interviewer: the actual reason was that the engineering
department had become constraint: the process was that the
HOD would review each document before application, hence a
huge delay was there and also some incorrect drawings were
approved.
Me: I already stated quality, and had engineering as a
component of my value chain, but I understand that the costing
in procurement and construction may go up due to engineering
issues without an impact on engineering costs directly.
Should I summaries
Interviewer: Not required
Final recommendation / summary The interviewer was very specific in what he wanted. Be as
thorough as possible.
What do you think went right while Pointed out the major issues.
solving the case?
What do you think could have been I felt nervous when after many days of case prep wasn’t able to
done better while solving the case? get the solution the interviewer wanted.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Selected for Round 3
43
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the None
case
Case Analysis presented by you None
Final recommendation / summary The interviewer was very pleased; by the middle of the interview
only I could sense an FIF but still remained calm and composed.
What do you think went right while Smiled when was asked the inflation question, the interviewers
solving the case? were intrigued, asked me why I smiled and I calmly responded
that I did not expect this question. The fact I was able to nail the
same showed I was able to manage some sort of ambiguity.
What do you think could have been -
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Made an offer
44
this technology. However, Kaustubh said that the scientist plans
to make this technology open source so that anyone in the world
would be able to make devices based on this technology. I now
deduced that the scope of the problem was once this technology
becomes freely available, how could our client take advantage of
the new conditions.
Case Analysis presented by you I split the impact into two groups:
1. Supply of energy: There would be a need to manufacture
devices to harness this new technology. Particularly, I analyzed
larger power supplier like power generation plants, etc. Our
client could make products to deliver this new technology for
mass power generation. Kaustubh mentioned here that this new
technology could be plugged into anything such as cars, etc. So I
suggested our client could look at broad spectrum of energy
products (from mass-production to mobile).
2. Demand for energy: With energy becoming essentially free,
demand for electrical and electronics would go through the roof,
especially in developing economies such as India and China. In
parallel, demand for oil would go down and hence Gulf
economies would be affected. I suggested that our client could
become a trader for goods between both country blocs. They
could also ramp up their capacity for electronics to sell to this
growing demand from India and China.
Final recommendation / summary Ramp up capacity to produce electronics for sales in India and
China in the wake of exponential growth in demand created by
this new invention.
What do you think went right while This case was not a typical consulting case and required intuitive
solving the case? thinking and not frameworks. I think I asked the correct
questions to narrow down the scope and then outlined various
impacts and how our client could benefit from them. The case
was more like a discussion with Kaustubh guiding me on which
options he wanted me to analyze in depth.
What do you think could have been I feel that I could have been more structured in exploring options
done better while solving the case? for the impact and Kaustubh had to guide me a bit to come to
the demand side impact and related recommendations.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Advanced to Round 2, backed out of the process after receiving
an offer from another firm.
45
AT KEARNEY
46
mech. Engineer and was very passionate about cars. We spoke
for nearly 30 mins on various mechanisms and how TATA nano
had lost its way.
Comments on the PI rounds (please Build a connect.
elaborate on what went right and
what could have been done better)
Case question (as narrated by the A simple guestimate question on number of 4 wheelers in India
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the
case
Case Analysis presented by you It was simple to layout a structure and plug in numbers. I think
he was checking my speed with complicated numbers. I kept my
cool and calculated till the last step.
Final recommendation / summary
What do you think went right while My knowledge about the sector helped here.
solving the case?
What do you think could have been Nothing really
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round
47
done better while solving the case? a crisp and quick analysis. I dragged it too much into details
which he was not interested in.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Offer made
48
Supply risks- Raw material, Component supplier availability in
India . Costs of production in India rising which would reduce
$2000 savings.
Production risks- Labor , infrastructure, political disruptions ,etc
( faced by Tata motors, Maruti n all). Costs rising over next few
years.
Demand risk - recession, possibility of projected demand not
being realized, delaying the payback and reducing ROI
Final recommendation / summary Client's expectations of ROI are satisfied by this investment.
Recommendation is to go ahead with these investments after
doing Sensitivity analysis for each cost component and other
risks mentioned.
What do you think went right while Math was easy, I asked motivation and expectations upfront
solving the case? which helped. Classes taken in Ops helped build a risk
assessment framework which was liked by interviewer.
What do you think could have been Made the mistake of asking price of car (which was irrelevant to
done better while solving the case? the calculation)
I forgot how to calculate ROI!! Interviewer had to hint me that
payback period means that investment is doubled. Then I
realized that rule of 72 should be used.
It was my first interview of the day so was nervous and fumbled
on an otherwise simple case.
Outcome of the interview (optional) I was told to wait and immediately meet a partner
49
80 million - 1.5 - 3.5 lakh per annum
50 million - 3.5 -17.5 lakh
5 million - 17.5 lakh +
Final recommendation / summary Arrived at car market by multiplying volume by avg. price
provided by interviewer
What do you think went right while I had done similar guess estimates so this wasn't too difficult.
solving the case?
What do you think could have been I forgot substitution effect (higher income people will prefer
done better while solving the case? luxury cars). Shiv had to nudge me to make me remember that
Outcome of the interview (optional) After the interviews I was called back in and asked point blank
about other shortlists and my pecking order of companies. I
truthfully told them that ATK was 3rd on my priority (probably a
bad idea)
50
AMAZON
51
APPLE
DELOITTE
52
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third) First
Personal interview questions (please Something unique about you?
write the questions only) Any other hobbies?
Why consulting?
Comments on the PI rounds (please I had practiced the answers to all these questions and that
elaborate on what went right and helped.
what could have been done better)
Case question (as narrated by the Guesstimate: Number of books (non-academic) that people in
interviewer) Mohali campus would read in a month (Question linked to my
hobby)
How did you define the scope of the
case
Case Analysis presented by you Identified students, spouses, faculty, admin etc and gave
approximate number for each. Went ahead to estimate
percentage of people who would read books in each category
and then estimated average number of books per month
Final recommendation / summary Came up with a number (which I felt was slightly on the higher
side) and told the interviewer that it was an optimistic estimate.
He agreed….
What do you think went right while It was an easy straightforward guesstimate and I structured the
solving the case? whole thing as a tree.
What do you think could have been He asked me for any alternative ways of arriving at the number. I
done better while solving the case? came up with one but it was not what he was expecting:
Calculating the number of free hours that each student/ spouse
would have in a month and then estimating how much time in
that time people would devote to reading, then calculate
number of pages read per hour and number of pages per book to
arrive at a number. I couldn’t have thought of that one on my
own but when he explained it to me, I agreed that it was a good
approach.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Went through to the next round
53
different markets….
How did you define the scope of the Repeated the question. Ensured that I understood the expansion
case meant geographic expansion. Clarified the kind of clients the
company had (firms or individuals). Deloitte has quant heavy
cases so I knew from the beginning that I would be given data as
I went along.
Case Analysis presented by you I initially considered internal and external factors while choosing
the geographic market and listed quite a few (about 12). They
agreed and gave me details about the population, growth rate,
profitability, competition etc. I ruled out some companies and
shortlisted 2. They told me to proceed with Australia. They then
provided me more detailed statistics about Australian
customers, competitors and segments they were in. I had to
decide between starting from scratch, acquisition and alliance.
We chose an alliance with a company of suitable size. (I say “we”
because it was more like a discussion and I took them through
my thought process and they agreed with my logic). They then
told me to switch hats, assume that our client has decided to
start from scratch and that they have already made an
investment. They gave me a future investment to be made and
profitability of customers, discount rate etc. Had to do an NPV
calculation to see if the investment was justified (ignoring the
sunk costs). It was…. That was the end of the case
Final recommendation / summary They did not want a summary. It was a pretty long case with
quite a few numbers and percentages. 35 mins or so. They
simply said thank you….
What do you think went right while The interviewers were quite happy with some details and points
solving the case? which I captured (mainly from solving other cases). For example,
I considered the average age of the population in the country
that we sought to enter as it was an insurance firm. I was also
very quick to neglect sunk costs (a core economic concept) which
they were happy to see. These small things are the things which
set you apart.
What do you think could have been One number that I calculated: I said “roughly 33 million” and the
done better while solving the case? interviewer said “why roughly?” because that was the exact
number. I could have shown more confidence in saying 33
million
Outcome of the interview (optional) Went through to the next round
54
Comments on the PI rounds (please
elaborate on what went right and
what could have been done better)
Case question (as narrated by the Elevator pitch: present the case that you solved in the second
interviewer) round in 5 mins (because they had to go golfing! )
How did you define the scope of the Checked if I could use flipcharts… I did…
case
Case Analysis presented by you Quick summary of problem, some numbers and final
recommendations
Final recommendation / summary
What do you think went right while Although unexpected, I didn’t lose my cool. I couldn’t remember
solving the case? some details because I had another interview in between the
two rounds but I filled in the gaps as best as I could
What do you think could have been I did not practice presenting summaries as much as I had
done better while solving the case? practiced solving cases. I could have done a better job if I had
been better prepared
Outcome of the interview (optional) Got an offer!
55
case
Case Analysis presented by you None
Final recommendation / summary None
What do you think went right while None
solving the case?
What do you think could have been None
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Advanced to Round 2.
56
Finally, they asked me to estimate the market size and market
share for our client based on the segments that I recommended
in 2020.
Final recommendation / summary The client should enter the Brazilian market and focus on
insurance products for the middle class segment within a certain
age bracket (I deduced from graphs) and income levels of 20K to
50K USD. I outlined certain modes of entry like greenfield
operations, JV, acquisition of a local player and franchise models
and mentioned their merits and demerits.
What do you think went right while I was able to deduce major trends from the graphs shown and
solving the case? recommend the correct segments that the client should focus
on.
What do you think could have been While calculating the market size for the client, I overestimated
done better while solving the case? the penetration of financial products in the Brazilian market,
which led to larger than expected size. I should have been more
realistic in justifying my assumptions
Outcome of the interview (optional) Advanced to Round 3, backed out of the process after receiving
an offer from another firm.
57
number.
Final recommendation / summary This was a stress interview. The total interview was less than 10
minutes! Was not allowed any time to think and my questions
(on case) were mostly dismissed.
What do you think went right while My initial assumptions and the fact that I divided the circles into
solving the case? two broad sizes struck a cord.
What do you think could have been I wasn’t given any time. Only 2 minutes to come up with a
done better while solving the case? number. I took around 3. Note that I completely forgot that I had
to calculate 3G sites and not 2G! This was a mistake I realized
when I was done with the interview. The time pressure caused
me to slip the 3G part.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Invited for Round 2
58
solving the case? possible reasons and narrowed it down thereafter.
What do you think could have been I was asked to apply a framework to come up with the solution. I
done better while solving the case? was stuck here as I couldn’t think of a framework which would
work for this tech. case. However, the partner helped me
identify few variables such as ‘time’ and then I chipped in with
the rest, such as ‘cost’.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Invited for Round 3.
59
solving the case?
What do you think could have been No case
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to Round 2
60
FTE meant and how it slightly differed from employee count.
Next, I wrote down the FTE count next to the nation wise cost
and did a quick calculation of cost per FTE. The cost per FTE was
very high for some nations and I advised that we can rationalize
cost by moving these services to nations with lesser FTE. I also
explained qualitative factors such as quality of service, time gap,
back up options that need to be considered before the service
can be moved.
They asked me if I had questions for them and I asked what firm
initiatives include.
What do you think went right while There was no case solving methodology that I could have used
solving the case? for the case. Do not panic and narrow down to the solution
directly.
In such a scenario, I used the standard approach of gather,
analyze, observe and recommend which means 1) try to gather
as much information for the case. Do not reach to any conclusion
at this stage 2) Analyze the facts of the case and ask for their
agreement regularly so that you know that you are not
completely off 3) Make observations based on the facts and
analysis of the facts. Here you can try to fit in concepts that you
may have learnt either at ISB or from your work experience 4)
Recommend but make sure you do not say anything definitive.
Keep scope to include further improvisations to your
recommendations
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to round 3
61
Name Harsh Parikh
Name of company interviewing with Deloitte – S&O
Name and designation of the Santosh and another partner (Both were partners)
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third) Third
Personal interview questions (please No PI question
write the questions only)
Comments on the PI rounds (please No PI question
elaborate on what went right and
what could have been done better)
Case question (as narrated by the They explained that one of them was the CEO of the company
interviewer) where you conducted the review and asked you to present the
finding in 5 minutes.
How did you define the scope of the I used the Issue – Analysis – Root cause – Recommendation
case approach to explain the problem at hand and used the white
Case Analysis presented by you board to explain each. While doing the presentation, I
Final recommendation / summary mentioned that I had a lengthy discussion with my colleagues
(named my round 2 interviewers…some schmoozing helps) and
then suggested recommendations. Santosh then asked me if it
was safe to outsource work to India. I had read a report on
outsourcing work to India and quoted the policies being set up to
take care of these problems.
What do you think went right while The partner chuckled when I referred to the previous
solving the case? interviewers as my colleagues. Stick to case methodology as
much as you can.
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Offer extended
62
I worked with Deloitte India for 7 years and was able to relate to
the Deloitte processes and practices, hence the conversation
was very relaxed in each round.
Case question (as narrated by the Round 1 - It was a short guesstimate case –
interviewer) How many lamp posts are there between Marriot Chandigarh
and ISB Mohali
Round 2 – A US based telco, which was the market leader for
almost a decade is now seeing deckling revenue trends for the
last 2-3 years – WHY?
How did you define the scope of the Round 1 – I assumed that the distance between the Hotel and
case campus is 10 km and that there is a lamp post at every 100
metres. Did the math and multiplied by two since there is a lamp
post on both sides of the road.
Round 2 –Broke it down into industry trends, market share,
competitor performance, revenue components and asked
questions around these parameters.
Case Analysis presented by you After much probing and questioning I understood that the
Company was heavily dependent on call and message revenue
whereas the customer was moving towards applications like
viber, whatsapp and skype. Also it was targeting only 60-70% of
the smart phone customers.
In the end I was also asked to calculate the expected revenue
based on my recommendations and additional information
shared during the discussion.
Final recommendation / summary Round 3 – Presentation on case analysis to partner and director
Recommended that the company should focus on acquiring
more smart phone consumers, offer better value added services,
can possibly bind consumers with attractive contracts and
postpaid offers ( better than those offered by competitors)
What do you think went right while The case prep really helped. It is advisable to sit with a bunch of
solving the case? friends and try to solve cases. Discussions with others help you
gather various view points. You are also more structured in your
approach and are able to break down the problem statement
into logical steps.
What do you think could have been When I started asking questions around the case, I realized I was
done better while solving the case? scribbling all over that piece of paper. The interviewers do peep
into that paper every now and then to see what your thought
process is. It would have been better if I were more organized in
jotting down information and creating buckets of information
shared.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Received an offer.
63
HUL – INTERNAL CONSULTING
Round 2: This had multiple short cases. Ill mention them below.
1. There is a straight road from Zurich to Paris on which you are
sending an air tight truck. The truck is standing at the factory
door at Zurich and is packed completely (i.e., no more packing
efficiency possible). Your manager comes and asks you to reduce
the transportation costs by 50%. Give atleast 2 ways
2. You are an analyst at Goldman. Your manager asks for one
financial metric to judge Unilever’s performance. What will this
one metric be?
3. You have 3 products. All your costs are variable. How can you
improve your gross margins? Remember no fixed costs and
variable costs cannot be decreased.
4. Give 4 ways how you can reduce production cost of Kissan
Jam.
5. Unilever needs to setup a new detergent plant in Africa.
Which country should it set it up in?
64
Final recommendation / summary NA
`What do you think went right while Keep your cool. This was a stress interview with not the standard
solving the case? case questions. There is no time to use any framework. Just go
with an open mind and treat the questions like brain teasers.
What do you think could have been I had no idea this would be the interview pattern. I would have
done better while solving the case? been a little more relaxed. At times I got nervous and got a
feeling that I messed up the interview. But that was not the case.
Just go with an open mind and expect some tough questions.
Moreover, the interviewers were not appreciating too many
cross questions on the mini cases. So avoid that if possible.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Offer made.
65
MCKINSEY & COMPANY
66
baskets, where ITC is currently not present and suggested the
following:
Iron & Steel
Automobiles
Pharmaceutical
Cement
Financial Services
Industry Structure
Competition
Customers
Sourcing
Distribution
Entry Barriers
Regulation
Manufacturing technology
Investment
Brand loyalty/ customer
stickiness
B. Competitive Positioning
Revenue synergies
Cross selling advantages
Effect on product quality of the
67
current and entry business
(Pricing and volume effects)
Cost Synergies
Economies of scale
Sourcing/distribution benefits
Technological benefits
SG&A savings
68
Name Nishant Kedia
Renny also told me that since the chemical was a by-product from
the cement plant, the cost of production was very low, which
helped the client to price it very competitively. I enquired further
about the current cost, the cost to manufacture it standalone and
the competition prices. The standalone cost was more than the
current price. Hence, if the client manufactures the chemical self
69
or even outsource, he will have to increase the prices. It means
increasing prices across the board, including his current customers
also.
Now Renny asked me whether increasing price was the only way?
Or should he forget about the prospect of manufacturing more
chemical?
I told him that price increase for the current customers is not an
advisable option as it will bring a lot of bad publicity in the market.
My recommendation was to segment the market by using certain
additives and changing chemical compositions to increase the
price for newer customers. For this the client should build a
demand curve by:
- Studying the manufacturing costs for all the
manufacturers in Gujarat. The bigger suppliers will be able
to manufacture at a lower price as compared to the
smaller ones. Plotting the total capacity with the
manufacturing costs gives the supply curve
- Plotting customer’s willingness to pay gives the demand
curve
Since the industry had excess demand at current prices, I advised
to look at the excess demand with increasing prices. Based on the
size of demand and ease of differentiation, we can decide
whether manufacturing should be undertaken or not. Assuming
certain market share for the excess demand at a price, profitability
as a function of price can be found and maximized.
Final Recommendation/ Summary No specific recommendations as the numbers were not available.
Recommendation was to look at ways of differentiating and
choosing a price to maximize the profits.
What went right? I was able to use the information given by the interviewer well
and make specific inferences. The interviewed looked happy with
my structure as I covered all the relevant aspects.
What could have been done better? I missed a few facts which were stated by interviewer in the
beginning. The interviewer looked slightly displeased when I asked
for the facts again. But, my overall performance in the interview
covered for it.
It is very important to be alert and note down all facts during the
case discussion.
Outcome of the interview Shortlisted for Round 2
70
Round Round 2 Interview 1
Personal Interview Questions It was a complete PI round. Shirish also discussed a project he was
pursuing with the government and we had a short discussion on
certain aspects of it.
Shirish covered a range of PI questions:
Tell me about yourself
Questions on the entire Extracurricular section
Most significant achievement in ITC
Why Consulting? Why McKinsey?
Comments on PI Interview Shirish gave me a feedback that my both interviews went well.
Knowing that gave me a lot of confidence.
After giving about 8 interviews in the day I was answering what I
truly believed (might have been somewhat different from what I
prepared ). I felt that I had a great connect with the interviewer
and my confidence grew exponentially. It was a 10-min chat and
by the end of 5 mins I realized that a happy news is round the
corner.
Case Question NA
Scope of the case NA
Case Analysis NA
Final Recommendation/ Summary NA
What went right? My performance in the first two rounds strengthened my chances
What could have been done better? NA
Outcome of the interview Made an offer
71
Case question (as narrated by the There is an IT services company with $3Bn in revenues and a
interviewer) growth rate of 20%. It is among the top 6 players in its area. The
current margins are 17%. CEO thinks that he can increase the
margin. What do you think CEO should do, should he increase
the margins?
How did you define the scope of the I asked initial questions regarding how other firms in the top 6
case bracket are doing, what is their revenue, growth %, margins. One
objective is to see whether we can increase margins is there any
other objective? No. of employees. He told me that we are
growing well on the revenue side, however, the top player has a
margin of 25% and average margin is 20% and margin is the only
objective. He gave me some figure for total number of
employees. On this I said that we are on the lower side and
probably, we do have a scope of increasing our margins. I further
asked him: Where does our client operate? What is the business
model? He told me that it is an India based IT company with
clients in the US. Sujit then asked me to come up with the
business model.
I drew the following:
Acquiring Clients -> Negotiating the contract and finalizing the
requirements -> Developing and Testing -> Deploying the
solution -> Maintenance
He was satisfied with the model.
Case Analysis presented by you I then asked for sometime to think (the usual 2 min.
brainstorming time that every consulting candidate thinks as
his/her birthright by the end of case preparation). This seemed
more of a profitability case (I realized how deep a profitability
case can run) hence I thought of the usual revenue/cost. Since,
Sujit mentioned in the case stem and also while scoping that on
revenue side we are doing well, I did not go into the revenue
side. I asked him about how costs are distributed in various
activities in the value chain (business model) that I just drew and
what are competitors’ costs in the same activity. He gave me a
few numbers: 25% for Acquiring clients and negotiating (at par
with competition), 63% of the costs are in Development &
testing + Deploying + maintenance and 12% are in SG&A. He did
not tell about competitor breakup in the latter two components.
I said that since 63% of the costs are in Development & testing +
Deploying + maintenance, and hence is the major chunk of cost, I
would like to proceed with it, to which Sujit nodded.
I again took some time and broke up these three into people
cost and Project cost (going with MECE). On this Sujit asked me
what do I mean by project cost. I told him that these are the
costs associated with project delays (contractual obligations). He
said suppose there are no penalties if we delay the project, do
you think there could be other costs if we delay the project. I
told him that there could be costs in terms of lost revenue
72
because if one project is delayed then there would be a
cascading effect on other projects. He said so do you think this is
a problem. I could sense some catch here and asked him for a
moment. I referred back to the initial problem and saw that
revenue growth is good. I told Sujit that since revenue is growing
and our objective is only to see if we can increase the margin,
this is not a problem. He was happy. I then took his permission
to delve deep into the employee cost. I broke the employee cost
into Salary, Infrastructure (i.e. machine per person, office rent
etc.), Hiring cost, Training Cost, attrition. I asked him one by one
about each and for every expense he said that we are paying as
per the industry standard (he never said whether our total cost
for a particular employee cost head is more or less). At this time,
I read what I had written earlier while scoping the case. I realized
that clients are in the US and hence there must be some
employees in the US as well. I asked Sujit that I think there would
certain employees in the US and their salaries and other expense
would be more than Indian counterparts, so I would like to know
what percentage of our employee are in the US and the same
figure for the competitor. He told me that we have 30%
employee in the US and our competitor has 25% employees in
the US.
This was my Aha moment, when I thought I had nailed the
problem. I asked him for average employee cost in the US vs
India. He gave me some numbers for per hour revenue and cost
per employee in US and India and their Utilization (US 100%
utilization, India 75% utilization). I actually took a very long route
to do the math (took total employees and did the calculation).
Did some minor error midway which I corrected myself. He then
asked me cant you calculate per employee, to which I said “Yes
that is what I should have done”. I did some calculation (with
minor glitches, which Sujit helped to correct).
Final recommendation / summary Overall, after saying that we should reduce our number of
employees in the US I calculated that our margins would be
around 22%. Sujit asked what could be potential problems with
this, to which I replied that we must look at what kind and
number of clients we handle vis-à-vis what kind and number of
clients does our competitor handles. Also, our employees’ skill
level might be lower hence if we need to reduce the number of
employees we need to put more money in training. By this time,
the time was almost over (and there was some random person
who was calling in the landline of the office in which interview
was being conducted, that bugged me twice in the middle of
solving the case), Sujit said we do not have time left for PI, shook
hands and I left.
What do you think went right while Asking the right questions. Maintaining calm even when I
solving the case? committed a few errors while doing the Math and going back to
whatever data/information interviewer gave me. Followed MECE
73
at every point.
What do you think could have been The calculation part.
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next interview of the same round
74
How did you define the scope of the N/A
case
Case Analysis presented by you I realized that this was not a structured case, rather Rajat
wanted to see my approach to a problem from multiple
dimensions. He kept me asking for more ways. In the end, I gave
him 6 ways to find his years of experience in Mckinsey.
1) Simple way: Public Information, ask your colleagues
2) Number of projects you have done * average time per
project.
3) Since you are a Director and you must have started from
Junior Associate, hence, would see number of levels
between them * average time taken for promotion from
one level to the other
4) Find out McKinsey’s employee strength when you
joined, average growth rate in employee strength and
current employee strength. Would find out your number
of years in McKinsey from that.
5) Some other way I forgot.
6) Final nail -> Find out your salary and see how much
experience is required to get that paycheck. :P
Final recommendation / summary Rajat was impressed by 6 ways to find out his years of
experience at McKinsey.
Please do not underestimate your extra-curricular and PI. PI is
extremely important and you must prepare well for it and
personalize your PI answers. Cases are standard, but your PI is
you.
What do you think went right while I think PI in itself went so well that Case was a smooth ride.
solving the case?
What do you think could have been None
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Shortlisted for round 2
75
elaborate on what went right and
what could have been done better)
Case question (as narrated by the None
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the NA
case
Case Analysis presented by you NA
Final recommendation / summary NA
What do you think went right while NA
solving the case?
What do you think could have been NA
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Got the offer.
76
So,
Power : 40MTOE inhouse 10MTOE import
Transport: 10MTOE inhouse 40MTOE import
I asked growth in demand, it was 10% YOY for both power and
transport. 2030 was 16 years away, so using rule of 72 I
calculated that demand will quadruple to 400 and a bit more
(72/10 = 7.2 years to double)
I asked about growth in supply , for power we have unlimited
coal so we can ramp up faster and meet all the demand. For
transport our supply can grow at 3% YOY . Which I calculated to
go approx from 10 to 15 over 16 years (again rule of 72)
So in 2030
Power Demand 200 inhouse supply 200
Transport Demand 200 inhouse supply 15 import 185!!!
Final recommendation / summary Wasn't asked to summarize. But answer to case was two words -
77
- Electric cars
What do you think went right while Almost everything. I never went on tangents or jumped to
solving the case? solutions. Clarifying questions helped separate out power &
transport.
I established the size of shortage first hence was able to
confidently reject solutions pertaining to reducing demand and
increasing supply because of the impact was too small.
What do you think could have been Not much. I think even the time taken by me to say 'electric
done better while solving the case? cars' was actually appreciated by Jaidit because I hadn't
approached the case with a solution in mind and had reached
there in a very logical manner.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Everyone had to do 2 interviews in Round 1
78
1. Do nothing - Distributors will be disappointed but they will
not leave us as we have good relations with them for chemical
distribution.
2a. Produce ourselves - Current cement plant is at capacity so
we will have to Increase production capacity and Since we have
no plans for expanding chemical plants, we will need to buy
inputs from market or competitors
2b. Buy it from elsewhere - Company can simply buy more
cement and give to distributors
79
India
How did you define the scope of the Case: Interviewer was looking for more of an approach to solve
case the problem of bench strength. So I didn’t spend too much time
in scoping. I just enquired about current operations and if there
are some issues we are seeing for which answers were either
“irrelevant for the case” or “Assume anything”
Case Analysis presented by you Case: After the scoping I thought about the problem for some
time and then told interviewer that I would like to apply the
concepts of supply chain in it. Somnath smiled and asked me to
explain the approach.
80
Name Amit Gupta
Name of company interviewing with Mckinsey & Company
Name and designation of the Sasi Sunkara (Partner)
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third)First Round 2nd Interview
Personal interview questions (pleaseOnly couple of questions:
write the questions only) 1) Tell me about yourself?
2) How do you used to adapt to different work cultures?
(Related to my travel during Job)
3) Did you like travelling?
4) What was your father’s job?! (Since I told him that as I
child I never stayed at one place for more than 3-4 years)
spent most of the PI time on this
Comments on the PI rounds (please Very brief PI and I think main objective was to connect with the
elaborate on what went right and interviewer which I did I guess.
what could have been done better)
Case question (as narrated by the The client is an agricultural input retail chain and they are facing
interviewer) stock outs and overstocking.
How did you define the scope of the Did the scoping in usual suspects (Product, time and Geography).
case Summary of scoping: Problem was with all the products and all
the stores. Recommendations were expected for short as well as
long term.
Case Analysis presented by you Then drew the value chain and asked specific questions to
identify the value chain component which had issue.
Value chain:
Procurement -> Inbound Logistics -> Warehousing -> Stores
Some representative questions:
Procurement:
- Are the supplier lead times reliable?
- Does he give some kind of bulk discounts?
Inbound logistics:
- Are inbound lead times reliable?
- What is shrinkage percentage?
Warehousing:
- What kind of network model? (Asked because
interviewer mentioned that replenishment lead time to
stores are high)
Stores:
- What is the process for replenishment orders? Is
forecasting done etc.
Final summary of analysis:
- Replenishment was done at adhoc and intuitive basis.
- No processes were followed.
- All products were given same importance.
- Only one warehouse in North India was directly used to
satisfy pan-India demand
Final recommendation / summary Short term:
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1) Implement planning processes
2) Define KPIs and benchmark against the industry
3) Do product segmentation to identify the highest value
products and put special care in replenishments
4) Cost-benefit analysis for every bulk discounts availed?
(Supply Chain Costs vs Discount)
Long Term:
1) Implement IT systems to do replenishments in stores
and monitoring
2) Move to Hub and spoke model
Few more but doesn’t remember all!
What do you think went right while I was able to draw the value chain accurately and identify the
solving the case? value chain component which was an issue.
I think my prior experience in supply chain and agricultural
products helped in giving some realistic recommendations. Sasi
did mention that he is going to apply few of the
recommendations in his current case.
One tip: Prepare well for the cases from your background. Also,
try and apply some of the insights in the case.
What do you think could have been I guess maybe I went to too much in detail of the problem and
done better while solving the case? therefore took more than 20 minutes for the case.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to the next round
82
solving the case?
What do you think could have been NA
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Got the offer!
83
segment or any other category in the consumer finance
business. Renny told me that the company entered the
insurance business, something which I missed, but my idea of
new business and the logic behind it was correct.
What do you think went right while I understood the nature of the business pretty well at the
solving the case? starting of the case and was able to form a hypothesis which I
treaded upon during the case discussion.
What do you think could have been I missed the insurance point and also I did not have any
done better while solving the case? questions to ask Renny at the end of the interview. I just threw
one random question to him at the end of the interview. So my
advice would be to prepare at least one question for each
interviewer.
Outcome of the interview (optional)
84
How did you define the scope of the I asked Shirish to define the adequate return the company wants
case to earn but he instead asked me to define the adequate return
for a cement manufacturer. At that moment, I was stunned and
thought that this interview was a goner. I then asked him for
some time to think about the problem and I then realized that it
was a simple NPV analysis where I first needed to calculate the
IRR company should earn and then calculate the price for that
IRR.
Case Analysis presented by you I told Shirish that I would first calculate the cost of capital and
then would add some margin over it for calculating the IRR. He
then told me that the cost of capital would be the adequate
return and there is no need to add any margin.
M: I will calculate the cost of equity first and then cost of debt to
calculate WACC
S: let’s calculate cost of equity first
M: I need risk free rate, so in India it would be around 8-9%
looking at the government securities. Is that fine?
S: ya, take it as 8%
M: I need to estimate the beta now. For cyclical industries it will
be greater than 1 and for stable industries, it will be less than 1.
S: What do you think of the cement industry? Volatile of stable
M: I think it’s a volatile industry. So beta should be more than 1
S: Correct, it is very volatile. Can you give an example of a stable
industry?
M: Healthcare industry is very stable
S: Right. So now estimate the beta of cement industry
M: I think it will be around 2.
S: Smiled and told me that it’s not that volatile either
M: I corrected it and said that it would be around 1.3
S: Ya, take it as 1.3
M: Now, knowing the risk free rate and the beta, I need to know
the historical market return.
S: So, what do you think will be the market rate of return
M: In US, it’s around 10% for the last 30yrs, in India it should be
around 15%
S: Ya, take it as 15%
M: I calculated the cost of equity and then moved to estimate
the cost of debt. I said since the risk free rate is around 8%, the
cost of debt should be around 10-11%.
S: Take it as 10%
M: I then calculated the WACC. Now I needed to use the NPV
equation to calculate price. So, I asked him about the variable
costs and other fixed costs.
S: He asked me to assume the gross margin to be 30% and fixed
costs to be INR 100/yr and let’s do it for one year.
M: I thought that he is just looking for logic and I oversimplified
things, ignoring taxes and depreciation in the calculation and
came out with an answer.
85
S: Your answer is incorrect because you have ignored two
important things. Can you tell me what are they?
M: I said I ignored taxes.
S: Right, there is one more thing.
M: Got confused and thought maybe there is a mistake in the
logic and I tried to gauge it by talking to him.
S: You are still missing one thing.
M: I ignored working capex
S: You ignored depreciation.
M: Right, I was oversimplifying things. So what depreciation
should I take?
S: Assume the life of project to be 20 years. Now calculate the
price of a cement bag
M: I calculated something but he told me that the answer was
incorrect. I checked my calculations and it seemed to be alright
but I decided to not contest further.
S: I think we have reached the end of the case. Any questions for
me.
M: Ended the interview without asking any questions.
Final recommendation / summary Recommended the price of a cement bag but more than the
answer, the discussion I had with him was important. I could
figure out during the interview that he was enjoying discussing
the case with me.
What do you think went right while My interaction with Shirish and the way I approached the case
solving the case? involving him at every point worked for me.
What do you think could have been I oversimplified things in between which I should not have done.
done better while solving the case? Always state your assumptions to the interviewer.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Was told at the end of the interview that both the interviews
went well and I should wait for the 2ndround call.
86
what could have been done better) it clear that at least one of the directors had given his nod. Rajat,
while asking all the above questions was checking out his Ipad
and he seemed to be a little distracted which somehow made
me lose my enthusiasm and my voice dropped a bit. But I was
lucky enough to realize well within time that I needed to speak
loud and clear and still carry the same enthusiasm whatever be
the outcome.
Case question (as narrated by the No Case
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the
case
Case Analysis presented by you
Final recommendation / summary
What do you think went right while
solving the case?
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Rajat extended his hand and the offer was made.
Case question (as narrated by the The interview involved 2 short cases:
interviewer) Case 1: How will you go about opening an NGO for abandoned
elderly people? Particularly focus on how you will make it
financially sustainable.
Was asked this case question because of a stint with an NGO.
Solution: Since this was one of those unconventional open ended
cases, I avoided using any framework.
87
I asked a few of opening questions:
1. Where do we intend to open the NGO?
2. Have we already reached out to the elderly people we would
have at the NGO?
3. For making the NGO financially sustainable can we also
consider applying for different licenses – domestic and foreign to
raise funds?
After gathering this info I proceeded to structuring my analysis
into the below:
1. For whom – how will we reach out to these elderly people and
convince them to be a part of our NGO
2. Where – where exactly will we open the NGO in Delhi? This
will be governed by availability of resources (shelter, help etc.)
and concentration of abandoned elderly people in the area
3. What – what activities will happen at the NGO i.e. how do we
intend to help the elderly people in their normal routine
4. How – depending on the what, how do we plan to
fund/finance these activities and hence the NGO
Ruchi liked this structure and asked me to just focus on finding
out on a monthly basis how much money would we need. I again
broke this down into the below (as the list of things we would
need money for):
1. Food
2. Shelter – rent, utilities, maintenance, housekeeping etc
3. Clothing
4. Monthly activities – city trips, self help/spiritual sessions etc.
Again Ruchi was fairly satisfied on how I broke the analysis and
concluded this discussion and moved onto the second case
Case 2: An Indian retail bank wants to expand its deposit base.
How will you help them?
Solution: I asked the below questions to define the problem –
1. What products are we looking at – savings, current or Fixed
deposits? Ruchi asked to focus only on savings.
2. What does the current savings deposit base stand at? By how
much do we want to increase it?
Ruchi gave me same numbers which I don’t remember now
3. Given the target increase, is it safe to assume that the industry
is growing well to be able to achieve it? Yes
After gathering this information I structured the case analysis
into 2 components –
1. Penetration – how to get more deposits from existing
customers i.e. increase share-of-wallet
2. Acquisition – how to acquire new customers to increase our
deposits
Again here Ruchi gave me more numbers that how much more
can we expect to get from existing customers. From the
calculations it appeared that a major portion (around 90%) of
the target increase in deposits had to come from new customers.
88
Ruchi then asked me on a couple of final recommendations on
how can we achieve this
How did you define the scope of the
case
Case Analysis presented by you
Final recommendation / summary To achieve the 90% target increase from new customers, we
could do two things:
1. Aggressive cross-selling efforts – get leads from credit cards
and loan divisions of the bank. Also, look at the current
solicitation process and see how it can be made more effective
2. Sales & marketing campaigns at universities/colleges and
corporate as they help to open new accounts in bulk. Also, more
focus on corporate as will be able to get in more deposit
balances from corporate customers.
What do you think went right while Did not try to force fit any frameworks. Kept communicating my
solving the case? approach/thoughts at regular intervals to the interviewer – this
helped as a sort of validation and also Ruchi felt engaged in the
case analysis
It is important to know your resume very well as the interviewer
may form a case then and there from your resume itself.
What do you think could have been Everything seemed to have gone very well. This was infact my
done better while solving the case? best interview of the day despite being the first one
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to round 2.
89
particular city for pricing as the distribution costs (a major
portion of the cost structure) would be different.
Shirish said to consider let’s say Mumbai and that there is
sufficient demand.
Case Analysis presented by you I laid down the typical structure of a pricing problem – 1) Cost
based 2) Value based 3) Comparables. Shirish asked to consider
only cost based pricing.
I then listed the various components of cost structure:
1) Manufacturing costs
2) Distribution/Transportation costs
3) Sales & Marketing
Shirish gave me all these numbers per bag. After calculating the
total per bag, Shirish asked me that how I would decide the cost
plus mark up on a per bag basis. Here I got stuck a little bit as I
could not think that the mark up would be governed by the
WACC of the capex.
Shirish then asked me a couple of questions on WACC that
whether it will be of the plant or the firm and that how will you
calculate it etc.
Then Shirish gave me the WACC number as 9%.
After that the calculations were simple:
Cost per bag = Variable Cost per bag + (1+WACC)*capex per bag
Final recommendation / summary
What do you think went right while Asked the right upfront questions. Did not assume that only cost
solving the case? plus pricing method would be used.
One should never assume anything even if it seems to be the
right method, should always verify with the interviewer
What do you think could have been Should have thought of the WACC angle.
done better while solving the case? I kept telling Shirish that the mark up would depend on the rate
of return the client expects on the plant. Shirish asked me to
think what it should at the minimum.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to round 3
90
Name Nidhi Arora
Name of company interviewing with Mckinsey & Company
Name and designation of the Jaidit Brar, Partner
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third)Third
Personal interview questions (pleaseJaidit is one of the nicest persons to talk to at Mckinsey. He is
write the questions only) extremely friendly and it helps a lot to calm down your nerves!
How many interviews have you given today so far?
What was your experience of the first 2 interviews at Mckinsey?
Why do you want to do consulting?
What is your biggest achievement at ISB?
Comments on the PI rounds (please The PI part went very well and I could strike a connect with
elaborate on what went right and Jaidit. He was smiling all through after this during the case
what could have been done better)
Case question (as narrated by the Before giving the case, Jaidit said that we will do a simple case
interviewer) and we will try to do it jointly and that I can take as much time as
I needed. This made me feel all the more comfortable.
The case question was that we need to reduce the waiting times
at the Delhi-Gurgaon toll. How should we go about it?
How did you define the scope of the I asked Jaidit a few opening questions:
case 1) What are the current wait times?
2) By how much do we want to reduce it?
3) What are the times of the day when the problem is most
acute?
Case Analysis presented by you I then listed down the various reasons due to which long waits
occur:
1) Lower capacity
2) Variability in demand/arrival rates
3) Variability in servicing rate
I told Jaidit that we can see what measures can be taken to
address each of these issues and reduce waiting times. He was
very pleased with this approach and asked me to consider the
last point.
I asked him what causes the variability in service rate. He asked
me to come up with a few and I listed the below two:
1) Variability in processing time of the server
2) The price charged per trip as sometimes giving back the
change in coins becomes time consuming
Jaidit was happy with what I came up with and added one more -
the different times taken by car drivers to position the car
correctly besides the booth.
After this Jaidit just closed the discussion saying that the way you
are analyzing the problem you will be able to solve it.
Final recommendation / summary
What do you think went right while Jaidit was not really looking for a solution but the approach and
solving the case? how I was communicating it to him.
One thing that really helped me here was OPMG as I
91
remembered the basics from the queuing theory. It is important
to revise some of the core term courses and remember the
application!
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Was made an offer!
92
SD: Where does the firm operate?
SS: Pan India
SD: Since when has there been a problem.
SS: CEO is not sure if there is a problem as such.
SD: In that case we should first try and see if there is really a
problem.
SS: Exactly. What are some measures you will look at to detect if
there is a problem or not?
SS: I will take 2 mins to come with a list of metrics.
Sasi was very convinced with the discussion and seem satisfied.
End of case.
93
people were referring to. The initial general discussion which I
had really eased me out and then the interview was more of a
discussion than an interview which really helped especially
because of the finance phobia that I had. As one of my buddies
had told me that the more you speak in an interview the chances
of you making a mistake increases. So let the interviewer also
speak and turn the interview into a discussion. That is exactly
what happened and both the interviewer and myself were very
satisfied.
What do you think could have been Frankly speaking I think all my McK interviews were like a dream
done better while solving the case? come true. I think everything was just fine. But in this case if I
still have to point out something it will be the final question
which I had asked. I think I asked a question which almost
everyone would have asked Sasi and probably could have
something better.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round.
How did you define the scope of the I was a little surprised by the case. I took a couple of minutes off
94
case before I started and was quick to start thinking.
Case Analysis presented by you I started by saying that considering the size of the country and
the current strength of the AAP it is not possible for them to
fight elections impactfully across the country. So we need to look
at 2 main points i.e., resources and possible impact. In the mean
time I thought of a 2X2 to represent this. I felt I was having a
good day coz never in any case practice session I had ever made
a 2X2. This kind of boosted my confidence. However, I was a
little skeptical to use this especially since many buddies had
asked not to use standard terms. Moreover since this was a McK
interview I was not sure if I should use a BCG 2X2. I was clearly
over thinking. Please avoid this.
I then drew the 2X2 on the paper and started discussion on that.
SD: We can then classify all the states into each of the 4 quarters
and definitely target the ones where resources required are low
and probability of winning is high and avoid the opposite
quadrant. The other two quadrants will need to be decided on a
case by case basis.
At this point I was a little out of ideas and asked for a minute.
95
AAP should avoid UP and other such states. Next, we can look at
a state where resources required will be relatively less and
probability of winning is higher. West Bengal/Kerala could be an
eg. of this as people are more educated and hence AAP’s anti
corruption image might strike a chord with the voters.
Moreover, caste based politics being minimal in these states
might work in AAP’s favor. In addition frustration with the
existing political parties and lack of a good alternative could be
perfect for AAP.
Jaidit was very impressed with the question as it was not one of
the regular ones and talked in detail about what he felt. He went
ahead and even spoke about things one learns in consulting
which will hamper someone as an entrepreneur. We had a good
5-7 minute discussion on this.
Final recommendation / summary SD: As discussed, AAP should not go about fighting the LS polls
across the county due to time and resource constraint. It should
classify the states on the 2X2 matrix and have a state wise
strategy and form alliances with a political regional organizations
but not before doing a thorough check on their background.
What do you think went right while Not force fitting a framework where not applicable helped.
solving the case? I had read in the previous case books that connecting with the
interviewer always helps. However, did not really understand
96
what it really meant. But after this interview I realized what
people were referring to. The initial PI questions really eased me
out and then the interview was more of a discussion than an
interview. In this case even the last question which I asked Jaidit
impressed him and helped me leave a mark as the interview
ended.
Finally watching Arnab Goswami on news hour every night
helped me with some facts.
What do you think could have been Frankly speaking I think all my McK interviews were like a dream
done better while solving the case? come true. In this case I think everything was just fine could not
have asked for a better interview.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round.
I was a little surprised and spoke about the FIF process which I
myself was not 100% clear about and confused him.
97
Case Analysis presented by you NA
Final recommendation / summary NA
What do you think went right while NA
solving the case?
What do you think could have been NA
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Made an offer
98
the other segment – namely, affluent and HNI individuals – and
estimated that a high value property would typically account for
upto 25% of their net worth and based on that I would need to look
at people worth more than INR 16 cr or so. But again I was finding
it difficult to proceed.
99
Sources of revenue:
Sale of apartment – primary source of revenue (ignored
the rest)
Sale of parking space, etc
Fees for club facilities, security, etc
I said about Rs. 40k/sq ft would be reasonable in Bandra (kept
the context to a neighbourhood I was familiar with).
Cost heads:
Construction cost
o Material
o Labor
o Utilities charges
o Overhead
Land cost – to be ignored
Registration and other regulatory charges – also to be
ignored.
So the main job was to estimate construction cost. I tried to
estimate using a profit margin and then back-calculate. The
figure was wildly overestimated, so Shirish corrected me and
said that about Rs. 1200 – 2000/sq ft would be reasonable,
depending on quality of construction. He also pointed out that
the quality of apartments would be low for the slum dwellers’
rehabilitation and high for the apartments to be sold ( a point
that I had overlooked).
After the second shortlist was put up, I had a short discussion
with a third partner, Sujit, after which they made an offer.
100
Name Pranav Mathur
Name of company interviewing with McKinsey & Company
Name and designation of the Rajat Dhawan (Sr. Partner)
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third) First
Personal interview questions (please The discussion started with standard questions about me, why
write the questions only) consulting etc etc. Rajat was interested in knowing in detail about
my work experience. He asked me a few questions on the same
which I answered easily. Rajat seemed a little distracted and was
working on his ipad throughout; I kept my cool and answered all his
questions.
Comments on the PI rounds (please I explained my work well. Since I had worked on the shop floor, he
elaborate on what went right and asked me specific questions on issues faced in
what could have been done better) operations/manufacturing. I was able to defend these questions
well. This was the first interview of the day for me and I was a bit
nervous (something which Rajat could notice easily). It took me
some time to warm up after which the discussion went smoothly.
My Advice - prepare your resume inside out and know your work
well. The first few minutes of the interview can really help you gain
confidence for tackling what comes next.
Case question (as narrated by the Estimate the number of luxury households in Chandigarh-Mohali
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the This was a standard guess estimate which I had practiced many.
case Me: What is a luxury house-hold ?
RD: Houses with more than INR 4 Crore value.
<Asked some basic questions that I cannot remember now and
then took some time to think about the structure>
Case Analysis presented by you Me: There are two ways to approach this problem, from the
demand side and the supply side.
RD: Proceed with the demand side approach
< I explained my logic of starting with the population in Chandigarh
Mohali and dividing the same based on income distribution of
households. He nodded and asked me to proceed.
I assumed the population as 5 Million, taking average 4 people per
household = 1.25 Million Households. Since financing a house is
done by taking loans, I assumed that the loan is paid over 10 years
with equal monthly installments. This gives us = INR 4 Crore/10
yearly payments = INR 40 Lakhs/year. Now since this money comes
from the disposable income of the individual/household. I assumed
that 40 Lakh would constitute 1/3rd of the disposable income of the
household. => Minimum household disposable income to afford a
luxury home = INR 120 Lakh.
Rajat all this while was doing something else on his ipad and gave
me a nod and an occasional “ok” to validate my approach.
Next, I divided the 1.25 Million households based on annual
disposable income with 60% below 120 Lakhs, 30% between 120 –
250 Lakhs and 10% above 250 Lakhs.
101
At this point, I said that people in the mid/high segment can afford
this but might not necessarily buy a house and hence we need to
factor that in. I drew a structure stating the kind of people who
would be interested – Who currently are in rental accommodation,
who are looking for only an investment opportunity plus some
more which I cant remember now.
Rajat asked me to tell him the final number as he wanted to finish
the interview fast. I took some percentages and arrived at 10% *
1.25 Million = 125,000 households. This number seemed very large
to me and hence I told him that the number looks too big and that
might be because of the percentages we have assumed and we can
validate the same from publically available information on income
groups in Chandigarh/Mohali.
Rajat ended the case and asked me if I had any questions for him.
102
and has asked you to evaluate what they should do about it.
How did you define the scope of the I started by asking basic questions on the company and its relative
case standing in the market. I was told that they are the leaders in
Chemicals and Cement is not their main focus. The distribution
channels are the same and they operate in only one geography. I
enquired regarding profitability and was told that chemical is more
profitable than cement. I also confirmed that the key ingredient in
manufacturing cement is the waste produced in chemicals
manufacturing.
At this point I took some time to think how to approach this.
Case Analysis presented by you I started with analyzing the industry, company, competition and
customer. It turned out that the demand for cement was expected
to go up in future and the client had a very strong name in the
market. Customers were price conscious when buying cement and
our cement was at a premium price as compared to competitive
products.
I told Renny that we have the following options – 1. Open new
plant for cement 2. Expand Capacity in current plant.
In either case, the major challenge was the chemicals waste used as
RM as we would need more of this to manufacture more cement.
This was the crux of the problem. Renny told me that the Chemicals
demand is also increasing however the current plant does not have
space to expand and is running optimally.
I told him that in case we do put up a new plant for Cement, we
would need to establish a chemical plant as well or procure the
waste from outside which would raise costs.
He asked me how will you evaluate this situation to which I
responded saying that I would conduct a financial feasibility study
to check this and compare that with any other opportunities for
investment that I might have. Renny asked me to tell him some
more – to which I mentioned about capabilities/resources required
etc.
Renny told me that assume that the project is financially attractive
even if we procure the waste from the market.
Since procuring waste would increase costs, we had three options –
1. Reduce price 2. Retain Price 3. Increase Price. I talked briefly
about each option and finally suggested that we should conduct a
market research to understand consumer buying behavior better
and then decide what to do with the prices.
Renny asked me if this was my final advice – to which I said yes. He
then asked me why we could not just increase prices as there was
increasing demand in the market. I replied saying that directly
increasing prices would be too risky as there might be long term
implications with distributors etc and we should only do that once
we are fairly confident on the consumer perceptions about price.
Final recommendation / summary Conduct a market survey to gauge price elasticity and then
103
evaluate. This was a risky suggestion as increasing demand in the
market would directly imply that prices would go up. However I
stuck to my answer and said that increasing prices should be based
on careful research as it may lead to long term issues with
downstream partners and customer perceptions.
What do you think went right while This was a very smooth case and I was able to identify the key
solving the case? issues easily. Renny prompted me at the end to change my answer
(from conducting research to just raising prices). However I stuck to
my answer and defended it (something which he appreciated)
What do you think could have been Renny was looking for the traditional supply- demand curves to
done better while solving the case? analyze price variations.
However, as long as you can defend your line of reasoning you
would sail through.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round, which was a general PI and the offer was
made.
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Payroll costs – 70%
Other Operating Costs – 10%
Selling costs – 10%
Admin costs – 10%
We went into some details of each with regard to software and
hardware, and their depreciation/ amortization of a large IT
company.
Next, we focused on the payroll costs and its drivers. I clarified
on the number of employees, location, salary costs, other payroll
costs and outsourcing options. To this information was provided
on the company having employees in both India and US. Indian
employees had lower costs but also lower charge out rates as
compared to US. However, the profitability % was higher for US.
Final recommendation / summary Taking the objective of lowering costs in isolation it may seem
that shifting employees to India is ideal, however, the board
would not appreciate lower revenue and profitability.
Accordingly, recommendations included: (1) Negotiation of
higher charge out rates for Indian employees to enable shift – by
charging based on deliverables instead of employee location. (2)
Looking at China/ Indonesia as alternatives for outsourcing with
lower costs with similar charge out rates as US.
What do you think went right while The case had a standard profitability approach but required
solving the case? detailed numerical analysis to identify the root cause and reason
for the CEO dilemma. The numbers went well and the
interviewer was particularly happy with my recommendations.
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional)
105
what could have been done better) Shirish made me comfortable but was continuously prodding
me with tricky cross questions – maybe to check whether I
contradict myself. Here my PI preparation was put to good use.
Research on the interviewer really helped as we had a long
discussion after soling the case on the specific questions I had
for him.
Case question (as narrated by the This case is based on a case the interviewer gave the previous
interviewer) year. He wanted to know whether I read the Casebook 2013 and
whether I remembered the case facts. The case was given to
Shwaitang (refer Casebook 2013) and further figures were
added. I was asked to compute the break-even FSI for
construction of apartments for existing dwellers.
How did you define the scope of the At first I put forth all facts that I remembered from the case
case given last year with regard to the area of the property, the
conversion of acres to sq. ft., restriction of FSI etc.
I then asked him certain clarifying questions regarding
Options for the real estate developer for land use
Area of development and the kind of customers
Whether existing dwellers were required to pay anything?
I then confirmed that break even FSI was the only objective of
the case, and moved forward.
Case Analysis presented by you As the break-even FSI was required, I formulated the equation
involving various factors on the revenue and the cost side.
The revenue side involved land area for revenue generating real
estate development, FSI, number of apartments, sale price and
sale-ability percentage. I then estimated each of these factors
with FSI as the variable.
The cost side estimation was partly done in the case given in the
previous year. He asked me to estimate the cost of constructing
a flat in a way other than that used last year. I decided to use the
market rate I knew in my hometown and divided that into profit,
land premium and cost. This required a brief guesstimation
exercise for profit and land premium. The next step was
difference in cost of construction between development for
existing dwellers and the one for sale. Here again certain basic
knowledge of real estate was required (I had some work
experience in the area) and I developed a factor for the same
based on area, furnishing etc.
The rest of the case required numerical calculations for coming
up with a break even FSI. However, assumptions here were
critical. Especially with relation number of apartments expected
to be sold at pre-launch and then subsequently at different
rates.
Final recommendation / summary This was a numbers heavy case that required an exact
computation of break even FSI. However, it required various
assumptions and guesstimations that were more a part of the
final summary than the solution.
106
What do you think went right while Staying calm while solving the numerical portions was critical to
solving the case? getting the calculations right. There are no excuses for having
inaccurate calculations and are best done slowly as there are no
points for speed.
The assumptions I made were based on my work experience and
I justified each one of them through examples and logic.
What do you think could have been This was a PI heavy round with a number heavy case. I had gone
done better while solving the case? through Casebook 2013 but never expected that I would be
made to recall facts. I did hesitate initially but with the
interviewer’s help recovered and was able to solve it relatively
smoothly.
Outcome of the interview (optional) This was my second interview with McKinsey, and both went
well. Offer was made after this interview !
107
chemicals player. As to the cement, it was priced lower than
competitors since it was made from waste byproduct but
otherwise equivalent in quality. The sudden spurt in demand was
on account of construction boom (domestic and commercial) in
Gujarat.
Finally, I asked whether our client was looking to enter the
chemicals business in a major way given the rise in demand to
which Renny answered in the negative. So the scope of the case
boiled down to improving profits within the confines of the
existing factory setting.
Case Analysis presented by you I structured the analysis as we could do one of 2 things –
increase supply of our cement or curtail demand.
We could increase supply by increasing the quantity of cement
manufactured from the ancillary unit. This could be achieved by
increasing capacity of the entire plant (including ancillary unit),
reengineering the chemicals manufacturing process to make it
more “inefficient” to generate more waste by product and thus
more cement to sell. However, Renny commented that the plant
was running at full capacity and the company had no immediate
plans of capacity expansion.
To curtail demand, we could simply raise prices of our cement,
yet be lower compared to competitors which would
automatically ensure demand matches supply. This was exactly
what Renny was expecting and said that this is what they advised
the client.
Final recommendation / summary I structured the summary as:
Context: A chemicals manufacturer wants to increase profits
from cement produced in its ancillary plant in the face of
increased demand.
Recommendations:
Short-term: 1) Increase prices of the cement to closely match
those of competitors but still be lower than them. 2) Bundle and
sell cement and chemicals to existing construction clients at a
higher combined price (clients would save on dealing with fewer
suppliers and procurement costs).
Long Term: 1) Capacity expansion of plant. 2) Process
reengineering of the chemicals manufacturing process to
increase waste by product.
What do you think went right while Scoping was the main aspect in this case and I think I nailed the
solving the case? scope down quite early. The bundling suggestion was a kind of
“wow” moment since I think Renny did not expect this
suggestion.
What do you think could have been I took a fair bit of time in reaching the most obvious answer,
done better while solving the case? which was raising the price of cement. A word of advice, try to
solve cases by first principles rather than applying a rigid
framework. At the time of defining the scope, you can make out
whether the case fits into a framework or whether you are
better off using first principles.
108
Outcome of the interview (optional) Advanced to Round 1 – Interview 2
109
balance in consulting. Then Abhijit mentioned that both partners
in Round 1 had already approved of me and that the outcome of
this interview would not affect their decision. He then said the
cherished words, “Welcome to the firm!!”
Comments on the PI rounds (please General advice for PI (and cases) is to be yourself in the
elaborate on what went right and interviews and not be concerned with the outcome of the
what could have been done better) interviews that you have already given. Many people will be
interviewing with 4+ firms, which means atleast 10-12
interviews. Keeping you cool and not fretting about a bad
interview will do your confidence wonders in the madness that is
“Day 1”.
Case question (as narrated by the None
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the None
case
Case Analysis presented by you None
Final recommendation / summary None
What do you think went right while None
solving the case?
What do you think could have been None
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Made an offer
110
Final recommendation / summary
What do you think went right while I was asking to the point question as it was a clear cut number
solving the case? case and he did not expect any faff.
What do you think could have been At the end when I told him the answer, I forgot to take into
done better while solving the case? account the taxes which clicked me once asked me to think once
more if I am missing something.
Outcome of the interview (optional) 2nd Interview
111
PWC
Client Competitor
Types of product on offer Capabilities Capabilities
Price point
Discounts offered
No. of dealers
112
Dealer Margin offered
Sales force
Geography present in
Etc
Final recommendation / summary The key thing about recommendations was that I was
recommending to the head of marketing so I had to focus on
how could marketing arrest the MS decline. I made
recommendations to expand into East zone that was growing
with minimal competition. By this time he stopped me.
What do you think went right while I was a longish interview with 20 mins of PI and 25 mins of case. I
solving the case? think I was able to convince him on why I want to shift from a
sales role to a consulting role. Also it was very conversational.
What do you think could have been Interview happened at 1:00 am at the night, and by then I had
done better while solving the case? appeared for 5 other companies, so I was completely exhausted.
I was low on energy.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next round
Then he asked me, where could I get data for all the above
factors from. For example – for purchasing power of the TS one
could use the per capita GDP of the country as a proxy.
113
Europe to west Europe.
I said I would color code the pills differently and promote them
as different drugs in both places.
Final recommendation / summary It was very conversational and the interviewer was trying to test
where would I lead the conversation.
What do you think went right while Given that it was not a standard case, I did not use any
solving the case? framework which was appreciated by the interviewer.
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next round
114
Personal interview questions (please Why PRTM?
write the questions only) Why not return to your prior firm? (I was a consultant in one
of the Big 4 firms prior to ISB)
Specific questions on some of my previous work assignments
Comments on the PI rounds (please We discussed quite a bit on the merits/demerits of Big 4 (to
elaborate on what went right and defend on my decision not to return), and how even though
what could have been done better) PWC had acquired PRTM, the demerits discussed for Big 4 would
not be applicable. My interactions with the alumni working with
PRTM on the structuring and relationship between PWC and
PRTM helped to a great extent in this discussion.
Takeaway: Make full use of the alumni network at the firm you
are interviewing with. Helps you credibly substantiate your
reasoning for some of these standard questions.
Case question (as narrated by the (A market entry case)
interviewer) The case discussion took off from a discussion on a market entry
assignment that I had at my prior job.
The B2B segment was relatively grey. The end segment were
businesses that were not large enough to use professional
auditing services but at the same time not small enough so as to
be lucrative. Worked with the interviewer to assume the number
of businesses that would fall in this range based on the
corporate tax filing numbers.
115
among consumers, demand-supply gap, barriers to entry –
political, technological etc., along with relative competitive
positioning.
Final recommendation / summary Based on the evaluation, recommended that the firm enter with
a focus on B2B market segment initially in a specific geography
of urban markets for resource efficiency.
What do you think went right while I think the extensive detailing of the market sizing worked in my
solving the case? favor. It helped showcase my line of thought and at that same
time clarified to me what my final recommendation should be.
What do you think could have been Since the market sizing was extensive, I had little time left for
done better while solving the case? evaluating the other aspects of the market, which constrained
me a bit. At the end of it, the interviewer pushed me to make a
recommendation though I was not complete with my
framework.
Though, in hindsight, I would repeat what I had done in terms of
detailing because that is where you could differentiate from
other candidates. Don’t bypass stuff just because you believe
there is a time constraint.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Through to Round 2
116
Exception: To my knowledge, the other candidates did not have
the HR Manager interview in the second round.
Case question (as narrated by the Surprisingly, while all other candidates had a case interview in
interviewer) this round, I did not have one. This may either be because my
first round case discussion went very well or my prior consulting
experience gave the interviewers some confidence on my case-
solving abilities or just plain randomness.
117
and professional networks so as to find common points of
discussion which could help me strike a chord.
118
SIEMENS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
The fag end of the interview was questions that I had about
Siemens Management Consulting and my view on certain
business units of Siemens. He also discussed about his
experience of consulting Siemens businesses in India versus in
Germany
Comments on the PI rounds (please It is very important to have your story in place. It will help you
elaborate on what went right and answer important questions such as Why SMC and Consulting?
what could have been done better) Especially for Siemens the importance on personal interview is
extremely high since they evaluate candidates on the cultural fit
since eventually a candidate is expected to move to a Siemens
Business
Case question (as narrated by the No Case
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the
case
Case Analysis presented by you
Final recommendation / summary
What do you think went right while
solving the case?
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Selected for Round 2
119
Why Consulting? Why SMC?
About yourself?
Whether you had a conflict with a top management in your
previous organization? How did you deal with it? What if a
similar situation were to happen with you at Siemens how would
you deal with it?
Also asked me to run through a project that I felt was the most
exciting to me?
Comments on the PI rounds (please Again at Siemens the importance on personal interview is
elaborate on what went right and extremely high since they evaluate candidates on the cultural fit
what could have been done better) hence it is extremely important to have a strong grip on your
story
Case question (as narrated by the Role Play
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the
case
Case Analysis presented by you
Final recommendation / summary Try to play the situation when you are in a role play
Always maintain a few important traits
Honesty
Analytical and off the feet thinking
Communication Skill
Presentation skill
What do you think went right while
solving the case?
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional)
120
Case question (as narrated by the CEO of Siemens India wants to reduce accidents happening on
interviewer) sites
How did you define the scope of the Asked what constitutes an accident - any work related human
case injury
What sites- Mainly power plant, turbine etc project sites
Limited to employees? - Yes
Case Analysis presented by you I laid out a structure that No. of accidents = No. of risky
situations X No. of humans exposed X % likelihood of injury
20
15
10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
121
Y-axis representing no. of accidents and X axis months after
implementation of SMC recommendation
The accidents started going up after SMC's recommendation was
implemented. Why?
Next she asked me, CEO wants to buy safety vests for 10,000
employees. How many vests he should buy?
Final recommendation / summary Incentivize risk identification and safe behavior, empower
employees to prevent an accident at the expense of work
stoppage
What do you think went right while For part1: I got the feedback that structure was very good and
solving the case? recommendations were also good.
What do you think could have been Part 1: I sometimes went too much into detailed
done better while solving the case? recommendation for preventing certain types of accidents and
Interviewer had to pull me back up to the big picture level.
For part 2 (guesstimate): I couldn't solve the last part (which
required use of little's law) .
Outcome of the interview (optional) Shortlisted for next round in Mumbai Office
122
THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP
After a few hicupps I was able to point out that manpower costs
has increased because of the organizational structure of the
company, wherein the organization had become top heavy.
Final Recommendation/ Summary Recommendations included:
- Increase in variable and reduction in fixed component of
compensation
123
- Change in organizational structure
- Acquisition of other firms with bottom heavy organization
structure
- Reshuffling of manpower between businesses
(A few more which I am unable to recall)
What went right? I was able to find a way whenever I reached roadblocks. Listening
to interviewer and understanding his expectations is a must
before commencing any analysis. Whenever, ideas stop to come
by, just think from the absolute basics and sub-divide everything
into smaller parts. Also, thinking aloud helps interviewer guide
you whenever time is scarce and you are going down the wrong
path.
What could have been done better? I became blank in the middle of case, hence took a bit more time
to solve the case.
Outcome of the interview Not disclosed. Attended the pre-scheduled second interview.
124
o Technology
o Consumer Knowledge
o Manpower
o Infrastructure etc.
- Mode of entry
o Own
o Franchise
o M&A
o JV
Final Recommendation/ Summary It was an out and out stress interview, wherein the interviewer
will negate most of the things you say and will keep pushing you
to think harder. I guess I was prepared for this and did reasonably
well.
What went right? Keeping cool under stressful situation and thinking out of the box
helps perform well in a stress interview.
What could have been done better? I don’t know yet!
Outcome of the interview Called for Round 2.
Accepted an offer from McKinsey by then, hence didn’t attend the
interview.
125
write the questions only)
Comments on the PI rounds (please Your first interview will be usually case focused. Having said that,
elaborate on what went right and prepare well (rehearse it a few times) for the basic interview
what could have been done better) questions like tell me about yourself, why a particular firm, why
consulting and the like. Not answering these questions
appropriately would most certainly impair the interview.
Case question (as narrated by the A Company manufacturing hand tools have not been able to
interviewer) meet their revenue targets
How did you define the scope of the Was not a very open ended question. I discussed with Bitan
case about the background of the Company and established that the
Company entered the market 4 years back and have consistently
been missing their revenue targets.
Case Analysis presented by you I started the question by asking questions to understand the
company and its product lines. From further discussions I
gathered that the market was competitive and fragmented with
the top 3 players having close to 40% market share. Our client
was the 2nd largest player in the market. It was also established
that the industry was growing and industry growth was in line
with our expectations. From here on I started to lay down the
structure for the case.
Told him that the inability to match budgets could have been on
account of three factors:
Ambitious budgets
Internal factors like product / service / distribution /
promotion related problems (share of voice * share of
mind * share of distribution)
External factors like macro economic factors / declining
industry / substitutes / change in preferences
126
competitors offered. I felt like I had hit a dead end here. Bitan
prodded me in the right direction and asked me to think about
what the distributor / retailer looks for while pushing a
Company’s product. I replied revenue potential leading to higher
profitability and return on capital employed.
Bitan had given me my hint – while the profit sharing ratios were
similar, capital deployment required to stock the Company’s
products were higher. Upon further discussion, I discovered that
the Company required its distributors to make payments with 2
weeks as against the industry standard of 1 month, thereby
doubling capital requirement and reducing ROCE. At this point
Bitan smiled, indicating that I had reached a logical conclusion. I
recommended that the Company should relax its credit policy.
127
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next interview
Comments on the PI rounds (please The interview didn’t really start on a positive note. Burjor has
elaborate on what went right and been an investment banker with JP Morgan in his previous life. I
what could have been done better) told him that I had interviewed with Deustche Bank’s IB team
before coming here. He put me on the back foot saying that I
would take up DB’s offer and ditch BCG. From here on it was an
uphill task to convince him that BCG was indeed my first choice.
The interviewer wanted to be sure that I was serious about BCG
and he did push me to ascertain that.
The above questions were not asked one after the other. They
were asked during the case discussion, thereby making the
personal interview section a stress interview. You will have a
stress interview at some point. So watch out and be prepared.
Case question (as narrated by the A serial entrepreneur with excess cash (to the tune of INR 50 crs)
interviewer) wants to invest in the call taxi business. Advise.
How did you define the scope of the I asked questions about which city was the entrepreneur
case targeting, what were his strengths and the investment
timeframe. Also does the client want us to advise him about
whether he should enter the business or not or also about how
he should enter the business.
By now it was clear that it was a market sizing and market entry
case.
Case Analysis presented by you I listed down the entire structure of a market sizing and market
entry case and started with market sizing.
128
I split the market into the following divisions:
1. Within the city trips
2. Trips outside the city
129
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next round
130
Case Analysis presented by you Upon further questioning, Navneet indicated that the Company’s
profitability was 2% lower than its peers. Profit % could be lower
on account of lower billing rates (revenue issues) or on account
of higher costs (in percentage terms). Navneet smiled and said
that indicated that the Company was billing its clients at industry
rates.
131
Outcome of the interview (optional) Offered a job.
General pointers that helped me during preparations:
132
would have more time for your case preparations).
133
was trying to answer. I said I was trying to look how the change
in interest rates would affect the bank’s profits. He told me to
first answer whether or not it affects the bank’s balance sheet,
and if so, how. And we could look at the profitability later.
Case Analysis presented by you I had started off with a traditional framework, but was made to
realize that this case required not a regular framework, but
simple straightforward thinking.
So I decided to look at what all items on the balance sheet could
possibly see a change in their value due to the interest rate
change, and it was clearly only the government bonds (worth Rs.
25,000 cr) on the asset side that would be affected, if at all. Now
the job was to identify how. Here, I faltered when I said that the
value of the assets would increase as the bank-owned bonds
yielding 9% would now yield 11%. Yash pointed out that this was
not the case, and the bonds owned by the bank were bought
when the interest rates were 9% and the bonds would continue
to yield only 9%. I thus had to think about this again. This was
when I realized that the value of the bonds owned by the bank
had actually gone down as the bonds available in the market
would yield more. Yash said that this was right and asked me to
talk more. I said I would look at the situation from the point of
view of an investor. Anybody looking to buy bonds would buy
from the open market and not from our client to get 11% yield.
Yash said this was right and asked me to now calculate the fall in
the value of the bank-owned bonds. I did this by equating the
NPV of a bond bought for Rs 100 in the open market to the NPV
of a bond bought for Rs. X from the bank.
Time for which to calculate the NPV = 2 years (time to maturity
of the bonds – asked Yash for this)
Discount rate to be taken = 11% (Risk-free rate, same as the long
term bond yield rate in the market)
This helped me get the value X, and consequently the fall in
value of the bank’s assets.
With, this part of the case over, and almost 25 minutes into the
interview, Yash asked me to just quickly list the various options
available to the bank at this point in time. I listed the following
options:
1. Hold on to the bonds and wait for the rates to go back
down
2. Sell them off and take the loss. Will help reduce tax
liability
3. Another one or two options that I don’t recall now.
He seemed happy with the case overall. Towards the end, he
asked me if I had any questions for him. We spoke for another
couple of minutes and the interview was over.
Final recommendation / summary Covered above.
What do you think went right while The interview lasted about 30 minutes. I hadn’t started off very
solving the case? well. Was a little nervous, which probably contributed to me
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being a little confused about the question in the beginning as
well. However, after digressing and being put back on track by
the interviewer once, I collected myself, told myself the case
could only get better from there on, and it did. Towards the end,
I was fairly confident and was rattling off possible solutions
quickly.
What do you think could have been The only thing I could have done better was to be more
done better while solving the case? confident and quicker in the beginning, thus saving more time
for final recommendations. The first round interviews are usually
allocated 30 mins.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Everybody gets two interviews in the first round, so this wasn’t
really a decider.
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had:
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etc.. I was again shown data which basically pointed out longer
lead times compared to competitors. This was a problem
because it would lead to either frequent stock-outs or high cost
of capital and warehousing for the distributors as they would
need to maintain larger inventory. I was told that this was
indeed the problem, and distributors were not stocking the
client’s products due to the high costs involved.
Lastly, I was asked to give a 60 sec summary of the identified
problems to the CEO of the company.
Final recommendation / summary Direct solutions to the two big problems identified – Reduce
prices and lead time. We didn’t really discuss these.
What do you think went right while Everything. I knew I had cracked this case. Bitan too seemed
solving the case? happy with the quick thinking
What do you think could have been Nothing I can think of
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to Round 2
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How did you define the scope of the I asked questions similar to the previous case in order to
case understand the industry and the company.
Findings:
1. Products are customized, and each project is different
2. There are 2-3 other players in the market of comparable
revenues, but higher profitability
3. All sales are B2B, and there is a dedicated team for sales
and marketing efforts
4. I also understood how the projects were executed. I stated
my understanding on how I would do it: The sales team
pitches projects to clients. Projects then go to the Product
development or Technical team who develops the product,
in coordination with the Project Management or client-
facing team. These are then implemented on-site by the
client but with extensive support from a support team.
Navneet confirmed this project cycle.
Case Analysis presented by you I now drew a simple profitability framework. Revenues – Costs.
Revenue was comparable to competitors, so the bigger issue lay
in the costs being higher. I confirmed this with Navneet and
moved ahead.
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I asked if the number of employees at each level was optimal –
in terms of the industry average as well as in terms of the
employees’ idle time.
If we had more employees at the higher positions, we would be
paying them more, thus leading to higher employee costs.
Navneet said that this was indeed a problem, but this was one
that would take the company from 18% to 20% profitability.
There was still something that was stopping the company from
going from 15% to 18%
On asking more about the idle time and team structures within
the organization, I found that the idle time was high not only at
the higher levels but also at lower levels, because of 2 reasons:
1. There were separate teams for each specialization. For
eg. GPS, Audio, etc. and the resources weren’t shared
among these teams
2. Resources were dedicated to projects as well and
nobody worked on 2 projects at a time. This meant that
even if one person wasn’t required full-time on Project
A, if a new project started that required similar skills, a
new employee would be hired instead of sharing the
existing ones.
Final recommendation / summary The recommendations I gave included:
1. Effectively use the large number of senior people to
acquire and manage more projects, and if that is not
possible, lose some of them
2. Use an organization-wide capacity management tool to
keep track of employee utilization by project, skill,
department, etc.
a. Break down projects into modules and allocate
employees of different departments to these
modules as required, rather than allocating for
entire projects
3. Establish a smaller set of super departments, rather than
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the several existing departments. Also encourage sharing
of employees across departments
4. Establish a knowledge base to reuse modules developed
over earlier projects
What do you think went right while Everything. I managed to establish a rapport with Navneet fairly
solving the case? early on and he was very encouraging and helpful throughout.
A few things that always help in any case interview:
1. Keep checking with the interviewer if you’re proceeding
in the right direction
2. Simple, yet sometimes not so much. Keep smiling and
keep trying different approaches even if things don’t
seem to be going too well – shows the interviewer you
are confident. Everybody likes to help and work with
confident people.
3. You will be given a brief profile of the entire interview
panel a day before the interviews. Go through it and
carry a printout with you. Makes it easier to strike a
conversation and nothing like it if you share interests
with the interviewer.
What do you think could have been Nothing I can think of
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Made an offer I couldn’t refuse :)
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segments.
Case Analysis presented by you Based on the case facts and clarifications this was a new market
entry case and as we know, there is a broad framework for this. I
started by following the same to determine whether it would be
a good idea for this company. Accordingly, I started with Industry
attractiveness.
Followed the basic questions of industry attractiveness:
competition, existing players, market size, segment shares and
growth trends. The main information was with regard to
competition: two major players had duopoly in premium
segment; Indian exporters were in competition for standard and
Chinese exporters for budget. Then tried to understand whether
the company had competence to source and manufacture tyres
– but interviewers asked me that was not a constraint.
Concluded that market was developed and with growth
opportunities, the market was attractive but depended on
market positioning.
Interviewer agreed and wanted me to delve deeper into market
positioning and determine the factors for market positioning. I
then moved to price points and the three different categories in
the market. My question on price elasticity brought discussion of
farmer perspectives that farmers assigned higher price to higher
quality.
I then explored option of possibility of going in between existing
segments and the interviewer agreed.
Final recommendation / summary Final recommendation on summary was to enter an in-between
price range as farmer demand is relatively inelastic with a
premium on the price. The case was stopped abruptly without a
synthesis.
What do you think went right while Involved the interviewer at each stage and took buy ins as a lot
solving the case? of information was required to move forwards and judgments
needed to be made.
What do you think could have been I took my time in analyzing the problem especially towards the
done better while solving the case? end in making the recommendations. Ideally this time should be
less than a minute at a time but I may have gove over.
Outcome of the interview (optional) I was called for the next round
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what could have been done better) outlook of an increased class.
Case question (as narrated by the Client is a bank and recently RBI has increased the interest rates
interviewer) on treasury bonds. How will this impact the bank and what
should the management do to secure a stable balance sheet
position?
How did you define the scope of the At the outset I gathered some information about the bank’s
case operations, location and customers. It was a large retail bank
operating throughout the country. Next I went on to
understanding the balance sheet where I was given various
figures for both assets and liabilities. After confirming objective
of interest rates on bank’s balance sheet I moved on to the
analysis of the case.
Case Analysis presented by you The approach I developed was to first look at the impact of the
interest on the value of assets on the balance sheet and possible
alternatives to deal with them.
This case involved calculations around impact on market price of
bonds given the change in interest rates. This involved concepts
of Corporate Finance and Macro Economics.
After determining the impact that value of assets would be
adversely impacted we moved on to impact of the same.
Considering it was a listed bank, there is likelihood that stock
prices would be adversely impacted. It was further confirmed
that amount of treasury bonds with the client was higher than
competitors. Further, the coverage ratio of assets to large retail
deposits would also fall possible resulting invoking certain RBI
guidelines protecting interest of customer. At this point
interviewer was satisfied and asked me to move on to measures
for improving the balance sheet state.
Final recommendation / summary Final recommendation involved measures to improve the
balance sheet position post interest impact. First, was to pass on
cost of interest to other assets by increasing loan rates. Second,
was to restructure the balance sheet by attracting deposits to
fund assets and taking advantage of this move by RBI to lower
liquidity. Third, anticipate NPAs as a result of increased loan
rates and increase securitization. At this point the interviewer
decided to close the case.
What do you think went right while The fact that I had gone through the concepts of bond valuation
solving the case? in Corporate Finance and interest rate impacts in Macro
economics I was able to move on with the case. Interviewer was
checking these concepts and did not dwell on other areas. The
case went well and was one of my best interviews of the day.
What do you think could have been This was on the only case during that day that tested only core
done better while solving the case? courses concepts. I was looking for a framework to start with,
and took a longer initial pause. However, the interviewer made
me comfortable in just focusing on the concepts and not
digressing into a framework for the case.
Outcome of the interview (optional) I was asked to come for the last interview, and was indicated
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that an offer was likely. However, before the last interview I had
received McKinsey offer and communicated to BCG alums that I
would not be continuing further.
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described for one business model to scale to other business
models. I replicated the same criteria to determine trade-offs for
another business model (car share service).
Final recommendation / summary I outlined the above mentioned factors that one would consider
while launching any cab/taxi service.
What do you think went right while I got most of the factors that Sachin was looking out for and we
solving the case? had a healthy discussion on the 2 business models that I
suggested.
What do you think could have been In his feedback to me, Sachin mentioned that he had expected
done better while solving the case? me to outline the factors that I would consider independent of
the business model and then describe how those factors would
determine choices based on the business model. He wanted a
blueprint, which I ended up recommending, but I spent a lot of
time discussing the C-Suite cab model and not much time on the
general factors he was looking out for.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Advanced to Round 1 – Interview 2
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the exact name) which measures interest rate sensitivity of a
bond (I had not). He described it as as the percentage change in
price of bond for 1% change in interest rates. Once he gave me
this number, I was easily able to calculate the balance sheet
impact.
Final recommendation / summary I calculated the balance sheet impact of the change in interest
rates using the ratio given by Yashraj.
What do you think went right while I quickly identified the cause of the devaluation and could
solving the case? explain theoretically why the devaluation would occur.
What do you think could have been I did not know about the specific ratio that Yashraj was looking
done better while solving the case? out for. Make sure read up on Corporate Finance if you have a
finance-based CV.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Put on hold for Round 2, backed out of the process after
receiving an offer from another firm.
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structure of the case:
Options to enter – acquire a company or go green-field
or to import from India where the current plant is.
Analysis of the risks of various countries in South East
Asia to determine location of the plant / acquisition
target – this can be political, economic and legal and
listed down the various items that I would consider. I
created a matrix with the conditions / criteria on the left
and started scoring them saying what is important and
presented a matrix to him at the end of the discussion
laying down two three countries where the plant could
possibly be located.
Competitive advantage of the firm – I engaged in
discussions with the interviewer to understand the
advantages of the firm – the main advantage was the
RM procurement and lower import duties in the country
as they sourced steel from abroad
Competitor actions – I made a game theory table of the
various choices of the Company and how would the
competitor react. This also helped in determining the
risks in each of the options above. The
Acquire a new company – I listed down criteria that I will
consider and understood that there are smaller plants
which can be acquired. There would be a significant
culture difference and integration might be a difficulty
I listed down the pros and cons of the options by now
alongside when discussions were done as a chart and
laid it in front of the interviewer
Final recommendation / summary Acquire a smaller plant or go green field subject to risks
What do you think went right while The structured approach helped a lot in solving the case. During
solving the case? the entire case, we were doing a joint problem solving and I
engaged the interviewer into the case well by showing him my
whiter paper where I had laid down structure like a ppt slide. The
case was open ended and hence I was able to steer it the way I
wanted to. Use of game theory brought a “wow” factor with the
interviewer
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next interview
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Name Vijayalakshmi (Viji)
Name of company interviewing with The Boston Consulting Group
Name and designation of the Sachin Kotak, Principal
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third) Second
Personal interview questions (please A brief introduction about myself and the kind of deals I had
write the questions only) looked at in the Private Equity fund where I worked before
Comments on the PI rounds (please Ability to talk about the industry I came from helped me a lot to
elaborate on what went right and connect with the interviewer. I discussed with him my opinions
what could have been done better) on current trend and he appreciated that I had a view on the
events happening.
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included across segments – highly crowded radio taxi market,
entry of player like “uber” in this segment, growing corporate
travel services, need for safety of employees and more long
distance office location due to city getting expanded, etc.
148
the interviewer became very relaxed and the rest of the case
was more like a conversation and that helped me a lot.
What do you think could have been I could have thought of better suggestions on the factors I
done better while solving the case? provided on differentiation. I was very tired since this was the
fifth interview and was not able to be very creative in solutions
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next interview
These questions were not asked one after one. Except the first
two, the others were asked during the case interview itself.
Case question (as narrated by the An IT company is facing decline I profits
interviewer)
How did you define the scope of the I defined the case asking questions about the IT company – it has
case both services and products business with services being the
major component. These services are offered to automotive,
aerospace and a couple of more niche sectors. The services and
products mainly cater to R&D and project design for clients.
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revenues have been increasing but the margins are declining.
Thus the case boiled down to analyzing the reasons for cost
increase in the services business
Case Analysis presented by you I listed down the entire value chain of costs that are incurred
when rendering services to clients – employee costs,
administrative costs and selling costs. We quickly concluded that
the costs were increasing in employee related expenditure.
I listed down the various sub - costs that one could incur with
respect to employees – training, salary and then welfare costs.
Quickly we gathered that the training costs are not increasing
since there is very little attrition when compared to the industry.
The welfare costs are in line with industry standards and that the
Company is not looking to cut down costs there since it believes
that the employees have to be taken good care of to avoid any
adverse effects on business.
The only other costs that was increasing was salary costs. I
presented a framework saying that there could be an increase on
account of more number of employees or an increase in salaries
compared to the other players in the market. The partner said
that the salary levels are on par with the industry. Then I said
that the number of employees could be the case. He quickly
ruled out saying that the number of employees is the same per
project as any other competition.
The partner then asked me how to solve this problem and how
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to help the client. I listed down a lot of ideas and some of them
are as under:
Cutting down employees may send a wrong signal to the
market that the company is not doing well and hence
the team members who have grown up in hierarchy
needs to be given alternative projects / roles justifying
their costs
Newer industries/sectors where the current skills can be
used need to identified and new clients should be
pursued
Employees can be trained and made more fungible that
they can be rotated between the divisions and overall
costs can be retained
The rotation can be formalized and the employees can
apply to such roles within the company and they will be
selected on based on the need and their ability
Employee-appraisal process should be relooked into to
check whether the promotion policies are too liberal and
whether they need any changes
I had made slide like charts on paper when the case interview
was happening and charted them out on the table one after one.
So I was able to go back to the case easily synthesize and then
solve it even after interruption by PI.
At the end the partner asked if I have any questions for him. I
discussed with him about Big data and consulting since the
partner was primarily into technology sector clients. He was very
interested to explain his views on it and talked about his recent
engagements. I was able to engage in conversations with him
about Google and their plans etc and he was very happy that
inspite of coming from a finance background, I understand
technology and the outlook of the sector. This closing note gave
me the confidence that I am moving to the next round.
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Next round
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Name Vijayalakshmi (Viji)
Name of company interviewing with The Boston Consulting Group
Name and designation of the Yash Raj Erande, Principal
interviewer
Interview round (first/second/third) Fourth
Personal interview questions (please What was your GMAT score?
write the questions only)
He asked me why was I not in 99 percentile though I was an All-
India rank holder in CA exams.
Comments on the PI rounds (please It made me very unsettled. Also in only one of the earlier
elaborate on what went right and interviews with another firm I made a computation error and
what could have been done better) that started playing at the back of my mind the minute he asked
me my GMAT score.
Case question (as narrated by the You are the CEO of a 50,000 crore bank. Raghuram rajan has
interviewer) passed some changes in the central banking system which has
pushed the yield rate by 0.5% (don’t remember the exact %).
What will you do?
How did you define the scope of the The question was very clear that we have to chart a course of
case action for the bank based on the recent changes made by RBI
governor.
Case Analysis presented by you I asked him basic questions about the composition of the assets
and liabilities of the bank and noted it down.
I told him that I will first understand the impact of the change on
the various items on the Balance sheet before I proceed with the
analysis. He nodded to it.
I told him that the yield curve change would affect the asset side
because there are no items on the liability side that would get
affected by this change.
He said ok and asked me what are the items on the asset side
that will be affected by this change in yield rates. I said that the
investment in government securities will be affected since their
market values are based on treasury yield curves. I asked him as
to why does the bank invest in government securities - the CRR
ratio he mentioned was xx% and the bank had a higher % in the
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government securities (don’t remember the exact % mentioned).
He said that the bank did not explore options and hence this was
the investment in treasury securities.
Once I figured out the impact of the change, I said that we need
to consider the following before we make a decision to change
the investments into an alternative investment which might yield
a better return:
The impact was very small and this is a notional loss
since we have not realized the loss yet
the minimum CRR ration has to be maintained and that
leaves us with very little chance to change a majority of
the investment into any other alternative
what are the other alternative assets in which we can
invest and what are their risks when compared to the
government securities
what is the economic condition and whether we foresee
this change to reverse or become higher?
What do you think could have been While doing the calculation for the impact of the change, he
153
done better while solving the case? asked me to crystal ball gaze the nos and not use any
multiplication etc on papers and guess estimate the amount. I
got tensed here and started taking more time as I felt cornered.
But since I identified modified duration correctly, the interviewer
was happy and I gained my cool later.
I think it is very important to keep cool even when asked
unsettling questions as most of the times he is trying to check
whether you have the fortitude or not.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round
Comments on the PI rounds (please The entire interview was a PI round. He argued otherwise for
elaborate on what went right and every reason I gave. I stuck to my reasons and logically explained
what could have been done better) him my move and how it fit into my overall career goal.
154
my conversation with him. Please make sure that you do not
keep it with you during interviews. Be cool though things are
going against you.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Offered a job
Comments on the PI rounds (please I think it was good and the discussion on Chandigarh helped.
elaborate on what went right and Moreover I asked him about how he managed travel with family
what could have been done better) and kids and he was more than happy to share his personal
story. Again what I learnt from my buddies is that consultants in
general and partners in particular like to talk about their
experiences and guide others. So ask them some relevant
questions and turn the interview into a discussion.
Case question (as narrated by the Our client is CEO of an IT services company and is concerned that
interviewer) his profit margins have been going down. Wants advice.
How did you define the scope of the This was one of the more standard cases. So I started with asking
case the basic scoping questions.
SD: What are the revenue streams of the company
NV: It has two broad divisions IT services and Engg services
SD: Is this a problem across both the divisions
NV: Yes
SD: Where does the company operate
NV: India wide but most clients are international
SD: Since when has the profit margins decreasing.
NV: Last 2 years
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SD: Is this an industry wide problem or company specific
NV: Company specific
SD: What is the current and target profitability level. And within
how much time do they want to achieve the target ?
NV: Current is 18%, Target 22-25%. Time Target ASAP.
SD: Is there a problem with Gross Profit, Operating Profit or Net
Profit.
NV: Lets look at all the possibilities
Case Analysis presented by you Having got the basic information I took a couple of minutes
before I started. I used the standard profitability framework. (If
there is a possibility go ahead and use the framework but tweak
the framework based on the information you already have)
SD: Since the profitability is going down we will look at both the
revenue and costs sides.
SD: Since people costs are the primary costs of the firm let us
look at that.
He gave me the following data for the client COGS over a period
of time and asked me to calculate the gross margins in each
case.
SD: Since the GM has gone down by 5% from 45% to 40% this is
the key issue and look at it in detail in particular people costs.
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NV: Yes lets look at the people cost in detail.
SD: People costs can be broken down simply into No. of
employees*cost/hour. How are we doing on each v/s
competition.
NV: We are struggling on both ends. Lets look at it one by one.
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I again took a 30 sec time out and was starting to get a bit
nervous as this was my 5th back to back case interview and I
could hardly think of anything new. But then I thought of
another reason.
SD: Maybe the company has aggressive growth plans for the
future and in order to be prepared for it the company has hired
over skilled employees or has promoted people in advance to be
ready to take on responsibility.
NV: Yes this could be another possibility. So what will be your
recommendation for all the possible issues identified.
SD: For overtime and more employees v/s competition the
company should start charging a premium so that it can maintain
its profit margins. If the company’s clients do not value the faster
service and is not willing to pay a premium then it should stop
offering that. For higher cost/employee due to faster promotions
in order to meet future expansion company should not be too
worried as long as the expansion/growth is happening as per
plan. The management should be aware and should
communicate to others the higher costs is due to the investment
in manpower to meet future expansion plans.
NV: Ok.
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done better while solving the case? one do not fret over it.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round
VG: Ill take the case I was discussing with the last candidate. We
established that out client a telecom major should not operate
across the country as it is not possible to profitable all the
regions. So it wants us to decide whether he should be make the
selective operating decision on a state level basis, district level
basis or telecom tower level basis i.e., for eg. consider each
telecom tower should he operate or shut the tower looking at
each tower in isolation or should this be done at a district/state
level.
How did you define the scope of the I was making some notes in my A4 and then asked some
case standard questions.
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Case Analysis presented by you At this point I had no clue what he was asking for and how I was
expected to solve this. This happens with most people and is
fine. The key is to keep your cool and not to show any signs of
nervousness.
Now I understood a little more about the problem and asked for
data on the costs associated with maintaining a tower. To this
Vipin gave some numbers on installation cost, monthly
maintenance cost etc. But again this did not have much to do
with the case and we discussed some points on this with little
progress. At this point I started to get a little nervous as I felt I
was not moving in the correct direction. I took a minute to think
and finally realized that this had got to do with the contribution
margins associated with each scenario.
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State Wise 90% 10%
District Wise 85% 15%
Tower Wise 75% 25%
With the above data I did the simple WACC calculations and told
him that the client should go forward with the option with the
highest WACC. As usual added some watch-outs to this like
customer satisfaction in case quality of other service providers is
not good, alignment with long term vision, how can the fixed
costs be changed in each scenario etc.
I think Vipin was looking for the WACC approach and he was
satisfied that I finally got to the crux.
Final recommendation / summary The client should go on a piece wise service strategy based on
the strategy with the highest WACC. However there are a few
watch-outs as mentioned above.
End of case.
What do you think went right while I think keeping my cool during times when I was a little clueless
solving the case? and nervous helped.
Moreover, knowing concepts such as WACC clearly and being
clear on how and when to apply them is critical so do a revision
of all the core term courses.
Whenever faced with a road block engage the interviewer and
draw him into a discussion v/s trying to solve the case all alone
to little effect.
What do you think could have been As mentioned I went into the interview thinking about my
done better while solving the case? energy level going down as that was the feedback I got from the
last interviewer via my buddy. Due to this I was not focusing on
the case at hand during the initial part of the interview and
hence drifted a little initially. Avoid this, such things will always
happen. The crux is to forget about the last interview and take
each one as it comes (esp. if you have multiple shortlists).
Remember SUNK COST (again core term revisions will help )
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round. However, since I had accepted an offer
by then, did not go for the next round.
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Interview round (first/second/third) First
Personal interview questions (please Vipin mentioned that he was the one who had shortlisted my CV and
write the questions only) hence knew it in detail. He briefly introduced himself and jumped directly
to the case with no PI questions.
I looked at quantity in terms of market share and market size. Did the
basic analysis (as per the casebook framework) and tried to segment the
market based on geographies within Maharashtra, type of service, type of
customers etc so that I could identify a segment that was less profitable.
However, Vipin told me that all segments are equally divided.
At this point I was stuck as I had finished the framework evaluation and
nothing seem to fit. Vipin hinted that the client has 5000 towers in
Maharashtra to provide the service. This was the cue to look at the
problem from a value chain point of view. I said that typically a tower has
high costs (variable and fixed) and the same provides service to a
particular area. Vipin asked me what number would you look at to judge
the performance of the tower. Since we had already established that all
customer segments are equally profitable and equally distributed within a
geography, I said I will look at population density/tower. Vipin was happy
to hear that and asked me to go on.
I said that there might be areas where there is low population density and
hence we are not able to recover the costs of the tower.
I would prioritize the towers based on population density in the coverage
area and then decide. I also mentioned that the analysis should be
forward looking and take into account new developments in those areas
to account for higher population density later.
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Finally, I synthesized and gave my recommendations.
Final recommendation / summary Evaluate the situation from a population density/tower and variable
cost/customer approach.
What do you think went right while Was structured in the analysis and wrote very neatly in the paper. I caught
solving the case? on to his hints fast and was able to switch between frameworks easily.
Know your frameworks well and be ready to mix and match different
frameworks whenever required.
What do you think could have been Do not be too stuck up on the case frameworks as they may not always
done better while solving the case? work. Always assess the situation independently and then move forwards
– be ready to create your own approach and ditch the framework
approach whenever required.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to round 2
Personal interview questions (please General chit-chat regarding my institute rank and how I managed to
write the questions only) get that (rank - 7 ). He asked me what I felt about Arvind
Kejriwal (The Delhi election results were in the news at this time). I
told him my views on the same. Suresh said that he wanted my
views on Arvind Kejriwal since he and I both are alums of IIT KGP).
Comments on the PI rounds (please Struck a good rapport with Suresh. Was up to date with the current
elaborate on what went right and news on elections and hence was able to have a decent
what could have been done better) conversation on the same.
Case question (as narrated by the A tyre manufacturer wants to enter the global agricultural tyre
interviewer) business. Help them.
How did you define the scope of the I approached this through the standard market entry case. Initially I
case asked him about the company, customers and competition. I was
told that the company currently makes only light motor vehicle
tyres for Indian market. It also does a bit of exports.
Agricultural tyres are used in tractors etc. There are a few Indian
companies who have gone global and earned 20-25% returns. Our
current ROI = 10-12%.
Case Analysis presented by you I jumped into the framework and analyzed – 1. Industry
attractiveness 2. Resources required and 3. Methods of entry
Analyzing the size, scale and growth of the industry we realized that
the USA/Europe market was growing at 2% and rest at 10%. Further
analysis revealed that there are two types of tyres sold –new
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tractor tyres and replenishment sales. The replenishment sales
were the major growth areas and customers did not want high
quality products and were price conscious.
Final recommendation / summary There was no specific outcome to this. I just summarized the entire
discussion.
What do you think went right while Handled the pressure fairly well and was able to remain calm and
solving the case? composed. I used my own experiences to evaluate what a firm does
in order to understand competitive moves – how to gauge market
intelligence etc.
Draw from your past experiences and relate them to the cases.
Such approaches are really appreciated.
What do you think could have been The focus of the case kept shifting from market entry to
done better while solving the case? competitive assessment and required me to be completely alert to
what Suresh was saying.
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Personal interview questions (please Sachin seemed disinterested and sat down on the sofa next to me.
write the questions only) This was my 7th interview of the day and I was very tired by then.
Comments on the PI rounds (please I guess Sachin was just testing me on how I can handle a case in a
elaborate on what went right and different setting – this was not a traditional case across the table since
what could have been done better) Sachin was sitting on the Sofa right next to me.
Case question (as narrated by the I want to open a car rental service in Delhi. Tell me whether I should
interviewer) do it or not.
How did you define the scope of the Asked standard questions on what does a car rental service does etc.
case
Case Analysis presented by you Standard framework based questions. I however could not think
anymore and made a mess of the case. Sachin was looking for creative
segmentations and approaches which I could not come up with. He
did not seem too happy with my standard approach and said that I
was unable to think.
He was looking for customer segmentations based on type of
employment – I could not comprehend what he was looking for. We
had a brief discussion on the case and that was it.
Final recommendation / summary No recommendation
What do you think went right while I started off well with the framework approach however could not
solving the case? understand what Sachin was looking for.
What do you think could have been Try to be creative!
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional) Surprisingly, I was called for the fourth interview which I did not go to
as I had another offer at hand.
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THE PARTHENON GROUP
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1. It will standardize the curriculum and parents are guaranteed
good quality education
2. The schools can signal of the most up to date technology being
used and differentiate themselves from competition.
3. It will make life easier for the faculty and hence school can
attract better faculty.
DF: Focus more on the last point and think exactly what impact
will this have
I thought a little and said school can attract better faculty. But
upon being probed a little got to the crux that with standard
apps available schools can actually do with poor quality faculty
as a lot of the curriculum has been standardized and hence can
lower its faculty cost.
SD: There are multiple options. First, is that the firm can give a
cut to schools for the schools to prefer the firm. However, this
can be easily copied.
SD: This will not work in India because for one in India teaching is
not a very high paying profession so not much benefit to schools
as discussed in earlier. Secondly, the curriculum of each board is
fixed and there is no further need to standardize.
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End of case.
Final recommendation / summary There was no such final recommendation. The interviewer was
very satisfied with the discussion.
What do you think went right while Thinking from basics and not force fitting any framework was the
solving the case? key. Taking time out to think and actually thinking and writing
down your points before speaking helps you make a more
comprehensive argument.
List down all ideas coming to your mind and mention it to the
interviewer. I learnt this during my case practice sessions with
my buddies when many a times the reason/idea I thought was
very stupid would turn out to be the right answer.
The most important thing is to stay confident throughout. Any
sign of nervousness is a big turn off for the interviewer.
What do you think could have been Could have been better prepared for the take me through your
done better while solving the case? resume question.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round
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need help with applications.
2. Firm provides end to end support so it is convenient for
students.
3. Easy way to get higher education since most of these colleges
would be the 2nd rung colleges (as they give commission to such
firms I assumed these would not be the Harvards and the
Stanfords) and hence getting through would not be very difficult
with help from these firms.
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In case of airlines the choice is generally made based on fare and
timing and hence possibility of travel agents influencing your
choice of flight is minimal.
This was the end of the case. Next Mayank asked me what other
shortlists I have. I told him the name of other firms and he asked
me my preference. I told him I was undecided and would decide
as the day proceeds.
Final recommendation / summary No such final recommendation or summary.
What do you think went right while Again the same as before. Think from the basics and don’t force
solving the case? fit frameworks. I actually interacted with Mayank towards day
end after I was done with my placement. He actually told me
that the thing he liked most was that I did not try and force fit
any framework and was asking logical questions to break down
the problem. He said this is what clients expect and hence what
firms look out for in candidates. He was actually upset with some
people trying to force fit framework to this very question and
was strongly against it. So keep this in mind.
What do you think could have been Could have done a better job asking the clarifying questions in
done better while solving the case? particular why do Chinese students go abroad for studies. I went
into the interview expecting PI to be followed by a case.
However was a bit surprised when directly started with a case
and hence probably messed up the initial part. Don’t go with a
fixed mindset interviewer might tweak the interview based on
his mood/preference.
Outcome of the interview (optional) Moved to next round. However, since I had accepted an offer
by then, did not go for the next round.
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So the school had two campuses, one in the city and the other in
the outskirts.
While the school in the city offered Math and Accounting, the
school in the outskirts offered Business, Math and Accounting.
So it was observed that most of the growth was coming from
Business enrollment which our campus in city was unable to tap.
Further because the 2nd campus in outskirts was at a remote
location, students did not prefer it. In terms of students, we had
regular students and some part time enrollments coming from
older people looking to upgrade their skills. The sudden increase
in number of part time enrollments was driving the overall
growth number up. These people also preferred to attend school
in the city over the set up and preferred studying Business. So
since our city set up was not catering to their needs, we saw a
relatively less growth compared to the overall growth numbers.
Final recommendation / summary To start Business as a subject in the city campus and attract full
time students to the outskirts campus by providing better
residential facilities etc
What do you think went right while Asking the right questions and getting the right analysis that the
solving the case? interviewer had in mind.
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional)
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This was basically because of language barrier between students
and the universities they applied to.
The client also got $2000 commission from the university where
they admitted students.
The answer is no, because his major revenue driver is not the
commission from students but the commission from the
universities, and the volumes matter more than the price he
charges.
Final recommendation / summary To start Business as a subject in the city campus and attract full
time students to the outskirts campus by providing better
residential facilities etc
What do you think went right while Asking the right questions and getting the right analysis that the
solving the case? interviewer had in mind.
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
Outcome of the interview (optional)
Final recommendation / summary I found a lot of concepts taught in MGEC useful in this particular
interview, so it really helps to be on top of the concepts covered
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in core terms.
What do you think went right while
solving the case?
What do you think could have been
done better while solving the case?
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