IIM Lucknow Casebook 2021

IIM Lucknow
Casebook
2021
The Consulting & Strategy Club

Foreword
This casebook has been created by the 35th and 36th batch of the Consulting and Strategy Club of
IIM Lucknow. This casebook aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the case interview
process conducted by consulting companies and should be of help to anyone who is interested in
consulting as a career.
The Consulting and Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow has been at the forefront in helping students of
IIML prepare for their consulting interviews. In 2020, we became the first consulting club in India
to launch a mobile application: CSC Briefcase. It covers what consulting is, brief about renowned
consulting firms, process overview for a typical case interview, along with a whole lot of re-
sources to practice such as frameworks, sample cases, mock case videos, industry insights, inter-
view transcripts & even datasheet for guesstimates. It is one of a kind unique initiative undertak-
en by the Consulting and Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow. The app is available for download on
Google Playstore. We also have an active YouTube channel where you can find videos on mock
cases & guesstimates.
We would also like to thank everyone from the 34th and 36th PGP and PGP-ABM batches of IIM
Lucknow who volunteered to document their case interview experiences and share it as part of
this casebook. Lastly, a big thank you to our readers, without whose feedback and inspiration this
document would not have been possible.
The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow (Batch of ‘21 & ‘22)
Top (L-R): Vishal Ajmera, Nishant Sharma, Ayush Maiti & Kushal Maheshwari
Middle: Mayur Jain, Medha Verma, Anoushka Banavar, Diya Bhatia, Vishal Goyal & Raghav Sally The Consulting & Strategy Club Scan the QR code to download
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow CSC Briefcase from Playstore

Bottom: Deepak Jain, Sathya Sahay, Ayesha Hafeez, Raunika Sharma, Vedika Gulati & Aziz Malik
2020 in Review
In 2020, the Consulting and Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow conducted a range of activities to aid consulting preparation of the students of IIM Lucknow and beyond.
Following is a brief snapshot of our activities in the year that went by.
Advanced Case Workshops CSC Briefcase Auxilium and C2C

Conducted 4 advanced case workshops Became the first consulting club in India to Mentorship and guidance to candidates shortlisted
for over 900+ attendees from PGP1 and launch a mobile application to cover for consulting interviews by providing one to one
PGP2 before placements everything related to consulting case sessions from alums
Consulting 101 Sessions Upskilling Initiatives Live Projects Strategia

Facilitated Consulting 101 sessions and Dedicated YouTube channel covering videos Executed 15+ live projects with over IIM Lucknow’s flagship strategy
interactions with alumni now working of mock guesstimates and cases with 1L+ 60 students with clientele including event with 4 competitions and
at leading consulting firms total views Ernst and Young, RCS 5000+ registrations
2
Table of Contents
Consulting Overview……………………...…………...………………….04 Case Transcripts (Summers)…..…………………………………………….64
Alvarez & Marsal………..…………………………........................65
Case Frameworks.............................………………………………..10 Accenture Strategy…..…………………………………………………..75
Profitability……………………………………………………............14 Auctus Advisors…….………………………………………................98
Market Entry…………………………………………………………...18 Bain & Co.…………….…………………………….………………………103
Market Sizing……………………………………….…………………..20 BCG……………………..…………………………….……………………….136
Pricing…………………………………………………………..............21 Deloitte……………….……………………………………………………..166
Mergers & Acquisitions/Due Diligence……………………..22 Everest Group…….………………………………………………………190
Growth Strategy……...……………………………………………….25 Kearney………………………………………………….………………….199
Mastercard Advisors…………………………………………………..212
Case Examples…………………………………………………………………26
McKinsey & Co.………………………………………………………….231
Profitability……………………………………………………...........27
PwC……………………………………………………………………………247
Market Entry……………………………………………………………38
Synergy Consulting.…………………………………………………...268
Pricing………………………………………………………….............44
GTM………………………………………………….…………………….46
Case Transcripts (Finals)…………………………………………………….272
Growth Strategy………………………………………………….…..48
M&A/DD………………………………………………………………….52
Appendix……………………………………………………..…………..……….300
Business Abstract/Abstract………………………………………55
3
Consulting Overview • Language: Once your points have been finalized, you should check if each point
conveys your role/contribution in a crisp and clear manner to the evaluator. If you
The Consulting & Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow is proud to present the IIM Lucknow Casebook have worked in a very technical role, try to use less jargons and simplify the language
for the year 2021. Through this casebook, we have made an attempt to bring to you a consoli- for the person on the other side of the table.
dated preparation guide which is an amalgamation of commonly asked case frameworks and
most recent case interview experiences – as communicated by candidates who sat through • Structure: After freezing your final CV points, it is important that you order the boxes in
the placement process of consulting firms recruiting from IIM Lucknow. your CV tactfully (The most generic boxes in a CV being – education, academic achieve-
ments, work experience, extra-curriculars and positions of responsibility).
Preparing for consulting interview can be daunting especially, if you are doing it for the very
first time! Here is our take on what the process typically looks like and what you should antici- • Highlighting: Highlighting of key points is crucial to attract the evaluator’s attention to
pate. We hope this helps those reading the book to better understand if they want to make a the points that you want him/her to read first. This is especially significant since compa-
career in consulting or not. If your answer is yes, then we hope the book helps you better pre- nies have to evaluate a huge number of CVs before coming out with the shortlist.
pare yourselves for the process.
• Formatting: Lastly, your CV must be well formatted. Presentation skills matter and any
Who should use this book?
flaw here puts you in negative light.
• Students who wish to familiarize themselves with the typical interview process followed
by major consulting firms across the globe Top consulting firms are known to shortlist candidates whose CVs show 3-4 ‘spikes’. Spikes
• Students across Indian B-schools and undergraduate colleges who are preparing for con- can be any noteworthy achievements in the sphere of academics, extra-curriculars, work-
sulting roles on campus experience or PORs that make your CV stand out from the rest. Try to keep this at the back of
• Students who want to practice cases closest to actual interview scenarios your mind while making your CV.
Insight into the Process
1. The Shortlist 2. Buddy Process & Company Interactions/Dinner

The first step towards landing your dream job is preparing your CV, on the basis of which Some companies have a month-long buddy process. One buddy is assigned to each
the interview shortlist is released by different firms. Making the perfect CV is a task in it- shortlisted candidate. Buddies are typically your college alumni in the firm who have 0-
self and should be taken very seriously. It is important to get your CV reviewed on five 3 years of experience in the firm. This process aims to serve the following purposes de-
things – impact, language, structure, highlighting & formatting. pending on the company:
• Impact: Typically, you are encouraged to show the impact created by you in every possi- • Support & guidance for the final interview: Buddies practice cases with you over the
ble point and also quantifying the impact wherever possible. one month and provide feedback for the final interview. They also help you prepare for
HR answers. Any queries about the process can be routed through them. Interactions
with them are meant to be less formal than a professional setting.
4
• Opportunity for candidate to evaluate the company: Buddies are also your means of HR:
getting an insight into the company. There may be multiple interactions and workshops It is extremely important to know your CV inside out. You can be asked anything related to
scheduled in this one-month period where company representatives and buddies will your CV. In fact, there are times when you are asked cases based on themes/sectors in your
visit campus to take a pulse check on your prep. This is an ideal time to ask questions CV. The questions that you must prepare for are – basic introduction, your reasons for
about firm culture, get to know the people and try to gauge if the firm is a good fit for wanting to join consulting and why you want to join the particular firm you are interviewing
you. with. How the job fits into your short-term and long-term plans may also be important ques-
tions to reflect on. All in all, through this component of your interview, the interviewer tests
• Pre-interview evaluation of candidates: Some companies may have a pre-interview how good a fit you are for the firm.
evaluation of candidates either through the cases done with buddies or through inter-
actions during workshops and dinners. It is important to be proactive throughout the
4. Virtual Interview Process
process and maintain visibility. However, your performance on the day of your final
In the current COVID-19 scenario, most firms have shifted their hiring processes online and
interviews is the most important criteria for your selection.
are conducting interviews digitally. In light of this, it becomes all the more important to
keep the interviewer engaged throughout the interview process and communicate the ap-
In most cases, the buddy process is what you make of it. Thus, you should try to maxim-
proach well. Unlike a physical interview, interviewers do not have access to the sheet of paper
ize your gains out of this process.
where the interviewee makes his/her case structures. As a result, the role of communication
becomes all the more crucial.
3. Final Interviews
On the final day, you will have 2-3 case interviews back-to-back. While they maybe elim-
inative for some firms, others may hold the same number of interviews for all candi-
dates before rolling out offers. Each interview typically lasts for 45 mins for final place-
ments while the summers process may have shorter interviews lasting for around 20
mins. It comprises of a case and HR questions.
Case:
For this component of the interview, you are evaluated on your communication skills
(clarity of thought, articulation & crisp communication), problem solving skills (scoping
the problem, reaching the solution using a structured approach and asking the right
questions) and numeric skills (comfort with numbers, business sense, speed & accura-
cy). In addition to this, the interviewer may want to evaluate your presence & personali-
ty in general while you are interacting with a client.
5
Introduction to Case Interviews
6
Case Interview Helicopter View
Higher level
Pre-Case Case Introduced understanding of
Deep dive into Potential Solutions
Conversation case for diagnosis / Summary
client situation
• 3-4 minutes of Case issued generally • Understand the • Get into the details • Suggest
informal falls in the following problem of the case problems to the
conversation buckets statement • Tools at hand interviewer
• Some hygiene • Profitability • Probe interviewer • Value Chain • Identify 2-3
questions on • Market entry to get context on Analysis solutions of the
candidate’s level of • Pricing the current • PORTER’s 5 forces problem
confidence • Abstract situation • PESTLE • Summarize and
• Fit questions (HR) • Estimation • A solid framework • If not able to synthesize
• Questions related to use- CPCCP diagnose, move • Don’t push
to work experience • Ask relevant backward, try infeasible
questions thinking of other solutions
frameworks
7
“Personality”, “Fit”, “Work Experience” Related Questions
▪ Questions to gauge a higher-level understanding of candidate’s skills-communication,

knowledge and experience related
▪ Sample questions:
Personality o Tell me about yourself? – (Ice breaker. Your chance to take the interviewer to your strengths)
o Things that you are passionate about? (Your ability to deep-dive into your interests)
o Situational questions- Handling a crisis, negotiating with colleagues and others
▪ Questions to assess if the candidate can fit in the culture of the firm. Since consulting firms put
high emphasis on their culture, this area is a make or break
Fit for the firm o Why firm “X”? (To understand your knowledge about the firm’s culture)
o How do you solve a problem? (Assessing how you approach problems- 70% of early career)
o What is your greatest achievement? (To assess how you measure impact)
▪ Questions around candidate’s work experience/internships- assessment of overlapping areas of

work with the interviewing firm, responsibilities handled, and impact delivered
Work experience
o Things that you liked about your previous firms? (Identifies your optimism about workplace)
o Most interesting project? (Knowing your expertise in the area of work)
o Why did you leave your previous job? (Triggers that reduce your motivation about workplace)
8
Major Case Interview Categories
Revenue
Profits Pricing
Cost
Market
analysis
Case
Growth Strategy
Market sizing
Market Categories Performance
improvement
Entry Others Product launch
Mode of entry Abstract
M&A
9
Solving a Case: Frameworks
10
Irrespective of case type, the problem statement can generally
be probed by deploying “CPCC”
Problem Formulation Company Product Customer Competition
• SMART objectives • Business lines & • SKUs – types, • How are the • Who are the
(constraints priorities) revenue segments variants, sizes customers segmented competitors and what
• Scope of the problem • Locations – Plant, • USP of the • Customer segments are their market
• Since when are you Sales product served? shares?
facing the problem? • Business Model & • Revenue share by • Different customer • Who are the indirect
• Magnitude of the Distribution model product and consumer? competitors?
problem • Scale of operation • Is the problem • Revenue contribution • Fragmented vs
• Why certain decisions • Type of player – Low specific to a of channel partners concentrated industry
being taken now? cost or differentiated product? • Is the problem specific • Are competitors also
(Market Entry Cases) • How old is the to a customer facing the issue?
• Geography specific? company? segment?
Why clarifying questions are important? To-Dos

• Better understanding about the client & industry • Contextualise the questions as per the case (product,
Points to • Scoping and segmenting the problem industry etc.)
remember • Generating inferences from the information gathered. • If you have any prior understanding, always state it
Accordingly, customize further questions and case and get it validated, rather than asking a question.
solving structure
11
Frameworks to conduct Industry Analysis
PESTLE- Macroeconomic analysis Porter’s 5 forces- Microeconomic analysis
Political
Environment Economic
PESTLE
Analysis
Legal Social
Technological
• Refer to the appendix for detailed PESTLE analysis

The 4P framework – generally applicable across all business
cases
Product Place Promotion Price
• What are the product’s • How is the product • What promotions are being • How is the product
differentiating attributes? distributed to consumers? used – advertisements, priced?
• Why does the consumer • What is the distribution sales/trade, PR? (Mode, • How are its competitors
purchase the product? supply chain? (distributor, Message, Messenger) priced?
wholesaler, retailer) – • Any negative PR recently • What pricing strategy?
Commissions, product • What is the most effective • How the customers pay
• Features push, time to transport etc. way of “getting word out”? (channels, payments
• Quality • What new methods of • Evaluate each promotion modes)?
• Packaging distribution are available? mechanism by reach, • Discounts, loyalty
• Brand • Product placement at retail frequency, impact schemes
• Support services outlet (Right place, right • How it helps in creating
(installation, after sales way, right environment, brand loyalty, preferences
support) right quantity) • Cost based, value pricing,
competitor based
• Sales & Trade promotion • Premium pricing
• Advertising – ATL/ BTL/ TTL • Skimming pricing
• Personal Selling • Penetration pricing
13
Profitability Framework- Revenues are declining
Profits
Revenues Costs
Refer Profitability-costs framework
Price Quantity
Internal factors External Factors
Product, Promotions, Place Customer Journey Macro Economic

Industry level factors
Approach Approach factors
Refer 4P framework in appendix Refer Customer Journey framework • Political • Supplier
• Economic • Customers
• Social • Substitutes
Product Promotions Place/ Distribution • Technological • Threat of New
• Need served? • STP • Modes of Distribution • Legal Entrants
• Features & • Core message and content • Direct - Online, Offline
Quality • Modes • Indirect - Online, offline • Environmental • Competitive Rivalry
• Brand • Advertisements – Online, offline • No. of customers in each mode • Complements
• Packaging • Sales Promotions • Average value of purchase
• SKUs • Trade Promotions
• Consumption • Public Relations & sponsorships
frequency 14
Profitability Framework- Customer Journey Approach
Need Awareness Accessibility
Trade Sales Product

Necessity Discretionary Coverage
Promotion Promotion Placement
• Alternatives • Alternatives • Channel • Mode (Media) • Reach • 4Rs
available? available? Yes/No Incentives • Message • Logistics - Right Place
Yes/No • Luxury good • Salesforce • Messenger • Channel - Right way
• Utility good effectiveness • Perception/PR Management - Right Environment
- Right Quantity
Experience Affordability
Purchase Customer Pricing Payment

Post Delivery
Experience Service Strategy Options
• Vendor Selection • Unpacking • Feedback • Base/Premium • Credit –
• In-store exp. – • Installation • Problem • Discounts Credit card, EMI
Ambience, • Usage – Draw - Help (Customer • Loyalty/ • Non-Credit –
salesmen parallel to Care) Subscriptions Cash, Debit card,
• Payment process product need - Solution wallets, etc.
• Delivery and customer (Warranty/Non-
satisfaction Warranty) 15
Customer Journey Approach in practice
It is not always necessary to follow the standard buckets while mapping the customer journey
The candidate should step into the shoes of the customer and solve it through first principle
Example: Mapping the customer journey on an e-commerce platform
Home Page Search Results Product Page
Features Ease of Use History Suggestions Product Features Product Price
Aesthetics Placement Reviews Suggestions
After Sales Delivery Payment
Returns &
Installation Time Quality Credit Non-Credit
Replacements
Repairs Reach
16
Profitability Framework- Costs are increasing*
Costs are increasing
Operational Non-Operational
Primary Secondary
Raw Material In-bound Logistics Warehousing, Distribution, marketing & After sales service
storage & sales costs costs
Transportation
Quality Quantity Transport Storage
Wholesaler Retailer Consumer
Production Process
Material Man Machine Method Measurement
Non-operational cost Secondary costs

• Depreciation • Research & development
• Amortization • HR and admin costs
• Bad debts • Infrastructure costs
• Classification depends on industry
• Finance costs • Technology development • Refer to the appendix for detailed classification
Market Entry Framework (1/2)
Proposed framework for market entry: A. Qualifying questions
A. Understanding context - Qualifying questions
B. Decision to enter –
Motive Constraints
• Market attractiveness Basic info:
• Company • Profit increase • Time period
1. Quantitative Analysis • Market share expansion
• Products/ • Investment
1. Market Size & Growth • Diversification
services
2. Breakeven Analysis (NPV, IRR, Payback period) • Other reasons - welfare,
2. Qualitative Analysis charity, etc.
1. Country (macro) & Industry analysis (micro) Any reasons why the chosen
• Need-gap analysis & STP country?
Why now?
C. Mode of entry
D. Operationalizing (optional)
B. Entry decision - Market attractiveness#
Country analysis Industry analysis
Political Economic Technology & Suppliers Consumers Competitors

infrastructure
Legal & regulatory Socio-cultural Environmental Substitutes Complements Barriers to entry
#Quantitative – Market Size & Growth, Breakeven Analysis (NPV, IRR, Payback Period) 18
Market Entry Framework (2/2)
B. Entry decision - Need-gap analysis & STP
Identify segments on the basis of: Perform need-gap analysis For each target segment, identify
• Geography • Define product/ services • Market Size (potential guesstimate)
• Demographic • Identify USP • Growth
• Behavioural • Target segments whose needs are met • Lifecycle
• Psychographics
C. Framework for market entry mode D. Operationalizing

Setup the business for the firm:
Rate comparatively for each factor on 3-level scale: High, Mid and Low 1. Establish value chain
• Sourcing
Factors for Organic M&A JV License/ • Manufacturing
various growth Franchise • Logistics (Transportation & Storage)
options • Distribution
Costs • Marketing
• Customer service
Time to 2. Product/ services related19: (4 P Approach)
profitability • Product/ Service
Autonomy/ • Pricing
control • Promotion plan
• Place
Risks 19
3. Identifying Risks & Synergies
Market Sizing/ Guesstimates
A. What do interviewers look for B. Types (Decide based on constraints/ limiting factor)
in guesstimates?
1. Approach (Reduction factors,
assumptions made) – Most important Demand Side: Supply Side:
2. Market/ consumer/ industry specific • Example – Mobile phones sold, Ketchup • Example – No. of flights landing in an airport
insights consumed etc. • Usual Reduction Factors –
3. Calculations – Speed, correctness • ‘Consumer Centric’ approach – • Production capability
• Perform approximate calculations to • Imagine yourself as a consumer of the • Infrastructure facility
save time & reduce chances of error product and identify consumer insights • Time, Resource, Capital
• Usual reduction factors – • Units per facility
• Population (Or any other consumer) • Competition
C. Does the final answer matter? • Age, Gender, Income • Substitutes & Complements
• The final answer need not be accurate • Religion, Ethnicity
• Try not to arrive at numbers with large • Urban/ Rural or location wise
deviations (10x, 100x) (validating final • Consumer usage related factors
answer through any other ball-park • Units per person
estimation). In case of error, don’t hesitate to • Substitutes & other options
go back to the approach & include any other • Complements
factor or review the numbers taken • Replacement Rate
• Competition
D. Process
Define the approach State all the Apply 80/ 20 Perform Validate the answer
Scoping & (reduction factors), numbers and back Rule – Only calculation & through other approach/
Clarification draw issue tree & get it up with any proceed with adjust minor benchmark (ball-park
buy-in from interviewer suitable rationale major segments segments ignored estimation works)
20
Pricing Framework
R&D Cost
FC
Cost based Production cost
VC
Breakeven period, WACC
Similar product in the

Pricing market
Competition based
Substitutes
Opportunity cost
Value based
Value of similar products
21
Mergers & Acquisitions, Due-Diligence
Proposed framework: B. Pre-Offer
A. Type of merger – Horizontal, vertical, conglomerate
B. Pre-Offer
• Motive for merger and valuations Motive Valuation
C. Offer Can use any method
• Due-Diligence for valuations:
• Synergies Operational Financial Managerial
• DCF
• Deal Structuring • Asset Seeking • Acquiring an • Agency • Segment
D. Post-Offer • Overcapacity undervalued issues • Market Value
• PMI • R&D firm • Monopoly
• Strategy & Exit
C. Offer D. Post-Offer
Due Diligence Synergies Deal Structuring PMI Strategy Exit
Use SMIOLF Framework A+B > A,B • All Cash • Culture (Values) • Cost • When
• Strategic • Compare the value • Cash + Stock • Systems (Cost) • Redesign • How
• Marketing chains of both the • All Stock • Strategy (Synergies)
• IT firms and identify • Debt • Structure (Leadership)
• Operations synergies • …… • Staff (Attrition)
• Legal & similar combinations • Style (Decision makers)
• Finance • Skills (Talent)
Strategic
22 Fit
Due Diligence (Do DD of heads relevant to the case)
DD is an extensive process undertaken by an acquiring firm to assess target company’s business, assets, capabilities, & financial performance.
Organization Product Customer Competition Operational Marketing
• Structure • Offerings • STP & Stickiness • Market structure • Value chain • Customer mix
• Ownership • Variants • Change in • Market share • Suppliers • Channel mix
• Divisions • Stage in Lifecycle customer mix • Growth • Distributors • Communication
• Business Units • Change in • Demographics- • Offerings • Innovation • Brand Image
• Strategy product mix geographic, • Valuation • R&D
• Comp. advantage psychographic,
• VRIO behavioural
Financial Management IT Legal HR Environment
• Audit of FS • Experience & • Systems • Patents • Policies • Emission

• Earning Quality Qualification • Processes • Licenses • Professional HR • Pollution
• CAGR of KPIs- • Promoters stake • Integration • Agreements Team • Reuse
Sales, profit • Strategy • Regulations • Feedback • Recycle
• Cash flows • Culture mechanism • Refurbish
• Working capital • Belief and Vision • EE survey
cycle • Integrity
23
Synergies
Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts.
• It Identifies R&D/ Resource Product

Suppliers Operations
potential
synergies across
• Sharing • Dec. number • Economies of • Wider range
value chain:
knowledge, tech, • Retain quality scale/scope • More variants
R&D-> Suppliers-
labs, machinery • Bulk Orders- Dec. • Higher capacity • Better pricing-
> Operations -
& scientists order & utilization due to better
>Product ->
• Access to transport costs • Higher quality & lower
Distribution -
patents, licenses, • Bargaining productivity competition
>Marketing -
spectrum, etc power
>Customer
• Other areas of
synergies- Distribution Marketing Customer Financial HR
Finances, HR etc.
• Scale/Scope • Scale and reach • Better product • WACC decreases • Productivity
• Salesforce • Customer data • Same STP • Deprn. tax shield increase
rationalization • Knowledge • Cross selling • Tax savings • More diversity
• Incr. penetration- sharing • Bundling • Bankruptcy costs • EEs with special
more channels • Co- Branding • Upselling • Agency costs competencies
• Bargaining (Ability to sell • Information • Labour cost
power more) asymmetry rationalization
24
Growth Strategy
Proposed framework:
Approach
Organic Inorganic
• M&A
• Improving own • J&V
competencies • Partnership
• Franchise
Existing Geography New Geography
Current Product New Product Current Product New Product
Market Penetration Product Market

Diversification
– 4Ps Development Development
Existing Product Pricing & Promotion Distribution Core Offering Non-Core Offering
• Increase usage Incentives & • Channels • Services • Services

• Updates/ Awareness • Contract • Products • Products
Upgrades Management • After Sales • Accessories
25
Case Examples
26
Profitability- Interview Transcript
An Oral Hygiene Products Manufacturer facing declining profits in India
Case Transcript
Your client is an Oral Hygiene Products manufacturer. They have observed declining profits. Help find Let’s focus on the Revenues for Toothbrush.
the solution to their problem.
Now Revenue issue can be a market share issue where your firm is facing declining revenues whereas the
industry is performing well, or a market value issue, where the market itself is not performing to the par.
I would like to begin by confirming the problem statement, and asking some clarifying questions from Where do you think the issue is here?
our client. As per my understanding our client manufactures oral hygiene products, and has faced
declining profits. Is that correct? How long has the client been facing this problem? I think it’s a Market Share issue, the Toothbrush market has maintained its growth levels otherwise.
That is correct. The client has been facing declining profits since the inception of the firm 2 years ago. Thanks, now Revenues can further be broken down into Price, and Volumes. Has there been a decline in the
volume of the product being manufactured or has there been some change in the prices?
Thank you. What all products does the client manufacture? Also, where does the client operate? The prices have remained constant focus on the volumes here.
The client manufactures two products toothbrush, and mouthwash. They are present only in the
Indian market. Ok. So if there has been a fall in volumes, it could be because of supply side issues, where the demand exists
but the client has not been able to meet it, or a demand side issue with the problem at the consumer’s end.
What are the competitors faced by the client, and where is the client situated in the competition? Could you help me understand, on which side the issue could be?
Since they have established their operations recently, the client is still market follower, and is placed The client believes that there has been a fall in demand.
4th in terms of national market share for oral hygiene products.
What is the sales split of the two products manufactured by the client? Further, have both of seen a Alright then. This fall in demand can then further be attributed to internal factors innate to the client’s
decline in profits? product such as branding, product specifications, and after sales service or external factors that have
emerged from outside the client’s control, like substitutes, complements, with taste and preferences. Is
The client manufactures one standard type of Toothbrush (A) and Mouthwash (B) each, which there any segment you would like me to focus on specifically?
contribute 75% and 25% of the total sales, respectively. Both are being hit in terms of profitability.
Begin with product specifications
Does the client operate across the value chain or in a specific part? Also, will it be safe to assume that
the end consumers of the client’s products are majorly households? The Product specifications can further be broken down into functional aspects (i.e. the bristles, grip, length of
the toothbrush etc.) and experiential/symbolic factors like colours, packaging, unique features. Could there
Yes, the client operates across the entire value chain; and, could you elaborate which households? be a reason for us to believe that the client’s product is different from the industry in the above factors?
Sure. Assuming the client is competing nationally, I believe the toothbrush sales should be majorly Yes, it has been found that the bristles and the length the toothbrush has not been satisfactory. Can you
driven by middle-income households. Whereas, Mouthwash demand emanating largely from upper- highlight what issues could there be?
middle to high-income households. Is this assumption fair?
Fair, you may proceed further.
Sure, Indians are known to brush their teeth rigorously, and mostly in the morning for freshness. I believe
Since there are two products with their respective sales contributions, I will begin with toothbrush since there could be an issue with the quality of the bristles or the area of bristles that could either make the
it has greater contribution, and then proceed to mouthwash
experience hurtful, or not allow adequate toothpaste to get a satisfactory brushing experience. For the
Sure, go ahead. length, due to the brushing pattern as stated above, rigorous strokes are made. If the length is longer than
So, Profits can be broken down to revenues and costs. Since profits are declining, it could either be expected, it could either damage the gums, or not make the toothbrush flexible enough to provide the
revenues declining, costs increasing or costs increasing greater than the revenues. Which option would experience the customers are looking for. 27
you like me to proceed with?
Case Transcript
These could certainly be plausible issues; but changing product specifications is a lengthy process, and requires research. What would you recommend the client?
Alright. The decline in revenues for toothbrush is largely coming from product where the client may have difficulties in finding immediate solutions. In that case I would recommend fringe benefits to customers in
the short run to make the product more lucrative until specifications can be met with. These could be:-
1. Explore bundling of products to make the bundle attractive and drive sales in both products
2. Niche promotion that could address this myth, or make the brush look like a differentiated offering
The recommendations seem feasible. Now explore the mouthwash segment. Focus on external factors, and it is a market share issue.
Thank you. Since it is an external issue, it implies, the client’s product is facing issue in the business environment. Would it be safe to assume that the issue with Mouthwash being faced, at the same time as
Toothbrush too?
No, it is a more recent phenomenon.
Sure, since it is a customer driven (demand) issue, external factors could be Affordability, Availability, Accessibility, or Likeability. Is there any specific factor you would like me to consider first?
Explain what you mean by likeability?
Likeability are the factors that would affect the customer’s propensity to buy the product provided it is available, affordable and accessible. These could emergence of substitutes, tastes and preferences, or
complements.
Yes, it has been found that our mouthwash brand is endorsed by a famous Hollywood actor who is also endorsing a tobacco brand in a significant country, and has faced global criticism for it, which may have
affected preferences here. This was a constructive interaction, thank you and all the best!
28
Profitability- Case Structure
Qualitative Information Case Framework Quantitative Data & Analysis
Case background: None
Profits
Oral Hygiene Products
manufacturer facing
unsatisfactory revenues Revenue Costs
Price Volumes
Demand Supply
Internal External
Case facts:
Promotion
• 2 Products – Toothbrush
(A) (75%) and Likeability
Mouthwash (B) (25%) Distribution
• Customers – Middle Product

Availability Substitutes
Income Households for A
and Middle to High for B Accessibility Complements
• Placed 4th in the Market Functional Experiential
• Problem since inception, Affordability Tastes and

Preferences
2 years ago
Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

Toothbrush – Product Specifications Issue in Bristles and Length. Niche The case assesses the ability to extend and structure a revenue side issue in the
promotions and bundled sales until product redesign most extensive way. The key is to cover most filters first, and then explore the
breadth before depth while searching for the issue. Structure is prioritized over
Mouthwash – Taste and Preference Issue because of Brand Ambassador recommendation
29
Our client is a biscuit retailer. Of late, they have experienced a decline in profit. Why is this happening?
Case Transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I would like to understand more about the retailer. Where is We get our supplies from the same wholesaler for last 5-6 years. There has not been any major change in
any of these. You may move ahead.
our client’s business based out of? Where are the retail shops located? How long has the retailer been
facing this issue? Sure. I would like to understand the modes of transportation used by the retailer to procure the biscuits from
the retailer.
Good. The retailer is based out of India. The shops are located in the residential areas of Lucknow. It’s The retailers own a few trucks. There have been a few structural changes like increase in fuel costs but it
a well-known shop. The client has been facing this issue since last 3 months. has impacted the overall industry. Go ahead.
Alright. I would like to understand more about operating model of the client. Does our client Now, next step is to unload the biscuit packets. There could be issues related to mishandling during the
manufacture the biscuits as well? process.
Interestingly, our client procures the biscuits from the manufacturer. He stores it in the warehouse No, I don’t think there is any mishandling at this stage. What else?
and then sends it to the respective retailers.
Next, I would like to understand how the storage of the packets takes place?
Okay. Could you please elaborate a bit on the competition faced by the biscuit retailer? And are the
competitors also facing this issue? Good. We own a warehouse nearby the city. We are using the same warehouse for last 8 year. What kind
of problems can you think here?
There are no major competitors in Lucknow. People heavily rely on our client’s products. No, the
competitors are not facing this issue. There could two possible problems in storage. A) Human issues B) Non-human issues
Now, I would like to know more about the different types of biscuits being sold by the retailers? And Interesting, can you walk me through the possible issues under each head.
does our client serve only households?
Sure. Under human issues, there could 3 possible problems:
As of now, our client sells only one type of biscuits. It is being consumed by the middle class families. i) Mishandling which includes damage due to the labour
ii) Stealing of the packets by the labour
iii) Management of the inventory i.e., using LIFO for a perishable product may affect the old packets
(Asked for a few seconds to develop my structure) Based on our discussion, the client is facing issues in
the profits. Profits can be declined because of two reasons: a) decline in revenues b) increase in costs.
Do you want me to focus on any particular area? Absolutely. Inventory management is one issue due to lack of training in new employees. Can you think of
some non-human issues?
Yes, I would like you to explore costs first.
Under non human issues, there are two possible issues:
For costs, I would like to see what are costs being incurred by the retailer at each point of the value i) Spoilage due to climatic conditions ii) Damage due to rodents
chain of the retailer. As per my understanding, the client will first procure the biscuits from the retailer.
For which, some inbound logistics will be required. After unloading, the biscuits will be stored at a
warehouse. From there, they will be transferred to the retail shops. Is there anything I am missing out? Yes, there has been a lot of damage due to this monsoon season. Great, can you recommend some
possible steps to combat this issues observed?
Sure. In short term, we can: i) Employee training in inventory management ii) undertake regular pest controls
Great. I think you have covered all the points. You may start with your this structure. to prevent the damage from rodents.
Sure. I would like to start with the procurement of biscuits from the wholesaler. Has there been any In long term: i) installation of CCTVs to keep a check on workers ii) renovate the warehouse to make it water
change in the price charged by the wholesaler or any other terms and conditions? proof.
Certainly. It was a great discussion. Do you have any questions for me?
30
Our client is a biscuit retailer. Of late, they have experienced a decline in profit. Why is this happening?
Qualitative Information Case Framework
Case background:
Biscuits retailer facing issues
due to increasing costs Profit
Revenue Cost
Value Chain
Procurement Inbound Load on Transfer to

Unloading Storage Shelf
from warehouse Logistics shop
Case facts: Human Non Human

issues issues Purchase by
• Located in residential areas customer
• One product and no Mishandling Stealing

Inventory
Spoilage Damage
competitor Management
After sales
service
• Middle class families
• Problem since last 3
months

i) Human issues: Poor inventory management by personnel The case revolves around the back-end work of the retailer. It is not always
ii) Non-human issues: Spoilage due to the monsoon season necessary for a retailer to face customer related issues. Therefore, it is a
Recommendation: recommended step to clarify the operating model. Using the value chain can
i) Training in inventory management techniques help in identifying the problems easily at each stage.
ii) Make the warehouse water resistant. 31
Client is an NBFC. Its sales have been declining for the last few months. Help identify the reason.
Case Transcript
Client is an NBFC. Its sales have been declining for the last few months. Help identify the reason Okay. Since the problem only occurs with you, I am going to start from the broker. Are we offering the
brokers competitive commissions ? Are our checks stricter?
Could I know more about the client? Where is it operating, for how long, how are sales defined, which Both our commission and checks are competitive.
customer profiles it serves and is the competition facing a similar issue?
The client has been operating in India since 2000. It’s HQ is in Mumbai. As an NBFC, it offers loans which Okay. So, then there is a problem with the final conversion of customers. And since the brokers are
have seen a decline. My competition, which includes other private NBFCs and banks, are not facing the neutral, are we taking a lot of time to get back?
problem. We provide both retail and corporate loans, both of which are facing the decline.
How do we provide loans to our customers? That’s correct. Our competitors have upped their process of verification, that has significantly reduced
their get-back time and covert the customers. That’s good, we can end the case here.
We provide loans directly and through DSEs which are like brokers for banks. Thank you.
Has there been a decline in the DSE channel?
Yes. Significantly.
Has there been a fall in the applications? Could you tell me how this channel works?
The number of applications has been the same and yes, the product is still competitive. The DSE
channel works like this – customer goes to broker – broker shows them all the options, including ours –
broker sends back applications – we review the applications – get back to broker – broker conveys to
customer – deal is signed
32
Client is an NBFC. Its sales have been declining for the last few months. Help identify the reason
Client has been

Case background:
operating for 25
years with two
NBFC facing declining
strong brand
revenues in DSE Customer Broker presents
Broker sends
back forms to Loans reviewed NBFC gets back Client accepts Deal signed
names. It faces
(independent) channel approaches DSE loan options
NBFC
indirect
Case facts:
competition from
•theProblem
beer and fresh
specific to Bank takes longer
client
cocktails. time to review offers
• Here, sales mean and give clearance
loan sales
It is a unique
• Loans provided by
product
client are competitive

Clients’ loan application verification process time is significantly It is always good to ask for value chains of a business you have less
slower than the competition and is having trouble converting knowledge about. The case did not follow any conventional structure,
customers. hence it is extremely important to solve cases using first principles.
33
Our client is an automotive manufacturer and has been facing a decline in profits. Help us find out why.
Case Transcript
Since when have the profits been declining and by how much? Okay, I would like to know if there has been any major change in the location of the manufacturing plants /
suppliers you’re procuring from / product mix / target customers in the recent past that could have led to a
change in procurement costs for the firm?
The client has been facing this issue since the past 1 year and the quantum of fall has been 10%
Yes, we have recently changed our suppliers owing to a change in procurement policy which aims to
I would like to understand the company’s business model and how long it has been in business for? localize procurement closer to Chennai plants.
The company is 50-60 years old. It typically procures parts, assembles it and sells the final product in Okay, so one of the reasons for lower profitability be the additional transportation costs you are bearing to
markets across India transport the parts from Chennal plants to other manufacturing facilities located pan-India?
Where are the company’s manufacturing plants located? And where does it procure parts from? Yes, that is correct. But at the same time we are lowering raw material procurement costs for Chennai
It has 5 manufacturing plants. One each in Pune, Kolkata and Lucknow and two in Chennai. plants. The transportation cost as a proportion of total costs has gone up from 5% to 8% while the raw
Distribution happens from all across India while procurement sites are aggregated closer to Chennai material cost has gone down from 15% by 17%
Okay, that means that the change in raw material cost has been ~1.73% of total costs and so the net
Does the company have its own stores or does it distribute through third parties? What is the share of increase in costs has been 3%-1.73% = 1.27%. So this is one of the reasons for a spike in costs and decline in
online and offline distribution?
profitability.
We distribute through our own stores as well as through third party distributors. The share of offline
sales is around 95% and rest is taken up by online sales. Right, now I would like you to tell me how the findings so far can impact warehousing costs.
What is the type of automobiles that you manufacture? And what is the share of revenues you get from Warehousing costs could be further divided into human and non-human costs. Human costs include any
each of these product segments? changes in number of employees, skill level of employees, wages of employees in the warehouse. Non-
The client manufactures commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles and is also in the business of spare human costs will include costs associated with inefficiencies in inventory management (inventory carrying
parts. The revenue mix is around 50%, 50% and 5% respectively cost) or related to general maintenance/security of warehouse
And what is the kind of clientele we are targeting with the products? There has been no change in human costs. However, the inventory carrying cost has been impacted. Could
you suggest why?
With the passenger vehicles, the client is targeting the middle income group and the typical clientele
for commercial vehicles is trucking aggregators and other businesses Is it because the number of days taken for the inventory to reach your Lucknow, Pune and Kolkata plants has
Alright, in terms of competition, who are your major competitors in the market and where are you increased, thereby increasing the number of days that the inventory is in transit?
placed among them? Have they been facing a similar issues? That is right. Now, we have also been facing a lot of complaints post-purchase of vehicles. How could this
We are among the top 3 players in the market and you can assume all three of us have equal market be having a cost implication?
share. I am not aware if our competitors are facing similar issues or not.
Okay, so complaints could be of two types, one, that requires only servicing and doesn’t require additional
I’d now like to delve into the case and identify reasons for decline in profitability. So since you said your spare parts, the other can be where spare parts are required. The implications of these can again be two fold
profitability has been declining, it could either be a function of decline in revenues or increase in costs. - one, increase in manpower costs for handling these complaints and second, cost of storing/transporting
spare parts on demand (Depending on how your model works)
There has been an increase in costs Yes, so there has been an increase in the costs related to transporting the spare parts to these service
centres since earlier the anticipated demand for spare parts was lesser than what it has been over the past
Okay, I would like to break down the costs into Primary and Secondary costs. Primary costs will include year. The new supplier seems to be providing more defective parts. Could you summarize the case for me?
costs related to R&D, procurement of raw materials, in-bound logistics, warehousing of raw materials,
processing, warehousing of finished goods, outbound logistics, marketing etc. Sure. We were trying to ascertain why an automotive company is facing declining profits and we found out
that one, there has been a change in procurement policy of parts which is leading to an increase in inbound
That sounds exhaustive. I would like you to begin with procurement, our R&D costs haven’t had an logistics costs, second is the increase in inventory carrying costs because inventory in transit is taking longer
impact on profitability. now and lastly, servicing costs have gone up due to the new supplier supplying more defective parts.
Our client is an automotive manufacturer and has been facing a decline in profits. Help us find out why.
Qualitative Information Case Framework Quantitative Analysis
Case background: Problem area Raw material costs (previous) =
Profit 15% of costs
Automotive manufacturer is
facing an increase in costs Decrease in raw material
primarily due to a change in Revenue Cost procurement costs = 17%
procurement policy of the Value Chain
Thus, change in raw material
company Finished costs = 1.73%
Procurement Inbound Inventory Transfer to Service
Processing goods Centre
Case facts: from suppliers Logistics warehousing shop
warehousing Transportation costs (previous)
= 8%
• 5 manufacturing plants
located in Lucknow, Non Human
Human Costs Servicing Spare Parts Transportation costs (new) =
Costs
Kolkata, Pune and 2 in 5%
Chennai
Maintenance Inventory Thus, change in transportation
Theft
• Makes Commercial & Equipment Management costs = 3%
vehicles, passenger
vehicles and in the Net increase in costs =
business of spare parts as Inventory 3%=1.73%=1.27%
well carrying cost
Change in Increase in Mode of
Supplier Distance Transportation

Change in Procurement Policy has resulted in: The case requires you to link one problem to another and arrive at multiple cost
1) Net increase in inbound logistic costs implications of a change in procurement policy of the organization. Being
2) Inventory carrying costs has increased exhaustive in asking preliminary questions and laying down the entire value
3) Servicing costs increase due to more defective parts chain helps the interviewer to lead you in the right direction, otherwise the case
can get extremely messy and lengthy 35
Cost Optimization Problem- Interview Transcript
Our client is a major IT company. They want to optimise their costs. Help them
Case Transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) Firstly, I would like to understand what the client means Well, I would look at the following factors here. Firstly, introduce adaptive staffing as per the SDLC
requirements on projects. As per my experience, when projects near ‘go live’ periods they require more
exactly by optimizing their costs. manpower, however, during more relaxed phases this man power may be billing hours to the client without
The client here wants to cut costs wherever possible by 10% putting in enough work as they have more idle time. So, possibly we could look at an adaptive staffing system
which would ensure that there are firstly minimum number of people on the bench at a time, optimum
Okay, does the client have a timeline within which they want to achieve this? number of people per project and lastly we could look into the performance evaluation system. Strict
monitoring and improving accountability in terms of hours billed to client and actual work done through a
2 years. tracking system can be introduced. Lastly, if I were to try to reduce the number of hours billed per team, I
would also look at upgrading from legacy systems using outdated software to more recent software systems.
So, I would like to better understand this IT company in terms of their scale and services
The IT company is based out of 15 cities in India. They provide maintenance support for software as Ok.
well as are into product development. You can think of them like any big IT firm you are aware of. In terms of the average cost per team, I would look into the team compositions in terms of work done at
each hierarchical level. Increasing the number of junior employees while reducing the number of senior
Then I am looking at a firm like a Wipro, Cognizant, TCS etc. Is it a correct assumption that most of their employees, will help optimize costs especially, if the technical skills required are similar across lower and
clients would be based in the US and Indian operations would be their offshore business? middle level employees.
Yes, that’s a correct assumption. 90% of their clients are US based. Any other factor that you would look into while tweaking team composition?
Moving to the IT competitive landscape, as per my understanding there are numerous firms in the I would look into the number of onshore and offshore employees. Onshore employees will tend to be more
industry and all of them offer pretty much standardised services. expensive to maintain for the company as compared to offshore employees. Hence, firing one onshore
Fair enough. Our client is one of the biggest players, however, the management feels that cost employee will be almost equivalent to let’s say firing 10 offshore employees. However, I am unsure of how
optimization will help them grow at a faster rate. the labour laws work for onshore employees. Within India also, I could look at hiring as well as relocating
more employees to Tier 2 cities where the cost of living is less. This would not only help in decreasing salaries
Sure, I would like to now move into breaking down the costs so as to exactly pinpoint areas wherein we for employees possessing the same competency and skill set but also decrease my other operating expenses.
can cut costs. For this I would be splitting the costs into operational and non-operational costs. Since, I
understand that the major cost driver in the IT industry is the employee costs (part of operational Fair point. What else?
costs) I would like to start there.
That’s a good observation. You may proceed. I would next like to move into the number of people at a time per team. As the IT sector sees large attrition
rates, training costs will increase if the client’s attrition rates are higher than that of competitors. Hence, if
possible having lock-in periods in line with project completion timelines will help. Secondly, especially in
I would like to express employee costs as the number of employees multiplied by the cost incurred per areas such as testing, increasing automation testing and decreasing manual testing will help improve time,
employee.
quality and costs for project delivery.
But, how would you proceed from there?
Do you think you are missing out on any important factor?
As I understand cost per person could be calculated easily when we look at teams. I would further I would look into the pay structure of the employees to optimize fixed & variable components of the salaries.
express the cost per person as the product of the number of teams, average cost per team and number
of persons per team.
I think we have covered sufficient ground in terms of employee costs. Can you briefly list a few other areas
Good. where costs can be significantly reduced?
First, taking the number of teams, as I understand this would be determined by the number of projects? Sure. Firstly, I would look into the sales team, in terms of efficiency, number of clients converted (retention
Or am I misinterpreting the structure of the organization? of old clients and generation of new business) and look at any reductions there. Next the infrastructure costs
in terms of rent paid, options of co-working spaces, work from home etc. 36
The number of teams is not the same as the number of projects, as there are certain large projects
with sub teams and smaller projects with just a few members. Why do you need this information? We have run out of time. Thank you.
Cost Optimization Problem- Case Structure
Our client is a major IT company. They want to optimise their costs. Help them
Case background:
Costs
Major IT company looking to
reduce costs by 10% in the
next 2 years. Operational Non-Operational
Case facts:
Infrastructural Sales & Depreciation/Amortiza
Employee Costs Finance Costs Bad Debts
• Works on a typical Costs Marketing Costs tion
offshoring model like a TCS
• Optimising of costs directly Number of Cost incurred per
linked to future growth employees employee
• Operates out of 15 cities in

Number of Average cost Number of
India teams per team employees per team
• 90% of clients are based in
the US
Change in Change in team Change in team Introduction of

Change in Change in time Introduction of
staffing composition composition more automated
employees billing system lock-in periods
system (skill) (location) methods
on bench

The major cost driver in the IT Industry is employee costs. Recommendations: Cost Optimization problems can be easily solved if there is a prior understanding
1) Increase automation, upgrade software systems of the major cost driver of that particular industry, in the case of IT, it would be
2) SDLC adaptive staffing, decrease attrition through lock in periods the employee costs. It is advised to clarify with the interviewer beforehand, if
3) Increase team efficiency, employee efficiency - review of appraisal system the emphasis should be on the major cost driver. Secondary cost drivers can
& pay structure, tracking systems for monitoring client billed hours then be touched upon at a later stage. Competitive benchmarking can also help
Market Entry- Interview Transcript
A global investment bank wants to enter India. Help it out.
Case Transcript
I am the MD of a global investment bank. My bank wants to enter India. Help me out capture them. What will be my break-even period, expected revenues, costs, ROE etc.?
Above analysis will help me quantify the investment decision.
I will need to understand more about the investment bank. Can you tell me which country it is
headquartered in, what geographies does it cover and why does it want to enter the Indian market? Interesting. Anything else that you will like to look at.
Good question. I am a US based top 20 investment bank. I am strongly present in US and European Two more things:
markets and have small presence in Asian markets. US and European markets are slowing down i) Overlap between our current operations: Will a entry into India be able to leverage our
while Indian markets are picking up so we want to expand our business in India. existing operations? Do we already have an existing office that can cater to the Indian
demand?
That’s interesting. Can you help me in understanding your revenue sources, their break-up and your ii) Mode of entry: Since we are a US bank and may lack local market understanding, we can
customers. either partner with a another player through merger/acquisition. Or we can also enter
directly, given we have a background with the market/government and our prior experience
Definitely. We have four major products- ECM, DCM, M&A and FX markets. We also do private IB
of entering other geographies.
advisory. Our major revenue drivers are M&A, DCM and FX. Our customers range from fortune
1000 companies to mid size multi-million dollar firms. We also cater to high net worth individuals.
Further, though there is competition, we expect to gain a good market share. Great. Can you help me in estimating my expected revenues in the first year of operations
I understand. Looking at the situation, I will base my decision on the following factors: Definitely. Your total revenues for the first year of operations will be:
i) Macroeconomic outlook for India: India is in a strong growth phase. Over the next 10-20 years, Revenue earned per deal* Number of deals.
the same is expected as well. Given that there are multiple products, we have to calculate the above based on each product.
ii) Banking regulations and environment: Banking regulations are reasonably liberal and the fin- We can calculate the number of deals per product based on- Total number of deals in that country*
tech innovations have made the financial sector more efficient. Expected market share. To identify revenue earned per deal, we can identify deal size and multiply it
iii) Further, number of HNIs, fortune 1000 firms, multimillion firms are also increasing with the margin per deal.
significantly.
To conclude, the market appears welcoming. You are right, Let me give you some information. I want to do business in M&A, DCM and ECM. I
expect to do 3 M&A deals, 4 DCM deals and 10 ECM deals in the first year. Expected deal size for
Yes, the overall market is great. What other things should I look at? M&A is $5 bn., DCM is $2 bn. And for ECM is $1 bn. Our margins on each are 5%, 3% and 2%.
Based on our discussion, we understand that Indian market is attractive. Now I will like to focus on IB Sure. Given this information We can simply calculate the revenue as:
business. We need to identify what market shares will we be able to capture across our product mix. Margin*deal-size*Number of deals per product.
Will the growth in each of these businesses be sustainable? Given that there are potential clients-
Firms etc. present, what are the resources available to Makes sense. Thanks for having this discussion. You have any questions for me?
38
Market Entry- Case Structure
A global investment bank wants to enter India. Help it out.
Case background: IB entering India Expected 1 year revenue:
US based top 20 global Indian market Number of deals by product:
investment bank wants to Mode of entry
conditions Expected market share M&A:
enter Indian due to slow-
down of US/European and key financial metrics Product DCM M&A ECM
markets Macroecono IB industry JV/
mic factors factors Product- Direct entry No. of 4 3 10
Financial Acquisition
wise market deals
projections
Average share Average 2 5 1
10 year Niche
margins and Expected Revenue and size
growth rate On- player
Case facts: deal sizes share and cost ($bn)
shore/Off- acquisition/
projections projections shore Partnership
Four products: DCM, ECM, Number of Banking Margin 3% 5% 2%
metros regulations Revenue operations with local
FX, M&A ROE and
break-up bank
break even
Key customers: Fortune 1000 by each Revenues=
IB growth analysis
Number of product
firms, other multimillion $ rate in India
firms and HNIs
HNIs/ multi-
v/s other Synergy 4*2*0.03 + 3*5*0.05 +
MN $ firms Risk ratios-
markets with bank’s 10*1*0.02 bn. $
Vary,
current
Car, Capital = $ 1.19 bn
market
ratios
portfolio
Since we discussed the factors that will drive entry into the market, we can say Though the case statement may appear complicated and might give the
that the decision will be contingent on the result of the proposed analysis in the impression that a knowledge of Investment banking industry is required, the
case. fundamental mechanics of the case is very simple. Probing the interviewer with
Recommendation: Conduct the mentioned analysis quickly to converge to a right set of questions and ability to handle difficult jargons can be very useful.
decision 39
Ratan Tata returned from Germany where he observed 3rd party authorized car service. He wants to see if he can start the same in India. Help him.
Case Transcript
Could you please explain what 3rd party authorized car service means? That’s correct. Although you should also know unorganized players provide very poor service leaving
customers frustrated with multiple service for same problem.
Sure. A 3rd party authorized car service is an independent car service provider. It provides all services Sure. This means customers ideally would like to have the following in their car service: insurance that covers
provided by car OEMs (Other Equipment Manufacturers) to their customers, providing a suitable their service, authentic service, cost-effective and time-saving.
alternative to car owners.
Yes. That’s correct. Let’s look at the supplier aspect.
Does this mean this provider offers car services for different brands and is adequately adept at dealing
with issues belonging to different cars such as hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs or vans? Sure. In my opinion, firstly we will need repair parts suppliers from various car brands OEMs. Do the OEMs
that manufacture the car also manufacture the repair parts?
Yes. The provider can service any car brand or type as it has professionals and experts that have
worked in service department of various car brands. Additionally the provider has contacts with Yes that’s correct. However, we do not have a lot of control over them. Car brand OEMs drive a major part
various suppliers for repair parts and refurbishments. of their revenue through services and would see our operation as threat to their operations.
Great. Thanks for the information. Now I would like to understand the objective of Ratan Tata for I see. That means the car brand OEMs cannot be relied on as suppliers for parts. Correct?
setting up such a similar car service in India?
No. The car brand OEMs can supply to us. But they will charge higher price.
Ratan Tata is primarily looking for profitability and revenues through this venture.
There are two aspects. Either the customer will come to us through insurance or through their own pockets.
Are there any constraints that I should have in mind while analysing the problem? Any profitability The insurance won’t support us because we will be charging higher service cost. Similarly, the customers
targets, time period or investment constraints? won’t spend higher because they have cheaper and authentic option available through car brand OEMs
service centres. Either way, we will not be cost-effective.
No. There are no constraints as such. The venture is funded well, although we would like to see
profitability as soon as possible. That’s right. We will provide more expensive service.
Sure. Now I would like to explain you my approach. I would like to break the analysis as follows: Market What about other 3rd party suppliers that we can source parts from? Additionally, can we manufacture the
attractiveness 🡪 Need-gap analysis & STP 🡪 Mode of entry 🡪 Operationalizing the firm. parts ourselves?
Interesting. How will you evaluate the market attractiveness in India? We do have 3rd party suppliers but their quality is not reliable.
Producing in-house is not an option.
To analyze the market attractiveness, we must break down the analysis into macro factors affecting the
country & then the micro factors that affect the industry. The idea is to look for factors that enhance Okay. Since producing in-house is not an option, it appears our only source of repair parts are 3rd party
and/ or limit our entry into the car service market. suppliers. Since their quality is not so good, are their prices lower than car brand OEMs?
I think the macro factors are taken care of as TATA group is well established in India. You may begin Yes their prices are lower.
with micro analysis. So, since we can’t compete with the organized retail segment on price, we can perhaps compete with the
Sure. I would like to first understand the current car service market in India through the following unorganized sector through 3rd party supplies. Could you tell me the quality differentiation between the
aspects: Customer demands + Supplier availability + Competitors + Substitutes + Complements + any repair parts from these 3rd party suppliers and from unorganized players? Also what is the price difference?
other Barriers to Entry. Could you tell me a little bit about the consumer demands?
The quality is the same actually. Prices however will be expensive at our end.
So currently the car customer are served equally by organized segment (serviced by brand OEMs) and
unorganized segment (roadside car fixers). Oh. Then we will not be beneficial to our consumers again as our prices will be higher and quality wouldn’t
have any difference.
Could you please explain the difference in the two segments? What are the benefits of each? So what do you think?
If my understanding is correct, then, organized sector would be primarily driven by customers who have
car insurance and want authentic repair/ service. While the unorganized sector is usually for cheap, Since we can neither compete with organized segment nor with unorganized segment because of suitable
time-saving service. supplier that can provide better quality at lower cost, we shouldn’t enter this market.
Market Entry- Case Structure
Ratan Tata returned from Germany where he observed 3rd party authorized car service. He wants to see if he can start the same in India. Help him.
Quantitative Data
& Analysis
Case background :
Market Need-gap Operationalizing 50-50% market
Ratan Tata wants to start 3rd Mode of entry
attractiveness analysis & STP the firm split between
party authorized car service organized and
in India unorganized car
Micro analysis segments in India.
Macro analysis
Case facts:
• 3rd party authorized car
service is an independent Customer Supplier
car service provider Competitors Substitutes Complements BTE
demands availability
• Provides all services
offered by car brand OEMs
service centre Insurance Car brand OEMs 3rd party suppliers
Authentic • Competes with the car brands • Offers low quality car part
• Service has professionals OEMs directly repairs
from various car brands to Cost-effective • Seen as threat to car brands • Similar quality to roadside car
deal with all car problems OEMs business fixers but more expensive than
Time-saving • Expensive for insurance them
companies and consumers

Broke down the micro analysis into suitable components. Deeply studied The interviewee/ candidate carefully analyses the market entry operations into
customer demands and then delved deeper into supplier availability. Identified several segments and then further breaks down the problem for micro analysis.
that lack of suitable supplier is not conducive to market entry as customer Based on the analysis, the interviewee identifies the crucial reason why the
demands won’t be met market entry won’t be sustainable and hence recommends against it.
41
Client is a Football club owner. Its planning to enter China. Help identify whether it should enter or not.
Case Transcript
Client is a Football club owner. Its planning to enter China. Help identify whether it should enter or This is a potential risk. Is the client willing to take such a risk?
not.
As of now, consider the client is willing to proceed. Let’s move ahead.
Could I know more about the client? Where is it based out of, which other geographies does the club
has its presence in and why does it want to enter China? Next, I would like to look at the football industry, starting with the competitors both direct and
indirect. Direct would include International and Domestic teams along with their USPs. Indirect
The client is based out of USA. It has previously participated in the European Premier League and would include local clubs. Next, we need to analyze the availability of Chinese football players and
Singapore Premier League. It wants to enter China because it thinks the market in China is lucrative club’s own players. Also, the possibility of other sports such as Table Tennis substituting interest in
and untapped. It wants to gain broadcasting rights, look for new players and earn through ticket football should be considered. Football stadiums and merchandise suppliers are important
and merchandise sales. complements along with the people’s interest in football as compared to other sports.
What are the timelines and are there any financial constraints?
The Chinese premier league is scheduled within the next 6 months and our client wants to The client’s players are used to playing on synthetic grounds. However, in China grass grounds
participate in it. There are no major financial constraints. exist.
I would first like to analyze the country level macro factors, then the sports industry particularly This might affect the performance of US players in China and raise safety concerns as well.
Football in China, then estimate the market size and if everything is suitable, I would further delve into However, this can be overcome by practice as we still have 6 months before Chinese Premier
the team specific dynamics, potential risks and mode of entry. League
Good. Now estimate the market size.
Sounds good. Go ahead. The market size can be estimated as the total number of football viewers in China. Do we have any
data on the percentage viewership?
So first I would like to analyze whether China, being a closed economy, is open to foreign clubs
entering their country. Also, the FDI options along with legal requirements need to be considered. It is estimated that a total 35% viewership exists out of potential 1.5 cry people.
Next, the overall GDP of China and growth in the sports industry would be important. Also, how US
players are treated in China, the perception of US clubs in China and the performance of Chinese As such the total market size comes to be approximately 50 lacs. What is the clients international
players needs to be considered. Suitable technology and infrastructure for broadcasting, compatibility benchmark in terms of market size?
with US standards are a few other factors. The client has entered where the market size is greater than 40 lacs.
So, it is feasible to enter. Next, we can consider the team dynamics such as number of Chinese and
China has recently allowed entry of foreign clubs and the sports industry in booming in China. Also
US players in a team, coaches and practice sessions in Chinese grounds.
no major difference in perception of players exist in China and the technology is compatible to US
standards. However, the club is owned by the same client which has a legal case pending in China.
That is sufficient. We can end here. Thanks
42
Client is a Football club owner. Its planning to enter China. Help identify whether it should enter or not.
Case Framework
Case background:
US based football club
wants to enter China
Market
Attractiveness
Case facts:
• Prominent club of US
Country
Analysis
Industry
Analysis
• Wants to look for new Socio- Availability Of Substit

players apart from Political Economic Technology and Competitors Spectators
Cultural Players ute
Infrastructure
earning revenues Sports
Closed FDI & Sports US Chinese
• Major competitors Economy Legal
GDP
Industry
Perception
of US Clubs
Direct Indirect
Players Players
Broadcasting Stadiums
are 3 International
teams and 5 domestic
teams.

Problems: a) The club is owned by the same client who has a legal case pending The case looked different but followed any conventional market entry case
in China. b) The client’s players are used to playing on synthetic grounds. framework. Hence, it is extremely important to stick to basics and seek help
However, in China grass grounds exist. from the interviewer wherever required.
Recommendation: Since a lot of factors are to be analyzed in Market Entry case,
always list the various factors and ask then the interviewer which area to focus . 43
Pricing- Interview Transcript
A pharmaceutical company has recently developed an Anti tobacco pill. Assess whether you should launch the product or not.
Case Transcript
(Clarified the problem statement) I would like to understand more about the company first. Where Sure. Starting with the cost based, I we would first understand the variable costs and fixed costs. In
is it based and what type of pharmaceutical company is it? variable costs, I’ll look at costs across the value chain – raw materials, manufacturing, sales and
distribution. The long term costs such as R&D for the product will be spread over multiple years and
would have to be factored in. Based on the above analysis, we can get per unit cost. After getting a per
The company is a leading Generic Drug manufacturer operating pan-India. It has been in unit cost, we would decide on a margin to price the product.
operations since 15 years and caters to a wide variety of diseases.
Good. What about the substitute based pricing?
What is the current business model of the company? Is it similar to a usual pharma company’s
value chain – where the manufacturer sells it’s products through sales representatives Although there are no direct competitors, there might be some de-addiction courses that help in
Yes. The company operates as a typical pharma company stopping tobacco. We can evaluate the time frame for such courses and fees for the same before pricing
our product
Could you please elaborate a bit on the competition in the pharma industry and specifically in the
anti tobacco pill Alright. We feel that exploring value based pricing might be better. Can you walk me through that
There are 2-3 major competitors in the industry. 60% of the market is organized. For the Anti Under this method, I would like to understand the benefits and the costs. Starting from the basic, a
tobacco pill, there is no direct competition since it is the first of its kind pill person would first save the price of the tobacco packet that they consume. Second, they would benefit
from the positive effect on health - they would have lower chances of life threatening diseases such as
Since it’s first of its kind, do we also have patents for the same? lung cancer, heart attacks. Also, there would be a lower number of general physician visits because
Yes, it is a patented pill improved immunity. Lastly, they would also save on the price of the mouth fresheners that they buy
I would also like to understand the product better. Is it a OTC or prescription drug? How should it Interesting. How can we work out the numbers here?
be consumed? What is the suggested consumption pattern?
So starting with the cost of tobacco, on an average my friends consume 2 tobacco units a day which
It is a prescription drug that is to be taken once a day for 4 months. It needs to be simply taken roughly costs Rs. 10 each. Thus, over an year, they consume tobacco worth 2x30x10x12 i.e. Rs. 7200.
with water. Our research shows that the success rate is 50% With each tobacco packet, they need 1 mouth freshener of Re 1. Thus cost of mouth freshener for an
year would be 2x30x1x12 i.e. Rs. 720. Total comes out to be around Rs. 8000 a year. We should also
Lastly, I would like to clarify the objective of launch. Is the firm looking for capturing market size or include long-term cost savings.
profit maximization? What is the time frame?
The firm is interested in maximizing market size and profits, both in a span of 2 years Go ahead
I would like to breakdown the problem into assessment of Market size & opportunity, Macro Smokers have a higher chance of chronic diseases. For such a disease, they might incur expenses nearing
Analysis, Micro/Industry Analysis, Launch strategy 3 lakh. Considering that the probability of contracting such disease in 10%, we need to factor 30,000
into the calculation. So the total cost per year would be Rs. 38,000. We would have to divided by the
Interesting. Let’s explore the Market Size & Opportunity total amount into the Total number of pills. Total number of pills are 1x30x4 i.e. 120. Thus, the total
amount per pill would be around Rs. 300.
Sure. I would start by breaking down market size into Price and Quantity. Do we have any data on
either. Doesn’t this number seem significantly high?
No. We don’t have any data. But I would like to understand that how can I price my product. Yes, this is high since this is the maximum that the consumer would be willing to pay considering he
takes into account in all the above factors. Since the customers do not think of long term effects at once,
We can price the products in three ways – Value based, Cost based and based on any substitutes they might not be willing to pay this. In case we just want to include the short term savings, we would
divide 8000 by 120 i.e. Rs. 66. We can use these figures in addition to figures from the other two
Great. Can you walk me through each of these methods to price our product 44
Pricing- Case Structure
A pharmaceutical company has recently developed an Anti tobacco pill. Assess whether you should launch the product or not.
Case background: Cost savings on tobacco per
Price of anti-tobacco year = (# of tobacco packets per
Pharmaceutical company day x days x price of tobacco
which has recently developed
pill packet) =
an anti-tobacco pill. 2 x 30 x 12 x 10 = 7200
Cost of additional mouth
Substitute freshener per year =
Cost Based Value Based 2 x 30 x 12 x 1 =720
Case facts: Based
Generic drug manufacturer Cost of treatment in case of
based in India chronic disease = 3 lakh
Chances of contracting = 10%
First of its kind pill – Cost of mouth Cost of treatment of Expected Cost = 30,000
Cost of tobacco
prescription drug with 50% freshener chronic disease Total number of pills to be
success rate taken = 1 x 30 x 4 = 120
Gain maximum market share Price per pill (based on long-
and profit in 2 years term consideration)=
38000/120 ~ Rs. 300
Price per pill (based on short
term consideration)= 8000/120
~Rs. 66
Identified the pricing approaches through cost based, substitute based and Although this appears to be a market entry and launch strategy case at start,
value based methods. In value based methods, derived prices by specifically the interviewer is primarily looking to grill on pricing and wanted to drive to
looking at long term and short term considerations of customers value based approach specifically.
45
GTM Strategy- Interview Transcript
Client is an Alcohol manufacturer. It has recently developed a readymade cocktail line. Help them take the product to the market.
Case Transcript
Client is an Alcohol manufacturer. It has recently developed a readymade cocktail line. Sounds fair. Can you help us determine a price basis this?
Help them take the product to market.
Sure. There are three methods of Pricing – competitor based, cost based and value based
Could I know more about the client? Where is it operating, for how long, what products is it method. Since there are no competitors and the product is unique, we shall be using the
known for, competition that the client is facing? value based method. We are indirectly competing with the strong beer and readymade
cocktails, hence we have a range. A strong beer comes at around Rs. 70, since our product
The client has been operating in India for 25 years. It is known to operate in the whiskey tastes better at the same content and we have a brand name, our cocktail should be priced
and rum market under popular brands. The cocktail is a new and only product in the above this. The product is closer to a fresh cocktail (avg. price of Rs. 330) but lacks the
market. It is ready to launch. freshness because of preservative which also give it a longer life. Hence the product should
be priced at around Rs.220.
What are the objectives and constraints of the client? Alright, what next.
The client wants to maximize revenues as soon as possible. There are no major constraints. I would like to discuss available distribution channels and the promotional strategy.
As a part of the analysis let us understand the product. Could you describe the composition, The client has an existing network of distributors, i.e. restaurants, super markets and clubs.
taste (flavours), USP, SKUs and packaging? Give me some brief campaign ideas and we’ll close the case.
The product is a pre-mix cocktail which comes in a 250ml bottle in four flavours, mojito, Sure, we’ll target the clubs and supermarkets first, as there our products will not be
screw driver, LIIT and Bloody Mary. It has preservatives, hence doesn’t taste as fresh as cannibalizing the sales of fresh cocktails like in the restaurants. We can host parties, offer
actual cocktails. However, our product can be stored for 3 months. The alcohol content is free samples, drive social media campaigns with youtubers etc.
the same as a strong beer, comes in a same looking glass bottle. The bottle is transparent
to show the colour of the cocktail with a white label.
So, our product is trying to be a substitute to both fresh cocktails and a strong beer. So we These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
should identify potential customers on the basis of this. Fresh cocktails are mostly consumed
in high end restaurants by women of the upper middle class. Similarly, strong beer is
consumed mostly by pub going youth. Hence, we can target these customer profiles and
place our product in pubs, restaurants and direct retailers.
46
GTM Strategy- Case Structure
Client is an Alcohol manufacturer. It has recently developed a readymade cocktail line. Help him take the product to market.
Case Framework
Product Target Price Channel Promotion
Clubbing youngsters
Mixture Taste USP SKU Upper middleclass social
Cost based Competition Value based
women
Preservative Almost like fresh One-of -a-kind 4 flavours in 250 Price between 70
Alcohol content same as cocktail 3 month life ml bottles (Strong beer) and 330
strong beer (Fresh cocktail) at 220
Factors:
Brand name
Life
Conveniences
USP
Qualitative information Interviewee feedback

Client has been operating for 25 years with two strong brand names. To come up with the strategy it is important to know about the
It faces indirect competition from the beer and fresh cocktails. It is a product, competition and target. Based on this you come to the price,
unique product channel and promotion strategies. The target can be determined in
more detail by doing market sizing. 47
Growth Strategy- Interview Transcript
Client is a media service provider- Netflix . Help him increase its market share in India
Case Transcript
Client is a media service provider- Netflix . Help him increase its market share in India Okay. What about pricing and channels?
Could I know more about the client? Is it the Netflix we know? What are the timelines and As far as pricing is concerned, Netflix can come up with customized bucket options where price
constraints of the client? What is its current share? sensitive customers can subscribe to a few TV series and movies. Also, it can offer a limited
subscription model in terms of languages or content. In terms of channel, Netflix can launch an
Yes, it is the Netflix we know. The client wants to increase its market share by 20 % in one year.
application for android and IOS. It can also come up with something similar to a Firestick which can
They are no major constraints. There are two other major competitors, and the current share of
be plugged into any TV or a device similar to Kindle designed for Netflix.
Netflix can be taken to be around 25 percent.
As per my knowledge Netflix entered India two years ago and caters mainly to college students and What can be the possible drawbacks of customised bucket options?
young professionals. Its differentiating factor is its in-house produced local content and is
Since, generally people watch one or two TV series at a time, it is possible that majority of the
positioned as a Premium offering. Is this a current assumption? Also can you let me know about the
subscribers shift to the customized bucket option.
current subscription plans?
Yes, it is true. Currently the company has three subscription plans, single screen for Rs 500, two Fair point. Do you think a Netflix only device can compete with the already existing tablets and
screen for Rs 650 and four screen for Rs 800. mobiles?
So, I would like to break the problem in two parts. First I would like to analyze the new offerings Depends on how it is positioned and priced. It can be a major attraction for those who prefer to
possible in terms of products, promotions, price and channels. Then I would like to analyze which binge watch content on the platform. Some videos can be pre-fed and users can have an option to
offering would be suitable for which geography. download videos later and watch them later as per their convenience.
Sounds good. Go ahead. Good suggestion. Go on.

So, in terms of products, Netflix should focus on in-house production and diversify into regional Next I will look at geographies and product combinations. Since the majority of its current
languages and create content for kids also. This would help attract a new customer segment. It can subscribers are from Metro and Tier I cities, Netflix needs to follow a penetrative strategy in these
also include cooking and dance sessions. Netflix could license TV series and movies which are all areas. Here tie ups, loyalty programs and sports content might help. However as Netflix expands to
time classics. It could also purchase rights to broadcast any sport such as football and develop a Tier II and III cities, it needs to focus on Netflix lite and regional app based content.
niche in it. Since the overall internet speed is low in India, Netflix can upgrade to a low speed
platform something like ‘Netflix lite’ so that streaming can be done without buffering. In terms of These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
promotion Netflix could offer loyalty programs, tie up with schools, offices, airlines, hotels, etc. and
follow a referral strategy. They can also offer a first episode free of various TV series so that people
have an option to try and then subscribe.
48
Growth Strategy- Case Structure
Client is a media service provider- Netflix . Help them increase their market share in India
Case Framework
Case background:
Netflix wants to increase
market share in India Netflix
Case facts:
Products Promotion Price Channels
• Launched two years ago
in India
• Struggling to gain market Content Netflix Lite Tie ups Referral
Customised Limited
App Based TV
Netflix
share Bucket Subscription Device
• Faces direct competition

from Hotstar and Amazon In house
Purchased
Prime. production

Identified the various new offerings in terms of products, promotions, price This case can also be structured with the Ansoff Matrix in the following way:
and channels to attract new customers and increase retention in existing ones. 1) How to acquire new customers
Subsequently analyzed which offering would be suitable for different 2) How to increase retention in existing customer segments
geographies. 3) How to enter new geographies and develop new technology.
49
Growth Strategy- Interview Transcript
Client is a Cement Manufacturer. Devise a growth strategy to increase both revenue growth as well as margins.
Case Transcript
The client is a promotor driven cement manufacturer operating in India since last 3-4 decades. The Within product, I want to look at the Design, quality and customer experience aspects. In design, I
industry is growing at 14% p.a. while the client’s revenues are growing at only 12% p.a. In addition, don’t have much clue about the industry but as far as I know, there are broadly 2 types of cement:
the margins are also 2 %age points less than the industry average. You are required to devise a Grey & White. Maybe we can enter the other category or alter our portfolio mix to include more
growth strategy to increase both revenue growth as well as margins. proportion of the higher margin product. Another aspect of the design can be granularity of the
Let me just reiterate the problem statement. The client is growing less than the industry which product. If more granular cement is desired by the customer or not. If yes, we should make
means it is losing market share every year. In addition, the profitability of the client is also 2 % necessary changes. Looking at the quality, I think some of the measures of measuring quality of
points less that the industry average. This means we have to focus on both revenues as well as cement is quickness to dry and strength. If we are not placed at par with the competitor here, I
costs. would like to make necessary changes in the product to make our product better than the
competition. Under customer experience, I believe that masons are our customers. So, maybe we
can speak to them and do some research and come up with a product which offers better
Yes, you are right. experience. Should I move to distribution now?
Totally up to you. If you feel you have covered everything, we can move on to the next point
Before diving into the problem, I would like to understand more about the company, its products,
customers, competitors and a bit about the industry. I think I broadly had only this in mind as of now. Let me switch to distribution. Under
distribution there are mainly 2 aspects we can look at, our existing distribution and whether we can
This is all the information that you have. I am not sharing any other information increase distribution or not, this can be either in the same geography or a new geography.
Okay! Let me have a minute to structure my thoughts and then we can start diving deep into the Increased reach is a good point. How do you plan to look at the existing distribution?
problem.
I would like to look at the trade promotion schemes here. What is the margin we are paying vis-à-
Sure vis competition? What margin structure are we following? Can we improve the same to provide
more incentives to distributors?
Profit is essentially a function of Revenues and Costs. In this case, we need to focus on both
And this is an industry where purchases are influenced by influencers. We can tie up with the
revenues and profits. Which one should I focus on first?
contractors so that they can recommend our products over the others. In addition, we can also go
for institutional sales by directly tying up builders and firms like L&T, DLF, etc.
It is totally up to you. I am interested in knowing your approach to the problem Okay. Let’s move on to the next.
Sure. Let me start with revenues first and then, if time permits, I will move on to costs. Revenues are Sure. Under communication, there are three things that we need to focus on, Mode, Message and
essentially average price into number of units sold. I am assuming we have only 1 size of SKU. Let us Messenger. By mode I mean the channels we are using for communication. Message refers to what
focus on quantity sold first. In quantity, I want to look at majorly 3 things i.e. Product, Distribution & are we conveying, and messenger stands for whom are we conveying the message through. I would
Communication/ marketing strategy like to explore options like celebrity endorsements, endorsements through architects or bigger
builders, etc.
Sure Makes sense, we can end the case here. Thank you! 50
Growth Strategy- Case Structure
Client is a Cement Manufacturer. Devise a growth strategy to increase both revenue growth as well as margins.
Case Framework
Case background :
Profits
Company wants to increase
revenue share and margins
Revenues Cost
Case facts: Quantity Price
• Operating in India for 3-4

years Product Distribution Communication
• Industry revenue growth Customer Existing New Mode Message Messenger

at 14% v/s client’s 12% Design Quality
Experience
• Margins 2% points lesser
Type of
than industry Quickness to dry
Granularity
cement Strength
Grey White

Identified the objective and structured the problem. Divided revenues into its This case can also be structured with the Ansoff Matrix in the following way:
components. The quantity sold was further broken down into product, 1) How to increase sales and margins in existing customer segments
distribution and communication related aspects. Each of these heads was 2) How to enter new geographies
further broken down into subheads. Since the question was about margins, should have moved faster to analyze
ways to reduce costs 51
M&A- Interview Transcript
A traditional pharma company wants to acquire a biologicals startup. How should it go about it?
Case Transcript
Our client is OldPharma, a major pharmaceutical company with revenues $10bn. Its 1. Scientists do not have overlapping disease interests
corporate HQ and primary R&D centres are in Germany with regional sales offices 2. Integration into process driven OldPharma culture may hinder the entrepreneurial
worldwide. It has had a successful history developing and selling small molecule drugs culture that is key to its success
(which is the major variety of drugs today. 3. Language barriers hinder communication and sharing of information
4. Key scientific talent may leave Biofuture after acquisition
It wants to enter a new rapidly growing segment of drugs called “biologicals”, that can
Post acquisition, OldPharma believes it is necessary to consolidate all biologicals R&D into
treat conditions not treatable with traditional drugs. Since competitors are way ahead of
one centre either Germany or San Francisco. It currently does not have any biologicals R&D
OldPharma, it wants to jumpstart its biologicals program by acquiring Biofuture, a leading
practice in Germany.
biologicals startup based in San Francisco area. Biofuture was founded 12 years ago by
prominent scientists and employs over 200 people. It is publicly traded and is valued at Germany – Overall better integration of OldPharma and Biofuture
$1bn. 1. Better coordination with non-biologicals R&D
What factors should the team consider whether the team should acquire BioFuture? 2. Better coordination with other business units like sales/marketing
3. Easier transfer of scientists in biologicals and traditional R&D
1. Value of Biofuture’s current pipeline - # drugs in development, likelihood of success,
revenues and profits
San Francisco –
2. Future drug pipeline – R&D capabilities (scientific talent, IP – patents)
1. Less likely to see flight of talent – Relocating to Germany could be tough
3. Marketing/sales capability – Relationships with physicians KOLs
2. Easier to retain entrepreneurial spirit at Biofuture at SFO
4. Acquisition price
3. No need to rebuild manufacturing plants, research facilities etc.
5. Existing partnerships with pharma companies
6. OldPharma’s capability gaps in biologicals, R&D, sales and marketing
7. Other potential targets A week into the engagement, the VP of business development meets you in the cafeteria.
What issues should the team consider while evaluating the existing drug pipeline? He asks your team’s perspective on the acquisition and next steps you are planning to take.
How would you respond?
1. Market size, share, Costs – manufacturing and selling
2. Perception in the medical community
3. Likelihood of clinical trials, winning regulatory approval, side effects and legal exposure (Summarize the case)
4. Emergence of substitutes – Time to market, Loss of exclusivity time
5. Strength of patents – How likely is it a competitor can copy BioFuture’s drug?
BioFuture’s existing pipeline is very limited. OldPharma is interested in its potential to
become a biological research engine. What risks exist for integrating R&D functions? 52
Due Diligence- Interview Transcript
Your client is a PE Firm. It wants to take up a stake in a chain of restaurants. Diagnose and recommend whether it should go
ahead with the acquisition
Case Transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I want to understand the client’s business. What is the Okay, from the demand side, revenues will depend on the accessibility to restaurant, affordability of
average portfolio, the expected growth rate and exit time? food and experience. In terms of the accessibility, the focus is chains currently present in Metros and
Tier I cities. Hence, our consumer base would primarily be middle class and above segments.
For affordability, there would be different dishes available according to customer budget; the
The company has a mixed portfolio of different sized investments and is looking for a 30% consumers who could afford it would depend on the price available.
growth rate on this investment. It wants to make a quick exit in about 4-5 years. Assuming that the average price of a dish at INR 150, I can estimate demand in a month through the
price per meal*potential market*frequency of visits. The potential market would be about 20% of the
Alright. I would like to know why the firm is considering a chain of restaurants for investment? population of Delhi(20 million) i.e. the high income & middle income in service sector. In order to
estimate the frequency of visits I could split the customers into three groups; 1) 10 visits per month, 2) 5
Interestingly, our client does not have any investments in the hospitality sector and this visits per month, 3) 1 visit per month
investment may help us complement a future investment.
Okay. So, can I know some details about the restaurants? Exactly how many restaurants are being Okay, can you evaluate the risks associated with the investment?
run as of now and where? The biggest risk comes from food delivery services such as Zomato, Swiggy etc. Since this gives the
There are 6 restaurants in different metropolitan and Tier-1 cities as of now. customers the easy of ordering food from anywhere at a discounted price . Therefore, it could result in
less demand for quick service food and reduced margins..
Okay. I would like to know more about the cuisine served by the restaurants and their experience Additionally, there is traveling expense associated with going out to eat. So, customers would be less
in food service. willing to travel to one of these restaurants frequently unless located nearby.
An added risk for quick service restaurant is the changing perception of consumers towards healthy
The restaurants provides quick service and authentic Spanish and Italian cuisine. They’ve been in food. Consumers are moving away from processed food to healthier options like salads.
the market for the last 5 years adding one new city each year.
Great. Can you tell me what due diligence should be done?
Thanks. Now, I will move on to the supply and demand aspect. Is there a significant demand for
these cuisines in the cities this restaurant chain is operating? For due diligence, we’ll discuss the various levers involved in the restaurant functions or operations.
Yes, there is significant demand from consumers towards food and cuisines they haven’t tried These would be:
before. Financial: Which stores are the most and the least profitable? Is each store maintaining its gross profits,
or are increasing revenues and profits the result of reducing prices or adding stores that are
Alright, now I’d like to know the number of competitors serving a similar cuisine in the locations unprofitable or only marginally profitable?
served by the restaurant chain. I’d also like to know their market share. Operational: Revenues at restaurants are tied closely to location, so determine the risk to profitability if
something about the location changes.
Yes, I would like you know that there are only 4-5 competitors serving authentic cuisine in these Legal: Such as a landlord unwilling to extend the lease on a highly profitable store
cities with equal market share. HR: Is the current management operating the stores at sustainable personnel levels? Has there been a
Is there a significant difference in pricing of these restaurants? recent change in salaries or benefits of employees or any change has been promised?
Strategy: How would the deal fit in with the client’s overall growth strategy? Are there any past or
The competitors also serve in the same price segment. Going ahead, I would like to know how future investments from which synergies can be leveraged?
would you value the investment?
Yes, well done. How would you finally come to the investment decision? Also, conclude the case for
Sure. I can value the company by analysing the current performance of the restaurant chain and me now.
what is the future growth expected. I can find the NPV of the profits by guesstimating the revenue
and cost figures. Further I can try to come up with an annual growth rate and compare it to our The one last thing that is left is comparing the estimated growth rate of the NPV with our estimated
expected growth rate to check feasibility. growth rate. The former would basically be our estimates of the restaurant’s organic growth and how
That sounds reasonable. Lets focus on revenue as of now. How will you compute the revenue 5330%, and the
much we can add to it through inorganic growth. If the sum of these two is not less than
from the demand side? You can focus on the restaurant present in Delhi. NPV of the recurring profits seem adequate, the PE firm should go ahead with the purchase.
Due Diligence- Case Structure
Your client is a PE Firm. It wants to take up a stake in a chain of restaurants. Diagnose and recommend whether it should go
ahead with the acquisition
Case background: Population of Delhi = 20 MN
Revenue Target customer segment (20-
The client specifically looking 50 years) = 50%
to invest in a restaurant chain Middle and higher income
segment = 60%
Population employed in service
sector = 70%
Case facts: Supply Side Demand Side Potential market =
• Investment fund – 30% 50%*60%*70%
growth rate in 4-5 years = 21% (~20%) of population
• Explore viability by Visit frequency = 20%*10 +
estimating revenues (demand Potential 40%*5 + 40%*1 = 4.4
side, supply side) Price per meal Market
Visit frequency visits/month
Total market potential =
• Identify risks associated 250*4.4*(20%*20 MN) = 2,640
with the investment MN/month = INR 2.6 bn/month
No. of cities
• Explore potential due Italian/Spanish cuisine = 2-3%
Growth rate
diligence steps of market potential = INR 66
MN/month
Restaurant/city

Identified the valuation of the company using Supply and Demand approaches.
Identify indirect competition while exploring risks associated with the The case had a wide number of things that could be analysed; key was in
investment by specifically looking at long term and short term consumer understanding the interviewer’s questions one at a time and focusing on the
behaviour. Always remember the original motive of the client (in this case, 30% available information for that question.
growth rate) while identifying risks, synergies and different levers for Due 54
diligence.
Business Abstract- Interview Transcript
Our client is a low cost airline carrier. It has been facing an increase in turn around time at the Mumbai airport. Find out why
Case Transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I would like to understand the magnitude of the problem Okay, once the aircraft reaches the parking spot, the passengers deplane. Has there been any change in the
seating capacity of the plane because of which deplaning is now taking time? Or has the airline rolled out
better. Since when has the TAT increased and by how much? some schemes for the aged or disabled because of which deplaning is taking time?
The client has been facing this issue since the past 3 months. TAT has increased from 30 to 45 mins
No, we have not changed the plane capacity since the past 10 years. There has been no increase in the
What exactly do you mean by turnaround time? time taken to deplane as such.
It is the time that a plan takes after landing to the next take off. Alright, so as the passengers deboard, the ground staff is also engaged in offloading the baggage. There
How many flights does the airline operate at the Mumbai airport? And since when have you been could have been a possible increase in this due to increase in freight/baggage allowance or delays by the
present at the Mumbai airport? staff due to lack of training or experience
The client operates 10 airplanes and has been present at the airport for the past 10 years There is no increase in off-loading time. The ground staff and maintenance staff has remained more or less
the same. Any hire/fire doesn’t impact TAT significantly
And do you operate domestic or international flights or both?
Sure, in that case I’m assuming there hasn’t been any change in the cleaning time before the aircraft is ready
Only domestic flights for the next set of passengers to board?
Is this problem being faced only at the Mumbai airport or other airports as well? And by our airlines
only or by other airlines operating at the Mumbai airport as well? Yes, you may proceed further.
Only Mumbai airport. Only our airline as far as I am aware. Now before the plane finally takes off there are three more things that are to be done. One is fuelling and
Alright. I would like to take a few minutes to lay down the entire journey of a plane from the time it second is crew change and then finally getting the passengers for the next flight on board. Has there been
lands at the airport till the time it takes off again and then try to ascertain where the problem lies any increase in the time taken to fuel the aircraft?
Sure Yes. What could be the possible reasons for this?

Please let me know if my understanding is correct. The plane first lands on the runway, goes on to its
parking spot. After this the passengers deplane and the ground staff helps in offloading the luggage. Well, there could be either an increase in tank capacity or the speed of fuelling could have reduced.
The maintenance staff possibly cleans the plane. The plane is fuelled. Once the plane is ready for the
next flight, passengers on-board, luggage is on-loaded again, there is also some time for crew change. The tank capacity has remained the same and the speed of fuelling is also the same. Could you think of
After this the plane goes to the runway from where it finally takes off. Am i missing anything? something that also links to the previous finding of yours?
I think this is an exhaustive process. We’ll figure out if anything is missing as we go deeper into the Previously we had discovered that the parking spot had changed. So the possible effect it could have on the
case. You can start exploring all buckets post landing. duration is that it could be taking the oil tanker longer to reach the plane in its new parking spot because of
Okay, after the plane lands it reaches its parking spot. Has there been any change in this because of which the time was increasing.
which the time taken to reach the parking spot from the runway and subsequently the time taken to go
to the runway from the parking spot has increased? Correct. Now if you could do some quick math for me, if the speed of the tanker is 3 km/hr and the
distance of the plane from the tanker is around 1 km then what is the delay time?
Yes. The parking spot has changed, but it is now closer to the runway and the boarding gates.
Because of this actually we are saving 5 mins of our time in total If the tanker is covering 3 km in 1 hr, it’ll cover 1 km in 1/3rd of an hour which is 20 mins. Since we had
Okay, is it then fair to assume that then whatever is causing this increase in TAT is because of a delay of figured out earlier that the time saving due to the changed parking spot is 5 mins, the overall increase in the
20 mins and I need to ascertain what it could be? TAT is 20-5=15 mins.
Correct. That is right. Thank you, we can end the case here. 55
Business Abstract- Case Structure
Our client is a low cost airline carrier. It has been facing an increase in turn around time at the Mumbai airport. Find out why
Qualitative Information Case Framework Quantitative Analysis
Case background: Problem area Decrease in TAT because
TAT of reduction in distance
Low cost airline carrier facing from boarding gates = 5
high turn around time at the mins
Mumbai airport
Case facts: Increase in distance of
Baggage Staff Onboarding fuel tank from plane’s
• Been facing increased TAT Landing Deplaning Cleaning Fuelling /Onloading Take-off parking spot = 1 km
offloading Change
since the past 6 months
Decrease in Could Speed of fuel tank = 3
• Increase of 15 mins in TAT time due to have an km/hr
Change in Decrease in parking spot impact
• Ideal TAT should be around tank size speed being closer due to
30 mins, thus its total turn to boarding change in
Therefore, increase in
around time at the gates distance
Increase in distance of from fuelling time
moment is 45 mins tanker from plane runway
= 1hr/3=⅓*60 mins=20
Increase in Increase in time due to
Change in airline’s
mins
freight/bags human delays caused parking spot
by ground staff
Increase in Increase in older

seating capacity /disabled passengers
1) Inform the fuelling department in advance to cut down on the The value chain approach seems to be the most exhaustive in this
time taken for the tanker to reach the parking spot case Also try to understand if the problem of change in parking spot
2) In the longer term - try to quantify the losses vs savings of is temporary or for a longer duration and why it was changed in the
retaining the new parking spot first place - after that give suitable recommendations
56
Abstract Case- Interview Transcript
Our client is the Ministry of Shipping. They have less than 1% market share in the global ship repairs industry. Help them identify
the reasons why for such a low share and suggestions to increase the same.
Case Transcript
I’d like to understand the client and the concerned industry better. Can you describe where do they That’s a good list of factors. Documents for immigration arrive much slower than they do in other
operate out of, what all do they do under the purview of ship repair, and what competition is the nations. Apart from this, the client uses labor intensive processes, but this is true for competitors’
client facing? processes too. Our processes just take longer.
The client has been operating out of a dry dock in Gujarat. It provides ship repair services on Okay. Addressing the paperwork issue first, I’d like to understand how this documentation is dealt with
dock, which broadly encompasses wear and tear maintenance (major operations) and basic at our end and at the government’s end. I’m assuming this process is carried out through online means
breakage (minor operations). They serve ships travelling through South East Asian routes, so for reasons of viability. Is that correct?
they usually compete mainly with ship repair service providers in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This could be because of multiple reasons- because of our labour based processes lacking efficiency, or
because of them having efficiency but lack of enough quality leading to lower repeat business over the
Do we have any data on what are the crucial service factors in this industry? How are we doing on years.
these parameters relative to competitors?
Yes, that’s correct.
Yes, the time it takes to repair the ship is the most important criteria. Currently, the client takes
4-5 more days than competitors for providing comparable services. Distance from the port and Okay. Then the problem could be due to the systems at either end or the red-tapism originating inside
price of services are secondary factors which may become relevant. One of the other important the system on account of bureaucracy. Now, addressing the second part, there could be multiple
factors client is not doing well on is port space utilisation. reasons- labour based processes lacking efficiency, or because of them having efficiency but lack of
enough quality leading to lower repeat business over the years.
Okay. Let’s try to see which parts of the ship repair process create this time lag, given these may
provide insights as to how market share can be increased. As per my understanding, the process You’re right about quality of workers causing inefficiency. Most of the workers employed in these
should entail ship’s docking on the port, paperwork (given international borders), the process of ports are unskilled or not specifically trained for the job. Can you suggest some measures that will
carrying out the repairs once the ship is docked and ship’s exit from the port. Is there anything I’m help address these issues?
missing in this process?
Sure. There are two sets of issues we need to address. To address the inefficiency in the current
This sounds fine. You may go deeper into the process and try to understand where our problem business, we can try moving to using skilled workers. We can employ people with similar experience,
originates. who are technical specialists in the field. In terms of long run efforts, the Government should aim to
simplify the procedural clearances in case of ship repair customers. They could go for an improved IT
Sure. When the ship enters the port, docking needs to be time efficient. Once the ship has entered,
and clearance system to facilitate faster relay of clearances as well. Finally, the Government should aim
is the time taken to obtain necessary approvals/paperwork at par with competitors? How is this
to increase port utilisation by increasing the range of its services, quantum of its services or using it for
process different from theirs? What about the immigration process for people onboard the ship?
domestic ship related services
Does dry docking increase the time taken to provide these services? Finally, the method of doing
ship repair- is that labour intensive or tech intensive? These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
57
Abstract Case- Case Structure
Our client is the Ministry of Shipping. They have less than 1% market share in the global ship repairs industry. Help them identify
the reasons why for such a low share and suggestions to increase the same.
Case Framework
Case background:
Low market share in the Process
global ship repairs industry
Case facts:
Docking Documentation Repair process Undocking
• Current market share – 1%
• Slower ship repair process
than competitors (by 4-5 Labour/Capital
days) Goods on-board Dry-docking
Intensity
• Prioritisation criteria for
service takers is time taken
for ship repair Technical
People on-board
Expertise
Standard
Efficiency
Qualitative information Problems and recommendations

Client is the Ministry of Shipping. You have been appointed to increase the Process approach followed, with key recommendations for these steps:
client’s market share in the global ship repairs industry. Time to repair the ship - Paperwork for goods and people on board > Improved clearance system
is the most important criteria, client takes 4-5 more days than competitors for - Repair process > recruitment of specialised labour
providing comparable services. Additionally, to address Port Utilisation, they should consider up-selling
additional services or rent the space out to private service providers as well
Our client is the State Government of Maharashtra. They want to improve the traffic conditions in the state. Help them
Case Transcript
(After clarifying the problem statement) I would like to understand how the client defines traffic Well, that would still increase the traffic congestion due to private taxis such as Olas & Ubers. I believe there
should be laws around the number of vehicles per cab operator allowed to operate on non-share basis per
conditions. Also, is the client targeting any particular cities/towns in the state? locality per city at a time.
Traffic conditions is defined as the number of vehicles per unit time, a measure of road congestion as Fair enough. You may continue
well as their implications. The client wants to decrease this by 15% from the current levels in each of
three metro cities and five Tier 2 cities that the government is focussing on. Some solutions would be- tighten the regulations to procure a license, increase the PUC check points with
frequent checks by the traffic police and set up a checks system for the sale of non compliant second hand
I would next like to understand the current road conditions in the metro cities and Tier 2 cities vehicles which are environmentally non compliant. To decrease four wheeler congestion, offices in a pin
respectively. code could if possible stagger their discharge times, incentivise workers to car-pool, borrow the odd-even
policy implemented in NCR , have more restrictions regarding roads and timings after which heavy vehicles
Metro cities are connected with the following types of roads- National highways, State Highways, such as trucks, lorries can enter. Also, streamline traffic, by creating one ways during peak hours on 2 lane &
Existing 2,4, 6 and 8 lane roads. All these are 90% concretised with seasonal pothole issues requiring
maintenance. Tier 2 cities are connected again with national, state highways and the internal 2, 4 4 lane roads, such as those implemented in certain parts of Mumbai
lane roads are 60% concretised.
I think we can move onto the other stakeholders you mentioned.
So, as I understand, the stakeholders in both the Tier 2 and metro cities would be the same but the
issues to be addressed may differ slightly. Hence, I would like to break the issues down depending on Sure. Moving on to the police, I would like to break this down into centralised systems and decentralised
the stakeholder to be liaised with. systems. Within centralised systems I would look into infrastructural and environmental factors.
Infrastructural issues could be lack of proper sign boards, CCTV cameras, improper functioning and
Yes, this approach should be fine. inadequate signals, improper lighting etc. In the environmental factors, I would look into the AQI monitors,
I have 2 more questions before I step into solving the case. Firstly, what is the timeline that our client is noise pollution control systems etc. Decentralised systems would include the traffic police functioning at
looking at to achieve these targets. Secondly, I am assuming that there are no budgetary constraints every signal/intersection. Are they equipped with speed sensors, quick response systems to decongest roads
due to accidents, stalled vehicles, processions etc to prevent bottlenecks.
Yes, that’s a correct assumption. Regarding the timeline, the government has a tight 2 year target to
achieve the reduction in congestion That sounds exhaustive. I would like you to now move onto how the conditions of the roads and the
seasonal factors mentioned will be dealt with.
Thank you for the clarification. I will now like to list down the 4 major stakeholders that I can identify
namely- The citizens , the municipal corporations, the traffic police and lastly the construction lobbies. I will look into these under the Construction Lobbies stakeholder bucket in my structure. As construction of
Would you want me to look into any particular stakeholder first? roads is mainly given on contractual basis to construction companies, I would look at increasing the
concretised roads for the Tier 2 cities as there are currently just 40% of concretised roads. In the metro cities
Fair enough. You can explore each of these one by one. ensuring that construction companies finish existing projects on time as per deadlines as also providing
suitable diversions due to the construction work so as to not create further congestion. Undertaking
Sure. Starting with the citizens of each of these cities, I would like to divide the issues possibly construction of more expressways and broadening of existing lanes would also fall here.
contributing to congestion on the basis of transportation type i.e. public and private modes of
transport. Ok. But, what are the duties of the Municipal Corporations then?
Ok. Identify the issues and the possible solutions also. Agreed. The last stakeholders, the Municipal Corporations would have the responsibilities of identifying
Alright. In the private modes of transportation, I would look at two wheelers and four wheelers these new infrastructure projects, executing them and most importantly addressing seasonal issues such as
separately. As I understand, two wheelers would be more predominant in Tier 2 cities. From my potholes before the monsoons arrive. To increase accountability by the municipal corporations to the people,
observations, illegal two wheeler registrations, unlicensed drivers and environmentally non-compliant we could look at a partnership with the local communities to identify locality wise road issues causing
vehicles are some of the issues. Four wheeler congestion would be more a problem in metros, possible congestion. Also, have a citizen portal where with the help of Google Maps.
issues arising out of peak office hours, increasing disposable income & hence an increase in car
ownership while possibly the capacity of city roads have not increased proportionately.
Sure, I hope your suggestions help improve the traffic conditions of our client. We can end the case here.
What about the recent decrease in the sales of private automobiles? Thank you.
Our client is the State Government of Maharashtra. They want to improve the traffic conditions in the state. Help them
Case background:
Stakeholders
The State Government of
Maharashtra is looking to Municipal
decrease the traffic Citizens Police Construction Lobbies Corporations
congestion by 15% in 3 metro
cities and 5 Tier 2 cities.
Public modes of Private modes Centralised Decentralised Existing
Case facts: transport of transport systems systems projects
New projects
• Congestion is the number

of vehicles per unit time on
Infrastructur Environment
the road al Costs al Costs
• Metro cities have 90%
concretised roads while Two Four
Tier 2 cities have only 60% wheelers wheelers
concretised roads Tier 2 cities Metro cities
• Seasonal issues such as
potholes causing
congestion in metros Cabs, taxis
Privately
owned cars

Stakeholder approach, with following recommendations: The case requires the interviewee to come up with the maximum number of
1) Citizens : Carpooling, limited taxis per city, stricter licence checks problems and their respective solutions. Idea generating cases require depth as
2) Police force: Provision of quick response systems well as breadth. In very open ended abstract cases wherein there is a
3) Municipal Corporations: Existing projects speed-up, citizen inclusion requirement of a long term plan, the stakeholder approach helps being
4) Construction Lobbies: Concretisation in Tier 2 cities exhaustive and looking at the case from multiple points of view. 60
A Hollywood film producer has called in a consultant to develop a successful film. Help it out.
Case Transcript
A Hollywood film producer has called in a consultant to develop a successful film. Help it Secondly, in the production phase, we need to look at developing a convincing set by hiring a
out. good art director. The cinematography and screenplay will also be a key aspect into
developing a good film. This will be taken care of by the direction team, cameramen and the
I would like to know more about the producer. Can you tell me how old they are and where actors. We shall also need good soundtracks, both background and main, for which we shall
they’re based out of? need good music directors, lyricists, singers. Finally, a good editor, who shall finalize the film.
It is an old production house with 90% success rate, based out of Los Angeles.
Can you define the parameters of success for me? Alright, what next.
Two objectives: Lastly, I want to look at the post production phase. This shall serve two purposes. First, to
a) Break even in 3 years. promote the movie to the audiences, and in a way to gather some funds to reach our break
b) Receive critical appreciation even objective. We can look at endorsements, promotions in target audience areas like
malls, universities etc., and a good trailer and music launch to generate interest for the film.
Does the producer have a theme in mind? Also, is there a Director and have other cast and Okay, this seems good. Let’s quickly look at the factors you want to consider for the break
crew members already been signed? even part.
The theme revolves around a teenager who committed suicide. They don’t have a director Sure. Considering that critically acclaimed films may not be box office successes, I would
in mind yet, and the cast & crew will be selected by the director, although we may choose want to divide my approach into 3 buckets. 1) Maximize revenue from sales, 2) Other
to give opinions. avenues of portraying idea, 3) Ancillary sources
1) We should look at maximizing distribution to theatres, pay-per-view services, online
To start off our analysis, I would like to begin by discussing how to achieve critical mediums and through CDs and DVDs. 2) We should aim for film festivals worldwide and look
appreciation, first. We can divide this timeline into three major phases- Pre-production, at options to convert our story into a play or even a novel. 3) Finally, we can use ancillary
production and post-production. sources like merchandise and goodie sales. Also, we can organise suicide awareness camps,
First, in the pre-production phase, we need to develop a good story and script around our as it connects to our theme directly.
theme. Hire a director who has made such successful films before and allow him to choose
the cast and crew best suited for the film.
These ideas sound good. We can end here. Thanks
61
A Hollywood film producer has called in a consultant to develop a successful film. Help it out.
Case background: Successful Film
Production company with
90% success rate. Based out
of LA. Critical Appreciation Breaking Even
Commercial Objective: Break
even in 3 years.
Pre- Post- Film Other
Non-commercial Objective: Production Avenues Ancillary
Production Production Distribution
Critical appreciation.
Story & Set/Live
Case facts: Script Location
Distribution Theatres Film Festivals Merchandise
Story line: Teenager commits Director & Cinematogra Brand Live Suicide
suicide. Writer phy & Sound Pay-per-view
Endorsement Plays/Shows Awareness
Appointment of cast and Cast (Lead Trailer/Music
Performance CDs/DVDs Novel
crew to be done by director and Support) Launch
on recommendation of Online
production house (if any). Crew Editing Promotions
streaming

We need to target the different areas as mentioned in order to maximize our It is important to concentrate on both aspects of the case. In the short time we
objectives. Since we have a 3 year break even period and a critically acclaimed have, one generally tends to forget one of the two aspects. Listing down factors
film might not be a box office success, we should look at converting the film is a key for abstract cases. For break even analysis, the candidate can choose to
into a novel or a play as well. do a quick guesstimate of the number of viewers and of revenues & costs.
62
Case Interview Transcripts
63
How to make best use of Interview Experiences?
o The interview experiences are categorized as per different companies. This will give
readers a chance to understand and differentiate the type of cases asked by each
company, the depth into which they want you to go and what domain to companies
tend to focus on.
o There are instances when the same problem statement was given to multiple
candidates and thus different approaches to the same case have been written down.
This will enable students to get diverse perspectives on the approaching the case.
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES o The case experiences have been provided in a format that is closest to the actual
conversation that went down on the day of interviews and hence students can go over
the case transcripts to set their expectations of the case interviews right so that there
(SUMMERS 2020) are no last-minute surprises.
o This book can also be used to create a bank of HR related questions that can be asked.
Since the background of each candidate has been provided alongside the HR questions
asked, you can find candidates with similar profiles as yours.
o Names of candidates and their profiles have been provided so that readers, if need be,
can reach out to the relevant person to be able understand the case better or for any
other assistance that they may require with respect to placement preparation.
Note – All mentions of ‘C’ refer to Candidate while ‘I’ refers to Interviewer in this
book.
64
Manu Gupta
Undergraduate College Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi
Field of Graduation Engineering
Professional Qualifications None
Work Experience Deloitte India (24 months)-
HR & Conversation Questions
Introduce yourself.
Why do you want to do consulting?
What does a consultant need to do so that a client can really see their value?
What are you good at? (Data crunching, presenting, or talking to client) What are the sectors
you like to track?
How do you approach projects under a deadline?
When do you perform the best (under pressure or in a well-planned assignment)?
How would you deal with situations when you are in a completely new environment/region
and have to accomplish a task?
65
Case Interview 1 C: Looking at the case facts, the customers like our client's car but they are not willing to pay
such a high price for a car. We could try to use our client's deep pockets to undercut prices, but
Foreign auto manufacturer made an entry in the mid-level segment (5-7 lacs) cars with Maruti it may not be a sustainable approach. I think that our client's costs may be too high which is
Suzuki Swift as the main competitor. Swift sells 50k cars a month but the client is only selling pushing the price up. If we can manage to lower our costs, we may be able to lower prices. I
4k cars a month. The client has very deep pockets and has 2 years to take the sales from 4k would like to ask about our client's supply chain and business model. Do they import any parts?
Where is the manufacturing/assembling units located? Where does our client sell cars in India?
cars per month to 10k cars per month. The client sells their car at 10lac in India, while Swift is
5-7 lacs. The customers like the client’s car but due to the price, they buy Swift. How would I: Okay, we import our parts from Europe and assemble those parts in India. Our plant is located
you try and help the client achieve their goal? on the outskirts of Bombay. We sell our cars pan India.
I: Introduce yourself and why do you want to work in consulting? C: We could try to reduce some of these costs. In terms of importing, can we try and change our
import source to a cheaper country, maybe China?
C: Gave my introduction and linked my inclination towards consulting with my past experiences.
I: That would lead to quality issues. Our factory is located on the outskirts of Bombay, near the
I: What does a consultant need to do so that a client can really see their value? Bombay-Pune belt.
C: Talked about the value consultants add for a client. C: Yes, the costs in that region might be high. We can also look to shift our manufacturing
locations where labor and rent are cheaper.
I: What are you good at? (Data crunching, presenting, or talking to clients)
I: Alright fair enough. Can you think of some promotion strategies (ATL/BTL) that our client may
C: Since I have an engineering background, I am good at analyzing data and drawing insights use?
from it although I have worked on the other two skills as well.
C: We could also try to target a different market segment or promote our car as a premium and
I: Alright, let us do a case. A foreign auto manufacturer made an entry in the mid-level segment prestigious model highlighting its quality and safety to differentiate from Swift.
(5-7 lacs) cars with Maruti Suzuki Swift as the main competitor. Swift sells 50k cars a month but
our client is only selling 4k cars a month. The client has very deep pockets and has 2 years to I: Okay. Are there any sectors that you like to track?
take the sales from 4k cars per month to 10k cars per month. Our client sells their car at 10 lacs
in India, while Swift is 5-7 lacs. The customers like our client’s car but due to the price, they buy C: Answered with a sector (Follow up question on that sector)
Swift. How would you try and help the client achieve their goal?
Interview Experience
C: Can I take a few moments to structure my approach?
What worked well for you? HR answers about consulting
I: Sure, you can take 3 minutes.
66
Stating my approach upfront I: How would you decide the number of extra balls?
Conversational while solving the case C: We could set a limit to the minutes in play every ball can be used for before replacement.
What could you have done I: You have 5 minutes remaining and you need to quickly give a number.
Follow up question on a sector (underprepared for the sector)
better?
C: We could take a rough estimate of the average number of balls that are lost in matches.
Questions asked to the Asked about the geographies of projects at the firm
Interviewer I: How would you get that number; it will be difficult to calculate. Is there someone you can ask?
C: We can ask someone who has done this kind of tournament before and adjust the number
Case Interview 2 of balls required.
Guesstimate: Estimate the number of footballs required for a tournament at IIML? I: Good. Now tell me how do you separate a needle from a haystack?
I: Since you like football, can you estimate the number of footballs you would need for a C: We can use a magnet.
tournament at IIML? You can only order once, and you have 15-20 minutes to decide. I want
you to give me a number. I: What else?
C: Sure, can I take a few moments to figure out my approach? C: We can put the haystack in water and the needle would sink.
I: Yes take 2 minutes. I: Okay, what else?
C: I would like to ask some questions before I jump into the calculations. How many teams are C: Can I have a few moments to think?
participating and what is the tournament format? How many pitches are available for a match
(since we may be able to reuse some footballs if matches are held sequentially)? What is the I: Sure, think about the chemical properties of the two.
number of balls used per match?
C: If we do not need the haystack later, we can burn it.
I: The tournament has a group stage, followed by the semifinals and finals. There are two groups
with five teams per group. Each team plays one match with the other in their own group. The I: Yes. Any questions for me?
top two teams advance. Two fresh balls are used per match. C: Asked him about his experience at the firm.
C: Alright, that means there are 23 total matches and 46 balls required. We would also need to
order extra balls in case a ball is lost or becomes unusable.
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Interview Experience C: Sure, could I take a few moments to structure my approach?
What worked well for you? Detailed scoping questions I: Okay
Managed to stay composed and think through an unconventional C: I would evaluate the demand for cement and the supply of the raw materials required for
problem. producing cement.
Had a good conversation with the interviewer I: Forget cement. I and my competitor sell a pen. Our product is exactly the same with the same
cost per pen. I charge Rs10 from my customer while the competitor charges Rs. 8 and the cost
What could you have done per pen is Rs. 5. My competitor enjoys a much larger market share than me. Should I reduce my
Not much.
better? price to Rs8? Think from a considerably basic financial perspective. What are the questions that
you would ask me?
Questions asked to the Asked him about his personal experiences
Interviewer C: What is the increase in quantity sold if we drop the price by 2 rupees? It may not make sense
to drop the price if an increase in quantity sold is not sufficient to sustain revenues.
Case Interview 3 I: Think from your finance courses at MBA. There is an equation you can use.
Cement prices fell during lockdown but have rebounded. We are building a pricing model for C: Is our pen more premium than the competitors?
rupees/tonne for the manufacturer. What are the factors you would consider for that model?
I: No, they are in the same segment. Think from a layman's perspective. Tell me what does a
Think from a general industry independent perspective (what would affect the price charged
company need to do business?
by someone)
C: Capital?
I: Walk me through your CV.
I: Yes, now you are on the right track. Can you ask me the right question now?
C: Gave my intro with a focus on describing some of the CV sections
C: What are the debt and equity levels of the firm?
I: Alright, let us do a case. Cement prices fell during lockdown but have rebounded. We are
building a pricing model for rupees/tonne for the manufacturer. What are the factors you would
I: You should ask about return on capital, should you not?
consider for that model? Think from a general industry independent perspective (what would
affect the price charged by someone)
C: Yes, ROCE should be more than returns on alternate investments for the manufacturer or it
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may not make sense to be in this business.
Samarth Wahi
Undergraduate College Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies
What worked well for you? Composure in a difficult interview
Field of Graduation Management
What could you have done Could have been more practical in my approach.
better? Professional Qualifications None
Basic finance concepts for cases
Should have substantiated HR answers Work Experience Ernst & Young- Consulting – 33 months
Questions asked to the None

Interviewer HR & Conversation Questions
Tell me about yourself.

Tips for Future Candidates Why Consulting? Why A&M?
Be clear in your communication. Why do you think you are a good fit?
Be confident and enthusiastic. What are your interests outside of work?
Be logical (do not try to force a framework but use them to guide your approach) Tell me about your work with EY.
Refer to case books and practice cases well in advance. What are the projects you have loved the most?
Some interviews may be tough, and it is important to keep calm How has your day been?
Who all have you interacted with today (From A&M)? How have your interactions been so
far?
Tell me about your interests.
69
What do you understand about consulting and A&M? What is the job like? Have you or I: The client is PE firm. They are only motive is to maximize their profits. (I do not remember
anybody else in your family travelled for work? him mentioning that the client was a PE firm initially. If he did, this was a blunder on my part.)
Gave me numbers for capital structure, interest costs.
How has your day been?
C: Based on the limited information available, Company B appears to be the better option. Do
Who all have you interacted with today (From A&M)? How have your interactions been so you want me to explore the two options further?
far?
I: Yes, maybe we can dig deeper. What are some other factors that would affect the decision?
Tell me about your interests. C: Listed factors like - revenue current and future, interest burden, volatility of revenue (risks),
diversity of revenue streams (to hedge against risks), environmental factors, increasing costs,
What do you understand about consulting and A&M? What is the job like? Have you or etc.
anybody else in your family travelled for work?
I: Asked me to think more. What would be that one piece of information that would change
your decision altogether?
Case Interview 1
C: ROI to the firm (How much would I need to invest to earn x% return) - this should have been
Suppose you have a PE firm as your client, looking to invest in a company into packaging mentioned before (ideally) - defended myself by saying that I had asked for the capital
business. The client has 2 options. structure and as per his reply capital investment was comparable
• Company A: 200Cr in revenues, 15 Cr EBITDA, Growth rate 10%
• Company B: 150 Cr in revenues, 18 Cr EBITDA, Growth rate 15% I: Gave me feedback. You could have thought about the total capital requirement of the firm.
You have to assess the options. However, you cannot ask for more than two data points Did not consider whether the companies would need to raise additional capital to grow at the
from me/client. projected rates - apart from the money they would be raising from our client.
C: (Reiterated the problem. Asked for time to think at the end.) Interview Experience
C: I would ask for the following two data points. What worked well for you? I think at one point during the case he was just pushing me into
1. Purpose of the investment? I want to understand if the investment has a larger strategic a corner to keep coming up with more factors. I did not give up,
motive or if it is being done purely from an investment perspective. kept suggesting the next best logical factor.
2. Considering we are looking at EBITDA numbers right now and not the net profit, I would
want to know the capital structure of the two companies - debt/equity split and financial costs,
if any.
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What could you have done I missed the fact that the client was a PE firm in the initial case C: I believe I have got a good sense of the overall business and the opportunity we are
better? problem. The two questions I asked could have been more analyzing right now. I would now proceed to analyze the factors that could have an impact on
relevant had I not made that mistake. the decision.
Questions asked to the None Asked for time to think. (Took about 45 seconds)
Interviewer
Started with PESTLE, Porter's 5 forces. However, he asked me to quickly list all the factors - did
not give a lot of information.
Case Interview 2 I: From our discussion so far, can you list the top 3-4 factors that will be relevant to the
decision?
Your client is an EPC company (construction business). They work in construction of roads,
buildings, water tanks, etc. The client has heard from a friend that there are growing C: Listed 3 factors.
opportunities in water sector. The client has reached out for your help to figure out whether I: Alright. So, let us assume after all the discussion, we have narrowed down on XX opportunity
they should pursue this. and it requires an investment of INR 1000 Cr. The project would give the client INR 100 Cr in
cash inflows for the next 15 years. Should the client go ahead with this?
C: Reiterated the problem, confirmed case facts.
C: Asked questions about equity/debt split, cost of capital, cost of debt. He gave me the
C: Started with CPCC to understand the context. Asked questions on the motives. numbers.
I: Gave me facts about the company, competition, market scenario for EPC players. I started with the calculation at this point. I was 30-40 seconds into the calculation when he
realized that the calculation had become a little complicated (because of the additional
C: You initially mentioned that the client has a presence in water tanks - you mentioned information he had just given me).
projects like construction of water tanks. What are these new opportunities that we are
exploring now? Are they different from the kind of work we already do? I: Let us not get into the entire calculation. That may take too much time. Tell me the approach
you were following.
I: Gave me a detailed description of water sector projects - different categories.
C: Explained IRR calculation. IF IRR> Weighted cost of capital - profitable investment. If not,
C: Asked a few questions related to each category - customer profiles, market size, growth the client should not invest.
rates, competition
I: Alright. I think we are done here. You should be hearing from us soon.
71
Shreshtha Mitra
What worked well for you? I believe the initial case structure was laid out well. There was a
lot of information exchange at that stage with me asking multiple Undergraduate College BITS Pilani, Goa Campus
follow up questions. This did not leave a lot to be solved later.
Field of Graduation Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering
What could you have done
NA
better? Professional Qualifications None
Questions asked to the None Work Experience KPMG- Consulting- 49 months

Interviewer

Case Interview 3
1. Guesstimate on estimating the number of trees in Gurgaon.
2. Suppose you have $ 1mn to invest and 3-4 stocks to choose from, what are the factors The interviewer asked about my exposure to the retail industry based on my workex.
you would consider for selecting any stock?
What motivates you to work?
3. Suppose your client is establishing a hospital on a highway in India. What are the factors
that need to be considered? Why do you want to join A&M?
Case Interview 1
Suppose you are a consultant at A&M and your client is the Mumbai International Airport
Authority. The CEO has approached you to suggest ways to increase earnings per
passenger.
C: I would like to start by splitting the revenue into aero and non-aero revenue. Would you
like me to focus on any particular revenue stream first?
72
I: Yes, let us focus on non-aero revenue sources only. What could you have done Nothing specific, the interview went well.
better?
C: I would like to map the customer journey here and identify key factors impacting the non-
aero revenue. Passenger Mix, Placement of Retail outlets and Retail Mix are the three critical Questions asked to the Does A&M also implement the solutions that we recommend
parameters. Interviewer to our clients?
At this point, data for Retail spend per passenger, Retail Area and Passenger Mix Case Interview 2
(International: Domestic) was provided.
Our client is a PE firm, looking to invest in a mid-market player in the Cement industry.
C: Calculated the current numbers and what incremental revenue would the airport be able How would you form a view on its pricing growth?
to generate through changes at various steps.
I: Your client, a PE firm, is looking to invest in a mid-market player in the cement industry.
I: Could you please go ahead and compare these parameters with four major airports - Delhi, How would you form a view on its pricing growth?
Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore?
C: Before I move on to pricing, I would like to understand a bit more about the cement
C: Differentiated the airports based on available data. Provided final recommendations for company, its customers and current competition in the market.
increasing the revenue.
I: Interviewer provides details of the company.
I: Assume that there is an option to place a Subway or an Apparel shop near the boarding
gates. What would you recommend? C: I now have a fair understanding of the company and would now like to move on to the
macroeconomic factors impacting the industry and then would like to understand the
C: Calculated the monthly revenue for both options using footfalls and average bill value, cement industry scenario in terms of buyer, suppliers, and competition.
splitting into the peak, non-peak, non-operational hours and came up with a final
recommendation. I: Interviewer provides details on the questions asked. How do you now approach the pricing
growth?
C: Discussed the three main ways of pricing - Cost, Competition and Value based.
What worked well for you? The interview was in a conversation mode, so at every point, I
verified whether I was going in the right direction. The data I: Talked about relevant concepts including asset turnover and RoI.
points given made it less subjective to analyze the case and
come up with recommendations.
73
What worked well for you? Answered the HR answers well. Case was conversation based, per match. Added a buffer from historical data to arrive at the final number.
so had a chance to quickly grasp what were the terms he
expected during the case solving. Interview Experience
What could you have done Did not know in detail about ROIC, and that was one major What worked well for you? Spontaneous ideas and quick math worked in my favor.
better? ratio to be covered in the case.
What could you have done None
Questions asked to the None better?
Interviewer
Case Interview 3 Interviewer
Estimate the number of pressure cookers sold in a year in India.

Tips for Future Candidates
Started the guesstimate by splitting into domestic and commercial. First calculated for
domestic use. Split the population based on income and then by average family size. Candidates must practice a lot of guestimates and have a basic understanding of financial
Assumed an appropriate percentage of low-income group owning a pressure cooker. Then ratios.
assumed no. of pressure cookers per household and then estimated years of use to come to
Cases on Profitability, Pricing and Market Entry are important. Sector importance -
the final number.
Consumer, Logistics and Healthcare.
List down the factors to be considered while setting up a hospital on a highway.
Keep conversing with the interviewer, to know whether you are on the right track and what
Directly started listing down all possible factors. Connectivity of places, frequency and type more is expected.
of vehicles, nearby hospitals/clinics, nearby residential areas/hotels, availability of resources
like electricity and water. Also mentioned about the historic record of accidents and
residential facilities for hospital staff.
How many cricket balls are used in an IPL series?
Objective was to arrive at number of matches and then number of balls per match. Started
with number of teams then number of matches at each level multiplied by number of balls
74
Anshul Topnani
Undergraduate College Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi
Field of Graduation Mining Engineering
Work Experience Wipro Ltd.- Information Technology- 36 months
Please elaborate on the work that Team Synapse does.
Can you tell me more about the chatbot you built? What were the use-cases?
What was your role at Wipro?
How does a chatbot function?
How would you go about building a customer service chatbot?
Choose any industry of your choice.
Which AWS services would you require to build the chatbot you just designed?
Why Accenture?
75
What do you want to do after an MBA? It was not a case interview round.
You have diverse experience, UG in mining engineering, work-ex in IT, and now Interview Experience
management. What would be your preferred line of work among the three.
What worked well for you? The interviewer directed me towards talking about business
Which segment would you prefer to work with within Accenture? perspective whenever I went too deep into technical aspects,
and I was able to follow and answer the questions
Consulting is a job that requires meeting tight deadlines and includes a lot of travel. How
appropriately.
would you cope with that?
What could you have done Having an in-depth business perspective of technologies, I had
What are your career goals?
better? worked with.

Interview 1 Interviewer
It was not a case interview round.
What worked well for you? Thorough knowledge about CV points.
What could you have done Answer to chatbot designing question was loosely structured.
better? I was using pen and paper for writing some flow which were
not fully communicated to the panel.
Questions asked to the How are the functions for summer interns defined?
Interviewer
Interview 2
76
Case Interview 1
Anushka Gupta
A firm that has 2 divisions. Each division produces 2 products, A and B. The first division is
Undergraduate College Christ (Deemed to be University) more profitable than the other, what is the reason for this?
Field of Graduation Computer Science, Maths, Stats C: Sure, so the firm in consideration has 2 divisions with 2 products in each of them and we
wish to find the reason for a greater profitability of the first division. Could I ask a few
Professional Qualifications None clarifying questions in order to understand the problem in hand?
Work Experience None I: Yes, go ahead.
C: I would want to know a little more about the company? Is it a new company or an
established one? And about the divisions, is any one of them more recent?
I: The company is an established one and both divisions have been operating since inception.
Briefly walk us through your professional life.
You can move on; the divisions are similar in terms of their product designs. You need not
Tell me more about this academic research project that you have mentioned in your CV. take the revenue cost approach here; it is a customer-centric case. To add in some
information, the customers of the firm are government as well as private sector companies.
What were the variables considered, tools used, modelling done, and conclusions drawn?
C: Oh, I see. On those lines, is there any particular division that each of these segments focus
I see that you have been a part of the Marketing Cell at IIM Lucknow. Shed some more light on?
on this. Is marketing your primary domain of interest?
I: They do buy a mix but one of the divisions sells imported products and one sells local made
Tell us about some of your learnings from team projects and individual assignments that you products.
may have taken up during the course of your graduation.
C: Understandable. Considering the difference in imported and private products, I believe
How has your IIM Journey been so far? this is quite important as government sector would prefer buying local made products over
the imported ones. Is there a difference in the prices offered by the divisions as well?
Tell us a bit more about your role in the PORs that you have mentioned.
How do you think they can help you while you aim to pursue a role in consulting? I: Yes, you can assume that.
77
C: Okay. So, I assume that the division with local made products would be selling a greater C: Sure.
quantity to the government sector customers at a significantly lower price while the
imported goods and services are comparatively costlier and procured majorly by the private I: A company has a manufacturing plant in Pune while it serves the customers in Gujarat. It
customers. Assuming the quantity to be the same, this difference in price would be one of wants to shift the plant to Sikkim. Could you highlight some key implications of the same?
the major reasons for difference in profitability.
In addition, we could also look at other factors. C: There are various implications that the company would have in terms of business,
economic, financial etc. but I would also want to know what is the reason of this shift? Are
I: That's alright, you arrived at the major reason. We can end this here. they planning to venture into another market or any such plans?
Interview Experience I: No, everything remains the same. Just that there have been certain issues with the Pune
plant and want to relocate.
What worked well for you? None.
C: Alright. Considering the two locations are quite different geographically as well, firstly,
What could you have done Asking whether the interviewer wanted me to focus on any there would be financial implications in terms of the costs associated with buying the land,
better? particular aspect and utilizing the information that he kept machinery etc. The governmental norms may be different for operations, the technological
adding than following any preset frameworks. requirements.
Questions asked to the I could have asked some more questions wrt the customers. I: That is perfect, tell me a bit more on the cost side.
Interviewer
C: In terms of cost, the company needs to probably purchase a land, the price for which may
be different as compared to Pune. It would then need to purchase the machinery and
equipment. New licenses to operate would need to be bought. The labor charges and
Case Interview 2 training charges would be different. All these could either be disposed of at Pune and a new
set may be purchased at Sikkim or the same may be transported, both may have different
1. A company has a manufacturing plant in Pune while it serves the customers in Gujarat.
implications, positive/ negative. Further on I: Go on.
It wants to shift the plant to Sikkim. Could you highlight some key implications of the
same? C: Further, on production, the costs incurred would be different to transport the goods and
services to Gujarat would probably be more from Sikkim due to the distance and as per the
2. A company has its marketing activities running across television, social media, blogs, inventory, further logistics cost shall be considered.
websites etc. How can it optimize their marketing spend?
I: Let us solve some cases. First, a general one and then one in marketing. Is that okay?
78
I: That seems enough, great. A quick question now: A company has its marketing activities Be confident and crisp. Ensure that the interviewer understands that you know what you are
running across television, social media, blogs, websites etc. How can it optimize their speaking in extremely precise words. When asked for explanation, talk extensively with great
marketing spend? Just touch. interest in the topic.
upon the points, you need to delve deep into any.
C: Oh sure. In order to optimize the marketing, spend, the company must proceed in three
phases- Analyze, Plan and Spend.
It should first analyze if the current expenditure on various media and channels are effective
to their target customers they plan to reach and the forecasted response. This can be done
by checking the TRP for televisions, number of visitors on websites, number of clicks on
display and search ads and the revenue earned from the same.
Using the results of this analysis, planning needs to be done on understanding the
improvements, switching of channels.
I: Good. That is all. Thank you.
What worked well for you? Briefly touching upon various buckets for implications was
extremely helpful as the interviewer led me to the important
one and seemed satisfied.
What could you have done Asked some questions probably in the marketing case to
better? understand if there was something specific expected.
Questions asked to the NA

Interviewer
79
Tell us more about your academic project carried out in Germany.
Arpit Gupta
How are Balance sheet, Cash Flow Statements and Income Statements related?
Undergraduate College Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad
Field of Graduation Information Technology Interview 1
Professional Qualifications None It was not a case interview round.
Work Experience Citi Bank- Technology- 34 months Interview Experience
What worked well for you? Confidence and CV preparation

HR & Conversation Questions What could you have done
NA
better?
Tell me something about yourself.
Why MBA?
Interviewer
Why Consulting and Accenture?
What industries is Accenture into?

Case Interview 2
What projects did I do at Citi and their overall business impact?
Mini Case: DSO reduction for a client
My preferable domain to work in Accenture Strategy.
Case 1 - Cost Pressure on Automotive Client. How do you go about it?
Why Accenture?
C: Can you please elaborate what is DSO and what exactly does the client do?
Consulting seems glamorous but it is generally not. Would you be able to cope up with
pressures and different Client Expectations? I: DSO is the Days Sales Outstanding. The client is an auto manufacturer.
Extra-curricular activities I am interested in. C: What is the objective of the client?
80
I: Client needs to reduce DSO from 50 to 40. What benefits can you think of? Interview Experience
C: Qualitatively, the benefits I could be, extra interest income that client could earn in 10 What worked well for you? Confidence, Communication Skills, Case Prep, Strong CV
days, leaner working capital, no cash shortages and so on. knowledge.
I: Okay, Great! What could you have done

NA
better?
Case 2: Our client is facing cost pressures. help them.
C: (Asked various scoping questions, using CPCC) Interviewer
I: It is an automotive client, serving distributors and various geographies in India.
C: Could you tell me about the revenue trends and other income if any.
I: Let us just focus on costs.
C: Just give me a moment to lay out the complete value chain of Cost.
I: Surely
C: The value chain is.
Procurement of Raw Material > Inbound Logistics > Manufacturing > Outbound Logistics >
Post Purchase services.
(I Asked various question in each of the parts)
I: That's okay. You understand Value chain. We can close the case here.
81
Use-cases of AI in R&D in automotive industry.
Hemdeep Padalia
General advice to CEO to improve their auto R&D capability.
Undergraduate College IIT Bombay
Field of Graduation Mechanical Engineering Case Interview 1
Professional Qualifications None An automotive OEM wants to enter Indian Market. What are the factors it should
consider while deciding its location strategy?
Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private
Work Experience Limited, Bangalore- Manufacturing Automotive – 32 C: What is the objective of the client for entering Indian market?
months
I: Capturing the new potential market.
C: What stages of supply chain does it want to enter in Indian market?

I: All stages (manufacturing to selling)
Please introduce yourself.
C: Does the client have a sister concern in India or is willing to collaborate with existing
Can you please explain me your job profile at Mercedes-Benz? players?
Why IIM Lucknow after having worked in Mercedes-Benz? I: No for both
Why Accenture Strategy? C: I will consider the following factors while considering location strategy: Macroeconomic
If you had an option to work for world's most innovative auto OEM, which would that be? (Favorable Govt. policy for certain locations, tax exemptions, credit incentives, cluster
development areas identified for auto industry), Industry (Existing auto OEMs location
What are the upcoming trends in auto industry - globally and in India? distribution, supplier’s distribution, Human Resource availability), Company level decision
factors (Geographical market in focus, vehicle segment in focus, distribution strategy,
3 use-cases of AI in auto industry.
favorable terms with local governments)
Discussion on currently prevalent themes in automotive industry - Connected,
Autonomous, Shared, Electric mobility.
82
I: That is exhaustive. Can you tell me more about the factors you will consider for Interview Experience
distribution strategy in particular?
What worked well for you? Detailed discussion on automotive industry
C: I will look for location (company locations, geographical suitability), Available
transportation modes, taxation regime for transportation from location A to location. Conversational approach from interviewer
I: Good. We can close the case. What could you have done
Solve guesstimate in the method interviewer explained
better?
Questions asked to the 1. Experience working at Accenture Strategy after coming in
What worked well for you? Smooth and crisp introduction touching multiple areas of Interviewer laterally.
achievements.
2. Experience working with automotive industry clients while
Discussions revolving around automotive industry - area of at Accenture Strategy
previous work experience
What could you have done Interview 3

Better present my case structure
better?
It was not a case interview round.
Interviewer
What worked well for you? Smooth delivery of answers

Case Interview 2
Deep discussion on automotive industry
Estimate the annual number of travelers visiting to Delhi Airport (domestic +
international)? What could you have done Keep my answers a bit crisper
better?
83
Questions asked to the What differentiates a great consultant from a good
Interviewer consultant? Nandini Sreenath
Learning advice to a budding consultant Undergraduate College National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal
Field of Graduation Electronics & Communication Engineering

Be thorough with your previous work experience industry, if applicable - Major discussion
revolved around the same Work Experience Qualcomm- Machine Learning- 12 months
Give equal focus on delivery of CV/HR answers along with case interview.
Be prepared with future trends in technology, digital and business.
Tell me about yourself. What motivates you?
Showcase your research/prior conversations with others regarding Accenture Strategy in
your answers during the interview and in the questions, you get to interviewers Describe your work? What is the problem that exist in NLP?
Asked about my work at Qualcomm. How did it benefit my team?
Drawback of VLOOKUP, alternative to solve this.
Case Interview 1
Discuss the implications of teleportation.
C: I clarified the problem statement to understand if it was only movement of matter from
one place to the other or information too?
I: Assume matter only.
84
C: A lot of the physical infrastructure will not be required any more like roads. It will also
mean that we will have to develop the network infrastructure to support this. We will also Pranav Ohri
have to develop mechanism to support disassembly and assembly for this to be possible.
Undergraduate College Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore
I: You can consider the infrastructure exists. What other implications can you think of?
C: Telephones and social media platforms that are required for instantly connecting would Field of Graduation Electronics & Communication Engineering
not be required anymore.
I: True. There would be other implications as well like more space for housing (since roads
are not there), ethical problems rising from where one can teleport, definition of Cisco Systems- Network Infrastructure (Telecom)- 35
Work Experience
boundaries etc. months
What worked well for you? I was able to think of different kinds of implications of
teleportation. I was also well prepared for my CV questions Why Consulting?
What could you have done Why Accenture?

Approaching the problem with a better structure.
better?
How good are you with Excel and PowerPoint?
Interviewer Can you share some highlights about yourself?
You are from an Army family. You must have travelled a lot?
Prepare well from IIML Casebook. Case Interview 1
Be well prepared with HR and work-ex related questions and other CV points as well. If teleportation became a science reality, what would change?
I: Currently teleportation is just a science fiction. If it became a science reality what would
change?
85
(Asked a few clarifying questions) the distance over which the machine can teleport, can its cross borders etc.)
C: How are we achieving this teleportation? Is it a machine? Is it available only with industry Interview Experience
players or can a normal person buy it? How affordable is it?
I: It is a machine which costs about Rs. 10L. Anyone who can afford it can buy it. What worked well for you? I had answer prepared for why consulting with respect to
C: Is there any specific area where you would want me to focus or should I look at it from Accenture CN. I tried to keep the interview like a
a broader view? conversation, which actually helped my confidence during
the interview.
I: You can proceed with whatever comes to your mind.
What could you have done Could have done a bit more of scoping before jumping into
C: 1. Effect on general public time saving, cost effective and safer means of transportation
better? the case.
2. Effect on transportation industry - cabs and other personal/public transports will be
replaced. Questions asked to the What are Accenture’s projects in the Aerospace and Defense
3. Effect on employment - loss of jobs for people currently employed in transportation and
Interviewer Industry?
logistics. But newer opportunities as we would require people for operating the machines.
I: Can you list down 3 more changes you would see in the world?
Interview 2
C: 1. Effect on environment - We would be eliminating the pollution effect from all kinds of
transport. Also, since we would not require roads anymore, a lot of land can be taken under It was not a case interview round.
agricultural and forest cover. This would also help boost the agricultural sector.
2. Logistics - Since the technology has been invented, it is not long that it gets scaled to Interview Experience
teleport larger quantities. Delivery of shipments becomes much faster. We will face much
lesser or negligible damage and loss of shipments (gave example of product damaged What worked well for you? The HR interview went on like an amazingly simple
during transit when ordered from Amazon). conversation which helped me feel comfortable in the
(Took some time to think of the third point here) interview.
I: We can stop the case here. What could you have done
NA
better?
(Gave me feedback on the case. I missed out on the security factor since boundaries and
walls might no longer have any significance. Could have asked a clarifying question about Questions asked to the NA
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Interviewer
Rahul Das
Undergraduate College Indian Institute of Technology, BHU
Field of Graduation Electronics Engineering
Honeywell - Advance technology (IT), Hardware Design,

Work Experience
Marketing – 24 months
Have you experienced a situation where you had to overcome an obstacle? How did you
react? What were your learnings?
Was there any situation in our workplace where you had to convince your manager for a
task?
What was your most significant achievement?
Have you come across a situation where you had to perform a task in an unconventional
way?
Case Interview 1
There is a square and coins. Area of the coin is less than the square. There are two players
A and B who have to fill the square with coins. The person who puts coin in square at last
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place wins, i.e., after which there is no space to put another coin. Among A and B who Questions asked to the Will our role involve interaction with Indian customers only
can go first and what will be his strategy to win the game. Interviewer or will it also be with global customers, Will we be
positioned in the industry domain as per our prior work
C: Can I use pen and paper please?
experience?
I: Sure.
C: Can the coins be of any size? And will the size of the coins be constant throughout?
I: Yes
C: Whoever goes first will fill the square with the area such that there is no space left for
2nd player. So, whoever goes 1st, wins.
I: Your solution is correct but think a generalized solution. The first mover will place the
coin at center. Take this as a hint.
C: Okay, thank you for the hint. In whichever position the 2nd player places the coin after
the coin is placed at the center, the first player will always have a position of reflection of
2nd player. Thus, the last mover will be the player who had placed the coin first.
I: Correct!
What worked well for you? Specific and precise answers, staying confident throughout
the interview and keeping a positive mindset really worked
for me.
What could you have done I had understood the solution earlier and could have solved
better? it without the hint.
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2.Keeping the entire interview conversational and
Sanjana Gupta interesting instead of just answering the question asked
Undergraduate College Hansraj College, Delhi University What could you have done I could have researched more on Accenture related projects.
better? This could have been beneficial while answering questions
Field of Graduation B. Com (Hons.) like why consulting, why Accenture. I could have also read
about Accenture's global Environment Responsibility Policy
Professional Qualifications CFA Level 2
Questions asked to the Discussed about the project the interviewer was currently
PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd, Trade Science LLP- Risk working on.
Work Experience Interviewer
Assurance Services- 27 months
What kinds of activities does Accenture undertake to help
the society?
How do you connect the dots from graduation to work experience to IIM?
Why do you want to pursue consulting?
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Why do you want to join Accenture?
What worked well for you? 1.Having in-depth knowledge of each line mentioned in the
CV.
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MD Round: How is your day till now? What are your hobbies? How do you manage stress?
Saumya Gupta What do you plant a tree? Why IB?
Undergraduate College NIT Jaipur

Case Interview 1
Field of Graduation Electrical Engineering
Estimate the demand for Oxygen cylinders for the next 6 months for COVID-19 situation
Professional Qualifications None in a city or country of your choice?
Work Experience Deloitte USI -47 months (The question was triggered because I had covid-19 response written on my CV)
C: Since I live in Bangalore, can I estimate the demand for Bangalore city for 6 months?
HR & Conversation Questions (Interviewer indicated to use choice of city/country but also said you may take
Allahabad/Jaipur which were on my CV. Since I was more aware of Bangalore COVID-19
Tell me about yourself? cases and population, I chose that)
Why Consulting? Why Accenture? I: Yes, go ahead.
Why do you want to pursue consulting after Deloitte USI? C: Explained the pros of using Demand approach in this case as opposed to Supply
approach.
How do you define success in consulting?
I: Yes, makes sense.
Have you faced a conflict at work? How did you resolve it?
Explain more about the work you did and how will you train yourself for Consulting? Do C: I started giving the current cases in Bangalore and expected % increase and then %
you think you are already there or is there something to learn? If yes, what are those decrease in coming months. Then I divided the cases into Intensive Care and non-intensive
things? care. Further, I divided the Intensive care also into those requiring extreme oxygen, some
requiring medium oxygen, and some requiring less oxygen and assumed it to be 10, 5 and
How will you convince someone to use technology for cost optimization? What are the few 2 cylinders per day.
suggestions that you might give the person specially in Covid-19? Give me financial
suggestions and technical suggestions for Covid-19 support? Further I calculated the value by assuming cases to go down in 6 months and keeping a
safe stock of Oxygen cylinders.
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The interviewer expected me to talk the whole time and asked me to summarize. He also C: What are the types of trucks in the product mix?
asked a few cross questions on my assumption.
I: 16-ton, 22-ton, 30-ton, 40-ton, trailer.
I: I think it is a fair estimate. Good job on choosing the demand approach.
C: How are the trucks sold.
I: Typical truck selling.
What worked well for you? Confidence and Clarity. Even if the numbers were not exact,
I had a good sense of approximations I was making and kept C: Since these are trucks, can I assume that major sales are happening in rural areas and
the calculations quite simple. tier1/tier2 cities? (It was a wrong assumption completely. The product was trucks and not
tractors)
What could you have done I: Not at all, these are trucks being bought in fleets by industrialists and given on lease to
Nothing truck drivers. The major sales happen in metro cities and tier 1 cities.
better?
Questions asked to the I attended the company PPT and showed keen interest in it. I C: Do we have any offline and online distribution channels? Also, has there been a change
Interviewer asked 2-3 questions based on the recent deals of Accenture in the industry due to which sales are overall declining? (Again, wrong assumption, since
the question clearly stated market share was declining)
and vision going forward. I also asked about the Bangalore
Int. Airport project. I: Can you please ask question again? Also, can you tell me what do you understand by
market share?
Case Interview 2 C: Explained the answer correctly this time. And rephrased my question to are there any
changes in competitor strategy?
Case: Client is Automotive Industry with both commercial and passenger vehicles. Their
commercial sales are 65%. Their market share has been decreasing every year since last I: No online sales. As per industry practice, 95% sales happen offline. Also, there have been
3 years. Suggest how to revive sales. It is a market leader and assume no effect of Covid- some new technologies introduced by competitors, but it has not affected our client. They
19. are market leaders, so we can assume that it cannot be basic issues.
Guesstimate: Total amount invested in mutual funds in India in a year. C: Started asking some more questions.
Started by rephrasing the Problem statement and clarifying questions using the CPCC I: Okay, please tell me your overall approach, no need to explain the entire case.
approach. The interviewer quickly gave all the answers and did not wait for me to complete
my questions.
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C: Summarized the situation till now and pointed out the key areas where we can look to Interview Experience
understand drop in sales and how it can be improved.
What worked well for you? Being cool and energetic was especially important to keep
I: Okay. I was looking for Region specific questions. The sales only declined in the South the interviewer interested. Ability to showcase your interest
Region. No problem. Let us solve a guesstimate now. in the job/company applied.
What worked well for you? Confident and simple approach for the problem. Ability to be What could you have done NA
cool and explain the solution to the interviewer. Interviewer better?
was constantly correcting my approach. Also, I was slow, so
the interviewer constantly said leave this part, move faster. Questions asked to the It was a very free flowing HR interview. A variety of
Even though I was not able to arrive at the final answer for Interviewer questions were asked about my joining city? WFH? Also, I
both case and guesstimate, maintaining cool was important picked up some industry experience from the MD
in the situation. The assumption was that this is an actual introduction and asked him regarding the challenges in that
case and actual client interaction. I behaved as I would have industry during covid-19 situation. How fast will I be placed
in actual situation. in front of clients?

Speed. Since I lacked a bit of practice, my speed was slow.
better? Tips for Future Candidates
Questions asked to the I had prepared many questions from before. I asked about The first and last part of your preparation should be CV and HR.
Interviewer the interviewers experience currently and how it changed in
Do not lose hope till the end of preparation. In case of doubt, reach out to seniors to help
the COVID pandemic situation.
on preparation.
Do a pre-research on the company and show keen interest in knowing about the company.
Interview 3
It was a long process of total 7 interviews (for both IB and CN roles), keeping your energy
It was not a case interview round. high was important.
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sending them to a car manufacturing company, Maruti. Maruti is using those containers
Sourav Kumar Baidya and sending back the containers to the manufacturer A while receiving the containers, A
found that they are receiving damaged containers which is increasing their product cost.
Undergraduate College Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad What incentive scheme company A could apply to reduce the damage rate of receiving
the container?
Field of Graduation Mining Engineering
C: Sir, Can I have a minute to gather my thoughts? May I know at which end the containers
Professional Qualifications None are getting damaged?
Option 1: While travelling from A to MRF end
Work Experience Coal India Limited- Operations – 48 months Option 2: While travelling from MRF to Maruti end
Option 3: While travelling from Maruti to A
Option 4: At Maruti’s end itself.
Option 5: At MRF’s end itself.
I: Sir, we can have a ranking system, where ranking will be based on the damage rate of the
containers. High damaged containers pack will have a lower ranking and low damaged
containers pack will have a higher ranking. Based on the ranking of the containers pack
How is your journey been at Coal India Limited??
received company A will give a discount to MRF, which will do the same when they will
Why do you want to join Accenture? start receiving the containers at a lower cost. As soon as Maruti will notice that they are
receiving discounts not to damage containers and it is reducing the product cost at their
How you are coping up with the pandemic scenario? end so they will start handling the containers more safely and also try to introduce a quality
check before the containers leave Maruti.
Explain one scenario where you have taken out of the box approach to solving the
problem? C: Thanks!
What was the most challenging scenario you faced while working with coal India limited? Interview Experience
What worked well for you? I was completely thorough with my CV and the technical
Case Interview 1 knowledge about the work I had done during my work
experience. These are the two things that helped me.
Let us say there is a manufacturing company A, selling small containers to a tyre Presence of mind is especially important in an interview,
manufacturing company MRF. MRF is packing their tyres in those small containers and
93
many times they want to check your approach about any
problem without noticing the right or wrong answer. Tiwari Shubham
What could you have done Although things fell in place, the case was dynamic, and I Undergraduate College National Institute of Technology Calicut
better? would have been more comfortable if I had practiced solving
more cases. Field of Graduation Mechanical Engineering
Questions asked to the I asked about the interviewer’s experience during MBA and Bosch India- Automotive- Technical Consulting (36
Work Experience
Interviewer summers. months)
Tips for Future Candidates HR & Conversation Questions
I feel that everyone has their own personality and is unique in their own way. So, my Tell me about yourself.
suggestions would be: Be honest & be confident and believe in yourself
Could you explain more about your work and the responsibilities you had?
Why Accenture Strategy?
How would your previous work experience help us?
What was your role in the PDC of the product mentioned in the CV?
What would you like to do at Accenture (any specific inclinations?)?
What interests you the most about Accenture?
Tell me more about the kind of quizzing you are into (did not enquire much).
94
Case Interview 1 (No more questions were asked after this)
No case asked in the first interview. It was only a conversation around my work-ex and Interview Experience
CV
What worked well for you? Previous work experience had provided me some idea about
Interview Experience studying faults and damages. Also, took the first principal
approach explaining every thought process one by one.
What worked well for you? I was straight-forward and to-the-point with my answers.
Maintained a calm demeanor throughout. What could you have done
NA
better?
NA
better? Questions asked to the NA
Interviewer
Interviewer
Case Interview 2
Client is a container manufacturer who is seeing large-scale damages to the containers

when they are sent back after use. The client wants to begin an incentive scheme
awarding it to the user/customer so as to encourage return of containers w/o damage.
Design the incentive program (factors to be considered). How would you approach the
problem?
C: I would like to take a minute think and structure my thoughts. I would take both an
internal and external stakeholder. Internally, need to figure how could processes be
changed to reduce damage. Externally, have to work on a process map, and work on
understanding the problem's origin at each step. The incentive scheme is designed after
containing these issues so as to reduce expenses.
95
Case Interview 1
Uppalapati Vaidehi
State the effects, advantages, and disadvantages of teleportation. What industries do
Undergraduate College NIT Warangal you think will be impacted the most by this?
Field of Graduation B. Tech (Civil) C: (after taking a minute to think) I think teleportation will have an impact on several
industries. If the teleportation technology is inexpensive, it will have an impact on
Professional Qualifications None automobile industry, aviation, and hospitality. Teleportation can emerge as an alternate
to conventional modes of transport and find applications in travel and hospitality.
Mu Sigma- Business Analytics & Consulting – 37
Work Experience I: Alright. What do you think will be the biggest challenge in this case?
months
C: The biggest challenge will be the application of this technology and how to make it
inexpensive. The more expensive the technology is, the more difficult its access would
be.
Give me a quick introduction about yourself. Why MBA? Why do you want to pursue
I: I agree to what you are suggesting. What are the major risks associated with this
a career in consulting?
technology?
What are the challenges that you have been facing in this virtual learning phase and
how have you managed to overcome that? What would be your preferred work C: The risks associated with this technology include safety and security. The industries
location? that will see the maximum impact will be automobile, travel, and hospitality.
What were your roles and responsibilities at Mu Sigma? Walk me through a project I: That will be all. Thank you.
that you have worked on during your tenure at Mu Sigma. Few questions around
chatbots (related to a project) and how to optimize them to improve customer Interview Experience
satisfaction and cut down customer care costs.
What worked well for you? I tried to stay calm throughout the interview. That helped
How did you on board sponsors for your college fest? What were the responsibilities me in being spontaneous with my answers.
you handled as the Secretary of Dance Club at NIT Warangal?
NA
better?
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Interviewer Vidhi Surana
Undergraduate College St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
Field of Graduation Economics
Be candid, confident, and honest with your answers. Solve as many cases and
guesstimates as you can. Be structured while communicating your thought process. Professional Qualifications Actuarial Science
Prepare your HR answers very well, have a story to back your answer. Refer to IIML, IIMA
Xceedance Consulting, Aakash Aath -
and ISB casebooks. Work Experience
Insurance Consulting, Media & Strategy – 24 months
Why do you want to join Accenture?
Why a shift from actuaries?
Which industry would you want to work in?
One good thing about Accenture and one thing you would not want to join Accenture
for?
How will you make a blind person understand the color green?
Case Interview 1
Calculate the number of petrol stations in Kolkata.
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C: This is can be solved through both the supply and the demand approach. Which one
should I follow?
I: Lets go through both one by one.
C: In the supply side approach I will take the area of Kolkata, divide it according to
population and rush. Based on my personal experience I will use my personal
neighborhood as an example to say how many petrol stations in a particular sq km area.
This I extrapolate to Kolkata by factoring in the area.
In the demand side, I will first estimate the number of 4 wheelers and 3 wheelers in
Kolkata, then estimate per vehicle petrol requirement, then I will use this monthly total
petrol requirement of the city and try to identify how much is the capacity (Stock +
Supply) of each station. Also, I factored in variables like peak times in the day (morning
and late evening), rush areas and weekend and weekday difference.
I: Sure, thank you!
What worked well for you? The interview was very conversational. I tried to take all
hints given by the interviewer and moved the discussion
accordingly.
What could you have done I could have added more variables in both the approaches I
better? explained.

Interviewer
98
Case Interview 1
Vandana Singh
Think on how many charging stations would be required in city of Indore by 2025.
Undergraduate College National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra
I: You must think on how many charging stations would be required in Indore city by
Field of Graduation Electronics & Communication Engineering 2025? We will do this in 8 to 10 minutes.
Professional Qualifications None C: Ok, I would like to ask you if you want me to go with electric 2 wheelers or four
wheelers.
Azcom Infosolutions- India (17 months), Qualcomm (18
Work Experience I: It is your call.
months)
C: Ok, I would like to go with 4-wheeler. What would be the charging time per vehicle?
HR & Conversation Questions I: You can check it from google. You have all the resources; you can google the entire
question if you want to. (there was no time for that)
Tell me about yourself in brief.
C: Ok, the population of the city of Indore would be around 20 lakhs. I am taking a breakup
Why 76% in B. Tech? Maybe because you participated in too many activities? What was
of 65% as urban population and 35% as rural population. I would like to have 1 to 2
your rank in B.Tech.?
minutes to structure it.
How has the entire process been like virtually? Anything new that you have done in the
I: Sure, go ahead, take your time.
virtual setup? How is the placement process going on in the virtual mode and any
improvements that you would suggest for the current placement process? (After 2 minutes) I: Are you done?
What did you do in Qualcomm? C: Yes, should I give you a number or the approach?
Any embarrassing workplace moment? I: Just give me the flow, we can calculate the number.
Give me a brief and crisp intro of where are you from, your graduation and where have C: Cool, I have taken the population of the city of Indore as 20 lakhs, 65% urban
you worked? population and 35% population as rural population.
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I: Yeah ok, that gives us 13 lakh urban population and 7 lakh rural population. in case of emergency. For people travelling medium distances say 100 km, I will take how
many kilometers my car can run in one charge cycle, and then calculate on an average
C: Yes, now out of the 13-lakh people living in urban areas, I am considering that people how many charging cycles would be required and taking charging time as 15 minutes,
using cars would be 65% and in rural area the percentage would be 25% which gives us people would not like to wait more than 15 min, I will take every charging station can
several people using cars in urban and rural areas which is approximately 8.5 lakh and 1.7 handle 2 people at a time one who will be using it and other one who can wait. Thus, we
lakh, respectively. can get charging station number. We can factor in time of the day and rush hours too.
I: Okay, go ahead.
I: That is fine. Cool. That would be it.
C: Now I would like to consider the urban population first. I am considering that people
who own a car will use it for travelling long distances or some medium distance travel or
daily commute to offices and schools. I am taking 15% people will use it for long distances What worked well for you? Be genuine and do not try to make up things. Just have a
like business taxis, Ola outstation etc. This section of people will not prefer switching to conversation and smile.
electric vehicles because they will not like increasing their journey time.
What could you have done Try to be aware of the time. While doing a case, keep a
I: Okay, you have next 2 minutes to complete this. better? watch nearby if interview is going on virtually.
C: Sure, so the medium distance travelers will be around 50% of whom I am considering Questions asked to the
60% would switch because government is also promoting it through different schemes. How has your experience been with Auctus?
Interviewer
People who use it for short distances which comprises of 10% population, mostly all
would switch.
Case Interview 2
Similarly, in rural, I am taking that people do not use cars for travelling short distances.
So, 35% people will use it for medium distance travel and 65% for long distance because What is the revenue of Delhi metro? Since you are from Faridabad, you must have
people need to usually go to cities far for various purposes and this section will not prefer travelled a lot by metro.
switching.
I: What is the revenue of Delhi metro? Since you are from Faridabad, you must have
I: How are you planning to calculate the number of charging stations required? travelled a lot by metro.
C: We have got number of electric vehicles and I will take people who travel to short
distances will not need charging stations and only very less people say 10% might need
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C: I will take a minute to think. I have thought of revenue streams which are rent from from board from Faridabad (purple line) then people usually go up to Delhi or Gurgaon.
shops, smart cards sale, tokens. So, would you want me to consider revenue from 3) Number of coaches, we have one ladies’ coach, and it has low density.
everything?
I: You can leave this; we can assume all coaches are same.
I: Okay, first tell me what more sources of revenue could be? Think of customer journey.
C: Number of coaches would affect how many people travel like certain lines have all
C: Yes, there can be parking fees, then I may purchase from shops for which we have eight coaches, or sometimes 6 coaches.
already taken rents.
I: Can we take this as population density only?
I: Have you seen the stations names are changed sometimes?
C: Umm, no.
C: Yes, organizations pay for getting their names on the metro stations.
I: Do you think that it matters that if there are six coaches, less people would board it?
I: And what about advertising spaces inside metros?
C: No, usually most people board the next metro that comes be it 6 coach or 8 coach.
C: Sometimes the entire metro train is used for advertising as well.
I: So, we can say density is all we need. Go ahead, how should we calculate the revenue?
I: Let us focus on revenue from riders only.
C: We need to find average number of stations; people would travel on each line.
C: Sure, so there are 2 ways we can purchase tickets. 1. Smart card 2. Tokens. For
considering revenues, we need to focus on 3 factors, Time of the day or week, station I: Yes, how would you do that?
from which you are travelling and number of coaches in a train. C: I think we can use intersecting stations like Rajeev Chowk, we have three intersecting
I: How are these factors going to affect your revenue? lines, so, 60% to 70% people on those lines would tend to travel to that station, this might
help us calculate average number of stations.
C: Time of the day - we will have more people traveling during morning and evening hours
I: What more? OK, what all places do people go to using metro?
and thus number of people travelling will be more. In fact, on Sundays, frequency of
metro is also less. Stations from which you are boarding- 1) it basically affects the density C: Shopping complexes, schools, colleges, offices.
usually on certain lines like on purple line population density travelling is more. 2) Also,
we can look into the average number of stations people travel on each line like if people I: So, can you think on these lines?
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C: We can think of most visited places and we can calculate average number of stations I: Suppose you are in class 8 and play basketball. You have to decide what to choose as
travelled by people. your career, go for engineering or basketball. How would you decide?
I: Now think about token system, how do we calculate revenue from there? C: Okay, I must decide what should I chose as my career option. And currently I am in 8th
standard. I would like to use uncertainties. Uncertainties would be whether I would be
C: We can check for tokens sold? doing good academically in future and how am I going to perform in Basketball in future.
I: How would you do that without data? I will also look into how good I am, currently, in both fields.
C: We can use the queue length that we have in front of the ticket counter. We can check I: What would be your objective while choosing both fields?
number of ticket booths we have and multiply it with queue length and we already have C: It will be higher income, societal status, and self-satisfaction. Points like self-
the average number of stations people travel. satisfaction cannot be measured. So, I would look majorly into income because it can be
I: Great. That would be all. measured.
Interview Experience I: Okay, how would look into it?
C: I will check in which college can I get into and what will be the average package of the
What worked well for you? Delving deeper into more prospects, being open to more
college.
questions and explaining my thought process clearly.
I: How would you decide which college. Say you got into XYZ college it will have highest
What could you have done I could have thought more on revenue streams for Delhi
package as 10 lap and lowest some number how would you decide?
better? Metro.
C: According to my current performance, I can estimate my future rank. Accordingly, I can
Questions asked to the
None. decide which field I will get and what would be the average package of that field.
Interviewer
I: Great. And how would you do that for sports?
Case Interview 3 C: I can check for the various career options if I can be a national player or a coach and
check for the average salary I will get.
Suppose you are in class 8 and play basketball. You have to decide what to choose as
your career, go for engineering or basketball. How would you decide? I: What more can you think of?
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C: We can have other factors like parental consent and opinions, if I have siblings, what
kind of impression I want to leave for them.
I: Thank you. That would be all.
What worked well for you?

Previous discussion with seniors on similar topics.

None
Interviewer
Be patient and keep smiling in your interviews. Get all the information you can from
seniors.
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C: I can try. Can I ask questions about processes specific to the industry, wherever
Abhishek S relevant?
Undergraduate College Shri Ram College of Commerce I: Sure, I will help you with industry specific practices.
Field of Graduation Commerce C: Reiterated the problem statement and asked Preliminary questions (CPCC), questions
relevant to the case, how long the problem has persisted? The definition of revenue from
Professional Qualifications None new clients (First year revenue). Any particular geography which is facing the issue?
Revenue generation from old client’s v/s new clients? Any particular service industry
Deloitte USI - 24 months facing this problem and Competitive landscape.
Work Experience
Yarn Company - 7 months I: Problem has been there for 6 years now. No specific location assumes any one region
and team working there. The revenue generation is 99% from existing clients and 1% from
new logos. Problem with every vertical (Industry served by the IT company). Company is
HR & Conversation Questions growing with the market, but new client revenue is sub-par comparing with the major
Competitors.
Tell me about yourself
C: (After taking a minute to assimilate the information)
A question on my overall experience at both the companies I worked at previously. My overall approach would be look at the client acquisition team as a separate entity
from the company and look at the structure and hierarchy of the team and the human
resources (Ability and Willingness), approach followed by the team while dealing with the
Case Interview 1 prospective clients, and lastly the integration between the both the teams.
Client is global IT company who is facing problem with revenues from new client. Please I: Sounds fair. Client acquisition employees are generally called hunters. So, the team has
help. Junior hunters, Senior hunters, and Team leader. The team leader reports to the vertical
heads.
After the initial introduction, there was a small conversation on industries which she
works on. C: Talking about the division of work, I assume that the junior hunter generally research
on the prospective clients, prepares pitches and the senior hunter leads the client
I: I have given a case from the industry which I specialize. If you want, we can do a case interactions? Further, talking about the Ability in terms of qualification, job fit and
from some other industry. attrition and also in terms of number of hunters & Willingness in terms of monetary and
non-monetary factors. Do you want me to dive deep into either of the factors?
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I: Junior hunters are involved in client interactions too. No problem with Ability. We can I: Revenue formula.
discussion about the willingness aspect later in the case.
C: (Tried keeping calm after the blunder) So the Revenue would number of clients
C: Sure, Should I look at the approach followed by the team? multiplied by the average revenue. Has there been a dip in the number of clients through
these years?
I: Can you elaborate?
I: There has been an increase, in fact.
C: I will try to analyze the buckets such as Lead generation and targets, vertical expertise
of the hunters, resources allocation and sharing with the main team (Integration). C: Bringing in the quality aspect here. New logos have been increasing but total revenue
is not picking up which might be due to the ticket size from new clients.
I: There is no set procedure for lead generation. The hunters get leads from farmers (Who
have contacts and leads). The farmers are not formal employees of the company but are I: Right, link it to the salary aspects of the hunters.
friends with the hunters. No problem with resource sharing, but the integration is a
problem. C: The salary of the hunters would be comprising of fixed, variable and bonus component.
Starting with variable and bonus component. Looking at the trend and revenue
C: I could identify few problems here. 1) Lack of formal structure in place which leads to generation from the new clients, I assume that the bonus component is linked with the
haphazard targeting. 2) Single channel of lead generation and that too informal, 3) number of clients rather than the size?
Integration problem could be that the client acquisition team is neglected by the vertical I: Great, can you give few recommendations?
heads as they might concentrate on the existing clientele since the revenue share is pretty
high. C: Streamlining the process, information sharing from the teams working with the existing
clients to know the industry trends which might help in targeting new clients, Salary
I: Right, these are few of the problems. However, I want to you to find the reason why structure, where bonus and also the variable component is linked to the size, progressive
the same is happening. variable pay policy. (Tried explaining which would be applicable in the short term and
long term but interrupted as the interview was already over 45 minutes)
C: Okay, sure. (Confused, as the interview was going well and now the interviewer wanted
me to change the course of thinking). I: Great, Thanks Abhishek. Any questions?
I: Think on a considerably basic level, one aspect which has led to the problems Interview Experience
mentioned above.
What worked well for you? Tried keeping calm and also was thinking out loud and
C: (Still Confused and Blank) Any particular aspect? tried asking as many questions as possible.
105
What could you have done Could have started from a considerably basic structure C: In terms of quantity sold, I would evaluate the options in terms of a 2x2 matrix, keeping
better? (Revenue formula) product offering on one axis and market on another axis (Ansoff matrix).
Questions asked to the Asked one at the beginning on industry expertise and one Further, I would analyze the value chain from production to distribution to check for any
Interviewer question related to hunters and farmers if these bottlenecks.
terminologies are used across industries.
I: Why Value chain? Cost is never a problem; we just have to look at the top line.
C: Analyzing the value chain to see if there are ways to enhance production capacity to
Case Interview 2 meet demands which are not satisfied currently.
Growth Strategy for a net manufacturer I: Right, no problem with fulfilment of demand. And now we are talking about demand,
The case was more in terms of idea generation and also the approach followed during a can you estimate the market size for fishing nets in India.
guesstimate. C: (Should not have talked about the value chain) Sure, I would first try to lay out the
C: Asked the Preliminary questions. The relevant facts were that the major product line approach and look for reduction factors and come up with a number.
was the fishing nets, and the case was about fishing nets. I: Okay.
(After taking a minute to make a structure) C: Since our target audience are fishermen, from the 130 million population, I would
I would approach the problem by looking at the equation, Revenue= Quantity sold X eliminate half of the population looking at the geography of the country (southern half)
Average Price, I would first look at the Pricing Strategy in terms of demand elasticity of assuming symmetry. Out of the remaining area, assuming 25% being the coastal region
the agricultural nets. where fishing is done. I would add 20% of the fishing in coastal region to arrive at inland
fishing.
I: Explain more on Elasticity.
I: You can ignore inland fishing.
C: If the demand for our product is inelastic, an increase in price would increase our
revenue and if the demand is elastic, a decrease would increase our overall revenue. C: Of the population, I would split it in terms of occupation. (Agriculture, Manufacturing,
(Explain a bit which was studied in Micro-Economics) and Services). Around 60% of the population is involved in agriculture and similar
activities. Out of which I am again assuming around 60% to be involved in Fishing and
I: Fair enough. Go ahead.
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related activities. Now I would divide the population in terms of number of people per I: Good Question. We produce pipes to transport oil and gas to consumers and hence the
household and arrive at the households involved in fishing. Calculating this, costs are extremely high, around ~6000 cr.
I: That is fine. We are short on time, summarize the case. C: Asked the preliminary questions. No important facts as such. (Further, the case became
more like a Q&A)
C: Summarized.
I: What are the heads under which you would categorize the costs.
I: All the best for the interviews lined-up during the day.
C: Material, labor, machine, production methods. Any particular category to focus upon.
C: Thank you.
I: Let us talk about material. Our raw material constitutes around 60% of the cost. Steel
Interview Experience which we bend and make the rolls for our pipe is 95% of our raw material.
What worked well for you? A structure was in-place and started with approach during C: I will start looking at the procurement process currently and try to find potential
the guesstimate hence avoiding any calculations. optimization methods.
What could you have done Made few assumptions and did not validate it. I: We procure for the entire year in one shipment currently.
better?
C: Do we have possibility to alter this, as we might be saving on inventory costs.
Interviewer None I: Inventory is not a problem. But we can break the total order in multiple orders.
Efficiency and utilization are an issue. But if we have the liberty to order as many times
as possible, we like, what should be the number according to you. Like, 1,2,3,4 or maybe
even more?
Case Interview 3
C: I would go with 2 as we can assess efficiency from the first order and order according
Client is Pipe manufacturer. We need to reduce the cost by 150 crores. A. Growth
and saving on transportation.
Objects: Historically, the company had 8 - 10 % growth. New target is 5%
I: Great. Should I order 80% in the first or 20% in the first?
The interviewer did not ask any HR questions as I had interacted with him, a day before
and started with the case. He gave a case on which he worked as an intern.
C: Should be 80% as would have safety margins and reduce stock out costs as it might
C: (Reiterated the problem statement.) Before asking question would want to know
disrupt the entire process.
which type of pipes and the base which we are looking at.
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I: Sure. Doing this we can reduce the steel cost by 2%. Can you come up the number?
Asim Mehta
C: Sure. 60% of 6000 would be the cost of raw material, which is 3600 and 2% of which is
72cr. (Instantly realizing that I missed the 95% part). Sorry, did not factor the 95%, Undergraduate College H. R. College
factoring in would come to be around…
Field of Graduation Commerce
I: That is completely fine. Number is secondary.
Professional Qualifications CA, CFA
KPMG (4 months)
What worked well for you? There was a paucity of time hence being cognizant of the
fact, gave crisp and brief answers. Work Experience Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (28
months)
NA
better?
Interviewer Tell me something about yourself? Why consulting?

Case Interview 1
Structure and clear communication are the key. How will you value a broking / wealth management firm?
I: How will you value a broking / wealth management firm?
C: As a financial services firm, we will have a number of services offered.
I: Let us consider a broking firm. What business verticals can you consider?
C: Major services offered would include the following –

1. Broking services
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2. Debt syndication C: We can assign a growth rate based on the growth rate of the economy and
3. Commodities performance of equities related to it.
4. Advisory - Investment banking, Portfolio services etc.
I: How will you value these?
I: Good, let us consider broking firm into equities.
C: As these are a series of cash flows, we can take a DCF approach.
C: What is the geography where the broking firm is located?
I: Bombay and has clients with NSE. I: This is on an ongoing basis. How about if I close the business?
C: Do we operate in stock exchange across India? C: We will also consider the terminal value. It can be calculated based on tangible and
intangible assets.
I: Let us consider clients across India, operating in NSE. Tangible assets could include assets of the firm (computers, office etc.) and a broking
card (important and holds great value as a license).
C: What is the client base that we cater to? Intangible assets could include assets - customer data and relations. The team will have
access to funds of customers which is valuable.
I: HNI + General public.
I: Good. Thanks.
C: When we are considering valuation of a broking firm, we can.
evaluate the revenue and cost to determine the cash inflows. Interview Experience
Revenue is based on value and % of brokerage.
Value = Price of shares * Quantity of shares * Mix of shares What worked well for you? My strong knowledge about my work-ex, especially the
projects that I had worked on in the domain of cloud
I: Which parameters affect the quantity? migration helped me. The interviewer extensively
focused on testing my knowledge about different cloud
C: No. of customers, type of customers (for instance- HNI will trade more than general
people), exchanges traded in, we can also look at the geography, penetration, platforms and their pros and cons. The case interview
competitors, and the life cycle in stock exchange (gave relevance of 2008 stock crash was related to my professional experience; hence it was
leading to reduction in number of people). helpful to know my resume inside-out.
I: How to evaluate price over a period of time. What could you have done Understanding of the broking business and the various
better? business streams.
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Questions asked to the Tried understanding the future of broking business with I: Rs.6000 Cr. What are the various costs that I can incur?
Interviewer increasing competition, automation and reducing
margins. C: Raw Material (RM), production, distribution, marketing, and support.
I: RM is my major cost, and it accounts for 60% of the overall cost.

Case Interview 2 C: RM will include purchase cost and inbound transmission.
We are a steel pipe manufacturer, and we are working on a cost transformation
I: Let us consider purchase cost.
program and wish to reduce our cost by Rs. 150 Crs.
C: Purchase cost = Price / tonne * Quantity
C: What is the time horizon within which we would like to reduce the cost?
I: What parameters would affect the price?
I: 12 months.
C: The country from where we purchase - China, South Africa, Indonesia etc. It is a
C: What is the product that we manufacture and whom do we cater to? commodity and, thus, prices would fluctuate. We can consider domestic purchase as
well. Quality, grade of the RM can also be considered. Concept of EOQ i.e., ordering cost
I: Large steel pipe and we cater to B2B and large customers. v/s storage cost tradeoff.
C: Do we deal in separate product SKUs? I: Good, let us assume we have an order of 100 tonnes, and efficiency is 95%, so we will
roughly order 105 tonnes. We have 2 options, order 105 in one go or in 2 parts, what
I: We have different diameters and variants depending on the process. But let us have would you recommend and why?
one SKU for now.
C: What would be the location? C: As melting steel is costly; it would be better to do so in one go. How much of it would
be needed in the start?
I: Hanjar port. We can import raw material from China and export it to the neighboring
countries. I: Let us say 80% is needed in the start.
C: Would it be safe to assume that our customers are international? C: Then it is advisable to order in one go as it will help to reduce storage and transport
cost and help to get a bulk discount.
I: Yes.
I: Why would I consider ordering 20% in the start?
C: Given we are looking at reducing costs, what would our total current cost be?
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C: Maybe if it is a new supplier and we are not sure of the quality or the manufacture Tips for Future Candidates
process with our infrastructure.
Stay calm, do not let day -1 experience influence your Day 0 performance.
I: What if I have options to order, 3/4/5 times.
C: We will consider the EOQ concept and evaluate it independently based on

requirement.
I: We can also consider the confidence we have on supplier to build a relationship.
C: Yes.
I: Let us do a quick calculation. If I am able to save 2% of the RM cost, what would the
amount be and how am I able to justify the same with my target?
C: Total cost is 6000 cr. RM is 60%, i.e., 3600 Crs and 2% of the same is 72 Crs. Our target
is 150 Crs and, thus, we will not be able to achieve it.
I: Thank you.
What worked well for you? My answers related to my professional experiences were
well-structured and covered all aspects in detail.

NA
better?

Interviewer None
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My friend is a Financial Advisor. He is looking to buy a smart gallery. How will you
Chinmay Jain value it?
Undergraduate College IIT 1Roorkee I: My friend is a Financial Advisor. He is looking to buy a smart gallery. How will you
value it?
Field of Graduation B. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)
C: What is a smart gallery?
I: Smart Gallery is an art gallery portraying works of upcoming as well as local artists.
Work Experience Texas Instruments – 36 months
C: What are the revenue streams for the art gallery and where is it located?
I: Located in Mumbai. It has three kinds of revenue streams: 1) Buying & Selling of
HR & Conversation Questions Paintings 2) Commission from tickets on Exhibitions organized 3) Renting the space for
private events like corporate parties.
Tell me something about yourself apart from your resume.
C: Number of paintings the art gallery currently has, the number of exhibitions and
Why consulting? Why Bain?
private events that are organized each year and the revenue from each?
Are you a team player or an individual player (asked to give an example of both)?
I: Lets focus on the paintings for now, the art gallery currently has 50 paintings.
What is your biggest fear about consulting?
C: We can value these paintings by looking at Competitors' prices of similar paintings or
Tell me about your experience in filmmaking, how did you go about making a 12M+ find out the cost of acquisition and use cost plus method or even use value-based
views video? method depending on the product attributes to value the paintings.
Roles and responsibilities at Texas Instruments. I: How will you use the value-based method?
C: We can start with a Base price of paintings and add value to the painting based on
Case Interview 1 factors such as: price of artist's similar works, price of similar style of paintings, price of
paintings at similar art galleries.
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I: Any other lever to value the painting. C: What kind of investments have the PE firm made before and how long have they
been operating?
C: I am not sure which one I am missing.
I: Mostly in Healthcare industries only, have several ventures.
I: You have covered all, apart from this there could be an X-factor to each painting.
C: Can you help me understand more about the hospital they are currently evaluating;
C: Yes surely, it could be possible if the painting has some story or historical incidence in terms of the services, it provides and customers it caters to.
related to it.
I: It is a specialty hospital with premium services and serving high-income individuals.
I: Okay, we can close the case now (followed by one more HR Questions and any
question I had for him). C: What are the sources of revenues for the hospital?
Interview Experience I: It is a 1000 bed hospital with 80% utilization factor and 2 Crores p.a. revenue from
each bed, having a 20% EBITDA. We can explore other revenue sources.
What worked well for you? Good, detailed HR interview in the beginning helped set a
positive tone of the interview. Case was simple and short. C: Based on the data given, I calculated the initial investment cost to be done using NPV
and discounting. I would next want to evaluate the decision based on some Macro and
What could you have done I could have come up with the X-factor lever for valuation Industry level factors.
better? of the painting.
I: Macro parameters are good, let us look at the Industry level factors.
Questions asked to the What are things that you like about Bain?
Interviewer C: (Asked about the competitors, supplier buying powers and customers)
I: Faces competition from some of the known brands like Apollo, Vedanta, etc. prices
are similar. How do you think we can increase the revenue of the hospital?
Case Interview 2
C: We can break it down into factors such as No. of customers, the customer mix,
Bain has been hired by a PE firm who is evaluating investing in a hospital in Gurgaon.
Average duration of stay for a customer and the price per customer. (Suggested 2-3
Help them decide how much they should value the business if they are looking at a
ideas for each of these factors)
25% IRR in a 5-year horizon.
I: What can be some of the other sources of revenue for the hospital?
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C: We can list down other services that the hostel can start, explore treatment of
diseases that are not covered till now, establish a loyalty program with customers for Deepak Jain
consultations, launch health checkup packages, extend the pathology services of the
hospital, increase revenues from the canteen, parking space. Undergraduate College Delhi Technological University
I: Okay, can you quickly summarize the case for me? Field of Graduation Mechanical & Automotive Engineering
Interview Experience Professional Qualifications None
What worked well for you? I was able to understand the interviewer's requirements Work Experience BCG – 47 months
and follow the cues given.
What could you have done I could have covered more points while exploring HR & Conversation Questions
better? additional revenue streams.
How has your day been?
Questions asked to the None Tell me something about yourself which is not on your CV?
Interviewer How are you? Where are you from?
What did you like about BCG and when was the time when you felt like leaving the
organization / work that you were doing?
Tell me some instances when you shared your ideas and if they were implemented by
the case team?
Would you like to work with Bain?
Do you have any issues in that?
Case Interview 1
You are working with online retailer focusing on the fashion industry. Their private
114
label business is 200mn USD. How will you further grow this. C: Calculated market size - 1.7 bn in 3 years. Assumed top 60% sales from major
brands, 20% from Private labels and 20% from others. Given 100 brands in private
C: Reiterated the problem and said that we can assume this to be Myntra to start with. label, calculated 3.4 MN USD opportunity from Website.
(Similarly got information for other 3 ways and calculated market for each of them.
I: Sure. Go ahead. Tried to catch on hints like own website growth would be more than that on Amazon,
and how to push own product on our website without losing customers)
C: Please share more details about the company and about their business.
I: The company is 7-8 years old, based out of India and is in apparel & accessories I: That will be it. Tell me in case you have any questions.
segment. No major customer segments. The company holds 25% market share and is
among top 4 players in ecommerce, and top 2 in fashion. Interview Experience
C: Asked if there is enough demand in the market. Given it is in the India market, said What worked well for you? I was able to cover almost all the possible options and do
there must be enough demand. calculations
I: Yes, there is. We can focus on how to cater to the demand. What could you have done I think if I were a bit faster in calculations, that would
better? have left a better impression
C: So, we can expand in 2 ways- B2B and B2C. Gave example of B2B – like giving clothes
to big bazaar. Questions asked to the None
Interviewer
I: We need to make our brand name, so focus on B2C.
C: Sure, so in that case we have multiple options – (1) selling through own website, (2)
selling through third party websites, (3) from own new stores or (4) from third party Case Interview 2
stores.
Asked Interviewer of what she wanted me to focus on and how to proceed ahead. You are working with IT service company and the profits are less than those of the
competitors. Identify the issues and also suggest possible solutions.
I: Please size the market for each of these options after 3 years.
C: Tried to ask about the company and what all it does.
C: Sure. Started taking numbers on overall market size, growth and estimated
percentage that can be made from it. I: Sure, so company is like Wipro etc. who work across multiple industries like consumer,
I: Let us assume Amazon to present 1 bn USD opportunity with growth rate 20% and Industrial goods etc. These company get projects from the industry and work on it. Do
amazon has 5000 brands. you know about Hunter, Farmers, New logo, win rate and close rate?
115
C: No, since I am new to this industry, it will be great if you can help me with these. C: Hence that means they were not strategically approaching these people and that is
leading to the issue of lower profits and revenue eventually.
I: Sure. Hunters are sales team members, farmers are accountants. New logo referred
to new companies that were clients within the past 1 year. Win rate is clients hat got I: Correct, but how will you solve this issue?
converted divided by total companies approached by hunters. While close rate was
total potential of the converted clients divided by total available pool. C: Figured out multiple ways like – salary basis client size, fixing the clients to interact,
better training for good conversion rates, allocating clients basis capabilities.
(it was quite technical, and interviewer had to spend 10-15 minutes just to explain these
terms, but it was especially important to understand before reaching any conclusions) I: Yes, one more way is to pay more for bigger clients like 6-7% for bigger clients in terms
of opportunities, and 2% of deal for smaller clients.
Next, tell me why are new logos important?
C: Yes, got it Thank you.
C: It is because these are essentially clients that can will give us lot of work in the future
and have lot of potential. Interview Experience
I: Absolutely correct. So, our win rate is same as other companies, but close rate is What worked well for you? I kept asking questions that I did not get. So, I was able to
lower. Can you figure out the reason? answer questions correctly as I had clarity of the question
(took a minute to think)
What could you have done Would have been better if I had understood the problem
C: Sure, so it is important to understand this from a hunter’s perspective. Broke the better? statement much faster.
problem into 2 parts- if the hunters were willingly doing this or not. Gave justification
of willingness as motivation could be less because of fixed pay or pay in terms of number Questions asked to the
of deals. Interviewer None
I: No, so they are paid 2% of the deal amount.
C: There could be a few cases here, if the hunters themselves selected these pools of Case Interview 3
people and did not realize the potential or they were given a set of people.
Estimate the revenue of a museum in a day in a city in Europe?
I: They themselves choose to select the people.
(did CPCC to start with and got following information)
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C: Sure. It is an art museum based in some city with population 0.5 MN. The museum is What could you have done The interviewer kept guiding me, so I could have
200 years old. better? generated more idea
We can consider it to be a weekend. The neighboring cities also have museums. The
customers include household and people travelling from outside. Questions asked to the None
Interviewer
I think the revenue segments would ideally be – ticketing revenue, gifts & souvenirs,
and F&B shops. Is there any source of revenue that I am missing?
I: Yes, so company has an exhibition space and earns from B2B segment by giving it on
rent.
Be confident and have a logical reason behind all the thoughts and communication.
C: Sure, thanks for this. I would want to look at this problem from customer’s
The interviewer is looking for a good 15-20 minutes, hence important to keep it
perspective and figure out how many people would visit in a day (i.e., weekend)
(Listed factors like -age, interests, guests etc. to understand how many people will interactive and ensure the interviewer enjoys the conversation.
actually visit)
In the online setup, comminating the structure, thoughts and staying confident will be
I: what more will you consider getting to the figure? the key
C: I would want to see the number of households, and then assume 40-50% people
having the willingness to go to museum rather than their next best options of
entertainment, shopping etc.
Also considered facts like guests being at home and taking them along for it and going
to nearby museums,
I: I do not need a number, just wanted to see your approach. That will be it.
C: Thank you.
What worked well for you? I asked the required questions and was able to get the
required details
117
C: Okay. Fair enough. And how can we help our client here?
Ridhima Anand
I: The client would like to know if we will be able to make unit economic profit in India.
Undergraduate College Delhi Technological University C: Sure. I would love to help him with the best of my abilities.
(Understood about the company, its USP and specifics about the revenue model,
Field of Graduation B. Tech (Information Technology) consumer, and competitors. Applied PESTLE to understand market attractiveness. I
was asked to focus on unit economic profit and profit is function of revenue and cost.
Professional Qualifications None Therefore, I decided to deal with revenue and cost separately)
Work Experience Deloitte – 35 months C: We can do a market estimate to determine potential unit revenue.
(The major revenue streams considered were delivery charges and commissions from
restaurants. After a detailed discussion, the interviewer asked me to consider 20% of
bill value as commission and 25 Rupees as delivery fee. We also talked a little bit about
HR & Conversation Questions the recent hike in delivery fee by Swiggy and Zomato. I finished the market estimation
and the Interviewer nodded in approval after hearing the final number. Then we
Give me a quick introduction about yourself. moved to cost analysis)
I: What type of costs would you consider while doing cost analysis?
Case Interview 1
C: For unit cost, I would like to focus on labor cost and fuel cost.
Client is an Indonesian food delivery startup, like Swiggy and Zomato. It is a market
leader in South Asia. Now it wants to enter India. Chart out a Market Entry strategy. I: You can ignore fuel cost for now. How would you go about the labor cost?
C: *Clarified the question* Before starting with the analysis, I have some clarifying C: We have calculated total demand in the guesstimate. From there, we can compute
questions that I would like to ask. the total number of delivery persons by dividing demand by total number of orders
per driver per day. Total number of orders per driver in a day can be found by
I: Sure, go ahead. incorporating peak and non-peak hours.
C: I see that the client wants to enter India, is there specific purpose for this move? I: You can continue with this approach.
(I calculated the total number of delivery persons which came out to be a reasonable
I: Yes, the purpose is growth. number.)
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C: Do we have any information about the salary given to delivery persons? Questions asked to the
(The Interviewer gave me an average salary paid to a delivery person. After doing None
Interviewer
necessary calculations, I found that the company will incur losses if it enters Indian
market.)
Case Interview 2
I: That will be all. Thank you.
Let us begin our case. Client has a diagnostic lab, one of the largest in the world. He
wishes to get a good assessment of market in India.
What worked well for you? There were a couple of things that worked well for me. I
C: *Reiterated the question to make sure if I understood it correctly. * The client wants
had read a few case studies while preparing for the to enter the Indian market, I presume.
interviews. It gives you an idea about the type of cases
asked before and helps develop your thinking ability. I: That is correct.
Also, communication is the key! As this time, the whole
process was virtual, keeping interviewer in the loop C: Before we start, I would like to ask some clarifying questions.
became much more important. I even read aloud the
I: Sure, go ahead.
calculations I did just to make sure that the interviewer
knew what I was writing! In addition to this, looking C: What kind of operations does the lab undertake? Does it specialize in certain areas
vibrant and keeping a smile on your face throughout or is it a general-purpose health lab?
the interview goes a long way.
I: It is a general-purpose health laboratory. It conducts 2 types of tests – Prevention
What could you have done In the first interview, I became a bit nervous. There was tests and tests prescribed by doctors.
better? a point when I was all over the place. However, the
interviewer helped me out and guided me to the right C: Okay. And what is the nature of technology used in these labs?
direction. But I feel it can happen with anyone. The
I: It is a high-end laboratory; they use the latest technology.
important point is to calm yourself down, take a deep
breath and start over! The interviewer is not looking for C: (Understood more about the company, about their competitors and consumers.)
the right answer from you, they are looking at your
approach. C: May I take a minute to analyze the information?
119
I: Okay. be available in rural areas in future, say, in the next 10-15 years? However, if we are
assessing the current Indian market, we can ignore rural areas.
C: (After reviewing the information) To assess the market, we can look into the
potential revenue generated from these tests. I would like to analyze Prevention tests I: Good analysis. Let us focus on urban areas.
and Prescribed tests separately.
C: Great! When we are talking about prescribed tests, we mean the tests prescribed
I: We can focus on the prescribed tests for the time being. to patients by doctors in case the former needs the test to be performed, is that
correct? I mean, here we are considering all doctors, working at hospitals or clinics.
C: Sure. Since we are talking about one of the largest companies, do we have any data
available on the proportion of revenue generated by prescribed tests. I: Yes. You have got it right!
I: Yes, the past data shows that prescribed tests form 80% of the revenues for the C: Okay. We can do a guesstimate to find the number of doctors in urban areas.
company.
I: No need to delve into that. You can assume that the number of doctors is 0.7 per
C: That is great. That means analyzing the potential revenue from prescribed tests may people pan India.
give us a good idea about the Indian market!
C: Thank you! That will make the calculation much easier. We know that the current
I: That is correct! population of India is around 1.3 billion people. Using the data, you just provided, it
seems like there are around 9.1 lakh doctors all over India. As number of doctors in
C: For prescribed tests, we can analyze the market India possesses by dividing it into urban areas are much more than in rural areas, we can safely say that around 60% of
urban and rural areas. Rural areas have a huge scope, mainly because of two reasons. the doctors are working in cities.
First, high percentage of population residing in rural areas. Second, rural healthcare I: That is a reasonable assumption. And how many of them would be eligible to
has seen huge investments coming in in the past few years. However, there are some prescribe laboratory tests?
issues about operating a high-end laboratory chain in rural areas.
C: I believe a huge percentage of urban doctors in India would be eligible to prescribe
I: And what are these issues? laboratory tests. Let us say, around 60% doctors fulfil this criterion. The final number
comes out to be around 3.3 lakh doctors.
C: To start with, currently, there are very a smaller number of functional hospitals in
rural areas. That means the number of doctors prescribing the tests would be much I: Good work. The number seems to be fair. How would you calculate revenue from
less than in urban areas. In addition to this, the sourcing of laboratory equipment and this number?
medical supplies would need a well-developed road connectivity. These facilities may (This was followed by a discussion on average number of patients attended by a doctor
in a day, the number of tests prescribed per day and an average cost of these tests in
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India. Both Interviewer and I were picking instances from day-to-day life to back our What could you have done
values. We came to an agreement that on an average a doctor prescribes 8 tests in a NA
better?
day with an average cost of 100 Rupees per test.)
C: From this data, the revenue derived from prescribed tests per day is around 24 Interviewer None
crores. Say, the laboratory is open 300 days a year, the net revenue per year comes
out to be 7200 crores. I presume that the client would require the potential revenue
in USD.
Case Interview 3
I: That is correct. You can do the necessary conversion.
Let us take a small case. Client is the CEO of PVR Cinemas. Help him in understanding
C: Taking the current conversion rate as 1 USD = 72 Rupees, the potential revenue the unit revenue of PVR Setup.
derived from prescribed tests is around 1 Billion dollars. Do we have any data on the
present revenue generated by the laboratory chain? C: *Clarified the question*. The revenue stream would include revenue from tickets,
food and beverages, and advertisements shown before the movie or during the
I: Sure, it generates around 7 Billion dollars a year. What do you think, should the client interval.
enter the Indian market?
I: That seems right.
C: India has always been a huge market for healthcare sector. A market with a
potential revenue capacity of 1 Billion is an attractive option. It would also result in C: The size of a PVR Setup may vary with the size of the city/town it is being introduced
14% increase in the global revenue. Moreover, this market is growing at a fast pace of in. Are we talking about a PVR Setup in a metropolitan area?
20% in India. I believe the client should consider this option. (Always back your opinion
with number and current scenarios) I: That is correct.
I: Very well. A comprehensive analysis overall. We can close the case now. Thank you. C: Okay. A general PVR Setup in a metropolitan area has 4 screens. Each screen has a
C: Thank you! capacity of 150 people. The price varies from place to place but we can take an average
of around 100 Rupees. Do these assumptions seem valid?
I: The numbers seem fair. You can move forward with these values.
What worked well for you? My answers related to my professional experiences
were well-structured and covered all aspects in detail. C: Thank you. The next step would be to calculate revenue generated from screenings.
I: And how would you go about that?

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C: We can use the simple relation that revenue generated per show will be equal to
(average number of screens) *(Percentage occupancy) *(average price of each ticket). Rishabh Bajaj
(It was followed by a detailed discussion on how we would calculate percentage
occupancy as it will depend on various factors like - day of the week, any new release, Undergraduate College Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi
holidays, festivals etc.)
Field of Graduation B.Com. (Hons.)
I: You can take an average percentage occupancy of 60%.
C: That is great! So, the number comes out to be around 150*0.6*100*4 = 36000
Rupees per show. We can multiply it by number of shows in a day. Work Experience T9L- A Startup Studio (26 months), EY (8 months)
(We discussed the various factors to incorporate while calculating the number of
shows. I was coming up with values based on my experience. For example, the length
of English movies is around 1.5-2 hours whereas Hindi movies are generally of 2.5-3
hours. Further, around 20-30 minutes are allotted between the shows to clean the HR & Conversation Questions
theatre and allow people to settle in for the next show.)
C: We can take the average length of movie as 2.5 hours. As per my experience, PVR
Where are you from?
Cinemas are generally operational for 14 hours in a day. Also, around 20 minutes break
is given between shows for cleaning. After taking all this into account, we can say that How have you been coping with COVID's impact in Delhi?
around 5 shows are run on each screen in a PVR Setup. That means, in total, around
20 movies are shown in a day in a PVR Setup. What's a Startup Studio's business model like?
I: That seems fairly accurate. No need to calculate the final revenue. We can close the
case here. Thank you!
Case Interview 1
The client is a billion-dollar IT services player (application and infrastructure
The interviewer is not looking for a right answer from you, they are looking at your management). They have been lagging behind in profitability and need help with
approach. this problem.
C: What is the quantum of the lag in profitability? Is there any data available for how
short is the company falling of its targets? Also, since when has the company been
facing this issue?
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I: Yes, the company has been clocking 12-13% EBITDA compared to a 15-16% I: Yes, that is correct. There are 3 tiers of companies serving as good competition.
expectation. The issue has come to light in the last 3-4 years. Tier-I would be the likes of TCS & Infosys, we would be a part of Tier-II followed by
smaller local players.
C: Thank you. As I am not too aware of the concerned industry here, could you help C: Thank you. I have sufficient information to dive into the issue. Can I take another
me understand what do we exactly mean by ‘application and infrastructure 20 seconds to structure my thoughts?
management’ services?
I: Sure, go ahead.
I: Application services are simply app development and maintenance while
infrastructure management services range from cloud-based data management to C: As the company is experiencing a profitability issue, I can define profits as
ERP solutions to core system maintenance and a few other add-ons. Revenues - Cost considering a single stream of revenue which is service fees.
C: I would like to know a bit about the client to establish some context here. Can you I: Yes, ignore revenues for now, let us look at costs for the client.
help me the following details? Location, Areas of operations (client bases), C: Sure! As it is an IT services company servicing mostly US-based clients, people’s
age/maturity of company, size of the company (in terms of workforce- as it is an IT costs would be a major component of total costs for the client apart from other
services company) operational and non-operational costs like.
I: Sure! The company is based in India and has offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, I: Yes, ignore other costs for now. Let us focus on personnel costs which forms 80%
and Trivandrum. It is a mid-90s company and has approx. 2500 employees. 80% of of total costs.
the client base is in US.
C: To ascertain personnel costs, I would like to use the following equation=
C: Sounds good. To understand the offering better, is it safe to assume that the No. of offices x No. of projects x Avg. no. of people per project x Avg. CTC
company offers customized solutions to every client given different scales of client Moreover, Avg. no. of people and CTC will be different for different tiers of
firms? employees.
I: Yes absolutely. The requirements of every client would differ based on its scale I: Yes, that seems fine but on what other ‘lever’ would the costs depend?
and specific solution needs.
C: Further, the projects would have different tiers of personnel and their CTCs will
C: Also, I would assume that there would be a fair amount of competition in India in be different based on level of skill/seniority.
this industry. Can I get some information on the competitive landscape here?
I: Yes correct. Can you think of any other ‘lever’ that could vary costs in this context?
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C: I have a few questions which I need more clarity on. Is the employee structure employees with that of the competitors. Secondly, we can compare the utilization
top-heavy or bottom-heavy? Moreover, could efficiency of certain tiers of of employees per annum and compare it with that of competitors.
employees also be a cost driver here? (Struggling to come up with other ‘levers’ of
costs.) I: Yes, that sounds good. Finally, what we wanted to arrive at. Seems like our time is
over but do you have any questions for me?
I: In such a firm, the structure is almost always bottom-heavy. Also, what do you
mean by efficiency, can you explain your thought process behind this. You can also Interview Experience
consider the office space available as a factor of personnel costs in this context.
What worked well for you? Following cues given by the interviewer worked well
C: Sure. By efficiency I meant the amount of time that an average team would take in this case, especially because the proposed time for
to complete a project and benchmarking that with that of other competitors, we the round was less. I stated hypothesis without
could get an idea about the relative efficiency of the workforce.
immediately explaining a lot about it. I was prompted
Also, I think I missed the space aspect earlier. Different office locations would have
different office space available and hence, the costs could vary across these to explain later and got a chance to elaborate.
locations. Would you want me to explore this further?
What could you have done Scoping of the problem and initial questions could
I: Yes, that sounds good. How would you benchmark the efficiency of employees better? have been reduced and I would have saved 3/4
when projects are customized and not uniform across various clients in different minutes entering early into the problem-solving part.
industries? When I used a mathematical equation to be MECE, I
realized later that the interviewer was merely looking
C: Yes, I agree that benchmarking would not be fully accurate, but it is just to get an for a somewhat exhaustive list of major cost drivers.
idea of relative costs. If we take a hypothetical project and allocate a group of
Also, I should have asked for feedback in this round as
employees and compare across competitors for the same, we might be able to assess
if we are less or more efficient than them and get an idea of relatively higher/lower I was sure about going into another round right after.
costs.
What has kept you going at the firm so long?
I: Alright, that makes sense but like you said, it is not possible to have this data and Interviewer
hence is a hypothetical scenario. Also, we have ¾ mins. left with us. Can you quickly
think of some additional points that could drive personnel costs?
Case Interview 2
C: (Asked for 30 seconds to brainstorm.) I have a few more points which could be
cost drivers. Firstly, we could look at benchmarking the salaries of different tiers of The client is a specialized chemicals manufacturer and is facing issues with its
124
profitability. They need us to help them figure the problem and recommend I: Yes, that is a good point. Leather products are driving down the profitability
solutions. primarily. Can you explain about the cost structure/heads of this company?
I: (seemed to be in a rush right from the beginning and suggested to focus only on C: Sure. On the nature of costs, I could divide them into Operational & Non-
structure and idea generation) operational costs. On the basis of behavior, I could use a Fixed, Variable & Semi:
variable classification.
C: Sure! Since how long has the client been facing these issues? Also, I would like to
know a bit about the client and the industry it operates in and the timeline in which I: Good. Name a few operational & non-operational costs here and let us proceed
the client is looking to resolve the issue. with it then.
I: Let me help you with some initial information. The client manufactures chemicals C: Under operational costs, I would list down raw material costs, labor costs, in-
used further to produce plastics, paints, textiles, and leather goods. It has 400 bound logistics cost, production process costs, warehousing & storage costs and
different SKUs and clocked revenues of INR 160 Cr. last year. They require quick distribution costs including outbound logistics, R&D costs, Administrative costs, and
solutions which can be implemented within a 2-3-week period. technology costs. Under non-operational I would consider depreciation and finance
costs.
C: Thank you for that information. (Made some assumptions and confirmed with the
interviewer: B2B clients pan-India and business model/value chain were from I: Alright, let us move to the revenue aspect now. How would you proceed?
Sourcing-Manufacturing-Sales & Distribution). Asked a few more questions about
the competitive landscape. C: Before I dive into it, could you help me with an SKU distribution across all 400.
I: Yes, you can go ahead with that understanding. Ignore the competitive This is to determine how heavy is the leather products’ SKU share among the overall
landscape. Although could you tell me the kind of clients this company could have? SKUs offered.
C: Yes, I would assume consumer durables, apparel, lifestyle brands to be key clients. I: Sure. Consider it as 50, 70, 120 & 160 SKUs for plastics, paints, textiles, and leather
Is that a good assumption? goods, respectively.
I: Yes, that sounds good. Go ahead! C: Thank you. As we can observe that leather goods form the highest share of the
overall SKU mix, the top line can be majorly affected by leather goods. Following this,
C: I will break down profits into Revenue-Cost. Assuming multiple revenue streams I would break the revenue as no. of leather goods’ units produced * avg. price of
and cost centers for 4 different types of products, would you like me to focus on any leather SKUs. Do we have any information on the quantity produced or the pricing
of these specifically or can I explore each one by one? policy/trends that the client has observed for their goods in the past?
125
I: Good observation. So, the client follows a cost + mark-up pricing model. The and idea generation was good in the limited time we
quantity of production has not changed. Anyway, can you quickly suggest some ideas had which boosted my spirits.
for a company like this to improve profitability?
What could you have done I could have managed time better. I could not share
C: As we have a short timeline to improve profitability, I would look at the SKU mix better? more good ideas in the solution/recommendation
offered. We would have to increase sales effort on certain SKUs and reduce or phase part of the interview.
out a few. Producing and selling larger SKUs could reduce carrying costs and
packaging costs. Since our clients are all B2B, if the smaller SKUs are not truly Questions asked to the I would like to know what keeps you going in the
relevant, we could look at reducing sales of these and reallocate resources towards
Interviewer Consulting industry after 10 years of experience. Also,
larger SKUs. Would that be a fair suggestion?
would be great to receive some feedback on our
I: Yes, although the cost of producing the primary material is the same across all discussion.
SKUs, the other product costs could be tweaked. I like the idea of pushing large SKU
sales although phasing those out would not be recommended as there are certain
buyers for its who would not purchase beyond a certain limit due to many reasons.
If phased out, the revenue and profits from that segment could get totally wiped
out.
I: That is, it for our case discussion. Do you have any questions for me?
What worked well for you? I avoided unnecessary scoping in the beginning as I
was given a hint to focus on idea generation. That
and the interviewer’s sense of rush prompted me to
dive straight into the case with a basic understanding
of the background. Asking for feedback helped as it
helped him recollect what went good for me in the
interview. He ended up mentioning that the structure
126
I: Your client is a Brick Manufacturer. A new player has entered the market and
Shivani Karnik slashed the price by 10%. The client is asking us what they should do.
Undergraduate College N M College, Mumbai C: (Clarified the problem statement and the objective) To understand our client
better, can you tell me how old is the company?
Field of Graduation B. Com. I: The client is an old company in this line.
Professional Qualifications CA, CFA Level 1 C: Does the client also have other lines of business?
Deloitte Haskins and Sells LLP – 28 months I: No. The client only manufactures bricks and sells it directly to customers.
Work Experience
Karnik & Associates – 5 months C: As we are selling directly to customers, can I assume that most of our customer
base is builders?
HR & Conversation Questions I: Yes. Most of our customers are small builders.
C: Okay. Where is the Client located? Also, what is our scale of operation?
I: The Client is located in East India. It has a single plant in a catchment. It is one of
What motivates you in life? the biggest players in East India.
What is one quality that you feel has helped you in the past with your 4. work? C: Who are our competitors? Also, is it a fragmented industry?
Asked about work experience in BFSI. I: Yes. It is a fragmented market with 30 odd players in the market. There are 2-3
big players in the market and our client is one of them.
C: Okay. What is the price that we are currently charging for the brick? Is that the
Case Interview 1 price that our competitors are charging as well?
Your client is a Brick Manufacturer. A new player has entered the market and I: We are currently charging Rs. 10 per brick. Yes, the price throughout the market
slashed the price by 10%. The client is asking us what they should do. currently is more or less similar. However, the new player has entered and cut price
by 10%.
127
C: As we have to decide if we should cut the price by 10% or not, we can consider C: In this scenario, the price of the brick is Rs. 10. We need to earn a profit of Rs.
the following before taking a decision. Our Market Share in the current market, the 4L. The fixed costs will not change due to change in quantity of sales and
current pricing of the product, the process of manufacturing, our customer base production. Thus, the contribution will be 6L. Per brick contribution is Rs. 7, thus, I
and their perception of a price cut, the quality of our product vis a vis our will have to produce and sell around 85,000 bricks.
competitors.
I: Yes, that makes sense. What does the contribution signify?
I: This sounds good. Let us look at the market share but I want you do a few
calculations for me first. C: The contribution is that portion of revenue which is not used up by variable costs
and used to cover the fixed costs. Contribution is also considered while calculating
C: Sure the break-even quantity essential to keep the business running in the short term.
I: Let us say we are selling 100 thousand bricks. Should we reduce our price? Is it
feasible? I: Good. All the factors you listed while considering a price cut make sense.
However, as we are short of time, can you tell me why would you consider
C: I would like to decide the feasibility of price reduction on the basis of our customers while deciding a price cut?
profitability. To understand more about it, do we have any information about the C: As we are an established player manufacturing since many years and amongst
costs incurred for production as well as the fixed costs? the Top 3 players, can I assume we would be having a specific loyal customer base
since many years?
I: Yes. The variable costs are around Rs. 3 per brick and the fixed cost is Rs. 20000
currently. I: Yes, we do have some loyal customers who value our quality.
C: Customers might perceive price cut as reduction in our quality of bricks. It can
C: (Asked for some time for calculating profit) Currently, we are selling a 100 create a lower perceived value for the product and buyers might consider our
thousand bricks at Rs. 10 per brick. Thus, our sales are Rs. 10 Lakhs. The variable product less valuable.
cost of producing 100 thousand bricks is Rs. 3L. Contribution is 10L minus 3L i.e.,
7L. The fixed costs are 2L thus our profit is Rs. 5 Lakh. We have a profit margin of I: That sounds fair. So, what do you think should we do?
50% currently. If we reduce the price 10% per brick for the same sale quantity, the
sales would be 9L and the profit would be 4L. Although our profit margin would C: As currently the pricing in the market is more or less similar, 10% reduction by
reduce from 50% currently to around 45%, it still seems a feasible option. one player will affect the pricing of other competitors as well. Based on the
calculations, a 10% price reduction will affect our profitability by 5%. We are a big
I: Sounds Fair. How many bricks will I have to produce and sell if I still want to earn player in the market, and we have the capacity to reduce our prices and focus on
a profit of Rs. 4L without reducing the price by 10%. increasing our volume to compensate for the reduction in profit. Also, since most
of our customers are small builders, a 10% saving in brick cost might also be an
attractive opportunity for them to shift to another manufacturer since the product
128
offered by all players is similar. Thus, we can also go ahead with reducing our price I: Sure. Go Ahead.
by 10%.
C: What is the current growth rate of our client? Has there been a fall in our growth
I: Correct. Seems good. That will be all. rate?
Interview Experience I: The client is currently growing at 5%. It is a well-established player and was
growing at 10% earlier but the growth has gradually reduced to 5% over the last
What worked well for you? Most of the interview was about working around a few years.
set of data. The calculations were quick and easy,
and I could explain certain costing concepts well. C: What is time period within which we need to achieve this target of 15% growth?
What could you have done There was not enough time towards the end of the I: We need to achieve this target in the next 3 years. Let us only consider the fishing
industry for this problem.
better? interview and the interviewer was rushing with the
questions. I could have explained a few factors to be
C: Okay. I would like to understand at what rate is the fishing industry growing.
considered better. Also, it was not an industry I
knew much about. I: The industry is also growing at 4-5% and our growth currently is in line with the
growth of the industry.
None
Interviewer C: Okay. Where is the client located? Also, what is the distribution channel that the
client uses?
Case Interview 2 I: The client is located in India. It operates through dealerships and has a
distribution network all over India.
Your Client is the manufacturer of fishing nets. These nets are used in agriculture,
fishing, and construction. The growth has slowed down. It wants to grow at 15%. C: I would like to understand a little more about our competitors and their share in
the market.
I: Your Client is the manufacturer of fishing nets. These nets are used in agriculture,
fishing, and construction. The growth has slowed down. It wants to grow at 15%. I: We are one of the major players in the market. Our market share is about 70%.
We have not been able to grow much as the market has now stagnated.
C: (Clarified the problem statement). To understand the problem better, I would
like to ask a few questions first.
129
C: Okay. In order to grow at 15%, I would like to explore the existing market and required. However, the fishermen would not buy a new net every year so we also
also explore new geography or businesses. need to factor in the number of years after which they would buy a new net.
I: Let us consider the existing market for now. I: This is a good approach. Can you also tell me what other strategies can we look
at to grow in the existing market?
C: While exploring the existing market, I would look at increasing the volume of
sales or increasing the price of our nets. C: Firstly, we can increase the overall distribution network that we have. Currently,
we are only selling through dealership. We can increase our distribution channels
I: I would like you to look at increasing the volume of sales first. and also venture into setting up our own retail stores. Or we can also increase the
number of dealerships we have within the same channel. Second, we can analyze
C: The volume of sales can be increased by increasing our customer base or the current market and try to onboard more customers. Third, we can diversify our
increasing the quantity sold to a particular customer. product. We can introduce different sizes for the fishing net. We can also introduce
a variety in the shapes of the mesh. Fourth, we can market our product better. As
I: Can you help me estimate the size of the market for fishing net? most of the customers we are targeting are from rural areas, we can market our
product through radio or local bazaars and trade fairs. Fifth, we can also consider
C: Sure. Fishing net can be used for sea water as well as freshwater fishing. I would acquiring other players in the market. However, that depends on two factors –
divide the population of the country on the basis of access to coast or river and their willingness to sell and our capacity to buy. Sixth, we can look at the pricing of
those with no water body around for fishing. the product.
I: Let us consider only seawater fishing here. Since we are short of time, tell me the I: This sounds good. I think you have covered all. We can stop here. Do you have
approach first and then you can calculate. any questions for me?
C: Sure. I would divide population of India who live along the coast and those who Interview Experience
live in landlocked areas. Out of the people living along the coast, I would divide
them into those living in rural areas and those in urban. The population practicing What worked well for you? The first interview had gone well so I was a little
fishing as a profession in urban areas would not be much thus, I would first look at more confident while solving this case.
the professions practiced in rural areas along the coast. On the basis of their
professions, I would divide the population majorly between agriculture/farming, What could you have done I could have solved the guesstimate better. I got a
poultry/animal husbandry, fishing and other. Out of the population that practices better? little lost at first on how I should go about it but
fishing, I would consider the number of households here and divide the population
then I took some time to gather my thoughts and
assuming 5 people per household. This would give me a number of fisherman and
then went ahead with it.
assuming every fisherman buys his own net, that would be the number of nets
130
Interviewer None Shreya Gupta
Undergraduate College Shri Ram College of Commerce
Field of Graduation B. Com (Hons)
Work Experience Deutsche Bank – 12 months
Why consulting, why Bain & Co.?
Why consulting over finance?
Case Interview 1
Your client is a cable manufacturer operating pan India. It is one of the 3 largest
players in the country. For the last few years, his/her costs have been higher than
industry standards. Can you help him/her figure out why is it so?
I: Your client is a cable manufacturer operating pan India. It is one of the 3 largest
players in the country. For the last few years, his/her costs have been higher than
industry standards. Can you help him/her figure out why is it so?
C: Reiterated the problem statement and asked some scoping questions. How high
have the costs been against the competitors? What is the value chain of the client?
Understanding more about the product of the client.
131
What are the costs to be looked at in a particular segment (process leg, geography C: That's interesting, is there anything else you want me to look at in this process?
etc. or at an aggregate level)? Who are the consumers? Have the competitors
operated in a similar manner? I: No, this should be fine. (Had some discussion about how this industry works and
the manner in which this case was actually solved)
I: Let us look at what the various heads of costs can be.
C: Sure. So as per my understanding, the costs incurred can be broken down into
the following heads- Raw material acquisition, Inbound logistics, Production and What worked well for you? NA
processing, Outbound logistics, Distribution, Marketing & after sales services,
others such as depreciation, financing cost etc. Is there any particular cost head I What could you have done
NA
should look at? better?
I: Do you mind taking a guess? Questions asked to the

Asked for feedback.
Interviewer
C: Since it is a high-volume industry, I believe the cost of raw material and logistics
(inbound) must be high.
Case Interview 2
I: That's right, the cost of raw materials and logistics is a major chunk of the client's
total cost. Can you maybe figure out why do we have a higher cost?
Client is a steel rod manufacturer who wants to reduce costs by a target amount.
C: Sure, there can be few reasons for the same, quantity, quality, and suppliers. I: Client is a steel rod manufacturer who wants to reduce costs by a target amount.
You need to help the client.
I: The quantity we buy has been in line with our processes. We have also had the
same suppliers for the last 10 years or so. Is there anything else you can think of? C: I would like to start by listing down the major cost heads for the manufacturer.
Starting with the procurement of raw material, logistics, manufacturing, storage,
C: If the quantity we are buying is not an issue, that rules out possibilities of and distribution are the major cost heads. Is there anything I am missing here?
efficiency related costs. We are essentially incurring higher cost per unit which
might be because of difference in the quality, form etc. I: Safety costs are also a major part of the overall cost. We also import 100% of our
raw materials which again is a major cost head.
I: Yes, that is right. While we are buying aluminum in form of sheets. our
competitors are buying it in the form of blocks. C: Understood. We can domestically source the raw material required to reduce
the cost. Moving on I would like to understand more about the manufacturing
132
process. Is the manufacturing output uniform across or is it cyclic as per the
demand? Tanvee Mall
I: Our client has a uniform output across the year, but the demand is not uniform. Undergraduate College St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
This leads to higher holding costs during low demand period. The factory generally
operates at 60% of max output. Field of Graduation Economics
C: As I understand, the fixed cost and the holding cost are high and there is a scope Professional Qualifications FRM Level 1
to optimize it. Instead of uniform production we could look at cyclic production
and lease out our factory area to other players. This would also help us get the Fidelity International (10 months)
transportation costs down and we could operate closer to max capacity, optimizing Work Experience
the operating costs as well. Citi Group (21 months)
I: Correct, we could plan to move the production process to cyclic process rather
than uniform and also revisit the procurement costs. Thank you, that would be it. HR & Conversation Questions
What worked well for you? My answers related to my professional experiences
were well-structured and covered all aspects in Tell me something that is not on your CV.
detail.
How has the virtual MBA experience been thus far?
What could you have done NA
better?
Case Interview 1
Interviewer None Client is a ropes and nets manufacturer. Their growth has slowed down while
their margins are improving. They want to achieve full potential. Help them.
C: What is the current growth level?
I: Single digit
133
C: What is the KRA for achieving full potential? C: I would like to analyze the product mix, pricing, and distribution aspects across
the existing and new potential markets.
I: Sales acceleration- double business in 5 years.
I: That is good. Asked follow up questions on what in each bucket would you
C: Who are primary clients and what is our product mix? analyze. Asked to guesstimate the size of the fisherman market.
I: Primary industries are fishing, construction and agriculture. Let us restrict our C: Discussed broad approach. Extrapolated Bengal population to average out the
analysis to nets. population of coastal states. Divided population by income levels and assumed
C: Is it correct to assume our products include safety nets, fishing nets and shade proportion of population in the segment involved in fishing industry. Estimated
nets predominantly across the three industries? overall market demand considering initial and replacement demand based on
average years mentioned. Considered market growth @ 5% lower than GDP owing
I: Yes to nature of product. Selling Price of net given by interviewer.
C: Is it safe to assume that we operate across the value chain and the distribution I: Summarize the case and give key next steps to achieve full potential.
network is dealership module with region wise traders in place?
C: Checked for any time or spending limit. Suggested recommendations across
I: Yes, distribution module is the most critical and works in the dealership product, contract-strategy, and distribution network. Product diversification into
mechanism. relatively lower grade and life of net. Increase variants other than rayon and nylon
and other use cases for the product. Recommended long-term contracts with
C: How much market share is captured by us and how is the competitive fisherman and rental option. Streamline Distribution network across operations.
landscape? With dealership restricted to one player across prominent regions. Reduce
overheads and increases sales.
I: We are a dominant player.
C: Shall I analyze all the 3 industries and layout their sales acceleration strategy or
focus on any particular industry? What worked well for you? Ability to comment on industry value chain and
specifics based on first principles. Continuously take
I: Let us start with fishing industry. buy in and discuss assumptions with reasoning along
the case discussion.
C: How many types of fishing net do we have? What is the quality, material, and
life of these nets?
What could you have done The guesstimate could have been approached in a
better? more structured manner.
I: Nylon and rayon nets. Average life 7 years
134
Questions asked to the Could you give an example where client onboarding C: Is it safe to assume we are primarily catering to the upper middle class and the
Interviewer happened by chance but became a critical long- rich?
standing relationship later?
I: Yes
C: Since a path to EBITDA positive is key consideration. I would like to divide my

Case Interview 2 analysis into understanding revenue growth opportunities and secondly look at
areas of cost minimization. Is that ok and would you like me to focus on any of the
Your client is an OTA aggregator. It is growing really well at 20-30% over the last
above analysis?
5-6 years. It wants to be IPO ready in 5 years but has negative EBITDA. Chart out
the strategy I: Yes, let us focus on revenue.
C: Since when is the client operating? C: As our revenue model is commission based, I would like to confirm if it is safe to
assume that the commission is based on both value and volume of transactions?
I: 10 years
I: No, it is based only on value.
C: What is its current market share and how many competitors exist?
C: Since this is a B2B2C operations, I would like to analyze revenue growth
I: 30% share and it is the 3rd largest player among the few competitors. opportunities through 2 key stakeholders the customers and the retailers.
C: What are key services. Are we like MMT with flights and hotels as are key
product offerings? Do we offer any other product? I: Let us start with retailers.
I: Yes, while flights and hotels capture 80% and 15% of revenue mix. We also offer C: Shall I focus on flight and hotel segment as they comprise 95% of our revenue
train/bus booking and experiences with experiences captures less than 1%.
I: Yes, can you give me suggestions on revenue improvement for these two
C: Are we facing negative EBITDA across all segments? segments.
I: Yes C: Laid out my analysis across 3 segments: existing revenue model and scope, and
contract strategy, promotions. Suggested enhancing existing revenue model by
C: Primary revenue sources would be commissions. Is my understanding correct? transition to commission model based on value and volume to benefit from both
open and click rates. Suggested push marketing for low ticket purchases increase
I: Yes experience segment contribution. Revamp contract strategy to ensure increase
135
product placement and bundled offers for improving commission paid by retailers.
Focus on revenue from advertisements on desktop, mobile website, and mobile
application. Enter new segment and deprioritize segments with low revenue
potential. Discussed on bus and train segment. Increase experience offerings to
include products offered by likes of Thrillophilia.
I: We are planning on entering car rental. Should we do that?
C: Broke down the cab rental space talked about existing players like Zoomcar
predominantly which has captured the market. Discussed about time and resource
constraint given negative EBITDA of existing operations.
I: Agreed and asked if we should acquire something like Zoomcar?
C: Suggested no and substantiated based on disadvantages despite the benefits of

the strategy keeping in mind the objective of IPO in 5 years.
I: Agreed with recommendation. Please summarize the case.
What worked well for you? Able to substantiate answers with industry
examples.
What could you have done Could have improved my case solving structure.
better?
Questions asked to the How different is it working with early-stage startups

Interviewer on strategy projects in comparison to larger
established corporates?
136
C: Asked about the company, the type of loan in case, target customer segments
Arpit Burad and strategies used by the competition.
I: Bangalore based NBFC. 4th largest player in the market. We are looking into
Undergraduate College IIT Bombay home loan segment for the case.
C: Told and confirmed on my understanding of TAT in loan disbursal i.e., starting
Field of Graduation Chemical Engineering from enquiry of loan, to loan disbursal by bank. Laid out the value chain of the
process.
Need of getting home loan > consideration set of all banks (based on brokers,
Work Experience Tata Steel – 36 months online search, and marketing by bank) > Going to the bank’s site to put request >
Submit documents > Property Verification > Approval and Loan Disbursal.
Asked questions and suggested recommendations which could lead to increase in

HR & Conversation Questions TAT because of each block in the value chain. E.g., Online submission of documents,
document handling (physical/digital), e-verification, verification of property via
Tell anything from your life so far which you are extremely proud of?
government registry, automated approval based on past sanctioned loans based
on Machine Learning Algorithms etc.
I see you have worked quite a lot on coal industry, can you categorize what are the
challenges faced by the industry in India?
What worked well for you? Structured the case well. Interviewer seemed
Case Interview 1 satisfied given the knowledge about NBFCs and
loans. Was nervous at the start but HR answers
Our client is an NBFC and they want to reduce their loan turnaround time to 1/10
of existing so that they can match the best in industry. Identify the levers through helped build the rapport in the initial few minutes.
which it can be done.
What could you have done Since it was a qualitative idea generation case, I
C: Explained him about my understanding of NBFC. So, our client is an NBFC and better? could have spent less time on asking scoping
they want to reduce their loan TAT to 1/10. Is there any other objective? Also, in questions.
order to achieve the same do we have some constraints on time and investment?
I: No constraints on investment. We want to see the result within 1 year.
137
Questions asked to the I assume that this is one of the cases handled by C: Impact created on other clients, service time compared to other players, skilled
Interviewer BCG, what were the firm’s recommendations to workforce and support provided post implementation.
resolve it and what were the end results?
What worked well for you? Since the first round went well, was confident
Case Interview 2
during this round.
Our client is an IT firm based out of Bangalore. They are looking for international
expansion. Suggest ways and tell whether the firm should go for it or not.
better?
C: Reiterated the case. Applied CPCC framework to know about the firm, its existing
customers, kind of services provided, presence of Indian IT players overseas. Asked Questions asked to the None
about monetary and timeframe constraints. Interviewer
Laid out the framework of case. International presence could be done in 3 ways:
Inorganic (acquiring overseas players), Organic 1 (Opening a branch over there to
attract foreign customers), Organic 2 (Marketing and get overseas customer and Tips for Future Candidates
function from India).
Focus more on solving problems of different industries rather than solving multiple
I: Asked about what key cost drivers for an IT firm are.
problems of the same industry.
C: Human Resource, Infrastructure, Sales and Marketing etc. Always try to lay the overarching framework at the start during interview.
I: What are the key risks associated with setting up industry by the organic 1 way
which you mentioned?
C: Customized Porter’s 5 forces and PESTER to identify risks. Classified them to

Industry and Macro Risks. Included government norms, growth in IT industry,
availability of skilled human resource, response from local players etc.
I: What would be the major components of your pitch to any major IT foreign client.
138
C: To understand more about the company, where does it sell tyres and how many
Aziz Malik different types of tyre does it sell?
Undergraduate College Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati I: Its market is in the US itself and has only one single type of tyre.
Field of Graduation Chemical Engineering C: Is the client the leading manufacturer in the market?
Professional Qualifications None I: Yes, it is the leading player across US.

C: Is there any constraint on the capacity with either of the options?
Work Experience Ola – 24 months I: No, we can cater to the increased demand with either of them.
C: I would now like to delve deeper into the available options. First, I would like to
proceed with expansion in the US market. I would break down the different costs
HR & Conversation Questions and then look at each of them. Setup of plant (land and equipment), procurement
of raw materials, manufacturing operations, distribution network. Should I go
Talk about 3 highlights from your CV.
ahead with these heads or am I missing something?
How is Ola doing right now? What do you think is the way forward for Ola?
I: Sure, go ahead.
C: Are we planning to setup a new unit or acquire an existing unit in the mid-west?
Case Interview 1 If we plan to set up a new unit, what will be the cost of land and equipment?
Client is a tyre manufacturer in Mid-west US. Market is growing for automobiles I: We want to setup a new unit. The government is supporting local manufacturers
and client wants to expand capacity. Two options are available with the client, and we will be able to purchase land at subsidized rates with a tax holiday for 5
either expand in the US or tie up with a Chinese manufacturer. Analyze the years. Machines will be of better technology and will also be subsidized.
options and recommend the solution.
C: Understood, there is a clear benefit in terms of acquiring land and purchasing
I: Let us do a case. Your client is a tyre manufacturer in Mid-west US. Market is equipment. Now I would like to know more about the procurement and
growing for automobiles and client wants to expand capacity. Two options are manufacturing costs. Will we be procuring from same suppliers? Will there be any
available with the client, either expand in the US or tie up with a Chinese reduction in costs of manufacturing like manpower due to better automation?
manufacturer. Analyze the options and recommend the solution. I: Yes, cost of raw materials would be same and labor costs will go down due to
advancement in technology.
139
C: Moving on, how will our distribution costs change if we open a new plant? Will What worked well for you? I was confident in my approach and was asking the
the overall logistics cost increase? interviewer time to time if I was missing something
or not.
I: No, so there is a mother warehouse in mid-west US from where we deliver across
the country. What could you have done The structure could have been better covering more
better? qualitative factors like associated trade risks. tyre
C: Right. So, I have covered the costs for new set up in US and would now like to
quality, consistency in shipments etc.
move on to the tie up with Chinese player.
I: Sure, go ahead.
C: Since the player is already manufacturing tyres, I would like to understand what Interviewer
the nature of the deal and the overall cost will be associated with tyre. This would
include margins of the Chinese player, import duty and shipping costs.
Case Interview 2
I: Right, so the margin of the player is 10% over the price of the tyre, import duty
is 20% and shipping cost is additional 5% A new hotel has opened up in a metro city in India. What would be the number
C: So, assuming base price of manufacturing to be same, it is 1.35x of current price, of water bottles consumed annually in the hotel?
but China has lower manufacturing rates compared to others and thus, the cost
would be lower. I: Let us do a quick guesstimate. A new hotel has opened up in a metro city in India.
What would be the number of water bottles consumed annually in the hotel?
I: What is your final recommendation for the client?
C: What kind of hotel is this and where is it located in the city?
C: From the data we have analyzed, it seems that with the subsidy of the US
government, the new setup seems to be a more beneficial option and would I: It is a regular business hotel with rooms, restaurant and a business center located
recommend setting up own plant. in the city center.
I: Thanks Aziz. That would be it. C: I would like to break the calculation into 3 parts, the calculation for rooms, the
restaurant, and the business center. To start with the rooms, I would calculate it
Interview Experience using the formula,
Rooms*average occupancy of rooms*no. of people in a room*bottles consumed
per person per day*365. Is it correct or am I missing anything?
140
I: Let us talk about factors affecting occupancy of rooms and consumption per What worked well for you? I was able to break down various areas of
person. consumption and then list down the factors
affecting each
C: The occupancy would depend on the type of rooms, day of the week, the
seasonality (March might have higher no. of customers compared to October What could you have done I missed a couple of points and should have
which is a festive month). The consumption of bottles would depend on size of better? promptly taken the interviewer’s hints as the case
bottles.
progressed.
I: Correct, the bottle is a 500ml bottle. Let us move to restaurant now.
C: For calculating no. of bottles for the restaurant, I will use, working hours of Interviewer
restaurant, split it into peak and lean, multiplied by avg no. of people visiting in an
hour*bottles used per person* %people using bottled water.
I: This is alright, could you think of another approach to calculate people visiting
the restaurant?
Be confident in your approach and try to smile during the conversation.
C: We can take a supply side approach b calculating customers through number of Go through the problem statement very carefully before beginning a case.
tables. Tables*per table seating*%occupancy*bottles per person.
I: How will you break down occupancy?
C: The occupancy would be influenced by factors including meal of the day and
average time spent per person in the restaurant.
I: Right, I think we can end here. Thank you.
141
C: Tell me more about the Victoria memorial property.
Ketan Katkar
I: a. Garden b. Lake c. Museum | Garden is 40 acre and has walking and jogging
Undergraduate College Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay paths. | Lake has boating facility | Museum is 3 stories and contains Victorian era
artifacts.
Field of Graduation Metallurgical engineering
C: What is our objective?
Professional Qualifications None I: Primarily Profits. Secondarily, enter Indian market.
Work Experience Tanaka Precious Metals – 34 months C: I would use the following structure for the case. Analyze the investment
financially (Revenue streams, Profits, Investments, exit barriers) and operationally
(Autonomy, Risks involved)
HR & Conversation Questions I: Let us start with revenue stream analysis. Assume lake is not in our control we
can only generate revenue from Museum and Garden. How will we price the
tickets?
C: What type of people come to visit the Victoria memorial?
I: There are domestic (80%) and foreign tourists (20%).

Case Interview 1
C: For garden to roam around 40 acre one will spend 1 hour maximum. We can use
Client is US based archeological site management company. They are entering the value-based approach to price its ticket. Proxies for garden visit can be having
India and the first site they want to evaluate is Victoria memorial Kolkata. Every a cup of tea, watching movie, visiting a mall or just time-value of 1 hour. Minimum
year 1 cr. people visit the Victoria memorial. Currently the entry ticket is 1 one will be willing to pay is Rs 10 (for cup of tea).
Rs/person and annual operational cost is 150 Cr. Shall we bid for the property or
not for 30-year lease period? I: Okay. What about the Museum?
I: Client is US based archeological site management company. They are entering C: We can do value based or competitor-based analysis to price the ticket.
India and the first site they want to evaluate is Victoria memorial Kolkata. Every
year 1 cr. people visit the Victoria memorial. Currently the entry ticket is 1 I: Okay, let us assume ticket price for domestic tourist is 10 Rs. How much shall we
Rs/person and annual operational cost is 150 Cr. Shall we bid for the property or take from Foreigners?
not for 30-year lease period?
142
C: We can take a fixed percentage from their expense. Or we can see how much What worked well for you? Structuring the case quickly and exhaustively.
they are spending on similar attractions (like Taj Mahal, Gateway of India).
Keeping the interview conversational, hence
I: Okay. Let us assume we take 500 Rs from foreigner. Now do you think we can interviewer helped me understand details better.
make profits.
Ability to do quick mathematics accurately.
C: Let us see how many people will visit garden and museum. Garden is more
suitable for generic purpose; hence 75% people will visit it. Museums require What could you have done Asking good preliminary questions is important and
specific interest in art and history, hence only 25% people will visit them. better? do not miss out on them.
I: Okay, calculate the revenue generated. Questions asked to the My interviewer had previously worked in Zomato
C: With the assumed information we will make around 110Cr from the tourist Interviewer and Paytm (I looked it up on BCG micro website
tickets. before the interview). I asked him what made him
bring come back to consulting from startups?
I: We need at least 40 Cr more. That means 40 Rs per customer. How will you
generate it?
C: We can look into food and catering services, tour guides, photography, transport Case Interview 2
services. The revenue generation might not be 40 Rs per person it can be more
from foreigner and less from domestic tourists. Suppose you are a consultant at Deloitte and a client has asked you to formulate a
roadmap for their enterprise application to be shifted to cloud. How will you advise
I: Okay. So, we shall make the bid? What about operational aspect? them to do so? You must guide them about where using "Lift and Shift" would
beneficial and where "containerization" would have to be used.
C: Financially it looks profitable, as over the year we can look into increasing the
tourist volume and reducing costs. We should look at risk factors such as what will I: Give me only revenue increasing recommendation for a paints company.
be the response of locals staying near Victoria memorial when we implement the
tickets, as they might protest to that. C: I would like to know more about the company, its product and competition.
I: Okay, that is all from my side. I: Its India's 2nd largest paints company and it is growing amazingly fast. They have
already done their cost analysis and they are competitive. They make decorative
Interview Experience paints. The largest player is 2 times their size.
143
C: Can I get to know what is their product mix? C: We can make contracts with multiple raw material suppliers to reduce cost.
Improve logistical efficiency. Automate accounting processes through inventory
I: They make 3 types of paints. Luxury, Premium and Mass. Luxury is for high-end management software.
customer and is price competitive with other companies and has 70% margin.
Premium is for middle class customer and has lower price than luxury and has 60% I: Okay that will be all.
margin. Mass is for general purpose and is price competitive with other companies
and low price and has 45% margin. Interview Experience
C: Can you tell me about the company’s value chain? And to whom do they sell it to? What worked well for you? Be confident, do not hesitate to take time to think
and if you feel it is taking too long, start thinking loud.
I: The paints company manufactures, then send it to depot from where it goes to
retailers. The company has around 50K retailers. From there we sell it to contractors What could you have done Make no assumptions always ask for data you do not
and painters. better? know.
C: We can increase profit margins by increasing the price, changing the product mix Questions asked to the The partner taking my interview was handling FMCG
and by product innovation. We cannot increase sales by volume because that will Interviewer clients. I asked him that I am being from Industrial
lead to increase in cost also. To increase the price, we must look at the price elasticity
background have not experienced working in FMCG
of each product (in our case premium product's price can be increased little bit to
match its competitions price). We can promote more of luxury products because clients. How are they both different and how are we
they have more margin. We can try to come up with new types of paints for wider allotted on the cases?
range of application and newer technologies.
I: Okay now let us have a look at cost side also once. Where can we try to reduce
cost?
C: We can divide it into raw material, manufacturing, logistics/transportation, and
retailers’ margin. While preparing for consulting interviews try to understand how different
businesses work. This will help you to structure in more innovative ways. Always
I: Look into the raw material cost as it accounts for 70% of the total cost. time your practice cases, as they push you to dive deeper in less amount of time and
make your structures leaner.
C: We can break it down into Commercial cost + procurement cost + accounting cost.
I: Give me some suggestions to lower down the raw material cost.
144
Case Interview 1
Kushal Maheshwari
I am a UAE based bank. I want to enter the Indian market. Help me in taking this
Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and decision.
Undergraduate College
Economics
(This case was completed in <5-7 minutes)
Field of Graduation Commerce (B. Com and M. Com) C: Surely, as your consultant you want me to assist you in deciding whether the
Indian market is good for your business, right?
Professional Qualifications CA, Cleared CFA Level 3 I: Yes.
Work Experience Omniscient Capital – 21 months C: I would first like to gain a deeper understanding of the business. Since how many
years are, we in operation and which geographies do we cater to?
I: We are in business for more than 20 years and are the in the top 5 banks in UAE.
HR & Conversation Questions We operate in the GCC countries.
Tell me something about yourself. C: Is GCC is an alliance of some countries in the Gulf Region?
Why have you done CFA after CA and why MBA now?
I: Yes, GCC stands for Gulf cooperation council and has 6 members.
Tell me something about your articleship experience (I spoke about an NBFC client,
C: What kind of banking services do we offer? How is our portfolio, in terms of book
this drove the entire discussion for the next 15 minutes)
size in retail, corporate, real estate and others? Also, since we are a global bank, we
might be having many international transactions, am I right?
Difference between a bank and NBFC?
Who regulates banks, who regulates NBFCs? I: We provide all sorts of banking services, but we specialize in Transaction banking.
Yes, we do have multiple international transactions.
How do they source funds? Who has cheaper funds?
C: What exactly do you mean by transaction banking?
How is the current scenario for NBFCs and banks?
I: We are into trading, exports, imports, and forex. Could you move on to how we
will make the decision.
145
C: Absolutely, give me a few seconds to structure my thoughts. I: Do you think HDFC will not be able to replicate that?
I: Definitely. C: Yes, they will be able to replicate it.
C: I would begin by analyzing the qualitative country and industry level factors, then (I was a bit lost after this, because this was a conversation and since we were not
I would see whether the market size is lucrative… following any structure, I did not know what to do next)
I: Kushal, let me interrupt you. I do not want you to use this framework. Tell me how I: What do you think our real advantage is?
we enter the market.
C: Just give me a few moments to analyze the situation.
C: Alright, so we could enter the market organically by taking a license from RBI, or
maybe look at inorganic modes subject to regulations of RBI. I: Surely.
I: Let us cut to the chase, do you think we can compete with the likes of HDFC. C: We have a customer in UAE who are interacting with counterparties in India, we
C: HDFC has a very diversified business all over the country with an exceptionally can explore to leverage these relations.
clean loan book with strict control on bad debts and this enables it to have cheap
cost of funds. For a new entrant, competing with HDFC will be exceedingly difficult. I: Correct, go on.
I: So, what do you suggest? Should we not enter. C: We can target the counterparties to our customers and give them a holistic
banking experience with priority banking and services related to forex, futures, and
C: We need to find a niche segment we can cater to. forwards.
I: Like? I: Right, this is the only advantage we have over Indian banks, we can leverage this
to enter the Indian market. Thanks a lot, all the best!
C: India and UAE have good import export volumes. So, we can start by entering into
a state where there are extremely high exports and imports like Gujarat. We can Interview Experience
begin our operations there and slowly scale up.
What worked well for you? What worked well was the interview was very
I: Good approach, but why will people come to my bank and not HDFC. conversational, I knew my technical well and that
drove around 15 minutes of a 22–23-minute
C: We can try to create tech-based solutions to improve the banking experience.
146
interview. In terms of case solving, I stayed calm and C: Do we foresee that there is enough demand to have a good capacity utilization
composed. after increasing the capacity? Also, is there any constraint on the capacity with either
of the options?
What could you have done I should have thought more practically about
better? competing with a player like HDFC, right from the I: Yes, our calculations say that even after increasing the capacity, we will operate at
beginning. 100% capacity because of the demand. No constraints on capacity, we can cater to
the increased demand with either of them.
None C: Do we have, or did we have any existing tie-up similar to the one we are
Interviewer
evaluating?
I: Yes, in the past we had a tie up with the same Chinese manufacturer for 10 years.
Case Interview 2
C: What is the size and scale of this manufacturer? What was the reason for
We are a tyre manufacturer in Mid-west US. The market for automobiles is growing discontinuance of the same?
and we to expand our capacity. Two options are available with the client, either
expand in the US or tie up with a Chinese manufacturer. Analyze the options and I: The Chinese manufacturer is a market leader in China. There were not enough
recommend the solution. growth opportunities.
C: Surely, I would like to gain a deeper understanding of the company first, where C: Give me a few moments to structure my thoughts.
does it sell tyres and how many different SKUs does it sell?
I: Sure.
I: Our market is in US only and we have only one variant of our tyre.
C: We can do a qualitative and quantitative analysis to decide which option is better
C: Could you give me some details about the competitive landscape? in the long run. Do you want me to proceed with this approach?
I: Yes, it is the leading player across US. I: Yes
C: At what percentage of our capacity we operating at? C: In qualitative analysis I would like to compare the two options based on certain
company level metrics like quality of tyres. speed of the process, nature of contract,
I: We are operating at 100% capacity. chances of shortages, degree of control and then we can evaluate industry and
147
country level factors. I would evaluate the costs in the quantitative analysis. Do you I: Wonderful, move on to the quantitative analysis.
think I am missing anything, or can I proceed?
C: We will have to incur fixed cost to either own or lease machinery to increase our
I: Yes, you can proceed. capacity. Apart from that we will have to incur Raw material cost on items like
C: Will the quality of tyres be same? rubber. We will consider other elements of the cost sheet like Direct labor, direct
expenses, Factory over heads, admin overheads, Selling and Distribution overheads
I: Yes. to reach cost of goods sold, to this we will add the duties we have to pay and deduct
the benefits of the subsidies. Whichever option has a lower cost will be chosen.
C: If we expect timing of orders to be uncertain then relying on 3rd party would be
slightly difficult because time between ordering and receiving the tyres would be I: Great analysis. Assume that cost of making it ourselves is cheaper and qualitatively
long and we might lose out on customers. In our own system we can change also it is a bad decision to tie-up, but the CEO still chose to go ahead with the tie up.
production levels as and when required. Also, we might have contracts with tyre Why would he have done so?
manufacturers with terms and conditions w.r.t minimum quantity. These contracts
could be detrimental if quantities are uncertain and speed required is high. There C: Could it be because they wanted to outsource this task as far as possible and focus
could be demand & supply mismatch which could lead to shortages. Another key their efforts somewhere else.
thing that we should consider is whether this frees up the management bandwidth
and management can channelize their energy and efforts to something else. I: That is a good reason but that was not the case here.
I: Very good, go ahead. C: The Chinese manufacturer is the largest player in China, could it be possible that
we could leverage this relation to enter into the Chinese market?
C: Now looking at the bigger picture, US- china relations are especially important,
the tax regulations and tariff barriers should be considered. Considering the current I: Yes, that is what the CEO planned. Thanks, Kushal, all the best!
situation where elections are happening there is a lot of political uncertainty. Also,
US has imposed multiple tariffs and custom duties on Chinese products. I would also Interview Experience
like to know if there are any subsidies, tax advantages for own production.
What worked well for you? Giving importance to capacity in the initial scoping
I: Yes, there is 50% subsidy for which we will be eligible if we do domestic production questions as it was truly relevant to the case. This
without China. helped me showcase first principle thinking.
C: Hence, looking qualitatively it makes more sense to produce on our own. Just one
thing we should consider is what if our competitors tie up with the Chinese What could you have done
manufacturer. NA
better?
148
Interviewer
None Mayur Jain
Tips for Future Candidates Field of Graduation B. Com (Hons.)
Knowing each and every line of your CV is absolutely essential, my entire interview Professional Qualifications None
round 1 was based on only one line of my articleship which was ~ 5 years back.
Work Experience QCI: 20 months, PRS Legislative – 12 months
Be patient between the 2 interviews as that is a high stress time period which could
make or break your placement process.
Keep it conversational, as you have to keep the partner interested. In the second
interview, the partner and I had a particularly good conversation about the Tell me about yourself
importance of being hungry for learning where he gave certain examples of his life.
Why consulting?
Case Interview 1
You have been hired as an advisor to the Climate Resilience Officer (CRO), Mumbai.
Your first task is to create a vision for the next couple of years for the CRO. How
will you go about this?
(This case came up after an initial discussion on climate change as the interviewer
was a part of the climate change and environment practice at BCG)
C: Could you please explain to me the exact mandate of the CRO? Is this in line with
the BMC?
149
I: You can say that the CRO is an officer of the BMC. The CRO is responsible on two that may happen due to rising sea levels. We can also look at rehabilitation options
fronts. Firstly, he is responsible for building climate resilience which means preparing for slum dwellers in the short-term.
the city of Mumbai to absorb stresses imposed by climate change (rising sea levels,
increased temperatures). Secondly, he is responsible for climate adaptability. The I: Okay. What is the kind of resources that you would need to implement these
weather patterns are constantly changing and the CRO is responsible for building points? Think in terms of competencies.
any infrastructure that may be necessary for coping with changing weather patterns. C: Maybe technical and budgetary support. Technical staff would include scientists,
You can imagine building ridges along the sea banks as in The Netherlands. technology staff to monitor climate patterns, knowledge transfer from international
locations. Budgetary support can be sourced from government funds, international
C: Understood.
agencies like World Bank, UN, International Solar Alliance etc.
(After taking some time to think)
I: Alright, I think we can end the case here.
For the next couple of years, I think we can prioritize the action keeping in mind the
following two objectives: (This was a small case and was largely conversational as an extent of the earlier HR
discussion)
a. Saving lives of the population, particularly the vulnerable segment living
near the sea. Focus should also be on a large section of the population living in slums Interview Experience
like Dharavi who do not have the means to support rehabilitation in case need be.
What worked well for you? I kept the interview largely conversational which was
b. Minimizing disruptions when creating climate resilience infrastructure in the helpful.
city for corporations and general population as well.
What could you have done I should have stuck to the actual case structure that I
I: Alright. How would you categorize your response to meet these objectives? better? proposed in the beginning.
C: I would like to break the response into two aspects, a couple of initiatives which Questions asked to the What are the best practices internationally when it
are fairly long-term and can be started now, such as pushing corporations to build Interviewer comes to Climate Resilience?
sustainable infrastructure and moving to renewable energy. We can look at
introducing legislations in this regard over the next couple of years. In the short-
term, we can create ridges along the sea banks to prevent any immediate mishap Case Interview 2
Your client is a fuel retail company. The revenues have not been growing since the
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last 3 years. The client has hired BCG to look at revenue generating options outside I: No, they just pick oil up from the refineries and use their distribution network to
the fuel and energy space. How should we go about this? sell fuel.
(Took a couple of seconds to come up with initial set of questions by using the CCPC C: Understood.
framework)
(Tried to structure the response by using the Ansoff Matrix)
C: Could you please elaborate on the scale of business of our client here? Where do
they operate? C: Since fuel is heavily government regulated, making changes in the price is
something we cannot look at. However, we can explore promotional tie-ups with
I: Sure, the client is a major fuel retailer in India. It distributes petrol, diesel and CNG financial institutions for discounts. We can look at a combination of making
through its network of 13,000 pumps spread across the country. It is among the top modifications in the existing product portfolio and the geographies we are catering
3-4 players in the market. to. Maybe tap into new geographies and cater to B2B segments.
C: Understood. How does the client segregate these 13,000 pumps? By geography, I: Makes sense. But for now, let us focus on non-fuel segment. Can you list down a
products supplied, any other way? few factors and maybe come up with a model to decide which businesses to enter?
I: By geography. You can assume that the pumps are segregated into three C: Sure, on a preliminary level, I would look at factors like revenue/profit
categories: urban, rural and highways. All three segments are facing this issue. The maximization, ease of business expansion, competition in allied sectors etc. All these
products supplied across these pumps are fairly standard. factors would differ in their importance depending on the geography.
C: How is the industry fairing at this time? Are the competitors also facing this issue? I: Alright. Can you list down a couple of ideas by which the client can increase his
revenues?
I: Yes, so what has happened is that a number of competitors have entered the fuel
distribution ecosystem in the country in the last 5 years. Some of them have adopted C: (After taking a moment to think) In the urban areas, we can look at monetizing
deep discounting policies as well. As a result, the overall revenue growth has become options by selling a couple of fuel stations which do not contribute enough to our
stagnant. The client, thus, wants to diversify its business. revenues. Urban stations will command a higher land price. We can also look at
integrating with allied services such as vehicle repairs, retail stores and shopping
C: I see. One last question on the nature of business of our client, they are not into centers wherever feasible. In the rural areas, the customer segments will naturally
crude oil extraction? be different so we will have to look at revenue generating options for rural
population. We can leverage our distribution networks and create rural mandis and
service centers for trucks and tractors. For highways, the main customers would be
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trucking and logistics companies. We can look at creating motels for them. Large
retail outlets can also be opened in busy routes. Service centers can also be opened Nikita Balaji
for vehicles.
Undergraduate College Lady Shri Ram College for Women
I: Makes sense. In addition to this, the client is also looking at tapping into other
allied services like insurance for vehicles and drivers. Field of Graduation Economics
C: Understood. Professional Qualifications None
I: Thank you, that will be all from my end. Work Experience None
C: Thank you Sir.
Interview Experience HR & Conversation Questions
What worked well for you? I was able to take the cues from the interviewer and Tell me something about yourself.
was proceeding in a direction he wanted me to. (Among other points, mentioned travelling as a hobby) Any particular place/incident
What could you have done I should have stuck to the actual case structure that I that is your favorite?
better? proposed in the beginning. (Mentioned Sweden) Do you know how Sweden has handled the pandemic
situation?
Questions asked to the Since this was an actual BCG case, I asked about the
Interviewer approach they employed.
Case Interview 1
Tips for Future Candidates Client is an IT major in India. They are doing well but have sub optimal top line
growth compared to their peers. The sales force productivity is declining. Help
Stick to the initial structure that you may have proposed and keep the interview them increase the same.
conversational.
I: Let us do a case. Client is an IT major in India. They are doing well but have sub
optimal top line growth compared to their peers. The sales force productivity is
declining. Help them increase the same.
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C: I wanted to ask some questions to get a better understanding. When you mention I: Right, they are unable to expand existing accounts. Why do you think this is
IT major, can I assume a company like TCS? What exactly do you mean by top line happening and what can be done?
growth? C: They can keep track of any new opportunities within their existing clients,
expanding into other areas not already covered by the firm. The SPOC must keep
I: Yes, assume a company like TCS or Infosys. Top line is revenue growth. track of any such opportunities that might come up.
C: What are the revenue streams for the company? What is the role of the sales I: Anything else?
force?
C: The salespeople must pitch the value proposition of the firm and their USP in order
I: The company provides IT services to other firms (B2B). The salespeople are linked to encourage the clients to give more business to the firm. They can give incentives
to accounts verticals. For large accounts, there is one person who acts as the single to the clients in terms of monetary or other means as well. They should reach out to
point of contact. The more junior salespeople are mapped to verticals like banking the right people within their client firms in order to land the message well.
etc. The sales force is divided into hunters and farmers. Hunters are responsible for
bringing in new clients while farmers are responsible for handling existing clients. I: Alright. Let us close the case here.
They manage to bring in a revenue of 8-10 million a year.
(Here, as I started diving into the case, I missed asking about sales force productivity Interview Experience
and how it is measured, which the interviewer pointed out. I asked and he clarified
the same) What worked well for you? I was confident and did not get flustered even when I
Productivity is measured as the amount of revenue per salesperson. made a mistake, instead accepting and rectifying it
and continuing with the case.
C: Thank you. Now that I have a fair understanding of the situation I would like to
jump into the case. Since the revenue per salesperson is decreasing, this could be What could you have done I missed out on an important clarifying question which
due to 2 reasons: we are not getting new clients (hunters), or we are not engaging
better? I should have been more careful about.
well with or enough with our existing clients due to which they are leaving us.
Questions asked to the The partner introduced himself and told me about his
I: The hunters are producing okay but there are too many hunters which is leading
Interviewer journey at the firm. He mentioned about working on
to lesser revenue per person (1-2 million per year). Farmers have low productivity.
climate change which I asked him more about.
C: If we were to focus on farmers, there could be two reasons why their productivity
is low. Either the existing clients are leaving us (account churn rate is high) or they
are unable to expand the existing accounts. Case Interview 2
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The client is a petrochemicals company. The promoter is involved in the I: The oil that our client transports are heavy or medium oil. It is a waxy oil which
exploration and production of oil and produces around 200,000 barrels of oil a day makes the transportation and receiving process cumbersome. There is also a high
(a sizeable amount - about 25% of India's production). The oil he produces is presence of Sulphur content.
significantly discounted. Help him add value to his oil.
C: Thank you. I think I have a broad understanding now and would like to dive into
I: Let us do a case. The client is a petrochemicals company. The promoter is involved the case. In this situation, I think there are two areas we can broadly focus on:
in the exploration and production of oil and produces around 200,000 barrels of oil looking at the current refineries that the client is delivering to and how the
a day (a sizeable amount - about 25% of India's production). The oil he produces is transportation process can be improved or looking at identifying and delivering to
significantly discounted. Help him add value to his oil. newer refineries.
C: Sure. I wanted to ask a few questions to understand this better. Where is our client I: Identifying new refineries will be tough to make practical. Is there anything else he
based out of? What does the value chain of his business look like? can focus on?
I: The client is India based. He is involved in the production of crude oil in India and C: He can expand his business into setting up his own refinery.
transferring it to 4-5 refineries. His production facility is present in Rajasthan and he
delivers oil to one refinery in Mathura, two in Gujarat, and one in the coastal area in I: Yes, that is an option he can explore. In terms of the yield of the crude slate, 45%
Mumbai. is petrol and 20% is diesel. There is an additional realization of $20 for petrol and
$30 for diesel. For example, for a crack of $20 he will realize $75. What is the return
C: In this case, is there a way to set up a production facility closer to these refineries? per year the client can hope to get? Assume the plant is closed for 15 days a year.
C: Performed calculations. Total amount = $1.05 billion/year
I: This process has a long lifecycle wherein it takes 3-4 years to find the oil and then
a few more years to start the drilling process. Hence, this is a process of 3-7 years I: Great. What are some other options the client can explore in his existing setup?
and not very feasible.
C: There are two issues with the transportation as you mentioned. The first one was
C: Alright understood. Next, I want to understand, when you mentioned that the is excess wax. Can we somehow modify the way we transport the oil to fix this?
oil is discounted, how much is it discounted?
I: We deliver the oil through pipelines. What can we do to reduce the wax?
I: The known price of Brent crude is $55 per barrel and producers can sell their oil at
either a premium or discount to Brent. Our client sells at a discount of $10 a barrel. C: We can maintain the oil at a certain temperature so as to prevent wax from
This is not acceptable to him and he wants to know how to monetize his oil better. forming.
C: Is there a particular reason for why his oil is being discounted? I: Right, so we can have heated or insulated pipes. What else?
154
C: Can we use the sulfur content in the oil?
Shravan Jain
I: We can also create naphtha from the crude. We will get 10% yield regularly. This
can increase to 20% but will reduce the yield of petrol and diesel by 5%. Each ton Undergraduate College Osmania University, Hyderabad
would cost $145. Would this be a feasible option? I started calculating but the
interviewer stopped me in between. Field of Graduation Commerce
I: We can close the case here. Professional Qualifications CA, CFA L2 Candidate
Interview Experience Work Experience KPMG – 20 months
What worked well for you? I was calm and confident, even though I did not know
much about the industry and was able to handle the
numbers aspect as well without getting flustered.
What could you have done Maybe I could have structured the solution better.
better? How has the journey at IIM Lucknow been until now?
Questions asked to the I asked the partner about his journey in the firm. Why Consulting over Finance given your background?
Interviewer
How was your experience while working in Europe?
Case Interview 1
The client is a bank in UAE looking to expand to South Asia and seeks your advice
on the same.
C: Asked clarifying questions ranging from the objective, timeline, past experience
of expansions, if any, current operations, target audience etc.
155
I: Briefed about the above, mentioning that the banks major clients in UAE are I: Sounds good, Which parts of India do you think should be looked at?
corporates, dealing in international transactions.
C: Suggested the South-Indian states with special focus on Kerala with reasons for
C: Asked if the target audience is to be the same or can be different and proposed the same.
to concentrate on India.
I: Good case, lets end it here. Can you summarize the case for me?
I: You may focus on India as the target. What factors would you evaluate for different
regions and businesses to be targeted? C: Summarized the case and exchanged pleasantries.
C: Since it was established that the Indian market was to be entered, confirmed Interview Experience
whether an evaluation of India as a country was required.
What worked well for you? Directing the case based on the information I had of
I: Assume India is the best possible country to go ahead with. Let us focus on the the country/industry and timely confirming the points.
business plan.
What could you have done More suggestions could have been provided for
C: Evaluated the banking industry and confirmed if the related regulations and better? locations to be targeted.
requirements could be met by the client. Inquired regarding competition and the
presence in international transactions space. Questions asked to the None
Interviewer
I: Please consider the actual scenario of banking industry in India and evaluate the
competition accordingly.
C: Given the presence of MNCs and the export intensive software & IT industry, Case Interview 2
concluded existence of aggressive competition. Also, differing nature of transactions
compared to Oil and Gas industry would also be a barrier preventing the client from Client is a cloth manufacturer with presence in Europe and South Asia facing
using the expertise gained earlier. growth issues due to the pandemic. Help them.
I: Valid point. What could be the other alternatives the client has? C: Confirmed the exact timeline and was told it is a real time scenario. Asked other
scoping questions such as the operations, difference in Europe and other regions.
C: Suggested targeting Indian origin employees from the middle east countries with
their families in India. As they would require assistance with money transfers, I: Europe is primarily used for high end fabric processing and the Asian
deposits, withdrawals., etc., this space could the point of focus. manufacturing units are for the medium and low end.
156
C: Inquired regarding competition and was given to understand that the one major Interview Experience
competitor was facing similar low growth rates while the other players experienced
a fall in revenues. What worked well for you? The responses to the HR questions and scoping
questions set the interview in the right direction.
I: What according to you could be the different strategies to improve revenue
numbers? What could you have done Time spent on HR answers could have been reduced
better? and more points could have been spent on discussing
C: Suggested reduced pricing and entering unexplored geographies considering
the case.
promotion and marketing actions would not garner additional demand due to the
pandemic. Questions asked to the None
Interviewer
I: Let us explore them further.
C: Initiated with price reduction and suggested parallelly targeting reduction in costs
to be able to sustain margins. Discussed how the same could be achieved and I
presented a few ideas for the same exploring each section of the production and
supply chain. Just be yourself. Make sure you attend the Disha KT session before interview as that
would be the most helpful element that aids your interview altogether.
I: What factors would you consider for choosing a location and the strategy to be
adopted for that particular location to increase sales?
C: Bifurcated the solution offered into two using Ansoff matrix i.e.
1) New product in existing markets like Asia and Europe with price/product
modifications
2) Exploring new countries where the client currently does not have any presence.
Discussed briefly on each of the two.
I: That shall be all, thank you. Any questions for me?
C: None, thank you.
157
For rooms = No of rooms* Occupancy rate per day* No of days (30) * People per
Stuti Murarka room* bottles per person per day
Undergraduate College Lady Shri Ram College for Women (The interviewer helped with the numbers, he was satisfied with the equation and
wanted me to focus on the restaurant part.)
For restaurants = Operation hours of restaurant* no of tables* seating capacity per
Professional Qualifications NA table* occupancy of tables by the various operational hours* No of bottles per
person (also accounted for avg time spent per person per table)
Work Experience Citi (21 months)
The business center/ hall part will be fairly similar to the restaurant part. So, I
would focus on factors which would affect the booking of these corporate halls.
Some of the factors were location of the hotel (if closer to a business park or the
HR & Conversation Questions airport), the package offered by the hotel, the service provided and the reputation,
seasonality (for instance year ends would have more bookings)
I: Thank you, well done.
Case Interview 1 Interview Experience
The client is a hotel company, setting up a new hotel in a metro town. Estimate What worked well for you? I was continuously discussing my approach with the
the number of water bottles consumed in the hotel in a month. (Pre-COVID-19) interviewer. When I had realized I had missed out on
a factor I was calm and asked the interviewer if I
C: What kind of hotel is it and how many rooms are we looking at. What is the size could take a step back and make certain changes.
of the bottle we are talking about and does the hotel also have halls given for
corporate and other events? What could you have done I had missed out on some factors initially and was
better? able to realize this when the interviewer gave me a
I: It is a 100-room hotel, mostly for business use. Looking at 500ml bottles and yes,
the hotel has halls rented out for events. hint. I should have covered them myself in the start

C: I would like to estimate room demand, restaurant demand and corporate event
demand separately. Interviewer
158
Case Interview 2 I: Initially the quantity had dropped but now it has been restored to pre Covid-19
levels. We are operating at full capacity now so a lot cannot be done on this front.
You have been hired by a textile firm to create a post COVID-19 recovery road map
to improve their margins. Help them out. C: I want to understand about the pricing and how it fared against competitors.
C: I would like to start by understanding about the client’s textile business, their I: Because of a lot of competition there was a lot of undercutting and the client had
location of operations. What margins they are looking at and how the same have to reduce prices to sell.
been in the past. By when they want to achieve this target and if there is any
budgetary constraint. Also, I want to understand about the industry and the present C: I would look at some methods to improve our revenues. For instance, out of the
competition. 1000+ SKU got to know all do not sell well, so the focus can be on the ones that do
sell well. For some SKU’s, the client was known well in the market and had an
I: In the textile industry there are 4 major steps: advantage over competitors so it could establish itself more in those areas. It could
a. Getting the fiber, cotton, or polyester. also enter long term contracts with the weavers so that price-cutting would not be
b. Spinning fiber into yarn required to be able to sell.
c. Weaving or Knitting
d. Garment Manufacturing (The interviewer was very satisfied and stopped me midway. Asked to focus on the
next bucket.)
The client is in the 2nd step. They have 1000+ SKU's with plants in Europe, South East
Asia, and India. They ship to 60 countries globally. They were looking at a 7-8% The major cost buckets starting from raw materials, inbound logistics, plant related
EBIDTA margin by 2021 or asap and no such budgetary constraints. The industry is costs (labor, machinery, utility etc.), outbound logistics and any storage costs.
extremely competitive with a lot of players.
I: Due to paucity of time, choose any 2 buckets myself and analyze them further.
C: Since we want to improve our earnings, I want to focus both on how we can
increase our revenue and reduce our costs. Is there any particular bucket I should C: I would like to choose transportation and plant because I feel after Covid-19 this
start with? was an area which could be focused on first.
I: You can start with revenues. (I Suggested methods on labor management, analyzed the wage structure as well.
Also spoke about ensuring that while transportation the most optimal routes were
C: I want to understand how the quantity of production has changed from pre Covid- chosen in terms of time and costs. Was more of a discussion with the interviewer)
19 to post Covid-19 and if we were able to sell our produce.
I: Was happy and then we had to close it due to paucity of time. Asked if I had any
questions for him.
159
Interview Experience Utkarsh Agarwal
What worked well for you? The fact that it was conversational throughout and I Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, University
was running the interviewer through my thoughts Undergraduate College
of Delhi
and incorporating what we were saying as well.
Field of Graduation Instrumentation and Control Engineering
What could you have done Could have given better reasons for choosing a
better? particular bucket first over the other. Professional Qualifications None
Questions asked to the None Work Experience BCG – 36 months

Interviewer

Tips for Future Candidates Tell me something about yourself.
One needs to be very calm and composed throughout the interview. Even if you What did you do at BCG for 36 months? Which team were you a part of?
make mistakes, it is okay to take a step back and make changes, it is important to
not panic. Tell me 3 good things about your experience at BCG and 3 not-so-good things about
your experience at BCG.
A few questions related to basketball and undergrad PCom experience.
Case Interview 1
Your client is the CEO of an FMCG company. The profitability of the hair oil
product is a problem. Please look into it.
I: Let us jump to the case now. Your client is the CEO of an FMCG company. You
have been invited to inspect the profitability of hair oil brand.
160
C: Sure. I have a few clarification questions here. I wanted to understand more I: Great. We sell via 3 channels: general trade, modern trade, and e-com. The
about the company and the product. (Asked specific questions here) percentage distribution of quantity sold is 50%, 30%, and 20% respectively. And
the margins in the 3 channels are 70%, 50% and 20%.
I: It is a typical FMCG company with many brands and many products. We are here
to study the profitability of the hair old product. The oil is available in 3 SKUs- 50, C: Thank you for sharing the data. It seems that general trade is best for business.
100, and 300 ml. (no special trend across the three SKUs) If the sole focus is on increasing the profitability, maybe we can think of selling
even more volume via general trade channels, considering e-com has considerably
C: I wanted to understand more about our customers and understand if the lower margins.
product is targeting any particular set of people.
I: That's great. I think we are done here. Asked few more questions from CV.
I: Yes, this oil helps in re-growing hair. There is not a lot of competition, but one of
our major competitors is priced at 2x. Oil is sold widely across India. Interview Experience
C: Thanks. Now I want to look at the profitability. Since we are talking about What worked well for you? Kept it conversational. Took buy-in from him at a lot
profitability and not profit, I would want to look at both revenues as well as costs. of places.
I: Sure. Go ahead. What could you have done NA

better?
C: So, looking at the gross margins, first, I want to look at costs. Can we look at
optimizing costs by achieving some sort of economies of scale? Questions asked to the None
Interviewer
I: Costs are optimized, nothing else can be achieved.
C: Okay. Now, looking at the revenues. Looking at it from units x price per unit
angle, and since the price has remained constant (confirmed this), units can be Case Interview 2
increased, but I do not think that will increase the gross margins.
Your client is trying to create a logistics company, which will use something like
I: That's right. What else? a TATA Ace to deliver materials from one place to the other, and they plan to use
EVs to do this. However, to make it commercially viable, the client realizes that
C: I want to look at the channels via which the product is selling. they will have to run the EV almost 16 hours each day, which seems unrealistic.
What can be done?
161
I: Let us start the case. Your client is trying to create a logistics company, which will
use something like a TATA Ace to deliver materials from once place to the other, Vasudha Bassi
and they plan to use EVs to do this. However, to make it commercially viable, the
client realizes that they will have to run the EV almost 16 hours each day, which Undergraduate College Shri Ram College of Commerce
seems unrealistic. What can be done?
Field of Graduation B.Com. (H)
C: Sure. Could you help me understand who exactly the client wishes to serve?
I: It will basically transport standard FMCG stuff to kirana stores, retailers etc.
Work Experience J.P. Morgan – 34 months
C: Okay, I want to clarify the question. What exactly does the client need help with?
I: Oh. So, during the normal delivery process using a diesel-based vehicle, it used
to run for about 7-8 hours each day and be commercially viable within a certain HR & Conversation Questions
time period. However, if we switch to EVs, even if we work for about 16 hours each
Tell me about yourself in short.
day, it will still take us more time than before to be commercially viable. What can
the client do about this?
Why consulting (and not finance)?
C: Thanks for explaining. I want to understand what a typical day looks like for the Which practice areas you are interested in?
vehicle, as in, how many clients are supposed to be touched, any quality checks,
any mandatory factory visits etc. Where and how much does a vehicle travel each Tell me about your work experience
day?
I: Okay. Why don't you prepare a detailed travel route for the vehicle? Make it as
Case Interview 1
detailed as possible, think about everything from the start to end of day.
The Government of Delhi is looking to outsource the operations and
C: Tried to create a typical day for the vehicle including loading, unloading,
management of Qutab Minar as they are running in losses. Your client is a Global
maintenance, sign-off during delivery, mealtimes, travel paths, etc.
company, should they bid on this or not?
I: Now just tell me, where all can you cut time and how?
I: The cost of operation is Rs. 150 Cr and ticket price are Rs. 2. Qutab Minar has 1
crore visitors in a year. Hence, revenue is Rs. 2 Cr, and losses incurred are Rs. 148
C: Gave some ideas to cut down time at each step.
cr. Now, should they bid on this project or not?
162
C: (reiterated the problem statement) Okay I would like to understand more about I: We do not need to look at the market. We can look at the contract specifically.
the situation. Can you tell me a bit more about this company? Where is it based? You can assume we would have the same costs.
What is the competitive scenario for it?
C: Okay so Rs. 150 cr for 30 years. That’s Rs. 4500 cr. We can look at the revenue
I: There are 3 companies worldwide that do this. We are a US company and have then. Which can be further divided into Ticketing and non-ticketing revenue.
the largest market share. Others are European companies. Should I look at ticketing revenue first?
C: Okay. And what sort of monuments/sites have they managed before? I: Yes
I: They have managed sites in US and Europe both. They have the capabilities to C: Since currently the ticket revenue from Rs. 2 is too low to cover the costs
manage Qutab Minar as well. incurred, can we explore the idea of differential pricing for foreign tourists? That
we can look at in terms of price, then we can also look at trying to increase footfall
C: Who usually manages the monument sites in India? Are there any domestic to the monument.
players or just managed by government?
I: We can look at differential pricing. Assume we are already getting the maximum
I: Managed by Archaeological Survey of India, which comes under the Government. footfall.
C: What is the duration of the contract for managing Qutab Minar? C: Do we know the split of the footfall in terms of domestic and foreign tourists?
I: 30-year contract. I: 80L domestic, 20L foreign
C: And the ticket price mentioned, Rs.2, is it the same for all visitors or does Qutab C: To look at the price to be charged to the foreign tourists, we can look at the 3
Minar follow differential pricing for foreign tourists? broad pricing strategies – cost based, competitive pricing and value-based pricing.
Looking at cost based, we can divide 150 cr by (paused here). Ok we cannot
I: Same price for all determine for domestic and foreign tourists separately from this. But we know
average would be minimum of Rs. 150
C: Okay so we can probably evaluate India as a whole, the market attractiveness,
and then specifically the revenues and costs associated with this contract and sort I: Yup. Does that help?
of understand if this will be a profitable venture for us to bid on. Does that sound
alright? C: Not much. I will move on to competitive pricing then.
I: Sure
163
C: Okay so we can look at the prices charged for domestic and foreign tourists at I: But do you think that will cover up the gap plus the amount we bid on the
other key monuments in Delhi such as Red Fort. Do we have any information contract?
around that?
C: Most likely not.
I: You can assume the maximum charged for domestic tourists is Rs. 5, and there is
a cap on that by the state government. I: So then should we bid on the contract?
C: (conversation about if monuments come under state or central government) We C: Since the contract is not profitable, we should not bid on the contract.
can also compare with monuments in other states of India…
I: Thank you.
I: We can charge Rs. 10 at the maximum let us say.
C: Sure, so revenue from that would be Rs. 8 cr. The rest of Rs. 142 cr also has to
be recovered. So, 142 cr/20L = Rs. 710 per foreign tourist. But this does not include What worked well for you? Being conversational and taking buy-ins.
any margin we would want to make.
What could you have done Faster calculations
I: Do you think that is a reasonable price to charge them? better?
C: As per my experience, since my Father has been mistaken for a foreigner a Questions asked to the Is the case based on a real scenario?
couple of times, around Rs. 500 is charged for foreign tourists. Interviewer
We can also see in comparison to ticket prices for monuments in other countries.
I have been only to the US and there at Empire State the ticket price was more than
$30. Rs. 710 at the current exchange rate is just about $10. So as per me that should
Case Interview 2
be fine.
Since we have both worked in the energy sector, let us look at the launch of a
I: Fair enough. Let us say we can only charge maximum of Rs. 10 for domestic and
new alternate fuel. A green Hydrogen based fuel, created using electrolysis and
Rs. 500 for foreign tourists. Should we bid on the contract?
does not use any fossil fuel. I want you to estimate the market for it in India and
C: There is a gap of 42 cr still. To bridge that we can look at non-ticketing sources tell me what factors should be considered to arrive on an investment decision.
of revenue sources, if we are allowed, such as parking… Does India make sense for such a fuel?
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C: We want to evaluate how suitable India is for the launch of a new Hydrogen C: (took a minute) Some factors that would be more key in case of trucks would be
based fuel – the factors to look at and the market size. To do so, can you tell me Utilization/time, infrastructure, and safety.
what sort of uses are we looking at for this fuel? (Discussed on these, interviewer mentioned a couple of other factors such as cost
and asked if clean quotient mattered here. Ruled out commercial vehicles as a
I: What uses do you think there could be? (interrupts me before I can say anything) good market)
So mainly it can be used in Transportation and as an input into refinery/chemical
processes, hence industrial demand. I: Let us look at the chemical industry and the market size there.
C: Sure. Is there any segment I should try to look at first? C: Could you tell me a bit more where exactly it is used in the refining process?
I: In terms of transportation what all segments can we look at? I: It is used to remove sulfur from crude oil.
C: Road, rail, air, and water transport. And within that public/commercial and C: We need to find the market size and its growth, for which we can look at the
private vehicles would be there demand side from the refinery sector or the supply side. Supply side as per me
would involve more assumptions.
I: Okay, let us focus on road transport first. Within that what all would come?
I: We can look at demand side as supply is not a problem since it is formed from
C: Commercial and personal vehicles – cars, 2 wheelers, buses, trucks… electrolysis.
I: Okay what all factors should we be looking at for a Passenger car owner? C: (asked for a minute)
C: (took a minute to think) Okay so 5 main factors as per me would be – current I: I will tell you this that for 15 MN tons capacity, 1 MN ton of Hydrogen is required
fuel mix in the category, cost associated, availability, safety, and utilization in a year. Fuel demand is growing at 3-4% every year.
(mileage). Is there anything I should focus on first or anything else I should look at?
C: So, if we know the number of refineries and their capacity, we can calculate the
I: Let us compare these factors for this Hydrogen fuel vs electric car and discuss demand.
them further.
(Discussed on the different factors and whether EV or Hydrogen fuel fared better, I: If there is a capacity of 300mn tons then what is the market?
and if it made sense)
I: Let us discuss the factors that should be looked at for Commercial vehicles – C: 20mn tons.
trucks.
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I: Yes. What all factors will these refineries look at while switching to a clean and
green hydrogen?
C: (took a minute) They will probably look at cost, contract and its terms, reliability
of supply, differentiation (clean), volume incentives and ease of use. (Further
discussion on these – determined additional capex costs would be the biggest
hindrance in adoption)
I: How would we persuade the refineries to switch to this?
C: (asked a little more about how exactly hydrogen is used and refinery process)
We can construct the necessary pipelines, provide the convertor from our own
expenses so that they do not have to make those capital expenditures. Use the
clean quotient as a differentiator.
I: Fair enough. We could also look at making the capex costs variable or payable
over time. Thank you.
What worked well for you? Knowing hydrogen is combustible/explosive and

being conversational
What could you have done Covered a couple of points where the interviewer
better? pitched in

Interviewer
166
Tell me something about the toughest project you have worked on and your
Akurathi Yeshwanth contribution in it.
Undergraduate College NITK Surathkal How was your previous work experience at Oracle? Was it good? If yes, why did
you leave it in these unprecedented times?
Field of Graduation B. Tech (CSE)
Professional Qualifications None Case Interview 1
Work Experience Oracle Corporation – 24 months Your client is a pharma company and is willing to optimize its IT infrastructure
because of COVID-19. They have 6 data centers out of which 2 are critical. And
have around 10 internal applications. How would you optimize it?
I: You seem to have some experience in cloud. Do you have any preference in what
Tell me something about yourself, your biggest achievement. type of case you want to do in cloud? Like scaling up, cost cutting etc.
Tell me something interesting in your life recently. (I talked about my new hobby. C: Yes, most recently I have worked on a project to migrate to cloud. So, anything
Electric Unicycle. He wanted to know more about how I got into it. Had some good related to cloud migration would be great.
discussion there.)
I: Sure. (He gave the above case)
Tell me about your hometown (Guntur, my hometown was quite famous in Andhra
Pradesh according to him) C: I observe that two Data Centers (DC) are critical and the rest four DCs are not.
So, we can migrate them to cloud and scale them according to our needs. This is
Do you follow politics? Who's Guntur’s(hometown) MP? How did he win when he with the DC part.
is not in the ruling party? If you are his upcoming campaign manager, how would
you strategize to make him win again? I: We would like to know the steps of how you do that.
What are the 3 things you liked about the Deloitte USI? Any suggestions or C: Identify which 4 need to be migrated, check the capacity they need, negotiate
improvements? with all vendors like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and go with the one with the most
167
competitive price. Sometimes the vendors help in data migration so the data What could you have done I did not reconfirm my assumptions in the smaller
center migration will be taken care. better? bits, I was trying to give all the info that I know and
then asked him if this was ok to assume. But should
I: Is that it? Is nothing else required?
have done this in smaller bits.
C: With respect to DCs I cannot think of anything else in this moment. But we must
Questions asked to the When asked for questions, I said that I had a very
build the links to the applications with the migrated DCs.
Interviewer long telephonic interview where I got all my
I: Exactly! How would you go about it? questions clarified.
C: Can I assume there are around 10 applications in the company which we want
to focus on? Like ERP, CRM, HCM, Salary applications and HR applications etc.? Tips for Future Candidates
I: You need not classify them, just assume there are 10 out of which 4 are critical, In the telephonic round candidates will be given the kind of role they are being
4 non-critical, 2 are not at all critical. C: If our client wants to show the progress to interviewed for. For example, I was being interviewed for Cloud Strategy
their higher management, I would like to start with the biggest application so that Consultant. Knowing this would really help the way you prepare for the real actual
they can show a big impact in the first few months. interview. Casebook by CSC and its sessions will give you a good start to cases. But
practicing them is entirely in your hands. If possible, try to be ready with general
I: That's great! All the best for the second round!
knowledge questions along with the HR questions.
(In the end they also asked about number of environments like development, UAT,
My partner round was a very casual discussion. The main issue was that
Production required for these 10 applications and how would I optimize there as
interviewer’s video was off and I could not see how he was receiving my answers.
well - All these are too technical and need not be known)
But I always kept smiling and assumed that he has been receiving it well. I kept
Interview Experience smiling and maintained my calmness.
What worked well for you? They were giving clues when I was stuck. I always I should have prepared well for questions based on my hometown and politics.
Once he asked about my city and local politics, I got shocked. I took some time to
made sure that I reiterated where I was lost so that
they could help me. think. Luckily, IIM interview prep helped but should have brushed them up. Would
have been a cake walk if I had brushed up the general knowledge part.
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A. Growth Objects: Historically, the company had 8 - 10 % growth. New target is
Anurag Arora 5%
Undergraduate College Manipal Institute of Technology, Karnataka B. Geographical Split of Revenues: USA - 80%, Canada - 25%, Mexico - 5%
Field of Graduation Engineering C. Margin - 10% ($1bn)
D. Revenue split by Products: Heavy Vehicle sales - 70%, Light Vehicle sales - 30%
E. Revenue by channels: Automotive sales - 75%, Services - 25%
Work Experience KPMG (2 months), ZS Associates (34 months)
Sigma lags in EV innovation and advanced driving systems. Sigma is open to
expand to new markets. The competition is following cross border M&A and the
HR & Conversation Questions norm is traditional auto companies looking to acquire tech startups in other
countries.
Give me a quick introduction about yourself.
C: I will just try to summarize all I could gather about the problem statement and
What are your aspirations?
please fill in if I missed anything (Repeated the Summary).
Can you elaborate on the segmentation project as mentioned in your resume?
I: Sounds good. The first question is what is the acquisition framework that you
Why did you leave KPMG in 2 months? If given a chance, will you re-join KPMG? would follow for this firm.
C: I would follow the following steps:

Case Interview 1 1. Identification - Do an in-depth analysis of our requirements to have a clear
Your client is Sigma Automotive. They have $10bn revenue and are the current understanding of what we need from the start up and the acquisition.
industry leaders. They have been facing growth challenges since the past couple 2. Market Research - Do extensive secondary research to identify the startups
of years. The slowdown is industry wide. The industry is moving towards a which fit our requirements.
consolidation landscape and smart vehicles. The growth beyond core offering is
the company’s current target.
169
3. Narrowing down options - Once we have a list of startups that fit our I: Alright great. Thanks.
requirements, do a detailed analysis on the shortlisted companies about their
financials and operations. Interview Experience
4.The work towards the mode. What worked well for you? Since the case was very data heavy, referencing the
data points in answers and properly analyzing the
*Interrupted* data worked well.
I: This makes sense. Now you must meet with CEO, and you must give a summary What could you have done I had not focused much on M&A cases during my
of growth options. Please suggest. better? case prep and had focused more on profitability and
market entry cases. Focusing more on M&A cases
C: I would suggest 3 growth options:
would have helped.
1. Organic growth - We have a strong foothold in the heavy vehicle market, and we
Questions asked to the What is the one thing that you like the most about
can use the brand name to expand into the light vehicle market within USA.
Interviewer Deloitte?
2. Inorganic growth - We are already looking into options for technology start up
acquisitions to drive innovations in EV and advanced driver systems.
3. Expanding into other continents - We have a good name and market in the USA,
and we can explore international markets like Europe and Asia.
I: Okay now we will display three options of the startups on the screen and you
tell us which one you go with and why.
*Displayed 3 options with details around the growth, revenue, and net worth*
C: I would go with option 3 since it is in Europe and Sigma is looking for expansion
into other countries. Additionally, the revenues that the startup generates align
with the company's target and they have a fair experience of working in the
automotive industry.
170
Then, I assumed a certain percentage of people in each category who would be the
Apeksha Gupta market for premium phones in India and thus, calculated the total demand of
premium phones.
Undergraduate College Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
Finally, to arrive at the market demand for iPhone, I factored the market share of
Field of Graduation B. Tech (CSE) Apple in India.
Professional Qualifications None Interview Experience
SigFig - 15 months What worked well for you? I kept the guesstimate discussion conversational and
Work Experience
stated all my assumptions and rationale.
HealthCare at Home - 26 months
What could you have done I felt I took more time than required for the
better? guesstimate. Had I practiced enough guesstimates
earlier, I could have been quicker.
Questions asked to the As the questions revolved around DevOps and cloud, I
Are you aware of the DevOps cycle? Interviewer asked for more clarity on the role I was being
interviewed for in terms of what is expected out of
In my introduction, I had mentioned how I had only worked with startups. I was candidates with no background in cloud.
asked about my experience of working in a startup and how would that be
different from working at Deloitte? What are the different avenues of switching to the
non-tech strategy roles at Deloitte?
Case Interview 1
Case Interview 2
Estimate the market demand for iPhone 12 in India.
There is a retail company that has been growing tremendously for the last few
For this guesstimate, I began with the total population of India and segregated that
years. Recently, there has been an increase in the data center costs. As the data
basis income level & age group.
centers are old, there have been a lot of outages lately. The owner has heard a lot
171
about cloud technology from his friends and is thinking of moving to cloud. Should mentioned the data centers are quite old, they might be using one of these
he make this decision? What will be the cost of moving to cloud? (obsolete) technologies.
(Asked a few clarifying questions) I: Fair enough. What are the other considerations?
C: Where is the company located? C: I would want to do a cost-benefit analysis of moving to cloud vs having an in-house
setup with regular maintenance. I would also look at the current employee expertise,
I – India. data security and compliance issues, also the number of applications that we are
C: What is the size of the company and the user base? looking to move to the cloud.
I: Like Flipkart. I: Let us talk about the last point more. What do you mean?
C: About outages - if it is a trend or a seasonal issue? C: Say, we have multiple small applications which are not in use anymore, we might
not want to move those to cloud, rather do away with them or integrate them.
I: Seasonal/ Promotional. Basically, do a suitability and a financial analysis.
C: Since it is not a consistent issue, the company can consider moving to cloud as it I: (Some back and forth on the above point.) Let us talk about the costs now. What
allows the flexibility to upscale/ downscale storage as per requirement. If the are the different costs involved in an in-house setup vs on cloud in terms of capital
company increases the data storage at the current data center, that might become costs and operating costs?
redundant at other times of the year, hence incurring him extra costs.
C: Mentioned some costs under both the headers stating the rationale behind them:
I: Alright.
Capital costs - Hardware & Labor Costs
C: What is the infrastructure/platform of the data center?
Operating costs - Maintenance Costs
I: Why do you want to know that?
C: This would have a huge impact on my decision to move to cloud. Certain cloud
platforms are not compatible with some technologies. For example - AWS does not What worked well for you? As before, I tried to be vocal about my thought
support Mainframe applications and Unix based applications. They need to be process. The interviewers were not looking for any
refactored and re-platformed respectively to perform the migration. Since you
172
industry jargon or deep technical knowledge, just the
logical structure and flow. Gandhi Mihir Hiren
What could you have done NA Undergraduate College Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology
better?
Field of Graduation B. Tech (Chemical)
Questions asked to the I am relatively new to this domain. What is expected
Interviewer of me as an intern? Professional Qualifications None
Where would an intern’s contribution be in the whole
(cloud) consulting chain? Work Experience Mu Sigma – 32 months

Keep smiling throughout. Make the interview conversational and be honest.

Explain how do you pursue your hobbies and how do they help you? Tell something
about the Premier League and Liverpool Football Club.
This was an interview with the strategy consultancy partner. So, it was mainly a
company-fit check interview. Below are the questions he asked:
Share your experience with online learning and the online placement process.
Describe your journey from Data Science to Consulting.
Explain briefly about your pricing project.
Explain briefly about the fraud detection project and showcase the impact the project
created.
173
Case Interview 1 I: That is correct.
Our client is a sports manufacturer, and their business has been affected by the C: Since when are we experiencing this decline in revenues and what has been
ongoing pandemic. They sell fitness products and accessories to the customers. the quantum?
What would be your strategy to increase the revenue of the client?
I: The decline has been for 5 years and the decline is >20%.
Used profitability and growth framework to identify ways to promote the business
in pandemic.
C: By fitness outlets do we mean a setup like a gym?
I: Yes.
What worked well for you? This was an interview with a buddy, I made a good
impression in the initial HR questions. C: How many such outlets do we have and where are they located?
What could you have done I could have used better storytelling while explaining I: We have 20 such outlets in the semi: metro areas.
better? my projects. (Used profitability and growth framework & used CPCC to get the basic
understanding of the problem)
Questions asked to the Basic questions about Deloitte and the role.
Interviewer Divided problem in Revenue and Cost parts. Discussed on multiple components
from both the branches. Identified multiple bottle necks in the costing part. After
having a discussion for around 15 minutes, we could cover all the potential
Case Interview 2 problems.
Our client has 20 fitness outlets in semi metro areas in USA. The company has I was then asked to provide a short term and long-term solution and once I
been observing a decline in revenue from last 5 years. Try to analyze the case and answered that, I was asked to perform A/B testing on 10-10 fitness outlets. It was
find the potential solutions to improve the situation. asked mainly to check what all factors I was able to come up with.
C: To reiterate, our client has been facing decline in revenues for that last 5 years, Interview Experience
and as their consultant you want us to find the reasons and some possible solutions
for the same.
174
What worked well for you? I was able to implement a MECE structure into the
case to identify the root cause. I could also design a Nama Pranay Naresh
strategy to find an optimal solution.
Undergraduate College IIT Guwahati
We talked a lot about the prospects of consultancy
and how COVID-19 have impacted the situation? Field of Graduation B. Tech
What could you have done I could have solved the case much quickly if I would Professional Qualifications None
better? have clarified my assumption with the interviewer
earlier. Work Experience Rivigo-37 months
Questions asked to the I asked them about the definition of success for the
Interviewer managers and how involved were they in HR & Conversation Questions
organization level planning and activities.
We had a general chat on my previous company Rivigo. The interviewer knew about
I asked about the interviewer's involvement in the it and discussed about my experience there, what did I like, what did I not like. How
delivery projects and other organization-level was my overall experience there?
strategies. We also talked about different types of Further discussion on IIM Lucknow since the interview was an alumnus. What are your
clients and how Deloitte maintained good business career goals and expectations from work and workplace?
relationships with them.
I had a reverse cloud migration project mentioned in the CV, the interviewer asked
Tips for Future Candidates questions around that to try and understand what exactly was done and why.
Try to connect with buddies prior to Day Zero, it helps to understand the company's
POV. It also shows how serious you are for the role. The second interview round Case Interview 1
was grilling one. They tried to put me under time pressure. Try to keep them
1. A financial firm which uses old legacy applications is growing rapidly, you must
involved in similar situations so that they are aware of the progress. Try to design
recommend a cloud migration strategy, how would you go about it?
different questions for different interviewers.
2. Guesstimate: Estimate the total number of videos on YouTube.
175
I: A financial firm which uses old legacy applications is growing rapidly, you must videos a month - example would be coaching class channels), low frequency (10 videos
recommend a cloud migration strategy, how would you go about it? a month).
C: (Asked some clarifying questions about the firm- how old is the firm, how well I: Very good, go on.
established is it) There are 2 aspects to this, firstly an analysis of the current systems
and communicating the benefits of cloud migration to the client. Secondly, the actual C: For the total number, since YouTube was started in 2005, I would assume a base
strategy around how would we go about the migration. Which aspects do you want number x and an average year on year growth percentage and equate it to the 2019
figure obtained. This will help me find the total number.
me to focus on?
I: Let us focus on the benefits part, what all benefits will you communicate to the I: No need to estimate for the entire duration, 2019 is enough. How would you go
client? Give a top-level overview. (Since I had told him that I had not worked on cloud, about it if you did not know the 2 bn figure of user base?
the interviewer was not expecting too much detailing and did not grill but was C: I would estimate the userbase for India by segment based on internet penetration
interested in a more general thought process and approach). in urban and rural segments and then age groups and get to a number, extrapolate
C: The benefits that the clients get include easier, faster, and cost-effective scalability that to the world population considering some valid assumptions.
since the firm was growing. In addition to this, Better security features provided by
cloud service providers. The client will have cost-saving in terms of having the ability
to dynamically demand server resources with pay as you use pricing models. What worked well for you? Being honest about what you know and do not know,
along with clarity of thought and structure in approach.
I: Let us move on to a guesstimate Estimate the total number of videos on YouTube.
Taking enough time to think before jumping on to
C: There are 2 bn YouTube users currently. I would like to assume that the content answer the questions and showing an interest in
creators to content consumers ratio of 1:10000 based on my assumptions. Can I go company.
ahead with this assumption?
What could you have done Everything went well, according to me.
I: Yes, you may proceed. better?
C: I would further like to break down the content creators into 3 segments based on Questions asked to the About the role I was being considered for.
frequency of video uploads as high frequency, middle frequency, low frequency Interviewer
content creators (10%, 20%, 70%). Then estimated high frequency uploads around
(1500 videos a month - example would be news channels), middle frequency (100
176
Case Interview 2 Tips for Future Candidates
What are the benefits of cloud migration, challenges to be considered and Be calm, confident, honest, and upbeat throughout the interview. Show
planning required as part of the cloud migration strategy? genuine interest in the company and role. Take time to think before jumping
on to answer any question.
I listed down some major factors to be considered for the adoption of cloud
computing as Internet connectivity, Internet speed, availability, reliability, data
storage location, security, data sovereignty, cost, integration, data backup,
provider dependability, employees’ knowledge, and transportability.
Further, I discussed the migration strategy as to which systems to prioritize first,

how to decide what upgradations might be required, how to group systems for
migration, when to do the migration (as this would involve a downtime), can the
downtime be avoided, data transfer costs as a major barrier.
What worked well for you? Having a solid introduction. Reading up on cloud
technology as I knew before the interview that I was
being interviewed for tech strategy role. Being
honest, calm, and confident.

better?
Questions asked to the A bit about the company culture, movement within
Interviewer the company to different teams, team office
location, internship projects.
177
C: Can I consider the food delivery service to be Swiggy and the location to be
Piyush Sneh Tirkey Bangalore as I have been there for the past 3 years?
Undergraduate College IIT Kanpur I: Yes.
Field of Graduation B. Tech (CSE) C: Can I take the time frame of 1 month for the total no of orders placed and then
approximate the total no of complaints or queries?
I: Yes.
Work Experience Deloitte USI (25 months)
Interviewer: Since the time is limited so just let me know the approach which you
would take?
HR & Conversation Questions C: Following are the steps:
Give me a quick introduction about yourself. Step1: Approximate the population of Bangalore.
You said you are into sports. What is the learning in life which you gain from it? Step 2: Segment the population in 4 different age groups.
What makes you apply to this firm, given that you left it after working for 2 years? Step 3: Approximate the % of people from each age group who would make online
orders.
Explain the work which you did in Deloitte as an Analyst. What kind of challenges did
you face working with US based clients? Step 4: Approximate the average orders per week (different buckets for Weekdays
and Weekends) from different age groups?
Case Interview 1 Step 5: Compute the total orders.
1. Guess the total no. of order complaints placed on the major online food delivery Step 6: Approximate the frequency of complaints or no of complaints per 1000 orders.
service in the location of your choice. Make buckets on different kinds of requests/complaints and then estimate the total
2. Guess the total no. of executives assigned for customer service department in complaints per week.
the organizations like Zomato/Swiggy.
Step 7: Calculate the total complaints/requests received per month?
178
Step 8: Assignment of executives would be based on no of complaints received per show everything in detail but doing that would have
week. been better in my opinion.
Step 9: Executives would work in slots. More executives in the peak time i.e., Questions asked to the How has been your experience with Deloitte so far in
weekends and in evenings. Interviewer terms of exposure and challenges?
After this, interviewer interrupted me and said that we are good with the approach.
Case Interview 2
There is a financial company with data centers across three countries (USA, France,
What worked well for you? For me, the comfort level which I initially established
India) and the cost of the data centers have increase by 10% over the past 6 months?
with the interviewer helped a lot. It established the tone
Help us to know the exact reasons for it. As a consultant, what kind of solutions
for the conversation.
would you propose to tackle this situation?
For example, the first question to me was, "Hi, Piyush,
Initially, I enquired about the cost distribution of the data centers across the locations.
how are you doing?"
It was uniform. Then I created multiple buckets for the reasons of cost in a data center:
My reply was: “Hi Vignesh, I am going okay but it could
1. Fixed Cost (rent of land: I shifted it to VC with long term aspect with the assumption
have been much better. Given the challenging time that
of one-time establishment of the infrastructure)
we are in, and me being away from home is quite
difficult but that is how we learn and grow. So yes, I am 2. Variable Cost (employee’s salary, maintenance, upgradation, security patches for
grateful enough to sit here comfortably and talk to you data centers, power consumption) I further discussed and asked questions on all of
but meeting you in person in the campus would have these.
been much better if the situation were normal.” This
made the interviewer to be more informal and then we Then I used PESTEL framework. They asked more on the IT part of the costs, more on
had a very comfortable conversation. security patches, software upgradation charges, storage capacity and scalability. After
this, I was asked to discuss on the solutions given the problem was scalability and
What could you have done I could have been more robust in number crunching maintenance cost. I talked about storage data on cloud using 3rd party services like
better? while dealing with the case. Although I was not asked to AWS/Azure. I discussed the usability of it for a large company daily, the costs that it
cuts and the new costs and tradeoffs if any and the long-term feasibility of it.
179
Prerna Barde
What worked well for you? I think that my previous work-ex with Deloitte helped
me to talk more about the organization. Undergraduate College Lady Shri Ram College, DU
What could you have done I did not have much content in the case solving part, Field of Graduation B. Com (Hons.)
better? but I was good at asking questions which helped me a
bit. Overall, it could have been much better if I had Professional Qualifications None
some previous ideas about the details of data centers.
Work Experience Arete Advisors (17 months), EY (12 months)
Questions asked to the Can you tell me that one most important piece of
Interviewer advice that you as seniors in the organization would
give to an ambitious candidate who is entering in the HR & Conversation Questions
world of management consulting?
Tips for Future Candidates Tell me about major accomplishments in your work experience.
Be confident and real. Do not even try to be fake with extra smile. It is a big negative. Tell me about yourself.
When you are not sure about the answer then mention it but at the same time show
Briefly explain your role/day to day working in both corporate roles in the work
the will to go ahead with what you in the best way possible. Be open to advises and
experience.
be interactive.
Briefly explain my project with a PE Fund. This was followed by a discussion around
recent developments in the healthcare industry (as based on my work experience) and
M&A /consolidation in healthcare.
Case Interview 1
180
Your client is Sigma Automotive. They have $10bn revenue and are the current Questions asked to the None
industry leaders. They have been facing growth challenges since the past couple of Interviewer
years. The slowdown is industry wide. The industry is moving towards a
consolidation landscape and smart vehicles. The growth beyond core offering is the
company’s current target.
A. Growth Objects: Historically, the company had 8 - 10 % growth. New target is 5%
B. Geographical Split of Revenues: USA - 80%, Canada - 25%, Mexico - 5%
C. Margin - 10% ($1bn)
D. Revenue split by Products: Heavy Vehicle sales - 70%, Light Vehicle sales - 30%.
E. Revenue by channels: Automotive sales - 75%, Services - 25%.
Sigma lags in EV innovation and advanced driving systems. Sigma is open to expand
to new markets. The competition is following cross border M&A and the norm is
traditional auto companies looking to acquire tech startups in other countries.
I used the Ansoff matrix to deploy growth opportunities as organic and inorganic
opportunities. This was followed by a discussion where the interviewer presented a
document to analyze 3 options.
What worked well for you? Being confident and putting across my thoughts in a
structured/matrix format wherever possible helped.

better?
181
C: (Asked some scoping questions) What are the areas the client operates in, what is
Sarthak Ladhani the team size, what are the operating conditions now and locations. (Interviewer was
more interested in how I reached the problems and not in the solutions).
Undergraduate College BIT Mesra
I: The client operates in tours, experiences and travel, a large established firm, having
Field of Graduation Electronics and Communications both online and offline presence.
Professional Qualifications None C: Can I have a few moments to structure my thoughts.
Work Experience None I: Yes surely!
C: (I came up with a structure) I will divide it into internal & external buckets. There
will be WFH and infra needs as well as saving in internal. External bucket was the major
part in which I bucketed customers in Pre-booking, During-booking and Post booking,
Tell me something about yourself. backlog created and how problems can be handled.
What did you like/not like about the interview process? I: What else can you think about?
Tell me something about your internship experience and work culture at Unilever. C: Do you think I have missed anything, or can I proceed? From the above heads is
there any one you want me to focus on?
Tell me about your CLV project during PwC internship and what was your role in it.
I: Talk more about internal issues that can arise.
Case Interview 1 C: Divided into different teams after asking for dependency on online/offline channels.
Operations, Marketing, and Tech team were the major divisions and went to speak
Your client is a Head of Customer Department of a Tours and Travel Agency like MMT about their possible problems. (The interviewer was not interested in numbers,
(Make my trip) in the month of April 2020, what problems do you think they are discussion continued more around operations).
facing and what is the way out?
I mapped the employee journey from basic needs to motivation and engagements,
did cost comparison for the expense borne by the firm and discussed some ideas on
how to make it productive.
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I: Well, done! Summarize all the issues.
Shikhar Mahajan
Undergraduate College NIT Warangal
What worked well for you? I was able to give structure to my thoughts. Also, I took
my time before giving any answer. Field of Graduation B. Tech (Civil)
What could you have done I was initially hasting through the problem to work on Professional Qualifications None
better? recommendations while he wanted the whole
discussion to be about brainstorming problems only. Work Experience Wipro – 25 months
Understood it in sometime and adjusting accordingly.
Questions asked to the General question on how the work is impacted given HR & Conversation Questions
Interviewer Visa problems and COVID-19.
Tell me something about yourself (I mentioned about my family background, my hobbies
-singing, some achievements and a little about my past work experience).
He tested my knowledge of singers and music directors, to check if I was genuinely

interested in music (the hobby I stated) or not.
Tell me more about your past work experience.
Case Interview 1
1. Estimate the number of Denims sold in a year in India.
2. You want to enter the ice cream market in in Jammu. Let us say a Baskin Robbins
store. What all would you do?
1. Denims Guesstimate.
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C: What exactly do you mean by Denims? Interview Experience
I: The jeans that we wear daily. What worked well for you? Using a reference from my own wardrobe interested him.
Also, I talked about how shopping behavior changes in
C: I will use the supply side approach to compute the number of denims sold in a year in
India with festivals. (He discussed about this for 2-3
India. I will start from the population of India, split it into Rural and Urban. Out of the age
minutes).
groups we will target 7-year-old to 40-year-old. I will assume, the Gender split to be 60-
40. What could you have done I took a little while to arrive at the point of checking with
better? different franchises in the ice-cream question.
I: You can calculate for the number of jeans for the male proportion only.
Questions asked to the No questions as I was asked to join another link
C: I would then like to split the males by income. From my own experience and using my
Interviewer immediately; this interview went around for 50 minutes.
own wardrobe as an example I would estimate the number of jeans bought in higher
income category and assumed a suitable multiplier for the rest of the income categories.
I: That is a very good approach. Let us end this here and move on to the case. Case Interview 2
2. Market Entry. 1. Which of the two companies (A and B) would you invest your money, here is some
data from their financial statements and one financial ratio. You can ask for more
C: (I started with some scoping questions.) What is the objective of entering this market? financial ratios/ data which you might need in your decision-making process.
Is it market share expansion or increasing profits or anything else? Are there any
constraints we should keep in mind? 2. Tell me about the methods of depreciation and the industries where these methods
are relevant.
I: We want to enter Jammu to increase our market share. No constraint as such.
I: Which one looks like a better company?
C: (He just wanted an approach in this case and wanted me to be MECE entirely in my
approach. He did not want me to estimate the market size. The key point he was looking C: Based on the data given, I answered (majorly profitability and efficiency ratios).
here was the mode of entry that would be used. He wanted me to think about
I: Okay great, now I am giving two more ratios. Now tell me which one looks like a better
approaching other franchises in Jammu about their revenues and get an idea whether we
company.
should get into the business).
184
C: I did some math and found out the other company looks better now with the given C: What exactly do you mean by coursework?
ratios in hand.
I: Good question. It basically means the work done by students as a part of the curriculum
I: Cool, this company is better. Good. in school, college, and university.
Interview Experience C: I explained him my approach and he was convinced but still he wanted me to arrive at
a number. So, I had to solve it till the end.
What worked well for you? The interviewer in this round wanted to understand if I
was updated with the market trend and if I am I would like to use the age filter and find the number of students in this age group, then
comfortable with the FRA (Term-1 subject). My awareness estimate the number of students attending schools, colleges, and universities. I would
of the current issues and financial ratios worked here. further filter using mode of education i.e., phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop).
What could you have done I could not tackle the depreciation question well. My I: Great, this number looks good to me.
better? knowledge in the same was limited and I told him that.
2. Market Entry Case 1
C: I asked him some clarifying questions regarding the product and the criteria company
Interviewer None
has in mind
I: He gave me data of market growth projections for 5 years and asked me to use the
Case Interview 3 assumptions of the numbers from the previous guesstimate.
1. Estimate the number of students doing coursework online on a Wednesday C: I did some calculations, and it was found that the criteria is met.
afternoon in Bangalore?
3. Market Entry Case 2
2. Our client manufactures a screen protector. Should he enter the market or not? He
gave me data as well about the market growth (Data intensive) C: I asked him all the scoping subtly using CPCC.
3. Our client is an established pharma company and wants to see if entering the I: I will also give you all the data I remember.
sanitizer market is commercially viable for them. Help us (data intensive).
C: I used PESTLE and Porters subtly. I also did the math with suitable assumptions about
1. Guesstimate the sanitizer market to compete the market sizing.
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Result - the numbers did not meet the criteria of the market entry and I suggested the
company not to enter the market. Soham Talukder
I: What could be done to enter then? Undergraduate College Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata
C: Explained him about JV and M&A.
Field of Graduation Electronics & Communication Engineering
I: Fair enough.
Work Experience Oracle – 24 months
What worked well for you? He liked my approach in the entire process. Also, the
interviewer was friendly and chipped in with thoughts and
ideas. HR & Conversation Questions
What could you have done Give me a quick introduction about yourself. A brief discussion on my academic career,
NA
better? important PORs and responsibilities held, key projects done in work experience and
hobbies.
Interviewer None Can you elaborate what you have done in your work experience in detail and explain
each project. This was followed by a discussion on cloud migration, which was one of the
projects in my work experience.
Case Interview 1
Suppose you are a consultant at Deloitte and a client has asked you to formulate a
roadmap for their enterprise application to be shifted to cloud. How will you advise
them to do so? You must guide them about where using "Lift and Shift" would
beneficial and where "containerization" would have to be used.
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I: Suppose you are a consultant at Deloitte and a client has asked you to formulate a migration, helped me. The interviewer extensively focused
roadmap for their enterprise application to be shifted to cloud. How will you advise them on testing my knowledge about different cloud platforms
to do so? You must guide them about where using "Lift and Shift" would beneficial and and their pros and cons. The case interview also was
where "containerization" would have to be used. related to my professional experience; hence it was helpful
to know my resume inside out.
C: Cloud migration majorly depends on the structure of the enterprise application. Most
of the enterprise applications follow a broad 3 level model, which are: 1. Front end, 2. What could you have done The rationales I provided during the case could have been
Mid-office, 3. Back end. Can I assume that the client also follows the same? better? better structured.
I: Yes, assume the 3-tier model for this case. Questions asked to the I asked if the projects related to cloud solutions have
Interviewer increased post COVID-19 and if yes, at what magnitude.
C: I explained a detailed guideline for each of the 3 level cloud migrations and the
methods which can be used at each level. I gave the rationale on each answer to back my I asked how those projects, where extensive on-site client
suggestions up and some alternative scenarios that can be attempted as well based on interaction is required, are shaping up after COVID-19.
different features of cloud like scalability and cost effectiveness.
I: I agree to what you are suggesting. Don't you think a different approach can be used as Tips for Future Candidates
well? (Then he suggested a reverse approach to the one I had proposed and asked
whether it was feasible or not). For every interview be very thorough about each point in your CV, you never know the
interviewer will be interested in which section.
C: The methods solely depend on how the organization is maintaining or assigning their
workforce on each tier. I stated the assumption that I had taken based on how the models For every answer, try to form a structure in your mind first before answering. If needed
were followed in Oracle and told them the scenario at which the suggested approach by take a pause of 5-6 seconds.
the interviewer will be feasible.
I: Okay, I got your rationale behind the suggestions you are putting forward.
What worked well for you? My strong knowledge about my work-ex, especially the
projects that I had worked on in the domain of cloud
187
I: Our client is an online travel aggregator like MakeMyTrip and faces issues in
Vatsal Sharma telephonic support & customer service. They have asked us to help them respond in the
short-term.
Undergraduate College Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
C: For how long has the client been facing this issue, and do we have any data on the
Field of Graduation B. Tech (Material Sciences) service levels or any other KPI affected? Also, what time frame do we consider as short-
term for the given situation?
I: Assume that the case was around March 2020 when the lockdown was imposed. Our
Business Analyst at Axis Bank (27 months) service levels have decreased, and we cannot service all the calls. We need a quick
Work Experience
Data Science at Delhivery (13 months) solution to be implemented in phases in one week to one month.
C: Got it. So, we need to focus on the contingencies created due to the lockdown and
find the immediate short-term fixes.
I: Yes.
C: So, before we move onto the case, I would like to understand a few factors about the
Why do you want to join Deloitte and enter consulting? How have your buddy
client and the situation.
interactions been?
I: Go ahead.
Can you talk about your projects at Axis Bank?
C: I would like to understand the client's business model, its location, and its scale.
What were the various positions of responsibility at college and key learnings from each
of them? I: Our client is based in Gurgaon and serves customers nationwide. You can consider it
like any other online travel aggregator like MakeMyTrip, Go Ibibo, etc. What do you
think are the kind of services do these aggregators offer?
Case Interview 1
C: From my understanding of the aggregators mentioned above, I understand that they
Our client is an online travel aggregator like MakeMyTrip and is facing issues in offer travel booking and hotel booking broadly. Do we have any information on any of
customer service. They have asked us to help them to respond in the short-term. these segments which are facing an issue?
188
I: Both the travel booking and hotel booking segments are facing the issue. Can you especially in shared spaces at home. Productivity may be reduced too, as the home
elaborate on the major issue which both customers might be facing across both environment needs time to adapt and might not be conducive for operations.
segments?
In terms of the process, the management, coordination, and resolution of WFH related
C: If we are focusing on the time just after the lockdown was imposed, the major issue issues might be a problem.
which both corporate and retail customers were facing was the cancellation of travel
plans. For retail customers, the plans of leisure travel and meeting friends/family were In terms of technology, we can have issues in terms of the hardware (laptop, router,
etc.), software (call center management software, VPN, video/audio call), and internet
cancelled while for the corporate customers, the meetings requiring travel were
(availability, speed, and reliability).
canceled. The trip cancellations would lead to a demand for a refund and related
customer service queries. I: Yes, our client has been facing issues because of the lack of people due to migration
I: Correct, so what do you think maybe the broad reasons for the client is facing the of people to hometowns and/or the lack of proper infrastructure. A major issue is that
issue? we have not provided laptop to most of the employees working from home due to cost
considerations. Some of the people have been facing problems in installing various
C: To diagnose the issue, we can look at the customer service from the perspective of software required to operate. Moving ahead, why do you think a customer calls
people, process, and technology. Later, we can see if the problems exist for the customer service in our business?
competitors too or not.
C: A customer calls our service center mainly for help regarding booking a ticket, queries
I: Our competitors are also facing similar issues and hence let us focus on our client only. regarding travel booking, and cancellations.
Can you list the probable issues in each of the buckets mentioned above?
I: So, which of these queries might have increased or decreased during the period.
C: In terms of the customer service, we can have issues in terms of #people
*#hours*productivity. The number of people might have decreased as people might not C: The queries regarding booking a new flight and related follow-up may have decreased
be able to work from home due to maybe travelling to hometown, permanent migration as no new flights were allowed for a month or so. At the same time, the queries for
to hometown combined with attrition, etc. I assume that the call center employees are flight cancellations, rescheduling, and refund processing will have increased.
mainly from the low and middle-income families trying to earn a quick buck. Hence, I: Fair enough, our client is facing issues due to many cancellations and problems in
they might have space constraints at home due to the smaller home sizes at times. Thus, refund processing. Can you suggest some quick fixes for the same?
the number of hours might be reduced as people might not be able to work late nights,
C: Sure. To reduce customer dissatisfaction, we can focus on either increasing the no.
of many hours and productivity of call center, or we can get a quick solution with the
189
same set of people. Since the time frame is short, can we proceed with a solution using
the same number of people?
I: Yes, that is correct.
C: The main point we need to keep in mind here is to do things quickly and clearly
communicate with the customers. So, with the same number of people and their
efficiency in the short-term, we can have a few changes in the app or processes which
can be implemented at the earliest. We can make the self-induced ticket refund process
easier for the customer and put it on the front page of the app or announce it before a
call begins, we can auto-refund the customer and send an email without any customer
intervention or we can give customers a coupon for future purchases instead of instant
cash if we have limited cash.
190
Case Interview 2
Navdeep
A supermarket client having stores in India is facing 20% decline in profits. What could
Undergraduate College Delhi Technological University be the reason for the same?
Field of Graduation Mechanical Engineering I: A supermarket client with stores across India is facing 20% decline in profits and wants
to figure out reasons for the same.
C: Before I begin, I would like to understand a little more about the company and
products. Are these normal grocery stores?
Work Experience PwC – 11 months
I: Yes, grocery stores.
HR & Conversation Questions C: How long the client is facing this issue?
Tell me about yourself. I: Revenues are falling for the past month.
What were your roles and responsibilities during your job? C: What kind of geography in which the client is operating?
If PPO is given, would you be interested in working full time for Everest group? I: The stores are present in all the tier 1 cities.
C: I would like to divide the profits into revenue - cost. Since profits are declining, there
can be multiple scenarios, decrease in revenue, increase in costs or both.
Case Interview 1
I: The cost is more or less the same, but the revenue has declined.
Government of India wants to promote the adoption of e-vehicles by customers in
the Indian market. Mention key challenges and factors to achieve the same. C: I would write revenue as avg spending by a customer * footfall of each store * no of
stores. Is it okay?
This was not a regular case but more of a conversation. Key parameters which I
mentioned were reducing the tax rate e-vehicles, availability of raw materials, I: Sure, go-ahead
awareness among middle class as a lot of people are not aware about it, developing
trust, and setting up of charging stations.ge, duration, procurement from etc.
191
C: Any of these parameters can lead to a decrease in revenue. Do you want me to look What could you have done I should have read a bit more about the profile and the
at a specific parameter? better? company to frame my HR answers better.
I: Footfall has reduced while other parameters are the same. Can you think of reasons Questions asked to the I asked about the kind of work and cases which I will be
which can cause this decline? Interviewer working on as a summer intern at Everest Group.
C: Yes, there could be multiple reasons for the same.
1. New stores might have been launched by the competitor in the nearby locations.
2. Either people are not able to come to the store because of some accessibility issue or
there might be a change in the store locations.
3. It might be because some stores are not able to meet the demand of the customers.
4. It might be because of change in the current policy that might have backfired.
5. Since our stores are in tier 1 cities, people might be preferring online platforms like
Big Basket etc.
I: Do you have any other factor in your mind?
C: Considering the COVID-19 situation, it might be because of social distancing or some

payment-related problems like online/offline payment
I: Great, that would be it. Thankyou.
What worked well for you? My prior consulting experience helped me a little during
the interview.
192
C: I would like to know more about the product the firm sells.
Pothukuchi Saketh
I: Firm is like TCS services and has similar operations.
Undergraduate College IIT Guwahati C: How have the profits and sales grown in the said period?
Field of Graduation E.C.E I: The firm is doing well. There is in fact, an increase in the profits.
Professional Qualifications None C: Has the competition also faced a similar issue related to hiring?
Work Experience Veritas Technologies – 25 months I: We do not know about the competitors and their hire growth-rates.
C: There can be two approaches to the problem. The reason could be because of either
external or internal factors. Do you want me to look at any one of these first?
I: I would like you to tell me how it could be external and how could it be internal.
C: It can be external in terms of the macro effects such as general outlook of the service,
Tell me more about your work experience. technology needed by the employees in the domain, etc. It can be internal in terms of
factors such as product outlook in market, promotions made for the work environment,
What have you done in your domain and how did it help your company?
place - work place (infrastructure) employee satisfaction, employee wages, company
requirement of employees etc. Do you want me to take any one of these?
Case Interview 1 I: Yes. Please go ahead with internal factors.
The CEO of client firm has reported that there has been increase in number of C: Considering the increase in job applications we can look at promotions, salaries,
applicants for job at their firm by 50% but the growth in new hires has decreased by place. Has there been any change in type of employees that are required for services
15%. that the client provides?
I: The CEO of client firm has reported that there has been increase in number of I: No, there has been no change.
applicants for job at their firm but the growth in new hires has decreased by 50%. You
need to help him/her investigate the cause.
193
C: Considering the increase in job applications again we can rule out employee to expand his reach in entire UP.
satisfaction process, then we would be left with hiring process, has there been any
changes in structure of hiring process, the panel, number of rounds, etc.? I: Your client is a lemonade seller in Lucknow and wants you to provide a strategy to
expand his reach in UP.
I: No, there has not been any change in structure of hiring process.
C: What type of lemonade is the client selling and are there any constraints that my
C: Despite the increase in the number of applications the hiring process has not client wants me to take care of?
changed. This might have led to a situation where due to large volume of applications
there is a delay in hiring process. Is the hiring process on first come first serve bases or I: It is a regular lemonade available in 2 variants, soda, and non-soda. No, you do not
best of interviewees model? have any constraints and assume there is no investment restriction.
I: Yes, there has been increase in delay time because the company follows best of C: First, I would like to look at the factors that affect my strategy. From supply side
would look at the raw materials, infrastructural cost, production process cost and
interviewees model. That would be it. Thankyou.
distribution/logistics cost. From demand side, the reach of customers towards the shop,
Interview Experience the competitors, etc.
What worked well for you? The structuring was important, and I was able to I: Good, now how will you choose the locations(cities) for your expansion in UP.
clearly justify my thoughts.
C: Since we are not restricted on the investment that we get, we can think in terms of
What could you have done I should have taken the clue earlier that it was not demand, first in short run I would be looking into metro and tier-1 cities like Noida and
better? because of employee satisfaction or similar internal Kanpur. In the long term, would focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
metrics rather, was related to the hiring process.
I: Well, now considering that you have a lemonade in Lucknow how would you price
Questions asked to the I asked about the culture and the work life balance at your lemonade?
Interviewer Everest.
C: The pricing can be done in 3 ways, cost based, competition based, and value based.
\ Since we are having no investment restriction, I would go ahead with competition and
value based. First, I would like to consider an additional value of the lemonade to be Rs
Case Interview 2
3. Given high investment, I would like to assume that we are using high quality raw
Your client is a lemonade seller in Lucknow, and he wants you to provide a strategy material and equipment and thus, producing high quality lemonade. With the cost
assumptions that paper cup costs Rs 2, Rs 2 for raw materials, Rs 3 for processing and
194
a margin of Rs 2, the lemonade for competitors is priced at Rs 9. Adding the value to
this, we can say that the price of lemonade should be Rs 12 for our client. Vaisakh M N
I: Good, I think that sums up the case. Undergraduate College College of Engineering, Trivandrum
Field of Graduation Applied Electronics and Instrumentation
The structuring of the case worked in my favor. Professional Qualifications None
Work Experience Infosys – 32 months

What could you have done better? Knowing the basics of processing a lemonade
could have helped.
Questions asked to the Interviewer None HR & Conversation Questions

Tell me more about your work experience.
Just be yourself and make sure to talk to seniors prior to the process and also to the
interviewees who have interviewed before you.
Case Interview 1
A niche tech company based out of Gurgaon has been growing at a CAGR of 20-25%
for the past five years. For the last year, they are struggling to fill the positions in the
company. It is taking more time to fill the positions as compared to earlier. Please
help them.
I am the CEO of a hospitality chain based in India. I want to build another hotel in a
tier 2 city. I have narrowed it down to 5 different cities. What all different factors
would I consider for choosing one amongst them?
195
Case 1: I: Sure.
I: A niche tech company based out of Gurgaon has been growing at a CAGR of 20-25% C: Okay. I would like to approach this case in the following formats— internal and
for the past 5 years. For the last year, they are struggling to fill the positions in the external factors.
company. It is taking more time to fill the positions as compared to earlier. Help them.
I: Okay, go ahead.
(Reiterated the problem to confirm and started with basic CPCC)
C: In the internal factors, I would like to consider factors such as work culture, work-
C: May I know what technology does the company operates? life balance, HR, facilities, Talent acquisition team, Training, and recent changes.
I: The company is a software developing company. It also develops android apps for I: Alright.
its client.
C: In the external factors, I will include the overall economy, skills required, and Rules
C: May I know from which country do we have our majority client base? and regulations from the govt.
I: How does that matter? I: Okay, please go ahead.
C: I would like to know whether the employees have to take night shifts if our client C: What is the culture of the company? Is it still working as a startup or matured into
base is from the USA or European countries. a big company?
I: Our clients are majorly from the US. But we do not have to take shifts. Just weekly I: It is in the transition phase.
calls.
C: Okay, thank you. May I know on average how many hours employees have to work
C: Thank you. And may I know which companies are our competitors? in the company per day?
I: No companies. Since we work on niche technology. I: It depends. Sometimes less. When there are project deadlines, employees may have
to chip in some additional work hours as it is for every other organization.
C: Should I include the COVID-19 scenario?
C: Okay, thank you. May I know about the HR regulations on a team outing, bonding,
I: No. This is happening in 2017. or any other cultural events? Also, may I know the facilities offered by us to employees
C: Please give me a minute to structure my thoughts. such as gym, swimming pool, etc.?
196
I: All of it is the same as any other software company, like Infosys. (I have work ex in C: I would look into the difference of the days required to fill the positions now
Infosys) compared to one year before
C: I believe we have two types of employee intake—freshers from universities as well I: Now it takes 70 days to fill up a position. It was 50 days earlier.
as Lateral entries from other companies.
C: Thank you. Now I would take each step in the hiring process and analyze each step.
I: Yes, that is correct. Let me go through each. When we have a talent requirement, I believe the team
manager will reach out to the talent management team. Now, if there are employees
C: Are we seeing any drop in any of them? Also, may I know some details about the available inside the company, they will be allotted. Else, they will notify the talent
talent acquisition team? Are they well trained for this activity? acquisition team. Then the company would post the required notice on their website
I: Drop in both of them. And yes, they are qualified. and shortlist candidates. Then interviews will happen, selected candidates are put into
training/KT and then allotted to respective teams. Should I look into any step in
C: Do we have enough universities that teach our required skill set? Do we visit all of particular? Or go through the entire process?
them?
I: Okay. Take steps from the interview.
I – Yes, to both the questions.
C: There are two departments - management and technical. Is this problem only for
C: Okay. Did we witness any change in the leadership of the company recently? one section?
I: No. I: Yeah, consider only managers for now.
C: I believe this is not due to internal factors. Can I move ahead to external factors? C: Okay. Who takes the interview of a candidate? As per my understanding, senior-
level managers take middle-level and middle-level managers to interview junior levels.
I: Vaisakh, I think we are wasting a lot of time. Just tell me what all are the things
(metrics/ numbers) you look at initially when you hear such a problem? I: That's correct.
C: Sure. Give me a minute to structure my thoughts. C: Which level is experiencing this issue?
I: Sure. I: Middle and junior levels. Senior level will anyhow take a longer period.
C: Do we have any shortage of interviewers?
197
I: No. I: Vaisakh, you have only considered demand-side factors. Please check supply-side
factors too. Also, while you are at it. Please consider the general factors that could
C: Okay. Can I move on to the next step? affect this decision.
I: Yes. C: Sorry. Please give me a minute to note down the factors.
C: After making an offer, are we seeing any delays? In giving out offer letters or in Supply-side factors could be-
training?
1. Availability of labor (For building the hotel)
I: No, we are not witnessing anything. Due to the interest of time, let us go to next
case, Vaisakh. 2. Availability of water and other natural resources.
C: Sure, thank you. 3. Well-connected logistics
Case 2: 4. Ease of finding employees.
I: I am the CEO of a hospitality chain based in India. I want to build another hotel in a General factors could be –
tier 2 city. I have narrowed it down to 5 different cities. What all different factors
would I consider for choosing one amongst them? When I started with basic 1. Ease of doing business in that state.
questions, the interviewer asked me to go directly to the factors that I should consider. 2. Govt regulations
C: I would consider the following factors. 3. Environmental laws
1. Is it a tourist center? 4. Socio-cultural aspects of the region
2. The average income of regional people. 5. Legal issues
3. Presence of business centers such as IT parks. I: Okay. Good. Now tell me at what number I should consider building it in one city.
4. Presence of cricket, football, tennis, or any other stadiums
5. Presence of Railways/Airports/ NH.
198
C: Did a guestimate on breakeven taking parameters such as population, no. of tourists
visited per year. The number of professionals/ Companies. Rooms in the hotel,
restaurant seats. Timings and slots
I: Thank you for your time Vaisakh.
C: Thank you, sir.
What worked well for you? Considering diversified perspectives while doing the
case

Could have structured the first case better
better?

Asked about the roles of an intern
Interviewer
My cases where entirely different. Maybe more cases like these should be solved.
199
C: Where are the two factories located?
Rishabh Jain
I: Assume both factories are in the same industrial park in Noida.
Undergraduate College IIT (BHU), Varanasi
C: Okay. The production allocation decision will depend upon the total cost that will
Field of Graduation B. Tech be incurred during the manufacturing process. Are both the factories owned by us?
I: No, only Factory 1 is owned by us. We buy the end product from Factory 2.
C: Do we have any data on what is the total cost or cost per unit incurred in both
Work Experience Oracle Financial Services – 24 months factories?
I: Yes. (Interviewer then gave the data about fixed and variable cost of both factories)
HR & Conversation Questions Factory 1 – Rs 300 per ton. It can be divided into 3 parts – labor (Rs 100 – 80 fixed, 20
What is one unique thing about you which differentiates you from all the other variable); utilities (Rs 100 per ton); fuel (Rs 100 per ton)
candidates? Factory 2 – Rs 225 per ton.
C: Okay. From the data given by you, Factory 1 has fixed cost of Rs 80 per ton * 100
Case Interview 1 tons = Rs 8000 and variable cost of Rs 220 per ton.
Our client is a packaged tea manufacturer. He has two factories, say Factory 1 and Assuming we produce x tons in Factory 1. Then we will be producing 150 – x in Factory
Factory 2 located in Noida with maximum production capacity of 100 tons per month 2. Max value of x can be 100 tons.
each. Assume earlier the demand was the summation of production capacity of two
factories, that is, 200 tons per month. However, client has forecasted that in coming Total cost would come around to be 8000 + 220x + 225(150 – x) => 41000 – 5x. Hence
months the demand is going to fall to 150 tons per month. Devise a production from the cost equation, we can infer that keeping x as 100 that is, running factory 1 at
allocation strategy for the client. full capacity will give us the minimum cost.
(Started with a few probing questions to get clarity about the client’s business)
200
C: Good. Can you think of why production in our own factory with outdated machinery are the risks of digital disruption?
is preferrable as compared to buying product from factory 2 which employs better
production techniques? [Short case -15 to 20 min]
I: The variable component of labor cost is the major factor. If the split would have been (Started with questions to probe the problem statement)
60:40 instead of 80:20, we would have come up with a totally different answer. C: Okay, just to reiterate, the client is a legal & accounting books publisher looking to
C: Good answer Rishabh. The case has ended now. Thank you. buy a print & paper-based publisher in India.
I: Correct.
C: What is the objective behind buying out this new publisher?
What worked well for you? Deriving the mathematical equation of the total cost of
production. I: They are looking for geographical expansion.
What could you have done I went through the entire value chain to determine C: What is the timeline that the client is looking forward to?
better? whether cost under each bucket affects the allocation
decision. Less time could have been taken to reach the I: No timeline as such. They just want to know what the potential market size of the
manufacturing bucket. industry is.
Questions asked to the The case statement was a real-life problem statement (While trying to probe more, interviewer indicated that he is interested in knowing
Interviewer which the interviewer himself has worked on. Post the just the market size)
case, we had a conversation about how he went about
C: Okay. To start with estimating the market size, can you help me understand where
solving the problem.
all legal and accounting books are used? From my understanding, educational
institutions, and people working in this profession might refer to these as well such as
lawyers, accountants.
Case Interview 2
I: Yes, you are right. Let us consider only educational institutions for the case.
We have been approached by a global publisher of legal & accounting books. They
are planning to expand into India by buying a print & paper based local publisher of C: In educational institutions, we can have schools as in India, senior secondary
similar kind of books. Can you help them size the market? Also, what do you think education has subjects on accounts, as well as colleges/universities for these domains.
201
I: Consider only educational institutions for undergraduate & post-graduate studies. Interview Experience
C: Okay, my strategy here would be to estimate the demand of new books in a period What worked well for you? The case was quite new for me. Not getting
of one year. This can be calculated by estimating number of colleges that we have in overwhelmed by the details I think worked well.
the country and the books required by students of each year, i.e., freshers, 2nd year
students etc. What could you have done I could have covered the market sizing faster to move
better? to the reasons of digital disruption in the industry
I: Go on. sooner.
C: (followed standard guesstimate procedure starting with Indian population, Questions asked to the I asked about the sector/industry interviewer was
estimating the number of students opting for accounts and law post their schooling Interviewer working in.
and then estimated the number of students for each year in their undergrad. Assumed
the number of books required by each student in a semester and estimated the total
number of books required. Took some time here and hence could not move to risks Case Interview 3
for digital disruption in the sector.)
MP Government is facing an all-time low in tourism and entertainment industry due
I – Okay. I think we are running out of time. Can you quickly list down what can be the to COVID-19. Suggest some ways in which MP Government can tackle this problem.
potential risks that the legal & accountings books publishing industry faces due to
digital disruption? [Short case – lasted 10-15 min]
C – Yes, due to the increasing popularity of eBooks, hard copies are not preferred I: Hi Rishabh. How is it going? How were your previous rounds?
much because they are bulky. Whereas eBooks can be accessed anywhere on phones,
C: Good morning! It is going well. I feel I did good in the first round and could have
laptops. That is a potential risk that the industry faces.
done better in the second.
Also given the rise in educational tech and coming up of startups in the EdTech
I: (asked about the cases in both the rounds and the areas of improvement in each
domain, the hard copies of textbooks are becoming redundant as most of the
were)
information is provided digitally.
I: So Rishabh, let us solve a case quickly. Where are you from?
I – Sure, makes sense. Thank you Rishabh for your time.
C: I am from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
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I: Okay. So, let us say we have been approached by MP Government. They are facing C: Since the case ended soon, I could have jumped quickly and elaborated on the
an all-time low in tourism and entertainment industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic. solutions for tackling the issues instead of majorly focusing on what all the problems
What are some ways in which you can suggest the MP government to tackle the issue? can be.
C: Okay, just to reiterate, MP Government has reached out to us because it is facing a I: No issues, I think you listed the sources of problem well. Thank you for your time.
decrease in revenues in tourism & entertainment industry and we have been asked to
provide solutions in which it can tackle this issue. Tips for Future Candidates
I: Right. Given the interviews were held virtually, it becomes essential to keep the interviewer
engaged. Also, since interviewer cannot see what you are writing on your sheet
C: Do we have any budgetary constraints? (neither did they ask me to show the sheet), conveying the structure that you have on
paper to the interviewer verbally becomes a crucial factor.
I: No constraints as such.
C: What is the timeline we are looking at? Is the government looking for solutions in
the short term or in the long term?
I: You can go ahead and give solutions for both short term and long term.
C: [After this the discussion was on the lines of what potentially comes under tourism
& entertainment – tourist sites, cinema theatres, sports events, fairs (melas), theme
parks. After this, discussion shifted to potential sources of revenue for a theatre.
Employing how exactly a customer would go about watching a movie in a theatre, I
laid down the journey and potential sources of revenue for the theatre such as parking
fees, ticket sales and snacks & beverage sales. After this there was a similar discussion
on revenues that the government can generate from hosting sporting events in the
state.]
I: We can end the case now. So, what do you think how did the case go?
203
initiatives in CV.
Sameeksha Gupta
I: Sales, marketing, distribution strategy for low-cost water purifier
Undergraduate College Delhi Technological University
C: I asked clarifying questions on the company, the geography the client is planning to
Field of Graduation Computer Engineering launch in, the cost of the purifier, competition in market, and any target customers. I
then understood about the functioning of the purifier to check on constraints like the
Professional Qualifications None need of electricity etc.
I: There is 1 competitor in the market. Which all customers will you target?
Work Experience Microsoft – 26 months
C: I kept access to electricity and lower income group while deciding target audience
to come up with distribution strategy involving government, NGOs etc. Then, I
HR & Conversation Questions identified promotional strategy, included CSR initiatives for villages.
Introduce yourself. Interview Experience
What are you passionate about? There were 10-15 minutes of discussion on my What worked well for you? Communication. I knew my CV well and drew on my
hobbies and areas of interest. learnings.
Why consulting? What could you have done

NA
better?
Describe your role at Microsoft and their business model.
Questions asked to the I asked about the interviewer's practice area and his
Follow-up questions on work experience
Interviewer journey at Kearney.
Case Interview 1
Case Interview 2
Sales, marketing, distribution strategy for low-cost water purifier. This statement
Sales for a candy company has dropped in past 4-5 months. Help the client with the
was related to my CV, had mentioned a water purification project as part of social
same.
204
C: I began with clarifying the problem statement and asked questions around the Case Interview 3
company, candy variants, price, competition etc. I also included the distribution
channel in my scoping questions. If I want to introduce calligraphy as a course in Delhi University, what factors
should be considered? Had mentioned Calligraphy as a hobby.
I: The distribution channel is from company to wholesale to retail shops.
C: Enrollment in a course can depend on - future job options, nearby
Regarding competition, 1 competitor is gaining market share. institutes/academies offering such courses.
C: I talked about how candies are commoditized. The next step was to structure the I mentioned that in DU course fees are less, but the total cost incurred in terms of
problem into supply-demand and identified the issue from the demand side. Through materials etc. should be factored in.
probing questions identified, that the distributors are the same for various candy
companies. Enquired about distributor margins etc. They were the same. Interview Experience
I then mapped the customer journey and identified retail shop owner as the major What worked well for you? The interviewer was intimidating, being calm helped
decision maker while handing candies to customers. As next step, I asked questions me.
about the margins for retailers and figured out that the competitor was offering
double the margin as the client.
better?
What worked well for you? The discussion with interviewer on areas of interest Interviewer None
worked well for me.

NA
better?
Questions asked to the I asked about the interviewer's practice area and his
Interviewer journey at Kearney.
205
I: Your client is a global company looking to acquire an Indian publisher of legal books
Satviek Goyal used by lawyers, students, professionals like CA, CS etc. Help us estimate the market
size and key risks for the business.
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies
Undergraduate College C: Asked some clarifying questions with respect to the problem statement.
(SSCBS), University of Delhi
Field of Graduation Management I: Estimate market size for all kinds of legal books in India (Company Law, criminal law
etc.)
C: Can I take a minute to think about the problem?
Work Experience None I – Sure.
C: We can estimate the market size on the basis of three factors, namely- the no. of
HR & Conversation Questions people buying legal books * Frequency of purchase i.e., No. of books bought by a
person* Average price of a book. Should I proceed ahead?
Why Consulting?
I – Yes.
Why Kearney?
C: The main customers for our products would be students, Practicing lawyers/legal
Some questions about where I stay, background (schooling, college, and internships) departments and CAs, CS. Is there any customer segment I should think of?
and quizzing achievements
I: No, you can proceed ahead with estimating the no. of students.
C: The students that would be interested in buying legal books would mainly be
Case Interview 1
students with a background in law, commerce, or management. I would like to
Your client is a global company looking to acquire an Indian publisher of legal books estimate the no. of students undergoing a law degree since they would be forming the
used by lawyers, students, professionals like CA, CS etc. Help us estimate the market bulk of the legal books demand in India.
size and key risks for the business.
I – Why estimate only the no. of law students?
206
C – Students with a background in commerce, management or otherwise might is getting widely and easily available on the internet so we will have to provide more
require these books for the purpose of 1-2 subjects as part of their course, however insightful information in the books we publish.
law students will be studying more extensively from these books. Hence, I believe that
a good amount of the legal books would be demanded by law students in India. I – Okay thank you for your time, I would like to close the case in the interest of time.
Do you have any questions for me?
I – Okay, go ahead.
C – No Sir. Thank you!
C: As per my knowledge, law is usually a five-year course. So, we can assume that law
students would mainly be in the age group of 18-25 years. India has a population of Case Interview 2
1.3 B with a median age of 25. Hence, we can assume that 20% of the population i.e.,
You are a management consultant and you have been appointed by the Ministry
260 Mn would be in this age group.
of Sports to formulate a strategy to improve the international competitiveness of
I – Fair assumption, go ahead. the Indian Football team within the next 10 years.
C – Mentioned other reduction factors like higher education enrolment in India (30%), I: You are a management consultant and you have been appointed by the Ministry
different streams of education like arts, commerce, engineering etc. (low enrolment of Sports to formulate a strategy to improve the international competitiveness of
in arts), students who would be going for law within the arts stream etc. the Indian Football team within the next 10 years.
I – Okay, how would you approach estimating the no. of practicing lawyers and CAs? C: Asked some clarifying questions with respect to the problem statement and
scope.
C – Told.
C: To improve the international competitiveness of the Indian Football team within
I – Understood, why do not you tell me the key risks for the business. the next 10 years, we will have to look at the different stakeholders like the Sports
Ministry, student base, families and parents, football associations in India at the
C – Increasing digitization can affect the business prospects. Legal books can be used
national and state level, Sports leagues like ISl, domestic clubs and some foreign
for learning and for the purpose of legal precedents. Some people especially the
leagues and clubs that would be interested in setting up base in India to expand their
younger generation may be more comfortable with a digital mode of learning. In
international base considering the growing market. We can break down the 10-year
addition, digital books may have a search option which will make it easy to find legal
period into two 5-year plans to improve Indian Football Team's international
references. Plus, it is possible that e-books would be cheaper. In addition, information
competitiveness. We can have a broad review of the goals achieved at the end of the
207
first five-year plan so that necessary actions can be taken to achieve our goal. Should same (data-heavy case with an excel screen shared as well).
I proceed ahead?
C: Asked about the case, PE Firm, bus operator, area of operations, business model
I: Can you mention some other stakeholders that would be important in achieving etc.
this process?
I: So, what do you think are the main cost heads for this business.
C: We can also look at the coaching and teaching staff that would be involved in
developing talent in the next 10 years. This could be through better training or C: The main costs can be:
collaboration with international leagues and clubs. Infrastructure and necessary 1. Fuel
sports facilities are also important factors to improve Indian Football Team's
international competitiveness. 2. Maintenance
I: Keep going. 3. Employee Costs (Drivers, other employees etc.)
C: We can look at football schools where children are trained from an early age and 4. Parking Fees/ Insurance / Tolls etc.
their education is taken care of by the clubs that finance these schools Football
I: Okay you are broadly correct. There might be other costs as well as registration
players, celebrities and other influencers would also be important in improving the
fees, highway access, etc. (An excel tab was screen shared with major cost heads) So
football awareness in India. We can also look at providing support/incentives to
as you can see the fuel cost is 12% of the total costs. Can you help us take care of the
people whose career involve around football so that they do not have to look at
fuel costs?
other avenues of employment to support themselves/their families.
C: So, the main determinants of the fuel cost would be Fuel efficiency *distance
I: Okay, in the interest of time let us end the case here. A couple of factors that you
travelled*Fuel Costs. (briefly explained the factors)
mentioned in bits and pieces but missed out on were the corporates that would be
sponsoring the football activities and International associations like FIFA, AFC etc. I: (shows an excel table showing fuel efficiency according to the place of operation,
bus model used, and some other headers like the month of recording, min. and max.
Case Interview 3
fuel efficiency, fleet size etc.) So, can you tell us why is there a difference in the fuel
Your client is a global PE Firm that is looking at investing in a bus operator based efficiency for different places like Perth, Melbourne etc.?
out of Australia. You have been hired to look at ways through which the main
operating costs can be decreased and come up with recommendations for the
208
C: It could be due to the place-specific factors like weather conditions, road undertake training for our employees like drivers and maintenance crew to improve
conditions, maintenance crew and processes etc. their performance and improve fuel efficiency across the board.
I: Okay look at the model XYZ used in place A & B (do not remember the exact model I: Thank you, Satviek. Someone will get back to you shortly
or place). Even after taking into consideration the factors you mentioned there is a
difference in the fuel efficiency of the same bus model in these two places. Can you Tips for Future Candidates
tell me the reason for the same?
Practice as many different cases as you can.
C: So, before I proceed ahead can you tell me the significance of the month
mentioned for these data points?
I: This is the time period during which the fuel efficiency was recorded.
C: So, the difference could be due to the weather conditions in Australia, the early
parts of the year will generally be warmer since Australia is in the Southern
Hemisphere. Because of that there might be differences in the fuel efficiency in
different months. In case it snows in the reason, the bus might need more fuel to
cover the same distance. Another reason could be the way drivers are driving. More
braking and constant gear changes might result in decreased fuel efficiency for the
buses in questions.
I: So, fuel efficiency is low in January due to the use of AC during the summer season
in Australia. And as you had mentioned, the other reason is due to the driver
behavior. Can you come up with recommendation to optimize our costs?
C: We can use the bus model with the best fuel efficiency to standardize our fuel
efficiency. We can also look at using modern technology to come up with the best
path to reach our location in the lowest possible time and distance. In case we have
different vendors for our fuel requirements, we can enter into a long-term contract
with a national vendor to negotiate lower costs and better terms. We can also
209
C: Sure, should I focus on one sport to increase the revenue or should I focus on all
Shrika Kohli sports which have the potential to increase revenues?
Undergraduate College St. Stephen's College, Delhi University I: Your choice.
Field of Graduation Mathematics C: Great. I would like to divide the sports into two categories: Individual sports like
badminton, tennis and team sports like basketball, cricket. Then we can look at
Professional Qualifications None both the categories and focus on whichever suits us better.
I: Sounds good.
Work Experience None
C: I would like to focus on team sports first as cricket and hockey are doing really
well in India, so I would explore other such sports. I would like to take up basketball
HR & Conversation Questions first as I know more about it as compared to others.
Could you briefly introduce yourself? I: Yes, you can start with basketball.
You have a great wall of paintings behind you, tell me about your interest in art. C: Since basketball is not a common game in India, I will divide it into the rural and
urban segment and think about ways to increase awareness and hence the
Since how long have you been playing basketball? Do you play other sports too? participation. In rural areas, people do not play this sport due to improper
Tell me about your internship that you did with KPMG India. infrastructure and hence as the government of India we could build courts in some
parts to increase participation. We could also play sports mandatory as a subject
Tell me about your interests in school. Coming to the urban segment, I would divide the people in two groups:
sports and non-sports, then I will look at ways to increase participation in both.
Case Interview 1 I: Focus on people who play other sports, how will you increase participation from
them?
You are working with the government of India and need to increase the revenue
generated from sports in India. How will you do it? C: For the people who play other sports, it is mostly because they have been taught
the same since a very young age. Basketball being uncommon can be made known
to people by improving the facilities available in India. Being a player myself, the
210
facilities here are bad and hence there is less scope to do well in this sport. We Your client is a leading Asian Automaker in the Luxury segment. Should they
could also have more events for basketball to improve competition, not just with enter India and if they do, how?
Indian players but can bring in International players for exposure. Games like NBA
should be promoted, similar to FIFA or a cricket world cup. C: Would it be okay if I clarify a few things before I begin?
I: Sounds good. If you were to conduct a basketball event, what all revenue streams I: Sure, what do you want to know?
would you have? C: Can I assume our car company to be like other Luxury players in the market like
C: The different revenue streams that I can think of are: Tickets, Food and Drinks, BMW, Mercedes, etc.?
Parking, Media Rights, Advertisements, any other event conducted on the ground I: Yes, our company is similar.
when there is no game going on.
C: Do we have a time or a budget crunch?
I: Okay, sounds exhaustive. Let us close the case here.
I: Nothing of that sort.
C: Where are we currently operating, why India, why now?
What worked well for you? Since the case was open ended, sticking to a
structure was hard but I somehow managed to do I: America, vast market and felt like expanding now.
that. Many different ideas were discussed.
(few other clarifying questions)
What could you have done Could have thought about more ways to increase
C: I would like to divide this case in 4 parts: Explore the India market, explore the
better? viewership for basketball among the people who
luxury car industry (market sizing as well), look at how we will enter (modes of
play other sports.
entry), potential risks involved.
Questions asked to the It would be great if I could get some feedback to I: You can ignore the first bucket and start from the second.
Interviewer know where all can I improve.
C: Sure.
(Looked at all of Porter's forces one by one and did a qualitative level market sizing)
Case Interview 2
211
I: How would you make people switch to our car?
C: I would divide it in two parts: First would-be people who do not own a luxury car
and the second would be people with a luxury car who can switch to our segment.
To bring about a differentiation, I would firstly look at the car features, the pricing,
coverage, and reach, lastly at advertising.
I: Why would people want to use a luxury car?
C: Two reasons: Status/Prestige and Credibility.
I: Good, now where all will you advertise?
C: For advertisements we have three channels: Banners and Ads, Social Media,
Collaboration with offices, hotels, celebrities, etc. We could also rely on word of
mouth to gain credibility.
Just answer with confidence.
212
C: Could you tell me more about the features of the payment card. Is it like a
Aayushi Garg debit/credit card or does it work on points and cashbacks?
Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, I: You can consider it to be similar to the Amazon pay card that is in tie up with ICICI
Undergraduate College Bank.
University of Delhi
Field of Graduation Management C: I would like to divide the market into urban and rural. I will further divide rural
areas into places with and without internet penetration. Can I proceed with this
Professional Qualifications NA approach?
Work Experience I: Yes, you can go ahead.

NA
C: Since, Jio has a mass appeal image the target customers could be very large, we
can target the existing Jio customers which provide higher ARPU. To calculate the
HR & Conversation Questions final market size, we will need to consider the behavioral and demographic
elements of the target population.
I: Very well, do you think launching the card is feasible?
Why consulting? Why do you think you will be good at consulting?
C:(I did a PESTEL and Porter analysis to ensure that launching the card is feasible) I
Explain your contribution to the work done by you in your internships?
recommend you should go ahead with cashbacks in the short term to attract the
(The interviewer was an alumnus from my under-graduate college, so we had a customers away from other competitors like Amazon. But since cashbacks are
conversation regarding college for 5-10 minutes) really expensive, in the longer term, we can shift to a points system.
(I also did a customer and competitor analysis. The interviewer asked me a few
follow up questions post that, majorly to explain the answer in more detail.)
Case Interview 1
Jio-Mart is looking forward to launch a payments card. What would be its target
market/customer? What scheme do you suggest-cashbacks or points? What worked well for you? I was confident, calm, and listened to the questions
carefully. I took any hints that interviewer threw at
213
me and improved my structure accordingly. The of the organization. The right most column has 4 to 7 characters since it has the
interviewer loved the question I asked at the end of year of the achievement. The center row has about 70 characters based on the
the interview as coincidentally, she was working on average number of words in a line and average number of letters in a word. (I also
the same issue. The interviewer was really amazed estimated the number of special characters like commas used. The interviewer
when I told her that I have a YouTube dance video seemed happy because of the detailed approach)
which has crossed more than 2 million views. Thus,
one should prepare a good introduction. 2. Case:
C: Could you give me more details about our customer base? How do we segment
NA them? In my opinion we could segment them based on criteria like based on
better?
amount and size of transactions.
Questions asked to the MasterCard's biggest asset is its data. But now
I: Very good, we do segment them based on transaction size into high-end and
Interviewer increasingly, countries are getting cautious about
lower-end customers.
sharing their data. How does MasterCard plan to
deal with this? C: Are they both provided points in the same section/ category?
I: Yes
Case Interview 2
C: How are the points delivered?
1. Guesstimate the number of characters on your CV.
I: Physically
2. I am a bank and I send reward points for redemption to my customers. The site
C: Could you give me a few moments to structure my thoughts.
is 5-year-old, and we are planning to revamp it now. Lately, we have noticed that
customers are not redeeming the points. What could be the reason and how to I: Surely!
tackle it?
C: I will map the entire user journey by assuming that I am the bank's customer and
1. Guesstimate point at various flaws through the process.
C: There are 4 sections in my CV each section has about 12-14 lines. There are 3
columns in the entire CV, leftmost column has around 15 characters for the name
214
I am someone who is busy and will not check my messages (SMS) very often. I am We need to ensure that client preferences are met. For example, a higher end
used to WhatsApp and emails. If the bank sends me the points through a message, customer would want a spa appointment while a lower end customer might just
I miss out. The bank should either call me via Relationship Manager or email me. need shopping vouchers.
I – Great, what next. We also need to consider the COVID-19 situation currently as consumers are
increasingly availing services online. We can tweak the deals accordingly. Example-
C: I fear cyber-attacks. If a message is not properly, formally drafted and looks customers are using Urban Company services over salons and spas these days.
suspicious, I might not click on the link. So, the bank should make sure that the
message is carefully drafted. We also need to ensure that the items/services we are giving points for are suitable
in terms of price as the customer would not want to pay the balance amount (i.e.,
I: What are some other things you will consider? net of points) if it is too costly.
C: Once I click on the link, the site should not take a lot of time to load because I,
I: Okay, I think I am done. That was comprehensive and a great one.
as a customer, am not very patient. The process should be smooth, and I should
not face any issues. The site should be customer friendly for ease of use. The C: Thank you!
sections for different levels of points must be separate as customers would want
different kind of points and services accordingly. The deals must have a sufficiently Interview Experience
larger expiry date as the points are physically delivered.
What worked well for you? My answers were nicely structured. I kept the
The bank should transition to providing points online itself as customers are points crisp and tried to factor in all elements
increasingly transacting online and do not have to wait for a physical delivery. The (MECE). Lastly, I was confident, calm and had a
deals and offers that customers get should be customized according to different smile on my face.
target groups as lower and higher end people have different requirements.
NA
I: Okay, so how will you ensure this? better?
C: We can have separate sections for both the segments. We can float forms
occasionally to understand what customers expect and the kind of deals, they
want. Post that, we need to onboard the relevant vendors.
215
Case Interview 1
Abhishek Bansal
Mastercard wants to launch a loyalty product for an e-commerce player. Tell me
Undergraduate College Hindu College, University of Delhi how you would go about it and how we can select the partner.
Field of Graduation B. Com (H) I: Let us do a market entry kind of case (followed by the case statement).
Professional Qualifications NA C: Could you give me details about what kind of loyalty product do you have in your
mind?
Work Experience NA I: This is like Smart Buy which HDFC and Mastercard have launched (She also told me
about the portal and the card's benefits)
HR & Conversation Questions C: Give me a minute to structure my thoughts.
Introduce yourself. I: Yeah sure!
How has your day been? C: (I basically thought of going by 4P approach and wrote down some factors to be
considered for each head. communicated this to the interviewer.)
How many processes have you gone through till now?
Do you want me to evaluate the benefits of launching the loyalty card and what
What projects have you done till now which makes you think you are fit for forms of benefits could be provided?
consulting (I talked about a project for street vendors that I launched as a part of
Connecting dreams foundation in college and another project that I did for a I: No, That's fine. Let us just focus on how you will select the e-commerce partner
Singapore based company) and which one.
Could you please explain the CDF project (I gave a detailed explanation about the C: I would like to focus on the current offerings on different platforms and then
project; This followed with an in-detail conversation about the project, its impact comparing them with some benefits that we could provide. There are some other
and how could it have made sustainable in the future at a larger scale, the factors that we need to consider like Flipkart having its own loyalty program- super
discussion revolved majorly around marketing techniques employed.) coins and said that this would cause difficulty in partnering with them.
216
I: Why are you looking only at Flipkart or Amazon. Do you know what an e-commerce Questions asked to the
None
platform means? Interviewer
C: (I was looking at this only from the retailer point of view, So I explained the
meaning of e-commerce and then accepted my mistake) Case Interview 2
There are different aggregators in various categories like transport, food, and others, Estimate the yearly revenue of Cafeteria & Co.
giving examples.
I: Abhishek, you have stayed in Gurgaon, right? Let us calculate the yearly revenue
I: Right. Let us pick one and then see why that would be beneficial for us. of a party place in Cyber Hub of your choice,
C: Let us start with Swiggy. Zomato has a premium membership while Swiggy did not C: I do not know of any place in Cyber Hub, but I can probably do this calculation for
which made it a good partner. a cafe in Hudson lane near my college in Delhi.
I: That's fine we can close the case here. That will be all from my side. Good luck. I: Surely.
Interview Experience C: So, I would do this calculation for Cafeteria & Co. Just give me a few moments to
structure my thoughts.
What worked well for you? My project for street vendors became a talking point.
The interviewer was satisfied with my answers about C: The revenue can be calculated using the formula: Avg. size of a group * Avg. spend
how to scale the project in the future and maintain per group* Seating capacity* occupancy* No. of days
sustainability for the project. I was able to show that I
had put in efforts and knew the project in and out. I: Why have you taken a group rather than an individual?
What could you have done The case was dragged a bit by me as I initially focused C: Drawing on my own experience, my hypothesis is that people always come to this
better? only on retail platforms like Amazon, Myntra and café in groups.
Flipkart. The interviewer had to guide me to consider
I: Fair enough.
other platforms as well. This was a key point that I
missed. C: Moving ahead, occupancy would be low during summer and winter breaks and
exam time.
217
I: That's fine. Let us calculate revenue for a single Sunday. C: All right. Give me 30 seconds to come up with a structure.
C: (I started assigning numbers to all the factors while explaining them also talking I: Yeah sure!
about why occupancy would be low on a Sunday)
C: (Started explaining the various filters)
I: Let us go by individuals rather than groups.
I: Let us keep on assigning numbers as well and explain your reasoning. You are free
C: All right. I would also like to incorporate the time for which the café runs and then to make any assumptions.
divide it by the average time a person spends in the café to arrive at the number of
customers served. C: I would start with the Indian population and divide into urban and rural. I would
like to discard rural area since the sales there would be much lesser.
I: That seems fine, that is all!
I: Good, go ahead,
C: I would like to calculate the number of urban households and then further divide
What worked well for you? I was able to explain my research on UPI nicely to them into income segments, focused only on the upper-middle and high-income
him. Also, I considered all factors for the guesstimate segment. I will assume X percentage for both the segments for households which
and was able to give reasonable explanations would buy an air purifier.
What could you have done I: Abhishek can you give me some more factors for this percentage?
NA
better?
C: Yeah, give me a minute.
None I: Sure, take your time.
Interviewer
C: The 2 factors would be - tier 1 and 2 cities for income and level of pollution in
them. (I assigned percentages for both income segments by making a 2 by 2 matrix
Case Interview 3 and came up with a final percentage for both.)
Guesstimate the sale of air purifiers in India. I: That is fine. Give me a final figure.
I: Let us do a quick guesstimate on the number of air purifiers sold in India. C: (Did the calculations and gave a final figure.)
218
I: Thanks Abhishek. That will be all. Good luck. C: I just wanted to clarify that the internal data referred to spending by different
companies or not.
I: Yeah, that is right. We also can get a proxy of revenue for our clients.
What worked well for you? I was able to segment well and come up with factors
to justify my assumptions. C: Then what we can do is take out the ratio of revenue to expenditure for all our
clients and further the percentage of their expenses that are made through our
What could you have done cards. We can then benchmark our clients against some high spending companies
NA
better? within our portfolio.
Questions asked to the I: That's great Abhishek. That is the right way to go about it. So now ICICI has
None
Interviewer identified 200 such clients which have the potential to increase their spends. Tell me
how we can come up with a strategy to target them.
Case Interview 4 C: We can further divide the expenses into various heads and then see which
company is spending less where and come up with an appropriate pitch for that
Let us quickly do a short case as we are short on time. ICICI bank has 1000
client.
customers who use their commercial credit cards. These cards are of 2 types- i)
Purchase cards, ii) Travel & expense cards. I want you to give me factors to look I: That is great Abhishek. That is what is required to be done. It was great talking to
into by which we can identify which customers (companies) spend less using our you. Best of luck and have a good day.
cards and which have the potential for more.
C: Same here.
C: Give me some time to think of factors.
I: Yeah sure!
It is important to think out aloud; more so in a virtual setup as the interviewer cannot
C: We can look into the cash flow and income statements of all 1000 companies and see what you are doing on the paper. Always explain your reasoning behind
then compare them. assumptions. It is also advisable to know when to ask for numbers and when to have
I: That's exactly right. But it is difficult to get this data as all companies might not be your numbers validated from the interviewer.
listed. Tell me how we can go ahead with the internal data itself.
219
C: (After taking few moments to think about it, framed the structure and walked the
Ankita Goomer interviewer through it)
Undergraduate College Hansraj College, University of Delhi Explained the demand and supply side approach.
Field of Graduation B. Com (H) I: Which approach do you think would be more feasible in such a situation.
C: Supply side since there is limited seating capacity.

Professional Qualifications NA
I: Let us talk about some numbers now.
Work Experience Deloitte USI – 22 months
C: Framed the mathematical equation and estimated the revenue.
What worked well for you? Structured Approach and open communication.
Tell me about your work-experience in brief.
Tell me about the POR you hold at IIM L. What could you have done Could have framed the mathematical equation in a
better? more comprehensive manner.
Case Interview 1 Questions asked to the

None
Interviewer
Estimate the yearly revenue of your favorite restaurant in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon.
I: Since you have lived in Gurgaon for quite a period, so you must have visited Cyber Case Interview 2
Hub.
You are the consultant of a South Asian Company which provides different cards
C: Yes sir to companies, however, recently their profits in the travel card vertical are going
down. How would you identify the potential clients which we can approach to
C: So, estimate the revenue of your favorite restaurant in Cyber Hub
increase our profits?
220
I: Travel card vertical is where they provide travel cards to the companies which
distribute it to employees for their daily travels/ trips /business travels. How would Dhanushree Bhanawat
you go about identifying potential companies where we can increase our revenues?
Undergraduate College Sri Venkateswara College
C: Talked about Macro factors based on which new trends and insights can be
obtained and potential companies can be identified Field of Graduation Statistics Hons.
I: That's fine and that is for gaining new companies into the portfolio. How would go Professional Qualifications NA
about identifying the potential companies from the current portfolio?
Work Experience Optimal Strategix – 24 months
I: Talked about various aspects like financial insights and on the basis of size, revenue
and growth rate of different industries clubbed together.
C: Super, we will end the interview here. HR & Conversation Questions
Interview Experience Tell me something about yourself and a follow up question on hobbies.
What worked well for you? Structured approach, keeping communication open
and frequent and posing alternative solutions Case Interview 1
What could you have done Could have thought about the structures more A tyre manufacturing company is seeing a decline in sales. Investigate.
better? speedily
C: Clarifying questions on size of the firm, presence of other competitors, product
Questions asked to the portfolio local brands, etc.
None
Interviewer
I: Among the top brands nationally but the company is facing competition from local
players.
C: Since when have the sales been in decline?
I: Since the past 1 month.
221
C: Was there a price change? What worked well for you? I followed the customer journey approach and
dissected the problem step by step.
I: No.
C: Relative to our competitors, has the prices suddenly become more expensive? Be more creative in terms of coming up with reasons.
better?
I: Maybe, explore what could be the reasons not limited to price change.
What kind of projects does Mastercard typically have?
C: Explored the entire journey right from supply chain to distributors to warehouses, Interviewer
to retailers and finally the customers. I put forward possible causes such as
a) under-stocking at stores because of loss of inventory in the supply chain Case Interview 2
b) Possible changes in quality that is making our product less attractive There are two types of corporate cards: Travel card and Payments card where the
latter is used by companies to make payments to their vendors/suppliers. You are
I: Up to the point of distribution in stores, there is not any problem. Think of any
the credit card company, and you see that certain clients are not using these credit
possible causes beyond that.
cards up-to the designated limit. So, for e.g., if the limit is 10000, the client is only
C: There can be two possible causes: utilizing 1000 of it. What kind of data (primary and secondary) can you use to
nudge these kinds of companies to utilize their credit card limits and make more
a) Changes in product placement in stores, payments?
b) change in promotion policies of our company vs the competitor company The discussion was for about 40 minutes where I first understood the working of
these two credit cards, what kind of information the credit card company tracks
I: Yes, that is right there has been a change in promotional strategy of competitors.
about payments made etc.
They have started sending goodies like pen stand, wall clock etc. with their logo to
the retailers. And that is increasing top of mind awareness both in the minds of The interview was more of a discussion and the crux of the solution is that we shall
retailers and customers who visit their shops. categorize our customers (companies) based on their utilization levels - high,
medium, low. Then, we shall compare two or more companies belonging to the same
Interview Experience industry but with different utilization levels based on the following parameters:
1) Size of payments made
222
2) Number and types of suppliers/vendors to whom the payments are being made
Divyani Malhotra
3) Frequency of payments etc.
Undergraduate College Shri Ram College of Commerce, DU
Based on mismatch of above parameters (high vs low), we shall nudge the low
utilization companies by running targeted advertisements. Field of Graduation B. Com (Hons.)
Interview Experience Professional Qualifications Actuarial Science
What worked well for you? My experience in data analytics helped me in this KPMG – 14 months
interview. Work Experience
Velocity – 12 months
Be more structured in articulating.
better?
None
Interviewer Tell me something about yourself.
Why consulting after audit?

What do you know about Mastercard Advisory services?
Be honest. Interviewers appreciate honesty.
Why do you think you are good fit for Consulting?
Which other shortlists do you have?
A brief discussion about one of my projects related to GTM.
Case Interview 1
Calculate the number of table tennis balls that can be put inside an Indigo airplane.
223
C: The number of balls that can be put inside a plane would be the =volume of the Your client is a card issuer. How can they increase their revenues?
plane-30% (for the seats, equipment which are a part of the airplane)/ volume of the
one TT ball. C: For the sake of the case can I assume the operations of the client to be like maybe
say ICICI bank?
I: Let us move forward with the approach only.
I: That's correct. But's lets only focus on increasing the profitability for the card’s
C: We can consider the middle portion of the plane to be a cylinder and the revenue segment.
dimensions can be calculated assuming the number of rows to be 30. Assuming
every row has distance of 1m distance between them which makes a 30m length C: Alright! Profitability can be measured in terms of Revenues and Costs. According
adding another 5m for the cockpit area, we get a total length of 35m. An average to my knowledge of the industry, revenue of the client would mostly be from the
person is of the height 2m. Hence the volume= 3.14*2*2*35=400m^3. Gross Dollar value charged from customers, transaction or interchange fee, interest
charged.
An average table tennis ball is of a radius 2.5-3cm. The volume of one
ball=4/3*3.14*3*3*3=113.04cm^3 which we convert back to my^3. And the costs are the costs of issuing, acquisition cost of the client, merchant fee
paid.
I: That is good enough.
Please let me know if I am missing out on anything as I am not fully aware about the
Interview Experience payments industry.
What worked well for you? Approach was well constructed, and I maintained a I: That's understandable. We can move forward with these heads. How can we
continuous interaction with the interviewer. increase the profitability from the interest revenue?
What could you have done Could have mentioned all the areas for which I will be C: Interest revenue are majorly charged when a consumer makes a purchase on the
better? calculating the area in the beginning credit card. We can look into the EMI section as that is major source of this kind of
an income. We can increase the EMI facilities in different products.
None I: That's a good point. We can close the case now. Do you have any questions?
Interviewer
Case Interview 2
224
I tried to keep it as structured as possible. Mansi Gupta
What could you have done Undergraduate College Delhi Technological University
Could have laid down a few more sub heads.
better?
Field of Graduation B. Tech (CSE)
None
Interviewer Professional Qualifications None

Read about the payments industry. Buddy calls are extremely important, take them
seriously. Understand their projects those can help you frame your HR answers. HR & Conversation Questions
Pitch yourself in one minute.
Elaborate on a research paper that you have worked on.
Why MasterCard?
Case Interview 1
Given profit margin and revenue for an airline, I had to calculate costs and analyze
profitability of the airlines.
225
I: A low-cost airline has 20% profit margin and 5 million as revenue. Their costs
comprise of 2 components: fuel and non-fuel. The fuel component is half of the non- Pranjali Garg
fuel component. Calculate the fuel cost.
Undergraduate College Kirori Mal College, Delhi University
C: Confirms that profit margin is (R-C)/R and proceeds to calculate.
Field of Graduation B. Com (Hons.)
I: Now if the fuel prices are set to increase by 10%, what would be the new profit
margin? Professional Qualifications None
C: Calculated. Deloitte Touche and Tohmatsu AERS Pvt. Ltd.- 24

Work Experience
months
I: Now can you suggest if the airline should continue operating or shut down because
of rise in fuel prices?
C: Explained that since the airlines are still profitable, they should continue to run.
I: Let us look at ways they can increase their profitability.
C: Broke down the whole profitability framework and listed all possible options.
Case Interview 1
Your client is a bank issuing thin file cards that wants to launch them in another
geography. How will you go about it?
Ran me through the flow of the interview, gave a quick introduction about himself
and asked me to introduce myself.
C: Focused more on the personal aspect and talked about what inspires and drives
me in life and how I have worked upon myself to get better with every venture that
I have taken up.
226
Your client is a bank issuing thin file cards that wants to launch them in another I: Was convinced with the reasoning and asked me to go ahead with the structure of
geography. How will you go about it? (After the introduction, the interviewer gave the estimation.
me the case and a brief on what ‘thin file cards’ are: Issued to people who have
limited credit history) C: Went ahead with the standard % division based on the income level with the focus
on the upper level and middle-income group of the total population.
C: Asked clarifying questions, Geographical Location? New geography within the
country or another country? Objective? More about the product- how are they I: (Ended the case being satisfied with the overall approach and structure) What
excites you about Mastercard?
different from credit cards? Other offerings by the bank? Launch for all the offerings
or just thin file cards? Any specific location that the client has already in favor? C: Talked about the focus on the booming payments industry.
I: India, want to expand to some other country, objective was to expand and increase Interview Experience
customer base. The card functions like a credit card except for the initial limit offered
on a thin file card is quite less which is subsequently improved based on the usage. What worked well for you? The interviewer was more interested in the
Mainly launch for only thin file cards. No specific location. structure rather than the actual answer so
being very structured with my answers and
C: I drew the structure which had 4 components and gave a brief overview of each
using first principle for any reasoning to
of the element relevant in each component- a. Country Selection (PESTLE): Political
justify my answer worked well
factors, legal factors, technological factors, and economic factors b. Industry Analysis
(Porter's 5 forces): Competition, Substitutes and Buyers c. Market estimation d. The What could you have done Could have been more specific with the
logical sequence of events. better? country that I could have chosen to do a
market estimate for?
I: Reiterated the structure and was convinced with the flow. Asked me to focus on
market estimation, what will be the main idea behind the estimation- can US be Questions asked to the What is the vision of Mastercard for its new
taken as an example. Interviewer launch: contactless cards?
C: Gave a brief that the main benefit will be in a country where income is sufficient
that people do not opt for loans/ credits and it is thus difficult to ascertain the credit Tips for Future Candidates
history of the population which will divert them towards thin file cards. A country
like US would be the right way to go for it. Be very structured with your approach Practice a few cards launch based
cases for Mastercard.
227
C: Where does the store operate? What product variants it sells (high ticket items /
Vaishnavi Gupta small etc.)
Undergraduate College Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, DU I: Delhi, sells both high- and low-ticket items.
Interviewee: What kind of business model the firm has? - rental charge, duration,
Field of Graduation Management
procurement from etc.
I: 3 possibilities - Either customer pays monthly charge as per use, customer pays
monthly charge for 2-3 months and then buys the furniture at lumpsum amount,
Work Experience Praxis Global Alliance – 12 months
customer pays monthly charge for a year or so and is handed over possession of
furniture.
HR & Conversation Questions C: What is current market share, How much decline in market share? Is the decline in
any SKU? who are competitors?
Tell me about yourself in under 1 min. (This was strictly timed by her using timer)
I: Market leader currently with 40% share, fragmented market with new entrants.
What kind of legacy you would like to leave and to which fictional / historical Decline is nonspecific.
character, the legacy resembles?
C: Structure- Market share of this firm will be a function of #customers* avg spend per
Elaborate on a project you did while working with Praxis. customer (further divided into - frequency of purchase* avg ticket size per item). So,
either one of these have been affected or a combination that led to fall in market
Brief discussion on hobbies.
share. I started elaborating reasons for all 4 buckets.
# customer falling due to customers switching to competitors. This can be because of

Case Interview 1
better customer discounts, better user interface for purchasing, awareness should not
A rental furniture store is experiencing loss in market share. Help the client on the be an issue as already market leader, better financing facilities like EMIs etc.
steps ahead.
228
I: Firm Y is giving higher discounts and is also providing attractive EMI options for high considered too to make sure you have ample
ticket items. Additionally, they are pushing the lumpsum model rather than other 2. opportunity to discuss your ideas as much as possible.
Can you tell why would they do it?
Questions asked to the How does MasterCard make its policies employee
C: Reason 1- Lower working capital for procuring new furniture for sale Interviewer friendly?
Reason 2- Customers like to rent brand new furniture and by pushing selling of the
same, they can keep fresh stock for rental customers and increase value proposition. Case Interview 2
I: What recommendations you would like to give? A low-cost airline player has xx revenues. Its non-fuel costs were 2x its fuel costs.
C: The firm has basically 2 types of customers - Paying Guests, usually millennials PAT margin was y%. The fuel costs have recently doubled. What is new profitability.
staying in Delhi for work / university - expect vibrant and sleek furniture. What should they do to maintain initial PAT margins?
Conservative customers who like to try high ticket furniture first and then buy if it suits C: Calculated new PAT margin by finding initial costs, then doubling fuel costs. Clearly
their ambience, such items are also lower priced than fresh product. stated the assumption that revenues have remain unchanged, i.e., price of ticket and
neither #customers have changed to calculate new PAT margin.
C: After doing cost benefit analysis, we can provide discounts like competitors and also
provide new services like home interior services for vibrant houses as target audience In order to maintain initial PAT margins, either revenues should increase, or costs
is millennials. should go down. Should I consider both possibilities?
I: Focus on increasing revenues only.

C: I would like to calculate by how much % we need to increase revenues considering
What worked well for you? I kept interviewer engaged and was always thinking out
costs cannot increase to maintain same PAT margin.
loud. I laid my points confidently and seek clarity
wherever required. Revenue = #customers * avg ticket size of a flight * avg frequency of travel
What could you have done I took a lot of time initially to understand business #customers: Increase occupancy rates in non-peak times (when its usually 30-40%) by
better? model. Because of that, we could not discuss any other reducing prices a bit and better marketing. Also, newer routes (via cities) can be done
bucket apart from #customers. Time should be to cater to newer locations for higher occupancy rates.
229
I: We do not want to incur any costs on marketing, routes are already at optimal and Questions asked to the What all variety of projects you do in Mastercard even
we can consider the occupancy point. Let us say 3% revenues increase due to it. (we Interviewer within payments segment?
needed ~14% increase)
C: For increasing avg ticket size: We can provide additional meals or newer Tips for Future Candidates
supplementary services such as OTT apps streaming etc.
Be humble and confident. Mastercard panelists for me were friendly, so show your
I: No, we want to maintain our image as low-cost carrier only. friendly side too. They ultimately want to have a good team member by their side.
C: The average frequency of travel can increase by more competitive pricing if

possible. New routes to cater to newer customers is not an option as already
established.
I: What recommendations you will give to this firm? Given we are 2nd in market
currently and 1 out of only 2 players who are profitable in the industry.
C: Not much can be done during this time to increase PAT margins. Our advantage lies
in sheer profitability which the firm is still making as high fuel costs will affect other
players too, and more severely, given they are already loss making. This opens new
doors to possible mergers in future and increase diversification of airlines leading to
higher revenues and higher future PAT margins.

The recommendation part impressed interviewer.
What could you have done I did not ask current market share of airline and more
better? on competitive landscape on my own.
230
Ayesha Hafeez
Undergraduate College Hans Raj College, University of Delhi
McKinsey Knowledge Center (30 months), EY (5

Work Experience
months)
As you know, McKinsey is increasingly focusing on inclusivity. Can you narrate an

incident from your life where you, as a woman, had to deal with multiple stakeholders
from different cultural backgrounds? How did you go about it and what was the
outcome?
Case Interview 1
The client is a large two-wheeler manufacturer in India. The growth for the last 3
years has been flat, ~0-1%, while the market has been growing at 5%. How can they
grow at a rate faster than the market growth rate?
The interviewer began with a case right away.
C: Just to reiterate the problem statement, our client is a large two-wheeler

manufacturer growing at ~0-1%. The client wants to grow at a rate greater than the
231
market growth rate which is 5%. So, I have to devise a growth strategy for the client. C: Thank you. There are 3 broad strategies we can consider here. First, I would like to
Is that correct? focus on the existing market and offerings, and the possibility of changing the product
mix and promotion tactics. Next, we can look at entering new geographies within and
I: Yes, sounds good. outside India. Lastly, we can diversify and introduce new products altogether.
C: I would like to begin with understanding the problem statement further. Could you I: Let us start with the first. Can you elaborate what you mean by the product mix?
tell me about any other geographies that the client caters to, what the value chain
coverage looks like and the number and location of plants that the client has? C: Maximum revenue for the client comes from motorcycles with <125cc engine, for
which the market growth is negligible. I would therefore suggest promoting the
I: The client operates only in India and has 4 plants across the nation. They existing stock of products aggressively and changing the product mix to push the sales
manufacture as well as sell the two-wheelers. of scooters since that segment is growing at the highest rate of 28%.
C: Thank you. Next, I would like to know about the revenue streams. Is the sale of two I: How would you suggest promoting the sales?
wheelers the only source of revenue? Are there different types of two-wheelers?
(Here I focused on the customer touch-point approach to suggest methods for both
I: Yes, there are 3 types of two wheelers - scooters, motorcycles with less than 125 cc scooters and piled up stock, and emphasized the importance of dealership experience
engine and motorcycles with greater than 125 cc engine. and incentives)
C: Great, could you help me with the market growth rate of these separate segments? C: Good. Let us say we come up with a new scooter for women. Can you suggest ways
I would also like to know the revenue split of the client. to leverage digital and analytics to improve the customer experience at a dealership
store?
I: Scooter sales are growing at 28%, <125cc motorcycle growth is negligible and >125cc
motorcycle growth rate is 10%. For the client, the revenue split is 25%, 70% and 5%, I laid down the customer journey to suggest methods to digitize in-store as well as test
respectively. drive experience and leverage the data collected to enhance products and services.
C: Interesting! This is definitely an aspect we should look at while devising the growth Interview Experience
strategy. Before that, I would like to understand the distribution channels and the
level of market fragmentation. What worked well for you? Not jumping to conclusions and scoping the problem
well before diving into the growth strategy. I also tried
I: The client has a large dealership channel of 1500 dealers and the market is to keep it conversational given the virtual scenario.
consolidated. The client is the market leader with 3 other players having similar
market share.
232
What could you have done I could have taken a break before answering towards
better? the end to ensure more comprehensive inputs. Disha Gupta
Questions asked to the Asked him about the function or industry he led. He Undergraduate College St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
Interviewer mentioned being part of the M&S and growth strategy
teams and that this was a real case he had worked on. Field of Graduation Statistics

Work Experience Fresher
Solve cases with seniors from the very beginning and make it a point to fair them out.
Focus on quality over quantity and be confident during the interview!
What are your academic interests?
Why McKinsey and why you?
Questions based on statistics
Case Interview 1
None. The first interview was majorly an interaction on different concepts of

Statistics.
233
What worked well for you? Communication, being honest with my answers and C: So here we have the total market for lifestyle products. Next, the average life of a
domain knowledge product is generally 3 years which I would factor in to get the annual demand. I would
then look at income division to understand which people will actually turn towards
What could you have done loans for their purchases (Took the interviewer's buy in while fitting the number to get
Structuring of answers the market size)
better?
Questions asked to the Current project you are working on, could you please I: So Disha, now that we do not have much time left can you summarize what steps
Interviewer introduce yourself (if not an alum/interacted with would you take after this to get to the answer.
already), how has your experience been so far.
C: Sure, I would consider the 50% market size and considering around 80% lifestyle
products (assuming phones, TVs, smart watches) are above 5K I would come up with
the final market size.
Case Interview 2
Your client is a financial institution who provides loan services. They plan to extend
loan facility to lifestyle products (TV, mobile phones) in the online market. Consider What worked well for you? Taking the hints dropped by the interviewer at every
they plan to tie up with e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart etc. How many
stage, communication, and confirming assumption.
loans could they expect, given that more than 50% of the market will avail the
service for products over ₹5k
What could you have done Scoping could have been better, Maintained a higher
better? speed.
(I asked some preliminary questions and scoped the problem)
C: Starting with India's population (took 1.4 Bn for ease of calculation), I would first
split them on the basis of urban and rural population. Then I would consider Internet Interviewer
penetration in these regions. Further I would divide each region on the basis of age as
it influences people's preference towards online medium for purchase of Lifestyle
products. Am I heading in the right direction?
I: Go ahead
Fitted the percentages and took buy in from the interviewer at every stage.
234
I started with the guesstimate by stating that:
Divita Bora I will look at the number of people involved in one stage play production (The
assumption here was that we were only including stage plays- I confirmed this later)
Undergraduate College Shri Ram College of Commerce This would include both direct (cast and crew) and indirect (costume and prop rentals)
Then I would extrapolate the number by multiplying it with the number of plays
Field of Graduation B. Com (Honors) showcased in a theatre,
Then further multiply this with the number of theatres in a city (dividing this into tier
Professional Qualifications None 1 and other cities)
For the cities, I took Delhi as a proxy since I had knowledge about the theatre circuit
Work Experience Bira 91 (B9 Beverages) – 25 months there.
I took some time in solving this, after which he told me to stop since we were short on
time. So, I asked if I could quickly tell him about the solutions that I had thought of,
HR & Conversation Questions which were broadly on the lines of pre-recording the performances and streaming it
online. I also spoke about some long-term solutions, of how to attract audiences back
to the theatres post the lockdown.
What has been a challenging phase of your life and how did you handle it?
What aspect of dramatics do you like the best (I had spoken about being actively
involved in dramatics in school and college)? What worked well for you? The interview was more like a conversation, and I think
related both the case problem and the HR questions to
my personal experiences helped me do well in the
Case Interview 1 interview
What population of India would have suffered during the lockdown because they What could you have done Could have been faster while solving the guesstimate so
were involved in the Theatre industry? How can the Government help them better? that I could cover more solutions
(alternate sources of revenue)?
None
I: Since I am also involved in dramatics, let us discuss a case about the same. What Interviewer
population of India would have suffered during the lockdown along with the revenue
loss because they were involved in the theatre industry? How can the Government
help them (alternate sources of revenue)?
235
C: I gave a basic overview of customer segments in each part.
Heet Shah
Undergraduate College IIT Bombay
What worked well for you? Good discussion about work experience and
Field of Graduation B. Tech (Civil Engineering) understanding about customer segments of hotel
industry helped.
What could you have done Not sticking to the set frameworks. I also could not
Work Experience Axis Bank – 25 months better? maintain a structure during the idea generation
process.
HR & Conversation Questions Questions asked to the None

Interviewer
How are you feeling?
Where are you from? (Some discussion about his recent visit nearby)
Case Interview 2
What are some of the interesting insights you found during your work at Axis?
Case 1: Your client is a dairy product manufacturer. It wants to double revenues in
3 years. How to go about it? Structure it.
Case Interview 1
Case 2: Client is the CEO of an automobile manufacturer (assume a company like
Client has a hotel chain with hotels across America and Europe. It also has 10-12 Hyundai). Government has just announced a lockdown due to COVID-19. What
hotels in India. Growth is stagnated in America and European markets, so the client should be his priority for next 30 days?
wants to explore whether to expand in India.
Both the cases were short 5-minute cases.
C: (Laid down a broad level structure of a typical market entry disguised in a 2*2
matrix.) Case 1: Asked few clarifying questions about current operations of the company and
used a standard growth strategy framework and explained each of the buckets and
I: Can you explore different customers segments and value proposition for each of ideas in each of it.
them?
236
Case 2: (The interviewer explicitly mentioned he just wants a structure and not ideas)
1. Business continuity Megha Punjabi
a. Supply (Split the value chain and highlighted the impacted areas)
b. Demand (Drew a Customer journey) Undergraduate College St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
2. Safety of People
a. Own Employees Field of Graduation Economics & Statistics
i. Factory employees
ii. Management/Central office employees Professional Qualifications None
b. Distributors/Retail Stores
Work Experience HDFC, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank (54 months)
What worked well for you? Structuring of cases concisely worked well and a good
connect with the interviewer during the initial HR
discussion. Tell me something about yourself.
What could you have done Why McKinsey? Why consulting?

NA
better?
What are your key strengths?
None Why mountaineering? Where all have you travelled solo?
Interviewer
What do you write on?
Case Interview 1
A private equity firm is interested to invest in metros and ports in India. Help them
decide.
C: Understood the motivation behind entry into the Indian market and this sector and
their existing portfolio. Clarified if there was any other motive for entering this market
237
apart from profits. For the valuation part, I analyzed the targeted rate of return and (The interview became more of a discussion and we discussed on the lines of how I
time for recuperating the investment and the desired cost of capital. would do this if I were on the case. I was able to bring creative ideas to the case.)
I: A Canadian firm wants to invest in India and is looking for good income flow. The Interview Experience
timeline is 2-3 months. There is no specific location or other constraints.
C: I analyzed the regulatory environment (given the nature of the sector, wanted to What worked well for you? Staying calm throughout the interview helped. I was
understand if there were any current / upcoming regulation regarding investments in enjoying the conversation and tried to structure all my
infrastructure). Clarified that tolls form a major source of revenue for the highway answers.
(95% w.r.t this case). Therefore, I restricted the analysis to the revenue earned via tolls
as a matter of this case. I mentioned about different types of valuations and clarified What could you have done
that Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method will be used to value this project. Read economic theories in detail.
better?
I: What are the potential risks to this investment? Questions asked to the
None
Interviewer
C: Used a graph to show the risk factors and ROI indifference curve.
Future economic outlook, systematic risk, operational, Technology changes in future,
currency risk. Spoke about the risk equation of r = (1/N) *Var + (1-1/N) * Cov to
highlight that there is always going to be some systematic risk and mentioned the risk
mitigation strategies through hedging.
I: Can you calculate the loss in case a type of commercial vehicles stopped using the
highway (agri: vehicles)?
C: (Got data related to different type and proportion of vehicles that use the highway
and calculated revenue lost if 50% of agri: commercial vehicles stop using the highway.
Data: 100,000 vehicles per day; 40% cars, 20% buses and 40% commercial vehicles
with toll charges 100, 200 and 300, respectively. 50% agri and remaining auto
commercial vehicles. Calculated per day loss of 3 Mio and was asked to list down the
reasons for decline in agri commercial vehicles and ways to compensate for the lost
income.
238
I: There are a lot of variants in the premium, mid, and economy segments.
Roopika Maniktala
C: Who are the customers of these products? Are they based in India?
I: Yes, all our customers are based in India. 80% of the supply is to people like you
Field of Graduation Commerce and me and 20% is B2B.
Professional Qualifications None C: What is the competition landscape like?
Work Experience JP Morgan – 24 months I: There are a lot of competitors, it is a fragmented market.
C: What is the objective of increasing the market share?
HR & Conversation Questions I: The company has hired a new CEO; he is working on growth of the company.
Pitch for 30 seconds as to why you are good at teamwork/ drive/ leadership. C: Okay, since the company wants to increase the market share to 20% in next 5
years, it should try to grow either organically or inorganically. For organic growth, it
may enter new markets or launch new products for the existing ones. For inorganic
Case Interview 1 growth since M&A is out of option, we can look for joint ventures with other players
to build a brand in new markets or we can have franchises and retain the control.
Paint manufacturer has 12% market share and wants to achieve 20% market
share over next 5 years. M&A is not an option. Help the client. I: Let us just focus on organic growth for now. There is not much scope to increase
the portfolio of products that the company has. But we have seen that most of the
C: What kind of paints does the company manufacture? sales come from premium products followed by mid category and we do not have
any market share in the economy class products. We have two proposals. First is to
I: Paints that go on walls. increase premium sales as much as possible, focus a lot more on mid and mostly stay
away from economy. Second is to enter the economy segment while retaining or
C: Is it an established company? Can I imagine something like Asian Paints? increasing shares in the other two segments. Why don’t you run some calculations
to see which one would be better?
I: Yes, it is an established player. Asian Paints is a good comparable.
(Gave numbers for market demand across all segments and market share of the
C: What are the different products/SKUs that the company offers? company in each segment. Discussed the numbers with before reaching a solution)
239
C: On the basis of these numbers, second option will be better. Since the company What worked well for you? Being able to pick hints and follow the direction
will enter a new segment it will be beneficial for the long-term growth as well. provided by the interviewer. Also, since it was a
number heavy case, walking the interviewer through
I: But what do you think about the first option? What if the company does not have
all the calculations before choosing any option helped
the necessary resources to delve into economy category paint production? The
company’s USP is premium products and as such does not have a customer base for me
economy class products.
What could you have done More analysis on choosing options other than what
C: We can a take a look at all the aspects right from the customer segmentation, better? the numbers conveyed could have been done.
geographical areas, positioning of the product for each of these product categories Focusing on implied qualitative factors and not getting
to see where the efforts need to be directed. blinded by numbers was something that the
interviewer was looking for
I: What all basic metrics would you cover? Product category is one, pricing is another;
what else? Questions asked to the About his area of practice and experience at the firm
Interviewer
C: Marketing and sales & distribution could be other areas of concern
I: That is correct. Distribution could be an issue. Try to compare our distribution

channel with that of other major players and suggest what changes can be made.
(Gave category-wise distribution for different players and number of shops in which
they sell products and asked to decide if we should distribute more products in
existing shops or increase the number of shops)
C: (Based on numbers, provided pros and cons for each option and after discussing
concluded that more products should be distributed using existing network)
I: I think that is good, let us end the case here.
240
Case 3: Your client is a large FMCG manufacturer/company with multiple brands
Sathya Sahay and products under its ambit. It has seen a decline in profitability despite no
change in profit per unit profit or production costs. Why might this have occurred?
Undergraduate College Ashoka University, Sonipat
I: Good Morning Sathya, how are you feeling?
Field of Graduation B.Sc. Economics and Finance
C: Good Morning Sir. I am excited but also a little nervous. I would be lying if I said I
Professional Qualifications None was not sweating under this suit and my heart was not racing at 100 miles an hour.
Work Experience Fresher I: Haha! As you can see, I am dressed in a t-shirt and I am the one taking your
interview, so my vitals are just fine. I have not had the chance to glance through your
CV yet, so why don't you tell me a little about yourself?
HR & Conversation Questions C: Sure Sir! (introduced myself)

I: That's great Sathya. Why do you want to join McKinsey?
Why do you want to join McKinsey?
C: (an elaborate answer focusing on culture, values, people, international exposure,
Would you regret ranking McKinsey first if you get rejected right now? and aspirational value) I was getting cold feet about ranking McKinsey first with all
the hot calls flying around from other companies, so I had a really honest chat with
my McKinsey mentor about how he dealt with this dilemma and its associated
feelings when he was in my shoes and he really took the time to allay my fears over
Case Interview 1 a 1.5-hour phone call. The conversation really drove home the level of support that
McKinsey provides to its people - and it is exactly what I would want in an
Case 1: You are a consultant to the CEO of Hyundai sitting in March 2020. What
organization that I work with.
would be your priorities/measures/concerns in the next 30 days with the COVID19
lockdown having just been imposed?
I: I would actually love to chat more about the risks and rewards associated with
ranking McKinsey first for someone in your position but in the interest of time, let
Case 2: Your client is a large dairy product manufacturer who is a market leader in
us dive into a case. You are a consultant to the CEO of Hyundai sitting in March 2020.
India. They want to double their revenues in the next 2 years. Suggest possible
What would be your priorities/measures/concerns in the next 30 days with the
avenues available to them.
COVID19 lockdown having just been imposed?
241
C: (asked scoping questions about the company, its operations, and the situation) I C: I would certainly cry myself to bed tonight, but I would take the same decision if
think the way I would approach this is to look at the value chain of Hyundai and see given the choice once again.
where all one could face issues with the imposition of the lockdown - right from
procurement of raw materials to sales and distribution... I: I am glad. It was great interacting with you, best of luck in case you have any other
interviews lined up for the day.
I: I like the approach, but you are using a framework here. Let us change up the
problem. Your client is a large dairy product manufacturer who is a market leader in C: Thank you Sir!
India. They want to double their revenues in the next 2 years. Suggest possible
avenues available to them. Interview Experience
C: (asked scoping questions about the company, products, competitors, customers,
market context and constraints) So here we could look at multiple options. We could What worked well for you? Staying calm even though the problem statement was
expand using our existing business and grow organically. However, given that we are constantly changing and keeping the case solving as
a market leader, we may be unable to meet our growth targets. So, we could look at conversational as possible.
new products like frozen yoghurt or enter new geographies where we are likely or
expect similar success like at home. Alternatively, we could go with the inorganic What could you have done Could have tried to think from a more first principle
route and acquire a player in the existing or new markets that we presently operate
better? approach instead of applying a framework to the first
in. Would you like me to look into any particular idea?
problem.
I: These are all good suggestions. Let us do another one - Your client is a large FMCG
manufacturer/company with multiple brands and products under its ambit. It has None
seen a decline in profitability despite no change in profit per unit or production costs. Interviewer
Why might this have occurred?
C: (broke down profitability mathematically) Could it be because prices and costs are
both increasing by the same amount, leading to a decline in percentage terms? Tips for Future Candidates
Keep calm and try to make the interview as conversational as possible, even while
I: Suppose that is not the case.
being structured during case solving.
C: Then it could also be because the product mix has changed.
I: Absolutely. Thanks, Sathya, we can stop solving cases now. Would you regret your
decision of ranking McKinsey first if you get rejected right now?
242
What worked well for you? The two-way conversation and an in-depth discussion
Vaishnavi Patki about my work (my comfort zone) paved the way for
second round.
Undergraduate College Institute of Chemical Technology
NA
Field of Graduation Food Engineering & Technology better?
Professional Qualifications None Questions asked to the

None
Interviewer
Work Experience Marico Limited – 26 months
Case Interview 2
Your client is a financial institution who provides loan services. They plan to extend
How are you feeling? loan facility for the online market. Consider they plan to tie up with e-commerce
platforms like Amazon. How many loans could they expect?
Tell me a little about your work at Marico.
Post reiterating the question statement, clarified the minimum price point that has
What did you like the most while working there? to be considered for the guesstimate. (3k+)
What kind of project would you love working on if you get to intern with McKinsey? Checked with the interviewer if focusing on Electronics and Fashion segment would
be correct for the guesstimate and then proceeded with this assumption.
Case Interview 1 Started with daily/monthly visitors on Amazon website & App, followed by an
average conversion rate.
There was no case in this round. The focus of the interview was on my work
experience and learnings. Later considered the percentage of people who would buy items from the above-
mentioned two segments, considered all the available payment options, and then
Interview Experience landed on a number for the people who will actually opt for loans provided by our
client.
243
Vedika Gulati
What worked well for you? I believe thinking out loud and keeping the
interviewer aligned worked well for me. Undergraduate College Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, DU
What could you have done Field of Graduation Management

NA
better?
None
Interviewer McKinsey Knowledge Center (24 months), Grant
Work Experience
Thornton (6 months)
Why would you like to come back to McKinsey?
Describe a project wherein you took a leadership role.
Tell us one of the biggest hardships that you overcame in life?
Case Interview 1
The client is a PE firm and would like to evaluate an Indian asset portfolio of roads,
railways, highways, ports etc. We have received the cash flow position from target
company. Suggest a list of risks to the cash flows.
I: The client is a PE firm and would like to evaluate an Indian asset portfolio of roads,
railways, highways, ports etc. We have received the cash flow position from target
company. Suggest a list of risks to the cash flows.
244
C: Asked about the firm, its location of operations, any particular asset they would regular maintenance costs of the highway until the asset is handed over to the
like me to look at first and where does the firm lie in terms of its value chain of government.
managing the assets (i.e., whether the client is involved in building assets,
maintaining the assets, etc.). I: Good, now let us consider that we won a bid for a highway between Mumbai and
Hyderabad. It has been 5 years since construction. We have projections of the cash
I: The client is an established PE Firm, operates Pan India, and no particular asset is flow for the next the 25-30 years. Evaluate the risks to this cash flow in term of
a priority at the moment. In terms of value chain, the client bids for an asset, and revenue from toll.
once the contract is won, client is responsible to construct the asset (say a highway
or a port), then maintain it for a certain period before handing it over to the C: The way I would calculate the revenue would be as follows - Number of cars x
government in about 35 years. Frequency of visit x Toll per visit.
C: Could you give me a moment to structure my thoughts? I: Would only cars be paying the toll?
I: Sure, go ahead. C: No, the vehicles would include passenger cars, cabs, buses, trucks,
and two wheelers.
C: We can start by looking at multiple factors that could affect the operating cash
flows. The factors could be external to the firm and beyond its control, such as any I: Right. Let us focus on trucks. What are the risks to toll revenue from trucks?
regulatory changes by the government (since one of the major stakeholders in the
contracts is the government), contractual changes, any substitutes to the assets that C: Could you give me a moment to structure my thoughts?
come up (alternatives to highways, roads, etc.) or could be internal to the firm, such
as efficiency in managing traffic, maintenance of assets (allowing more users), rates I: Sure.
of tolls (if any), etc.
C: Toll revenue would be a function of number of trucks and the toll charges. We
I: Good. What would be the operating inflow and outflow of cash for acquiring or could have direct and indirect factors impacting the toll revenue from trucks. In case
maintaining an asset, say a highway? of direct factors, we could have any alternate routes available to the truck drivers
(could be another highway) affecting the number of trucks taking the highway.
C: Sources of inflow of cash would be toll collection, lease money for renting out area Changes in toll charges could also have an impact on the revenue.
in and around the highway, for instance - for petrol pumps, small restaurants and Since the trucks are travelling between two cities (Mumbai and Hyderabad), they
leasing out advertising spaces. Sources of outflow of cash can be looked at by would primarily be serving as inbound and outbound transportation for the
considering the value chain. We would pay out the bid money, outflow of cash for companies. So, the indirect factors could be inter-state taxes, cost of raw materials
buying raw materials and machinery, hiring labor to construct the highway and the within the two cities, and regulatory & legal requirements especially with respect to
transportation of trucks (for e.g.- timings within which trucks can operate).
245
I: Take two industries - agriculture and automobile. Trucks supplying to these two I - Client is a financial institution (FI), estimate the number of loans the FI would
industries contribute maximum to the toll revenue, about 40%. Inter tax rates disburse in one month to customers buying a product online via e-commerce
between the states have increased, toll revenue from trucks supplying to which platforms.
industry would be impacted the most?
C - By products being purchased on an e-commerce platform, do you mean a
C: It is hard to switch supply from one source to another in case of agriculture platform like Flipkart and Amazon?
industry since its dependent on climate, soil, etc., while for automobile industry it
could be relatively easier to shift the source. I - Yes, for simplicity, assume it to be Flipkart.
I: Good, thank you, Vedika. C – Okay. Are we focusing on any particular region or is it Pan India? Do we have any
specific criteria for disbursing the loan?
I - Nothing specific.
What worked well for you? Maintaining composure and being open-minded
helped, especially since this is not a usual case and the C: Okay, just give me a moment here.
interviewer kept transitioning from one case problem
I - I would like to calculate the number of online purchases and then find out the
to another.
proportion of purchases for Flipkart and finally the proportion of loans disbursed by
the FI.
What could you have done I could have taken the interviewer’s buy-in at more
better? points during the case.
So, number of online purchases = Population (130 Crore) x Rural / Urban (~7:3) x
Internet penetration (30%) x Income Classes (40% of middle/lower middle class) x
Age (35% - 15-35 years) x Proportion of online purchasers (assumed 30%) x
Interviewer Frequency of high-cost purchases (Once in 6 months) x Factor for mode of financing
(EMI, Loans, self-finance)
Case Interview 2 Then, Loans for purchases on Flipkart = number of online purchases x Market Share
of Flipkart (~30%)
Client is a financial institution (FI), estimate the number of loans the FI would (Fortunately, I knew the market share and took the interviewer's go-ahead on this
disburse in one month to customers buying a product online via e-commerce one)
platforms.
246
Finally, Number of Loans for FI in one month = Loans for Purchases of Flipkart x
Market share of FI
(For market share of FI, I asked the interviewer if we had information on the market
share directly or if we knew the number of FIs in the sector. The interviewer told me
that there were 3 close competitors, hence I could assume 1/4th of the market share
for simplicity)
What worked well for you? Having knowledge on industry specific value chain
helped. This time I tried to take in interviewer’s buy-in
wherever possible.
What could you have done I could have considered more buckets such as sales or
better? discount-days during festivals.

Interviewer
Practice as many cases of different types as possible, especially abstract cases since
it helps broaden one’s perspective.
Take in interviewer’s go-ahead wherever possible
247
What are you plans post MBA?
Aditya Jain
Why PWC? Why this role? Why consulting?
Undergraduate College Hansraj College
Field of Graduation B. Com (H) Case Interview 1
Professional Qualifications None Estimate the number of cows in Lucknow.
KPMG India – 18 months (After taking 30-40 seconds to think)

Work Experience
Grail Insights – 14 months C: I would do this by the following approach: [(Cow milk demand in Lucknow (month)
+ exports - imports)/Average milk given by a cow] + Non lactating cows + Stray cows.
My assumption here is that the first two 2 categories of cows are kept in a closed
HR & Conversation Questions facility.
Tell me about yourself I: Seems fine, go ahead.
Go through your work ex starting from KPMG and briefly go through the work you Note: There were some cross questions when I was calculating the numbers, but he
did there? was happy with the approach.
Talk about the major projects you did at Grail Insights. Interview Experience
Asked me about my PORs and the challenges I faced and how I managed everything. What worked well for you? Quality and clarity of work experience and taking a
structured approach in the guesstimate.
Questions related to the applicability of marketing concepts in my work experience.
Tell me about your biggest achievement.
better?
How did you work in a team when there was a personal conflict between you and a
Questions asked to the I was sitting for the Customer Strategy Role, which
team member?
Interviewer had multiple functions under it. I asked him how we
248
are going to be allocated in those functions, if selected better?
and how switchable are they in the long run.
Interviewer None
Case Interview 2
Part 1 – Estimate the revenue of a food delivery platform in Delhi. Tips for Future Candidates
Part 2 – Case: Pricing strategy case for a food delivery platform Hard-work and proactiveness are key during the prep days, and confidence and
Some questions that I was asked during the interview are: patience are key during the process. Start early and be consistent. Rest will follow.
- Develop the pricing structure of a food delivery platform comprehensively for a

particular area?
- What is this pricing strategy called? \

- What are other pricing strategies?
- What are the factors that you would consider while deciding pricing for a particular
area? What are the pricing drivers?
- Will the pricing be different for an area like Old Delhi and for an area somewhere
in South Delhi? Why?
What worked well for you? Taking a MECE approach and having end to end
clarity on work that I did in KPMG and Grail.
249
I: Tell me about yourself
Fazin M Naseer
C: I mainly talked about my college Internship and work-ex focusing on different
Undergraduate College NIT Calicut experiences I have working in cloud and assisting in digital transformation and some
questions on CRM as my work-ex was developing a CRM.
Field of Graduation B.Tech. – Electronics and Communication
I: What do you know about Consulting especially M&A?
C: I started reading about the consulting domain while I was working and basically it
Work Experience Netcracker Technology – 36 months was about solving problems and I was able to relate to the work I was doing. Even
though it was development I was more interested in finding solutions to customer
requirements. Considering M&A cases, a similar work for me was integrating
HR & Conversation Questions different modules into the project and I had to do a similar due diligence there
before integration. So, I was able to relate my current work with consulting.
I: What are the different factors that should be considered for IT integration while
Why consulting? merging two companies?
What are your 3 skills which can be useful while working in PwC? C: First thing that should be considered is the data of two companies such as
employee data, customer data, vendor data etc.
How did you manage a conflict while leading a team?
I: What factors need to be considered while integrating data?
What do you know about cloud applications, CRM, IT?
C: Integration depends on how it is stored, if it is in cloud or on-premises data center,
What do you think constitutes IT of a company?
if the same cloud provider data could be migrated, if different data need to be
exported and imported. Data models might be different for the same entity type as
Case Interview 1 employee data fields. Then, the kind of databases being used become relevant, such
as the use of SQL or not. This will also determine the time and cost of integration.
What are the different factors that should be considered for IT integration while One thing that needs to be considered is the privacy laws in different countries as
merging two companies?
250
some countries might require the data to be stored in the same country as the GDPR which I did not know. So, reading about that would be
law. good
I: Okay. What are the other bottlenecks other than data? Questions asked to the Will there be a spike after Covid-19 for Digital
Interviewer Transformation as companies rely on technology now
C: Infrastructure will be a factor like servers, data centers, etc. Companies might
more than ever?
have different infrastructure requirements. One may be completely in cloud while
other on premise or a combination of the two. So, decisions need to be taken
regarding what to use and which one to use. Some might be obsolete and can be Case Interview 2
sold off.
There are two companies A and B. Company B is divesting a vertical to company A.
I: What do you think about applications? Company B came to PwC to help them in their divestiture. How will you go about
C: Companies might have different applications being used by different departments it? Company B has 20 SaaS applications, 20 Vendor Applications (On-Premises),
such as ERP, CRM, HRM etc. Some might be cloud applications and some installed in and 20 Company Applications (On-Premises) that need to be migrated.
local data centers. The license needs to be changed or updated, some applications I: Tell me about yourself?
need to be removed and employees need to be trained. So, data associated with
these applications also needs to be moved. C: I gave a 2 min introduction focusing on Work Ex, my role as a team leads at work,
and my interest in problem solving.
I: You almost covered the basic buckets. Read more about IT Due diligence and see
what you have missed. I: What do you think constitutes IT of a company?
Interview Experience C: According to me IT can be divided into broadly 3 buckets – Infrastructure,

Applications, and Data and People. Under Infrastructure come the servers, data
What worked well for you? Since the interview was for DDV-IT having a basic centers (power and cooling systems), networking equipment’s, user workstations,
understanding of what constituted IT of a company meeting room equipment’s like projector, mouse, laptops, and all cables. Under
was critical Applications come all the applications being used by employees, vendors, customers
and all the automation tools. Employee applications include enterprise applications
What could you have done I missed mentioning Hardware devices like user
like ERP, CRM, HRM, applications used by Accounting and Finance teams, customer
better? workstations, extra laptops, Headphones, etc. while
service tools, other applications like IDE for developers, third-party applications
explaining IT components. I was asked about TSA
251
integrated by using Open APIs, payment gateways etc. Also, if it is a tech company Company A might require some time to migrate so it cannot be done strictly on day
there would be projects which are being developed by the R&D team. The data 1, hence, a TSA can be signed so that company B allows company A to use its
associated with all these applications is either stored in a public cloud, private cloud, resources by paying a premium to company B.
on premise data center or workstation of an employee – all need to be considered.
Also, the licenses of the 3rd party applications need to be re-negotiated and the I: If company A is using the company A data centers according to the TSA what are
owner changed. Third come the people who run and maintain all the applications. the disadvantages for company B?
Technicians who maintain the servers, developers who build and support C: Previously all the resources were being used by company B. Now since it shares
applications, the IT guy who provides the necessary devices and fixes them on time, the resource servers, storage needs to be given to company B. If virtualization is not
all constitute the people of an IT company with the CTO and CIO at the top there, under-utilization of resources will take place.
depending on the hierarchy of the company.
I: Okay. We can stop with the case. Tell me What are your 3 skills which can be useful
I: There are two companies A and B. Company B is divesting a vertical to company A. while working in PwC?
Company B came to PwC to help them in their divestiture. How will you go about it?
Company B has 20 SaaS applications, 20 Vendor Applications (On-Premises), and 20 C: One, problem solving skills that I have developed with my 3 years of work ex.
Company Applications (On-Premises) that need to be migrated. Second, knowledge on different technologies and expertise in working cloud and
third, being a people’s person, I will be able to handle different clients and my
C: The 20 SaaS applications should support multi tenancy so that a new tenant needs experience being part of pre-sales demos will help in communicating with clients.
to be created for company A and all data needs to be transferred to the new tenant
DB. Company B our client can now reduce its OPEX (Operational Expenditure) as SaaS I: Thank you Fazin. That is all.
applications usually charge by the no. of users and the number of resources used.
Here both are getting reduced, so a new deal needs to sign with the SaaS application Interview Experience
providers.
What worked well for you? I had a clear structure when I explained about the IT
I: What about On-Premises ones? of a company. The interviewer was really impressed
as I covered almost everything in my structure.
C: The 20 vendor applications need to be installed in Company A on premise and
corresponding data needs to be moved. If not on premise, they can migrate it to What could you have done Be careful of who your client is as it could be the
cloud. As company B is also using the applications, a new deal can be signed with the better? acquirer or the one divesting. I made a mistake here
vendor or if we do not require the on-premises data centers which were previously and was asked to start from the beginning. So, keep
used, company B can sell it off depending on the new capacity requirement.
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ears open as solution changes depending on the
client Gautham Anand
Questions asked to the Undergraduate College IIIT Allahabad
Interviewer None
Field of Graduation B. Tech Electronics and Communications Engineering
Tips for Future Candidates Professional Qualifications None
The role I applied for was DDV IT. For industry or function specific roles, read a lot Work Experience RBS – 36 months
and have context. I read a lot about IT Due diligence which came in handy during my
interviews. I would also suggest being well-versed with your CV and know about the
projects done during work experience. HR & Conversation Questions
Give a brief description of your work-ex.
Why consulting? Why PwC IT?
What is your opinion on the impact of US Presidential election results in India?
What do you know about the possible acquisition of IndusInd Bank by Kotak
Mahindra?
Case Interview 1
How would you go about integrating the IT divisions of two firms looking to go
through a merger? What are the different components you would take into
consideration?
253
Talked about the different buckets that should be considered. Applications, integrate, and to implement an overall IT transformation. Also tell me how you
Infrastructure, Organization, Suppliers/Vendor Management, IT Culture, and IT would order the three major tasks: IT Transformation, IPO, and IT Integration.
Operations.
Initially started with CPCC questions to get background on the two companies, the
Faced further cross questioning on the applications bucket, in particular ERPs. Was areas in which they operate, an idea of what their value chains look like, etc. This was
asked how I would go about deciding between two different ERPs that were in use in similar for both companies.
the client and the target. Answered by mentioning points of difference between the
C: What kind of products does the target manufacture? Does the target have any
two in terms of capabilities, pricing, etc.
specific offerings that the client does not have currently?
I: The target makes vinyl-liner pools which the client does not. They also have a
What worked well for you? Communicating the broad structure effectively method of manufacturing these which are much faster than the manufacturing
probably gave a good impression from the offset. process of the client.
What could you have done Better preparation. IT integration does not appear in C: Right, so this is the reason the client is considering the acquisition. Would you like
better? any consulting prep material, and the structure had to for me to dive deeper into the different synergies that can be achieved?
be pieced together from various sources on the
I: Yes, therefore the acquisition is being considered. Before moving further, tell me
internet. A single consolidated source would have given
how you would order the three major tasks mentioned before.
me more time to prepare some sample cases and reach
a concrete solution during the interview. C: Alright. Before I can decide can you tell me what is the timeline being considered
for the IPO?
Interviewer I: The client wants to launch the IPO in the next 5 years.
C: And what is the reason the client wants to perform this IT transformation? Do they
Case Interview 2 have outdated systems or is it to streamline the IT division?
A swimming pool manufacturer in the US is looking to acquire another pool I: The client wants to perform the IT transformation because of a lack of uniformity in
manufacturer. The combined entity is also looking to launch an IPO in the future. the applications it uses in its two divisions.
Objectives are to assess risks, evaluate steps for IPO readiness, look at how to
254
C: Then, I would put the IT transformation first to streamline the client's IT processes my structure was likely given more weight than an
and make them more efficient and coherent before moving onto the acquisition and actual final solution.
going forward with the IT integration, and then finally the IPO.
What could you have done I was slightly haphazard in structure. Referring to a
I: Alright great. How would you go forward with the IT integration? Look at this from better? consolidated framework would have helped.
a due-diligence perspective. What are the various considerations you would consider
while merging the IT functions? Questions asked to the Questions about projects the interviewer had worked
Interviewer on. The case given was a real-life scenario that the
C: I would look at the following broad buckets when considering an IT integration: interviewer had worked on.
Applications (like ERP, CRM, etc.), Infrastructure (Hardware infra like servers,
Infrastructure software like OS etc.), Organization (it is size and structure, capabilities, Case Interview 3
location, etc.), Suppliers/Vendor Management, IT Culture, and IT Operations
Following on from the Kotak IndusInd discussion (in HR questions), how would you
There was slight deep diving into the Applications, Infrastructure and Organization go about integrating the IT functions of both banks?
buckets. Questions were around how the integration would happen.
Started with a standard M&A IT checklist. Listed out the different components of the
There was also a question on IPO readiness from an IT perspective. What kind of IT IT divisions that need to be looked at before a merger - Applications, Infrastructure,
requirements would be most important for making the client IPO ready? I had given Organization, Suppliers/Vendor Management, IT Culture, and IT Operations.
an answer with mentions of financial and accounting software, and specialized
software to prepare and publish financial reports, before time ran out. I was asked about the Applications and Infrastructure buckets - the various
components that would come under these, and the criteria I would use to evaluate
Interview Experience how integration was to happen.
What worked well for you? Working on feedback and learnings from previous I was also asked about cloud transformation - What IT components of a bank could be
interview. Communication was key. I had been able to moved to the cloud, and what could not? Why?
give a skeleton for the case, and the different
parameters to assess while doing IT integration, but no Interview Experience
specifics. The clarity with which I had communicated
What worked well for you? Being communicative and clear at every step.
255
What could you have done Asked about work culture at PwC and particularly in
better? DDV-IT. Also asked questions based on interviewer's Kavya Jacob
previous work-ex and relevance to work at PwC.
Undergraduate College BMCC, Pune
Interviewer None Field of Graduation B. Com (H)
Professional Qualifications CA
Might be helpful to refer to the following for forming a framework for IT integration:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118692028.app2
What do you know about the work PWC does?
Why is cashflow statement important?
What are the ratios in manufacturing sector?
What is zero based budgeting? What are the sub-functions under the CFO?
Describe the work done during your articleship.
What is P2P?
What is a 3-way match?
How would you reduce the SGA of a company?
256
Case Interview 1 What worked well for you? I had thoroughly gone through what the company does,
what the role entails, and I had tried anticipating and
Estimate the number of thermal scanners in India. preparing for potential questions based on my CV which
is majorly what they were looking for.
C: By thermal scanners do we mean the temperature measuring devices used at
malls, restaurants, etc. before entering, to check for fever during COVID-19. What could you have done I should have practiced more guesstimates. That would
better? have given me much more confidence and comfort
I: Yes, that is correct.
during the interview.
C: I will be using the demand side approach to figure out the number of thermal
scanners. Does that seem okay to you? Basic questions about the company and the role.
Interviewer
I: Yes, please go ahead.
C: I would like to bifurcate the users of thermal scanners into hospitals/clinics and Case Interview 2
others (theaters, restaurants, offices etc.).
Estimate the potential number of persons who would travel by metro in Pune.
I: That sounds like a fair approach.
C: I will use the supply side approach to figure out roughly how many people travel by
metro. I will do these calculations for a day. This can be then extrapolated to a week,
C: I would look at the number of people going to the above places in Pune. I would
then a month and then a year.
then use a relevant multiple for the entire country keeping 2 things in mind; 1-
Population of Pune, 2- Pune being a Tier-1 city will have more restaurants, malls, etc. I: Good. Go ahead.
than Tier-2 cities and rural areas.
C: I will take the starting point as the population of Pune and then bifurcate it based
(Some figures were discussed but more than the final answer the interviewer was on age. For age brackets 0-10 and 60-80, I would assume that only 10% would travel
looking for sound logic. Also, being a telephonic interview, it was slightly difficult for by metro. For the age 11-25, the age bracket of school and college going students, a
the interviewer to keep a track of the numbers) higher rate of say 40% can be used. For the working class, i.e., age 25-50, I would
assume based on my experience that around 65% go by metro. Do these assumptions
seem fair to you?
257
I: Yes, you can proceed.
Saurav Yadav
C: The above calculation will be done for a weekday. For Weekends, I will assume
that the crowd is 50% of that on a weekend since offices and educational institutions Undergraduate College IIT Kanpur
are generally shut. The results of the week can be extrapolated to find yearly
travelers. Field of Graduation Chemical Engineering
I: Good, we can end the case now, Thank you. Professional Qualifications None
Tips for Future Candidates Work Experience Dr. Reddy's Laboratories – 36 months
Be very thorough with both the role and your CV.

Asked me to elaborate on 3 work-ex pointers, providing a brief overview of my

internship, followed by my experience as a freelancer.
Asked me to summarize myself as a person, including my likes and dislikes.
A brief about my family & their traditional occupation was asked.
A question on strengths and weaknesses.
Overview of academic journey - ups and downs.
Questions on situational questions like a moment when I overcame resistance to

accomplish something significant and an instance where I followed an unconventional
technique.
Case Interview 1
258
Guesstimate the no. of masks disposed-off daily in the city of Mumbai. I: What other factors?
Commercialization of a pharmaceutical drug in a new geography: aspects to C: Pricing such that the incurred R&D cost can be recovered basis projected demand.
consider? Launch generic version of the same drug if unaffordable in underdeveloped countries.
Covered product life cycle of an innovator drug.
(The case was pertaining to my pharma related work-ex)
I: Further cross questioning on drug patent and other stakeholders involved in the
I: Commercialization of a pharmaceutical drug in a new geography: how to go about launch.
it?
C: Answered.
C: Clarified about geographies to be targeted, drug type, the targeted disease, the
prevalence of the disease, innovator, or generic drug. Interview Experience
I: Asked me to summarize my approach. What worked well for you?

Overall understanding of healthcare industry
C: Demand, supply, regulatory and pricing to be considered for an economical &
seamless commercialization
What could you have done Defending CV points. It is important to be well-versed
I: How to estimate the size of the market (demand)? better? with your CV.
C: Through disease prevalence, population size and the severity of the disease. Questions asked to the
Future impact of pandemic on healthcare industry.
Interviewer
I: What factors to consider in supply?
C: Raw material cost (API is expensive and inhouse development can reduce the
procurement cost), manufacturing plant and its operations, warehousing and Case Interview 2
distribution channels
Commercialization of a pharmaceutical drug in a new geography: aspects to
I: What goes in regulatory approval? consider? (Same case was asked in both rounds)
C: FDA reviews the product development report before approving the launch of a Commercialization of a pharmaceutical drug in a new geography. I covered demand,
drug, preclinical and clinical trials data also required. supply, regulatory and pricing aspects.
259
Describe an incident where you were required to adapt to changes very quickly. How
Shinjani Jindal did you accept those changes?
Undergraduate College MNNIT Allahabad

Case Interview 1
Field of Graduation Electrical Engineering
What is the total area impacted by PepsiCo in India?
C: Categorized it into PepsiCo owned operations & Franchises. Within each category
Work Experience PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. – 12 months further classified into agricultural area, cold storages, manufacturing facilities,
warehouses, distribution centers and PepsiCo's offices.
I: Focus on the agricultural activities.

C: Categorized it into land under Potato cultivation (Contract Farming & Independent
sources), rice, corn & gram cultivation for other food products and water from areas
What are your 3 weaknesses? around beverage plants.
Why Consulting? And why Operations consulting particularly? Interview Experience
Why PwC? What worked well for you? The fact that I knew my plant operations worked to my
advantage because the role was also Operations
Tell me more about your primary project. What was the problem statement and how Consulting.
did you approach it?
What could you have done I could have done the guesstimate in lesser time.
Describe a project apart from your main project that you believe was impactful. better? Practicing is the key here!
Explain the end-to-end operations of your plant. Questions asked to the How does a day at PwC look like?
Interviewer
Describe an incident where you were under a lot of pressure but had to deliver results. Do you provide only solutions to clients or stay with
them throughout the implementation phase as well?
260
Case Interview 2 implement this at a particular lake, where they find that the sheets keep getting
blown away by the wind and the thermocol is unable to serve its purpose. How
You are a company that provides warehousing services in North & Central America. should the MP proceed if he wants to use these sheets? Devise a business plan for
But you want to expand your operations in Southern regions as well, so you decide him to present at the budget meeting.
on merging with another similar company that is a major player in the market,
second only to you. How would you go about the whole merger? Cover all aspects- Part 2: Guesstimate the total budget needed for implementing this across 10 lakes
Legal, Operational etc. each being 200m wide and 1km long?
Followed the basic M&A framework. Dived deep into operational issues that could Started with the harmful impact of thermocol on aquatic life. Suggested that we could
arise (the Interviewer wanted to check my understanding of warehousing & logistics). use some spacing between the sheets for sufficient oxygen supply.
Was asked to discuss inventory management too.
Asked questions around wind speed and general weather conditions.
Found out that it is a windy area. Therefore, suggested that we use floats or anchors
What worked well for you? Although I had not practiced M&A cases but knowing to keep the sheets in place.
the framework and thinking on the ground level helped
For budget, assumed the sheets to be as big as the ones available in the market. Found
me solve the case.
out the number of sheets required. Assumed a price for each sheet and then found
What could you have done Practicing M&A cases beforehand would have helped out the total budget for sheets. Further, found the cost of the floats/ anchors based
better? me solve it faster. on the cost of per unit material they are made up of.

Interviewer None
Case Interview 3
Part 1: A state in Southern India is facing the issue of drying up of its lakes at a very
high rate. An MP suggests that they should cover the lakes with giant sheets of
thermocol since it is an insulator it would prevent evaporation of water. They
261
Have you ever faced a challenging situation?
Utkarsh Anand
List out some points of learning from the two companies you have worked with. How
Undergraduate College BIT Mesra, Ranchi different was the experience, what did you notice about the two industries?
Field of Graduation Industrial Engineering

Case Interview 1
Merkle InC: 25 Months
Work Experience An AI Solutions Provider is facing profitability issues. Help!
Trident Group - 15 Months
I: Our client who is an AI solutions provider is recently facing profitability issues.
C: Clarified the problem statement and asked since when the client was facing
HR & Conversation Questions profit issue & by how much.
What do you know about consulting & why do you want to join PwC? I: Profits have fallen by approx. 20% in the last 1 year.
What is your understanding about the role? C: When we say the profits are declining, is it revenue which is getting impacted or
Explain the audience & customer strategies you used in your work ex. the costs are rising for the firm.
Tell me something about yourself apart from CV. I: Primarily, it is a revenue side problem.
What skills have you learned in your work-ex & how will you apply them at PwC? (I started with the CPCC approach to understand more about the problem)
Have you ever managed a team/people? C: Where is the client based out of, how long has it been in the market?
How do you manage conflict in a team? I: Client is based out of the US, is an established player in the AI industry with a
good client base.
How do you make sure your point is heard across in a discussion?
262
C: How is the industry trend? Since it is an AI solutions provider, I believe the Have I missed anything?
industry would be growing – has there been a new competitor which has entered?
I: These are all valid in the given context, you have rightly pointed out some of the
I: Great, as you rightly pointed out, the industry is growing but we are facing issues. possible reasons which are leading to a downfall in services revenue. Technology
upgrade & complaint resolutions are something which the firm is struggling with.
C: When we say AI solutions provider, what does the company essentially do & Can you frame some solutions to the problem statement?
who are the customers & where are they located?
C: As far as our discussion goes, the client is primarily facing problems in the
I: It caters to AI technology requirements of industries, they serve a wide range of services domain and needs to retain services from its existing partners. I suggest
businesses mainly in the US - Retail, Manufacturing, Logistics, IT. below pointers as solutions:
C: What are the different product offerings & revenue streams of the company? - Strengthen feedback mechanism for queries & complaint resolution
I: There are a wide range of products which the company offers, major revenue - Make a separate department to identify current advancement in technology &
streams of the company come from a) Selling hardware b) Contract or subscription
incorporate those suggestions in current service offerings
basis c) Services.
- Establish a ticketing system to see what the possible queries in different
C: Is the drop across all these buckets or should we focus on a particular segment industries are (manufacturing, retail, IT etc.), automate some processes to improve
first? the resolution efficiency
I: Focus on the services side. - Speak to BD team & identify partner issues in real time so that there is no lag in
C: Revenue from services only comes from customers having a contract or information flow across product & market.
subscription or there are also companies with which we have a service only
I: Great, lets conclude here.
relationship?
I: We only offer services to companies with which we have a contract.
What worked well for you? Tried to make the case very conversational.
C: Within services these can be the possible segments where the company needs
to look at in terms of improvement: - Maintenance - Data & Insights - Complaint Framed solutions as per the pointers picked during
Resolutions - Technology Upgrade discussion.
263
Took help form the interviewer wherever I faced a Divided the locality into 4 parts - a) Family b) Students (age>15 yrs.) c) Working
roadblock. people living alone d) Others.
What could you have done The case was highly qualitative; therefore, I should Since Pune is a Corporate hub & also has many colleges and institutes, I took an
better? have understood more about the AI industry & appropriate % for each of the mentioned buckets.
requirements of the different industries the firm was
Family - 40%
serving.
Students - 20%
Questions asked to the About the role & projects which come under the
Interviewer Customer vertical. Working People living alone - 20%
Others - 20%
Case Interview 2
Primarily, our target market is students & working people living alone, which
Market Estimation & Pricing of a Food Delivery Service in Pune. constitutes 40% of the locality = 40% (5000) = 2000
Market Estimation & Pricing of a Food Delivery Service in Pune. Total potential consumers for our business = 2000
C: The food delivery service is a personal venture (from home) or we are looking at Now, I followed the awareness - consideration - conversion framework.
an established restaurant entering food delivery?
Owner, through his own contacts & referrals, can reach out to roughly 200 people
I: It is a personal venture, to be carried out specifically from home & to serve the without any promotion activities (banners, paid posts etc.)
local population (typical dabbawalla or tiffin system).
Through promotion he can further reach out to 400 more.
C: First, I would like to estimate the market size for the service & then would move
Hence total size with awareness about the service = 600
to the pricing part.
Further, segmented the awareness pool into people who are a) satisfied with their
I: Please go ahead.
food service, b) not satisfied & c) do not have any regular system & rely on office &
C: Assuming the owner is living in a 5000 (population) strong locality, we will online orders. For the sake of simplicity, assumed this to be equal % i.e., 1/3 (600) =
segment the population basis demographic factors: Occupation.
264
200 for each segment. Only people who are not satisfied would be willing to try our I: Okay, we can end here.
offering, hence Consideration = 200.
Finally, they would evaluate multiple alternatives. Asked a question about the no of
competitors to which the interviewer asked me to use my knowledge about the area. What worked well for you? I incorporated ideas which were a success in the
As Pune has multiple food delivery alternatives, I assumed it to be a competitive market - like Freshmenu. The interviewer seemed
market & only 25% of the consideration pool would finally convert as customers. impressed with that.
Hence, 50 people per day would be our customers initially.
What could you have done I could have spoken more about differentiating
Pricing: Did a cost based & substitute-based pricing here. Calculated price per meal better? factors & include them in pricing.
breaking down into segments:
1. Raw material/ Material 2. Labor 3. Logistics 4. Promotion Case Interview 3
Cost per standard meal (regular ingredients) came out to be around Rs 80, adding a Calculate the volume of paint needed to pain a Boeing 747.
profit % of 20, gave the final price ~ Rs 100.
C: Asked whether we must paint the jet only on the outside or completely.
I: Okay, now that you have the no of consumers you would have for the service can
u think of increasing customers for this business? I: Only on the outside.
C: Gave ideas around menu diversification as we were primarily focused on students C: Approach - We will calculate the total surface area of the jet, dividing it into
& working population gave ideas which would suit their requirements. constituent parts - (Cabin - Cylinder, Cockpit – Hemisphere, Wings - Triangle,
Stabilizers (for brand logo) – Triangle).
- For working people: Freshmenu kind of service where they would get healthy
food. Used my height as reference to calculate the radius of the cabin (3 meters), length
- Students - Protein rich diet (nonveg). of the cabin = 70 meters, assumed wings to be equilateral with 30 meters side,
- stabilizers ~ 1/4th size of wings, cockpit - hemisphere with radius 2 meters).
Promotions: Leverage Social Media, ask customers to post positive reviews, have a
good feedback mechanism & focus on quality packaging as its important for people Used formula is for Surface area (Hemisphere, Cylinder, Triangle).
who travel for work.
Assumed 1 sq meter of area to consume 200 ml of paint & multiplied the total
265
surface are by 200 to get volume of paint in ml.
Vignaesh M
Undergraduate College IIT Kanpur
What worked well for you? I was quick to use references in finding out
dimensions of a plane. Field of Graduation B.Tech. – Material Science and Engineering
What could you have done NA Professional Qualifications None

better?
Work Experience EXL Services – 34 months
Interviewer None
Tips for Future Candidates Tell me something about yourself.
Use STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Recommendation) approach while answering HR Tell me something about yourself.
questions and be thorough with the vertical you have applied for.
What do you know about M&A?
Questions around Work Experience
Personality based questions
Case Interview 1
A cheese company wants to acquire a vegan company. Discuss.
266
I: Company A wants to acquire Company B. Both are retail companies operating in Case Interview 2
North America. Discussion on the companies and objectives: Product portfolio
(Company A: Cheese & related products; Company B: Vegan products like Yoghurt), Chemical company performing below financial benchmarks.
establishments (both are old), growth rates (similar ~10%). Primary objectives (One-
I: US based chemical company operating in the B2B segment, is performing below
time cost; synergies – operational & back-office), can start with synergies, reason for
financial benchmarks.
acquisition (1. Presence in the market; 2. Diversify into product line).
Discussion on the company, and the issue:
C: Explained ways for operational synergies.
Company produces compounds used for downstream operations like medicines,
I: Ok. Let us look at back-office synergies. Which areas would you consider?
issues more around working capital, which is higher, financial benchmark is w.r.t
C: Listed areas like R&D, infrastructure department, etc. competitors.
I: Ok. (Discussion on the departments). Can you explain the factors? C: Explained working capital factors.
C: Explained factors like skills, systems, etc. I: (Discussion on the factors) Okay. Let us say the issue is with accounts payable.
What do you think is happening?
I: (Discussion on the factors). Thanks.
C: Listed potential reasons.
I: (Discussion on difference w.r.t the competitors). What would you recommend?
What worked well for you? The approach I took worked well – the interviewer
seemed happy. C: Explained ways like quantity, pricing, etc.
I: (Discussion on the recommendations). Thanks.

NA
better?

None
Interviewer
267
Divyank Agarwal
Undergraduate College BITS Pilani, Hyderabad
Field of Graduation Civil Engineering
Professional Qualifications CFA Level 1
UnitedHealth Group, Deutsche Bank- Data Analytics,

Work Experience
Strategy and Governance- 20 months
1.Tell me about yourself.
2.Why do you want to pursue consulting?
3.Why do you want to pursue finance?
4.Why do you want to join Synergy?
5.Did you speak to any of your seniors who interned with us last year?
6.What do you know about Synergy Consulting?
7.Why do you think you are a good fit for the role?
Interview 1
268
1.What is Depreciation? Tips for Future Candidates
2.What do you understand by Corporate Finance? Be thorough with Corporate Finance and Valuation concepts
3.NPV vs IRR, which is better and why?
4.What will be the Discount Rate used?
5.What is Beta? What is Levered and Unlevered Beta?
6.How would you calculate the relevant Beta for a listed company?
7.How would you do that for a Start-up?
8.What will be the value of Beta for a niche firm with no comparable competitors?
9. How would you value a company? What if the company does not pay out dividends?
What worked well for you? NA

NA
better?
Questions asked to the 1.Which sectors would you consider to be Synergy's

Interviewer forte?
2. How does Synergy Consulting take care of the aspect

of developing the industry/firm specific knowledge
relevant for each project?
269
8.Tell us about the most influential deal you worked upon there, what was your role
Jayant Singhal and responsibility? What are your expectations from the internship and what do you
know about Synergy?
Undergraduate College Hansraj College, University of Delhi
Field of Graduation B.A. Economics (H) Case Interview 1

Professional Qualifications None Your client wants to perform a corporate restructuring and operates in the
automotive sector, how do you go about it? Focus more on valuation aspects.
KPMG (6 months), Spire Research & Consulting (4
Work Experience months)- Investment Banking and Management (was a long interview of around 55 mins)
Consulting- 10 months
I: Could you tell us something about yourself?
HR & Conversation Questions C: Told my background, talked about my professional experiences, startup initiatives,
and about my inclination towards strategy consulting and investment banking.
1.Could you tell us something about yourself?
I: Tell us more about the work you did at KPMG. What was the most influential deal
2.What are the subjects that you have studied in trimester 1? you worked upon? What were your roles and responsibilities?
3.What was your most favorite and least favorite subject? Why do you feel so? C: Talked about my deal experiences in the automotive sector and financial modeling
& valuations.
4.How has your experience been at IIM Lucknow? What do you feel about virtual
setup? I: Okay, so you are well-versed with business valuations, right? Let us do a case on it.
Your client wants to perform a corporate restructuring and operates in the automotive
5.What drives you as a professional?
sector, how do you go about it? Focus more on valuation aspects.
6.Any questions for us?
C: Clarified about what he exactly meant by corporate restructuring, what was the
7.Tell us more about the work that you did at KPMG. type of restructuring, what were the types of transactions involved, what part of the
270
value chain was the client operating in, why did the client want to restructure (these I: What is NPV, IRR, XIRR, MIRR? Could you give me the excel syntax?
were some of the preliminary questions asked one by one)
C: Provided a detailed explanation of each
I: The client was operating in auto-component manufacturing, the deal involved two
transactions related to a de-merger and a merger (also discussed the potential reasons Interview Experience
which could be there behind a restructuring)
What worked well for you? I think my past case-solving experiences and structuring
C: Structured my approach in three parts starting from the preliminary company & my case from the very fundamentals (the approach
industry analysis and benchmarking to business valuations to swap valuation & which I usually follow) worked in my favor, plus, my IB
implementing the deal (information about financial metrics, financial statements, exposure at KPMG aided me well in tackling all the
valuation model to choose from, swap ratio target, etc. were provided). technical questions.
(While solving the case, also had a discussion side by side on every technical aspect, What could you have done
None
was asked about the types of techniques to value a business, discussed in detail about better?
DCF analysis, swap ratio valuation, etc. and general awareness about auto-component
Questions asked to the I asked them about the typical day of a summer intern
sector)
Interviewer at Synergy, and another question related to financial
I: (after the case) what are the different types of charging depreciation? modelling in the energy sector
C: told (was grilled on the units of production method in detail) (then there was
another small case on financial linkages connecting all three financial statements in Interview 2
which some transactions were given, and I had to prepare the three statements
intertemporally) It was not a case interview round.
I: What is bottom-up beta? How do we calculate bottom-up beta for a monopoly firm Interview Experience
having no comparable?
What worked well for you? Being honest and precise about my answers aided me
C: Talked about the historical trend method, future projection method, and business pull the interview in my favor
fundamentals method
What could you have done None
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better?

Interviewer
Since Synergy Consulting is a financial consulting and M&A advisory firm, I would
suggest the candidates to prepare all the finance related concepts well along with
consulting cases and guesstimates.
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES

(FINALS 2020)
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Abhishri Agarwal
Undergraduate College I.E.T. Lucknow
Field of Graduation B.Tech. (IT)
Work Experience TCS – 15 months
Summers Aditya Birla Group (Marketing)
Tell me something that is not on your CV.
Why do you think dance is such a great art form?
What did you like in your Students' Exchange program college which is not in IIM
Lucknow?
What does your Team Ignicion do and what is your role in it?
What do you like the most about Accenture?
How is automation important. Don't you think it would kill numerous jobs?
How did you win Amazon ACE? What was your role?
273
Interview 1
Nithya C H
It was not a case interview.
Undergraduate College PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore
Field of Graduation Electronics and Communication Engineering
Practice HR questions and answers well in advance on all possible topics, that makes
you confident in interviews. Your answers should not come out as prepared, they Professional Qualifications None
should seem to be genuine and spontaneous.
Work Experience Robert Bosch - 35 months
Summers ITC Limited – S&M
Now tell me about yourself
Convince me to not hire you. Give me strong points.
This round was with the HR manager. Questions started with "Walk me through your
CV" and "Why Accenture?", "Why the switch from sales and marketing in your
summers to consulting now?" *I tried to highlight the parts of my CV that were not
focused on sales and marketing and tried to highlight that I was not rigid about the
domain.
This was an MD round. The interviewer read through my CV and directly began talking
about Bosch, the company I worked with. He had an experience on a project with
Bosch and the discussion was focused on my time in the company.
274
Some of the other questions were: "Tell me something about your background, *Clarified the preliminary questions of scale of increase in revenues, time horizon,
beyond what is there on the CV"- *this was focused on family, inspiration to take up objective for the increase and constraints. The details about individual businesses,
MBA, etc.* products, channels, competitors, customer segments, etc. were to be picked up from
existing knowledge about ITC. Hence there were not many clarifying questions*
"How would you describe yourself in three phrases", "Do you consider yourself
married to a function or to an industry?" The case solution was a remodeled Ansoff Matrix framework with individual growth
strategies for foods, personal care, incense, and stationery categories with the following
Case Interview 1 approach: Growing the core business ->1. Focus on fastest growing segments 2. Growth
areas in other segments, Growth outside of core business -> Analysis of capabilities to
Guesstimate: Tell me the number of trains running in India at this point of time.
enter new businesses. Recommendations were further divided into short term and
Clarifying questions: Should I consider metro trains and local trains in this? long-term actions.
I: No. This was an idea generation case, and the interviewer was looking for drawing
recommendations from real world knowledge about the company.
C: Should I be considering both passenger and freight trains in the estimation.
I: Consider passenger trains only.
Research about the projects at Accenture that are relevant to your background. Know
*Went about the guesstimate with the following approach: number of railway stations
about them in-depth.
in 100km interval (starting with my knowledge of the number of stations in and around
Bangalore), the length of the railway network in the country (with the proxy being the Ask a lot of questions at the end of the interview.
memorized length of highways in India), average speed of a passenger train and finally
the utilization of railway tracks in the country (considered a distribution with high,
medium, and low utilization tracks).
Interviewer did not seem to focus on the numbers as opposed to the method.
Case: ITC wants to increase their revenue in the FMCG business. How should they go
about it?
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My favorite subject in MBA.
Pankaj Baldewa
If you were the finance minister of the nation, what kind of changes would you add to
Undergraduate College NIT Durgapur the budget?
Field of Graduation B.Tech.

Interview 1
It was not a case interview.
Work Experience Mu Sigma – 9 months
Summers Edelweiss
From what i gathered was that they are looking for candidates who do not have a high
inclination towards a specific career in domains like finance or marketing etc.
Due to some points in my CV, they gathered that I might be inclined towards finance,
Tell me about yourself so there was a lot of conversation around and why I want a career in consulting.
What was my experience as a member of the college team for SAE BAJA (CV They used some trick questions like favorite subject in MBA to figure out how inclined
Question)? i was towards fin.
Why did you leave Mu sigma so early? Why consulting? Also, please try to be thorough with your CV. Every nook and corner of it was discussed
in the first round.
In what kind of projects did I work in Mu Sigma?
Some conversation around how living in Bangalore was like (He was based out of the
Bangalore office).
What tools have i worked with in Mu Sigma?
Few questions on demand forecasting (Work experience project was related to that)
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to go ahead with the current face of the party.
Soumya Gupta
The interviewer did not want the process as such and asked me to be just give him
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, University of the final 4 recommendations and said that he would deep dive if he is not convinced
Undergraduate College with any of the points, else he will just move on.
Delhi
Field of Graduation Bachelor of Business Studies Two short term strategies:
Professional Qualifications None 1. Get your custom drink on the menu (for popular hotspots) - the interviewer deep
dived into this to understand the nuances.
Axis Risk Consulting and Hike Messenger – 28
Work Experience 2. Discounts on every 5th/10th.... etc. purchase.
months
Summers McKinsey and Company Two long term strategies:
1. Membership cards for benefits - Starbucks community
HR & Conversation Questions 2. Invest in B2B sales - set up kiosks in offices (prepaid by company a la Chaayos)
Tell me about yourself. B. Take a four-way approach encompassing (Explained each when asked)
Why do you think you did not get a PPO? 1. Decentralize power to fight allegations of nepotism - project more people in the
leadership other than the Gandhis.
How was your experience at the internship?
2. Focus on regional leadership and state elections - For local connect and a long-
term return.
Case Interview 1
What are the four recommendations that you would give to Starbucks to increase
loyalty among its consumers. Two for long term and two for short term Research about the projects at Accenture that are relevant to your background. Know
about them in-depth.
You have been hired by the INC to help win the next elections. Caveat is you have
277
Sakshi Agarwal
Undergraduate College Kirori Mal College, DU
Field of Graduation B. Com (H)
Summers Deutsche Bank
How are you feeling? Are you nervous?
Tell me about your startup and this student venture (Head2Toe)
If you are a startup enthusiast, then why do you want to join consulting?
Case Interview 1
The client is an aluminum sheet manufacture. Sales have declined recently. Find
out why and provide recommendations.
C: Reiterated the problem, tried to use first principles, and understand decline
history. Also, asked clarifying questions about product, its uses, target market,
278
competitors etc. C: Further broken down into product, awareness, availability issue.
I: Asked me to move ahead quickly. I: Issue is with availability.
C: Since it was a sales decline problem, I started making the structure. Sales= Price* C: It was easy now; the issue was that due to low margins retailers have stopped
Qty (Before I could add more, she asked me not to follow the structure and started placing the product on the shelves.
shooting down the numbers).
I: Summarize the case.
I: Gave me salesforce numbers of 3 regions along with working hours, potential
clients in the region. Then, she asked me to calculate various metrics such as no. of Case Interview 2
salesperson required, effective order cycle, and others. (without rounding off any I am ready to invest 10 Lakhs in your salon business. Design an expansion strategy.
numbers) (It was a calculation-intensive exercise where she wanted to check my
ability to do quick math and draw inferences at the same time. It was majorly a stress I: I am ready to invest 10 Lakhs in your salon business. Design an expansion strategy.
test.)
*Quickly grabbed the pen and started making the structure. He interrupted me and
I am a health drink manufacturer. My sales are declining. Help me. asked me to continue answering without pen and paper*
*Really short case, as we had only 7- or 8-minutes left* C: Identified factors to be considered. Talked about location, TG, competitors,
business models.
C: Reiterated the problem, asked about the business model (Customers, company,
product, and competition). It was more like a conversation where we both were just discussing ideas.
I: Pan-India decline in sales since the 1 year and it was not an industry-wide problem. * Knock on the door and the interview was over*
C: Started with my structure. Sales= Price* Volume sold. Tips for Future Candidates
I: Focus on volume. Stay focused and confident. Do not let stress show on your face. Keep smiling.
C: Broke down into internal and external issues. Do not hesitate to pivot when you realize you are not on the right track.
I: Focus of internal.
279
C: Split the problem into revenues and costs.
Atharv Saxena
I: Revenues have increased by 10%, calculate corresponding increase in costs given
Undergraduate College Shri Ram College of Commerce, DU Profit margin decline from 20% to 5%
Field of Graduation B. Com (H) C: Did quick calculation and proceeded to explore why revenues have increased and
whether this was expected or not, identified the increase in profits was due to an
Professional Qualifications None increase in price.
Work Experience None I: Identify risks associated with such an increase in revenues.
Summers McKinsey & Company C: Mentioned problems such as price sensitivity, sustainability of profits continuing in
the future.
I: Asked to guess why the prices were increased.

C: Split them into 2, reaction to increase by competitors (external factors), due to
increased costs (internal factors)
Tell me about your internship at McKinsey.
I: We can explore costs now.
C: Used a value chain approach to identify that raw material cost had increased
Case Interview 1 substantially along with manufacturing costs.
The client is a paper manufacturer and his profits have been declining. I: Asked to justify reasons for increased raw material costs.
C: Clarified objective and proceeded with scoping questions related to company, # of C: Identified that costs could have increased due to excessive quantity or price, when
manufacturing plants, presence in the country, position in value chain, grades of asked to explore further found out that the quality of the paper had been improved
paper, industry/company specific problem, competitors. by using more raw material (however during scoping when I had asked if there are
different grades of paper and I was told there were not)
I: Client was only a manufacturer and the product did not have any grades. The
problem was only being witnessed in the client's business.
280
I: Explore the line items that would be affected by the increased manufacturing costs. C: The case mainly revolved around internship experience and relied heavily on my
understanding of the industry. Used benchmarking created during internship to
C: Spoke about depreciation and increased inventory costs but forgot to mention explain how the major players operate and where the key strengths lie, used same
increase in prices of utilities (was still focused on increased quantity of raw materials information to identify segment (tier 2 & tier 3) and offline channel as a means of
and subsequent impact on manufacturing costs) reaching out to them.
I: How should we rectify the situation and improve profitability again. I: Asked questions on why I had selected a particular product category.
C: Either go back to the old quality of paper, but since the market reacted well to the C: Used facts to give comprehensive answers related to financing consumer durables
product and allows us to differentiate ourselves in the market we should continue products and told him honestly where I had no understanding of the industry e.g.,
with the new product and focus on improving manufacturing efficiency electronics financing.
Case Interview 2 I: Why not online vs offline and what are the various risks associated with the online
method of financing products (e.g., no cost EMI on Flipkart/ amazon)
The client is an NBFC wanting to start a new loan product, how should he go about
it? C: Explained various risks involved such as established base, consumer loyalty,
increased spend on marketing and potential of untapped tier 2/3 markets where
C: Asked a few scoping questions but was asked to just state whatever assumption I
offline stores are still prevalent for consumer durables purchase.
had and continue; the partner was more interested in structure rather than case facts.
Decided to base the case on 4 main processes: I: Asked why companies (OEM and vendors) would agree to such models of financing.
1. What product to finance C: Explained interest subvention model in detail and finally moved on to
implementation (technological and HR requirements).
2. Which target audience to focus on
I: That is alright, we can end the case here.
3. Which channel to use (online/offline)
4. How to implement the plan on ground. Tips for Future Candidates
I: Interviewer asked questions related to different business models and how existing Focus on hints being given by interviewers, and do not hesitate to think out loud.
competitors operate. Partners will generally understand where you have gone astray and lead you back to
the structure. Do not hesitate to pivot when you realize you are not on the right
281
track. Try to make your initial HR answers as engaging as possible as that will help
you relax and also allow the partner to ask something from your profile that you will Krishnan J Achuth
be more comfortable with. Focus on hints and try to voice out your thinking process
since the interviewer can then course correct you there itself, do not panic! Make Undergraduate College Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
sure your questions are as clear as possible, understanding of grade/quality in the
first interview between the interviewer and me led to a mistake Field of Graduation CA
Professional Qualifications CA
Work Experience EY – 51 months
Summers Shannonside Capital
Quick chat recollecting our conversation during the PMG interaction for shortlisted
candidates during the previous week, followed by a brief introduction.
What was the kind of work profile during your CA articleship?
Do you have any exposure to GST related advisory?
Case Interview 1
Client is a manufacturer of sun-control films for windows whose market share is declining.
Help the client.
282
I: I am a client who is into the business of manufacturing sun-control films for windows. Started out as a case about a manufacturer of nets who wishes to increase sales, but
My market share is declining. Help me. later turned into a market sizing guesstimate for fishing nets in coastal India.
C: Started out by asking a few scoping questions around the company, the product, I: Your client is a manufacturer of nets. They wish to increase their sales. Help them.
primary market, and competitive landscape. Also clarified the objective in terms of
current and previous market share as well as the time frame over which the decline C: Reiterated the problem statement. Covered basic scoping questions such as nature
was noticed. of business, location, type of product, nature of customers etc.
I: Client’s product is primarily used for car windows in the US market. Why don’t you I: They are based in India and manufacture fishing nets. Customers are fishermen, to
make an estimate of the market size of the client’s product? whom nets are sold through distributors across locations.
Took a moment to structure my thoughts. Then proceeded to approach the problem C: Is there any revenue stream other than the sale of nets?
by estimating the number of cars sold in the US as a starting point. The approach was I: No.
to separately estimate private cars and commercial cars (taxis, etc.). This was done by
segregating the population into households and then proceeding in the direction of C: What is the geographic mix of the customers? Do they have exports?
number of cars per person/ household, number of windows per car, etc. A ballpark
I: Customers are spread across the coastal towns and villages of India. Assume no
estimate of the market size for the private car segment was arrived at.
exports.
I: Can you think of any other approach to making this estimate?
C: What is our relative competitive positioning? Who are the other key players?
C: Attempted to make an estimation of the car market size, this time through a supply
I: We are the market leader with over 70% market share. Competitors are smaller
side approach focusing on the car manufacturers.
regional players.
Was interrupted again mid-way and the case was discontinued. Interviewer did not
C: Has the relative market share remained stable over the years?
seem happy with the approach I was adopting and seemed like he had something
entirely different in mind. I: Yes
Case Interview 2 C: In terms of the objective of increasing sales, could you quantify some benchmark in
terms of what the existing sales are and what quantum of increase is being targeted
283
I: They wish to double their current sales. C: Broke down coastal fishing market into small fishing boats and large, organized
players (trawlers). Can I proceed with an estimation of the market for small fishing
C: Over what time frame do they seek to achieve this? boats and then use a relative market share of such boats vis-à-vis organized players to
I: Over the next 3 -5 years extrapolate the total market size?
C: At what rate has sales been growing in recent years? I: Yes, proceed with your sizing of the unorganized fishing market.
I: Sales growth has been fairly flat. C: Proceeded with a bottom-up approach to estimate the number of fishing boats in
coastal India. Since I hail from Kerala, used the state as a base case to estimate the
C: Since sales growth and market share appears to be stagnant, the desired increase in typical density of fishing harbors in the coastline by using the average distance between
sales could be achieved only by focusing on expanding our markets. Shall I proceed to two coastal harbors (with concurrence from the Interviewer). Such estimate was then
analyze the options in that direction? applied on the total coastline length of India to arrive at the number of fishing harbors/
hamlets in the country. An estimate of the average number of boats in a typical fishing
I: Why do not you then estimate the market size first.
harbor, the number of fishing nets per boat, the average life of a fishing net and the
From this stage, interviewer was focusing on the guesstimate part and the sales average selling price per net was made and validated with the interviewer. These data
increase objective was not subsequently discussed. points were synthesized to arrive at the total value of fishing nets sold per year.
C: Can I take a moment to structure my thoughts At this point, there was a knock on the door as we were running out of time.
I: Sure C: Shall I proceed to estimate the market size for the organized fishing players?
C: Started laying out a framework for the guesstimate. Broadly categorized market into I: This would do for now. Thank you & all the best.
domestic and export.
Case Interview 3
I: Ignore the export market.
Client is a real estate developer who needs help in increasing sales.
C: Broke down domestic market into fishing in inland waterways and coastal fishing.
I: I am a real estate developer. Help me increase my sales.
I: Focus on the coastal fishing market.
C: Reiterated the problem statement and started with scoping questions
C: Could you throw some light on the nature of business of the client, its revenue
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segments I: We are selling around 15-20 units a month at the moment, which is slower than
our expectation. We need to double this rate.
I: What could be the different types of business for a real estate developer.
C: How many units have been sold already?
C: It could broadly be residential and commercial. Within residential, there could be
plotted development as well construction, under which there could again be focus I: Less than 25% of the total
areas on terms of the kind of target market being addressed. In commercial, there
could be different segments such as office spaces, retail (malls), SEZs etc. Requested for a minute to structure my thoughts. Proceeded to lay out a structure
broadly in line with the 4P approach.
I: The client is into premium residential projects.
C: In terms of the objective of increasing sales, we will try evaluate our customer
C: When you say premium, any quantifiable reference point? value proposition in terms of Attractiveness, Affordability, Accessibility & Awareness.
Shall I cover each of these aspects one by one?
I: Luxury apartments targeting HNIs, in the price point of INR 4-5 crores.
I: Yes, proceed
C: Geographic location of the projects?
C: In terms of the attractiveness of our offering, since we are targeting a premium
I: Currently one large project comprising of around 300 apartment units in Gurgaon. customer segment, how strong is our brand perception vis-à-vis competitors?
C: What is the typical sales channel to reach out to customers? I: We have a strong brand with a reputed history in the NCR.
I: Direct selling as well as through brokers/ agents C: Since location plays a major role in attractiveness of a real estate project, how
C: What is the competitive situation for the project? Any sense on our market share/ suitable is the project locality from the target market perspective?
position? I: It is located strategically, close to the airport as well as major business hubs.
I: There are other similar projects coming up in the city from rival developers. It is a
C: Since the focus is on ultra-luxury, are the amenities being offered comparable to
fragmented market without any one dominant player. similar projects of competitors or is there any major differentiator?
C: Coming to the objective of increasing sales, could you assist me by giving a I: The amenities are standard and comparable with similar luxury projects.
quantitative threshold of the sales increase being targeted as well as the existing
sales levels C: Any other aspect around the attractiveness of the product based on customer
285
feedback so far? credit decisions. Since real estate buying typically involves a loan component,
recommended tie-ups with such MNC banks to pre-approve our project for the
I: No, existing buyers are satisfied with the quality and amenities. purpose of easy processing of housing loans to buy flats at the project.
C: Moving on to the affordability of the flats, could you throw some light around the • Network effects heavily influence buying decision for up-market real estate as
per square feet rate being charged and rates at comparable projects of competitors? buyers want to be living in a community of people from a similar social class which
At this point, interviewer proceeded to throw some numbers in terms of area per provides them am avenue to stay networked. Suggested promoting the project
flat, costs incurred per square feet, etc. and asked me to calculate the rate per square amongst a small pool of VIP customers (such as celebrity film stars, sportspersons,
feet as well as the estimated margins at the project level. Though the approach was top CEOs, etc.) and giving them a discounted price so as to build a reputation as a
right, I made an arithmetic error in the calculation, which the interviewer pointed residential community where influential people reside.
out and corrected. • Since purchases of such high unit value are dependent on trust levels & peer
There was a knock on the door to inform that we need to wrap up the round soon. recommendations, suggested putting in place a customer referral scheme to
incentivize existing buyers who are able to refer new buyers
I: Lets proceed to the awareness aspect. Can you suggest ways to improve the
awareness about our project amongst the target market, apart from the • Targeted advertising campaigns to improve project visibility in places
conventional advertising campaigns that we typically do? frequented by top corporate professionals/ HNIs such as airport lounges, luxury car
showrooms, golf courses, elite clubs, five-star restaurants, etc. apart from
C: Adopted a customer journey approach to plot different avenues through which an conventional avenues such as business news channels, pink papers, etc.
HNI makes the decision to invest in a particular asset class, the different sources of
information that he/ she would rely on to gain information about projects (once a I: Alright. Let us wrap it up here. Thank you.
decision is taken to invest in real estate) and the typical places where HNIs frequent
so as to do focused promotion. The key ideas put across using this structure were as
follows: Do not get fixated with frameworks and focus instead on first principles. Interview cases
are often unconventional and require on-the-feet thinking. So, go in with an open mind.
• Under the first limb, suggested targeting financial advisors/ wealth managers
who advise HNIs on investment planning. Do not panic even if a round goes against your expectation or if you make a mistake.
The interviewer typically tries to guide you to the answer and therefore ability to stay
• Additionally, suggested approaching relationship managers at MNC banks
composed, even after making a mistake, is the key.
(which typically cater to HNI accounts), who have a say over advising HNIs and their
286
Try to keep the interview as conversational as possible and draw from personal
experiences while solving a case or cracking a guesstimate, wherever possible
287
replacement tyres sold through dealerships.
Anchita Bagga
C: Is the issue specific to any one of these channels?
Undergraduate College Delhi Technological University I: Yes, the issue pertains to the replacement tyres channel where the client is facing
declining revenues.
Field of Graduation B. Tech (Electronics & Communication)
C: Broke down the problem into price and volume components and interviewer asked
Professional Qualifications None to delve deeper into the volume side. At this point asked more questions about how
the channel works and what is our revenue model.
I: The client sells to two type of dealerships, big and small. The retailer earns a certain
Summers P&G percentage-based commission on each sale he makes.
C: Asked if the issue was on the demand side or supply side. The interviewer asked to
HR & Conversation Questions focus on the demand side. On the demand side, focused on 4 major heads - product,
promotion, place, and price.
I: Please explain what factors you will consider under each of these heads.
Brief discussion on internship experience at P&G.
C: Explained one by one and there was brief discussion on all factors. The interviewer
kept giving me scenarios and asked which head that kind of problem would be
Case Interview 1 classified into in my solution.
Your client is a tyre manufacturer operating in India and is facing decline in profits for past 1 Identified the major issue - big dealers received steep promotions from the company
year. Help them identify the problem. which irked the smaller dealers as they lost out on customers. Cab owners were a
major part of the clientele and they usually visited small dealers which had stopped
C: Asked basic questions to know more about the client like what the products are,
selling our product in their stores.
who are the major clients and what is the company's position in the market
I: The client is a major player in the industry and sells only one type of tyres for sedan Case Interview 2
cars. They have 2 channels of selling, directly to the car manufacturer and
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Your client is an Indian bank, and they are facing decrease in profits from their C: Identified location of the branches as a major issue. The bank did not have ATMs in
ATMs. prominent marketplaces which affected footfall.
C: Asked about the business model and how does bank earn revenue from ATMs. Case Interview 3
I: Appreciated I asked this question beforehand and then went on to explain that every Your client is a steel manufacturing firm. They manufacture two types of steel pipes with
time a card holder of a different bank uses their ATM, they earn a commission, but different dimensions. Help them increase their profits.
they have to pay this commission if their cardholders use an ATM of different bank.
C: Asked basic questions about the company and their customers.
He further said that no other information is required to solve the case and I should
proceed with my analysis. I: It is a large Indian firm, and they sell to clients within two sectors (different
products for both sectors) - A (70%) and B (30%). They have 2 plants in India and
C: Broke down the problem into number of transactions, average value per
are the market leaders as well. They already have close to 70% market share within
transaction and operational costs of ATM.
India. though they also export products, currently we are focusing only on the
I: Let us explore number of transactions going down further. Indian market.
C: Used customer journey framework to divide the problem into need, awareness, C: Among the sectors A and B, does any sector/product has more profitability?
accessibility, and customer experience. Discussed briefly what would be covered
I: Yes, sector B has a higher profitability.
under each.
C: What is our market share in each of these sectors?
I: Focused on accessibility issue. How would you estimate if we have enough number
of ATMs in the country? I: We have the highest market share in A, but are second in B.
C: Discussed a simple top-down approach that percentage of ATMs we have in the C: Moved on to analysis. First bifurcated into revenue and cost.
country out of all banks' ATMs should be close to our market share in bank
accounts/ATM cards we have sold. I: What are the major heads you would focus on if we went for cost reduction? Give
some initiatives in each of these.
I: Satisfied with my answer and said that number of ATMs is not an issue so I should
explore further. C: Made the supply chain of the company with interviewer's help and gave some
initiatives under each head like sourcing, processing, logistics, etc. where I could
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think of something Focus on asking the right questions at the start of the case. It makes it much easier to
reach the solution. Be confident at all times during the interview. If you do not know
I: Convinced with the discussion asked to move to the revenue side.
the answer to a question, be honest and ask the interviewer for help.
C: Divided revenue into average price and volume sold. Under average price,
absolute price of products and product mix (the interviewer had hinted there was
an opportunity here earlier in the interview)
I: Let us focus on absolute pricing. How would you decide what is the best price at
which we could maximize the profit? What are the factors you would need for your
equation?
C: Took some time to think because the sudden movement into differential
equations surprised me. Finally, asked about the price elasticity of the product after
the interviewer prompted a little bit.
I: Gave some numbers about current price, current volume sold, and price
elasticity. and asked me to write the equation.
C: Wrote the basic equation correctly and tried to solve it for around 5-10 minutes
with some inputs from the interviewer. I was still missing out on something so the
interviewer asked me to go with whatever answer I had got and asked if I would
advise the client to use this pricing?
I: Since the price was increased, I talked about certain pros and cons of doing that.
Additionally, I also gave some other areas the client could focus on like changing
their product mix if they did not want to change pricing.
290
green flag, asked to move on.
Ishani Singh
Step 2: Divided the case into a costs-benefits-risks analysis framework.
Undergraduate College BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Was given figures on costs: Will come up to INR 180-200 crores per year.
Field of Graduation B.E. (Hons) Revenues: Mentioned increasing ticket prices. Was given the breakup between Indian
and foreign tourists (8 lakh and 2 Lakhs, respectively). Benchmarked ticket prices for
Indian players with Indian monuments, ticket prices for foreign tourists could be
Work Experience Management Trainee, ICICI Bank (11 months) benchmarked with monuments like the Taj Mahal.
Summers JP Morgan - FX Sales and Trading Desk Calculated ticketing revenues of 70 crores
I was then asked to evaluate other streams of revenue. Used the customer journey
approach; and suggested charging for parking facilities, setting up food and beverage
stalls, museum gift shop, and charging for boating in the lake outside the museum.
I was then told that this will give us revenues of 200 crores. The client would hence,
Tell me about your internship at McKinsey. break-even.
I was asked to give my final recommendations. Pointed out the below risks:
Case Interview 1 1. Lack of expertise in the Indian market
Case Facts: The client is a leading player in managing monuments. 2. Dishonoring of contracts by the government
Currently, the West Bengal government is managing Victoria Memorial and is facing All these risks could be mitigated. I also pointed out the huge potential that the Indian
losses to the tune of INR 149 crores. Tickets are the only revenue stream at the market has. Hence, we concluded that the client should go ahead with bidding for the
moment; footfall of 10lakh per year, tickets priced at Rupee 1 per person. Victoria Memorial's operating lease.
Step 1: Evaluated the macro conditions using PESTEL analysis. Questions on Foreign Case Interview 2
investment norms, licenses, any other regulations. The interviewer quickly gave a
291
The client is a steel tube manufacturer, one of the few organized players in a largely I: Write down the profit equation. Assume client currently sells 100 tonnes of steel, at
unorganized market. The client currently has 2-3% profit margin and wants to a cost of Rupees 100 per ton. With every Rupee increase/ decrease in price, volume
improve their profit margins. Client already charges a 15% pricing premium over sold decreases/increases by 1 ton.
competitors.?
C: Assumed price increase to be x. Wrote down the profit equation as:
C C: Asked if the client had a particular profit margin target in mind, and any timelines
and budgetary constraints, if any. Asked the current clientele. (100+x) (100-x)- (Fixed cost+ Variable cost*(100-x))
I: Our client's major clientele is in plumbing, structural and automobile industry. Interviewer gave fixed cost and variable cost figures. I differentiated this equation to
find the maxima. Concluded that client can increase prices by Rupees 35.
C: Asked about the client's manufacturing facilities and retail network. Also, asked
about current capacity utilization. I: Okay. What are the risks here?
I: Client has steel mills across the country. Prominent facilities in the north, others in C: If we increase the price, my retail price goes up to Rupees 135, and sale volumes go
down to 65 tonnes. My capacity shall be underutilized. Secondly, I am leaving space
the East. 100% capacity utilization currently.
in the market for my competitor to grow and operate at my previous price point.
C: Asked why the client was able to charge a pricing premium. What is my USP?
I: The quality of steel is much better than our competitors.
C: I asked about the current market landscape
I: Our client has 30% market share, there exists one more competitor with 20% market
share. The rest of the market is unorganized.
C: Took the revenues and costs approach. Interviewer wanted revenue increase to be
targeted. I drew an Ansoff matrix, interviewer asked me to explore increasing
revenues in existing markets with existing products. Since capacity utilization was
already at 100%, I suggested exploring the pricing aspect.
292
I: Tell me something about yourself.
Manishit Chadha
C: Gave an unprepared following on his lines
Undergraduate College Panjab University
I: Let us do a case, I am steel pipe manufacturer who is facing declining profits. Help
Field of Graduation Engineering me.
C: Clarified the meaning of help if he wants to increase profitability or was looking for
a good exit
Work Experience KPMG – 34 months
I: I want to increase my profitability.
Summers Alvarez and Marsal C: Asked preliminary questions regarding the company, products, industry, and
competition. Got generic answers without any particular hints.
HR & Conversation Questions I: I am in business for 10 years, makes steel rods and 2 other products, industry is
pretty much stagnant. Made me understand his whole process. The major product
was cold rolled steel pipes.
Tell me about your internship at A&M.
C: Asked the magnitude of decline in profits in order to gauge the impact.
I: I am sure you can do numbers well so let us look at productivity.

Case Interview 1
C: Followed the profitability framework and was prompted to take cost side.
Steel pipe manufacturer is facing declining profits. Help.
C: Took time to structure my thoughts and presented the value chain. Got his buy in.
The partner met me outside the waiting room which game me a chance to strike a
conversation with him before the interview. The interview started with him giving a I: Let us leave the structure and have a discussion. Why don't we look at raw materials
background about himself. cost? Give me hypothesis to look at.
I: <Gave his background with emphasis about his partner experience at BCG> C: Raw material cost can be structured into: Ordering, Delivery, Material, and
Inventory cost.
293
I: Let us look at Material cost. Rest other costs are negligible. Let us move on and i The interview started with a brief introduction about him, and then we moved directly
want your recommendations. to the case.
C: Presented 8-10 material cost saving options such as bulk purchase, reverse auction I: I have leased Victoria Park (VP) from West Bengal (WB) govt. My revenue is 1Cr, and
by vendors, using options to buy steel since it is a commodity. my costs are 150 Cr. Help me.
I: I am also having some additional capacity. what should i do about it. C: Had no idea about Victoria park has never been to Kolkata, so asked about some
background about the park.
C: We have the following options for it:
I: Basic info about the place (Google VP).
a) Let it remain as it is
C: Can i get some info about the company, their services, revenue streams. Also, if
b) Increase quantity produced: Depends on factors such as market demand, your they are looking at increasing profitability or an exit from the business.
penetration, price elasticity for your customer
I: I have a museum in VP and i charge entry tickets for people coming. I would like to
c) Take additional contracts from players in other segments which have capacity increase my revenues. Not going to tell you anything else. Give me solutions.
constraint
C: Requested some time to think and structure my thoughts. Decide that a geographic
d) Close capacity structuring was the best solution. Divided the location in 3 parts: Building& museum,
I: Drew a demand and supply curve for me (1st term microeconomics concept), asked Park and Water Body. Asked him if i am missing something.
me to find out how much i should produce. I: Go ahead.
C: Gave him the overall market production in equilibrium. C: Wanted to start with Museum too see why revenues were not up to the mark.
C: I asked for Marginal revenue and marginal cost curve for profit maximization Wanted to understand if price was an issue or volume.
(MR=MC). I: The govt does not allow us to charge more than 1 Re to locals coming in.
I: Drew the curves and gave me the answer. C: Took the hint and divided customers into local and foreign.
Case Interview 2 I: Good how should i price it for foreign customers.
294
C: Usual 3 ways (Cost margin, Competitor, Willingness to Pay (WTP)). C: Okay, let us discuss.
I: Which one i should take. I: The park and the lake provide a perfect location for company offsites and picnics.
With addition of foods & services such as pick and drop we can come up with a
C: I would use two ways Competitor and WTP in this case, since Cost are very huge package for companies providing them an experience.
I: Good, let us start with competitor based. C: Seems we are out of time. let us stop here.
C: I would like to understand major tourist attractions in Kolkata and understand
where they spend their money on and how much.
I: I get your point let us move on from this. Can you give me ideas about other 2 parts
of your structure?
C: I would like to start with lake.
I: Sure.
C: Do we use the lake as a separate offering.
I: No, it is not maintained.
C: I would like to start services in the lake including boating for tourists. That can be
an additional value-added service charged separately or part of the bundle.
I: Okay and the park?
C: Let us move on, do you think i am targeting my whole market?
I: Currently we are following the B2C route, why do not we think about how we can
tap incorporates through B2B channel.
295
Arihant Jain
Undergraduate College IIT (BHU), Varanasi
Field of Graduation Mechanical Engineering
Summers Duff and Phelps
Tell me something more about your YouTube channel (A point mentioned in CV).
Case Interview 1
Hotel industry size in Jodhpur (After a brief discussion on Udaipur, my hometown).
I: How lucrative do you think the Hotel industry is in Rajasthan?
C: I mentioned a few cities and how well they are doing in the tourism industry.
I: Okay, so let us find the market size of the Hotel industry in Jodhpur.
C: A typical guesstimate problem. The approach that I followed was based on the
296
incoming transport vehicles (Flights, trains, buses, taxis, personal cars etc.) The place and price were not discussed much as the YouTube Channel dynamics were
straight forward. Though I mentioned opening a website/app for better content
After finding an approximate number of incoming tourists per day in a normal month, delivery with subscription charges.
I further categorized them into four classes (Low/Medium/high budget hotels and
none). Product was discussed briefly that included the type of content (Animated or non-
animated), the actors or the voice-overs, length of the videos, amount of text in the
This included a good discussion on the approximations that I took. videos etc.
After that other sources of revenue were also included as a percentage. (I asked if I The promotion also was discussed wherein I suggested them through various
should include those streams as well) mediums like radio/newspapers etc. but he was not satisfied with the same and drove
me towards promotion through younger relatives of the old people.
Case Interview 2
Case on GTM strategy for an educational YouTube channel for old people (after I
mentioned that I have my own YouTube Channel).
I: I want to teach old people through videos. Develop a Go to market strategy for the
same.
C: Can you tell me something more about the kind of educational videos.
I: They'll be mostly Technology stuff meant for old people.
C: Can you tell me something more about the audience of the channel, like the
demographics and geography.
I: Indian and retired people (Mostly 60+) and all genders.
I used 4Ps framework.
297
seem relevant then. Was asked if we already have a programme in place, was told yes
Mangesh Joshi there is a programme in place and also all major competitors also have loyalty benefit
programme.
Undergraduate College IIT Guwahati
(I was totally confused and asked him what exactly is the expectation), he told me to
Field of Graduation Engineering come up with plan for the same.
Professional Qualifications None C: (I had no structure in my head), So I just made 3-pronged strategy about doing this
Work Experience Flipkart – 36 months 1. Customer Demands and segmentation
Summers HUL 2. Need Gap Analysis and Competitive Benchmarking
3.Loyalty Program Creation
HR & Conversation Questions So, to understand Customer demands for the segment, I suggested we check how the
customers are using their existing cards using Mastercard data.
I: Mastercard does not and cannot use account level data for such purposes.
Tell me something more about your internship project.
C: (Was confused) I suggested we can ask banks about aggregated data of such existing
What do you know about Mastercard and its business?
customers
You do know at times transactions fail? Can you tell me some reasons?
I: What exactly you mean by aggregated data?
C: Made list of items like domestic vs foreign purchases, average number of

Case Interview 1 transactions per month, average size of transaction, industries where they made
purchase,
Our client is SE Asian bank, and they need your help in designing credit card loyalty
programme for High-Net-Worth Individuals. I: Asked me to leave this step and move to competitive benchmarking.
C: Clarified about the problem statement, Asked about what HNI meant, was told C: I told him of my approach of competitor benchmarking, I told him we should select
AUM of 10 cr+, asked some information about client which was provided but did not
298
our top competitors in SE Asia and take a detailed look into various rewards they are
providing to the customers.
Case Interview 2
Guesstimate the amount of tea consumed per year in India.
Asked him if I can estimate number of cups of tea consumed, was given a go ahead. I
took standard population approach, divided India into 125 crore people, divided them
into population buckets of 0-15,15-30,30-45,45-60,60+, with 25 crore population in
each bucket. I assumed 0-15 as non-tea drinkers, then divided each of the other
bucket into tea drinker and non-tea drinkers, put some numbers against each, then I
told him I will assume average teacups for each he asked me to stop and asked me if I
had any questions etc.
299
Appendix
PESTLE Framework to conduct industry analysis (detailed)
• Forms of Govt. • Core Technology
• Stability of Govt. • Technology Availability
Political • Stability/ Continuity of Law • Manpower
• Outlook towards industry Technology • Enabling Technology
• Current political scenario • Internet
• Smartphone
• Is economy growing?
• Sectoral growth • National
• GDP per capita (especially of our target • Entry barriers
Economic customers) • One time permit
• Credit availability • Compliance requirements
• Investment Environment • Taxes & Duties
• Expenditure/ Discretionary Spending Legal & • Police & Judiciary
Regulatory • State/ Federal – Within state and Inter – state
• Societal/ group level
• International
• Religion
• Trade Agreements
• Caste/ Ethnicity
• Trade Barriers
Socio- • Gender
• Import restrictions
Cultural • Individual level (Habits)
• Existing Product Usage
• Product/ Service specific infrastructure (ex-
• Demographic Patterns – Gender, Income,
availability of stadiums if launching a sports event)
Region based, Rural/ Urban
• Enabling Infrastructure
• Environmental Regulations Infrastructure • Transport Connectivity
Environment • Land & Buildings
• Utilities – Water, Electricity
• Waste Disposal
Cost Value Chain (detailed)
• What? - Quality Specifications, Quantity, Types – • Material
Product & Packaging related • Manpower
• How? - Procurement process 4. Production • Machine
• 1st time/ one time – Market Survey, Policy, • Method
Approvals, RFP, Tendering, Selection and Contract • Measurement
terms, Payments
• Repeat procurement – Demand Forecasting, • Trade Promotion
Purchase requisition process, delivery & returns, • Salesforce – Size, Efficiency
1. Raw Material 5. Distribution,
payments • Channel Incentives (Commissions) – Monetary
• When? – Demand forecasting, seasonality, lag time Sales & & Non Monetary
• Who – Suppliers Marketing • Advertisement - Modes (ATL/ BTL/ TTL), Cost per
• No. of suppliers, Quality (capability & impressions, effectiveness
performance) • Discounts, offers, loyalty schemes
• Cost
• Where – Distance, route, transportation mode, • Installation
damages & pilferages • Customer Service (Online, IVRS, E-mail support)
6. After Sales • Service Centres
• Transport mode and route factors
Costs • Returns & Warranties
2. • Service provider related factors • Feedback Mechanism
Transportation • Operating factors
(In/ Outbound) • Research & development (Manpower, equipment,
patents/ IP, Trials)
• HR and admin costs
• Warehouse facilities/ features, Cost 7. Other Costs • Infrastructure costs (Machinery, Land, Building –
• Accessibility of warehouse, availability of space Factory, Warehouse, retail outlets, offices)
3. Storage
• Process of storage, Inventory Management, (LIFO/ • Product/ Technology development
FIFO), Inventory levels and Inventory control
Key Data Points for Guesstimates
1. Population 3. Rural v/s Urban 6. Sector- wise (%age of GDP)
A. Rural: 70% A. Agriculture: 15%
A. India: 1.4 Bn (140 Crores)
B. Urban: 30% B. Industry: 30%
B. Lucknow: 3.5 Mn
C. Top 10 cities – 7% C. Service: 55%
C. Uttar Pradesh: 230 Mn
D. Delhi : Mn
E. Mumbai : 20 Mn 7. Occupation
4. Age A. Agriculture – 50%
F. Kolkata : 14 Mn
A. 0-6 years: 15% B. Industry – 20%
G. Bangalore: 12 Mn
B. 7-14 years: 15% C. Services – 30%
H. Growth Rate: 1.2%
C. 15-25 years: 20%
I. Birth Rate: 20/1000
J. Death Rate: 7.5/1000
D. 000025-35 years: 15% 8. Others
E. 35-65 years: 30% A. Literacy Rates
K. Life Expectancy: 70 years
F. 65+ years:5% A. India – 75%
L. Sex Ratio: 950/1000
G. <35 years: 65% B. Youth (15-24 years) – 85%
H. <25 years: 50% C. Male (83%), Female (65%)
2. Area (In Sq. Km.)
A. India: 3.2 Mn B. Religion
B. Lucknow: 600 5. Income A. Hindu – 80%
C. Uttar Pradesh: 0.25 Mn A. BPL: 25% B. Muslim – 15%
D. Delhi: 1500 B. Low: 30% C. Others – 5%
E. Mumbai: 600 C. Lower Middle: 30% C. Car Penetration – 20/1000
F. Kolkata: 205 D. Upper Middle: 10% D. Internet Penetration – 50%
G. Bangalore: 700 E. High: 5% E. Mobile Phone Penetration – 80%
F. Smart Phone Penetration – 35%
The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/csc-iiml I Email: consultgrp@iiml.ac.in I Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/consultingclub

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/csc-iimlucknow
Anoushka | Ayush | Diya | Medha | Nishant | Raghav | Vishal A. | Vishal G.

Ayesha | Aziz | Deepak | Kushal | Mayur | Raunika | Sathya | Vedika

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IIM Lucknow

The Consulting & Strategy Club

Indian Institute of Management Lucknow CSC Briefcase from Playstore

Advanced Case Workshops CSC Briefcase Auxilium and C2C

Consulting 101 Sessions Upskilling Initiatives Live Projects Strategia

1. The Shortlist 2. Buddy Process & Company Interactions/Dinner

▪ Questions to gauge a higher-level understanding of candidate’s skills-communication,

▪ Questions around candidate’s work experience/internships- assessment of overlapping areas of

Entry Others Product launch

Mode of entry Abstract

Why clarifying questions are important? To-Dos

• Refer to the appendix for detailed PESTLE analysis

Product Place Promotion Price

Internal factors External Factors

Product, Promotions, Place Customer Journey Macro Economic

Need Awareness Accessibility

Trade Sales Product

Purchase Customer Pricing Payment

Example: Mapping the customer journey on an e-commerce platform

Home Page Search Results Product Page

Features Ease of Use History Suggestions Product Features Product Price

Aesthetics Placement Reviews Suggestions

After Sales Delivery Payment

Material Man Machine Method Measurement

Non-operational cost Secondary costs

B. Entry decision - Market attractiveness#

Country analysis Industry analysis

Political Economic Technology & Suppliers Consumers Competitors

Legal & regulatory Socio-cultural Environmental Substitutes Complements Barriers to entry

C. Framework for market entry mode D. Operationalizing

Breakeven period, WACC

Similar product in the

Due Diligence Synergies Deal Structuring PMI Strategy Exit

Organization Product Customer Competition Operational Marketing

Financial Management IT Legal HR Environment

• Audit of FS • Experience & • Systems • Patents • Policies • Emission

• It Identifies R&D/ Resource Product

Existing Geography New Geography

Current Product New Product Current Product New Product

Market Penetration Product Market

• Increase usage Incentives & • Channels • Services • Services

No, it is a more recent phenomenon.

Explain what you mean by likeability?

• Customers – Middle Product

• Problem since inception, Affordability Tastes and

Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

Procurement Inbound Load on Transfer to

Case facts: Human Non Human

• One product and no Mishandling Stealing

Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

Has there been a decline in the DSE channel?

Client has been

Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

• Operates out of 15 cities in

Change in Change in team Change in team Introduction of

Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

• Wants to look for new Socio- Availability Of Substit

Problems and recommendations Interviewee feedback

Product Target Price Channel Promotion

Qualitative information Interviewee feedback

Sounds good. Go ahead. Good suggestion. Go on.