ICON Finals Casebook 2021-22

IIMB Casebook and Industry Reports 2021-22 – Volume 11 (B)
Contents - I
S.No Particulars Difficulty Company Page S.No Particulars Difficulty Company Page
I. Introduction 7 17. US Tyre Manufacturer Difficult BCG 51
II. Profitability Framework 10 IV. Market Entry Strategy Framework 54
1. Packaging Products Manufacturer Easy Bain 12 18. Global OEM Easy Accenture 55
2. Hypermarket Operations Moderate McKinsey 14 19. OTT Service Launch Easy Strategy& 57
3. Candy Manufacturing Company Moderate McKinsey 17 20. New Pilot Program Launch Easy Byju’s 60
4. Mall Food Court Moderate Strategy& 19 21. Semi Luxury Car Manufacturer Easy BCG 62
5. Japanese Calligraphy Brush Maker Difficult Kearney 22 22. Sugarcane Yield Enhancer Difficult BCG 64
6. Quick Service Restaurant Moderate Kearney 25 23. Third Party Garages Easy Bain 67
7. Cosmetics Industry Difficult Kearney 27 24. US Food Manufacturer Moderate Bain 69
8. Insurance Company Moderate Kearney 29 25. Medical Manufacturing Company Moderate Bain 71
9. Footwear Manufacturer Moderate BCG 31 26. Coffin Manufacturer Difficult EYP 73
10. Electronics Company Difficult BCG 34 V. Pricing Strategy Framework 76
11. Multi-Speciality Hospital Chain Moderate E&Y 36 27. Toll Collection Easy BCG 77
III. Growth Strategy Framework 38 28. Sleep Reduction Pill Moderate BCG 79
12. Online Food Delivery Platform Moderate Bain 41 29. Medical Drug Moderate BCG 82
13. Pharmaceutical Giant Moderate Bain 43 30. Airline Tickets Moderate Kearney 84
14. McDonalds India Growth Moderate Bain 45 31. Factory Owner Easy Bain 86
15. Medical Equipment – Bear Hugger Moderate Bain 47 32. New Medicine Launch Moderate McKinsey 88
16. Metro Expansion Moderate BCG 49 33. Autism Digital Therapy Product Moderate McKinsey 90
ICON, IIM Bangalore 2
Contents - II
S.No Particulars Difficulty Company Page Industry Reports
VI. Unconventional 93
34. IIMB Hostel Expansion Moderate EY 94 S.No Industry Page
35. Adventure Park Moderate Bain 96 1. Airlines Industry 129
36. Last Mile Delivery Moderate Bain 98 2. Automobile Industry 130

37. Home Services: Fall in NPS Moderate Bain 100 3. Cement Industry 131
38. Plastic Packaging Company Moderate Bain 102 4. E-Commerce and E-Retail Industry 132
39. Mohalla Clinics Delhi Moderate BCG 104 5. Electronics Manufacturing Industry 133
40. Customer Service: Private Bank Moderate BCG 106 6. Energy, Oil & Gas Industry 134
41. Uber Driver Moderate BCG 108 7. Financial Services – Asset Management 135
42. Glass Bottle Manufacturer Difficult BCG 110 8. Financial Services – Banking 136
43. Government Healthcare Difficult BCG 112 9. Financial Services – Digital Payments 137
VII. Guesstimates 115 10. Financial Services – Insurance 138
44. Petrol Pumps in Mumbai Easy Bain 116 11. FMCG Industry 139
45. Visitors to Metro Station Easy Auctus 118 12. Food Processing Industry 140
46. TV Viewers in India Easy PwC 120 13. Healthcare Services Industry 141
47. Sugar Consumption Easy Strategy& 122 14. Hospitality Industry 142
48. Snow Melting Liquid Moderate McKinsey 124 15. Iron & Steel Industry 143
49. Solar Lanterns - India Moderate McKinsey 126 16. IT and ITeS Industry 144
50. COVID Tests Difficult GEP 127 17. Logistics Industry 145

Contents - III
S.No Industry Page
18. Pharmaceutical Industry 146
19. Retail Industry 147
20. Telecom Industry 148

Copyright
© 2022, ICON – Consulting Club, IIM Bangalore. All rights reserved.
This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise – without prior written permission of ICON – Consulting Club,
IIM Bangalore. For permission requests, write to ICON at icon@iimb.ac.in.

Foreword
This casebook documents the interview experiences of the students of IIM Bangalore. The aim of sharing these experiences is to
inform students about the case interview experiences of past batch and to help them prepare for their placements accordingly. The
experiences listed below are not necessarily the best or the only way to handle case interviews. They only serve to give students an
idea of what to expect when they walk into a case interview. Every individual could have his/her unique way of tackling consulting
interviews, each of which could be correct.
This document has contributions from students who appeared for campus interviews conducted by consulting firms during the
summer and the final placement process over the last year (2021-22). The interview experiences have been sorted based on the type
of case, consulting firm, difficulty and the round in the selection process. Special thanks to all the contributors!
In this edition, to provide a holistic preparation for the case interviews, we have included comprehensive, well tested frameworks and
industry reports. These frameworks have been devised by students over innumerable iterations in finding a good fit that would crack
or narrow down even the toughest cases. The aim of these reports is to provide a basic understanding of the industry's value chain,
key performance metrics, current market trends and major drivers for cost, revenue and growth. Even though having industry-specific
knowledge is not mandatory for case solving, having a basic industry understanding helps tackle case interviews better.
Team ICON wishes you the very best for your final placements!

Introduction – Case Interviews
❖ Personality based ques. (5 min); Case discussion (20-30 min); Closing ques. for interviewer (2
min)
Case Interviews ❖ Know your CV well→ personality ques are based on CV to break ice and getting to know you
❖ Case discussions don’t have a predetermined answer. Evaluation is based on approach, exercising
judgements and steering through the problem statement
❖ Real life consulting project, that the interviewer was involved in → basis of case discussion
❖ Consult projects can vary from 2-3 months to even a year → condensed into minutes for
Business Case interviews
❖ Provided as a 3-5 statement caselet introducing the client and problem faced by them
❖ Can be number based or strategy driven; guesstimates can be a part as well
❖ Test the ability to perform on the job in a similar setup as the case-interview (consult-fit)
❖ Understand thought process of the candidate and capability to make decisions/ prioritize
Why Case Interview? ❖ Put you under same pressure, like any consult project, to assess your poise, self confidence and
communication skills (interpersonal skills)
❖ Drawing on personal experiences, if any, can come very handy – appreciated by interviewer

Introduction – Case Interview Process
Interview Stage What to expect? Skills Tested
Case Interview ❖ Interviewer tells about the business problem and objective ❖ Ability to listen
Question ❖ Ask clarifying questions; ensure you heard the question correctly and synthesize
Developing the ❖ Ask for time to structure the problem at hand ❖ Structured
❖ Come-up with a structured MECE approach quickly thinking
structure
❖ Communication
❖ Use a hypothesis driven approach for case solving ❖ Problem solving

Case Analysis ❖ Ask relevant questions, use 80-20 rule appropriately ❖ Analytical skills
❖ Case can get number intensive ❖ Communication
Summary/ ❖ Summarize the case with recommendations backed up by insights ❖ Creativity

Recommendation discovered in the case ❖ Concision
❖ Communication
Questions for ❖ Opportunity to show enthusiasm towards consulting ❖ Consulting fit

Interviewer ❖ Ask relevant, non-generic question

IIMB Profitability Cases
2021-22

Profitability Framework - Revenue
Preliminary Questions
Profit
• Clarify objective, quantum of
change in profit and timeline Revenue = Core & Non-core sources like
Revenue Cost
Advertisement, Parking, VAS, Reinvestment
• Geography - Location of the firm, its
branches (What product in the
Selling Price Number of
Product Mix portfolio; apply 80/20)
per Unit Units
• Business Model – Where does the
firm lie in the value chain? What
are its revenue streams and Supply Demand If relevant, use industry value chain
distribution channels?
• Understand customer segments Number of Avg Order Order

Value Chain
Customers Amount Frequency
• What is the product mix? Any new For a manufacturing firm,
Primary Support During
differentiation/ change in products? Pre Service Post-Service use Need, Awareness, Accessibility,
Activities Activities Service Affordability, Customer Experience
• What is the competitive landscape?
Procurement SG&A Industry Macro
Firm Level
Level (PESTEL)
Manufacturing Infrastructure & IT
Distribution Human Capital
Post Sales Service

Profitability Framework - Cost
Research and Development
Support Activities
Financing costs
Branding and Advertising
Human Capital (Capacity x Efficiency x Utilization)
Selling, General & Administrative
Cost Procuring Raw Distribution and

Manufacturing Post Sales Service
Materials Storage
● Cost of raw materials ● Plant maintenance ● Number of distributors ● Number of customers x

Primary Activities
x avg order amount x Frequency of service x

● Transportation & ● Idle capacity frequency of orders cost incurred
Packaging costs opportunity costs
● Transport & Packaging ● Spare parts, returns,
● # Suppliers x Contract ● Wastage, wear and tear replacements, waste
amount; Duration ● Intermediate Storage
● Setup time, cost
●Distributors x Avg
Distance from hub x Cost
per km

Packaging Products Manufacturer Profitability | Easy | Bain (Buddy)
I would like to analyse costs across the value chain: R&D expenses, inbound logistics, processing costs,
Your client is an Indian manufacturing company, facing a decline in profits. The CEO of the company outbound logistics and marketing and distribution expenses. Does that sound comprehensive and do
has asked us to identify problems and suggest possible solutions. we know whether the increase in cost is specific to any component of value chain?
Thank you for the case. Before I proceed with structuring and solving the problem, I would like to ask a Yes, you can focus on the processing costs part.
few preliminary questions.
Okay. Now, I would like to break the processing costs into fixed and variable costs. Fixed cost would
Sure, go ahead. generally include expenses such as electricity costs, depreciation expense and salaries of the
What does our client manufacture? supervisors. Variable costs would include cost of materials consumed, labour charges and other variable
overheads such as stores and spares. Do we know whether any of these costs have gone up?
Our client is into packaged products manufacturing for FMCG, e-commerce, and consumer durable
products. It essentially operates in the B2B segment. So, you are correct. There has been an increase in the variable overhead cost. The cost of oil and
lubricants used to run the machinery have gone up.
Okay. And what’s the timeframe and quantification of this decline in profits?
Got it. So I would like to break down this cost as a product of per unit cost and volume. Do we know as
The profits have declined in the range of 2-5% over the last 3 quarters. to which component of the cost has risen?
So, is this problem specific to our client or is it an industry-wide problem? Yes. There has been an increase in volume of consumption.
The issue is specific to our client. Okay. So I can further attribute the increase in volume to either machinery related issues or labour
related issues. Machinery related issues would include a case of either the machinery being too old,
Okay. Does the client operate across the entire value chain, or does it only manufacture these products thereby leading to more wear and tear and requiring higher consumption of oil and lubricants or a case
and outsource the distribution? where a new machinery has been purchased, which itself consumes more oil. On the other hand, labour
The client’s presence is across the value chain. related issues could include a case of mishandling of oil and lubricants by the labour, leading to an
increase in wastage and spoilage cost. Is the increase attributable to any of these issues?
Okay. How many manufacturing plants does the client have in India assuming its operations are India
specific? And is the decline in profits specific to any plant? Yes, you have correctly pointed out the issues. 2 of the manufacturing plans have recently replaced old
machinery with new ones and this machinery relatively consumes more oil to run. At the same time,
That is a good question. So, the client has 5 manufacturing plants in India and the they are facing a since the machine is new, the labor is ill equipped to handle it thereby leading to more spoilage. What
decline in 2 of these plants. can you recommend to reduce the cost?
Just to re-iterate the problem, our client is an Indian packaged goods manufacturing company, having a Sure. I would like to divide my recommendations into short-term and long-term.
presence across the value chain, and is facing a decline in profits for the past 3 quarters in 2 out of its 5 • On an immediate basis, the client should ensure that adequate training is being provided to the
manufacturing plants. The issue is specific to our client. labour to handle the machine. This could be done internally through a supervisor or through external
Sounds about right. assistance whereby the machine vendor can send across some personnel to train the labourers. The
client can also stick pictures on the machine depicting correct usage.
Great. So, I would like to break down profit as a function of revenue and cost. Do we have any data to • In the long–term, the client can consider negotiating the price with the oil/lubricant supplier by
understand if the decline in profits is due to reducing revenues or increasing costs? purchasing bulk quantities, since the new machinery anyway needs more oil.
Revenues have been steady, but the costs have gone up. Great. We can close the case here. Thank you!

Packaging Products Manufacturer Profitability | Easy | Bain (Buddy)
Case statement • Decline in profitability of packaged products manufacturer
• Analyze reasons for decline and provide recommendations to improve profits
Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

• Improve profitability with
a focus on costs Profit
• Establish value chain for

a manufacturing Costs Revenue
company and identify
individual components Marketing and
Value Chain R&D Expenses Inbound Logistics Processing Outbound Logistics
Distribution
• Increase in oil and
lubricant cost can be
driven by increase in per Fixed Costs Variable Costs
unit cost or increase in
volume
Material
• Recommendations likely
to be implemented for
planned machinery Labour
purchase in the
remaining 3 plants
Overheads
Key Takeaways
• Efficient understanding of value chain and possible cost drivers in each element is essential for identification of issue
• Focus on elimination of factors as early as possible to drill down to the root cause
• Mix of practical short-term and long-term recommendations with internal of external assistance by way of a 4*4 matrix can be used

Hypermarket Operations Profitability | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
Your client is a grocery retailer having multiple stores across the country. They are facing low profits in I would like to know all the possible cost parameters within these segments.
individual stores as compared to the competition. Find the issue and recommend solutions.
Sure. Employee costs include salary, commission, training & hiring expenses. Store cost comprises
Thank you for the problem statement! I want to start by asking a few questions. What are the target utilities, repairs, payment processing, and supplies. Lastly, product/service costs include packaging,
consumers of the client? What are their core competencies? discounts, advertisement, and shrinkage/wastage cost. Have I missed stating any other costs?
The client is a neighborhood store where you can find fresh foods. It has positioned itself as discounted You did consider all the significant cost parameters. Our client is facing an issue with high employee
store and is the first choice for medium-income group families. costs. Can you derive an equation for this cost?
Okay. So, we can say it is something like a Big Bazaar. What is the product mix? Sure. Employee Cost = Number of employees X Hours Worked X Salary/hour + Additional benefits
(Overtime, Allowances, etc.)
You can consider it to be like a Big Bazaar. Its focus is on groceries, skincare and home care products. It
does not offer electronics and fashion.
That’s correct. Our client has employed a greater number of employees in the store. Currently, the
Great. Can you also please tell me about the client’s competition? How much profit do they earn in store runs from 8 AM – 8 PM with 13 employees per shift including 10 shop floor salespeople, 1
comparison to us? cashier, 1 manager and 1 security guard. Let's say the non-peak hours are 11 AM-6 PM when we need
8 employees. Rest 10 employees are required in peak hours. A full-time employee’s salary working for
The industry-wide profit margin ranges between 3-11%, with an average of 6-7%. In comparison, profits 6 hours/day is ₹10,000 per month, and for a part-time employee working for 4 hours/day is ₹5,000
of our client’s stores are close to 0%. per month. Can you compare the monthly salaries of the current employee structure with having 20%
part-time employees?
Thank you for the information. I would now like to approach the problem statement. As we know that
profits are a function of revenue and cost. Is there any segment you would like me to focus on?
Current Scenario: 2 shifts – 8AM-2PM and 2PM-8PM with 10 full time employees each. Salary
Please go ahead with the approach. Kindly analyze the cost factor for me. expenditure – 2*10*10,000 = ₹2,00,000 per month.
Cost can be further divided into Procurement & Material Handling costs, In-Store Costs, and After Sales 20% Part-Time Scenario: 2 shifts – 8AM-2PM and 2PM-8PM with 8 full time employees each. 2 part
costs (Returns, services). time employees each covering peak hours from 8AM-12 noon and 4PM-8PM. Salary = 2*8*10,000 +
2*2*5,000 = ₹1,80,000 p.m.
Can you further explain the in-store costs of our client?
In-store costs can be divided further into fixed and variable costs. Is there any specific segment I should Your numbers seem correct. Do you suggest any further improvement to the client over the 20% Part-
analyze? time scenario?
What do you mean by fixed costs? Can you further bifurcate it? Yes. Since having part-time employees decreases the salary expense as their per hour cost is
Fixed cost includes rent/lease, insurance, interest, maintenance, tax, infrastructure, and equipment. comparatively lower. Mathematically speaking, all part-time employees can minimize salary expenses
to ₹1,40,000 per month
Great! But our client is following industry standards in all these costs. We can further move to variable Full Part-Time scenario: 3 shifts – 8AM-12noon, 12noon-4PM and 4PM-8PM. Peak shifts with 10
cost parameters. employees each and non-peak shift with 8 employees. Salary expenditure = 2*10*5000 + 1*8*5000 =
₹1,40,000 per month
Variable costs for a hypermarket can be further divided into costs related to employees, store, and
products/services. Which segment should I focus on?

Okay. So, you suggest the client to employ all the part-time employees?
I would rather not. Though the calculations show that we will be saving 30% of salary expense
compared to the current scenario, all part-time employees come with other qualitative costs that the
formula does not include. Hence a combination of full-time and part-time employees after the cost-
benefit analysis will be the best option.
What are the qualitative aspects you would suggest to be looked upon by our client?
1. Part-time employees have high-income elasticity and low switching costs; hence their retention
becomes difficult.
2. Retention cost is further coupled with hiring and training cost of recruits that increases cost to
the company.
3. It is difficult to imbibe company values and culture in part-time employees. This will impact
customer’s acquisition and retention for our client in the long-term affecting its revenues and
market share.
These are great insights. This was a real-time case, and we also ended up suggesting a mix of full-time
and part-time employees to our client. It was nice interacting with you. Thank you!
It was great interacting with you too. Thank you!

Case statement • Your client is a grocery retailer having multiple stores in pan India.
• Low profits in individual stores as compared to the competition.

Profit
• The client is positioned
as a neighborhood
discounted store Costs Revenue
targeted to MIG families.
Procurement & Material Handling In-Store Costs After Sales
• Hypermarket chains like
Big Bazaar, dealing in
groceries, skin, and home Fixed Variable
care. Not into electronics
& fashion.
Rent/Lease Employee Store Product/Service
• The client’s profit margin
is 0%. The industry
average is 6-7%, with a Insurance Salary Utilities Packaging
range of 3-11%.
Maintenance Commission Payment Shrinkage
Infrastructure Hiring/Training Repairs Advertisements
Key Takeaways
• The interviewer wanted me to list all the cost parameters before delving into the quantitative aspect of employee salary cost.
• Looking at the salary expenditure scenario beyond the quantitative aspects was well appreciated by the interviewer.

Candy Manufacturing Company Profitability | Moderate | McKinsey (Buddy)
Your client is a leading candy manufacturing company. Recently, they have seen a decline in their Yes, the volume of candies sold have fallen drastically in the past few months.
profits. They have hired you to diagnose the problem and give recommendations.
Volume could fall either due to supply side issue or demand side issue. Do we know which one is it?
Thank you for the problem statement. I would like to start by asking a few clarifying questions to get a
better idea about the client as well as the context of the problem. Is that fine? The demand for the product has declined.
Yes, please go ahead Demand could go down either due to factors internal to the client or external factors. Since it is an
industry wide issue, I would like to assume the latter.
Firstly, I would like to know the geography the client operates in and where does our client lie in the
value chain? Also, is the decline specific to any geography? Yes, you are correct.
The client has manufacturing plants in 5 locations in India. However, their customers lie pan-India. External factors could either be industry structure or contextual factors like political, economic,
They manufacture candies and sell it to retailers like paanvalas and kirana shops who in turn sell it to social etc. Would you like me to focus on any one the above two.
the end user. The decline has been observed throughout India. You can think about industry structure.
I would also like to know what kind of products is the client selling, and since when it has been seeing Industry structure would include the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers. Since the costs and
a decline in profits? I would also like to know what is the amount of decline? prices have remained same, these factors can’t be the issue. Other factors could be introduction of
The clients manufactures and sells Rs. 1 – 2 candies like Centre Fresh and other mouth freshners. For substitutes like sugar free candies etc., a new entrant disrupting the market or a change in the basis
simplicity, assume this is the only product. They have seen the decline since last 5-6 months. The of competition – maybe some price wars (but this is highly unlikely).
decline has been about 30%.
All these things have remained the same. I want you think a bit more about the industry structure .
What is the competitive landscape in this industry and is the decline in profit particular to the client or
is it an industry-wide phenomenon? It could be because of a change in price of it’s complements. The clients products are very often
brought with things like cigarettes at paanvaalas or with other commodities to substitute for loose
There are 2-3 big players in the industry & all of them have seen a similar decline in profits. change. It could have happened that prices of them might have increased or decreased and reached
to a convenient amount like Rs.10-20.
So, our client is a candy manufacturer facing a steep decline in profits for the past 5-6 months. They
sell candies similar to Centre Fresh. Further, this has been an industry wide phenomenon. Is my This is indeed the issue. The government increased taxes on cigarettes, due to which their prices
understanding correct? increased from Rs. 17-18 to Rs. 20 which has drastically affected the sales. Can you give a couple of
recommendations,
Yes, you can go ahead and tell me your approach. In the short term, the client should look at partnerships with cigarette companies in terms of
Since profit is a function of revenue and costs, do we have any data on whether the revenues have bundling their products. They can also look at selling 10 unit packings of their products. In the long
gone down, or costs have gone up or is the decline a combination of both? term, they need to diversify their portfolio and move into chocolate products.
You can focus on the revenues Thank you, we can close the case here
Revenues are a function of Price, the volumes and the product mix. Since, the client manufactures
only one type of candies, product mix is not of much relevance here. Also, since, it is just a Rs. 1
product, I am assuming fall in price is also not the reason for profit decline, which means the volume
has declined. Am I correct?

Candy Manufacturing Company Profitability | Moderate | McKinsey (Buddy)
Case statement • Declining profits for a candy manufacturer
• Identify reasons and give recommendations

Profit
• Decline in Volumes
• Single product like Centre Revenue Costs

Fresh
• Industry wide decline

Price Volume Product Mix
• Sold at Paanvaalas and
Kiraana shops
Supply Demand
Internal External
Industry Structure Industry Context
Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis +

PESTEL Analysis
Compliments
Key Takeaways
• Structuring around PORTER and PESTEL factors is beneficial when demand has declined due to external factors
• Remember to include the role of ‘compliments’ when assessing the industry using Porter’s 5 forces

Mall Food Court Profitability | Moderate | Strategy& (Partner)
Let me tell you right away that this is kind of an unconventional case. I hope you are ready for it. You Let us just look at the restaurants. I want you to think of a typical mall.
are the promoter and owner of a mall, and you want to increase the profitability of the mall’s food
courts. Ok, do the fine dining restaurants also contribute the highest share of our revenues?
Thanks for this interesting case. Before I get into the case, may I please ask some questions to Yes, highest share as well as highest percentage of commission.
understand the scenario better.
May I know where exactly is this food court located. Most mall food courts are located on the top floor
Sure! Go ahead. because I would want the visitors to explore the shops below and then come to the food court after
they are famished. Also, since we are talking about the mall being close to a waterpark, we could have
May I know a bit more about the mall and the food court.
visitors specifically coming for the food since parks usually charge a premium when it comes to food.
The mall is in an upcoming locality outside a major city. Since you have worked in Gurgaon, lets think
Yes, you are correct. The food court is on the top floor, and we have a lot of visitors coming in from the
of the mall being in Greater Noida. There is a waterpark near the mall, and it is frequented by visitors
waterpark.
of all age groups. The food court houses 3 types of restaurants.
1) The High-End Fine Dining Restaurants Ok, since we are running on a commission model here we will benefit directly if the restaurants
2) The Regular Fast-Food Chains generate more profits. For that we can look at how much is being spent that which will be function of
3) Kitchens preparing meals for Swiggy, Zomato, etc. (how many visitors visit on a day * average cost per order).
What is the revenue structure we are looking at. Mostly the malls charge a monthly rent to the Ok, Go On
restaurants and take a cut from the profits.
I would like to first look at the number of visitors. To increase the footfall to the restaurants, we can
You are correct. But for the case, lets us say that you are getting paid only through a cut from the think of advertising the restaurants in the waterpark and run promotions so that more people come.
profits. The Fine Dining Restaurants gives the highest percentage, then the fast-food chains and pickup
kitchens have the least percentage. I don’t think that you as an owner can do much about advertisements. It is up to the restaurants to
decide how much and how often they want to advertise. I would like you to think beyond all this.
May I please take a few minutes to structure my thoughts.
Ok, do you want me to look at the mall itself?
Sure, please take your time.
Yes, you are getting there. Think about the mall and tell me how will u make more people eat at your
Ok, so, since we are looking at increasing the profitability. We can look at two buckets. One is the food court.
Expenses that we are currently incurring and second the Revenues that we are generating from the
restaurants. Ok, Since we discussed that this mall is in a place like Greater Noida. I am aware that there is mall there
which has some indoor water canals mimicking Venice and people travel just to see that. Does our mall
Our Expenses are quite optimized and there is not much scope there. If need be, we can look at it later. have any USPs like that or can we come up with something like this?
Let us focus on the Revenues.
Oh perfect, I understand that there are three revenue streams for any mall food court. Interesting observation .... But no, ours is a typical vanilla mall.
1) The revenue we get from the 3 kind of restaurants that we have with Fine Dining giving the highest May I take a minute to think of alternatives?
share of profits
2) Through advertisements that we put in the food court

Yes, definitely. I want you to think of the structure of the mall itself. This is my hint for you.
Ok, thanks a lot for the hint, since we gain the maximum from the fine dining restaurants. We could
give them spaces in easily accessible areas. The families who reach our food court should first see the
fine dining restaurant. Also, since we are talking about families who are coming to the waterpark, they
would be coming with their children. We can think of having some eye-catching displays in front of the
restaurants so that the children get captivated by them and ask their parents to take them there.
Ok, fair enough. Think more. Maybe something to do with how they reach the food court.
Oh! Yes. Usually, visitors take the escalators to reach the food courts. We can strategically place the
elevators such that the guests must traverse the entire floor when the come.
Can you elaborate?
Sure. The escalator which brings the visitors up to the food court can be placed on one end and the
fine dining restaurants will be closest to it. The escalator to go down must be on the other end so that
families who have had a meal will still have to reach it and, in this process, they might spend a little
more on things like maybe a quick dessert to take away, candies, etc.
Nice that is what I was looking for! Do you have any questions for me?
Yeah! This was such an interesting case. I am just curious on whether this was a live case that Strategy&
received and how did it tackle it.
Yes, this indeed was something we took up for a popular mall chain and we suggested them to make
some changes to escalators among other things.
Thanks for sharing this with me
It was nice talking to you. All the best!

Case statement • You are the promoter and owner of a mall, and you want to increase the profitability of the mall’s food courts.

• The client is positioned
as a neighborhood
discounted store
targeted to MIG families.
Profit
• Hypermarket chains like
Big Bazaar, dealing in
groceries, skin, and home
care. Not into electronics Revenue Expenses
& fashion.
• The client’s profit margin Spending Per

Footfall
is 0%. The industry Meal
average is 6-7%, with a
range of 3-11%.
Positioning of Positioning of
USP Marketing
Restaurants Elevators & Escalators
Key Takeaways
• Derive examples and experiences from your own life
• No conventional framework used even though tried to apply a profitability framework
• The final recommendation is the key
• Keep a look out for any hints that the interviewer may give to lead you to the desired answer
Japanese Calligraphy Brush Maker Profitability | Difficult | Kearney (Buddy)
Your client is a Japanese calligraphy brush maker whose profits have been dropping for the past 2 Alright, it seems that the decreasing revenue is the main issue that the client is facing. I’d like to look at
years. Can you determine the reasons? revenue number of brushes or units sold * price per brush. Do we have any data to suggest either one
of them has reduced over this time?
Sure. Before I analyse the possible causes of the issue, could I ask a few questions to get a better
understanding of the client and the industry? Price per brush has remained the same. But the total number of brushes sold has dropped by 30%. You
can take a look at that.
Fair enough, what would you like to know?
Ok, we know that volume has been reducing. This could be because of either a reduction in demand or
Japanese calligraphy is a niche and small scale industry where the brush makers are specialised
supply or both.
craftsmen. Am I right in making this assumption?
Yes that’s right. The client is a single workshop operator and is a grandmaster of making these brushes. That’s correct, we know from our client that both demand and supply have gone down leading to a fall
He runs a sole proprietorship which has been in his family for 4 generations. in volume. Why don’t you look at supply first?
Ok. I would also like to know what kind of customers the client caters to and if our brush maker only Sure, we know that client operates across the value chain on his own. This would include procuring raw
makes the brushes or engages in other parts of the value chain as well. Does he source the raw materials, logistics associated with transport, manufacturing or crafting the brushes in this case, sales
materials himself or does he operate the retail selling to his customers? and marketing and after sales service and maintenance. Do we know if one or multiple steps in this
process are facing difficulty right now?
The customers are mostly renowned calligraphy artists who create traditional Japanese character
calligraphy for exhibitions and social ceremonies. They expect only the best quality of brushes and I can tell you that the client is facing a problem in sourcing the raw materials used for the brushes. Do
therefore, each order is bespoke and customized according to the needs of the individual clients. And you have any clue as to why this might be case?
yes, our client does nearly everything in the value chain, from raw materials to crafting the brushes
For high quality demanded by artisanal calligraphers, I’d assume that only the best natural raw materials
and delivers the orders to his customers at the workshop
would do for the brushes. This might mean that the wood used for the handles is rarely sourced timbre
Thank you, I’d also like to know if this fall in profitability is affecting only our client or other brush or that the bristles used for the brush might be a particular kind of animal hair. Could a scarcity of either
makers in the industry. of these be the reason getting the raw materials is a problem?
It’s been affecting all the brush makers of this ilk. But there are only 3 to 4 of these master brush Yes, that’s on point! As you mentioned, only the best quality of materials is acceptable to calligraphers
makers across Japan. So let’s just focus on our client for now. and brush maker. Specifically the brush maker will not compromise on the hair of the white goats
from the Yangtse river delta. As habit destruction is taking its toll, the goat population has decreased.
That helps a lot. I think I have all the necessary details to proceed with the case. Could I just take a This also means that our brush maker can’t procure the valuable goat hairs like he could before. Let’s
couple of minutes to structure my thought? also figure what’s happening with demand.
That’s perfectly alright. Go ahead.
Certainly. As far as I can tell, demand would be = number of total customers * fraction of customers
(After a short pause for structuring the case) Decreasing profits can either be due to falling revenues or approaching our client * frequency of purchase * average purchase quantity. Do we have any data to
rising costs or both. Do we have any info on what might be the case with our client? identify which of these might have reduced for leading to the fall in demand?
We know that the clients revenues have seen the dip. Costs have gone down to a small extent as well.

Based on how you have approached it, I can tell you that the total number of customers and their
frequency of purchase has reduced.
Interesting. That leads me to hypothesize that perhaps the artists aren’t getting the kind of business
they are looking for causing some artists to leave the practise and for the remaining ones to get fewer
commissioned works. Am I on the right track?
That could very well be a possible reason. But recently, the Japanese government has made a big push
to promote this form of traditional calligraphy and has organised many exhibitions and given support
to the artists for the same. Can you think of other possibilities?
(After a brief pause to organise thoughts) Ok. So for the customers, the requirement for brushes would
depend on their need, awareness, accessibility, affordability, acceptability and purchase experience. If
the total number of customers or calligraphers has reduced, I would suspect it might be because they
are not opting for this line of work as it might not be what they might want to pursue long time. Could
that be the reason?
Correct. Calligraphy like any traditional art in Japan is a generational in that the sons take up the craft
from their fathers. But the latest generation is not as fond of the art because of the years of dedication
it takes to become proficient at it. Any idea why frequency of purchase might be reducing?
For frequency of the purchases of the brushes to drop, I’d again like to look at need. We know that the
number of commissioned calligraphies is not dropping due to the government’s push for the art form.
But perhaps there are other reasons for the artists to not need brushes as often. One needs not only the
brushes to practise the art, but also other equipment such as the canvas or calligraphy paper and the ink
by which they make the characters. If there is a challenge in getting these compliments, the
calligraphers wouldn’t want to purchase brushes as often.
Well done! The master calligraphers who are the primary customers for our client use special
ingredients for the ink. One of them is squid ink which gives a jet black colour to the ink they use. As
with the case of goats, it is becoming harder to obtain the quantity of the ink due to habitat disruption
of the squids. That means the calligraphers don’t require to purchase brushes as often due to this
constraint. You have effectively identified all the reasons for our client’s decrease in profits. We can
end the case here.
Thank you. It was a pleasure interacting with you.

Likewise. It was great talking to you.

Case statement • Your client is a Japanese calligraphy brush maker whose profits have been dropping for the past 2 years. Can you find the reasons?

• Client makes custom- Profit
made products for
specific customers
Revenue Costs
• Raw materials on supply
side
Price/Unit Volume
• Customer profile and
complements on demand
side
Supply Demand
• Multiple branches of
profitability Raw
Logistics Manufacturing Sales Post Sales Need Awareness
Material
Sourcing Brush Hairs Accessibility Acceptability Affordability
Customer Profile – Newer

Complements – Squid Ink
Generation
Key Takeaways
• Understanding geographical, industry and customer context is key to arriving at the solution involving multiple branches
• Products are also influenced by compliments such as the ink which determines customer demand

Quick Service Restaurant Profitability | Moderate | Kearney (Partner)
Your client is a quick service restaurant in India and has been facing fall in profitability. Identify the Yes, so costs have increased in delivery segment where delivery person salary has gone up. Can you drill
root cause and give the recommendations to solve the problem. down why this is the case?
Oh right! So, delivery person’s salary can have 2 components – fixed part and variable part based on the
Thanks for the problem statement. Before structuring my thoughts and jumping into the solution I
number of deliveries. Do we have data that fixed part of their salary has increased or variable part?
would like to ask few preliminary questions. Our client is a single restaurant or a chain of restaurants?
In which geographies we are currently operating in? Fair enough. So variable part of their salary has seen a rise.
Our client is a restaurant chain and currently operating in Tier 1 and Metro cities. Okay. So that can be mainly due to 2 factors. Either the number of deliveries has increased because of a
greater number of small size orders or per delivery payment has seen a rise. Do we have information about
Thank you! Can I please know more about the product and customer mix of our client? Also, what is our
this? Also, can we have the data about the per delivery payment to delivery person?
client’s operating business model? Is it dine-in, take away, delivery or all three?
The client has 3-4 main dishes like Italian pizza, pasta, etc. Regarding the customers the client Yes, number of deliveries has increased because of more small size orders for which we are charging
currently serves the high-end customers. The client has all the three type of operations. same to customers based on distance only irrespective of order size. Regarding per delivery payment
recently policy has changed and upto 20 delivery per day, delivery person is paid 15 rupees per delivery
Okay! Do we have any data that this profitability fall is specific to our client or is it an industry wide and after that to incentivize them to do more deliveries 20 rupees per delivery is paid. Can you give
phenomenon? Also are we seeing this profitability fall across all the outlets of the chain or is it specific recommendations in this condition what our client should do?
to a particular outlet?
Yes, so I would like to break my recommendations into 2 parts - Short term and long-term
So, profitability fall is partially specific to our client and partially due to an industry wide phenomenon. recommendations. For short term, to solve the small order size issue we can introduce combo offers to
Moreover, the client is seeing profitability fall across all the outlets. increase order size and start charging the customers for delivery based on multiple params like order size,
distance, customer credibility score, income level (first degree price discrimination), etc. Also, in short term
Got it! So, I believe I have sufficient information to go ahead and structure the problem. Now, I would instead of giving more charge to delivery personnel after 20 deliveries, we can offer them other benefits
like to break down profits into 2 parts – Revenue and costs. Profit = Revenue – Cost. The decline in like insurance and keep the delivery charge same after 20 deliveries or we can increase this threshold of 20
profits can be either due to fall in revenue or rise in costs or may be both are happening deliveries only to get more charge. In long term, we can develop an algorithm which can even out the
simultaneously. Do we have some data where I should investigate? distribution of deliveries over delivery personnel so very few delivery personnel will cross 20 delivery mark
and at the same time each delivery personnel will have roughly equal number of deliveries per day which
For the scope of this case, revenue of our client has remained the same, but costs have increased. ensures fairness to all too. Also, we can hire a greater number of delivery personnel in long term which can
Ok. Firstly, let’s look at costs increase which is specific to our client. For dine in and take away, I would ensure very few people will cross 20 delivery. mark.
like to spilt the costs into 2 components – Fixed costs and Variable costs. Fixed costs will include rent of
I must say those are great recommendations. Now let’s move to rise of delivery personnel costs industry
the space, fixed component of employee salaries, license and insurance costs, maintenance and
wide. What factors do you think of which can cause this?
marketing expenses. Variable costs would include raw material costs, employee hourly/variable salary,
inventories/utilities cost, etc. For delivery fixed costs will include upfront investment in purchasing Right. A new union could have been formed of delivery personnel and it has pushed the industry to
delivery vehicles, app infrastructure costs, etc. and variable costs will include delivery person salary, increase the fixed component of delivery personal salary or minimum wage that is decided by the
fuel cost, losses due to return/not acceptance of the order, compensation coupons/refund for bad government could have seen an increase. Is this exhaustive or should I look more into this?
quality experience to customers, etc. Do we have any data that costs have increased in which service –
Great. I guess that is exhaustive enough. Let’s close our case here. Thank you!
dine in/take away/delivery and under which cost head?

Quick Service Restaurant Profitability | Moderate | Kearney (Partner)
Case statement • Quick service restaurant in India has been facing fall in profitability
• Identify the reasons for decline and give recommendations.

Declining Profitability
• Needed to ask about
different kind of services Costs Revenue
of client.
Dine-In/Takeaway Costs Delivery Costs
• Cost rising problem was
partially specific to client Fixed Costs Variable Costs Industry Wide Client Specific
and partially industry
wide phenomenon.
Rent Raw Material Union Pressure Fixed Variable
• Break-down of costs into
fixed and variable cost Salaries Variable Pay Delivery Vehicle Fuel
Increase of Minimum
was essential.
Wage by Government
Licensing Fee Inventory App Infrastructure Delivery Agent
• Needed to exhaustively Salaries
look at why delivery Insurance Utilities
costs have increased
Losses due to
Maintenance returns
Marketing
Key Takeaways
• Preliminary questions were utmost important in this case to scope down the problem.
• When dividing the costs in different buckets it was essential to be as exhaustive as possible as we might miss some head and problem can be in that head only.
• Recommendations in this case were very important and it fetched brownie points for the candidate. Always try to give recommendations in short-long term format.

Cosmetics Industry Profitability | Difficult | Kearney (Partner)
Your client is ‘Beauty Décor’, Cosmetics Manufacturer. The company is worried about the declining You are right. We can see that our competitors perfumes are preferred by our customers. Why do you
sales. They want you to analyse the issue and come up with a strategy for the same. think is this happening?
I would like to begin with the case by first understanding the company better. What all product lines the I would further like to break down my problem into five heads of demand. Need, Awareness,
company is involved in? Also, where does the company sell its products and what are its distribution Accessibility, Affordability and Customer Experience. Do we know where can be the issue?
channels?
Before that can you explain what will you consider under each of them?
The company has three product lines, perfumes, skin care and hair care. They sell their products pan
India and use their as well as third party distributors. Under need, we should be concerned with any changes in customers preferences or requirements.
Under awareness, it is important to look at our advertisement and promotion strategies. Under
Do we have any data that whether the decline in sales is specific to a particular product line, geography accessibility, we should analyze whether our products are easily accessible to our end consumers.
or distribution channels? Affordability should be checked by benchmarking our prices with that of our competitors. Lastly, it is
Yes, there has been a decline in revenue in the perfumes segment. Also, the decline has been uniform very crucial to study customer satisfaction and experience. Do we know where are we facing the issue?
across geographies and distribution channels. Yes, the customers are not satisfied with Beauty Decor’s perfumes. It would be great if you could
analyse customer experience.
Alright. I would like to know since when the company has been facing this decline and by how much?
Also, is the entire industry facing the same issue? Definitely, I would like to do my analysis by using customer journey to find out at what stage are we
losing our customers. I would like to divide it into pre- purchase, during purchase and post purchase or
The perfume sales have experienced a decline of 15% over last 1.5 years. Other companies in the the usage stage. Do we know where the customer is facing issue?
industry seem to be doing fine.
Excellent. Quite a comprehensive approach. You can limit your analysis to usage stage and think about
This is quite a significant fall. Is there any further segmentation in this segment? the aspects after the customer has purchased our perfume.
The company sells perfumes under two segments - regular and premium. Under regular segment In this stage I would like to take into consideration four aspects. Packaging, fragrance, life of perfume,
perfumes are priced below Rs 500 and constitute 35% of the perfume sales. Under premium segment and customer feedbacks.
the perfumes are priced above Rs 500 and constitute remaining.
You have identified the possible reasons correctly. In order to cut the costs Beauty Décor, decided to
We know Revenue = No. of units of perfume bottles sold * Price bottle. Has Beauty Décor changed the replace their glass bottles with plastic bottles. Customers have the feeling that they are no longer using
prices of the perfume bottles in last 1.5 years? premium product. What would you recommend?
The prices have not changed. I would like you to analyse the decline in the number of bottles sold. Since Beauty Décor branded these perfumes as premium, the packaging will have to reflect the same.
Sure, I would like to structure my thoughts into three aspects, production, distribution and customer Few recommendations that I would like to give are:
demand. Do we have any data available or information on any of these three areas? 1. Refining plastic bottles to a better quality, to mimic glass and give a premium feel.
2. Exploring other options such as metallic bottles.
Can you help the client understand what all aspects would you consider in each of the three heads? 3. The company can do advertising such that they are using environment friendly plastic bottles.
It can be possible that we are facing decline in our Production due to any problem with our raw 4. Beauty Décor can also increase the volume of perfume sold in a bottle, if feasible so that it does
materials, labor, machinery etc. Under Distribution it would be crucial to understand whether the not lose its customers because of changes in packaging.
distributors are pushing competitors’ perfumes over ours. Lastly, I would like to understand if demand These are quite interesting solutions. It was great interacting with you. Thank you!
for our perfumes has seen a decline due to change in preferences of our customers or due to negative
publicity or else our competitors are offering better offers and prices in the market.
Cosmetics Industry Profitability | Difficult | Kearney (Partner)
Case statement • Your client is a cosmetics manufacturer selling products pan India.
• Decline in sales as compared to the competitors.

Profit
• Three product lines:
Perfumes, skin care and
hair care. Pan India Revenue Cost
distribution by self and
third-party distributors
• Decline in revenue of Hair Care Perfumes Skin Care

15% in last 1.5 years in
perfume segment
Regular Premium
Segment Segment
• Two perfume segments:
Regular: < Rs 500, 35%
sales Number of
Price/ Bottle
Premium: > Rs 500, 65% Bottles
sales
Production Distribution Demand
Need Awareness Accessibility Affordability Experience
Key Takeaways
• The interviewer wanted me to solve the case comprehensively by listing all the factors under an identified header
• The use of Need, Awareness, Accessibility, Affordability and Customer Experience framework, and customer journey was appreciated by the interviewer

Insurance Company Profitability | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
Your client is an insurance firm based in India. Their profits have been declining recently. Diagnose the Yes! The costs can be broken down into fixed costs and variable costs. The fixed costs include
reasons and suggest suitable recommendations. administrative expenses, licenses and employee salaries. The variable costs include the insurance
claims, commissions, and any other customer service costs. Have I missed anything here?
Thank you for the problem statement! I would start by asking a few questions to be clear on the
problem statement. Which type of insurance does the firm deal with? How long has the firm been You did consider the major costs. The company has been facing increased insurance claim costs. What
facing this issue? do you think could be the reason?
The firm deals with general insurance and medical insurance. The profit decline has been observed in We can identify the reason for the increase in costs if we have any breakup of the types of insurance
the medical insurance arm of the firm for the past 6 months. I would like you to focus on the medical claims that have been increasing recently. They can be anything such as increase in refunds for a
insurance part. You can ignore reinsurance for now. particular type of treatment or medicine or increase in doctor consultations etc,
Oh yes ! This can also result from the recent change in medical insurance coverage policy.
In my understanding, medical insurance is what one avails to get the entire medical costs reimbursed or
at a discount. It can range from getting treatments for minor health ailments to major surgeries That’s right. The insurance firm extended its coverage policy to include eye treatment and as a result
depending on the coverage policy and premiums paid. Am I right in assuming so? Also, who are their their costs have been rising.
customers? Are there any other services of the client that I should be aware of?
Since it is eye insurance cover, there could have been an increase in claims for non-essential treatments
Our client’s health insurance policy can be availed by paying an annual premium that gives certain and services availed such as eye wear and an increase in doctor consultations. These could have led to
medical coverage benefits. The client’s customers include corporate clients who provide medical an overall increase in cost for the firm compared to the revenue increase from additional signups due to
insurance cover to their employees through our client. For simplicity, let’s assume there is only one type the extended policy cover.
of medical insurance policy that the client offers.
You’re right. That is what happened exactly. Now could you provide a few recommendations for our
Right. Now that we have a fair idea about the business of our client, I would like to know our client’s client to reduce the overall costs?
relative position in the market and how our competitors are performing currently.
Sure. First, we can place a maximum cap on the number of non-essential refunds and doctor visits
Our client is the market leader in the medical insurance segment. Our client’s revenues have increased allowed per year for eye treatment. This can be augmented by setting up an online authorization
over the past six months. Also, our competitors’ profits have remained the same. mechanism to approve only refunds for essential treatments subject to the opinion of the doctor.
In the long run, we can bundle the current policy cover with other ailments (that may entail less
Interesting! Our client’s revenues have increased. That can mean we have more customers than before frequent doctor visits and treatments) and increase the annual premium to offset out increase in costs.
or we could have increased our annual premiums. But at the same time our profits have reduced. So, Else, we can also charge a fixed fee from the policy holder every time the medical insurance is availed
I’m assuming there has been a change in the cost structure of the firm which resulted in the decrease in for the eye treatment.
profits. Do you think this is a fair approach?
Alright. Thank you for those recommendations. We can end the case here. It was nice interacting with
Yes. The client’s costs have increased due to a recent medical coverage policy change to increase you, All the best!
market share. Can you list down the various costs involved with an insurance company?

Insurance Company Profitability | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
Case statement • Your client is an insurance firm based in India.
• Their profits have been decreasing for the past 6 months

• Medical insurance arm
to be the point of focus
Profit
• Customers pay an annual
premium to avail medical
insurance services
Revenue Cost
• Increase in Revenues but
decrease in Profits->
Increase in cost
Fixed Cost Variable Cost
• Increase in costs due to a
recent policy change that
involved extending
medical cover to eye
treatments Admin overhead Employee Salaries Licenses Claims Commissions Customer Service
Key Takeaways
• Buy in every assumption with the interviewer.
• Be mindful of increase in costs accompanying actions intended to increase revenues

Footwear Manufacturer Profitability | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Your client is a footwear manufacturer, and it has always been the market leader in India. From the The revenues can be further split into 3 V’s i.e., volumes, value and variety. So, either the volumes
last one year the client is suddenly witnessing a significant decline in return on shareholder’s equity might be going down, or the price or there could be a problem with the product mix. Do you want me
and has slipped to number 2 in terms of market share. You have been hired to identify the reasons to focus on any of these first?
and recommend solution to the client.
That’s a fair split of revenues. What can you think of product mix specific to this case?
Just to get a high-level sense of the business landscape, can I ask a few preliminary questions before Sir, as you mentioned earlier that we manufacture all types of products i.e., business, casual etc. and
we delve deeper into the problem. now we have been witnessing sudden decline in revenues from the past one year. One of the potential
reasons relating to product mix could be change in customer preferences towards casual footwear
Sure, please go ahead. over business wear especially during the covid times. As most of the working population has been
Could you please help me understand a.) what are the geographies that we operate in, b.) what are the working from home recently, and while working from home one would prefer casual wear like slippers,
type of footwear that we manufacture i.e., casual wear, business wear, party wear, c.) who are our sliders etc. there would be lesser demand for business shoes and sandals.
primary customers, i.e., male/female, kids/adults etc. and d.) what is the competitive landscape?
Spot on. There has been sudden spike in the demand for casual wear. While the competitors have
Alright, that’s quite comprehensive set of questions. So, the client has an even presence across the been readjusting their product portfolio to match the demand, our client has been missing out on
country, you can assume that the client manufacturers all types of footwear for all types, age that readjustment. But that is only 50% of the problem. Can we look at the other component of
groups, gender etc. And the competition is intense amongst top 5 footwear players while rest of the revenue that we mentioned earlier i.e., volumes.
market is fragmented. Sure, the decline in volumes specific to the client can be either due to fall in demand or a supply side
Trust I have a fair understanding of the business operations. To dissect the problem statement, since constraint i.e., either the client is not getting enough demand for its products, or the client is not able
there has been a sharp decline return of shareholder’s equity and ROE is a function of profits and equity. to match the demand with its supply.
Has the client seen a decline in returns or an increase in equity base or both.
It is primarily a supply side issue. How would you look at a supply constraint problem?
The client has been witnessing sudden and significant decline in returns. Considering there is a bottleneck in the supply side, I would like to lay down the value chain for a
footwear manufacturer to assess if there is a problem in any of the individual components.
Since when has the client been seeing decline in return ? And is it only specific to our client which has
seen the decline or the other footwear manufacturers in the industry have also seen a decline? Okay, so how would the client’s value chain look like ?
The client has been seeing the decline in profits from the past one year. Other competitors have also For a footwear manufacturer, the value chain would begin with sourcing of raw materials, in-bound
seen a marginal decline, but our client has been significantly impacted due to which the other logistics, manufacturing, packaging, warehousing, distribution, sales & after-sales support.
competitor has become the market leader pushing our client to number 2 in terms of market share. Alright, lets look at distribution.
So, the distribution channels for a footwear manufacturer could be either physical or online or an
Return is a function of revenue and cost. Either the revenues could be declining, or the cost could be omni-channel distribution. Under physical it could be either through own stores, or a franchise or both.
going up or both relative to the competitor. Considering our client is losing market share, will it be fair And under online it could either be directly through own website or through an online aggregator like
to hypothesize that the revenues are declining first and then maybe later, we can have a look at the amazon, Flipkart etc. or both. I would like to understand which of these model does the client follow.
cost side of the client.
The client sells its products through its own physical stores.
Yes, it seems like a fair assumption. Let's start with the revenues and then look at the costs.

And to benchmark it with the competitor’s distribution channel, does the client also operate only
through its own physical stores?
No, the competitors have been using an omni-channel distribution strategy.
Trust, I have narrowed down to where the problem is. Due to the pandemic restrictions, the customers
were not be able to visit places physically and might have resorted to online shopping. Since the
competitors had an omni-channel strategy, they were able to capitalize on the online demand, while our
client couldn’t re-adjust rapidly. This might also explain relative increase in costs, as the client owns its
physical store, there would have been fixed cost being incurred in the form of space, people and
overhead costs relating to the stores irrespective of the quantum of revenues.
That’s correct. Interesting that you could relate it with the cost aspect of the problem as well. What
would be your recommendations for the client now? You need not summarize the case.
I would like to make the following recommendations to the client:

- Given the shift in the consumer preferences, the client should rebalance its product portfolio more
frequently to match the demand i.e., more towards casual wear in the short term and use customer
analytics to readjust in the long term.
- The client should adopt to an omni-channel strategy wherein the customer should have the flexibility
to either buy the products online or offline or check online and buy offline or vice versa.
- The client should also look at the ways to control costs to increase the return on shareholder’s equity
via renegotiating leases for spaces, rostering sales staff to work, embracing technology to expand the
geographical reach with relatively lesser costs etc.
Thank you so much for your time and insights. We can close the case now.

Case statement • Your client is one of the leading footwear manufacturers in India who caters to all types of footwears and customer segments in the country.
• The client is facing sudden decline in return on shareholder’s equity from past one year and has recently slipped from market leader position to #2 in terms of market share.
Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework Return on

Shareholder’s Equity
• Interviewer was
assessing if the candidate
could seamlessly break- Shareholder’s
Return/Profits
down the typical Equity
profitability problem,
even though the problem Internal/ External/
statement was disguised Company specific Industry specific
in the form of a technical
metric Revenue Cost
• Multiple issues in the

problem relating to Volume Value Product Mix
product-mix, distribution
channels and related • Business-wear
costs • Casual-wear
Supply Side Demand Side
• Party-wear
• Past one year was the
pandemic year, quickly Sourcing of In—bound Sales & After
Manufacturing Packaging Warehousing Distribution
Raw Material logistics Sales Support
relating the business
situation with real life - Physical - Online - Omni-channel
context was the key.
Key Takeaways
• Structuring and dissecting the problem into pieces was the key to identify multiple issues, following a MECE approach
• Utilizing the business acumen and relating it to real world scenario to delve deeper into the problem is required in a case like this
• In a case with multiple issues, it’s important to inter-connect the issues and keep thinking on the feet while analyzing as well as synthesizing the case

Electronics Company Profitability | Difficult | BCG (Buddy)
Your client is an Electronics Company in India, and its Profit has been declining. Analyze the problem and No, you have covered everything comprehensively. Let's focus on outbound logistics. How do you think
suggestrecommendations. outbound happens in thisindustry?
Once the Finished Goods are manufactured, it should be shipped to a Central Warehouse. Then from the
Thanks for the case. Before I dive deeper into the analysis, I want to understand a bit more about the
Central Warehouse, the items must reach the regional Warehouses. Finally, upon the arrival of orders
context. Can I ask a few clarifyingquestions? from the retailers, the items must be shipped from the regional Warehouse to the retailers.
Sure, go ahead.
In which part of the geography does the client operate? What is the product portfolio of the client? Since Excellent. Now focus on why the East & North Region are facing highercosts.
when has the client been facing this issue? What is the quantum of the decline of profits?
Thanks for the direction. I would further like to divide the costs into transportation and storage &
The client has its presence in India, and it sells its product across the country. They manufacture the items near warehousing costs.
Haryana and ship them to all parts of the country. The product comprises home and kitchen appliances. The
client has been facing this issue for the last two years and the Profit has been going down by10-12%. Great, in the client's case, both the transportation and the Warehouse costs are increasing. There is
ineffective route planning which is leading to higher run kms by truck, additionally, trucks are
Thanks for the info. In India, is there any particular region/state facing declining profits? Do they underutilized. The client has regional Warehouses in Kolkata and Guwahati in the East region and Lucknow
manufacture the products themselves, or they have sourced them to any third party. Do we have major and Sonipat in the North region. Rental cost is very high in Kolkata and Lucknow, and warehouses in
competitors in the market, and how are they doing? Guwahati and Sonipat are sitting idle due to less demand. Suggest some recommendations.
Great questions. Only the East and North region are facing the issue. They have an in-house production facility.
The client has 5-6 major competitors. All of them have equal market share more or less. They are not facing In the short term, we can try to shift our Warehouse location, for example we can shift Kolkata
anyproblem. Warehouse to Patna, and similarly Lucknow Warehouse to some nearby town. Additionally, we can shut
down the Guwahati and Sonipat Warehouses or lease the place to someone. In the long term, we can
So, Profit can go down because of declining revenues, or increasing costs or a relative change of revenue
form a strategic partnership with a 3rd party logistics firm as they have expertise in the field.
and cost is happening in such a way that overall Profit is going down. Which of these is causing the issue in
our case?
Great recommendations. We can close the casehere.
Revenue has been increasing at a steady rate, but the costs have risen at a much faster acceleration, due to
which the overall Profit is goingdown.
Sounds interesting. Let me look into the value chain of the electronics industry.
Go ahead.
First of all, raw materials must be procured from the suppliers, transported to the production facility in
Haryana and stored in the Warehouse. Then the production happens, post which the finished goods
inventory must be kept for dispatch in the Finished Goods Warehouse. Then the outbound logistics of the
finished goods happen when the order arrives. These are the primary core activities. There must be
supporting areas as well, for example R&D, Rental cost, Sales & Marketing, Digital Infrastructure etc. Do you
think I have missed anything?

Electronics Company Profitability | Difficult | BCG (Buddy)
Case statement • Client is an electronics company, facing declining profits. Revenue has increased, cost have risen at a higher rate.
• Find the problem and suggest recommendations

• Pan India presence Profits
• Profit is down by 10-12%

since 2 years
Revenue Costs
• Issue in North & East
region
Transportation Warehousing
• Client specific issue Costs Costs
Low Truck Ineffective High Rental Idle

Utilization Route Planning Cost Warehouses
Value Chain
Inbound & RM Transportation Distribution and

Raw materials Production
storage & Storage Marketing
Key Takeaways
• Take interviewer’s buy-in at every step. Be exhaustive and pin-point the geography where the problem lies.
• Interviewer was impressed by the industry specific knowledge. Break down the recommendations into short term and long term

Multi-Speciality Hospital Chain Profitability | Moderate | E&Y (Partner)
The client is the ownerof a chain of hospitals in tier 1 cities in India. Business has been going Actually,we have observedthatdifferentdoctorsand different centersprescribedifferentdrugs/brands for the same
well.Recently, they havebeenfacing profitabilityissues. They wantyoutoadvise them onImprovingtheir profitability procedure. Also, the vendors who sell these drugs have hiked our prices in the last one year. We have already run a
Before we go deeper into the case, I would like to ask some questions – What kind of services do they provide to their diagnostic on the usage of drugsand consumableson normalcases and have found variation in usage across doctors.
patients? What classofcustomers dothey cater to? Also, we have had to make a lot of expenditure on expensive equipment as many of them did not last very long.
Whatwill youprescribetobringthecosts down?
The clientis a chain of multi-speciality hospitalswith speciality areas – cardiology, & orthopaedics. Theygenerally cater to
the upper middle class and upwardly mobilecustomers. Iwouldsuggestthefollowingmeasurestobringconsumptionundercontrol –
1. Standardization of usage norms (in line with the norms set by the Govt) for drugs and consumables for
Okay. Let’s talk about the profitability issues they have been facing. I have a few questions – To what extent has normal-riskcaseswouldreducetheconsumptionandensurestandardizationin qualityofserviceaswell.
profitability dipped? Since whenhas itshowna downward trend? Hasthis trend been observedindustry-wide? Or isit 2. Standardizationofbrandsanddrugsfornormalcaseswouldhelpusreducetheinventorywe holdandhelpus
specifictoyourfirm?
plan the procurement of drugs better. It would also help us negotiate for lower prices in exchange for larger
Profitability hasconsiderablydippedinthelast1.5years.Thishasbeenobservedindustry-wide. quantities.
3. Investing in sterilization, maintenance and re-use of certain equipment and consumables could prolong
Okay, so profitability can be affected due to 3 reasons – rise in costs, dip in revenues or both. So, how has the
their life, thus reducing their cost over its lifespan (cost per year). Training the hospital staff in proper
firm been performingon costs andrevenue?
maintenanceoftheseequipmentcouldhelpincreasetheirlifespan.
Our costs havebeenrising.Revenue hasremainedconstant. 4. Longtermcontractswithourvendorsandincreasein quantityof purchasecan be usedas leverstoreduce
Okay, so let us look at costs first. Since this is a multi-speciality hospital focusing on ortho and cardio, I am assuming theunitpricesofitems.
ourmajoroperatingcostheadsare– Doyouwantmetolookattherevenueside?
1. Manpowercosts(nursesandothersupportstaff) Good.Thatisprettymuchit.Thankyou!
2. DoctorFees
3. Costofdrugsandconsumables
4. Costofequipment anditsmaintenance
5. Other tail-expenditure items such as electricity, office stationery, other consumable and cleanliness
items
HaveI missedoutonanypoints? Also, which ofthesearemajorcostheads? Andwhich ofthese
haveshowna steepclimb inthelastyear?
Thislistisexhaustive.Doctorfeesaccount for around25%ofthecostsandhavestayedconstant.Cost ofsurgery accounts
for55% ofthecost&itincludescostofdrugsandconsumables,costofequipment andmaintenance.Thesehaveshowna
20% increaseinthelastyear.Howcanyou reduce thesecosts?
Cost = Quantity consumed x Unit Price of the drug/consumable across all drugs and consumables. Have there been any
changesinpricesfortheseitemsinthelast1 year?Also,wewillneedtoruna diagnostictoobserve the trendinconsumptionof
these drugs.

Multi-Speciality Hospital Chain Profitability | Moderate | E&Y (Partner)
Case statement The client is the owner of a chain of hospitals in tier 1 cities in India. Recently, theyhave beenfacing profitabilityissues.

• Profitability has dipped in
the last 1.5 years
Profitability
• Doctor fees account for
25% of costs
• Cost of surgery has

increased Revenue Cost
• Vendors have hiked the

prices of drugs in the last 1
year #Units consumed Unit Price
Standardization Standardization Increasing Long Term Centralized Standardization

of Usage Norms of Brand Reuse Contracts Procurement of Brand
Key Takeaways
• Taking buy in is essential at each step
• Interviewer was impressed with the breakdown of the cost heads

IIMB Growth Cases
2021-22

Growth Strategy Framework
Preliminary Questions
Growth
• Clarify objective and
quantum of growth, Non-Core
timeline Core Activities
(Profit metric) Activities
• Business Model – Where

does the firm lie in the value Product - Lease space,
Mix #Units sold Profit/ Unit capacity for
chain? What are its revenue
streams and distribution advertising,
channels? rentals
Market Size Market Share Revenue/Unit Cost/ Unit - Value Added
• Understand customer Services
segments
Inorganic Organic Organic Inorganic - Can price be
• What is the product mix? increased? Inelastic
demand, monopoly - Value Chain
Any differentiating/ new Analysis, Process
features in products? M&A - Improvise Customer - Bundling
- Acquire Innovation
journey emerging - Price Discrimination - Strategic vertical
• What is the competitive - Increased branding competitors,
- Cross Selling integration
landscape? - Omnichannel, O2O substitutes
- Develop E2E - Upselling
- Improve Customer
Retention skills

Growth Strategy Framework – Contd.
PRODUCTS
Existing New
• Market growth rate lower • Product - Market growth rate

than management’s growth lower than management’s
expectations 1. Market 4. Diversification growth expectations
New
• High market share w.r.t. • Management’s objective
closest competitor Development Strategy • High concentration in a single
• Concentrated in a small Strategy product/ category
market • Diversification strategy case!!
• Demand in other markets
MARKETS
• Typical Market Entry Case!! Four

Growth
Strategies • Market growth rate lower
than management’s
Existing
• Market growth rate in line 2. Market 3. Product growth expectations

with management’s growth • Product in maturation or
expectations
Penetration/ Development decline phase
• Low market share w.r.t. market Entry Strategy Strategy • Product Launch Case!!
leader
• Growth rate w.r.t competitor
• A derived profitability case!!

Online Food Delivery Platform Growth | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Your client is an online food delivery platform. They are looking to enhance both their top line and gross Would the second suggestion increase avg amount or no. of orders. Also, how about some strategies
margins. How would you do this? Just give me an overall approach which do not involve investments from our end
I would like to understand the business better. Is this something like Swiggy, which operates through You’re right, preferred restaurants would increase number of orders.
an app or a website? Where exactly are we located and carrying out our business operations from?
For strategies without investment, we could focus on increasing the price. Here we would need to
Also, do we have any targets on the magnitude or the time frame over which we want to achieve the
evaluate price sensitivity of our customers to increase service charges or delivery fees such that net
growth?
revenues increase without losing out on sales.
Also, if we earn some commission from restaurants from each sale on the total amount, we could
Yes, you can assume it to be app based like Swiggy. The client is operational in top 8 metro cities in look at having more high-end restaurants on our platform and incentivising our customers to order
India and a few tier 2 cities. We would like to see what measures can we deploy to see the growth over from these by putting them at the forefront on our app.
the next 3-6 months
Sure. I’d like to take a minute to come up with n approach to solve this problem. Those are good suggestions. Are their any other insights that you can draw especially from your
experience in consumer data analytics that we could use?
So I’d like to start with increasing revenues first for the top line and gross margins and then later
look at costs for the margins. For an overall approach, I’ve divided monthly revenues into avg. We could leverage our insights into consumer spending patterns in different geographies to see which
amount per order multiplied by no. of orders per month. The avg. amount is a function of avg. item restaurants and cuisines are more popular. Also, we would be able to see customer behaviour around
price and no. of items per order. The monthly order frequency would depend on no. of customers different festivals, holidays and offers that get rolled out. We could use these to develop an analytics
and avg. ordering frequency of customers. Here, we could look at i) increasing number of insight product which we sell to our partner restaurants as a service giving insights on market trends
customers through increasing the total pie of customers who use online food delivery platforms and benchmarking their performance. This would enable them to strategize their marketing strategies
and ii) becoming the preferred platform and increase our market share against our competitors. around holidays and also other promotional activities.
We could also look at a new offering like a loyalty program similar to Zomato gold or Swiggy Super
as a new revenue stream. For increasing order frequency we could look at incentivisation schemes Very interesting. Thank you very much. It was great discussing this case with you today
through deals and cashbacks for repeat orders.
Is there anything else you’d like me to look at or anything that we should explore further in more
detail?
Let us explore increasing avg. amount per order
We could increase no. of items per order through cross-selling and bundling items into attractive
combos. We could also offer cashback on a minimum order that would incentivise them to order
more. We could look at which cuisines do our customer order more of, and ensure we onboard
restaurants offering more of such cuisines on our app.

Online Food Delivery Platform Growth | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Case statement • Online food delivery platform looking to enhance top line and margins
Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework Revenues per

month
• App based like Swiggy
• Located in 8 metro cities, Avg. amt per No. of orders

few tier-2 cities order per month
• Growth in 3-6 months

No. of items Avg. frequency of
No. of
Avg. price orders per
per order customers
customer
Cross sell Elasticity Same offering New offering: More offers &
Loyalty deals
programs
Market size: Cashback in
Bundle High end new users, new app wallet for
restaurants on cities re-order
platform
Cashback on Market share: Onboard

min. order Competitive restaurants of
advantage preference
Key Takeaways
• While structuring seek more validation at each step to get buy-in and engage interviewer.
• Usage of pointed jargons can be useful in niche industries/businesses.
• Short 1 line explanation before moving to next bucket can be useful in structuring phase.

Pharmaceutical Giant Growth | Moderate | Bain (Buddy)
Your client is the wholly owned Indian subsidiary of a global pharmaceutical giant. They have a well- Yes, so the incidence rate of diabetes is 10% and the diagnosis rate is 50%. 40% of all people diagnosed
established business in India across 2 products: insulin and medication for hemophilia. They have hired need insulin.
you as a consultant to help them devise a strategy to grow their top line over the next few years.
Thank you for the data. Since we cannot really change the incidence rate of diabetes, we can look at
What is the client’s objective? Is there a target and timeline that client has in mind? Does the client increasing the diagnosis rate. Since our client is a market leader, they can invest in improving the
have any other land holding? How has the client developed/used it? diagnostics infrastructure in India to increase the diagnosis rate.
Insulin is massively profitable, and our client is a market leader in that segment with close to 55% Good, that is what we recommended to our client.
market share. Medication for hemophilia is regulated and price capped, so its not very profitable. Our
client has one third market share in it.
Thank you. I think since insulin has better profitability it makes sense to focus on that product for
growth. Can I go ahead with that assumption?
Yes, proceed.
Thank you. So, the client’s revenue can be calculated as the Market Size x Market Share x Price. The
client can use any of these levers to increase revenue. Is there a specific one that I should focus on?
Price is not something they want to change. They also don’t really care about market share since rest of
the players are very small and fragmented.
Okay, so I will focus on market size. The client can either enter new geographies or they can introduce
new products.
They don’t want to go for either of those options. Can you think of another way to think about this?
Yes, I can break down the existing market size and then look at factors that can be changed.
Go ahead.
Before I begin, can you tell me how insulin is consumed? What is the dosage?
It is dosed in the form of units per kg per day of a person’s bodyweight.
So, the annual market size is essentially all the people who have been diagnosed with diabetes and
need insulin. We can break it down as Population x Incidence rate of Diabetes x Diagnosis rate of
diabetes x Percentage of diagnosed people that need insulin x Average weight x Units per kg per day x
365.
Do we have any data on these factors?

Pharmaceutical Giant Growth | Moderate | Bain (Buddy)
Case statement • Your client is the Indian subsidiary of a pharma giant.
• Well established business for insulin and hemophilia medication.
• Need to devise growth strategy.

• Insulin has high Revenue
profitability and 55%
market share
Market Size Market Share Price
• Hemophilia medication
is price capped
• Client does not want to Incidence Rate Population

change price
• Incidence rate of % needing

diabetes is 10% and Diagnosis Rate
insulin
diagnosis rate is 50%
Units per kg
Avg. weight
per day
365
Key Takeaways
• Unconventional way to think about market growth. Ansoff’s matrix won’t work here.
• Industry knowledge on pharmaceuticals is beneficial in breaking down market size.
• Interviewer can easily include a guesstimate within this structure as well.

McDonalds India Growth Growth | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Help McDonalds’ India solve for the problem of under penetration of QSR culture in India and within My sense is that they are thriving and growing at faster rates. I would like to attribute it to
QSRs grow faster than its competitors Glocalization & adaptive supply chains. Benchmarking with local competitors also reveals menus
adapted to local tastes alongside including healthy options on Menus. Lastly, McDonalds' experience
So, we have two problems in front of us: a. QSR penetration in India is low b. Within QSRs McDonalds’ in nations such as Mexico reveals their openness to adapting local cuisines such as rice bowls which
competitors are doing better. Did I get that right? have become a hit in their universal menus also. So who’s to say that a Rajma Chawal Bowl cannot be
the next hit menu item.
Yes, just give me a long-term growth plan for McDonalds in India
Sure, sounds good. What would you like to look at next?
Got it. I have some follow up questions: What is the timeline they are looking at & are there any
quantifiable objectives I should know?
Customer Satisfaction develops when their tastes and preferences are adapted alongside better
Yes: Increasing market cap by 3-4x in 4-5 years value for money, efficient service.
Lastly, I want to analyze costs: Fixed Costs (would incorporate the capital side of improving ROI),
Thanks. I would like to approach the problem by targeting the two main factors affecting Market followed by variable costs. (quickly get a buy in)
Capitalization: Returns followed by capital investments. Does that approach seem ok? good? Fixed Costs: Involve costs of New outlets, Salaries, Investments and Cash Management. Can all be
optimized
Sure, go ahead.
Variable Costs: Dynamic supply chains will read faster delivery and execution. Proper training and
Within returns I want to start by looking at improving revenues and reducing costs. benchmarking to best practices will ensure reduced costs
Improving revenues: Problem (a) of under penetration can be solved at best by favorable favorable
macroeconomic tailwinds such as demographics, changing tastes and preferences. For competition Sure, sounds good.
within the QSR segment, I would like to benchmark McDonalds’ India’s performance with a.
Okay. Would you like me to summarize the case for you?
Competition in Indian from other Multinational QSRs: Immediate(Burger King) vs Distant (Dominos',
Taco Bell) b. McDonald's strategy of success in other developing nations(say Mexico) c. New age Yes, go ahead.
Indian owned QSRs (Chhayos, Wow Momos etc). I would then like to move on to customer
satisfaction followed by improving costs. Does this approach seem fair to you? McDonalds' India was looking to solve the dual problem of low QSR penetration and growing faster
than competitors. We benchmarked its performance to other chains as well as McDonalds in other
Yes, go ahead.
countries. The key themes for revenue growth were: Glocalization & focus on health. Next, we looked
Thanks. Starting with revenue benchmarking to close competitors. at cost side which would need to be adapted to incorporate these new trends. The key themes there
My assumption here is that McDonalds seems to be doing better than its immediate competitor were – agile supply chain and optimized capital investments.
Burger King currently (quickly get a buy in) If that’s a fair assumption to make then it is because of
longer legacy and more stores. A closer analysis of revenue per sq ft. of both restaurants may help Thanks. Let’s wrap up here
assess performance better. But for now, I would conclude that there isn’t much they can learn from
Burger King (quickly get a buy in). Next, I would like to benchmark with International QSRs with
different offerings such as Dominos' and Taco bell.

McDonalds India Growth Growth | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Case statement • McDonalds India
• Facing Low QSR penetration and competitive pressure
• Find a way to grow market cap by 3-4x in 5 years

ROI
• ROI: Returns + Capital
Investment
Capital Investment Profits
• Return: Revenue-Cost
Revenues Costs
• Revenue: Growth +
Retention
International Local Own: Other
Benchmarking Fixed Costs
• Costs: Fixed + Variable QSR Competitors Countries Customer (Optimized
(Healthy, local (Eg Rice Bowls in Satisfaction spending on new
Immediate flavours) Mexico) locations,
Competitors equipment etc)
(Performing better)
Variable Costs
Other QSRs (Adaptive supply
(Glocalization, chains, proper
adaptive supply networks)
chains)
Growth Retention
Key Takeaways
• In growth cases it’s very important to take regular buy ins from the interviewer
• Its okay to not follow the set framework in a case as open-ended as this, just ensure that you structure your thoughts well
• Don’t be afraid to be creative and speak your time

Medical Equipment – Bear Hugger Growth| Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Your client is a medical equipment manufacturer and they have approached you to recommend a Okay. So, a company can grow either organically or inorganically. Inorganically, it can enter
growth strategy. into Joint ventures or acquire other firms. Organically, they can either grow their number of
customers or revenue per customer. Revenue per customer in this case can only be
I would like to ask a few preliminary questions before getting into the case. I would like to understand increased by increasing the prices since it is a one-time use product and there is no
where is this company located and what kind of products does it offer? question of customer retention. In order to increase the customer base, the client can
explore 2 dimensions – geography expansion and/or introducing new product.
The client is located in India. They have recently started manufacturing a product called “Bear Hugger”
which they are manufacturing in a facility near Bangalore. Also, this is the only product that they are The company does not wish to change its pricing strategy or introduce new product.
currently offering.
Okay, so let’s investigate geographical expansion. The client can either expand in the
Thanks for the information. I would now like to know more about the product, who can use this
existing geography i.e., Bangalore and Chennai, or it can expand to new geographies.
product and what benefits does it offer?
The product is designed for use as a warmer/comforter to patients after critical surgeries. It is a one- Great, so how would you go about the same.
time use product and is priced at 20k. As far as benefits are concerned, the product aids in healing
process, reducing the average healing time from 3 months to 14 days. In the existing geography, the client can focus on two aspects – Improving marketing and
improving channels. Since we are talking about a very specific and expensive medical
Interesting. May I know what kind of critical surgeries we are taking about here? Also, is there any device, our customers would most likely be either super specialty hospitals or the
competition for our product in the market? government. As per my understanding of the medical industry, marketing efforts are made
through Medical representatives. Hence, the client should focus on reaching out to doctors’
The equipment is used by very specific patients undergoing cardiac surgeries, transplants, and and influence them on recommending the product to their patients. This can be done via
other life-saving surgeries. The product does not have significant competition as such, but you door-to-door pitching by medical representatives or conducting webinars for doctors’
can assume a normal blanket to be substitute for our product. unions. Should I now go ahead with new geographies?
Okay. Just to get some more understanding of how the company is doing business, may I know where Yes, sounds good. How about you tell me what factors will you consider while looking for a new
in the supply chain is our client operating. geography to expand?
The company owns the entire supply chain from procuring the raw materials to selling it to the end Expanding into new geography can be either within India or outside India. Within India, the
customers. It is currently selling its product in Bangalore and Chennai. primary considerations would be the market size & income levels. I believe, it is the metro
cities where such super specialty hospitals are present and critical surgeries are performed.
Thank you! I think I now have the information I needed. I would like to summarize what we know here. Also, the income levels are attractively high in metros and hence the client should think of
We understand that our client is a medical equipment manufacturer who sells only 1 product which is expanding there first. For expanding outside of India, we need to consider additional factors
specifically used by patients undergoing critical surgeries. The product is relatively expensive and like regulatory barriers, business and product licensing costs, import/export duties,
priced at 20k. The company is currently selling its products only in Bangalore and Chennai and is competition, cost of setting up manufacturing, etc.
looking for growth opportunities. Is that correct?
Good Job! I think you have covered the analysis thoroughly. We can stop here.
Yes, please go ahead.

Medical Equipment – Bear Hugger Growth| Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Case statement • Client is a medical equipment manufacturer who wants to grow
• It manufactures and sells only one product in Bangalore and Chennai

Revenue Increase
• The one-time medical
equipment reduces
healing time from 3
months to 14 days Organically Inorganically
• The only substitute is a

blanket.
Increase # of Increase revenue per
customers user
• The product is quite
expensive (20k)
New Existing Increase usage
• The product is only Increase price
geography geography per user
used by patients
undergoing critical
surgeries Existing Existing
New product New product
Product Product
Improve Improve
marketing channels
Key Takeaways
• Marketing efforts in medical industry are done through medical representatives. If doctors are not recommending the product to the patients, the product won’t sell.
• Identifying the customers as super specialty hospitals is critical to providing reasoning and recommendations.
• Expanding into existing geographies can be done more effectively by pitching to large hospital chains like Max, fortis, etc. instead of individual doctors. Be creative here.

Metro Expansion Growth | Moderate | BCG (Buddy)
Your client is Hyderabad Metro (private partner such as L&T). They have recently added a new route. Assume that there is no requirement for any office related expansion. List what all factors are to be
At one of the station on this route, the client owns a 10 acres of land. Suggest best ways to utilise/ considered for the two options of Mall and Residential complex
monetize the land.
I would look at Financial and Operational factors. Financial factors such as budget outlay for both
Thank you, I would like to begin by asking a few questions to get to know the case statement in detail.
options, expected return based, payback period and synergy benefits. In case of Mall, the daily crowd
inflow to malls can provide revenue to metro line whereas in case of residential complex, the
Sure, please go ahead. residents can increase metro line revenue.
Operational factors such as license to operate, project duration, competition, partnering with
What is the client’s objective? Is there a target and timeline that client has in mind? Does the client construction companies, promotion of venture etc are to be considered. Further in case of
have any other land holding? How has the client developed/used it? residential complex additional factors such as nature of residence (luxury/economical), whether to
take up a society model, availability of resources for residential purpose such as water, power etc. In
The client only wants to maximise returns from the land. There is no target/timeline. You can assume case of Mall, the kind of outlets to include, growth prospects of footfall in the area, model of
this is the first time client has acquired an additional landholding. operation etc. are to be considered.
Okay. Could you describe the area where the land is located? It is it a commercial area or residential? Alright. Can you list different revenue sources for a mall?
What is the typical traffic or footfall in the area?
Revenue can be divided into core and non-core. Core sources shall include Rentals from outlets in mall,
It is a developing area in the city with some level of commercialisation and residential buildings. The Charges for facilities such as parking. Non core revenues such as advertisements and revenue from any
land is located immediately next to metro station and is on route to highly commercial areas of the city. events held at malls
It has been evaluated that Mall is a better option. The client has limited capital to invest. Can you
I would like to know what are the commercial buildings already in the nearby region.
suggest different ways to set up & operate the mall?
There are a few restaurants and multiple retail shops
The client can invest in setting up the mail entirely on its own. This may not be feasible considering
financial constraints. Other options to consider would be through JV with a mall chain such as GVK or
Okay. I would structure the problem by first coming up with various options for monetizing the
models such as Build-Operate- Transfer.
landholding, evaluate the financial and operational feasibility of each option and finally evaluate any
risks. Shall I proceed with this structure? Alright. That was good. We can close the case here.
Please go ahead.
The various options can be bucketed under four categories- 1. Using for current business such as
Client’s office building, employee quarters, training centre etc. This will depend on requirement of
client. Option 2- Commercial buildings such as Metro malls for shopping/movie/ entertainment,
Gaming zones, Hotel, Parking facility etc. Option 3- Residential complex. Option 4- Lease out or sell
the land. Is there any specific option to proceed with?

Metro Expansion Growth | Moderate | BCG (Buddy)
Case statement • Your client is Hyderabad Metro private partner (similar to L&T)
• Owns a piece of Land 10 acres and looking for methods to monetize the land

Landholding
• Semi developed area commercialisation
including residential
houses and
Financial Operational Mode of
commercialization Options
Feasibility feasibility entry
• Certain restaurants and
retail shops located Office expansion- Budget Set up time JV
nearby office, quarters,
training centre
Payback
License Ownership
Commercial period
building- Malls,
parking facility Returns and Build-
synergy Construction Operate-
Residential benefits Transfer
Complex
Others
Lease out
Key Takeaways
• Use market entry framework
• Take buy in from interviewer on which option to consider for further evaluation
• Could have asked about financial constraints in preliminary questions

US Tyre Manufacturer Growth Strategy | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
Your client is a tyre manufacturer based in the United States. The problem they face is they are Apart from production costs, I would also consider other transaction costs like freight, logistics, import, and customs
operating at full production capacity. The CEO is worried that if the demand for their product duty.
increases, they will not be able to serve it. The board evaluates three options for expansion – I would also look at the inflation rates and future projections of these costs. Mapping the production units with the
increasing capacity in the US itself, expanding production in Mexico, or assessing a production demand locations will help us to find out which location (US, China, and Mexico) gives us the lowest cost.
facility in China. They have hired us as a consultant. What would you advise them?
Okay. What next?
This is an interesting problem at hand. So, before we deep dive into the case, I would like to ask a few
preliminary questions to know more about the client. The second bucket we have is operational feasibility – where I would like to see the entire value chain. So, I
would see whether there is an uninterrupted supply of raw material, adequate labor resources are available,
Sure, go-ahead. capital is available, the latest technical equipment and machines are available.
I would like to know more about the client – what part of the value chain do we operate in, the product Fair enough.
lines (different types of tyres) we have, and the competitive landscape.
Coming to strategic fit – wherein I will see what the future plan for the company is. From where will the next
So, for simplicity, let us assume that we have only one type of tyre that we manufacture. The leg of demand come. Example, is the company intending to expand in Asia – if that is the case, it makes sense
client is the market leader in the US market, and we have a couple of competitors who have to have a factory in China. Also, other qualitative factors like bad economic foreign relations between the US
around 15-20% market share each. and China are important.
And the last bucket is the mode of expansion. Apart from a greenfield factory expansion, I would also explore
Thank you. Also, I would like to know the objective or evaluation metric that the client is looking at – other options like acquiring local manufacture, a brownfield expansion where a factory is bought, or
whether it is lower cost, a certain quality of production, or an uninterrupted supply of raw material. outsourcing of production, or finally setting up a joint venture.
So, if you look at the problem holistically, you will realize that all of these are very important while Good, that was a comprehensive analysis. Say if Mexico is L1, what would you do?
making a decision. There isn't a single criterion that the client has.
I would not jump into a decision based solely on the lowest costs. I will also see the operational feasibility, the
True. Also, are there any demand forecasts that we have in the US markets. How fast is the market growing? strategic fit, and other qualitative factors. If Mexico ticks all the boxes, I would finally decide on the expansion
mode – a greenfield factory or outsourcing of production, an acquisition, or a joint venture.
So, we expect moderate growth in demand in the domestic US market.
Good. Can you summarise the case for me now?
Sure. Now, I would like to approach the problems looking at four buckets – the first bucket being financial
feasibility, second being operational feasibility, third part would be strategic fit and future plans, and the last Sure, sir. So, our client is a US tyre manufacturer facing a shortage of production capacity and evaluating three
would be the mode of entry. options whether to produce in the US, Mexico, and China. We solved this problem by looking at financial
factors – costs and other qualitative factors – like strategic fit, operational feasibility, future projections and
Interesting, carry on. finally explored the various options available in the form of greenfield factory, outsourcing, or joint venture.
So, for financial feasibility, I would look at the cost-benefit analysis considering the demand projections and the Good job.
projected cost of production in all the 3 locations - – the US, Mexico, and China.

US Tyre Manufacturer Growth Strategy | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
Case statement • Leading US Tyre Manufacturer
• Operating at full capacity
• Exploring expansion options

Expanding production
• Only 1 type of tyre capacity for US Tyre Mfg
• Market Leader
• Couple of competitors – Financial Operational Strategic Fit &
15-20% M.S. Mode of Entry
Feasibility Feasibility Future Plan
• Moderate growth in
domestic demand
Cost Benefit Demand mapping with Raw material Future global demand and Greenfield
analysis location availability expansion plan expansion
Demand Labor
Geo-political factors Acquisition
Projections resources
Production
Capital Outsourcing
costs
Transaction Technology &

costs equipment Joint Venture
Inflation & future

projections
Key Takeaways
• Case was an open-ended growth strategy case to evaluate the candidates structured approach
• Interviewer gave non-verbal cues in the beginning to guide the candidate – important to take note of this during interviews

IIMB Market Entry
2021-22

Markey Entry Framework
Preliminary Questions Risks
• Clarify objective, growth quantum Internal External

and targeted timeline
- Constraints
• Geography – Why are we looking - Resources Industry level Macro
1. Risks Factors
into this geography? Have they
Involved
launched this product in another Market
Customers Competitors Barriers to Entry PESTEL
market? Attractiveness
- Addressable market
- Market Price, - Financial constraints Regulations
• Business Model – Where does the - Growth rate structure Product, - Capabilities/Resources Currency
firm lie in the value chain? - Profit Margin - Reaction to Place, - Suppliers
Fluctuations
entry Promotion - Govt. Regulations
- Segments - Patents, IP
• What are the existing products/
services, capabilities and expertise
of the firm? 2. Market Size Economic Feasibility: Mkt Size x Mkt Share x (Price – Variable cost) – Fixed Cost
and Share Solve the guesstimate to calculate market size, qualitatively find achievable market share
• Who are the target customers?
Market size and price sensitivity
Organic Joint Venture Acquisition
• Any side-effects of product? - Retain business control - Less investment - Extend market scope
3. Modes of Advantages - Build Experience Curve - Local Expertise - Utilise local expertise
• Pricing – given or required, ask for Entry - Boosts Brand Image - High Scale and Scope - Produce synergy
targeted margin
- High Capex - Limited Control - Significant Investment
Disadvantages
- High Commitment - Brand Dilution Risk - Threat to Brand Value

Global OEM Market Entry | Easy | Accenture (Manager)
Case Statement: It is the year 2016. Your client is the OEM major Kia Motors. It can be I would determine the number of households, and then divide it into low, medium and high income. I
considered a sister enterprise of Hyundai Motors. It currently has presence across North would assume a certain number of cars per household for medium and high-income households. I
America, South-East Asia, Europe etc. As part of its global expansion program, it wants to would also try to divide urban regions into metros, which already have good public transport and
enter India. How would you evaluate this opportunity? non-metros and look at the numbers for those.
Thanks, I would like to start by asking if there is any specific objective that Kia is looking to achieve in You can stop there, that’s good enough. What else would you look for?
India, and what is the time-frame they’re aiming at for the same?
There’s one thing I missed out on earlier, that is, are the market shares of competitors mentioned
You can consider the goal as attaining market share first and then attaining profitability in 3- earlier for the economy or premiums segment? Also, does Kia have a competence in either
4 years economy or premium?
Since I know it’s an OEM, I am assuming that they produce all the components required and assemble The market share mentioned earlier was for the entire market, however a major part of it is the
it. The sales would happen through dealership networks. I will focus on this part of the value chain for economy segment – which is basically your entry level hatchback, economy sedan etc. The premium
this case. Is that okay? segment would consist of luxury sedans and SUVs. Kia is open to both segments. What would you
recommend – economy or premium?
Yes, you can go ahead with it.
Considering that the economy market seems to be quite concentrated, it might be difficult for Kia to
You mentioned that Kia is a sister enterprise of Hyundai. Can you give me an idea of what the existing make an impact quickly. Also, Considering the growth of disposable income in India and the trend
market is like in India in terms of competition market share, including for that of Hyundai? towards preference towards luxury vehicles, Kia can look at the premium segment. Moreover, it
already has a reputation as a trusted brand, which is important in this segment
Currently, Maruti is the market leader with 50% share, followed by Hyundai with 20% and Tata with 8%
Fair enough. How would you proceed at this point? What recommendations would you have for Kia?
Alright, so now for analyzing the opportunity, I will start with the economic feasibility and the
operational feasibility. Is that okay? In my opinion, Kia can leverage the favorable policies of the Government towards domestic
manufacturing and the cheap labor available in India to set up their manufacturing plant in India. It can
Yes, you can start with the market sizing. I don’t want the numbers; I just want a rough idea of how you
leverage the existing synergies it has with Hyundai for manufacturing as well as the distributor
would go about it
network it has. On the marketing side, it can focus on the premium customers and position it as an
international luxury brand
Firstly, I would look at the entire population of India. I would divide it into rural and urban areas. Since
a significant part of the road infrastructure and regular commute patterns are concentrated to urban, I
Good, we can close the case now. Thank you.
will focus on this segment. Also, 4W can be used for both commercial, that is taxi & for personal use. I
would like to focus on the private usage. Are these two assumptions, okay?
Yes, go ahead

Global OEM Market Entry | Easy | Accenture (Manager)
Case statement • Kia Motors wants to enter India
• It wants to attain reasonable market share and achieve profitability within 3-4 years
• Is a sister enterprise of Hyundai, which is already present in India

• Multiple segments for
entry
Market Entry
• Have a partner
enterprise already
present
Economic Operational
Attractiveness Feasibility
• Concentrated market
overall
Total Addressable
Cost Structure Willingness to pay
Market
Total Population Rural-Urban Split Income Split
Key Takeaways
• Multiple segments for entry
• Have a partner enterprise already present
• Concentrated market overall

OTT Service Launch Market Entry | Easy | Strategy& (Manager)
Our client is a regional production house and produces content in Gujarati language. Given the No, this is reasonable. Please tell me how you would estimate the market size.
increasing popularity of OTT format, they are looking to launch an OTT platform of their own. I want
you to analyze whether they should go ahead with the launch? I would break down the market size into two – number of users and average subscription charges per
user. To calculate the number the users, I would further break it down into two – potential market
To make sure I have understood the case statement clearly, our client is a regional production house size and percentage conversion. Market size is the total Gujarati speaking population in India, which
which produces Gujarati movies and TV shows. They are considering launching their own OTT is around 5% of the total population. That gives us the total market size of 6.5 crores. Given that
platform and have, and I need to analyse whether this is a viable option. there would be just one subscription per family and average family size at 4, we get approximately
1.6 crores families. Now, I would like to break them further down basis the income level.
That’s right!
Okay, that sounds fine.
Before I proceed with structuring my analysis, I would like to ask a few preliminary questions. Would
that be fine? I shall divide it further into three income levels – low, medium and high with 40% falling in low and
medium and 20% in high-income level bracket. This gives us 0.64 crore families in low and medium-
Sure, go ahead.
income levels and 0.32 crore families in high-income level. Assuming that subscription to the OTT
What kind of content does our client produce? Is it movies, TV shows or both? platform as a luxury service, the affordability would vary across the different income levels. I would
like to assume that 100% for high, 50% for medium and 0% for low-income groups. Does this seem
Great question. They produce both movies and TV shows, but their focus is on TV shows. fair to you?
Okay, and does the client have a particular customer segment such as youth or elderly that they Yes, go ahead!
target?
This gives us the total market size of 0.64 cr families. To calculate the percentage conversion, I would
No, they don’t have any such specific customer target. like to look at two factors – awareness and adoption. Assume that, given the medium and higher
Alright and what is the primary objective of launching their own OTT service? income level groups, 75% awareness level and approximately 50% would actually adopt. This would
give us the total number of users as 0.24 crore. Does this seem reasonable to you?
Client is looking at the OTT service as an alternate source of revenue.
What factors led you to consider 50% adoption levels?
Thanks for making the objective clear! Can I have a few seconds to structure my analysis?
I assumed that given the specific level of technical expertise required for using OTT platforms, a certain
Sure! population level even though they can afford it would not be that tech-savvy to use it. Further, some
customers may not see value in subscribing to an OTT platform just for Gujarati TV shows and movies.
I would like to approach this problem by evaluating the market attractiveness, financial viability and
operational feasibility. Market attractiveness aspect is to assess the market size, growth potential, Okay, not that we have the total number of users tell me how would you price the services?
existing competition and the trends prevailing in the market. The financial viability aspect is to assess
the profitability of the venture. Operational feasibility would include factors like regulatory approvals,
resource availability and technological capabilities. Does this seem reasonable to you, or should I
consider any other aspect?

Firstly, I would like to look at the pricing of other OTT players in the market – Netflix charges Rs.
499/month for its basic plan and fall in the premium segment, Disney-Hotstar charges around Rs.
399/year which is around Rs. 30/month. Given the extensive range of content they provide to user
we can consider this as the ceiling price. Further, I know that DTH services, on an average, charge
around Rs. 10 to Rs. 20 per channel per month. Given that the OTT platform would be providing
more timing flexibility with no disruption due to advertisements hence it would provide more value
to the user. To increase adoption initially, we can price the service at Rs. 15 per month. Does this
seem fair to you?
That does seem fair and what be the annual revenue that the client would generate if it were to launch
the OTT platform?
Our total number of users would be 0.24 crore and charging Rs. 15/month, the client can have a
potential revenue of Rs. 43 crores.
Alright. That makes sense. Let us wrap it up here. All the best!

Case statement • Regional production house looking to launch OTT platform
• Aim – increase profits and create additional sources of revenue

• Total Gujarati speaking OTT service
population can be launch
assumed as 5% of the
total population
Market Operational
• Population can be Financial viability
attractiveness feasibility
further broken-down
basis income – low
(40%), medium (40%)
Existing
and high (20%) Market size Growth potential
competition
• Identify the
characteristics for OTT
platform users and use it Average revenue
Number of users
to further segment per user
Potential market
% conversion
size
Key Takeaways
• Ensure that the you lay out the structure for your analysis at the start
• Assume that are easy for calculation and take buy-in from the interviewer on the assumed numbers

New Pilot Program Launch Market Entry & Unconventional | Easy | Byju’s
Byju's have launched a pilot program in 4 cities: Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata. Revenue in this 4 Let us stick to the case figures. You may give your recommendation based on the geographic location
cities are in the ratio 3:2:1.5:1. Now, Byju's want to launch this program to a new city. Which city of the cities..
would you recommend?
Okay, I can consider the cities Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata to be positioned in South, West,
Okay, before starting with the analysis, I would like to ask a few clarifying questions to get a better North and East part of India respectively. Now, Based on the revenue figures, we figured out Kolkata
understanding. Is that okay? to be most profitable city amongst the four. This implies a higher potential for revenue generation in
East part of India. So, the probable options for launching new pilot program can be Ranchi,
Sure, go ahead.
Bhubaneshwar, Siliguri or Guwahati.
Byju’s offers contents in different packages as in for junior and high school grades, Higher secondary
and JEE level, other entrance exam preparations like CAT etc. Does this pilot program caters to any of Fair enough. Let’s consider Bhubaneshwar. Now, where exactly in Bhubaneshwar would you pick to
these specific areas? be the ideal location for the centre?
The pilot program is for coaching of JEE and NEET for higher secondary students. Since our pilot program is designed for JEE and NEET aspirants, we can pick a location in vicinity of
schools or institutions that the higher secondary students are enrolled in.
Are the coaching centres located in similar areas? I want to understand the ease of accessibility of
coaching centres in each of the 4 cities? How would you determine based only on the data available with Byju’s?
Coaching centres in all the cities have similar accessibility. So, from our app user database, we can identify the students residing at or near Bhubaneshwar, who
are enrolled for JEE or NEET online course. We can trace their location and based on that we can pick a
Do we have any information on the number of coaching centres in each of these cities?
location, where majority of the users live nearby.
Yes, so the number of coaching centres in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are in the ratio
10:3:5:1. Okay. How would you ensure student enrolment for the new pilot program?
Firstly, we can promote our new pilot program to our already existing student base, who use our app.
Okay. Shall I assume same capacity for all the coaching centres in terms of number of students that
Through them we can expand our network by encouraging them to bring along their friends. We can
can be accommodated?
talk and onboard reputed tutors in that area. As students will see their familiar tutors teaching at our
Yes, all the centres have the same capacity. coaching centres, they will feel more motivated to join us. We can also promote the new offline
Okay, so I would like to calculate revenue per centre in each of the cities, which I believe would be a program in our app in Bhubaneshwar region.
better metric here to understand our revenue share. Sounds good. We can wrap up the case here.
Okay. Go ahead.
So, I am getting revenue per centre in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata to be in the ratio
0.3:0.67:0.3:1. This implies Kolkata is the most profitable city in terms of revenue per coaching centre.
Okay. So, now which city Byju’s should target for launching another pilot program?
Shall I consider the fact that the pilot program is particularly designed for JEE and NEET aspirants
and figure out the cities attracting these student base?

New Pilot Program Launch Market Entry & Unconventional | Easy | Byju’s
Case Statement • New pilot program launched in 4 cities.
• Revenue from Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata are in the ratio 3:2:1.5:1
• Client looking to expand the same pilot program to a new city.
• Pilot program designed for JEE and NEET

aspirants. New Pilot Launch
Program
• Number of coaching centres in Bangalore,
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata are in the ratio
10:3:5:1.
Market Analysis Expansion
• Think of launching in geographically
profitable new city based on case figures.
Revenue per Student

Accessibility Capacity Geography Location
Coaching Center Enrolment
Key Takeaways
• Understanding key factors for pilot program in existing cities.
• Conventional framework not followed.
• Buying in from interviewer regularly for any assumptions and methodology followed.

Semi Luxury Car Manufacturer Market Entry | Easy | BCG (Buddy)
Your client is a budget hatchback car manufacturer wanting to enter the sedan segment. Suggest Yes, Sure. I can think of a couple of ways to do it. Firstly, we could upsell the product to our existing
whether they should enter the market and if yes, suggest a strategy to do so. customers by providing attractive discounts/offers on their existing hatchbacks and sell them the
Before delving into the case, I would like to know a little bit about the business context of the client. sedan. Another way is that since we have the information on when our customers have bought their
Which geographies do the client primary operate in. What is the motivation for entering into the cars, we could do targeted promotions to existing customers if their cars are old enough and can be
budget sedan segment. potential new car buyers.
Excellent. Can you tell me how we should price the product.
The client has major presence in India, and they want to launch their product in the Indian market
competing with the likes of cars like Honda City. The motivation is to increase profits. Ok so I believe that we should price the product by benchmarking it with competitors and should price
the product slightly lower than the competitor until our product gains enough market share.
Ok so I will look at the problem bucketing into 3 categories- Financial feasibility, Operational
feasibility, and the risks. Does the approach look fine. Ok fair enough. Is there any other way we could price the product.
Yes, please proceed. There are two more ways that I can think of about how to price it. Cost based and value-based
approach.
Ok let me look at the market size and market share that we could achieve. For Market sizing do we
have any information or should I proceed with a guestimate. Ok great. Can you tell me how we could do value-based pricing for our product.
Let’s not get into the market sizing part and let’s say there are 4 major players in the market and Here we should try to sell the product on the basis of its perceived value and the willingness to pay of
there is enough consumers in the market to cater to a new player. Let’s try to look at the potential the customer.
risks for our client. Ok great. I think we can stop here. You have done the case well.
Since they have been operating in the budget segment so far, when we upgrade to a semi luxury
brand under the same name consumers might be apprehensive about buying the product as
compared to the competitors’ product.
Ok fair enough. You have identified a major concern here. What do you think the client can do to
mitigate the threat of the sedan being stereotyped and not doing well in the market compared to the
competitors .
First of all, they can try to position the product slightly differently from the competitors as an
everyday sedan. They could price it slightly lower than the competitors at least initially until the
product gains traction among the consumers. Also, they could leverage on the existing customer base
to increase sales.
Good. So can you elaborate on how you will use the existing customer base to improve your sales.

Semi Luxury Car Manufacturer Market Entry | Easy | BCG (Buddy)
Case Statement • Entry into upstream segment of the same product segment
• Aim: Increase revenue and generate alternate sources of revenue
• Success Metric is increased profits Entry into

Upstream Pricing
• Focus on potential risks to market entry Segment
• Competitive pricing strategy to attract

customers Market Operational Inward Looking Onward Looking
Risks
Attractiveness Feasibility
Market Size Market Share Cost-based Benchmarking
Value Based
Key Takeaways
• Understanding key factors for people buying a middle-segment product
• Analysis covered entry as well as pricing. Focus on potential risks for given strategy
• Traditional framework was not followed.

Sugarcane Yield Enhancer Market Entry & Pricing | Difficult | BCG (Principal)
Our client is a multinational pharmaceutical company. It’s area of business involves manufacturing Yes there are 3 existing competitors in the Indian market, but our client’s new chemical is more
agrochemical, seeds and biotechnology products. They have recently developed a chemical to effective as it uses completely new technology than any others in the market. Yes, the client owns this
enhance sugarcane production and are thinking to launch it in Indian market. You have been hired to new technology and has the patent over it.
help the client figure out whether to launch the chemical product or not ?
Thanks for your time. I will start with analyzing the market barriers, then I will check the financial
viability and thereafter I’ll look at the operational feasibility and at last I will look upon the ways to
I would like to restate the case statement to make sure I got the it correct. Our client is an MNC enter. Does this sound like a good approach?
operating into pharmaceutical business and manufactures agrochemical, seeds and biotechnology
products. Recently the client has developed a chemical which enhances sugarcane production and now Yes valid approach. You can continue.
needs our help to figure out its launch. Is that right? For analyzing market barriers, I would like to break it down into internal and external barriers. Under
Yes that’s correct. internal barriers, I would like to look for any financial or capability constraint while launching? Is it fair to
assume that there is no capability constraints as the client already operates in same business in several
I would like to start by understanding the client’s objective behind launching this chemical product and
countries.
the time frame for achieving it? Why has our client chosen Indian market to launch its new chemical?
Yes. You are right there is no capability constraint. Also, The client has deep pockets and has no
Sure. The client wants to maximise its profit. There is no timeframe in mind, but the client wants to financial constraints.
achieve this objective as ASAP. India is a potential market with almost 17% of world’s total sugarcane
production, which makes it one of the largest producer worldwide. Moreover, R&D of the newly Do we have any external barrier, which are not under the direct control of the client like barriers in
developed chemical suggests that it is more compatible with Indian soil texture. procurement of raw materials, tax, government regulations, license, distribution network, legal,
technology, reaction of existing competitors and customers.
Thanks for this insight. Does our client currently operate in India? And what part of the value chain the Comprehensively covered, but we don’t have any external constraints as well.
client currently operates in ? Now, as its clear that there are no barriers to entry. I would like to move forward and evaluate the
No, client doesn’t operate in India. But in other geographies, our client owns the entire value from R&D financial viability. To evaluate this, I would like to look at profit and split it as a function of Market size
till distribution to retailers. (Kg) * Market share (%)* (Price-Cost) INR/Kg - Fixed cost (INR/Kg) and see the profit potential.
Next, can you tell me more about the new chemical, what are its benefits and side effects? How is it You are on right track, how would you calculate the market size. Give me a qualitative approach.
used? And also who are its potential customers.
Sure. The chemical increases the yield of sugarcane by 20%. It also speed up the growth time by 5%. Well, to estimate it, I will first consider India’s total land area, then multiply it with % of cultivable land,
There are no side effects as such and it is used similar to how a fertiliser is used. The customers are then with % of actively harvested land out of available cultivable land and thereafter with % of
sugarcane farmers. sugarcane harvest land out of total actively harvested land. This will give us total land on which
sugarcane is harvested, so I will further multiply it % of sugarcane farmers who uses chemical enhancer
Are there any competitors present in the Indian market? If yes, how effective is our chemical product
and finally with chemical required (Kg per m^3) of land.
with respect to their products? Does our client have patent for this new technology?

That’s exactly what I was looking. You can take the total market size to be 2 lakh tonne. Sounds fair. Just look at the monetary benefits created for the farmers.
Do we have any information on the % of market share our client is expecting to capture? Considering Sure. Monetary benefits for farmers will be through two ways. First because of increased yield and
that our chemical product is more effective than other 3 competitors and have no side effects, is it safe second because of labor cost saved owing to fast growth time.
to assume that the client can capture a market share of greater than 1/4th of total market share.
Good. You have covered both the benefits. We have some data, without chemical, a farmer earns 500
That’s a fair argument. Assume that the client will be able to capture around 30% market share. Now INR per m^3 and it takes 60 days for the sugarcane to grow. Labour cost per day is 10 INR /m^3. and 1
why don’t you help the client figure out the pricing. kg of chemical is required per m^3
Sure. Can I take few seconds to analyze me thoughts. Okay, by using our chemical product, farmer will earn extra 100 INR per m^3 because of 20% increase in
yield. And since the growth time is fasten by 5%, it will now take just 57 days to harvest and save 3 days
Sure. Take your time.
of labour cost, which is equal to 30 INR per m^3 . Total benefit will be 130 INR per m^3. Since, 1 Kg of
We can price our chemical product by looking at 3 ways. First, we can look at the chemical’s variable chemical is required per m^3, the total benefit for farmers will be 130 INR per Kg. Hence, the our
cost to figure out minimum price ceiling for making profit per unit, then we can look at the competitors’ chemical product should be priced below 130 INR per Kg
prices and can price out product at a premium as our product is superior. Finally, we can look at the
farmers willingness to pay by evaluating the value created to get a price ceiling. That’s Right. Lets price the product at 100 INR per Kg.
Next, I would like to know the fixed cost incurred to produce the chemical- like R&D etc.
Sounds comprehensive. Go ahead
Do we have any information about the total variable costs per unit ? Sure, consider the fixed cost incurred to 100 INR crore.
Thanks for this information, We can now calculate the profit as 2* 10^8 Kg * 30% * (100-70) INR/Kg –
Yes the client incur a variable cost of 30 INR per Kg. Can you help me understand what all costs will be
10^9 INR. Therefore, client’s overall profit will be 320 INR crore. Our client will be earning more than 3
variable in nature.
times of the investment made. Now should I move into figuring out operational feasibility.
Sure. The variable costs will be incurred across the value chain and it could be production cost,
packaging cost, distribution cost etc. The client has to charge a price of more than 30 INR per Kg to Your figures are correct. No need, I think we had a good discussion and we did a quite detailed analysis
make profits. . Let’s stop the case here. All the best !
Good.
Next, do we have any information regarding the price charged by the competitors?
The competitors charge a price of 50 INR per Kg.
Okay. Since our product is more effective, we can price our product at a premium over 50 INR per kg.
That’s correct.
Next, I would like to evaluate the value created for farmers. We can split it into monetary and non-
monetary values.

Case Statement
Statement • Client has developed a new sugarcane yield enhancer chemical
• Client need our help to figure out whether to launch it or not
Structure/Framework
Interviewee Notes Internal
• Client is an MNC into pharmaceutical Barriers
business. Newly developed chemical External
increases yield by 20% and speed up
growth period by 5%. India produces 17%
of world’s sugarcane. Market Size
• Three existing competitors in India. The Market Share Cost Based

new technology is patent protected. There
Market Entry
are no barriers while launching
Financial Viability Price/Unit Competitor Based
• Market Size is 2 Lakh tonnes. Expected Increased yield
Market Share is 30%. Variable cost is 30
INR/Kg. Competitors charge a price of 50 Cost/Unit Value Based
INR/Kg Labour cost saved
Fixed Cost
• Without chemical, farmers yield is 500
INR/m^3, growth period is 60 days. Labour
Operational Resources/Capabilit Organisational
cost is 10 INR per m^3 per day. 1 Kg of Value chain setup
Feasibility ies Structure
chemical is required to be used per m^3
Entry mode
Key Takeaways
• Ask short and crisp clarifying question and look out for cues by the interviewer.
• Its important to take the buy-in of the interviewer and explain what you are doing during the analysis.
• Chalk out the Market Entry framework just after the clarifying questions and try to MECE at every step.
• Carefully note down any figure which the interviewer provides and keep it at the back of your mind as to where it could be used

Third Party Garages Market Entry | Easy | Bain (Buddy)
Ratan Tata visits Germany and is amazed by the third-party garages there. He wants to replicate the MI segment looks for value for their money whereas HI looks for brand and convenience. Even though
business model in India and has asked for your help to understand if it is feasible. If yes, how to the MI segment seems lucrative, the unorganized Indian repair industry is full fledged and attracts the
approach this? MI with much cheaper prices with duplicate parts. Hence, I think our favorable segment would be high
income.
I would like to understand the problem a bit more. Why do customers opt for third party garages than
company service centres? What is their revenue model? Which segments in auto does it cater to? That’s a good observation Indian unorganised sector is quite popular among the medium income
segment. Our offering of convenience and quality will sit better with high end segment
These are independent garages focusing on vehicles from all segments. The revenue model is
both pay per service and subscription based. Customers opt for this for better quality in lower Right. Also, we can earn better margins from this segment. Do you want me move to pricing also?
prices. Auto dealers are okay with it as the servicing sector doesn’t contribute much to their
revenue and increases costs No, let's focus on the setting up of the value chain. How do you suggest we go about it ?
Understood, Since we are focusing on high income clients, we will be dealing with high end luxury
In order to understand the reason for their existence, how do they source the original spare parts as it
cars. We will need strong supplier relationship with both domestic as well as overseas suppliers. That
must be a concern? Also are we planning to implement the exact same model in India, and what’s the
shouldn’t be a problem with the brand name Tata. Next, we will need to setup stores, preferably in
current competitive scenario in India? And what is the objective behind replicating this?
tier one and two cities. For marketing we can tie up with dealers for servicing programmes and
advertise directly in store. Lastly finding skilled workers might be a challenge for which we can setup a
The parts used are original sourced from the tier 1/2 suppliers. For Indian scenario focus on cars only.
training facility for the same.
There are no organised players present in India. The objective is to increase revenues maintaining
decent profitability.
Those are great suggestions. Can you elaborate on the location of the stores? Which locality to target in
the city?
Ok, I have good information to proceed with my analysis. Since this is a new industry, I will begin by
analysing the market attractiveness, and then move on to analyse the operation aspect as in setting up
Let me gather my thoughts. I think ideally, we should be in the vicinity of our clients. But those areas
of the value chain and potential barriers if any.
must have very high rental cost, instead we can locate ourselves outside the city on major highways,
with large stores
That sounds right. Let’s start with market sizing and target segment. I want to see your approach,
don’t focus on numbers.
Wouldn’t that be inconvenient to our clients?
Sure, I will begin with the population approach. Apply filters of urban and rural. We proceed with For convenience we can have pickup facility for our clients. This will help us exploit low rent cost, high
urban and apply filter of income (high, medium & low). Divide, this by 4 to get number of families, we economies of scale and deliver convenience to our clients too.
can ignore the low-income segment. Multiply medium and high income by number of cars per family. 1
and 3 respectively That is what I was looking for. We can close the case here. Thank you.
That’s about right, which segment do you suggest we should target?

Third Party Garages Market Entry | Easy | Bain (Buddy)
Case statement Ratan Tata visits Germany and is amazed by the third-party garages culture there. He wants to replicate them to India and has asked for your help to understand
how to approach this?

• Understand the business
model of these garages
and why are they better
compared to brand Market Entry
owned stores.
• Identifying the issues Market

related to unorganized Value Chain
Attractiveness
sector in India while
assessing target segment
Revenue Brick-Mortar Skilled
was of key importance Market Sizing Market Share Suppliers Logistics
Margin Shops Workers
here.
• Remember to tie up Income No of Target

Family Size
segment cars/family Segment
each decision to the
objective of increasing
revenues and
convenience
Key Takeaways
• Before jumping into the market entry framework, understand the business model. Try applying your own experiences to bring in insights.
• The Market attractiveness was more about identifying the attractive segment. Adapt your approach by taking feedback from interviewer before moving onto the next steps.

US Food Manufacturer Market Entry | Moderate | Bain (OCR)
Your client is a US manufacturer of bread mixes with a $40M of yearly sales. It is planning on expanding Sure. Assuming pizzas are bought for a family, I will calculate the number of Pizzas sold yearly and will
its product line to pizza mixes and is asking for your advice. take a discount factor of 12.5% (10% share + 25% growth) which could be used to calculate the
proportion of pizza mixes out of the pizzas consumed. Number of pizzas sold will depend on the US
Before we go forward, I have a few questions about the client and the product. When we say mixes, Population, urban rural split, average family size, income class wise split, average frequency of
are we talking about frozen dough or powdered mixes? Also, what parts of the value chain do we monthly purchases and a discount factor for organic pizza bases used
operate in?
This looks like a good strategy. Why don’t you take a minute to feed in the numbers and come with a
We deal with both frozen doughs and powdered mixes. Right now, we want to launch powder value?
mixes in the pizza category with an organic powder as a selling point in the US market. The client
has the complete manufacturing capability and does all distribution through grocery stores. Sure. Based on the calculations, we are looking at about 26 Mn yearly purchases.
(Calculation done below in the chart) While this looks like an attractive number, we should look at
Is there an existing product in the market? the operational feasibility and financial viability. Given we already manufacture bread mixes, would
While there are no organic pizza mixes, regular pizza mixes do exist it be a fair assumption that we have all the processing capabilities for the pizza mix and that the
only challenge would be in terms of sourcing raw materials and capacity utilization?
Alright. How is the industry growing and what are the market shares for our client?
Spot on. There are no operational challenges in sourcing the raw materials and the client has the
The food industry is growing at 25% YOY and the mixes make up about 10% of this industry. The client adequate capacity to deal with the launch of a new product category. Let’s look at the financial
is not the market leader but has a considerable market share viability. Each packet is priced at $3.5, the per unit costs are $1.2 for raw materials, $0.3 for the fuel
for the machines and $1.5 to for all distribution and storage. Along with this we would incur a fixed
I understand. What are the timelines along with any specific objectives, if any, that the client is looking
cost of $120,000. Do you think the product is financially viable?
at? Also, is there any budget constraint for the same?
While there are no specific objectives, the client wants to be a dominant player within 2 years of entry. I’ll identify the breakeven quantities required and benchmark it with the potential yearly sales to
There are no budget constraints. figure whether the product is viable. To break even, the firms profit contribution should at least be
equal to the fixed cost. With a profit per unit of $0.5 (3.5 – 1.2 -1.5 -0.3), the client needs to sell
I think I have a fair understanding of the problem at hand. I would break down my analysis in 3 major 240,000 units to breakeven. This number is attainable as we are looking at yearly sales of 26 Mn and
buckets: Market Attractiveness, Operational Viability and Financial Feasibility. In market hence the product launch is financially feasible too
attractiveness, I would look at the market size and market features such as the competitive response Great. Can you summarize the case and give your final recommendation?
and capturable market share. In operational viability I would look at pre-entry considerations and how
to enter the market. Finally, in financial feasibility, I would look at what are the various cost and Sure. Our client wanted advice on a new product launch for organic pizza mixes in the US market. We
revenue streams to understand can we successfully break even looked at it from the lens of Market Attractiveness, Operational Viability and Financial Feasibility. We
concluded that the market was attractive with 30 Mn annual sales. With no significant operational
Sounds like a comprehensive approach. The competitive response is outside the purview of the case. challenges, we came up with yearly sales of 240,000 to break even, and hence financially feasible.
Let’s look at the market size for the pizza mixes. Can you give me a factor to calculate the market size? Hence the client should go forward with the product launch with the existing capacity.
Okay sure. Sounds good. In the interest of time, we can close the case here.

US Food Manufacturer Market Entry | Moderate | Bain (OCR)
Case statement • Your client is a US manufacturer of bread mixes with a $40M of yearly sales. It is planning on expanding its product line to pizza mixes and is asking for your
advice.

Market Entry
• Food industry is growing
at 25%. Organic mixes is
10% of the food market. Market Operational Financial
Attractiveness Viability Feasibility
Share in estimations can
be taken as 12.5%
accommodating 25% Market Market Pre-Entry Mode of Price/Unit =
Competition
growth in current 10% Share Size Conditions Entry $3.5
(Brownie Points)
US Pop: Variable Cost =
• Client wants to launch 320 Mn $3/unit
only organic pizza mix
Avg family size = 4 | 80 High Income (20%) Middle Income Low Income (50%)
• Guesstimate for market Fixed Cost =
Mn families 16Mn (30%) 24Mn 40Mn $120000
size required (Marked in
Orange)
Monthly Purchase Monthly Purchase Monthly Purchase Breakeven
Freq=8 Freq=6 Freq=4 Quantity =
240000 units
Yearly freq = Yearly freq = Yearly freq =
1536Mn 1728Mn 1920Mn
Key Takeaways
• Ensure that the you lay out the structure for your analysis at the start
• Ask the interviewer for relevant data instead of getting stuck in your analysis

Medical Manufacturing Company Market Entry | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Your client is a manufacturer of a new age medical device called Teddy which Since there are no logistical and warehousing constraints involved in the transport and storage of the
hugs patients in critical condition. They currently operate in Bangalore and Chennai and are
product, we can first target all the metro cities and tier 1 cities were the customers have higher
looking for ways to enter into other markets.
buying power and also have sufficient education to understand the value of higher recovery rate. This
Could you please tell me the reason why the company is looking to enter other markets? is crucial since the cost of the product is high. We should educate the doctors by having seminars and
workshops on the effectiveness of the project. We should try to tie up with insurance agencies to try
The company wants to increase their sales, so they are looking to enter other markets and ask them to cover the cost as part of their plan, this would further incentivize the patients to use
this product.
Great. I wanted to know more about the product, what does the product offer? Who are its users? Are
there any substitutes or alternatives to this product currently? Ok, how would you expand into the international market and what countries would you consider for
the expansion?
The product is used by patients in critical condition to help speed up the recovery. The
product is one of a kind and its closest substitute is a blanket and compared to the blanket this
blanket cuts down recovery rate by 50%. For international markets I think we would need certification and clearance from the respective
medical agencies for approval of usage since these are prescribed medical product. A significant
Ok, since the product is used only by critical patients, is this product something that can be bought of factor that would be considered would be the ease of getting approval and the support provided for
the counter, or does it require a prescription to be bought? sales and adoption of the product. We should also consider the peoples buying power and the
education level. Based on all this I would consider some Southeast Asian countries since the medical
The product cannot be bought of the shelf and needs to be prescribed by a doctor. system here is similar to that of India thereby getting approval would be easy. I would consider
countries like Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia
Do we know where the company manufactures this and if there are any constraints involved in the
transport and storage of the product?
Why not consider countries like Singapore where the buying power is higher and where people are
more likely to buy the product?
The company manufactures out of Bangalore and has no restrictions for transport and storage
How is our product priced and does insurance cover this cost? Singapore is a good market to consider for the long term but not for the short term since the approval
process and regulations are stricter. Therefore, the entry into this market would be time consuming
The product costs 15,000 and can be used only once and insurance doesn’t cover it currently. and we might have to alter our product to suite the needs of this market. These are things that would
not be feasible in the short term.
I am going to investigate expanding into domestic and international markets. Evaluate each market
based on the market attractiveness, financial and operational viability of operating there and compare Great, we are done. Thank you.
the various alternatives. Is there a particular market you want me to concentrate on first? And do you
want me to estimate the market size?
You can start with domestic market first. You can ignore market size calculation for now.

Medical Manufacturing Company Market Entry | Moderate | Bain (Partner)
Case statement • Your client is a manufacturer of a new age medical device called Teddy which hugs patients in critical condition. They currently operate in Bangalore and
Chennai and are looking for ways to expand into other markets.

• The product being
available only on
prescription and not
being covered by
insurance
New Product launch
• Compliance required for
international markets.
Domestic International
Market Market
Customer Customer Customer Customer

Market Market
buying Education & Approval Buying Education &
Attractiveness Attractiveness
Power Awareness Power Awareness
Key Takeaways
• Use the Product Launch framework
• Understand the various players and requirements in the industry
• Evaluate markets based on short-term and long term desirability

Coffin Manufacturer Market Entry | Difficult | EYP (Buddy)
Your client is a high-end coffin manufacturer in Singapore. There is a new technology that helps make The coffins sell at $5K and there is a variable cost of $4.8K in manufacturing. Other than that, we have
coffins of the same quality but at a lower cost. They have come to you for advice on how to proceed. a fixed cost of $700K/year to run the business. Can you assume a perpetual business and let me know
the NPV of business assuming a 10% discount rate?
I would like to ask a few preliminary questions about the client. Would it be fair to assume that the
customer segment they deal with is premium as they are a high-end manufacturer? The annual profits come out to around $180K. Assuming a 10% discount rate and perpetuity of
Sure, you can do that. business, I get a valuation of $1.8M for the business.
That sounds fair. Can you now look at the option where the client invests in the new technology?
What do we know about the competitors in the space?
Assume that the new technology reduces the variable costs by 50% and requires an upfront investment
The market is stagnant growth-wise. We have a 10% market share of all the coffins. We have another of $150K,
competitor with ~same market share, and the rest of the market is fragmented.
Sure. The reduction in variable costs will increase our profits. However, since the technology is not
Can you also tell me about the geography of operations? proprietary, our competitors will also invest in the technology. This will lead to a price war and
ultimately reduce each coffin's price to its variable cost. Hence, this does not seem to be a wise move
The client only operates in Singapore. for us to take. However, if the competitor buys this technology, we can either investigate entering this
price war or exiting the business.
Can you tell me a bit more about the new technology? And whether it is proprietary.
That sounds like a good assessment. Let’s explore the next option of selling to a third party.
The new technology comes from the US and is not proprietary. Anyone can buy it and use it. Can you
list out the options in front of the client? In this case we should expect to get the same amount as the NPV of our business, i.e. $1.8M.
Correct! Let’s move into liquidation now.
At the first level, the client can choose to stay in the business or exit it. If they decide to stay in the
business, they can either invest in the new technology or continue current operations. If they exit the I would like to know about the client’s assets and liabilities for this.
business, they can either liquidate or sell to a third party.
The major asset they have is land which they purchased 50 years ago at $150K. Assuming a 6% inflation
That sounds fair. Can you evaluate the value from each step? rate can you estimate the current value
6% inflation rate means that it will ~double every 12 years. Hence, in 50 years it will approximately be
Okay! I will start with stay in business with no investment in new technology. I would like to estimate
16 times the original value that is $2.4M
the profitability from this option. To estimate the revenue, I will start by sizing the market. Market size
= Population / Avg life span * (Coffin bearers) . Our market size would be 10% of the above. That’s correct. So ,what will be your recommendation to the client.
The value of the assets is more than the valuation of the business. However, this value is going to keep
Okay you can take the population as 50L, average life is 80 years and 70% are coffin bearers. on increasing with time. I would recommend continuing the business till the time competitors
This gives me a total market size of 43.7K coffins and our market size as ~4.4K coffins. To estimate introduce the new technology and at that time exit & liquidate the business
the profits, can you tell me the revenue and cost structure of the business – what is the selling That sounds good. Thank you for your time.
price of coffins, and what fixed & variable costs are involved in the business.

Coffin Manufacturer Market Entry | Difficult | EYP (Buddy)
Case statement • High-end coffin manufacturer in Singapore
• New technology expected to bring the costs down
• Premium customers
• 10% market share with
one similar competitor Business Options
• Market growth has
been stagnant
• Operates only in
Stay in Business Exit Business
Singapore which has
population of 50L,
average life 80 years
and 70% as coffin
bearers No investment in Invest in new Sell business to 3rd
Liquidate
new technology technology party
Key Takeaways
• Take buy-ins from the interviewer regularly.
• Make the framework before jumping into the the case. Remember to navigate the framework well

IIMB Pricing
2021-22

Pricing Framework
Market Price
Value to consumer
Profit to seller
Pricing
GAP
• Brand
• Quality
• Innovation
• New-found utility Inward External
Looking Looking
Cost
Cost Based Benchmarking Value Based
- Willingness to Pay
Costs Returns Industry Features
- Opportunity Costs
- Extrapolate Benefits
- R&D, one time costs - Markup - Structure - Additional Features
- Production costs – - Margins - Feature of Others - Differenciating
Substitutes, sbenefits
Fixed & Variable - Breakeven Period
Complements or
- Other specific costs - Payback Period other proxies - Others’ Price range

Toll Collection Pricing | Easy | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement: Your client is an infrastructure company which has just built a new road. You need to Well, there are a couple of creative ways. We could look at the amount customers are willing to pay to
help them find the right amount of toll to charge for each vehicle which uses the road. skip queues for services which allow skipping them for a premium. Apart from this, we can look at the
extra charge that customers play on delivery apps to get a guaranteed delivery time.
That sounds interesting. I would like to know a bit more about the road which the company has built.
Where is it located? Is it an alternative route or it the repaired version of an older route? Okay, those are some interesting options. It was nice interacting with you. Let’s close the case here.
You can assume that the road connects two Indian cities, which were previously only connected by a
single bridge. The road is an alternative to the old bridge.
I have a couple of questions about the differences between the two routes for potential users before I
begin my analysis. Does the new road reduce the travel time between the two cities? Is the build
quality of the two roads different?
Yes, the new road reduces travel time by 30 minutes, even though it is a longer distance to travel. The
build quality is the same as the old road.
Alright, great. There are three possible ways to choose a toll to charge. The first is by choosing a time
period in which we want to earn back our initial investment. For this, we will divide our costs by the
projected demand in the given time period to get the minimum required toll price. The second
method is to look at the toll prices charged by other builders. We can record the prices at toll plazas
connecting the same cities to other places, and then given our advantages/disadvantages over them,
add a premium or a discount. The third method is to look at the value which we provide to our
customers and charge an equivalent amount.
Okay, that sounds comprehensive. I am interested in the the third method. How would you price the
value which we provide to our customers?
We can provide for value for travellers on three parameters: distance, time, and convenience. We are
at a disadvantage in the first parameter. We can use the extra fuel charge as a proxy.
Sounds fair. How will you value the time savings?
So, we know that the time savings are 30 minutes. Different segments of consumers value their time
differently. For example, lower income classes are perhaps not that affected by time savings when
compared to upper income classes. We should consider implementing a price discrimination
mechanism, such as charging different tolls to different vehicle categories after doing surveys.
Okay, can you arrive at the rupee amount any consumer ascribes to their time without doing surveys?

Toll Collection Pricing | Easy | BCG (Partner)
Case statement • An infrastructure company is trying to set a poll charge for its new road, which has a time saving of 30 minutes.
• The road requires travelers to cover a longer distance

• The interviewer
mentioned that he was
looking for creativity.
• It was also explained

that there would be no Pricing
numbers in the round.
Competitor-
Cost-based Value-based
based
Advantages Disadvantages Distance Time Convenience
Key Takeaways
• The case was supposed to be done without a pen and paper. The interviewer had mentioned that he was looking for a conversation. Thus, it was important to be quick on my feet and not
ask for a couple of minutes to think.

Sleep Reduction Pill Pricing | Moderate | BCG (Manager)
Case Statement : Your client is a pharmaceutical company that sells both OTC and prescription-based • Value based pricing: This is the maximum price that the customer would be willing to pay based on
drugs. They have developed an innovative product which enables people to sleep for just 4 hours the value that our product offers to them.
compared to the usual 8 hours. You are required to provide suggestions on how to price it. Do you want me to look at any of them specifically, or should I proceed with cost-based pricing?
I would like to ask a few preliminary questions before getting into the case to know more about our You can proceed with cost-based pricing first.
client. What is the objective for rolling out this product and what are the products that our client
Alright. Can you tell me how much it costs our client to make the product? And what is the margin that
currently sells?
they are expecting on the product.
The client is topline-focused and wants to increase their revenue from the sale of the drug. The client The cost of producing one pill is INR 10. the client is expecting a margin of 10%.
sells a wide range of drugs. You can consider this to be an independent product.
Okay. So we can consider 10*1.1 = INR 11 as our base price. For the value-based pricing, we would
Thank you. I would also like to know more about this product. What is the frequency of consumption of need to determine the value created by our product. This would depend on the value that the pill is
the drug, and for how much duration should it be taken? Are there any side- effects associated with creating by reducing the sleep time by 4 hours. This product could also create value to patients who
the drug? are unable to sleep for longer durations.
It is a long-term pill, and 1 pill needs to be taken every day. There are no-side effects. Why don’t you start by listing the types of customer who would like to use our product?
Alright. And what geographies does the client currently operate in? Where are we intending to launch The customer base can be divided into two major segments: Working professionals seeking time value
this product? for the 4 hours saved, and patients seeking reduced sleep due to health reasons. For working
professionals, the value would be created in the form of extra income that they could earn in the
The client is an Indian company which has operations all over the globe. However, we can consider that saved time. For patients, the value could be estimated by the savings in medical expenses. Do we have
the rollout will take place pan-India initially, and exports can be considered later. any information regarding these factors?
Okay. Are we the first company to develop this kind of product? Do we have any competitors? And are
Sure. Let’s assume the following:
there any regulations which could affect the sale of this drug in India?
• 10% of the working population would use this pill. This population earns INR 5000/hour.
We are the first ones to develop this product. We do not have any competitors. We can ignore the • 20% of the total population consists of patients who would like to use this pill. They will save INR
regulations for now and focus on pricing. 12000 per month in medical expenses as a result of using this pill.
Thank you for the information. Can I take a minute to organize my thoughts? Okay. Since 1 pill is required every day, the value derived per pill would be:
Working professionals: INR 20000 per pill (INR 5000 * 4 hours)
Sure. Patients: INR 400 per pill (INR12000 / 30 days per month)
So, we can consider three types of pricing for the drug. Right. So which segment would you choose amongst these?
• Cost-based pricing: This would be the minimum price that the client must charge the client based
To decide that I would calculate the revenue earned per day from each segment. Assume the total
on the costs incurred for developing the pill and the expected margin.
population to be 1.3 billion and the percentage of working population as 60%. For this case, I am
• Competitor–based pricing: Since we do not have any competitor, this type of pricing would not be
assuming that working professionals would be willing to pay anything below INR 20000 since that is
relevant in this case. We can just look at value-based pricing.
the additional income that they get. Can I proceed with this approach?

Sure. Go ahead.
Okay. So, the value to working professionals would be 20000 * 0.6 * 0.1 * 1.3 = INR 1560 billion For
patients, the value would be 400 * 0.2 * 1.3 = INR 104 billion.
Hence, I would choose to target the working professionals and drop the patients segment as I would
be able to maximize the revenue in that case.
Great. We can end the case here.

Case statement • Client has developed a new drug which helps in reducing sleep
• Pricing of the drug needs to be decided
• Objective is to maximize revenue and have at least 10% margin on the costs
• Drug does not have any Pricing

competitors. It needs to
be consumed once per
day and has no side-
effects. Drug costs INR
10 and 10% margin is Competitor/ Substitute
expected Cost Based Value Based
Based
• Two major segments

can be targeted:
Working professionals,
and patients with health Working professionals
concerns Cost associated with Irrelevant in this case as Patients Value derived is INR
producing the drug is INR Value derived is INR 20000 400 per pill per day
there are no competitors
10. The minimum price per pill per day
• Patient segment should
charged should be INR 11
be dropped, and focus since the expected margin
should be on is 10%. This segment is dropped
maximizing revenue
through working
professionals
Key Takeaways
• The interviewer appreciated the approach to quantify the benefits associated with the usage of the drug.
• Not all customer segments need to be considered while pricing. Some segments can be dropped to maximize the benefits.

Medical Drug Pricing | Moderate | BCG (Buddy)
Case Statement : Your client is a CEO of a large multinational company in the health care space. He has Okay considering that people aged between 50 and 80 use pacemaker, these people on average use 3
a drug which can make patient risk free from cardiac arrests. How do you price it? pacemakers. Thus, cost of alleviating cardiac arrest is USD 30000. Since we have to use pill thrice a
month for 5 years, it translates to 180 (3*12*5) pills. To be on a comparable scale, price needs to be
I would like to ask a few preliminary questions before getting into the case. I wanted to know the USD 167 (30000/180)
objective for pricing and the core competency of the client.
Good. What else would you consider?
The client wants to maximize lifetime revenue from the drug with a minimum of 50% profit margins
from the sale. The client core competency lies in R&D and large-scale investments. I wanted to know if there exists any regulations on the maximum pricing as this pill is unique compared
to pacemaker and provides greater value to customers considering easy usage. I also wanted to know if
Thanks for the information. I also wanted to know more about the drug. What is the consumption the drug is patented and possibility of replication.
mode, frequency and duration. Are there any side effects involved and how much was the R&D costs
associated with making the drug? Yes, the market regulations prohibit pricing above 180 USD. The drug is not patented, however as I
mentioned client core competency is in R&D and thus drug is not easily replicated
Drug needs to be consumed thrice a month for 5 years. There are no observable side effects. Do you
think R&D costs are relevant to price the drug? Based on this, I think the drug can be priced at premium as the drug is noninvasive and unique (cannot
be replicated)
Sorry, R&D costs would be sunk cost and thus should have no influence on the pricing. What is the cost
involved in this drug? Good. Can you summarize your final recommendation to the client?
Good. Each tablet costs 100 USD to make. This includes all commission paid to intermediate channels Considering the client objective and the market scenario,
• Pricing of the drug needs to be on the higher side of USD 150-180.
Okay. If we consider cost based pricing and required 50% margin, then we should price it at minimum • Promote the drug deep into the market and endorse it heavily through first adopters.
150 USD. This would be the lower limit for the pricing. I want to know more about the competitors, • Though replicating is not easy, the drug needs to be patented to avoid any duplicates in future.
substitutes for the drug and the customers to decide on the upper ceiling.
Good. Currently the client doesn’t have any competitors who sell equivalent drugs. Can you think of any
substitutes for the drug?
Pacemakers would be an ideal substitute considering they are used to avoid cardiac arrests. Can I
consider the same?
Yes. You can consider it. How would you approach now?
I would consider the prevailing market price of pacemaker and it’s life. Do we have this data ?
Consider the cost to be USD 10000 and life of 10 years.

Medical Drug Pricing | Moderate | BCG (Buddy)
Case statement • Client has a new drug that helps in avoiding cardiac arrests
• Pricing of the drug needs to be decided
• Objective is to have minimum 50% margin on the costs
• Drug needs to be
consumed thrice a
month for 5 years and Pricing
costs 100 USD
• Pacemaker is suitable
substitute. Price can be
compared Cost Based Competitor/ Substitute Based Value Based
• Drug can demand
premium as it is
noninvasive and cannot
be replicated easily.
Considering pacemaker cost of
50% margin on 100 USD cost 10000 USD and avg 3 Drug can command premium;
• Maximum price is leads to lower limit price of 150 pacemaker usage per person, but regulations limit the price
restricted to USD 180 by USD comparable price of pill is 167 to USD 180
regulations. USD (30000/180)
Key Takeaways
• Sunk cost is irrelevant while pricing.
• It would have been better telling that you will be considering 3 approaches for pricing rather than directly indicating approach one by one.
• Often, the key in pricing is to guess the mark up potential for pricing.

Airline Tickets Pricing | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
Your client is in airline industry and have bought a fleet of new airlines to travel from New Delhi to New Sure, the value-based strategy sounds interesting. But before that, let’s discuss who will be our
York in 1 hour. They have approached you to set appropriate price for the same. customer?
Sure, I’d like to ask some preliminary questions to understand more about the client and the product. Sure, we can target our customer into two categories, one will be the travellers and others will be
cargo services. Travelers can further be classified as tourists, people travelling for business as well as
Sure, go ahead. jobs, and people providing emergency services like doctors, etc. Cargo would include premium courier
services, as well as emergency services which might be used in cases of critical time crunch.
What is the current time period for the flight and how many flights have we purchased?
It takes appx 24 hrs currently and we have purchased 4-5 flights. Alright, that sounds good. Now, how will you understand the value that we will provide to our
customer?
Do we have any information about our competitor and if they also have a similar product?
We will calculate the willingness to pay that our customer has based on the value he associates to the
We are among the leading airlines and only we have acquired such a product, no other competitor has saved time. It will be different for different people. A businessman might be able to earn lakhs more
this ability as of now. due to the extra 23 hours he is saving while a tourist might be able to get one extra day for which the
value can be determined by the opportunity cost of spending those extra 23 hours in the flight.
And can you tell me a little more about our client? Where do they operate and how long they have
been in the business? Suppose that our customer is a consulting firm, and they want to evaluate whether they should
purchase our tickets for their consultants? How should they go about it?
So, they are based out of India and have been in the industry for 20+ years and operate both Domestic
as well as International flights. I’d like to do a cost benefit analysis on behalf of that firm. The costs would primarily include the
additional cost of the ticket and the benefits associated would be external ones like increase in the
What is the current price of the ticket for this? billable hours, more employee utilization as less salary to be paid for the non-billable hours. Another
aspect would be the internal benefits increase in the employee satisfaction due to less travelling.
The current ticket costs around 30k.
Sure, that makes sense. Thanks a lot for your time.
Sure, thanks for the information, so just to make sure I have understood correctly, our client is a
leading airline operator based out of India and they have acquired a new fleet to fly from New Delhi to
New York that saves a huge amount of time and wants our help to set the pricing strategy. Is that
correct or am I missing something? If yes, can I take some time to think through my thoughts.
That’s correct, you can go ahead with your analysis.
So to set the price, we can follow three different strategies, first is cost based, second would be
competitor based and the last would be value based. In cost based, we would calculate the overall set
up charges based on the different costs incurred and set a mark up to that. Competition based wont
be applicable here as we have the first mover advantage, and in the value based, we will set up the
price based on the kind of value we produce for our customers. Do you want me to explore any one
particular strategy?
Airline Tickets Pricing | Moderate | Kearney (Buddy)
Case statement • Client has bought a fleet of new airlines to travel from New Delhi to New York in 1 hour
• Pricing for the tickets need to be decided
• Savings by 23 hours. Pricing
• Premium customer
segments
Cost Based Competitor Based Value Based
• Value Based Pricing
based on savings in
customer’s timing
Benefits Costs
External Internal Increased cost of

tickets
Increase in billable Increase in employee Savings in non-billable Increased employee

hours utilization salary satisfaction
Key Takeaways
• Interviewer was interested only in qualitative discussion, so did not ask for any cost components.
• Interviewer tried to stress out the candidate while discussing about customer, need to keep calm in such situations

Factory owner Pricing | Easy | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client owns factories which they lease out to a manufacturing firm. They are That’s correct. Can you think of some options?
currently exploring whether to automate the factory or not and, if so, the new pricing. Could you advise
them on this? I can think of 3 options:
• Look in the past to see how price increases were negotiated and what might be the appetite of the
I would like to ask a few preliminary questions about the client. Could you let me know a bit about their textile firm
factories and current pricing system? Also, why are they looking into automation? • Try getting industry data on what are the percentage increase in lease prices when new efficiencies
are introduced
The client owns three factories in Coimbatore and leases them to textile manufacturing firms. Their • Initially propose an increase of INR 1Cr with gradual increase of INR 50L each year
current pricing is an annual lease and is competitive with the market. The client wishes to see if they
can increase their profits with automation. Can you think about where all there will be cost reductions
through automation? That sounds good. Thank you for your time.
I would like to map this on the value chain. So, the factory process for the textile firms can be broken
down into raw material procurement, manufacturing, packing and distribution. Through automation,
they can probably reduce raw material and manufacturing expenses (utilities and labour). However,
they will find the increased fixed cost of investment and maintenance as well.
That sounds correct. Can you now tell how they should go about pricing it?
So, I would start with floor pricing based on the increased cost. Do we have any information on the cost
of investment and maintenance of machines? There can also be increased labour costs for operating
new machinery.
Assume that the new machinery costs INR 2.5 Cr, with an annual maintenance cost of INR 50L. The net
labor cost remains unchanged.
The client can look at spreading the cap-ex over 5 years. Hence the initial annual cost can go up by INR
1 Cr. This would be the floor pricing. To get a ceiling, we need to know the additional value generated
by automation. Do we have any information on that?
Assume that the current margin of the firm is INR 50 Cr & automation would expand it by 10%.
This means additional annual savings of INR 5 Cr. Hence, the client can price the automated factory
lease at an additional INR 1-5 Cr. You told me that we are already competitive in the pricing; hence we
will need to find a benchmark we can take to price between INR 1-5 Cr.

Factory owner Pricing | Easy | Bain (Partner)
Case statement • Factory owner, leased out factories to textile firms
• Wants to know the change in pricing for automation
• Wants to increase
revenues from lease
Raw material Manufacturing Packing Distribution
• New machinery costs Value chain
INR 2.5 Cr, with an analysis for cost
annual maintenance • Reduction in raw • Utilities • Utilities • Unaffected
saving material for new • Labor • Labor
cost of INR 50L
automated
machines
Price floor Actual price Price ceiling
Pricing
Cost based pricing Benchmark to set actual price Value based pricing
Key Takeaways
• Break down problems in structured way.
• Take regular interviewer buy-ins for all the assumptions which you make

New Medicine Launch Pricing | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
Case Statement : A Pharma company has developed a new product to control diabetes for patients in India Yes, the new product is superior to insulin
and need your help in pricing it.
In that case, we should certainly price our product more than Insulin as we are providing more value
That’s an interesting problem. Do you mind if I ask some questions to better understand the client? than insulin. Again, how much should be the markup depends upon the perceived benefits of our
Sure, go ahead. product amongst the consumers
What is the objective of pricing? Is it to maximize the profit or something else Yes, that’s correct, anything else you want to consider here?
Yes, it is to maximize the profit Yes, we can also consider substitutes in the form of Ayurveda, Homeopathy which might eat up on
our Market share if we price too high.
Can I have more details about the product? Basically, how it is different from normal insulin injection
& information on how restricted its availability be i.e.. Will it be available over the counter or requires That’s a fair assessment. Let's move on.
a prescription? And how is the competitive landscape in the market
Okay, now I want to consider how much value we are providing to the customer and how much we
It's an oral tablet instead of an injection and has lesser side effects. It'll be available over the counter can capture it. For that we can do price elasticity analysis of the product to arrive at a price which
and the market is highly competitive maximizes the profit and can also investigate Supply v/s Demand gap of the existing market to
determine the best price of the product.
I want to breakdown the Pricing of the tablet into three broad strategies - 1) cost based 2)
Competitor based 3) Value based pricing Yes, that’s a detailed enough analysis. Let’s stop the case here.
The final price will be dependent on all the three factors
Yes, that sounds fine. Why don’t you list down all the factors. I don’t want you to go into details. Just
tell me all the factors
Okay, let me start with Cost based approach. Over here Total cost is composed of one-time R&D
costs + Cost of production which again can be divided into Fixed cost and Variable cost. This along
with our production volumes will give the minimum price for the tablet. We need to now find profit
margin in top of that. Profit margin can either be something company is targeting, or we can use
some proxy to find it
Yes, that’s sound fair. Let’s explore other factors you have listed now
So now we can look into competition and substitutes for our product and figure out a price based on
our product's position with respect to them. For that, I already have the information on lesser side
effects and the fact that medicine is in oral form which makes it superior to the injection-based
insulin. Is that fair to assume?

New Medicine Launch Pricing | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
Case facts • Oral tablet for diabetes patients
• Lesser side affects
• High competition in the market

• Follow a qualitive Cost
approach rather than a
quantitative one
Variable
Fixed Cost
Cost
Sales and
RnD Salaries Depreciation Rent Sourcing Manufacturing Distribution
Marketing
1. Cost of production - fixed cost and variable cost

Cost 2. R&D expenses
1. Competition: Insulin injection

2. Substitutes: Ayurveda, homeopathy
Pricing Competitor 3. Value Addition:
• Lesser Side affects
• oral tablets instead of injection
Value based 1. Willingness to Pay: Elasticity analysis
2. Supply and Demand tradeoff
Key Takeaways
• As interviewer hinted for qualitative discussion, the candidate made sure that all the factors were listed out before going in detail to anyone.
• The interviewer was trying to speed up the case. Make sure that you are not taken aback by it
• My case ended abruptly when interviewer started asking me about one of my resume points, make sure that you are confident in such situations, and be thorough with your resume. Don’t
lose the structured approach even if you are asked a question from your resume.
Autism Digital Therapy Product Pricing | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
Case Statement: Your client has developed a new digital therapy product for autistic children. The So it is estimated that there are 5 million autistic children in India. How would you proceed?
product imitates the therapy that is provided by a doctor in person through use of interactive videos,
audiobots, games etc. How would you go about pricing the product? I would like to compute the addressable market from this. I would like to apply filters of 1) income
levels and 2) internet / tablet penetration and English speaking population on this total market size.
Sure, I would like to ask a few preliminary questions about the product. Can the product be considered Based on this we will reach at the following number for the total addressable market -
a replacement of therapy through doctors, or how is it different from it? Also, what is the competitive
landscape like?
Internet/Tablet
The product reduces the need for doctor therapy as children can use it at home. Plus it can also reach No. of Penetration/English No. of
Income Levels Total
people who currently don’t have access to doctor therapy. Although doctors can also use it to expand children speaking children
their reach through the digital solution, but here you can assume it reduces the need for doctor’s
therapy by 50%. The product is available in English language and is used on a tablet. In terms of
competition, you can assume there are 2-3 other similar new products in the market Low Income (50%) 2.5 mn 10% 0.25 mn
Medium Income (40%) 2 mn 70% 1.4 mn 2.15 mn
That is informative, thanks. I can think of three broad ways of pricing the product – 1) cost based 2)
competitor based and 3) value based. I can start off with value based as the value of this product is High Income (10%) 0.5 mn 100% 0.5 mn
directly equivalent to therapy. Is there info on the costs of normal doctor therapy?
Great, do you think this is the addressable market or would there be additional filters on this 2.15
So doctor therapy is very expensive and costs ~INR 3L per year, and doctors are very scarcely available, million figure you have arrived at?
which is why this product can reach out to those who cannot afford or avail such services
Yes! We have to now account for competitors and doctors also. Since this product competes with
Great, thanks. So if the product can reduce the need for doctor therapy by 50%, it implies it can be doctors also, they might create negative publicity for such a product. Given that this market would be
priced at INR 1.5L per year. But this is the upper limit as it would not solve the problem of affordability split amongst 2-3 competitors and also competing with the doctors, we can aim to capture 25% of this,
and scarcity of doctors and this will not be competitive with other digital therapy players. Next, we can approximately 0.5 million
look at competitor based pricing. Is there any info on their prices?
That’s very good. We are running out time. Are there any more filters you can think of which would
No not really, it is a novel product and there is no info on other competitors' business plans. Maybe you reduce our addressable market?
can focus on cost based instead. Yes, other factors could be 1) people not willing to get treatment / social taboos 2) people opting for
alternative treatments apart from conventional therapy and 3) undiagnosed cases within our entire
Sure. I would like to proceed by dividing costs into fixed and variable costs. The fixed costs would be
estimated population
amortized over multiple periods and divided with the user base to arrive at fixed cost per user per
year. Then we will add variable costs and a desired profit margin on top of these. Is there any data Thanks. We can close the case here. It was a pleasure interacting with you.
available on these figures?
That’s good. The total fixed cost is known, but how would you go about arriving at the expected user
base?
We can look at the total market size and multiply with expected market share

Autism Digital Therapy Product Pricing | Moderate | McKinsey (Partner)
Case statement • Pricing problem for a digital therapy solution for autism
• The product imitates the therapy that is provided by a doctor in person through use of interactive videos, audiobots, games etc. It is available in English
language and needs a tablet to be used
• Learn about the product

first, how is it different Pricing
from normal doctor
therapy. The value
provided is similar to
conventional therapy, Competitor/ Substitute
use that for value-based Cost Based Value Based
Based
pricing
• For user base

calculations, use factors Fixed costs per year per Novel product, no mature 50% of conventional
of internet and tablet user Variable costs
competition therapy costs – INR 1.25L
availability, and English-
speaking population
• Maintain balance
between qualitative and Total fixed costs per year No of users
quantitative approach.
Key Takeaways
• Use the data provided by interviewer thoughtfully, factors of English language product and tablet were used later in interview
• When interviewer is asking to list down factors, focus on qualitative aspects instead of quantitative numbers
• The pricing case ended with a mix of guesstimate and market sizing, do not rigidly stick to frameworks and focus on problem stated by
• interviewer
IIMB Unconventional Cases
2021-22

Approaching Unconventional Cases - Repository of MECE Layers
▪ Machinery, Labour : Capacity / Efficiency / Utilization

▪ Demand : Domestic / International
▪ Housing : Retail / Corporate
▪ Goods : Unbranded / Branded / Private Labels / White Labels
▪ Business Model : On-shore/ Off-shore
▪ Visitors : First-time/ Occasional / Frequent ; Local/ Foreign
▪ Usage Frequency : Light/ Medium / Heavy
▪ Employee Concern : Financial / Physical / Emotional
▪ Compensation : Fixed / Variable / Kind
▪ Employee Cost : Employee mix x # Employees x Avg. Salary
▪ Issue : Core/ Non-core
▪ Online/ Offline
▪ Monetary / Non-monetary
▪ Qualitative / Quantitative
▪ Firm/Company Analysis : Internal/External or by business units
IIMB Hostel Expansion Unconventional | Moderate | EY (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is IIM Bangalore, and they want to expand the hostel capacity for the Sounds good, let’s analyze both the options.
incoming students. How should they go about it?
In the current campus, we can go for following options
Before I delve into the case, I would like get more context about our client. Can I ask a few questions on • Increase the number of floors of the existing hostels
the same? • Develop a new infrastructure from scratch
• Go for double or more occupancy to reduce the infrastructure costs
Sure, please go ahead. I would like to analyze the feasibility of these options.
What are the courses which the college is offering and number of students across these courses? What
Sure, this seems exhaustive.
is the current hostel capacity? What is the primary objective behind this expansion? Are the hostels
single or double occupancy? I believe there would be internal and external factors associate with these options
Currently, the college offers 8 courses with approximate batch size of 800 students, the hostels are 90% Internal Factors:
full, IIMB is planning to add 3 UG courses, the hostels are based on single occupancy. • IIMB has world-class architecture, adding floors would change the structure
• Availability of space inside the campus for new building
Thank you for the information, the course duration would vary in following ways: • Students not willing to stay in shared accommodation
1. 1 year program – Executive MBA External Factors:
2. 2 years program – Flagship MBA courses • IIMB campus is located in the city and the boundaries can’t be extended further
3. 2+ years program – PhD and other courses • HAL airport close to the campus, increasing number of floors would be a challenge
Assuming the batch size of 800 students is for 1 year, there would be approx. 800*2 =1,600 students • Seismic considerations while increasing the floors beyond a certain limit
across 2 years, adding ~400 students for 2+ years’ courses, 1,600 +400=2,000 students in the campus at
That’s a comprehensive analysis. Yes, you are right, client is facing both internal and external problem
a given time. The hostels are 90% utilized, we still have capacity for ~200 students. Do we have
with the existing campus. What would you recommend?
information for the batch size of the additional courses?
Good analysis, the approx. batch size is 50 students across each UG course, but size may expand This leaves us with expansion through a remote campus, given Bangalore is already packed we can go
eventually as the course progresses over the years. for a location in the outskirts of Bangalore. This campus would cater the overall needs of a UG program
and can act as a separate entity. The authorities should look into the quality aspect and co-ordinate
I see with the available rooms, we would be able cater the first year students. A UG course usually lasts with old campus to provide the quality education across both the campuses.
for 3 or 4 years, approx. requirement would be for 150*4 = 600 students during the 4th year. Is that a
fair assumption? Your recommendations are achievable. Let's close the case here. It was a good discussion.
Yes, that’s a fair assumption, you can go ahead with further analysis.
I would now like take a minute to plan my approach about the expansion.
Sure, please go ahead
Hostel room expansion would require additional infrastructure, that can be done in following ways:
• Build-up additional hostel rooms in the existing campus
• Go for a remote campus, close to the current campus in Bangalore
I would like to look into both the aspects one by one.
IIMB Hostel Expansion Unconventional | Moderate | EY (Partner)
Case statement • Client is a premier management institute, looking for expanding hostel capacity for incoming students
• Identify various avenues for the expansion

IIMB Hostel Capacity
• Currently, the institute Expansion
offers 8 professional
courses and planning to
add 3 UG courses Expansion in existing Expansion through a
campus remote campus
• Current hostels are
based on single
occupancy Develop a new Double or more
Increase no. of floors Location Quality
infrastructure occupancy
• 800 students residing
across all the courses for
a year
• Initial batch size : 50 Internal Availability of Students’

Architectural
students for each course, Factors Space Unwillingness
batch size to increase
over the years External Local Seismic
Government
Factors Authorities Consideration
Key Takeaways
• No conventional framework used
• Basic idea of infrastructure development and geography are required
• Ask interviewer for relevant data whenever required and take buy-in from the interviewer on any assumptions made

Adventure Park Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Buddy)
Case Statement: Your client is an adventure park owner and is concerned about the increased waiting Why don’t you focus on time per ride?
times for visitors. He is asking for your help on this.
I will look at the customer’s journey here and see where can we save some time. There are four major
Thank you for the case. I have a few questions before we start the case steps – boarding, riding, deboarding and any idle time. Do you want me to look at any of these steps in
Go ahead. more detail first or should I go ahead and look at each one of them one by one?
Can you help me understand where is this park located, what types of rides does it offer, what are Let’s look at each one of them quickly and give me suggestions as to how can we make improvements
some of the attractions of the park?
Boarding: This includes the time people take to board the ride and put in place all safety measures. We
The park is located in Mumbai. There are water rides as well as land rides. Additionally, there are food can decrease this time by doing the following
stalls located around the park. • Quicker briefing; as well as simultaneous briefing of the next batch by use of dummy seats
• Automated ticket checking instead of manual checking
Understood. Can you also tell me since when is the client facing this issue, and have other adventure
Ride Time
parks also seen an increase in wait times, and are we facing this issue in both water and land rides or
• Reducing the number of rounds (ups & downs) a ride does
just any one of them?
De-boarding
Sure, the client has been facing this issue for the past 6 months and majority of the complaints has • Automatic de-fastening of seatbelts
been for our signature ride which is India’s biggest drop tower. We do not really know whether other • Assistance by support staff to deboard faster
parks have been facing the same issue. • Proper management of ques to ensure deboarding people do no clash with people boarding
Idle time: This refers to the time where the ride is idle because of reasons such as maintenance breaks,
So what I have gathered till now is that our client is facing an issue with long wait times in their staff breaks, etc.
adventure park particularly for their signature drop tower ride for the past 6 months. Does our client • Proper rotation of staff will limit idle time
have any specific objective in mind apart from reducing the wait time of the ride? • The routine check should happen in an organized manner. It should be automated as much as
possible and a check-list will help the staff do this quicker
That’s correct. You may proceed with just this objective in mind.
So, we can break down the waiting time into 3 components: (1) Number of people in the queue (2) Great, now let’s look at the last component you mentioned.
Time per ride (3) Number of people who can take the ride at once. I would like to look at each of these
Okay let us look at the number of people who can take the ride at once. Can you tell me if there is only
three aspects individually and see where can we make some improvements.
one ride in place right now or multiple rides? Also, any data on our current utilization levels?
Sounds good.
Currently we just have one ride. Our utilization levels are at about 80% as some seats are broken.
Let us start with number of people in the queue. We can do the following three things: (1) Managing
and estimating the demand better (2) Pushing people towards other attractions after considering In that case we can look at -
impact on profitability (3) Increasing capacity of the park • Increasing the capacity of the ride: Adding a greater number of seats to the ride and changing the
To manage the demand better – machinery to meet the new requirements
• we can increase our prices or start selling a priority option, which will get preference • Increasing the occupancy of the ride: Fix the broken seats on the ride on a priority basis
• Introducing or changing the age/height requirements so that lesser people are eligible • Building a greater number of rides in case there are no financial constraints
• Opening-up new attractions near the ride to divert people there
That’s great. We can close the case here. Have a nice day!
• Introduce a token system, with preallotted ride timings and also enable online booking
Adventure Park Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Buddy)
Case statement • Client is an adventure park owner and is concerned about the increased wait times
• Park consists of water and land slides, and food stalls
• Problem seen in last 6 months, major issue with signature ride – drop tower

Waiting Time
• Objective: Reduce wait
time
Number of
• No quantitative target or # of people in
Time per ride people taking
data the queue
the ride at once
• Need to break down wait

times into further Managing
Boarding time Capacity of ride
components and analyze demand
Alternate Capacity
Ride time
attractions utilization
Increase park De-boarding

capacity time
Idle time
Key Takeaways
• Breaking waiting time into the three components provide a structure to the case
• Further breaking down time per ride into various components provided good ideas for recommendations instead of thinking of ride time as one unit only
• Could have also considered making the wait time more enjoyable as another option to reduce complaints, instead of focusing only on reducing it

E-commerce: Last Mile Delivery Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Buddy)
Case statement : Your client is an e-commerce business which is setting up its delivery network for Good point. How will you estimate that further along with other headers you mentioned?
parcels. They want to determine the optimum number of employees to hire and resources to purchase
Since we are concentrating on smaller parcels, one 2-wheeler can carry about 20 pieces at once hence
Sure, thank you! Before jumping to the analysis, I would like to ask a couple of clarifying questions the pickup section will have about 10 minutes of scanning and 20 minutes of loading time. the travel
about the client and the problem at hand. Could you please help me out with more details about the time will be approximately 30 minutes since maximum distance is 15km
client's business, their products, since delivery system will depend on parcel size and brittleness?
Great, how would you estimate delivery time if say demand is coming from 4 big apartments primarily?
Sure, your client is like any e-business which wants to setup their own delivery network. And the
products they will be delivering will be small parcels, you can imagine things like books, phone etc. Now, for the delivery time I would like to look at parking time, walking time and finally waiting time
since not all parcels might be accepted in the first attempt. Hence, taking a 5-minute duration per
Thank you. For clarification, since we are looking at number of employees and resources to engage, we parcel we get a total of 160 minutes excluding the time the delivery partner will take when he reaches
are only looking at last mile delivery? Also, since we have small parcels only, I would assume a 2- back at the drop-off centers to mark his job as finished or forward payments. This will give us around
wheeler delivery system? 80 parcels per person assuming 10 hours of working
Yes to both questions. Also, my team and I have been working on this project for some time but now Great, it was nice talking to you!
we need to determine how many parcels can one guy deliver in a day?
Great, so just to get a final understanding, which cities will we be targeting, is it only tier 1?
Yes, we are looking at the top cities of the country

Alright, so I shall be estimating the number of parcels that one guy can deliver in a day by:
# of parcels = # of trips * parcels/trip
where further # of trips = total working time/average trip duration
Does that seem like a fair approach?
Now, for estimating the average trip duration, I would like to understand which model is the company
looking at:
1) Direct from warehouse: Delivery partners do to-and-fro directly from the main warehouse
2) Having secondary collect and drop-off points
We shall have secondary drop off points such that every delivery partner travels a maximum of 10 to 15
kilometers
So now, I would like to divide the total time required per trip by the delivery partner's journey while
delivering a parcel. It shall have 5 major segments: pickup, travel, stops, delivery and reconciliation
time. Starting from pickup, it can be further divided into scan time and loading parcels in an
orderly manner such that LIFO is followed.

E-commerce: Last Mile Delivery Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Buddy)
Case statement • E-commerce business needs to setup last mile delivery network for small parcels using 2 wheelers
• Calculate number of parcels one delivery partner can deliver in a day

• Delivery partner’s
journey Number of
parcels per day
• Time breakdown to get
to the final estimate
Parcels carried
Number of trips
per trip
Time taken per

Working hours
trip
Pickup time Travel time Delivery time Reconciliation
Key Takeaways
• Ensuring that MECE is being followed at every step is most crucial
• Breakdown each and every step and whenever stuck or confused, follow the user / stakeholder journey approach

Home services: Fall in NPS Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (OCR)
Case Statement : Your client is a home services solutions company whose Net promoter score (NPS) has Yes, so there would be around 8 steps in the process. 1) Professional arrives at the destination 2)
been falling. Determine how should the client solve for it. Alignment on the nature of service 3) Service professional sets up the equipment 4) Service given 5)
Changes suggested by customer 6) Changes incorporated 7) Equipment packed 8) Professional leaves.
Thanks! I have a few questions to understand the problem statement better – Is this home solutions Do we know at which stage the issue exists?
company similar to an Urban Clap? What kind of services do they provide and where are they providing
the service? The issue exists in Step 3 and 4 – the actual service delivery
Yes, similar to Urban Clap – they provide cleaning, beauty and repair services through an App. The Okay, so there can be four categories of sub-issues : Quality of equipment, Technical quality of service,
client is currently providing services only in Bangalore Time required to do the service and softer issues such as communication, behavior etc. Do we know
where the issue is?
Alright. Can I also know for which service category the NPS has been falling? Also, is the NPS falling for a
particular customer segment? And since when has it been falling? The problem is in the quality of equipment as well as technical quality of the service
The NPS is falling for the beauty services for 6 months now. What do you mean by customer segment?
Okay, for the first issue, probable causes – 1) low quality equipment purchased 2) Professional not able
Customers can be segmented based on gender, location, age and so on. Do we know if the fall in NPS is to take care of the equipment 3) The equipment are not serviced regularly/ replaced
concentrated in a specific segment? For the second issue, probable causes - 1) Lack of skill training given to service professionals 2) Lack of
confidence/other skills to conduct the service. Do we know the reason among these?
The NPS is falling evenly across gender and age. However, the fall is more prevalent from Tier-2 areas in
Bangalore than the more urban set up Great, so for the first one – it is the professional who is not able to take care of the equipment and the
Alright, so this narrows down where the problem exactly lies. At this stage, I also want to know how the second one – they lack expert skills to deliver the service.
client calculates the NPS and which constituents are impacting it ?
Okay, and with the given information we known that these issues persist in only the Tier II areas of
NPS = % of customers who give positive rating - % of customers who give negative rating. Right now, Bangalore. That could be because of two reasons – 1) Uneven development strategy by client 2) Lack of
the former is falling, and latter is increasing – so it’s a very bad situation expert professionals based in the area.
Thanks for the information. I would like to approach this problem from the customer journey angle. We Great, the reason is uneven development – the client first focused on only the Tier I areas and then
can explore the various steps in the entire process and see in which step there is an issue. What do you while expanding to Tier II area, focused on speed rather than quality. Any solutions you can think of – I
think? want to specially now what can the client do right now?
Sounds good. Why don’t you take some time to build the steps?
In the short term, the client can create an SOP for professionals to follow, appoint expert professionals
Right now, taking a high-level cut – Preservice (booking, waiting etc.), during service (delivery) and post from Tier I to Tier II areas. In the long term, specialized training can be conducted.
service (payment, rating etc.). Do we know which stage has the issue?
Thank you
The issue exists in the delivery stage

Home services: Fall in NPS Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (OCR)
Case statement • NPS score of home services firm has been falling for beauty services in Bangalore

• Understand that problem
lies only in one service Service Pre-service During service Post service
vertical delivery
• Understanding of NPS
was not required to solve
the case
Equipment Service Equipment

Arrival Alignment Feedback Rework Departure
setup delivery packed
People
Equipment
Key Takeaways
• Be MECE in defining consumer journey
• Use People, Process, Technology framework to understand why service quality may not be up to mark

Plastic Packaging Company Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Manager)
Case Statement: Your client is a PE fund which is looking to make a strategic investment in a plastic Let’s start with industry drivers. How would you look at them?
packaging company with an investment horizon of 5-7 years. It produces bottles and jars and counts
I would break down industry drivers into 3 parts: input drivers, product-specific drivers and
FMCG and pharma companies as their major customers. The company is the market leader with a
customer drivers. Input drivers would include factors such as availability and cost of raw materials,
market share of 10%. The company has solid financials and an EBITDA margin of 25%. I don’t want you
to look at the financials and valuation. How would you evaluate this business? etc., product-specific drivers would include change in design, production process, costs, etc. and
customer drivers would include change in customer behaviour, adoption of alternate packaging
I have a few questions about our client, may I go ahead? materials, etc.
Sure. I think these are pretty comprehensive set of drivers. Let’s look at the size of the opportunity. How
would you determine that?
Could you just walk me through the value chain? Which part of the value chain does the company
operate in? Since our major competitors are FMCG companies, I would look at annual reports and investor
presentations of major FMCG players and look at the production/sales quantity. I would then estimate
Resins is the major raw material for our product. It is a petroleum-based product. The resins are the requirement of plastic packaging per unit produced/sold and arrive at the total volume.
converted to plastic jars and bottles and then sold directly to businesses. Multiplying that with the average price, I can arrive at industry size.
Okay. Just to clarify we are only in the B2B segment, right? This is a fair approach. But is there any other approach that you can think of?
Yes. We supply primarily to businesses. 90% of our revenues come from FMCG companies. Sure. I would take the population of the country, segment it based on income, determine the
penetration of FMCG products in each segment and accordingly arrive at the size of the industry.
What geography do we operate in? And what is the competitive landscape? Great. Now if I were to tell you that the current industry size is $100bn and you had to forecast the
In this industry, proximity to raw material is very important. Accordingly, companies are regional in growth rate over the next 5 years. How would you do that?
nature. We operate in the North and West regions and like I mentioned, we are market leaders with Since our product is closely related to the FMCG industry, I would look at the growth rate of the FMCG
10% share. industry. Usually, FMCG cos grow at 7%-10%. However, since we are one step behind in the value
chain and our product is more commoditized, we would grow at a slight lag of 1%-2%, so at approx 5%-
Thank you. I believe I have got a fair understanding of the context of the case. I will now go broadly
7% over the next 5 years.
outline my approach. Is that okay?
This was a great insight that you brought. Okay, last question. Can you just list the top 3 risks that you
Yes.
can foresee in the investment?
Sure. So my analysis of the investment can be divided in 4 main areas: (1) Fund (2) Industry (3) Sure. Top 3 risks that I can think of are:
Company (4) Risks. Is there any one area you want me to start with? • Environmental regulations becoming stricter leading to less use of plastic
• Change in customer (FMCG cos) and consumer (end consumer) preferences and rise of alternate
Let’s look at the industry. How would you analyse the industry?
packaging materials
I would look at 4 major factors: (1) the size of opportunity and growth potential (2) the competitive • Increase in petrol prices making our products more expensive than substitutes.
structure (3) competitive strategies and dynamics (4) industry drivers.
Great. Well done.

Plastic Packaging Company Unconventional | Moderate | Bain (Manager)
Case statement Evaluate a strategic investment in a plastic packaging company with an investment horizon of 5-7 years.

• While the 2 approaches to
market sizing were Evaluation criteria
correct, an alternate
approach could have been
to look at packaging
expenses as a % of
revenues of FMCG Fund Industry Company Risks
companies and then find
plastic packaging as a % of
packaging expenses. Then
apply the % to the size of
the FMCG industry. Size of industry and Competitive Competitive
Industry drivers
growth potential structure strategies
• Ask about the value chain
in case there is any doubt,
or you are not familiar
with the industry Product-specific
Input drivers Customer drivers
drivers
Key Takeaways
• Including the nature of fund as one of 4 analysis points was very important and frequently gets overlooked
• Insights such as the industry growing slightly slower than FMCG because of commoditized nature of the business are appreciated as it shows a deeper level of understanding
• Do not forget to ask preliminary questions, especially when the case seems open-ended (name of major clients, customer wallet share, product portfolio, etc.)

Mohalla Clinics, Delhi Unconventional | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement: Your client is Health Ministry of Delhi government which started a new initiative called affordable clinic nearby, and either makes an appointment to see the doctor or directly visits the clinic.
"Mohalla Clinics" in 2015. But it hasn't been as successful as they expected it to be. Diagnose the The clinic needs to be accessible, available and affordable. But since Mohalla clinics provide these
problem and suggest possible solutions services for free, affordability should not be a concern. Also, I want to understand whether the
customers are aware about these Mohalla clinics.
To begin with I would like to understand what we mean when we say the initiative hasn't been
successful. Also, could you tell me the objective of the initiative. Accessibility is not an issue since they have been established at strategic locations across the city.
Awareness is also not an issue; extensive marketing campaigns are held to make the community aware.
By unsuccessful, we mean that the number of patients we have been serving is lower than expected. Let's move to the next phase of the journey.
The objective is to provide free and accessible healthcare to the population of Delhi
To understand potential problems during the clinic visit, let us evaluate the quality of medical
What is the customer segment? Since these clinics are free, would it be safe to assume that the
consultation, staff hospitality, availability of services and equipment, infrastructure, and hygiene.
patients mainly belong to the lower income group?
The Mohalla clinics are meant to serve the community, there is no specific target segment Sure, this sounds good. Our doctors are highly qualified and well paid, and hence provide reliable
consultations. The infrastructure and hygiene are adequate and at par with private clinics. Our services
Alright. What services are included in the clinics and how many clinics do we have? are easily available as we do not have any waiting period for patients. We also have all the necessary
medical equipment. Let's move to the next phase.
There are more than 200 clinics across Delhi. In a typical clinic, there are a couple of doctors who are
well qualified and are paid reasonably well. All kinds of first-degree healthcare services are provided in Alright. After the medical consultation, the patient might have to wait for the results from the
the clinic. The clinic also has a diagnostic lab which is used for tests. Note that diagnostic tests are diagnostic lab, buy medications, or visit the clinic for a follow-up.
recommended post the medical consultation in almost half the cases.
Sure, this seems exhaustive.
Are other public and private hospitals/clinics also receiving fewer patients? Also, are all the clinics
facing this issue or is it specific to a particular clinic? Great. Let's start by analyzing the diagnostic lab results in terms of three parameters: waiting duration,
result collection, and accuracy. Do we know if we are lagging in our methods across these three
No, the problem is specific to these Mohalla Clinics. The issue is for all the clinics. parameters when compared to industry standards?
Since the problem seems to be client-specific, I would like to understand why are there fewer patients While our results are accurate and waiting durations are at par with private labs, patients have to
visiting these clinics with the help of a patient's journey. Should I go ahead with this? collect results manually in 6-8 hours. Unlike other labs, we don't provide results digitally
Sure. Okay. Clearly, this seems to be an issue as our patients would either have to wait in the clinic for 6-8
I would like to divide the journey into three parts - before visiting, during the visit, and after the visit. hours or revisit the clinic to get their reports. This would especially be problematic for the lower income
The first part will start with the decision of where to go for a check-up and factors affecting this group as they may be incurring significant costs in public transport. In addition, they often rely on daily
decision. The second part will include the in-clinic experience and the services provided. The third part wage work. Hence, this could be a major deterrent to utilizing Mohalla Clinic services.
will include the journey after visiting the clinic which might include buying medicines or follow-ups. That is spot on. This does seem to be a major issue.
Should I go ahead and analyze the first part of the journey?
Sure, would you like me to suggest recommendations?
No, that would not be necessary. Let's close the case here. Thank you for your time.
The patient falls sick and feels the need to consult a doctor or visit a clinic, considers a good and
Mohalla Clinics, Delhi Unconventional | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Case statement • Mohalla Clinics receiving fewer patients
• A clinic consists of well qualified doctors, first degree healthcare services and a diagnostic lab
• There are 200 such clinics spread across the city

Patient
• Objective: Free and Journey
accessible health care;
First-degree healthcare
services Before the During the
After the visit
visit visit
• Diagnostic lab – used for
half of the patients
Medical Staff Medical Infrastructure
Awareness Test results Follow-up calls Medicines
• 200 clinics spread across Consultation hospitality equipment and hygiene
the city
Qualification Waiting Result
• Qualified doctors; well- Affordability Accuracy
(Doctors) duration collection
paid
Availability Compensation Physical
Accessibility Digital
Key Takeaways
• The preliminary questions were well thought out and gave crucial leads towards the final solution (diagnostic labs). Ensure preliminary questions help in understanding the entire context
before diving into a structure
• The user journey method should be adopted whenever there seems to be a quality related or customer preferences related problem, which fit well in this specific problem

Customer Service: Private Bank Unconventional | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Your client is a Sri Lankan private bank, and you have to improve their customer service. Yes, I would like you to tell me what metrics you would use to evaluate performance and do a cost-
benefit analysis.
Could you tell me when you say customer service what are we referring to, is it the offline service, call
center service, etc.? For the metrics to evaluate performance I would be looking at the total products sold per operator,
total successful conversions per call, total revenue generated per call, etc. For the cost benefit analysis,
We can focus on the call center service only for this case.
I would consider the revenue generated per operator and the cost incurred in employing the operator
Call center services include services like grievance redressal and sale of products, should I consider any plus fixed/variable cost associated with running the call centre.
other services as well?
I have some data, the average calls per operator is hundred per hour and the conversion rate is 2%.
Yes, you can consider both, give me the major areas and metrics you would be looking at. Every conversion generates a revenue of Rs. 200. The employee salary is Rs.40,000/- per month. Do
you need any other did it to do the cost benefit analysis, let’s say you do this for individual operator
I would first look at the grievance redressal part and lay down the process any customer undergoes. only?
Firstly, the customer would call up a toll-free number, then he would wait to dial in number
according to the type of problem he has, language preference, etc. depending on which operator is I would require the number of hours the operator works and the number of working days in the month
idle, the call will be directed to the call center operator. If the operator solves the problem, the as well. Are we ignoring the other costs associated with premise, general charges?
process ends there, else the operator might transfer the call to a higher authority or a specific
division expert to handle the situation. Given the outlay of the process, I would like to look at metrics Yes, let’s assume the operator works for eight hours a day with a break of 1 hour and let’s assume that
like average waiting time per call, number of customer grievances successfully addressed, etc. Would he operates at 50% efficiency for another hour, that is he attends half the calls during that time.
you like me to look at other factors or could I go ahead with suggesting improvements at each stage Assume 25 working days in a month and ignore all other costs. Tell me the running if call centre for
of the process, and then discuss about the sales service? sales is beneficial to the bank.
The approach looks pretty good, you may tell me what suggestions you have. Also, could you tell me
what aspect is most important for a bank running a call center, and its drivers? So, the revenue generated in a day when he works at full efficiency for 6 hours = 6 hrs/day * 100
calls/hour * 0.02 * Rs. 200/call = Rs. 2400. For another hour of 50% efficiency, revenue generated = 50
To improve service, the two main aspects we need to focus on is waiting time and customer calls * 0.02 * Rs. 200/call = Rs. 200. It amounts to Rs. 2600*25 days/month = Rs. 65,000 per operator.
satisfaction. We could establish an application which would be easier to lodge complaints, and a chat As employee salary is only Rs. 40,000 per month, it is good to run the call centre for sales of products.
bot would solve menial problems and only the serious and unsolvable problems are directed towards
call centre. We could also have an algorithm to make sure that certain kind of grievances are handled Alright, thanks for the analysis. That would be all.
by people having expertise in that area so that double transfers of calls are avoided and waiting
period can be reduced. We could also engage the already existing employees in training and
simulation to improve performance. The main aspect the bank should look at is the cost of running
the call centers. Its major drivers would include the call centre premises cost, employee cost, SAG
and telecom costs.
Good, this is a fair analysis. I would like you to look at the sale of product services now.
Sale of products would include things like Debit/Credit cards, loans, do you want me to consider
anything else?

Customer Service: Private Bank Unconventional | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Case statement • Sri Lankan Private Bank
• Improve their customer services

solved
• Call centre services Call toll free Wait and dial
• Data available for cost- Grievance Redressal Operator 1
number in
benefit analysis
Expert
Metrics: Average waiting solved
unsolved Operator
time, #Successful
grievances addressed
Premise cost
Benefit per Revenue Working
Employee cost operator = per day * days/month
Cost Drivers
SAG Rs. 65,000 Rs. 26,000 25 days per
/month /day month
Telecom bills
Key Takeaways
• The case can be number heavy so be prepared for that. Without getting intimidated, try to for data relevant to the case.
• Try to engage the interviewer while you are doing the calculations, this helps in avoiding calculation errors.

Uber Driver Unconventional | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement : The client’s personal driver is being poached by Uber. The client wants you to analyze Sounds good. So, what would be the final figure?
what the driver should do?
To estimate that, I would like to break the rides per day in two types of rides: short duration ride &
That’s an interesting problem statement, I would start by asking a few preliminary questions. Where is long duration ride. Usually rides during the office hours (8-10am & 5-8pm) are shorter in
the driver currently based? Also, what are his income & working conditions? duration. Whereas other rides during the day (10-5pm) for leisure activities can be considered
The driver is based out of Mumbai. He makes around 20k/ month. He works for me 6 days a week from relatively longer in duration. If a short rides takes 20 min ride time + 10 min buffer to get a booking &
8am to 8pm. pick up & drop, implying 30 mins on average. For longer rides assuming 40 mins ride time + 20 mins
buffer to get booking, implying 60 mins on average. Also, assuming 1 hour of lunch time. Hence, total
Thank you. Could you also let me know if he gets any additional benefits apart from the rides per day = 16 rides (10 short rides + 6 long rides). Obviously, this is a higher estimate and usually
salary? Also, what are his family obligations? the buffer time can be more.
He gets a yearly bonus of 1 month’s salary at Diwali. Other than this no additional benefits are given. He Now, as per my current experience short rides usually cost around Rs150~200 (taking Rs 200 for
is the sole bread earner supporting a family of 3. simplicity). Similarly, long rides range between Rs350~500 (taking Rs 400 as average). This gives total
Alright, thanks for the information. I would also like to understand the working conditions offered by revenue per day as Rs. 44,000 or Rs. 1,14,400/month. Since his share will be 80%, this gives around
Uber to better analyze both the options. My understanding is Uber offers flexible working hours and ~Rs. 92000/month. These are his monthly revenue; I would now like to estimate his
charges a certain fee per ride. The rest of the fare is drivers share. monthly expenditure to get final income.
Yes, you are correct in your understanding. Uber charges around 20% of the revenue as platform The monthly revenue looks reasonable. Why don’t you just list down the key cost components?
charge & the rest 80% is earned by driver. Moreover, Uber requires driver to operate 12 hours/ day. Sure, following cost components will be involved: In fixed cost- EMI of car (assuming he does not own
However, these 12 hours can be completed anytime during the day. a car currently and might need to buy), smart phone cost etc. Also, variable components like fuel, data
pack, repair & maintenance etc.
So, Uber provides more flexibility in timing. Otherwise, the working conditions except pay are same.
Are there any additional benefits offered by Uber in terms of bonuses, insurance coverage? That sounds fair. Let’s end the case here. Thanks.
No such benefits are being provided by Uber.
I would like to begin my analysis by comparing 3 factors between the 2 options: 1. Income 2. Working
conditions 3. Other benefits. Since we already discussed the differences in working conditions & other
benefits, I would now like to focus on the income from Uber. For income, I would like to analyze the
potential revenue & cost involved.
Sure, let’s go ahead with revenue first.
Sure. To estimate the revenue, I would like to break it as the no of rides/ day* revenue/ ride*
commission. This will give us the total revenue per day. Then multiply it by 26 to get monthly revenue
(assuming 4 Sundays off).

Uber Driver Unconventional | Moderate | BCG (Partner)
Case statement • Personal Driver being poached by Uber
• What should he do?

• Based out of Mumbai Options
• Currently makes 20K in a
month
Personal
• Works for 6 days in a Driver
Uber
week – 8 am to 8 pm
• Uber provides flexibility
Working Other Working Other
Income Income
Conditions benefits Conditions benefits
Revenue Cost Flexibility
#Rides Fixed
Revenue
Variable
/ride
Share of
revenue
Key Takeaways
• Think from the perspective of a driver

Glass Bottle Manufacturer Unconventional | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement : Your client is a glass bottle manufacturer who is witnessing a spike in demand for 3) Within operational feasibility, I would evaluate ease of setting up/expanding business, labor laws,
bottles. Suggest steps to proceed. tax/export laws, reliability, quality control and service levels.
Understood. This seems like an interesting case. Could I begin by asking a couple of preliminary 4) And finally in capabilities and prospects, I would want to look at inertia to go global, process
questions to understand my client and business context better? challenges, cultural challenges, and future market growth, potential/business development across
regions.
Sure, go ahead.
Thank you. So where is the client based out of and what are the product offerings? In my experience, Great! So let me give you some real data: considering all costs such as setup, variable costs, transport,
glass bottle manufacturers have contracts with beverage bottlers, so for which bottlers is there a spike etc. the per unit cost estimations for the three options are: 1) Germany: $3 /bottle, 2) India: $2.5
in demand for? Where are the customers located? /bottle, and 3) Viet Nam: $2.2 /bottle. And as per our recommendation, client has implemented option
2, i.e., sourcing from India. Why do you think so?
The client has a plant in Germany. The client has contracts with alcohol and juice bottlers in Europe and
is seeing a rise in demand for both. For simplicity, assume just 1 glass bottle product.
That’s quite interesting, but not too surprising to know given how India is emerging as a lucrative
Got it. Coming to the case at hand, what is the quantum of the spike in demand? Do we have any country to set up operations. Looking at pure cost, manufacturing in India/Viet Nam is cheaper,
utilization numbers for the plant? Is there any indication from the clients on what are the options that despite additional transportation and export costs. Possible reasons could be due to the labor, utility
they are willing to consider and potential timelines for implementation? cost differential and cheaper raw material procurement. Combined with acceptable quality control,
this eliminates Germany.
That’s a good set of questions. The spike in demand is over 100% and current plant is running at 95% Knowing that India was picked over Viet Nam despite a 30 cents additional per unit cost could
utilization, so there is no scope for process improvement. Client wants you to explore 3 options: 1) perhaps be due to better and reliable ocean routes to Europe, future growing Asian markets, FDI
increasing capacity in Germany; 2) sourcing from India; and 3) sourcing from Viet Nam. norms and political stability.
Implementation must be done as soon as possible. The more the delays, the more the money is lost.
Brilliant! These were precisely some of the reasons why client went ahead with India. We can close the
Thank you for the information. To evaluate these 3 options, I would consider the following: First, I case here. Thanks!
would like to look at the barriers to enter, move on to evaluate economics, and then look at
operational feasibility and finally consider the capabilities and prospects of the client. Does this seem
like a good approach?
Yes, this seems comprehensive. Can you tell me 6-7 more pointed factors you would consider?
Sure, I could follow this outline:

1) Within barriers to entry, I would look at internal factors such as financial muscle, and external
factors such as regulations.
2) I would then break apart economics to look at fixed and variable cost heads and evaluate expected
costs to set up required capacities, transportation/export costs.

Glass Bottle Manufacturer Unconventional | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
Case statement • Glass bottle manufacturer is seeing a spike in demand. Suggest steps
• Evaluate 3 options for expansion: 1) Germany, 2) India, 3) Viet Nam [Later discovered through preliminary questions]
Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework – Adapted Market Entry Framework

• Customers currently in
EU market, contract-
Capabilities and
based demand, 1 Barriers to Entry Economics Operational Feasibility
Future Prospects
product
• No scope for process

improvement • Internal – Financial • Fixed costs: Plant • Ease of setting up • Process challenges –
muscle, inertia to setup, fixed labor, business technology, machinery,
• Evaluate 3 options
expand shipment container expertise transfer
• Time sensitive geographically contracts, storage • Laws: labor, tax,
export • Previous experience in
• Per unit costs: Germany: • External – • Variable costs: diversifying geography
$3; India: $2.5; Viet Government contract labor, • Reliability and quality
Nam: $2.2; went ahead
regulations utilities, raw material control • Cultural challenges
with India
sourcing, quality
check losses, transit • Service levels and • Business development –
losses, export and lead times beyond EU
other taxes
Key Takeaways
• Coming up with a framework is crucial. Though the partner asked for factors, structuring ensures comprehensiveness and can earn brownie points
• Reacting to the information and providing real experiences/opinions is the best way to engage the interviewer
• Being comfortable in conversing with numbers is very important. Circling back to given information is an easy way to show all information is accounted.

Government Healthcare Unconventional | Difficult | BCG (Partner)
Case Statement : You have been approached by the Minister of Health in one of the African countries Yes, you got it right. Now, how will you proceed? Just give me the basic structure that you will be
to advise him to control the spread of a contagious disease, Rubida (made up name) which is affecting following. (The interviewer was more focused on the structure formulation part.)
various parts of the world & has entered Africa also. You will be meeting him tomorrow, what points
will you discuss with him? Since the disease most adversely affects children below the age of 5, I will begin by approximating
the no. of children below this age. Next, I will try to find out what fraction of these children have
It will be a great opportunity to assist Minister of Health of a nation in controlling the spread of a already been administered with the doses, to calculate how many more doses are required. Then, I
disease. But before meeting him, I would like to make a proper plan and for that I need to ask you will focus on production/ import of these vaccines and the means & logistics required to distribute
some clarificatory questions. Shall I go ahead and ask? these vaccines to the target population segment. Simultaneously, I will try to devise ways to enhance
the hygiene & sanitation conditions since this disease is water-borne.
Sure.
That’s an impressive and well-structured approach. So, just to save time, let’s assume that there are 5
Can you tell me a little bit more about Rubida? What kind of disease is it and how does it spread? Does
million children under the age of 5 years, and 10% of them have been administered with 1 dose, 20%
it affect everybody equally?
with 2 doses, 30% with 3 doses and rest have not been dosed yet. Tell me the number of vaccines that
you require, assuming each child must be administered with 5 doses.
Rubida is a water-borne disease which spreads through pathogens that originates from ill-treated
stagnant water, waste-sewer water, etc. Vectors like Mosquitoes also spread this disease from one Sure, as per my calculation, we’ll be needing a total of 18 million doses, i.e., 18 million/5 = 3.6 million
person to other while transfusing blood when they bite. The effects of this disease are considerably vaccines.
adverse in case of children below the age of 5 years. Others are also affected but they have the
required immunity to fight this disease. That is correct. What more information do you need at this stage?
What is the current spread of Rubida in the African nation? And what about the world? Also, is there We have the number of vaccines required. Now I want to know about two things: 1st - does this
any cure to the disease? African country has the required capabilities to produce these vaccines or there is a need to import.
And if import, is this country financially stable enough to pay for the cost since most of the African
Currently, Rubida has affected most part of the world, but in case of this African nation, it is still in its countries are poor and rely on aids from other nations. 2nd – what are the available means & logistics
beginning phase and that’s why the Minister of Health wants to curb it at this stage only and prevent facilities (given the vaccines need to be stored below 5℃ ) for distributing these vaccines?
from spreading further. As for the cure, the disease can be cured by administering a vaccine – Rubikill.
These are some valid questions. Assume that this nation is financially strong enough to import
About this vaccine, how many times does this vaccine needs to be administered, and what should be the required number of vaccines. And there are 1000 distribution centers for carrying out the
the frequency of dosing. Also, what is the mode of administering this vaccine – oral or thru injecting? Is vaccination of children. What do you think, is it feasible?
there any temperature or any other such requirement for storing this vaccine?
Okay, from financial side we are good. Now looking at the distribution side, we have 1000 centers
Good question. The vaccine must be administered 5 times within 2 months. It can be administered and must administer 18 million doses in 2 months, that means = (18000000/1000/2*30) = 300 doses
orally. As for storing this vaccine, it shall be stored below 5℃ and once opened should be administered per distribution center per day for the next 2 months. It looks quite feasible if these centers are
with 4 hours. equipped with sufficient and able manpower.
Okay, so if I were to summarize this case, I have to advise Minister of Health of an African nation to
curb the spread of Rubida, which primarily affect children below the age of 5 years and can be
prevented by administering a vaccine Rubikill, 5 times within 2 months.

Good. What problems can you think of in executing this vaccination drive?
The various problems that I can think of right now are: 1) Unawareness of vaccination among
public, especially parents of these children below 5 years of age. 2) These 1000 distribution centers
unable to cater to those living in the remote areas. 3) Wastage of vaccines – since once opened the
shelf life is only 4 hours, and if not utilized within those 4 hours, the remaining doses are wasted. 4)
Children not getting vaccinated with all 5 doses within 2 months, thereby making the doses less
effective .5) Stigma among the population about vaccines (vaccines will do more harm, are ineffective
and may even result in death) that will prevent them from getting the doses.
Thank you for listing down these problems. We can end the case here.

Case statement • Minister of Health – African Country
• Control the spread of Rubida – contagious disease

• Children under 5 yrs of About Rubida
age are affected
• 5 Million Children
Affected Control Production Financial
Logistics #Doses 5M * 10% *
• 5 doses required per
Population Measures Process Stability
required = 4 doses
child
Below 5 years Distribution Stable to
Oral Vaccine Within Country
of age Centres Import 5M * 20% * 5M * 20% *
+ 3 doses + 3 doses
Stored at <5
Rubikill
degree Celsius
5M * 40% *
+ 5 doses = 18M doses
5 doses in 2
months
Key Takeaways
• The case can be number heavy so be prepared for that. Without getting intimidated, try to for data relevant to the case
• Remain calm even if the interviewer is irritated.

IIMB Guesstimates
2021-22

Petrol Pumps in Mumbai Guesstimate | Easy | Bain (Partner)
Estimate the number of petrol pumps in India Yes, that would be an interesting approach, Thank you
Before I proceed I would like to ask a few questions, is that ok?
Go ahead.
Do I consider pumps of a certain company or all in general?
Consider any petrol pump.

Thank you, I would like to take a few moments to structure my approach and get back to you.
Sure. Go ahead.
I am going to divide the area of Mumbai into High, Medium and Low consumption Area. In the high
consumption areas we can consider the concentration of pumps is at a distance of 2 km for High, 3
km for Medium and 5 km for Low. For simplicity I will assume it’s a square patch of x*x being catered
by each pump and the total area of Mumbai is split as High, Medium and Low consumption in the
ratio of 3:5:2. Does this approach seem fair enough. Additionally I would require area of Mumbai as I
am not very sure about it. I do know area of Delhi is around 1500 km2 and Mumbai is around half
that so about 750 km2.
You could go ahead with this approach. As for area of Mumbai you could consider it to be 600 km2
Thank you for the number. So I will now calculate the petrol pump in each consumption zone and
then get the total. A high consumption zone pump shall cater to 4 km2, Medium to 9km2 and Low to
25km2. Also with Mumbai’s Area being 600 km2, 180 km2 would be High consumption, 300 km2 is
Medium consumption, and 120km2 is Low Consumption Area. Hence in High Consumption zone we
have 180/4=45 pumps similarly in the medium and low consumption areas will have around 34 and 5
pumps. That will account to around 84 pumps in Mumbai.
That is quite comprehensive, Do you think there could be any other approach?
I think we could look at total consumption of petrol by vehicles in Mumbai, average supply of petrol by
a pump station.

Petrol Pumps in Mumbai Guesstimate | Easy | Bain (Partner)
Case Statement Guesstimate the number of petrol pumps in India
• Different approaches
exist, don’t be myopic Number of Petrol
at any point Pumps
Number of pumps=
Area catered to by each
Consumption (Area)/(Area catered by
• Area of Mumbai = 600 pump(km 2)
each pump)
km2
Area of Mumbai Level of
600km2 Consumption High 4 180/4=45
Medium 9 300/90=34
High (30%)
Low 25 120/25=5
180km2
Total 84
Medium (50%)
300km2
Low (20%)
120km2
Key Takeaways
• Interviewer looks out more at the approach than the actual end result

Visitors to Metro Station Guesstimate | Easy | Auctus Advisors (Partner)
Guesstimate the number of people visiting the nearest metro station. I think the time of security check would not hold the same as always, if some discrepancy is detected
then it might take long, also I am assuming a general male/female who would not have any difficulty
so that would not include specially abled and old people who might take longer time.
I have a few preliminary questions before I get to the guesstimate, may I ask the same?
That is fair enough, Thank you
Sure.
When we talk about visitors, is it only the passengers or the additional staff also?
Only Passengers
Could I also assume this is a normal metro station working 18 hours a day?
Sure. Go ahead.
Thank You, could I have few minutes to put down my approach and calculate the same?
Yes.
I am going to divide the operations of the metro station into 4 hrs of high, 10hrs of medium and 4 hrs
low traffic hours according to the number of visitors per hour. Assuming the early morning and
evenings are high traffic with 100 % capacity, medium is around 60% and low is 30%. Also I am going
to assume the metro station’s main bottle neck is the security check at the entrance. Metro station
usually has two entrance and each has two guards. I am going to assume the time taken at each
guard is around 30 seconds along with bag check and frisking. I am also assuming men and women
take same times. Is it fine if I go ahead and do the calculations now?, Do I have to take into
consideration anything else?
Go Ahead. This sounds reasonable enough
Let the security check process in total take 30 seconds, That translates to 2 people in a minute per
guard, 8 people for all guards, 480 people in an hour, Now we have 4hrs at 100%, 10 Hrs at 60%, and
4hrs at 30%. Then the total visitors becomes 5376. So we can say around 5400 people on average
would visit a metro station.
That is quite comprehensive, Could you tell me some assumptions which might not hold true all the
time?

Visitors to Metro Station Guesstimate | Easy | Auctus Advisors (Partner)
Case Statement Guesstimate the number of people visiting the nearest metro station.
No. of Visitors
• Consider only
passengers 5376
• Identifying the people
bottleneck in the
process
High Traffic Hours Medium Traffic High Traffic Hours
= 4 hrs + Hours = 10 hrs + = 4 hrs
480*4*1= 1920 480*10* .6 =2880 480*4* .3 = 576
people people people
Visitors per Guard =

120 per hour X No of Guards = 2
per Gate X No. of Gates =2
30 s per check, 2
people per
minute, 120
people per hour
480
people
Key Takeaways
• Ask for level of detail and make assumptions to simplify approach

TV viewers in India Guesstimate | Easy | PwC (Manager)
Guesstimate the number of people watching TV at this moment in India The assumption that all family sizes or composition might not be uniform and the tastes may vary
which could impact the estimate.
I have a few preliminary questions before I get to the guesstimate, may I ask the same?
That is fair enough, Thank you
Sure.
When we talk about viewers, are we taking both urban and rural areas into consideration??
Yes.
Could I also assume that there are 4 major time slots into consideration?
Sure. Go ahead.
Thank You, could I have few minutes to put down my approach and calculate the same?
Yes.
I am going to divide the population into urban and rural regions and then go ahead with the
percentage of people owning a TV in these 2 regions. Further, I will divide on the basis of their age,
income group, occupation (formal and informal) and possibly gender. Going ahead, the same filters
can be applied to each of the 4 slots to come to an estimate of the number of people watching TV at
this moment. Is this approach fine?
The approach is fine, could you explain the rationale behind the 4 time slots.
Sure! The times I chose were: 6 AM to 12 noon, 12 noon to 6 pm, 6 pm to midnight and 12 midnight
to 6 am. The rationale behind this was patterns shown by people. The first slot is primarily for
morning news and light consumption. The second slot should have a majority of children and stay at
home people. The third slot is light entertainment and includes all age groups and the last slot
primarily consists of night owls and can be attributed to teenagers and young adults.
That is quite comprehensive, Could you tell me some assumptions which might not hold true all the
time?

TV viewers in India Guesstimate | Easy | PwC (Manager)
Case Statement Guesstimate the number of TV viewers at the moment
• Peak time intervals
• Consider both domestic

and rural markets. Population
• Approach is important
Urban Rural
Possession of a TV
Age Filter Income Filter Occupation filter
Key Takeaways
• Interview was very candidate driven and open ended
• Customer journey approach was a good call for service oriented cases
• Take buy in wherever necessary.

Sugar Consumption Guesstimate | Easy | Strategy& (Partner)
We want to reduce sugar consumption of our employees. Can you help us, do it? Dividing 200 cups/day based on sugar sachet we get 260 sachets of sugar per day.
Sure. Can you please clarify in which office you want to reduce sugar consumption? This looks fine. Now since you have an idea about sugar consumption on a floor, can you recommend
some solution.
In Gurgaon Office
In short term, company can reduce the availability of sugar sachets. Company can introduce lockbox
Is there any specific reason for doing so? to keep sachets. It can be opened only through employee id to keep count of no. of sachets an
employee consumed and will be incentivized for reducing the monthly intake. Further, healthier
We have conducted a survey and found out that a lot of our employees are struggling with chronic alternatives for sugar can be provided to employees.
illness such as diabetes and we have taken a wellness and health initiative to tackle this. Reducing
sugar consumption is the starting point. In the long term, the culture can be changed by conducting regular sessions on health by experts.
(After taking 1 minute) I want to start by estimating the consumption of sugar in Gurgaon Office. Are Thanks, we can conclude the case here.
we concerned only about sugar in beverages, or do I need to consider other sugary foods such as
confectionary items as well?
Consider only tea and coffee.
Sugar consumption = # of employees * % of beverage drinkers * # of cups/person/day * # of sugar

sachets/cup
Do we have any data on any of these?
We have 3 floor in our Gurgaon office. For now, let us consider only one floor. No. of employees are on
this floor are 360 and 60% drink tea and 30% drink coffee.
So that means there are 32 coffee, 43 tea drinkers and 36 drink neither. Do we have any data on the
distribution of no. of cups of coffee that these people drink per day.
40% drink 1 cup/day,30% 2 cups/day and 30% 3 cups/day.
43 people drink 1 cup /day, 32 2 cups/day and 32 3 cups/day, therefore total no. of cups of coffee/day
is 203. I am taking this as 200 cups/day. Generally, sugar is added separately in offices, especially in
coffee. Do we have any data on no. of sachets of coffee each person intakes?
Yes, we have info on that. 50% 1 sachet/cup, 40% 2 sachet/cup and 10% 0 sachet/cup.

Sugar Consumption Guesstimate | Easy | Strategy& (Partner)
Case statement • Client wants to reduce the sugar consumption of employees
• Identify the sources of sugar intake and suggest possible ways to reduce it

• Sugar consumption = # of
employees * % of # Employees
beverage drinkers * # of = 360 # Coffee cups/day
cups/person/day * # of
sugar sachets/cup
• Suggest both long term

Tea (60%) Coffee (30%) None (10%) 1 sachet/cup(50%)
and short-term options
= 216 = 108 = 36 = 100 sachets
to reduce the sugar
consumption of the
employees 1cup/day (40%)
= 43 cups
2 sachets/cup(40%)
= 160 sachets
2cups/day (30%)
= 64 cups
0 sachet/cup(10%)
3cups/day (30%) = 0 sachets
= 96 cups
Key Takeaways
• Breakdown the problem into subparts at the starting of the solution to make the calculations easier
• Ask for relevant data points from the interviewer when needed

Snow Melting Liquid Guesstimate | Moderate | McKinsey (Buddy)
Case Statement: Our client has invented a new Snow Melting Liquid Chemical and we need to estimate 50cm which is about 40 days in the year.
the amount of annual consumption to get a total addressable market.
I have a few preliminary questions before I jump into the guesstimate, where exactly is the liquid used Sure. So, this gives us about 1400 billion litres of chemical as the total addressable market for the
and which geography are we talking about? chemical on an annual basis. (Calculations in chart on next page). Is there anything else you’d like me to
consider.
The chemical is used to melt accumulated snow. We would like to look at US.
Sure, I’ll take a minute to come up with an overall approach. That sounds comprehensive. We can close the case now.
Sure.
Thank you.
So the way I’d like to estimate this is based on 1st the amount of snow that needs to be melted multiplied
by amount of chemical needed per unit snow. For amount of snow, I believe this chemical will not be used
for smaller amounts of snowfall, but only when we see a certain significant amount of snowfall happen. So,
we would see how many days on an average in winter months experience such heavy snowfall, and the
inches of snow that need to be melted multiplied by the share of area
in US experiencing heavy snowfall. There would also be the factor of percentage of area where snow
needs to be melted as a lot of area will be buildings or uninhabited and would not require melting snow.
Does that sound ok?
That sounds like a good approach. Let’s calculate this.

Sure. I am not aware of the area of US. I would guess it is about three times the area of India. For
estimating the area of India, I say we have an approximate kite or rhombus shape with N-S and E-W
lines as diagonals. For N-S distance, I’ve flown from Delhi to Mumbai in ~2hours and with a speed of
500km/hr for an airplane, that is approximately 1000Km. This should be about one-third the N-S
distance between top of J&K and Kanyakumari in the south. The flight from Mumbai to Kolkata was
about 3 hours. The E-W distance would be 1.5 times this. Hence, we have diagonals of approximately
3000Km and 2200Km. This gives area of India as (1/2)*3000*2200 = 3.3Mn sq. Km. Area of US = 10Mn
sq. Km. I’d say about 2-3rd of US experiences heavy snowfall, is that correct? Also, I’m not sure what
amount of snow warrants the use of chemical and how often that much snowfall would happen.
Let me help you with some data here. You could assume 60% of the area of US where chemical will be
used, this includes your area by climatic conditions and inhabited area. 10mL of chemical is used to
melt 1 cubic meter of snow and its typically used for days experiencing snowfall over

Snow Melting Liquid Guesstimate | Moderate | McKinsey (Buddy)
Case statement • Estimate the amount of Snow Melting Liquid Chemical used annually

• US area ~ 3x India % area where Product per unit # Days in yr
Required
Area of US chemical Snowfall Snow when chemical
Answer
• Snow melting chemical 10Mn sq Km required 50 cm 10mL per m3 of is reqd.
1200 Bn Litres
used 40 days in an year 60% snow 40
when snowfall > 50 cm
Area of India
• % area where chemical 3
3.3 Mn sq Km
required x %area
experiencing snowfall x
%area where snow N-S distance E-W distance
needs to be melted 1/2
(3000 km) (2200 km)
6Mn * (Sq. km = 106 sq.m) x 0.5 m = (3 x106) Mn m3
Key Takeaways
• Use proxy and ask for more information when not aware of geographic or any other specifics.

Solar Lanterns - India Guesstimate | Moderate | McKinsey (Buddy)
Case statement • Estimate the market size for Solar Lanterns in India

Total Indian Population (140 Cr)
• In urban areas, demand
in slums probably, but a
lot of those would also
have electricity hence
Rural (70%) Urban (30%)
would ignore this
segment for estimation. ~100 Cr ~40 Cr
• Electrification
percentage is low + areas
supposedly ‘electrified’ Households (Family size of 6)
do not necessarily have ~17 Cr
electricity all day/it is
only available in some
household, but not all.
Approx. 2-3rd rural area Demand based on Electrification
will have a demand for – 70% of rural area~12 Cr
the lanterns.
• Unaffordable for BPL &
alternatives (battery Lower- and Middle-Income
Below Poverty Line Groups (60%) High Income Groups
powered/personal (30%) (10%)
generators) available for ~7 Cr Solar Lanterns
High income
Key Takeaways
• Give an overall approach of all the cuts you plan to take before getting into calculations., regular check in at each step for assumptions
• Narrowing down before splitting instead of taking penetration percentages for each segment can ease calculations if you can justify equitable penetrations across segments.

COVID Tests Guestimate | Difficult | GEP consulting (Buddy)
Case statement Calculate the number of COVID tests to be conducted in a city daily

No. of COVID tests
• Focusing on people
coming into the city only
• Gwalior City – 12.5 Lacs
People coming in city People who want to travel People within the city with
population
(0.4% of 12.5 Lakh) out of city no travel plan
• 0.4% incoming travelers
(validated by
interviewer) Roadways
• 50% symptomatic – Airways (20%) Railways (30%)
(50%)
needs testing
• Considering 2 level chain
of contacts 1000 2500 1500
• Every person has 4
direct/ primary contacts
• Every primary contact Symptomatic – 50% 500 1250 750
has 4 secondary contacts
Asymptomatic – 0 0
0
50%
52,500
Primary Contact 2000 3000
5000
(4* symptomatic)
Secondary Contact 8000 12000
20000
(4* primary)
Key Takeaways
• Candidate could have considered some fraction of voluntary tests by Asymptomatic travelers
• All the broad numbers in the case were basis assumptions validated by the interviewer

IIMB Industry Reports
2021-22

Airlines Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Marketing & Sales Service

• Route Selection • Ticket Counter/ Kiosk • Baggage System • Promotion/ Advertising • Lost Baggage
• Yield Management • Gate & Aircraft Operations • Flight Connections • Frequent Flyer Service
• Fuel • Onboard Services • Rental Car & Hotel • Travel Agent Programs • Complaint Follow-up
• Flight/Crew Scheduling • Baggage Handling • Reservation System • Group Sales • Support Centre
• Aircraft Acquisition • Ticket Offices • Electronic Tickets
• Aircraft Lease
Key Performance Indicators Sector Composition Key Market Trends

• Departure Punctuality • Seat Load Factor • Robust Demand: Rising working group and widening
Activity in AAI Airports – FY20
• Regularity • Arrival Punctuality middle class demography is expected to boost demand
• Delay Reasons • Misconnex Quota 100% • Opportunities in MRO: Expenditure in Maintenance,
Repair & Overhaul (MRO) accounts for 12-15% of the total
Porter’s Five Forces 50% revenues – it is the second-highest expense after fuel cost.
By 2028, the MRO industry is likely to grow over $2.4
• Rivalry Among Existing Competitors (High): There is 0%
billion from $800 million in 2018
limited product differentiation and economies of scale Aircraft Freight Traffic Passenger
• Policy Support: Foreign investment up to 49% is allowed
and significant exit barriers Movement Traffic
under the automatic route. Under Union Budget 2021-22,
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers (High): Powerful labor the government lowered the custom duty from 2.5% to 0%
Domestic International
unions control operations. Aircraft and engine producers on components or parts, including engines, for
are concentrated oligopolies manufacturing of aircrafts by the MoD.
• Bargaining Power of Buyers (High): Air travel seen as Cost Drivers • Increasing Investments: Investment to the tune of INR
standardized product with low switching costs for most • Fuel: ~40% 420-450 billion is expected in India’s airport infrastructure
customers • Rental of Flight Equipment, hangar cost ~15% between FY18-23
• Threat of Substitutes (Medium): Fast trains offer • Flight Equipment, Maintenance and Overhaul: ~10% • UDAN: Under this regional connectivity scheme, airfare for
competition. Business travelers are increasingly opting • User Charges: ~10% a one-hour journey of 500 km has been capped at INR
for web-conferencing • General and Administrative Expenses: ~7% 2500
• Threat of New Entrants (High): There are limited • Flight Crew Salary and Expenses: ~5% • Public-Private Partnerships: $3 billion investment in
incumbency advantages and low switching costs • Depreciation and Amortization: ~3% greenfield airports in Navi Mumbai and Goa

Automobile Industry
R&D and Product Raw Material Product Logistics &
Auto Components Marketing and Service
Design Management Assembly Transportation
• Raw materials: • Engine/Battery • Body/Chassis • Warehousing • Advertising
• Skilled Labour Aluminium, Iron, • Suspension and • Casting, machining • Distribution • Finance, Insurance
• Process glass, plastic, braking and welding • Dealership • Used Cars, Rentals
/Product Innovation rubber • Electronics • Quality Testing Management • Service, Spares
• Warehousing • Auto Expo
Segments Key Drivers Key Market Trends

Revenue Cost Growth • Transitioning towards electric vehicles: Market size valued
3%
at USD 5 billion in 2020, and it is expected to witness a
Automobile
Raw Material Increasing Exports CAGR of 44% by 2026
Sales
• Bharat Stage (BS) - VI norms: India aims to reduce its
After Sales carbon footprint by 33-35% by 2030
Labour Policy Support
Service • Positive GST impact: Reduction in the overall cost
structure of Indian Automobile industry
Financing
Advertising Robust R&D Centres • Policy Support: Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, Automotive
services
Mission Plan 2026 to promote manufacturing, export-
linked fiscal incentives, Voluntary Vehicle Fleet
Porter’s Five Forces Industry Facts Modernization Programme, FAME II policy for EV adoption
Barriers to entry (High): capital costs, distribution network, • Market Developments: Organized pre-owned car market,
• 7% Share in India’s GDP & 4.3% in India’s Exports shared mobility ecosystem
and availability of automobile components. • $118 bn industry expected to reach $300 bn by 2026
Bargaining power of suppliers (Low): stiff competition • Covid Impact:
Global o shortage of raw material and semi conductors
Bargaining power of customers (Very high): due to Segment India Market Leader
Scenario o shifting of production to other countries,
availability of options.
Threat of Substitutes (Medium): Increasing shared mobility Two Wheelers #1 Largest Hero Motocorp o liquidity crunch
options and improving public transport o preference for private ownership of vehicles
Passenger Vehicles #4 Largest Maruti Suzuki o shrinkage in consumer demand due to WFH
Rivalry (High): Competition from established international
and domestic brands Commercial Vehicles #7 Largest Tata Motors

Cement Industry
Procurement Manufacturing Distribution Sales & Marketing

• Long term lease of lime • Process: Limestone → • Major freight cost (higher in • Strong relationships
quarries Clinker→ (grinding and rainy seasons) with contractors and
• Plant located close to additives) → Cement • Rail-road mix used developers
quarries • High Automated setups • Warehouse network • Distributor-dealer
• Long term supplier contracts • Imp: Economies of Scale • Large orders directly network for sales
for other RM • High start-up costs to dealers/customer • Bulk orders are cheaper
Key Performance Indicators Key Drivers Covid Impact

1. Capacity utilization Capex Revenue Cost • Lockdown measures and economic uncertainty weakened
2. Cement factor - qty of cement contained in a unit construction activity. This had a knock-on effect on the
Plant & Sale of cement Transportation
volume of concrete or mortar (in kgs.) demand for construction materials including cement.
Machinery (40%) (98%) costs (30%)
3. Clinker factor - percentage of clinker in cement • Higher selling prices were observed due to the tighter
4. EBIDTA/ton Power & Fuel supply of raw materials following production disruptions
Land (20%)
costs (20%) in the mining industry.
Interest Income
• Lower energy prices, particularly during the first half of
Captive power (2%) Material cost
Porter’s Five Forces 2020, have mitigated that, improving profit margins for
plant (10%) (20%) construction material manufacturers.
• Supplier Power (Low): Companies opt for backward
integration, weakening supplier power Growth Drivers
• Barriers to entry (High): High capex, fixed costs and need
• Increasing foreign investment -> New construction
Leading Players in India
for economies of scale
• Threat of substitutes (Low): No product exists to date • Record-low interest rates -> New Housing+renovation
1. LafargeHolcim Ltd – largest player – based in Switzerland
that can substitute effectively for cement. Only qty can be • Rapid urbanization -> New urban construction
– supplier of cement and aggregates
varied. • Government spending on infrastructure
2. Ultra Tech Cement Ltd– 2nd largest player in the market
• Buyer Power (Low): Low substitutability, oligopolistic
3. Ambuja Cements Ltd Ltd – 3rd largest player – Indian
market Growth in this industry is positively correlated to
Company
• Rivalry (Moderate): Concentrated market. construction and housing market. India is 2nd largest
producer of cement in the world.

E-Commerce and E-Retail Industry
Inbound Logistics Inventory Operations Marketing and Sales Service
• Sourcing • Demand forecasting • Owned logistics • Discounting • Delivery planning
• Vendor contracts • Warehousing handling • Advertising, promotion • Third Party Logistics
• Quality testing • Assortment planning • Technology platform • Exclusive strategy • Omnichannel fulfillment
• Mass customization • Working capital fees and maintenance • Customer retention • Return Management
management • Order management • Market research • Redressal and
customer support
Key Performance Indicators E-commerce Segments Market Share Market Trends

• Order to Deliver – How soon customer gets the Key Facts –
product after clicking purchase. 7%4%2% Consumer Electronics
Apparels • Industry value - $30bn in 2020, expected $100bn in
• Glance View – No of times the product description 7% 2024 and $200bn in 2027.
40% Food and Grocery
page is visited • CAGR 27% growth rate
Jewelry
• Out of Stock – Percentage stock out for a product • Active internet users – 624mn
Furniture
• CLV – Cust Lifetime Value, measures total spend of • Annual online shoppers – 190mn (11% of pop)
Others
customer on the platform 40% • Key Players – Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra
• Growth Drivers- Growing internet users, shift to digital
E-commerce Types Revenue and Cost Drivers payments, hyper local logistics, analytics driven
customer engagement and advertisements
• E-Retailing: Online sale of products such as clothing, Revenue
mobile handsets, electronics and home products. • Seller commissions Growth Opportunities –
Buying food and movie tickets also belongs to this. • Product availability and pricing • Tier 2&3 consists 90% YoY incremental growth
• Online Travel: Customers buy tickets, book hotels and • Private labels strategy • Apparels growth leading – serviced to 97% pin codes.
purchase tour packages online. • Customer retention 40-50% new u ’ first purchase item.
• Classifieds: Portals connecting buyers and sellers by Cost • Policy Support – 100% FDI allowed in B2B E-com
providing classifieds can advertise their products • Production/Factory cost • Global Investment - FB, Google($4.5bn) invested in Jio
• Digital Media: Paid music, videos and games download • Warehousing/Inventory costs • Future Trends – Omni- channel presence, inclusion of
• Financial: Mobile Wallets, Online sale of insurance, • Technology platform fees regional language in interface, mass customization
loans and mutual funds • Marketing • Covid impact – Consumer behaviour shift due to
• Shipping and Returns lockdowns, grocery and pharmacy gain momentum

Electronics Manufacturing Industry
R&D & Product Dev. Raw Materials & Components Manufacturing & Assembly Distribution & Retail Reverse Logistics
• Research • RM: Metal, silicon, • Warehousing • Retailers • Reverse logistics
• Product design polycarbonates, glass • Refining and smelting • Wholesalers • E-waste collection
• Conceptualization • Active (e.g. batteries, diodes) • Assembly of components • Distribution planning • Processing
• Software development and passive (e.g. • Mass production and forecasting • Recycling
• Product engineering transformer) components
Types of Players Market Segments Key Market Trends

• OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) - design • Consumer electronics & home appliances (TVs, video Current market trends
products based on the buyer’s specification and own the gaming systems, mobile phones) • Electronics manufacturing is one of the fastest growing
rights; outsource manufacturing • Industrial electronics (industrial robots, automation and industries globally. India is on its way to becoming a hub
• ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) - designs and control systems, electronic testing) with 3% market share
manufactures products on their own • Networking and Communications equipment (Routers, • Heavy stimulus by the Indian government to endorse ease
• EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) - design, LANS, Wans, switchboards) of doing business.
assemble, produce, and test electronic components for • Medical devices (X-ray machines, ultrasound devices) • Potential challenges include recovery from the economic
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) • Computer/ office equipment (servers, mainframes) contraction during the pandemic, rise in e-waste and
disruptive innovations
Porter’s Five Forces Growth Drivers • Policy- Production Linked Incentive Schemes for
manufacturing ACC Battery ( 50 GWh ) in 5 years
• Bargaining power of suppliers (Low): Low product Driver Examples
differentiation, low switching costs Covid Impact
• Bargaining power of buyers (High): High availability of Technology Transitions 5G, IoT
• Underutilized plants, unavailability of labor has impacted
information for comparison the core manufacturing of electronics in India
Government initiatives and Export incentives, product
• Competitive rivalry (High): Small points of • Temporary closure of technology-oriented firms in the US
policies linked schemes
differentiation and innovation increases rivalry and Europe disrupted production due to the high
• Threat of new entrants (High): Capital intensive and Liberalisation FDI inflow dependance on foreign R&D
presence of economies of scale. • Sharp increase in raw material prices due to the
• Threat of substitutes (Medium): Frequent innovations Consumer demand Easy credit, urbanisation disruption in global transportation and logistics
pose a threat
Energy, Oil & Gas Industry
Exploration Production Transportation Storage Refining and Marketing

• Surveys to assess • Ground tanks is used for • Transform crude into
potential • Sanctioning of the project • Crude is transported by crude and finished oil petroleum products
• Identification of suitable • Infrastructure creation tankers, pipelines, trucks products. • 3 stages – separation,
site • Strike Oil and rail roads. • Underground spaces conversion & treatment
• Field Development • Extract and split oil, water • Natural Gas is shifted by (reservoirs) is used for • Marketed via B2C and
Planning and gas pipelines and LPG tankers natural gas B2B channels
Key Performance Indicators Growth Drivers Key Market Trends

• Overall economic growth • Growing Demand: India is the world’s third largest energy
• Exploration and production output
• Rapid technological advancements
• Lease operating expenditure consumer. Diesel demand is expected to double by 2029-
• Increased exploration of unconventional gas resources
• Capital Project efficiency 30. Refining capacity is also expected to double by 2030.
• Increased usage of petrochemical products • Rapid Expansion: GOI plans to invest ~ INR 7.5 Trillion in
oil and gas infrastructure in next 5 years. ~ USD 25 Billion
Porter’s Five forces Market Segments investment is expected in exploration and production by
2022
• Transportation (Major segment; Consumes ~55-60%) • Policy Support: GOI has allocated funds worth INR 12480
• Bargaining power of suppliers (Medium): Despite few
• Industrial uses (Heating, Chemicals, plastics, Fertilizers Cr for direct benefit transfer of LPG. OALP has provided
players, there are certain delays by govt in payments
are few of the major industries. Consumes ~30-35% )
• Bargaining power of buyers (Low): Customers are price opportunities to increase investments.
• Residential and other usage(Consumes ~5-10%) • Supportive FDI guidelines: 100% Foreign Direct
takers. Accept the prevalent prices.
• Competitive rivalry (Low): One – two players operate Investment is allowed in upstream and private sector
in each of upstream, downstream segments. Revenue & Cost Drivers refining projects. FDI limit for public sector refining
• Threat of new entrants (Low): Capital intensive and projects has been raised to 49% without any dilution/
presence of economies of scale. Revenue drivers disinvestment of equity in the existing PSUs
• Threat of substitutes (Low): Renewable energy sources Crude Oil (~75%); Natural Gas (~20%); Others (~5%) • Natural Gas Boom: There have been significant gas
are yet to gain more traction. Cost drivers hydrates discoveries in the KG Basin. Feasible extraction
RM consumed, Transportation costs, Employee expense may lead to a boom in natural gas production
Capex drivers
Plant & Machinery, Buildings, Lands

Financial Services – Asset Management
Front Office Middle Office Back Office Sell-Side Firms Buy-Side Firms
Drive revenue generation • Risk Management Administration & Support Offer investment products Manage portfolios
• Sales • IT • Accounting • Investment Banks • Pension Funds
• Marketing • Corporate Finance • Human Resources • Brokers • Endowment Funds
• Customer Service • Portfolio Management • Payroll • Dealers • Sovereign Wealth Funds
• Trading • Research • Operation
Key Performance Indicators Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends
Asset management refers to the management on others’ Revenue drivers: Current market trends:
behalf. It is built on the notion that future is somewhat • ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing is
predictable, although it is not. • Management charges: Charged on each Portfolio making asset managers offer new products and modify
Management Services (PMS) quarterly or annually their operations to deliver them.
• Portfolio: Set of investments owned and managed as a • Profit sharing: Fixed percentage on any profit made by • Global asset manager are investing heavily in data strategy,
collective whole with specific investment goals. asset management company artificial intelligence and digitization.
• AUM: Asset Under Management - total market value of • Entry load: One time fee of ~3% at the time of
the financial assets which a financial institution controls purchasing PMS Future market trends/growth prospects:
• Net Asset Value (NAV): Value of mutual fund share (fund's • Others: Custodian fee, commission & transaction fee, • Consolidation through M&A: By 2030 the industry will
total assets-fund's liabilities)/outstanding shares. Demat account charges, etc. have a small club of giant asset managers and a bigger one
• Asset class: Securities with similar features e.g., stocks, of niche managers.
bonds, cash equivalents, etc. Cost drivers: • Competition will revolve around products for particular
• Capital gain/loss: The difference between a security's needs e.g., products for retired vs. those for millennials
purchase price and its selling price • Branch operation • Fed instructed banks to stop writing LIBOR contracts by
• Growth investing: Investment strategy that focuses on • Maintenance of communication and IT infrastructure 2021 end. SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate) will
stocks of companies and stock funds with rapid growth • Market schemes implementation replace LIBOR by June 2023.
• Value investing: Purchasing equity securities that you • Partnership management
believe are selling below estimated true value • Salary and employee benefits cost of staff Covid Impact:
• Increased focus on cost optimization specifically location
strategy to downsize office space

Financial Services – Banking
Marketing Sales Products & Services Transactions
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Advertising, sales impress
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Customer simply impress
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unique zing
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and
your Presentations. Other advisory services like asset & portfolio management your Presentations.
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competition from NBFCs relationship management clearing & settlement
• Net interest margin (NIM): The difference between the • Digitization: Banking-As-A-Service platforms and open
Cost
interest income earned and the interest paid by a bank Drivers banking, increasing need to protect data, strengthen IT
relative to its interest-earning assets like cash • Consolidation: Huge consolidation in public sector banks
• Current Account Savings Accounts (CASA): Type of non- Fixed Cost
Variable Employee to improve capital efficiency & remain profitable
Cost Salaries
term deposit account. Has lower interest rate than term • NPAs & credit extension: Increase in ratio of stressed
deposits & is a cheaper source of funds for banks Physical Digital Operational Employee assets and bad loans leading to slow down in lending.
Infrastructure Infrastructure
• Gross non-performing assets (GNPA): The total value of Costs Efficiency • Covid Impact: Difficult and slow recoveries, increased
non-performing assets in a particular time period. adoption of digital channels, greater cyber frauds
Interest on
• CRR/SLR: Percentage of cash reserves/liquid assets that Deposits
the bank must maintain which guarantees solvency
Provisioning
Cost (NPAs) Segments & Key Players
Porter’s Five Forces
• Public Sector Banks: SBI – largest market share (23%)
• Supplier's power (Low): Money supply controlled by RBI Revenue 3rd largest bank in India by market cap (383,312 Cr)
• Buyer's power/Demand (Medium): Increases with drivers
• Other PSBs: PNB, Bank of Baroda
income, credit worthiness. Financial inclusions scheme
• Privately Owned Banks (Indian): HDFC – largest bank in
for rural citizen Interest from Transactions Value Added Investment India market cap (822,326 Cr), ICICI – 2nd largest by
• Barriers to Entry (High): due to regulations and licensing loans fees Services (bank's own)
market cap. Others: Axis, IndusInd
mandates, investment in physical, digital infrastructure
• Foreign Banks: Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC
• Competition (High): High competition from NBFCs
• Rural Cooperative Banks: Saraswat Co-op Bank – largest

Financial Services – Digital Payments
Merchant Merchant Bank Payment Network Customer Bank Customer

• Offline retailers like • Called acquirer • Paytm, Visa, Mastercard • Called issuer • Initiates transaction
Kirana stores, Dept • Not involved in wallet etc. • Approves transaction on • Authenticates using
stores etc. txn (such as Paytm) • Margin from both issuer behalf of customer PIN/OTP
• Online merchants like • Earns margin from and acquirer • May only be involved in
Amazon etc. merchant on $ value wallet loading
Key Performance Indicators Market Segments Key Market Trends

2018-19 2024-25E
• Number and % of active customers • Digital payments: Past 4 years the sector has grown at
• Average spend per customer Card payments ~50% ~15% 23% in volume and 21% in value
• Average transaction per customer • Card payments: Have grown at a CAGR of ~20% over the
• Authorization rate Prepaid Instruments (Wallets) ~25% ~10%
last 4 years. Transaction value growing at ~25%
• Fraud rate
• Merchant discount rate (% of $ value paid by merchant to acquirer) UPI 17% ~60% • UPI: Constitutes 40% of P2M transaction. Has grown at
• Interchange rate (% of $ value paid by acquirer to issuer) 414% since inception in 2016. 7X growth expected in next
Others 7% ~15% 5 years
Revenue & Cost Drivers COVID Impact – V Shaped Recovery Growth Drivers
Payment network Payment wallets Credit cards Debit cards • Improved mobile & internet penetration
(Visa, Mastercard) (Paytm) 54 Cr
46 Cr • Government initiatives (MDR rationalization, payment
31% 43 Cr
Revenue • Transaction fee • Merchant discount rate 38 Cr acceptance, Jan Dhan Yojana, e-tolling)
29% 29%
drivers (% of $ value + fee/txn; • Value added services
charged to bank for use of
(insurance, loans etc)
29 Cr 27% • Tech-savvy population (use of wearables, need for
network) 27% convenient payment)
69% 71%
Cost • Technology cost • Technology cost 73% 71%
73% • Innovations (investments by mobile wallets, non-
drivers • Workforce cost • Workforce cost
• Discounts/Campaigns traditional players)
Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20

Financial Services – Insurance
Product Development Marketing & Sales Policy Administration Claims/Benefit Mgmt. Asset Management
• Market research • New customer acquisition • Request/ transaction • Claims prevention & • Strategic allocation
• New product developm. • Customer segment processing mitigation • Asset-liability mgmt.
• Risk assessment & • Cross-selling • Payment administration • Claims investigation & • Portfolio management
pricing • Churn prevention settlement • Risk modelling
• Product optimization • Campaign management • Disbursement
Industry Key Players Covid Impact

Insurance Segments Within General Insurance • Life & Health Insurance: Fear of COVID has increased
• LIC • Max Bupa • Bharti AXA
purchase of life & health insurance policies, which now
33% Motor • SBI Life • Star Health • IFFCO Tokio
8% 17% Life • ICICI Prudential • Bajaj Allianz
cover COVID if the patient is affected after the policy is
52% Fire • HDFC Ergo
Health signed.
Marine
75% General 12% • General Insurance: Challenges in automobile, travel, hotel
3% Others Revenue Drivers
& infrastructure sector impacted general insurance
% of total premiums % of total premiums • Insurance premiums premiums. Post-COVID recovery in these sectors has
• LIC, the only public player in the Life Insurance segment, • Interest on investments (re-investing of premiums) spurred an uptick in premiums.
commands 50% market share, with 23 private players
Cost
controlling the rest Cost drivers
Drivers InsurTech
• Motor Insurance has 37% share of General Insurance
Fixed Cost
Variable • Globally, insurtechs attracted a 180% YoY increase in
Cost
funding in Q1 2021. Funding of insurtechs in India
Key Information
Employee Customer
increased from $11mn in 2016 to $287mn in 2020.
Admin. Expenses Licenses
• Regulator: Insurance Regulatory and Development salaries service costs • Reasons for growth: increasing digitization, COVID, niche
Authority of India (IRDAI) requirements, cheaper access, value-added services,
• Reinsurance: Insurance cos transfer risk (max 30% of sum Claim costs collaborations with incumbents, product innovations
assured) to reinsurance companies. catering to changing customer preferences
• FDI: FDI limit in insurance sector increased to 74% from • Key segments: General insurance and B2C
Commissions • Key players: Digit, Acko, Policybazaar
49% in 2021

FMCG Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Sales & Marketing Servicing

• Sourcing raw materials • Manufacturing • Distribution center, • Branding • Warranty
• Quality testing • Production, Quality channel • Advertising, promotion • Maintenance
• Warehouse storage Control • Order Handling • Customer, order mgmt. • Education, training
• Packaging • Dispatch • Sales analysis upgrade
• Warehouse storage • Delivery invoicing • Market research
Porter’s Five Forces Industry Specific Strategies Adopted Key Market Trends
• Bargaining power of suppliers (Low) - Huge companies • Strengthen rural network – introduce bottom of the Key Facts –
control pricing, fragmented commodity supplier pyramid products in portfolio • 4th Largest sector of Indian Economy.
• Bargaining power of buyers (High) - Low switching costs • Direct to Consumer channels • Valuation - $110bn (2020), $220bn (expected 2025)
• Competitive rivalry (High) - Highly fragmented, strong • E-commerce • Household & Personal Care (50%), Healthcare (31%),
brands at a discount • Green Initiatives – sustainability fund, set up energy Food & Beverages (19%); Urban(55%), Rural(45%)
• Threat of new entrants (Medium) - Investment in efficient plants • 100% FDI allowed in food processing, single brand retail,
distribution network, promotions, advertising • Analytics – ML for market trends, Oracle/SAP for ERP and 51% FDI allowed in multi-brand retail
• Threat of substitutes (High) – Narrow product • International partnership • New GST in India would simplify tax structure (USD 15bn
differentiation, price war • Social Media Collaboration gain per year expected)
Revenue & Cost Drivers Growth Opportunities –

• Sourcing Base (India - strategic sourcing hub for cost
Key Terms Revenue Drivers
competitive products)
• Out of stock rate: ability to meet customer demand • Pricing
• Penetration (invest in food parks and labs)
• Delivered On-time & in-full: delivery performance • Promotion
• Online FMCG (E-commerce to contribute 5% to FMCG
• Average time to sell: time needed to sell products • Distribution
sales by 2022)
• Cash-to-cash cycle time: Analyse cash cycle time Cost Drivers • Rural Market (strong distribution, aspiration level)
• Supply chain costs: supply chain costs by category • Raw material & processing costs • Innovative Products (new, adaptable products)
• Carrying cost of inventory: costs your inventory holds • Distribution • Premium Products (increase in disposable income,
• On-shelf availability: Measure impact on your sales • Promotion purchase trend from essential to premium)
• Margin by product category: find profitable products
Food Processing Industry
Raw Material Warehousing Processing Packaging & Transport Distribution and Retail
• Producers( Farmers, • Cold Storage • Cleaning, Sorting • Grading • Carry & Forward Agent
Breeders, Fishermen) • Collection Agents • Mixing, Griding • Quality Control • Depots & Stockists
• Inputs: Agri Produce, • Cooperatives, FPOs • Pulping, Juicing • Packaging • Wholesalers
Fruit & Vegetables, Meat • Direct Sourcing • Pasteurization • Cold Storage • Retail Stores & E-commerce
&Poultry, Marine, Milk • Logistics • Dehydration, Powdering • Food & Dairy Corp. • International Export
Market Segments Cost Drivers Key Market Trends

5.0%
Cost drivers Key Challenges:
Meat, Fish, Fruits 18% • Supply Chain Infra and Institutional gaps
100%
7% • Procurement dependence on APMC Markets
20.0% Grain Mill 80% 12% • Season-ability of operations and Low Capacity
1…
40.0% Beverages 60% 53% Utilisation
Dairy Products 40% • Lack of Product Development and Innovation
11.0% • Inadequate link between production and processing,
20%
lack of processable varieties of crops, meat and milk
0% • Disruption due to Covid, Farm Law Protests
Farm Gate Transit Processing Distribution Margins
Importance of Food Processing Key Growth Drivers
Major Players • India is an Agri-commodity hub, one of the leading
• The market size of Indian food processing industry is
Player Segment Turnover. (INR cr) producer of multiple grains, fruits, milk and fish
estimated to be US$ 543 billion, accounts for 10% share in
• India’s huge customer base of 1.3 Bn offers large market
India’s exports,
KRBL Rice Indusrty 3992 • PLI schemes worth INR 10,900 crores introduced under
• At present, India processes less than 10% of its agriculture
Atmanirbhar Bharat, separate govt ministry
output and only about 2% of fruits and vegetables, 6% of Britania Fruits & Veg 1010
• Increasing spend on packaged foods with urbanisation
poultry, 21% of meat, 23% of marine and 35% of milk
Amul Dairy 52000 •. Growth of organised retails and private labels in India and
• India majorly does Primary processing, i.e., milling of grains,
expansion of e-commerce with digitization
sugar and edible oils.
Parle Agro Beverages 2,200

Healthcare Services Industry
Appointment Booking Hospital Visit Diagnosis Treatment Post-Treatment

• Walk-in • Primary / Secondary / • Medical History • Medical procedure • Monitoring and discharge
• Traditional Scheduling Tertiary Hospital • Screening based on • Clinical & ops support • Bill Payment
• Scheduling via • IPD (In-patient care) patient symptoms • Doctor (GP, CP, Specialist) • Post discharge care
appointment booking • OPD (Out-patient care) • Diagnostic Testing • Equipment & Supplies • Follow-up visit
apps like Practo • Emergency Section
Key Terms Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends

• ARPOB – Average Revenue Per Occupied Bed Revenue drivers
• ALOS – Average Length of Stay Current market trends
OP Revenue
• Occupancy Ratio - % Bed utilization • Healthcare sector expected to reach $372bn in 2022
growing at a CAGR of 22% since 2016
• GP – General Physician
Consultation Diagnostics Pharmacy • Rising instances of lifestyle diseases in urban areas
• CP – Consulting Physician boosting demand for specialized care
• OOP – Out of pocket expenditure • Growing medical tourism market due to availability of
• IP – In-patient IP Revenue
quality services at relatively low cost
• OP – Out-patient
Room & medical Future market trends/ growth prospects
Procedure Diagnostics
supplies charges
• Public private partnership models for establishing
Growth Drivers
hospitals
Cost drivers • Digitization of healthcare records via higher adoption of
• Increasing awareness
eHRs
• Adoption of digital healthcare / telemedicine Fixed Variable
• Ayushman Bharat (Universal healthcare program) Covid Impact
Rent Medicines • Change in attitude towards personal health and hygiene,
• Growing penetration of healthcare insurance
• Increasing penetration in towns beyond metros Salary Doctor – Revenue sharing health insurance and medical check-ups
• Adoption of digital technologies including telemedicine
• Higher prevalence of acute and chronic diseases Maintenance Diagnostics & medical supplies
• Increase in healthcare budget allocation by 137% in 2021.

Hospitality Industry
Procurement Operations Guest Services Sales & Marketing Distribution

• Food & Beverages (F&B) • Front-desk operations • Check-In/Check-Out • Advertisements • Online Travel Aggregators
• Cleaning supplies • Housekeeping operations • F&B services • Promotions & discounts (OTAs)
• Room supplies • Kitchen operations • Laundry services • Loyalty programs • Direct (Website/ app/
• Contractual services like • Laundry operations • Transportation services • Tour packages telephone)
internet, cable, security, • Revenue management • Other on-demand services • Walk-ins
etc. • Staff training • Tour-&-Travel Agents
Key Terms Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends

• Occupancy %: Total rooms occupied/ rooms available Revenue drivers Current market trends
Determines the efficiency of the promotional activities
Room Revenue
• India is the world’s 7th largest tourism economy in terms
pursued and business in general of contribution to GDP
• Average Room Rent (ARR): Room Revenue/Total rooms • Industry has seen increase in ARRs by 8-10% y-o-y basis
nights occupied. #Rooms Occupancy Average Room Rate low demand post covid
• Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR): Room revenue/ • Cyclicality and seasonality: This sector is highly influenced
Total room nights available. Indicates revenue generated by positive cycles and peak seasons which observe higher
Non-Room Revenue
against total room inventory revenue and occupancy rate
• Online Ratings: Indicator of customer satisfaction. Emerging Themes/Trends
Laundry & other
Considerable influences customers’ decision. F&B Events & parties
services • Health safety concerns lead to adoption of contactless
hospitality like mobile check-in services, etc.
Growth Drivers • Focus on sustainability led by high customer awareness
Cost drivers
• Emerging trend of staycation and workation (post-COVID) from smart bulbs to sustainable materials
Fixed Variable
• Rising dispensable income of the population Covid Impact
• Government push towards tourism circuits: religious • Pick-up in demand post first-wave was based on leisure
Rent Distribution commissions
circuits, heritage circuits, etc. travel, staycations, weddings & higher F&B revenues
Employee Salaries Consumables • Occupancy in Q1 FY2022 were at ~26-28% levels, higher
• UDAN scheme leading to better accessibility than ~10-12% of Q1 FY2021, basis demand from hotels
• Growing demand for medical tourism in India Maintenance Power & fuel
entering into contracts with hospital chains

Iron & Steel Industry
Raw Material Iron Production Steel Production SCM/ Logistics Sales

• Extraction of iron ore • Blast Furnace: Pellets of • Oxygen Furnace (LD • Demand Planning • Pricing of all products
from rocks iron ore, carbon fuel & Shops) : Molten • Service & Delivery • Sales team efficacy
• Creating coke from coal limestone with • Iron, Steel scrap & high • Performance • Key a/c management
to fuel furnaces superheated air form purity oxygen are used • Outbound Logistics • Customer Service
• Alternative: Buying iron in molten state in formation of steel • Support Tools
Porter’s Five Forces Key Drivers Market Trends

• Supplier Power (High): Due to limited iron ore reserves. Capex Revenue Cost • Industry Growth: Expected expansion of 250% over the
Companies opt for backward integration, weakening next 11 years (Expected CAGR: 8.69%) as per National
supplier power Plant & Machinery Steel for construction Raw Material Cost Steel Policy, 2017
• Barriers to entry (High): High capex, fixed costs and need (70%) & automotive parts (45%) • Growth in Per Capita Steel Consumption: Low per capita
for economies of scale steel consumption with a strong expected rise fueling
• Threat of substitute (High): Growing demand and use of Land including
Steel for Railway Parts
Power & Fuel costs growth
roads (20%) (10%)
aluminum in automotive • Increasing Investment: Ongoing consolidation of
• Buyer Power (Low): Low substitutability, only few major companies & increased FDI is an opportunity for both
player Sale of Semis & By- Salaries & Wages global & domestic players
Building (10%)
products (5%)
• Rivalry (High): Entry of exporters can further escalate it • Innovation: Government directive to increase R&D
projects by spending at least 1% of the sales turnover to
Top Players Industry Dynamics facilitate innovation
• Import: Steel Scrap Recycling Policy to reduce import. GOI
Capacity Market Capitalization Segment KPIs Growth Drivers increased import duties by 5% & imposed anti-dumping
Name
(in MnTPA) (INR Cr.)
Growing demand in policies.
Infrastructure EBITDA/ton
Tata Steel 33 1,71,158
all sectors • Export: 30% duty imposed on export of iron ore to
promote supply to domestic companies
JSW Steel 18 1,81,061
Construction Capacity Utilization Policy Support • The industry is witnessing consolidation of players (Tata
Steel acquired Bhushan Steel, opportunity for global
Crude Steel Increasing player to entry the market
SAIL 4.37 55,328 Automotive
Production/ROE/OEE Investments

IT and ITeS Industry
India is primarily an IT Knowledge Processing BPO/BPM

outsourcing hub. A
combination of IT, KPO and ▪ Software R&D ▪ Business Consulting ▪ ERP
BPM services are tailored ▪ IT Consulting ▪ Legal Services ▪ HRP
to industry specific value ▪ Development Services ▪ Data Analytics ▪ CRM
chains ▪ Infrastructure Mgmt. ▪ Market Intelligence
Porter’s Five Forces Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends
Potential Entrants (Low): Projects are quite large for Global Delivery Model
commoditized services, and learning effects make a Indian IT companies such as TCS are now opening service
considerable difference in service quality and cost Revenue Drivers hubs closer to larger onshore customers in UK and USA to
▪ Volume or the total number of person hours worked. This expand their global footprint.
Buyers (High): Services are now increasingly modular, and is the unit economics in the IT services industry
SMAC
buyers can assemble a suite of services from different ▪ Pricing determines the rate at which each hour is charged
Companies are increasingly looking to derive more value
vendors and can switch out too to the client
from their IT investments and are now seeing their next big
▪ Utilization is the ratio of the total billed hours divided by
opportunities in digital transformation in the Social,
Substitutes (High): Philippines emerging as viable the total billable hours available across the company
Mobility, Analytics and Cloud verticals
alternative to India for outsourcing. Automation is also ▪ Since most revenue is from exports, a favorable exchange
rendering support services redundant rate also results in better financial performance Cyber Security
Governmental policy to combat cyber threats from foreign
Suppliers (High): Specific suppliers of licenses and other Cost Drivers entities is being structured, with IT companies playing a
public cloud providers hold very high bargaining power. ▪ Cost of Revenue: These are expenses incurred by the large role in collaborations for their expertise
Infrastructure is also commoditized company in delivering core revenue. An example of this
are the salaries and travel cost. PE-VC, FDI Investments
▪ Selling, General & Administrative: These are costs over This sector continues to be very attractive for investors,
Rivalry (High): This industry is categorized by rivalry
and above the CoR. An example could be company attracting $70B in FDI over the last 10 years, $12.4B in PE
between large firms, and the differentiation is very minimal,
marketing costs and costs of facilities. investments in addition to offshore hub development by
pushing them to compete on costs
Google, Microsoft et. al.

Logistics Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Sales & Marketing Servicing

Shipment received at • Damage-proof • Multiple Transport • Clustering of packages • Delivery time intimation
customer service packaging modes: Road, Rail, • Allocation for delivery • Last-mile delivery
centers / picked up • Material handling & Water, Air, Pipelines • Salesforce management • Feedback
from customer movement
location • Product labelling
Sector Composition Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends

Segments Market Share KPIs Revenue drivers Current market trends
• Domestic transportation • Industry size: Indian logistics sector is valued at 215 Bn
Road transport 59% • Import and Export
• Delivery time USD; forecasted to grow at CAGR 10.5% (2019-25)
• Value Added Services (same-day delivery) • Rank: India’s rank has gone up from 54 in 2014 to 44 in
Railways 35% • Cost to order
• Warehouse 2018 in the World Bank’s LP Index (overall logistics
Waterways 6% Cost drivers performance)
capacity • Transportation costs such as fuel
• Avg. inventory • Improved connectivity: Sagarmala, Bharatmala, & UDAN
Air transport 1% • Warehousing and packaging projects aimed at improving connectivity and reach,
• Shrinkage greater opportunities
• Labor, order processing and administrative • Warehouse Automation: Market valued at Rs 20,200
Top Players • Inventory crores; evolution of technologies like AI, IoT, AGV and
Player Segment Market Cap. (INR cr) Blockchain
Growth drivers • Emphasis on cold supply chain: Set to grow at CAGR 16%
CONCOR Multi-modal 39,893 • Simplified freight policy expected to reach $ 36 Bn by 2024, primarily driven by
Blue-Dart Courier delivery 15,980 • Improving road connectivity network pharma sector
• Improving railway and air connectivity network • Growth in 3PL & 4PL providers as manufacturing grows:
Transport • Cold supply chain and other technology interventions
Multi-modal 6,145 to provide agility, speed and mobility
Corp. of India
• Green logistics: Implementation of sustainable practices
Parcel & priority due to technological evolution
VRL Logistics 2,686
delivery

Pharmaceutical Industry
Research & Development Testing and Approval Manufacturing/Formulation Logistics Marketing and sales
• Collaborative research • Testing on animals • Batch production • Storage, transportation • Promotion through medical
• Drug Discovery and • Pre-clinical, clinical trials • Process Inspection and • Wholesalers and representatives
formulation • Focus group testing quality assurance distributors • Free samples: physicians
• Formula adjustment • Approval and patents • Packaging • Pharmacies, hospitals • Doctor referrals
• Drug and facility • Waste Management • Online platforms • Medical conferences
compliance
Key Performance Indicators Cost Drivers Key Players in India

• Return on Research Capital Ratio: R&D is the major cost • Sun Pharmaceutical Limited : INR 273.28 Billion
for all pharma companies and not all drug trials result in • Manufacturer Selling Price: Acquisition cost after mfg. • Aurobindo Pharma Limited : INR 164.99 Billion
success • Cost, insurance, freight charges (CIF), import tariffs • Lupin Limited : INR 159.55 Billion
• Profitability Ratio: Operating & net margin determine and charges: Cost of importing an Active Pharmaceutical • Cipla Limited : INR 155.77 Billion
investment into future research projects and also account Ingredient (API) or finished product into the country • Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories : INR 144.36 Billion
for the high marketing expenditures in the • Importer margin: Applied by importer who procures and • Cadila Healthcare Limited : INR 120.50 Billion
competitive pharmaceutical industry receives the delivering of imported drugs • Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited : INR 108.86 Billion
• Liquidity and Debt Coverage Ratio: R&D expenditures are • Distributor margin: Applied by wholesalers and sub- • Glenmark Pharma Limited : INR 91.86 Billion
wholesalers for transportation and logistics of storage • Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited : INR 63.01 Billion
mostly financed by debt. Hence, monitoring these ratios
• Retailer margin: Applied by retailers while selling the drugs
will help analyze the health of the company
Porter’s Five Forces to the patients (last step of distribution chain)
• Taxes: At both national and regional levels Covid-19 Impact
• Threat of New Entrants (Low): high barriers to entry, China is the biggest raw material provider for APIs across the
high R&D costs, govt regulations and distribution network Opportunities globe and India (70-75%). The slowdown in supply chain due
need) to Covid-19 will directly impact innovative drug development
• Technology plays a critical role in enhancing the outreach
• Bargaining power of buyers (Low-Moderate) and may cause short-term shortage for generic drug
of medical facilities (e.g., telemedicine)
• Internal Competition (High): large no of small • Increasing Insurance coverage (Schemes like Ayushman producers like India as procurement of APIs will become
fragmented players and large no of drugs going off-patent Bharat, Obamacare, etc.) difficult in the current environment of uncertainty and fears
• Substitutes (Low): although Ayurveda, homeopathy • Advanced Analytics across the value chain of further shortages.
provide some options but are not widely accepted • Strategic M&As to enhance company portfolio
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Moderate): difficulty • Improving operational efficiency to enhance bottom-line
in procuring raw materials like APIs
Retail Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Marketing and sales Service
• Sourcing (demand • Transforming inputs into • Order processing • Communication • Delivery

forecast, vendor ops) the final products • Inventory management • Discounts • Installation
• Network optimization • Allotment and • Warehousing • Pricing and promotions • After-sales
• Material handling scheduling to stores • Distribution • Store operations
• Warehousing • Transportation • Salesforce management
• Sales per square foot Market Size - India's retail sector was estimated at USD 883
• Gross margins return on investment (GMROI) Cost bn in 2020 and is projected to reach ~USD 1.5 tn by 2030. It
• Average transaction value contributed ~40% to India’s consumption and close to 10%
• Customer retention of India’s GDP as of early 2020.
Fixed Variable
• Conversion rate
• Foot traffic and digital traffic Market Trends
• Inventory turnover • Robust Demand – The retail industry achieved 96% of pre-
Rent Advertising Depreciation Direct material
• Shrinkage (loss of inventory) COVID sales in Sept’21 with consumer durables and QSR
increasing by 15% and 18% respectively.
D tL b u
• Increasing investments – Cumulative FDI inflows in the
Industry Segments retail sector stood at USD 3.61 bn between April 2000 and
June 2021. India’s retail sector attracted USD 6.2 bn from
6% 1%
8% Apparel & Footwear Revenue Growth various PE and VC funds in 2020.
28% • Policy – 100% FDI is now allowed in single-brand retail
Consumer Durables & IT
11% Jewelry & Accessories Sales Margin Rising income level trading and 51% in multi-brand retailing
Health & Entertainment
Home Décor & Furnishings Advertising & marketing Digital innovations Covid Impact
Beauty & Personal Care Covid-related disruptions have dealt a major blow to the
20% Loyalty & rewards Increasing foreign retail sector which is estimated to have lost more than USD 1
26% Others
programmes participation & investments bn (INR 75 bn) of sales due to the lockdown.

Telecom Industry
Tower Infrastructure Network Equipment Technology Provider Network Operators Consumers

• Recharge Plans
• Forms framework of • Manufactures hardware, • Software Technology • LTE Services to end
• Customer Care Centre
telecom operations routers, modem, fiber (4G, 5G) customers
• GIL Infrastructure, Indus optical • Sterlite Technology, • Other services such as voice,
Towers • Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens Mahindra, Qualcomm messaging and internet.
Product/service Pre-sales Purchase Delivery and Account

Consumer journey Support Support Activation Management
Offering Design
Key Trends in Indian Telecom
• Growth in Rural Demand: Tele-density of rural subscribers reached 59.33% in September 2021, from 58.96% in September 2020
• State Investment: In 2021-22, the Department of Telecommunications has been allocated $ 8Bn and the union budget allocated US$ 1.9 for telecom infrastructure
• Government Initiatives: 100% FDI, satellite based Narrow band IoT, and the Phased Manufacturing Programme
• Development opportunities: India's 5G subscriptions to have 350 million by 2026. accounting for 27% of all mobile subscriptions
Revenue & Cost Drivers Growth Drivers KPIs

Revenue Drivers: • Growing mobile penetration
• Call Completion Ratio
• Internet and voice services • Increasing rural penetration and internet access
• Average Revenue per User
• Cross provider calls • Relaxed FDI norms
• Average Call Duration
• Affiliations (data monetization, device tech.) • Reduced license fee
• Idle Time on Network
Major Indian Service Providers (Market Share) • Tele-density
Cost Drivers: • Churn
• Spectrum costs • Reliance Jio – 36.98% • Network Operating Cost
• Network infrastructure and equipment • Bharti Airtel – 29.82% • Subscriber Acquisition Cost
• Operating costs • Vodafone Idea – 23.15%
For any queries, reach out to us
ICON – Consulting Club

IIM Bangalore

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IIMB Casebook and Industry Reports 2021-22 – Volume 11 (B)

36. Last Mile Delivery Moderate Bain 98 2. Automobile Industry 130

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© 2022, ICON – Consulting Club, IIM Bangalore. All rights reserved.

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Interview Stage What to expect? Skills Tested

❖ Use a hypothesis driven approach for case solving ❖ Problem solving

Summary/ ❖ Summarize the case with recommendations backed up by insights ❖ Creativity

Questions for ❖ Opportunity to show enthusiasm towards consulting ❖ Consulting fit

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• Understand customer segments Number of Avg Order Order

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Research and Development

Branding and Advertising

Human Capital (Capacity x Efficiency x Utilization)

Selling, General & Administrative

Cost Procuring Raw Distribution and

● Cost of raw materials ● Plant maintenance ● Number of distributors ● Number of customers x

x avg order amount x Frequency of service x

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Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

• Establish value chain for

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Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

Maintenance Commission Payment Shrinkage

Infrastructure Hiring/Training Repairs Advertisements

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Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

• Single product like Centre Revenue Costs

• Industry wide decline

Industry Structure Industry Context

Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis +

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Can you elaborate?

Thanks for sharing this with me

It was nice talking to you. All the best!

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Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

• The client’s profit margin Spending Per

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Thank you. It was a pleasure interacting with you.

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Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

Sourcing Brush Hairs Accessibility Acceptability Affordability

Customer Profile – Newer

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Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

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Interviewee Notes Structure/Framework

• Decline in revenue of Hair Care Perfumes Skin Care

Production Distribution Demand

Need Awareness Accessibility Affordability Experience

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