Management Consulting and Case Solving

for Dummies

0. Introduction

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

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Why am I doing this?
A lot of PGP1s had come to me asking for summer placement tips as well as the approach to handle
the various processes as part of getting into consulting firms. Last year when I was a pgp1, there wasn’t
anyone that I went to. I just heard most of what is to be done from my friends/placecom and I acted
on it. But last year, I did feel that it would have been good if there was one common location where
all tips and fundaes required for going through the process of getting into the firms from the various
fields (be it Marketing, Consulting, GenMan, Finance, Ops etc) was collated. There are clubs on
campus and they do a wonderful job but there are a lot of softer aspects with regard to the processes
which are not documented and people generally have no clue how to go about it. I’ve seen a lot of
people mess up really badly because of a lack of direction. I’m not in any way stating that whatever
I’ve written as part of the set of documents is completely comprehensive. But personally, I feel it will
be more than sufficient for starting your preparations for interviews for summer placements.

How can you make the best of these documents?

With regard to management consulting, I’m enclosing all my learnings about the industry, process at
IIMB, as well as the tips/frameworks that I used for case solving. If you’re targeting management
consulting OR even if you’re not sure whether you want management consulting or not OR if you’re
not sure what you want to do in life now that you’ve come for an MBA, these documents will help –
Even though the scope is management consulting, I’ve written it in a way that anyone who doesn’t
have clarity on what to do in life, now that the person has come for an MBA, can understand easily.
I have tried to encapsulate all my learnings into this collection of documents. I’ve tried to make it as
comprehensive as possible, but I might have missed out on some minor points as well. Please think
of yourselves as continuous learning machines – Use whatever positive takeaways from the
enclosed documents as starting points for your preparation for summers. Do not tell someone that
“Yes. I saw this written in that document which that pgp2 sent. It has to be correct” There is nothing
like that. Whatever you feel is correct and logical – internalize it. Rest of it – you can ignore.
I would suggest to write all your positive takeaways in a fresh notebook. If you’re lazy to write it down,
read through once with all your heart like reading a fun yet slightly serious story book and if you feel
it is useful, you can refer to this later and write down the learnings.
The level at which I’ve tried to communicate is at a very layman level. Any person who has absolutely
no clue what management consulting is will be able to get a fair idea of what it is and how to go about
preparing for interviews with a good level of understanding if the person goes through these
documents. DO NOT GET OVERWHELMED by the amount of information that you would see
in this compilation of my learnings. You have more than enough time left to go through all the
documents. Keeping that in mind, please find on the next page the appendix that I’ve followed. All
documents are relatively short documents. So even though it might seem like a lot when you look at
the appendix, it’s something you can finish in a matter of 1 day. Even if you have a fair idea of what
management consulting is, you have to go through the documents at least once sequentially without
jumping sections. After the first time, you can refer to whichever document you want whenever you
want. But ensure that for the first time, you read it sequentially. Don’t read it for the sake of reading
it. Read it with all your heart with complete focus and concentration.

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Appendix
Management Consulting and Cases
1. What is Management Consulting?
2. Why Consulting and what is the process of getting into a Consult firm?
3. Case Prep Resources Part 1
4. Case Prep Resources Part 2 – The Buddy System
5. Consult Dinners
6. Actual Interviews
7. What is a Case and what is the Case Method of solving problems?

More on Cases, the Case Method and types of Cases

8. Profitability Cases
9. Growth Strategy Cases
10. Market Entry Cases
11. Guestimates
12. Mergers and Acquisitions
13. Unconventional Cases
14. Summary
15. Reference 1: “Where to Play How to Win” by PGP seniors passed on
by ICON
16. Reference 2: “Case Interviews Cracked”

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Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

1. What is Management Consulting?

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

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What is management/strategy consulting? Why is it so over-
hyped? Is the hype really worth it?

I had randomly checked with a few people who had come to me for CV evaluation whether they
actually knew what management consulting is. And not a single person knew. It’s ok. Everyone needs
to learn and know stuff at some point. So I thought I should share it with the others as well, as it
might be the case with a lot of you. I’ll explain what management/strategy consulting using a simple
example. Forget about management consulting for the moment and assume that there is a steel
company (Company A) which supplies steel to a construction company (Company B).

Now Company B has 2 options – Either make steel on its own and use it for its own purposes or buy
steel from Company A. Take a moment and think about why Company B buys steel from Company
A. The core competency of Company B is construction and not steel making is not the answer.
Suppose the construction company had huge amounts of steel requirements, isn’t it worth investing
in a steel plant as part of a long term investment. So the question should not be thought around “What
is the core competency of Company B?” The answer is in economies of scale.

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Steel Company A supplies steel to various construction companies C, D etc. because of which buying
steel from A is always more cost efficient for B as compared to making steel on its own. Hence, the
saying – Market is always more efficient than the organization. So your next question would be “In
that case, can all products/services/requirements not be outsourced?” The answer is yes and there are
organizations which do that. The decision to keep in-house or outsource depends on the level of
control / competence that the management decides to keep with itself and this is how organizations
are designed. #MO101
Your next question is “How is this example related to management consulting in any way?” The
answer – In the steel-construction company example, the product being sold by company A is steel.
Now, assume that this product/service is “Strategy”. That’s where management consulting comes in
– The situation is no different from the steel-construction company example.

Say for instance, the top management of company B (some major European conglomerate company)
is deciding to whether to enter the Indian market or not. They do have an in-house strategy team for
relatively smaller decisions, but they have absolutely no idea about the Indian market situation and the
decision to enter or not is a huge decision. So, they outsource their strategy to Management Consulting
Company A, which would know the Indian market. Company A services various other companies C,
D and Company B knows that Company A will give the best of the market recommendations on
whether to enter the market or not, how to enter, investment required etc. This is in no way different
from the steel-construction company example. Outsourcing strategy for big decisions costing huge
investments for the client companies is the reason why management consulting as an industry took
shape.
And these decisions of the top management of company B are big huge decisions. Like 1000’s of
crores worth decisions, may be. And they cannot afford to make a wrong decision when the numbers
involved are so huge. So the client companies don’t have an option but to get the best of the market,
because a wrong decision can easily take the company down in a matter of time.

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An additional reason (although not a good one) why management consultants get hired by client
companies is to back their decisions in front of their shareholders. Like for instance, if the top
management of a company wants to take a decision, but do not have the capability to do the necessary
analysis to back up decision in front of their board of directors and shareholders, they might hire one
of these consult companies, get them to do the analysis and depending on their recommendations,
decide to stick with the earlier decision or change, but either way an approval tag from these companies
on the report that they submit to the board of directors / shareholders has a LOT of credibility.
Although the consult companies do say that they do not heed into such forced decision making and
do not tailor their analysis according to the client’s requirement, I’ve heard from multiple sources
across a few of the consult companies that such things have happened and do happen (I’m keeping
my words qualitative and playing it safe ;) ) - But the point to be conveyed clearly is that such things
might happen because consulting companies are dependent on clients for projects.
So why the hype about consulting? Because these decisions are huge for the clients. So they will happily
pay consultants a fancy huge service fee to ensure that they get the best services. And in return the
services provided by consultants have to be top notch. One small error in the analysis can even take
down the entire client company. So, a lot of the hype is actually worth it. But people over hype it so
much, which I feel is just peer pressure affecting people, and most people who over-hype have
absolutely no clue what management consulting is. If they knew what it actually is, they’d acknowledge
that “yes. It’s an important service providing industry. So the hype is worth it. But definitely not all
this super-over hype about it”. It’s just like any other service like marketing or operations or finance
and no different. The only difference is it is more generic and the diversity involved is awesome. On
one project you might be working on a marketing case, another might be an operations case and the
next case might be an organization re-design case. The most brilliant part about consulting is that you
can get exposure across functions (procurement, operations, sales and marketing, organization design
etc) and for each of these functions, you can get immense exposure across various industries (banking,
insurance, FMCG, retail etc). During my summers, I interned for a fashion retail client. Before the
project started, I had NO clue about anything in fashion retail. At the end of it, I had a very pin-
pointed deep understanding of how the Indian fashion retail industry works. So yeah, the diversity is
awesome in consulting.
Overall, you can expect to use a lot of what you learnt as part of MBA. And even if you do not
remember anything from MBA, there are resources in the consult companies which will help you pick
up all that very quickly. Personally for me, what gives me the kick in management consulting is that
there’s a lot of thinking/ analysis to be done and brain capacity utilization is kicka**. But like I
mentioned, management consulting is just like any other service industry.
This is an extremely basic way to communicate what management consulting is. Depending on the
agreement made between the consulting company and the client company, the scope of services can
range from strategy formulation, strategy implementation etc. and a lot more. With this background,
if you google more, you can get a better perspective of what are the kind of services management
consultants provide, in more detail.
While going through the documents I’ve written, you might get a feeling that consulting is extremely
theoretical and not at all practical. Trust me – That is completely wrong. I also had that feeling initially.
Depending on the project you’re assigned to, you might get a very strategic top management

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perspective (if the project is a pure strategy project) and you have a chance to get a completely on-
the-ground grass root level understanding as well (primarily in strategy implementation projects where
there is extensive on-the-ground field work). So keep that in mind while going through the documents
that follow.
For the purpose of understanding the documents that follow, you just need to understand this
document. You do not need to google more about management consulting. With the context of what
management consulting set, the next document will talk about whether you’d like consulting as a
profession and also, the broad process that is followed at IIMB for getting into a consulting firm.

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Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

2. Why Consulting? What is the process of

getting into a Consult firm?

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

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Why do you want to get into a consulting firm?

• Why do you want to get into a consulting firm is a question you need to evaluate – you need to
gather data and have a fair idea whether consulting is something you’ll be interested in. I have
given you a flavor of what consulting is in the previous document. But you need to speak to more
people and do your research to have a better idea on what consulting has in store for you.

• May be you want to just try out consulting for summers and decide later whether it is your thing
or not. But still, do your bit of research. This is an iterative decision making loop. Sometime during
the decision making process, you might decide that it is your thing or it is definitely not your thing,
but do not take for granted that everyone is meant for consulting just because someone else is
going for it. That is just a dumb/stupid way of making a decision that can affect your future.

• Just because you think consulting is good doesn’t mean that it is be apt for you. You need to be
open to other options like marketing, finance, operations, gen. man. All of them have their own
merits and demerits, as is the case with consulting. Do not decide that consulting is your thing
because your friend might be going for it or because of the over-hype, about which I’ve already
mentioned in the previous document.

• The onus is on the candidate to put in the effort to make this decision. Resources to make this
decision can be seniors, friends working in consulting firms, google and various consulting ppts
that happen on campus, where you’ll get a better flavor of what each consult firm does, the merits
and demerits of consulting, the lifestyle etc. Ask the speakers genuine questions that you have
regarding the field and the nature of work that you can expect to do in these firms.

• If you’re looking for a relaxed 9 am – 6 pm type job profile and you’re convinced for a fact that
you want that kind of a relaxed lifestyle, let me tell you upfront that consulting is not your thing
and you’ll not be able to fit in. Consulting is about diversity in lifestyle and work, continuous
learning and self-improvement, making content for ppts, brainstorming with a lot of awesome
minds, team discussions, team parties, regular collaborative interaction with clients, lunches and
dinners with senior partners, team leads etc. and a lot lot more.

• From my personal experience during my summers, I did not like it at the start. But like every field,
there will be an inhibition at the beginning for everyone because we’re not used to it. I went
through the learning curve and with time, I started loving the problem solving part of the work,
team discussions and brainstorming sessions with team members as well as the clients. The work
hours can get hectic. For the first 3 weeks of my intern, my average sleep hours on weekdays was
3-4 per day. There were even stints with 3 continuous night outs. That was because of a major
client meeting we had and I realized that it was a tough deadline. Post that meeting, things got
settled and it was more of a 9am – 9pm type profile ( + or – a few hours depending on the work
load). But thing with consulting is the diversity involved is huge that one cannot predict what will
happen in the next day. I loved the problem solving part of it. In the firm I interned, most of the

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 ppt work was outsourced to another internal company department specialized in making ppts,
which gave me more time for brainstorming, team discussions and opportunity to think and use
my brain. (I feel all consulting firms will move in this direction shortly)

• So that is my take on consulting. You’ll have to do your bit of research and acknowledge that even
after your research, chances are that you still might not have complete clarity on whether
consulting is your thing or not and you might figure it out only during your summers, but that
shouldn’t stop you from putting in effort to do the basic research. You should ideally be open to
all fields if you’re a person without clarity on what to do in life and get data points about each field
to take a reasonably rational decision.

What is the process of getting into a consulting firm?

So first thing is you need to do your research using the resources I mentioned in the 4th bullet point
in the previous section. What is the process that is followed on our campus for consults and how I
handled the same is a question a lot of pgp1s came asking me. The process is simple

o PPTs by the consult firms: Most firms have a ppt before the resumes are sent to them. Make
use of these ppts. Listen well to the nature of work, lifestyle etc. Ask genuine questions (if any)
that you might have regarding whatever content they present. I wouldn’t suggest putting cp for
the sake of putting cp. If you have something genuine to ask, do ask. Don’t ask questions regarding
your cv to the firms when they come for these ppts. Last year I remember – At the end of one of
a ppt, when the speaker was open to questions – Someone asked “I’ve heard that you look for cvs
with more than 2 spikes. Is that true” The speaker was a senior chap, was irritated by the question
(I don’t think he even knew what a spike really meant – These are just random terms people use)
and he gave the most apt response – “How does our shortlisting criteria matter – Can you go back
in time and change your life if we tell you the shortlisting criteria.” I loved that answer. That was
the same thing I was thinking when I heard the question being asked. Just ask genuine questions
you have. Don’t worry if you don’t have questions at this stage, when you’re reading this
document. During the ppt, just listen attentively and you’ll naturally have questions and even if
you don’t have questions, it’s ok.

o Send your resumes to the consult firms before the deadline: Your resumes have been
finalized. At this stage, there is absolutely nothing you can do to go back in time and change your
life to add or delete points from your resume. Whatever is over is over. Just be happy that you’ve
reached IIMB from wherever you were in your life. Don’t crib about what did not work out for
you in the past. Those thoughts are in no way helping you deal with your current situation. Be
happy about what all worked out for you. Period.

o Release of shortlists: Companies have their own criterion to shortlist students. It is not necessary
that your profile will match their criteria. Summer placements is not the end of the world. If you
don’t get shortlisted for whatever reason, just train your mind to think that those companies don’t

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 deserve you because they’re judging you based on who you were yesterday and not who you are
today. But the onus is on the candidate to have put in the maximum effort to improve his/her
skills and capabilities from yesterday to today. I have seen people crying (like actually crying)
because they did not get shortlisted. It’s then I feel they should be reminded that they’re adults.
Common – I know I’ve got into a consult firm and have an offer – But my mindset even before
coming to this campus was the same – Don’t take life so seriously. If you’re in, you’re in. Else, just
think that the firms do not deserve you because you’re unique in your own little way.

o Case Interview Preparation - The period between releases of shortlists to the day of interviews
is crucial. Candidates are generally not used to the case method of solving problems. Trust me –
It is a brilliant way of solving problems. It’s just that candidates are not used to it. So was the case
with me after the shortlists started coming. Like for everything you want to be proficient at, there
is a learning curve that you need to go through. There will be a lot of inhibition and resistance to
internalize the case method at the beginning of the learning curve. It requires effort and in a matter
of time, you’ll cross the threshold and you’ll start enjoying solving cases. I crossed the threshold
and love solving cases so much that every problem that I face in real life I use the same case
approach to solve it and I’m able to do it very efficiently. Anyway, let me stop digressing too much
and get to the point. Broadly, there are few resources that one can use to get proficient in the case
method of solving problems. I’ll be discussing only the resources that I used. This doesn’t mean
that there aren’t other resources. It is just that within the limited time, I put in my effort only on
these resources and the return on my time investment on these resources was really good. If you
feel that there are other better resources, you should definitely go for that as well. The following
are the ones that I used.

Self-Preparation (Document 3)

Case Group: Case group can be in members of 3-4 (Document 3)

Case prep workshops by the Consult firms (Document 3)

Online resources, ICON resources (Document 3)

Other Resources (Document 3)

Buddy system: Consult firms assign consultants as buddies to assist in the preparation.
This was possibly my most valuable time investment for accelerating my learning curve
(Document 4)

o Consult Dinners: During the last week before summer placements, the consult companies have
dinners for the shortlisted students. People usually get scared when it comes to these dinners and
are not sure how to handle these dinners. I’ll tell you how I handled these dinners. (Document 5)

o Problem Solving Test (PST) – Last year, only 1 firm did this and that has been the case with that
firm for a while. Since I’m anyway talking about the whole process, I thought I should mention
this as well. They give cases in an exam sheet with multiple choice questions. It is just basic math
and logical reasoning skills required to solve the problems. There are a few sample PSTs available
on their website for practice. Shortlisted students need not bother about this until the last week
before summers. The firm will inform you and give you sufficient time. Preparation as such is not
required. Just an open mindset to think and analyze problems is more than sufficient.

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o Preference Submission: I’m not enclosing a separate document to talk about this. Basically, you’ll
have to submit on the placement portal your preferences amongst the companies for which you’ve
been shortlisted. Placecom has some algorithm to which the preferences of candidates are input
and they send you to the different firms on the day of placements depending on that algorithm.
Personally, I would just suggest to go with whatever your gut tells you to go for in terms of giving
your preferences. If you use too much of this game theory fundaes with regard to preferences, you
might end up someplace you do not want to be in. And after giving in preferences as per what
your gut tells you and if you still do not get what you want after the interviews, just be happy that
you tried your best and you don’t have to live with regrets. Acknowledge that summers is not the
end of the world. You’ve come all the way till IIMB and there bigger better things in life as well.
So yeah, that’s about it with regard to preference submission. Just follow what your gut/heart says
based on inputs you get from the various company ppts/seniors/other resources. This is just my
take on it. You can do whatever you feel is right for you.

o Interview with the Consult Firms: How to handle the interview day will be discussed in
Document 6. Document 7 onwards, I’ll talk about the case method of solving cases and the
frameworks I used for myself to solve cases. These frameworks were created as a result of using
all the resources I had mentioned early in this document. I’m not in any way stating that these
frameworks are completely robust. You can go through it and see whether it works for you and
take it, if found useful.

As mentioned before, in the documents that follow that I’ve documented just my way of having
handled the various process components of having got into a consult firm. It need not suit your
character and requirements completely. If you feel that it suits you, you can use my tips.

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Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

3. Case Prep Resources – Part 1

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16
When you’re reading this document, even if you have absolutely no clue what a case even means, that’s
completely fine. I was also there a year back. Coming from an engineering background, I wasn’t used
to the word “case”. In movies, I had heard people talk about police cases and hospital medical cases.
But that was my understanding of it when I joined IIMB. It took me some time to really internalize
what a case means. A detailed description of what a case is and how to solve a case will be done in
one of the later documents. At this stage, you just need to know that a case is any business situation
that is causing some sort of concern to the management of a company. Some random issue in the
operations of a company leading to company profits falling down is an example of a case. Likewise,
there are different types of cases, all of which will be discussed in later documents.
The scope of this document and the next document is to give you a broad idea of what all resources
I used for my preparation for the consult interviews. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not in any way
stating that these resources are completely comprehensive. There will definitely be other resources,
but the ones being discussed are the ones I used most extensively. The following constitute Case Prep
Resources – Part 1.

1. Self-Preparation – Continuous Learning Machine:

It might sound funny to you, but realize that you are a resource for yourself. Why? Because this way
of constantly looking at your life makes you realize over time and internalize in your brain that you’re
a continuous learning machine. Not just for case preparation, but for anything that you want to
learn – You have a learning curve that you need to go through. Initially, you’ll find it hard. Everyone
finds it hard. But again, don’t be bothered about what others think. Just look at yourself. You’ll initially
hate doing cases because you’re not used to doing it that way. Don’t give up because the case method
of solving cases (will be discussed in detail in a later document) is the most logical and brilliant way of
solving problems, not just business scenarios but problems you have in life as well. I used to hate
doing cases initially – I acknowledged that I’m a continuous learning machine, put in effort, accelerated
through the learning curve (extremely slow and sluggish at the beginning but extremely rapid on the
learning curve after sufficient practice). The most important part is acknowledging that you’ll take
time to learn, have a never give up attitude, put in time and effort and realize that you’ll be going
through a process of continuous learning and improvement and in a matter of time, you’ll get better.

2. Case Group
What is a case group? A group of 3-4 like-minded people teaming up to prepare for case interviews.
The group tries to do regular practice, but there’ll constraints on few days, where everyone will not be
able to make it. That is completely fine, but the goal is to mutually learn from each other, motivate
each other and accelerate the combined learning curve of the group which will be better than individual
learning curve acceleration (The whole is bigger than the sum of the individual parts).
What is the criteria for the group? Personally, I just feel that the people should be like-minded people.
Try your best to get the folks who are interested in consulting so that everyone has the same focus.
This might not be possible sometimes, but try putting in that effort – Don’t worry about it too much.
In my case group last year, there was a good friend of mine (we were a 4 member team), who decided
towards the end that he wanted banking instead of consulting. We used to prepare regularly and he
wasn’t completely sure from the beginning whether he wanted consulting. But what clicked for us is
the like-mindedness of the group. The frequencies should match between the members of the group.
That should be the primary requirement for creating the group. Try your best to form a good group
of 3-4
Why is case group important? A lot of reasons – One reason is even when on one day, you’re down
and not motivated, you have a team to motivate and push you. This is extremely important. Another
reason is that until your actual case interview, the case group is the closest you’ll get to (on a regular
day to day basis) for one-one personalized case practice. Even if you make stupid blunders and
mistakes in the beginning, that is completely fine because it’ll be with your friends. I remember in the
beginning, there were few case practice sessions, where I was not even able to speak 1 line because I
had no clue how to start off the case. I screwed up several times but as a group we used to discuss
what I did wrong, what I should’ve done, what I did right etc. and that brainstorming added a lot of
value. That is where the case group becomes important and more value adding than preparing by
oneself.
How to go about the preparation using the case group? Usually, 1 person reads up a case from a case
book (lot of case books that ICON will send you, a lot are available on google etc). That person who
reads up the case and the case solution will ask the case to another person in the group. The first
person acts as the interviewer and the second person acts as the interviewee. The second person tries
to solve the case (using the case method which will be discussed later). The other 2 people observe.
It’ll be a good idea to note down the observations as you’ll tend to forget key learnings/issues towards
the end of the case. At the end of the case, whether the interviewee screws up or does the case really
well – the entire group discusses together on what went right and what went wrong. The combined
learning of the group increases drastically even after doing 1 case. Switch roles and repeat the same.
The group will accelerate through the learning curve in a brilliant way. That’s about it when it comes
to case group preparation.

3. Case prep workshops by the Consult firms

Almost all consult firms conduct a workshop a few weeks after releasing their shortlists. I don’t think
they evaluate candidates here. I remember going for a few workshops and not even speaking a single
word and later they were keen on me as well (the part about this will be discussed in the next
document). These workshops are for the firms to just to give some case preparation tips to the
shortlisted candidates. All shortlisted candidates will have to go for this. Honestly, in terms of learning
curve acceleration, these workshops did not add much as far as I’m concerned. But I used it as a
platform to ask few questions that I had about consulting and each of the firms that I got shortlisted
for in terms of the nature of work, support systems etc. (more on this will be covered later).
Nevertheless, you should go there for the workshops. Will give you exposure to a few different kinds
of cases which you’d probably have not thought of. Like for example, in one of the case prep
workshops conducted last year, I remember some case regarding construction of a stadium being
discussed. The client was the government and a few ministries. This case was solved as a group during
the case prep workshop. It was fun because when I heard the case, I had no clue how to go about it,
but during the group discussions, the brainstorming session helped open up a lot of thoughts in me.
Anyway, that’s just an example.
4. Online resources, ICON resources
ICON will be sending you guys a big list of case books and resources. Don’t get overwhelmed and
think “There’s so much material. Am I required to go through all this to study cases?” The answer is
No. They just send it because they have all the resources and don’t want you to miss out on anything.
You just need to use whatever you feel is apt. Some case books that ICON sends are really good.
There are a lot of online resources available. Googling “Cases for management consulting interviews”
will give you resources. Again, same as above. Not necessary that you need to go through everything.
The important point here is whether it is an ICON or an online resource, try your best to do the cases
from these resources in your groups. I’m not saying not to do it alone. I also did a few cases alone and
the learning was good. But when you make mistakes and learn, that learning will stay in your brain,
unlike just reading through the solution from these resources, which is like passive learning. You might
just forget it in 2 days. If you do that case in a group or with a friend and even if you screw up very
badly, the learning will stay and that is part of pro-active continuous learning.

5. Other Resources
I’ll explain this using an example. So I was attending a Corp. Fin lecture (term 2 course) and summer
placements was just a week or so away. I was moving through the learning curve and had started
enjoying solving cases. The Corp Fin class was supremely boring. I tried hard to listen but the prof
was just disastrous. Both people sitting on either side of me had been shortlisted for consults. I asked
both of them whether they’re interested in doing a case. I became the interviewer. I gave both of them
cases and the girl next to me gave me a case. These were cases I had done earlier with my case group
and what she had done earlier with her case group. We couldn’t really talk. So we wrote down the
questions that we would have asked if it had been an actual interview on a note book and kept passing
the notebook to each other. It was really good. I felt that that class added a lot of value. I’m not in
anyway asking people not to listen in class and do cases. I had listened to my other profs who were
good. And some of the concepts and learnings in Term 2 are really important. But if the prof is super-
boring and you find no value addition to yourself and you have a feeling that the money that you paid
for is more worth if you can spend that time doing cases in class like the way we did, I don’t see
anything wrong with it ☺
The point of giving this example is to show that there are no such constraints that you need to do
cases only with your case group or in a particular fashion. Once I started loving doing cases, I used to
create a random case and solve it while I was randomly walking around listening to music, later during
case group sessions, I used to ask the same case and depending on the response of my friends and the
sharing of learnings after that, our combined learning used to increase.
On that front, let me tell you just my personal view on this rat race mindset – That mindset will only
do you harm. It’s a negative thought. The group I was with was very collaborative and it was more of
a win-win than having this competitive “I want to be better than him” or “I want to be placed before
him” mindset. People tell me that “This is the way the world works” and my response “The world is
made of people. If assume in your 400 member batch, all of you just realize collaboration creates more
learning and is more win-win for either party than competition, then the mindset changes naturally.
When you realize that the competitive mindset is wrong, most importantly acknowledge that it IS
WRONG and turn to collaboration leading to more win-win for both parties. Anyway, that’s just my
take on it. It’s your call. I don’t want to force anyone to think a particular way. If you feel it’s logical,
just change your mindset and you can see how the world around you will change.

That’s about it from Case Prep Resources – Part 1. Next we’ll go to Case Prep Resources – Part 2,
which for me was the most important influence in accelerating my learning curve.
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

4. Case Prep Resources – Part 2

The Buddy System

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16
What is the buddy system for the candidates who are shortlisted
for consulting firms?

• After the shortlists are released, most of the consulting firms assign their consultants as ‘buddies’
to the shortlisted students.
• The firms understand that the students are not used to the case interviews. So, the objective of
this is to provide a support system to the shortlisted students in preparing for the case interviews.
• The buddy system also provides a direct platform for students to know more about the firms, the
kind of work the firms do, the various systems in the firms (for example, support systems for
work-life balance) and clarify any questions students may have in the time period between release
of shortlists and interviews.
• I will share with you how I handled my buddies. You just need to internalize any positive takeaways
from my approach. There is no cookie-cutter approach for all this.

How did I handle my buddies?

• Case Preparation:

a. I remember having been assigned ~7 buddies from the firms who shortlisted me.

b. These buddy folks have been working in the industry for quite some time and would have gone
through the same process of preparation all of us were going through. So most importantly, I was
convinced that they were the best resources at my disposal to accelerate my learning curve
to prepare for my interview.

c. Initially, I did find case solving hard because I was not used to solving problems the way they are
solved in case interviews. But like for everything, there is a learning curve everyone has to go
through to become proficient at it. So, I used all my buddies, did a lot of cases with them and my
roi in terms of time was most worth in time with my buddies.

d. Doing cases with friends and case prep groups was indeed good but the fact of the matter is all of
my friends as well as myself were at the lower part of that learning curve anyway. So, to accelerate
through the curve disruptively, the buddies were indeed the best resources available and I used
them extensively and I would recommend the same to others

e. It is not necessary that you use all your buddies as well. If you have certain preferences in terms
of companies, or after preliminary interaction with the buddies, you’re comfortable with some of
the buddies, you can just use them more. Just ensure that you maintain a healthy interaction with
the other buddies and do may be 1-2 cases with them as well. There was a buddy with whom I did
not do any cases, because my comfort level in discussing with the other buddies was far better.
• Judgment vs Evaluation

a. Most of the consults make it very clear in the beginning that the buddies have not been assigned
to judge the students and ask the students to make the best use of the buddies. The buddies
themselves might push the students over phone to prepare with them

b. While I was using most of my buddies to the maximum and having a lot of fun doing cases with
them after a point (I have to admit that I did screw up a few cases with them in the beginning, but
hey, we’re all learning. Such screw ups are inevitable ;) ), I had noticed that a few of my friends
were not using them at all. The reason they stated was that what if the buddies are judging us?
And what if we don’t perform well during the practice case interviews over phone? What if they
judge us and because of that we lose our chance.

c. The way I looked at it was this: First acknowledge that everyone has to go through that learning
curve and look at the buddies as resources at your disposal to go through that learning curve

d. Secondly, look at it the other way: If the consults are telling you that the buddies are not evaluating
you, and suppose you get an intern at that firm, you convert that into a PPO, get into that firm
and later turn out to be a buddy for some other candidate in the future. At that stage, if the consult
firm told you that you have to secretly judge the candidate without telling him that you’re judging,
that would mean that you were lied to when you were a candidate yourself. The possibility of a
bigshot firm doing something like this seemed very less. So I did not see any reason not to make
the best use of my buddies.

e. Now even if they were secretly judging, I was very clear that no matter what I want to improve
my case skills and use them anyway. If they’re secretly judging me, I really don’t give a damn. It’s
not like these consult firms are the be-all and end-all. Let them judge if they want. My objective
was learn and improve my case skills.

f. Just be yourself and be in your own character when you talk to them. If you let this judgment
thought affect you, it’s like an infinite loop and will kill your character – Your thought will be
something like “What if they’re judging me – leading to your true self character getting shadowed
under this thought – because of which when you talk to them – they seem to have more power
and you’re on defense – because of which you think they’re judging further – leading to your
character getting shadowed under that negative thought again – leads to an infinite loop and kills
your confidence and character”. So be yourself and always be in character.

g. Some of the buddies might make it explicitly clear that they’re assessing your case skills. But then
in that case, it is not judgment. It is pure evaluation, where everyone is evaluated the same way.
That is equivalent to an actual case interview and you have to try your best to perform. Else, you’ll
lose out. So don’t bring in the possible judgment thought anywhere during the buddy interaction.
That negative thought will only do you harm.
h. Only thing you need to ensure is to strike a balance and not overuse the buddies. They also have
time constraints and this is something they are doing beyond their routine work. So, even if I said
use/exploit them, it doesn’t mean that you have to keep bothering them all the time. You need to
find a balance. The maximum number of cases I did with a buddy was 10, where the first case was
a mega-disaster. And towards the end, it obviously got better.

i. Summary: I would suggest not to bring in thoughts of “Are they judging me?” into your mind.
That will kill your confidence and character. Use them wisely to accelerate your learning curve.
There might be screw ups in the beginning. But acknowledge all that as part of your learning and
strive to continuously improve.

• Showcase of Interest/ Hotlists

a. Towards the end, some of the firms might/might not showcase special interest in you, depending
on your profile / buddy evaluation (if any). I’ll tell you how I handled it. I’m not in any way stating
that this is the only approach, but worked perfectly for me.

b. I was just very honest with the firms. Towards the end, I knew my preferences within the consults
for which I got shortlisted. I just stated the same to them over phone, how much ever they insisted
/ pushed. The thought that summer placements aren’t the biggest thing on the planet and I’ve
anyway powered through life and come to IIMB really helped me.

c. Remember – It’s a 2 way evaluation. People completely forget that. If you play the game on
defense, you’re voluntarily giving them power which gradually kills your confidence.

d. Agreed. They’re bigshot consulting firms with a lot of brand value and career opportunities. So,
they have a lot of power. But you’re also equally powerful. From wherever you started off your
life, you’ve come all the way here and it is definitely not a small thing. When you acknowledge
that, you’ll feel powerful and confident for yourself making the power balance more or less equal.

e. I think this is the most reasonable and logical way to play the game and it has worked perfectly
for me. But people do use game theory with preferences etc. One - I really did not know how to
do all that and two – I did not want to get into that anyway. So, this is what worked for me. You
can use whatever you feel is the right approach.

f. If you feel it is the right way, just use it. Be confident for yourself. You have a unique character.
Don’t pledge your soul/character in front of the perceived power of these firms. Always
remember that it is a 2 way evaluation and summer placements or final placements are not the end
of the world. This thought will empower you with confidence to perform well and move forward,
not just for summers but throughout in life.
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

5. How to deal with Dinners for Consult-

Shortlisted Students?

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16
Why do consult firms have dinners with shortlisted students and
how to deal with these dinners?

• Most consulting firms organize dinners close to the actual summer placement date. If they’re
going to put in time and effort to fly in their consultants from different parts of the
country/globe keeping aside client work and other important commitments, there should be
a valid reason apart from just having dinner with shortlisted students. It’s a cost investment
for them and they’ll definitely have something in mind as part of return on this investment.

• Do not think of the reason as them wanting to judge you. That is the negative way of looking
at it. Look at it as the firms wanting to genuinely evaluate you. When you look at it as them
wanting to judge you, that creates a negative thought and like I mentioned in the previous
document regarding how to deal with buddies, that negative thought turns into an infinite loop
and kills your confidence and character

• When you look at it from the perspective of them wanting to evaluate you, and combine that
thought with another thought that you also want to evaluate that firm as to whether you’d like
working there, it becomes a more or less level playing ground. Do not give them power. It
doesn’t mean that you should act all bossy and arrogant (in that case, you can consider your
chances killed by yourself), but think of it as a normal 2 way evaluation ensuring power balance.

• Consulting is a service oriented industry. The resources for these firms are people and their
thinking/analytical ability and talent. This will be primarily tested during your case interviews.
But in addition, there is also a people skills/likeability aspect of the candidates. Since the
primary resources are people and since the industry is a client-service oriented industry, the
firms will definitely want to know whether a particular candidate can be put in front of their
clients / whether the candidate is a good fit for their team etc. They would want to know
whether a candidate, who might be good at analytical skills, is also good at dealing with people.
And in a case interview, the time might be too short for them to evaluate these traits. I’m not
saying that all consult firms do this evaluation during dinners, but I feel it is reasonable for
them to evaluate because it is the industry requirement. If I were running a consulting firm, I
would definitely do it because getting the candidates without the necessary people skills might
put the entire company’s value and reputation at stake.

• You might be the best brain on the planet – And you might say that you can solve any case
on the planet. But that really doesn’t mean that you’re meant to be a consultant. The
communication and likeability aspect is also a big factor in this industry. It doesn’t mean that
you should a**lick or have a favoritism mindset – That is totally wrong. People skills basically
means you should be empathetic, take other people’s perspectives, admit mistakes if you
realize you’re wrong and overall be a fun person to be in a team. During the dinners, if they’re
 going to evaluate you and you evaluate them, their mindset will be “Will I want to have this
kid on my team” and your mindset should be “Will I want to work with this guy” who you
can consider as a representative sample of that firm. If these are the mindsets of the people
during the dinners, the dinners will turn out to be fun events.

How does it generally work?

• There will be a buffet with food which is definitely better than the mess food. So, it is
completely worth going for the dinners at least for the food. ;) Moreover, you don’t have an
option but to go since now you want to evaluate them as much as you think they want to
evaluate you. But anyway, for me, that’s about the main thing – the food. Let’s get to the less
important factors ( #sarcarm101 :P )

• There will be a few tables (5-6 students per table) and at least, how it worked for the companies
I went for – Those consultants take rounds. Like if there are 6 consultants from the firm, each
of them sit at each table for some time, asks everyone small introductions and then opens for
questions from the candidates. The candidates ask questions, the conversations happen and
the consultants switch with time between tables. That’s about it. (Don’t forget to have food
in the process of asking questions. Remember – You don’t want to go back to mess and have
the food there)

What questions to ask?

• First of all, acknowledge that it is a 2 way evaluation. Kill the negative thought that they’re
there to judge you which will kill your confidence and character to even talk properly. When
you acknowledge that it is a 2 way evaluation, realize that whatever will happen during the
dinners should be more of a 2 way conversation between friends, with the candidates having
to give the company folks a little extra respect, primarily due to the extra life experience and
service in the industry. That’s about it. The tone of the conversation will be set when you
acknowledge that. Next is what all questions to ask?

• Lol. This is funny. So I’ve seen people writing down a long list of questions, memorizing
them and just shooting them to the partners/consultants, without knowing that they can
easily see through all this. You know that their mindset is to see whether you’re a fun genuine
person to be with. When you memorize and state something, people can easily make out. I’m
not blaming my friends for doing what they did, because they were primarily affected by the
negative “They’re here to judge me. If I don’t ask, I will not get placed in summers. I need to
ask a lot of questions so that at least they get my attention” mindset. I think I’ve stated this
same point several times and I will not be repeating again. That mindset will not do you any
good. If I were a consultant sitting on the other side, it’ll be super-easy for me to see through
all this.
 • While sitting through their ppts, you’ll naturally have a lot of questions that come into your
head. For me, before even any of the shortlists came, the only real question I was bothered
about when it came to consulting was “How is the work-life balance in consulting?” and
nothing else. But when I sat through the ppts and just listened to the speakers speak, a lot of
questions naturally came in – Like for instance certain consulting firms have special
capabilities in certain sectors. I knew for a fact that my interests were not in finance. So when
I researched with a few friends of mine after listening to the ppts, I knew which all consult
firms were more into finance. That popped up a few questions in me. Likewise, the questions
that come into your mind are specific to the mapping you do between your unique skills and
capabilities / interests with the kind of work the different consult firms so. Do not worry
about it one bit at this stage when you’re reading this document. Just go listen properly during
the ppts and you’ll get the questions you want to get answered naturally. The only thing is
that you need to put in the effort to listen.

What else apart from questions?

• So you have a few questions ready in your mind. Do not memorize and all that. You’ll naturally
remember all this during your dinners, because it’s a 2 way evaluation and you would genuinely
want to know certain things and you can just ask those questions. In addition to this, there are
2 important things you need to do

• Give way: You have a few genuine questions that you need to ask them. But acknowledge the
fact that your friends also will have questions (Whether they’re genuine questions or they’ve
memorized questions is not the point). Don’t take life so seriously and think of it as you want
all your questions answered. If some questions are not answered, you can ask them after the
dinner in person as well. But during the dinner, you need to give way as well. Obviously, if
you keep on asking questions, the person who is evaluating you might want to evaluate others
as well and you would seem like a barrier to his objective. So not giving way would hurt your
chances in a way. So, do give way and make it like a fun group conversation.

• Listen to the conversations: I feel this is the most important part. I feel a lot of people miss
out on this. They just ask a question, get it answered and kind of isolate themselves from the
rest of the conversations thinking that “Yes. I’ve asked my question. The consultant has
noticed me”. That is just bullsh*t. That mindset will not really do you any good, not just for
the dinners/summer placements but in life. You need to listen to all conversations happening.
There might be things you never thought of that your friends might bring up that will be a
new learning for you. You can learn a lot from that. In addition, it can bring in new thoughts
in you as a result of which you’d want to know other genuine stuff that you hadn’t thought of
earlier, and you can ask that. Like I mentioned, make it a fun group conversation.

• I’ll give you an example from one of the dinners from last time. So I had asked something
(honestly don’t remember what it was) to the consultant. He was answering. In between, he
suddenly got some message on his phone and he checked it. He hadn’t finished answering and
 I was waiting for him to finish the answer. After checking his message, he just started to
complete the answer. Immediately, a friend of mine sitting on the next seat shot a question,
which had absolutely no connection whatsoever with the conversation we were having and
the partner got stunned. There was a few seconds of silence and he told my friend to wait until
he finishes answering my question. My friend wasn’t listening to the previous conversation. I
felt he kind of killed his chance there. Later a few of my friends came to me for few tips on
handling the next few dinners. I just told them to ask genuine questions, give way and listen
attentively. When some of them told me they were finding it really hard to engage in
conversations and even open their mouth, I even told a few of them to just attentively, analyze
the conversation in their head and if they have thoughts, just start using lines like “Ok. So, just
to add on to what we discussed, what about (question)” Listening will make it super-easy to
carry on conversations. These are all very basic stuff, but the whole negative judgment thought
completely makes a lot of people play their game on defense and makes them someone who
they’re not killing their confidence and character.

• I used to hog the food during the dinners like crazy. Did not really care about what the
consultants would’ve thought. Not saying that everyone should do it that way, but I’m a big
foodie and couldn’t stop any such cravings of mine because of a thought of what others might
think if they see me eat. Think about it – You’re going to be possibly working with those
people for a large part of your life. If every time you’re going to eat food, you’ll have to be
bothered about what others think about the way you eat or way you talk (the same negative
judgment thought), you’ll never have time to enjoy the food, be yourself and be happy.

• Another memory from one of last year’s dinners was – So an HR female who was good looking
was coming to the table where I was seated. Most of the dinners I had attended it had all been
guys and I was finally really glad to see a decent looking lady. The previous consultant on our
table had mentioned earlier that she was in HR. So she came and sat at the table. After a small
round of introductions, she asked “Any questions?” Knowing that she was in HR and she
herself asking the group whether there are any questions, I just asked the first question that
came to my mind at that moment with an innocent smile “How many interns are you planning
to hire this time? ;) ” That was an icebreaker for her with that group. Everyone had a small
laugh. She also had a laugh and that started off the conversation in that table. Later, I was on
the hotlist of that consult firm as well. Honestly, I did not do it intentionally. The thought just
came at that point when I saw her. It’s not that I went there prepared with that question,
knowing that this woman will come sit on the table.

• Point of all this being, just be yourself and ask genuine questions – whatever you feel like
whenever you feel like asking – just ask it. You can go prepared if you want to – But be genuine
in your questions after listening to the ppts – Don’t memorize – People will be able to see
through easily. Importantly, give way to questions of others. Listen to others and the
conversation overall. You’ll get intrigued by the way the conversation will head. Everyone is
awesome and when everyone just acts as themselves, the conversations at the dinners will
naturally turn out to be fun. And if it’s meant to be and if you deserve that company and that
company deserves you, it’ll work out. Either way, think of it as a win-win for both parties.
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

6. How to deal with the actual interviews?

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

1
How do you deal with the actual interviews?

This is a relatively subjective area. Again, I will explain how I went about it. Take whatever you feel is
apt for you. I don’t think this is applicable only for consults, but is apt for other fields as well. Broadly,
I knew there would be 2 parameters on which they’ll evaluate me during the interviews
• Problem Solving Skills
• People Skills
This is just a very broad way to categorize the parameters. These 2 can be broken down further into
different parameters as well and different companies might say that they have n number of parameters,
but I feel all of the parameters evaluated during an interview can be combined under these 2 verticals.
1. Problem Solving Skills

From the interviewer’s perspective, this refers to the core skill that they’re mapping their
candidate to and seeing whether he/she is good at. For consulting, this refers to the candidates
abilities to solve the cases that are given during the interviews. For marketing, this refers to
the candidate’s abilities to know marketing stuff (Stuff like 5Cs, 4Ps etc. and questions around
that). Same is the case with other fields like Finance, Ops, GenMan etc. As far as consulting
goes, I’ll be sharing in the further documents (Document 7 onwards) my learnings from my
case preparation – the various frameworks I used and how I went about it. Most of these
learnings can be easily applied to the other fields like marketing, genman, fin etc. The problem
solving skills can be honed using resources already mentioned in Doc. 3 and Doc. 4. So,
basically this is the core skill that they’ll test you on and the work that you’ll do in whichever
firm you interview for will be similar to this skill that they’ll test you. Everything else that is
tested during an interview – I categorize under people skills.

2. People Skills

Everything that they’ll test you on apart from the above mentioned core skills/problem
solving skills, I categorize under people skills. I believe the basic question they’re trying to
answer is “Will this chap will be a good fit into our firm?” I feel that these skills are equally
important to the problem solving skills. As mentioned in one of my earlier documents, you
might have the best problem solving skills, but unless they feel you’re fit as a person for that
profile, you cannot blame them for not taking you. They would’ve possibly tested part of this
during the consult dinners, may be during the buddy evaluations (if they might have stated it
upfront), but I’m sure there’ll be a part during the actual interviews as well where they test the
candidate on the same parameter. Again, the question here is not to see whether the candidate
can a**lick and put random CP – If I were sitting on the other side, I’ll be able to see through
this very easily. If I were the interviewer, I would want to know whether this candidate is a
fun person to include on my team. Primarily, the questions under People skills can be broken

2
 down into 2, and both are targeted at evaluating whether the candidate is a good fit for the
firm.
• Resume based questions: Your resume has been finalized and there is nothing you can do at
this stage to change your points. Just ensure that you know A-Z of your resume. They can
ask you anything from your CV. The onus is completely on the candidate to know his CV in
and out. The resume based questions and the HR questions might overlap with each other as
well. But ensure that you’re thorough with your CV.

• HR questions: There are a lot of standard HR questions. Please DO NOT just write down
and mug the answers for these questions. The interviewers will be able to see through. May
be you can write down a few bullet points for these standard questions and remember the
bullets and during the interview, if and when that question is asked, just use the bullet points
as the base and answer the questions like a normal human being and not a like a machine just
speaking out the answers. The important point to be noted here, which I feel a lot of people
miss out, is it should seem like a conversation. Remember that it is a 2 way evaluation,
which makes it easier for candidates to turn it into a conversation with some senior, giving
him/her extra respect for the experience in the industry. That’s it. Don’t make it complicated.
A question like “Tell me about yourself” does not have a standardized answer by the way.
Last time I remember, while I was preparing a friend for his interview, and I asked him what
his response to “Tell me about yourself” was and he started just speaking out the answer he
mugged up and it was so boring. What I told him is what I’m telling you guys here. Imagine
yourself in the position of the interviewer. If someone starts talking like a machine, can you
really expect the interviewer to think “Yes. This person is definitely fit for the firm and I’d
love to work with him/her”. NO. Definitely not. Now, the question is what exactly should
you say for a question such as “Tell me about yourself?” –

o First acknowledge that your answer will be unique to yourself and you cannot expect
someone else’s answer to work out for you.

o Second, just think back to your past life and write down unique things that you’ve done.
I’ll give you a personal example. I had plenty of stuff to write. When I was working as a
manager at ITC, I was single handedly in charge of setting up a plant where I had to
handle 100 odd people daily, learn and understand multiple engineering fields like civil,
electrical, mechanical, fire systems and a lot more. I had nobody under me from ITC’s
side to assist me in the process and I was able to complete my project. From my past, this
was by far my most unique point. And I was very clear that if I’m asked this tell me about
yourself question, there is no way I’m not talking about this. However I start my answer,
I wanted to bring it to this point so that my key managerial and technical skills could be
conveyed. Now, your question might be “But I don’t have anything unique that has
happened to me”. My answer to that “That is just bullsh*t”. Everyone will have atleast
one unique story (if not more) that they can use as a leverage. It’s just about putting in
some effort to find that story, which is just about scanning through your memory. Say
for instance I were a fresher and did not have such a strong story as my ITC story. I still
had several stories to talk about like the internships I did or events I conducted etc. For

3
 me, one story that I would’ve said in case I were a fresher is the story of how I came
down from the bottom of my class when I started my undergrad to the top of the class.
The same story is what I used in my ITC intern interview. I was a civil engineer and ITC
was looking for mech/elec folks. My story seemed unique to the interviewer, I got
selected and converted the intern into a PPO. That’s beside the point. The message is
that you’ll all have atleast one story. Be positive, put in some effort, and think back and
you’ll find something or the other unique about yourself. Worst case, even if you don’t
find something, just talk about your interests and character a little bit and end with how
you’ll fit into the company you’re interviewing with. That’ll be a boring way to answer the
question. So do put in that effort to find out something unique about your life story.

o The Start : Don’t worry too much about the start. People are usually too bothered about
“how do I even start answering this question. The question sounds so open ended”
Remember that the start really doesn’t matter so long as you have something unique to
talk about as part of the content. The start can be as boring as “I’m ABC from (location).
Post completing my undergrad from XYZ college, I worked at XXX company as an
engineer/manager/CA. I’ll tell you something very unique that I did at this place” and
give your pitch. Even if the start is boring, if you can convey the story with passion and
confidence, the fact that the start was boring will be shadowed in the strength of your
story. If you can think of a good start, obviously it’ll be better. But you need to create
hook for yourself and control the interview as per what you want and don’t voluntarily
give away power to the interviewer.

o The timing: Don’t make it too long. The interviewer just wants to break the ice and is just
randomly asking a starter question. Don’t go on for 5 mins on this. 2 mins max. will do.
Atleast this is what I did. Don’t ramble on and on and get your chances killed.

o Additional Unique points: So, I was very clear that I’m going to make my pitch solid. So
in the file that I had carried with me, which had all my certificates, CV copies etc, I also
carried a document which had pictures of the factory that I set up. I asked the interviewer
whether he’d be interested to see the pictures. He was more than interested. I showed
him a few pictures, told him that “See. This was how the plot of land was before I started
my project as a manager. After I completed my project, that bare plot of land got
converted into this full-fledged factory with machinery, lighting, fire systems, equipments
etc” And the moment I showed him the photos, I was sure I nailed it and I could see that
in the interviewer’s eyes. So I thought I should mention this to you guys so that you can
get ideas for yourself on how to pitch yourself uniquely. Don’t stick to conventions. Take
a few risks. It’ll pay off and even if it doesn’t pay off, you’ll be glad you tried and won’t
have regrets. I understand that all of you have come all the way to IIMB and some of you
might be thinking “This is all basic stuff”. Agreed. But during the interview time, the
amount of tension people seem to take is too much for a lot of unnecessary stuff. When
you acknowledge that summers aren’t the biggest thing on the planet, it’ll give you peace
of mind and help you think about answers to your questions better, articulate them better
and give a solid pitch

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 o There are a lot of such HR questions. Don’t take tension. Just go through the questions.
Have some broad bullet points ready for each questions. Don’t memorize any answers
by the word. Just be yourself, be genuine and you’ll all do fine.

Overall, I would suggest to look at the interview as a 2 way evaluation so that there is power balance
between both the parties. I know I’ve been repeating this point again and again. I’m doing it
intentionally so that the point is drilled into your brain. I would really suggest that you folks read the
below link. Last year, after I got placed in summers, I was really disturbed that there were a lot of my
friends who were finding it hard to crack the interviews and getting supremely stressed for summers.
I had written the below blog post and a lot of my friends mentioned it really helped them gain the
confidence that was missing in them. It is quite a long post. Don’t read it now. But definitely read it
before the actual summer placement day. It will really help you – Guaranteed !!!
http://zindaginamilegidobaraa.blogspot.in/2014/11/taking-control.html
That’s about it from the perspective of handling the interviews. I believe I’ve kind of covered all points
as part of the process of getting into a consulting firm. And finally, whether you convert or not is
out of your control. Only thing you can do is put in effort. Sometimes, the interviewer that you’re
allotted to might just be an a** and you have absolutely no control over that. Even if you’re awesome
at case solving and even if you’re people skills are good, there are chances that you might not convert.
Look at it positively that if you were to work with such people in that company, you’d go crazy yourself
and someday you might turn out to be an a** like that interviewer. So even if you put in effort and
not convert, just take it with a light mindset. This attitude will help you have peace of mind and nail
your interviews.
Do your preparations collaboratively and not competitively. Collaborative learning is any day more
win-win for you and your friends preparing. A competitive mindset will only create a negative “I need
to be better than him/her” thought. And finally, whoever wins, just take it in the right spirit and think
of it as “Yes, the best person won. The company got the right person. The person got the right
company” I’m not trying to globe. These are simple things, but people completely forget that we’re
all here as a family.
Anyway, that’s about it. From the next document onwards, I’ll be giving you my case solving tips. Like
always, the same old disclaimer – Do not think that my way is the only way. These are just my learnings
from my summer placement prep last year. There will definitely be things in addition to this, which
you’ll have to be open to. Consider yourself like a continuous learning machine – Use whatever
positive takeaways from my learnings as the base and power through forward collaboratively with each
other so that your learning is maximized.

The documents that follow will give you an idea about my learnings from last year’s case preparation.
These learnings can be applied for all fields – marketing, genman, finance, ops. etc

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Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

7. What is a Case?
What is the Case Method?
What are some important Consulting
terms and norms?
What are the different types of Cases?

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

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Now, we’ll get into the tips on Problem Solving for interviews. This document will be a slightly long
one. Read it with utmost attention, because this document will set your case preparation foundation
as well as the base for the documents that follow. Even if it takes you some time, go through this
document slowly, internalizing every concept. If you do not understand this document, the documents
that follow will be hard to understand. So ensure that you focus completely so that the concepts are
drilled into your brain and completely internalized.

What is a Case?

Keeping it very simple, a case is any business situation that is causing concern to the
management of a company. It’s as simple as that. For ease of communication, let’s take a simple
example that all of you will be able to relate to.
1. Hypothetical Case 1: The client is the management of Au Bon Pain (ABP). Let’s call ABP’s CEO
- Mr ABP. Assume for simplicity, that Mr. ABP has only 2 ABP restaurants. One is located at
IIMB and the other is located somewhere near MG Road. Mr ABP stays near Indira Nagar and
for convenience, he had set up his corporate office in Indira Nagar. Sitting in his fancy office in
Indira Nagar, leaning on his comfortable chair, he looks at how his company has been doing over
the last few months by looking at ABP’s balance sheet and income statement. Suddenly, he notices
that the total profits per month has been on the decline over the last few months. Sitting in his
office in Indira Nagar, he has absolutely no idea how/why this is happening. His sales, marketing
and operations teams had given their forecasts of revenue and cost projections, but he still has no
clue why his profits have been going down. His resources have their own routine work to do. He
cannot afford to ask them to keep that work aside and help him out to solve this problem.
(Remember the “economies of scale” reason I had mentioned in Document 1 as to why and how
Consulting firms add value – This is the reason. Mr. ABP cannot afford to use his regular resources
for solving this problem). So Mr ABP has hired you (the consultant) to analyze this situation and
give him recommendations on how to solve the problem. This business situation ABP is facing is
an example of a very simple case. The only brief that Mr. ABP tells the consultant is that the
company profits have been going down. Please analyze the situation and give
recommendations. It is as open ended as that. (We’ll come back to this case later, but the point
was to convey what a case means)
A case is as simple as this. If you’re thinking about “Man. Where do I even start solving this problem?”
That’s ok. The Case Method of solving problems teaches you the most logical way of solving such
problems. With time and practice, you’ll be able to solve such problems with so much ease, even if
you have absolutely no clue where/how to start when you’re reading this document for the first time.
But the point of this section was to convey what exactly a case is – Cases are any business situations
that create concerns for the top management of a company. Now, let’s go to the approach that needs
to be followed for solving cases – The Case Method.

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What is the Case Method of Solving Case Problems?
As mentioned in the previous section, the questions from the client will be very broad and open ended.
To summarize the approach of the Case Method in one line –
“Understand a little bit of the business context of the client, Set the objective/goal function. reverse
engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE at each stage of this
reverse engineering process to drill down to the core problem, understand what the current system is
to tackle this problem and based on this data based analysis, provide recommendations to the client.”
If you did not understand most of what I wrote above, it’s completely fine. I just wanted to mess
around a little with you guys ;-). I’ll explain each part of that statement so you have much more clarity.
I will use the ABP case as an example to explain the statement I just made.
For more simplicity, assume that each ABP restaurant has only 2 products sold – Mango Lassi and
Hot Chocolate. And suppose the actual reason for ABP’s profits going down is that in the IIMB ABP
restaurant, the level of service (in terms of friendliness, responsiveness etc) from the staff has come
down because of which the customers (students/professors/others etc) are not coming to ABP as
often as they used to come. This has led to demand coming down as a result of which the revenue is
down as a result of which profits are down for ABP.
Now as a candidate listening to the case question, you are asked only the following and you have
absolutely no idea that the answer is due to the reduced levels of service from the staff. You’re
expected to drill down to the core problem logically and give recommendations. The case question
asked will just have the following:
“Mr. ABP from Au Bon Pain (Bangalore-based restaurant chain) has hired you. The client’s
profit numbers have been down. Please find out the problem that the client is facing and give
recommendations to improve the profits.”
Like I had mentioned in the start of this page, I’ll be breaking down/splitting that long scary line that
I wrote at the start of the page and will explain what each part means. I’ll explain the specific
frameworks for different case situations in detail in later documents, but as part of solving this case,
I’ll just use a simple broad framework. For the sake of making the case method really clear, I’ll be
going to extreme level of detail for the ABP case, so that everyone has complete clarity on how to go
about solving a case.
Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:

• After the case question is asked, acknowledge that you’ll be blanked out for 3-4 seconds, for you
to internalize the question. The most important thing here is NOT TO PANIC. Before proceeding
forward and finding out the problem, you need to understand a bit of the context under which
the client is working. Don’t ask too many questions. May be a minute or so you can spend on this.
• In management consulting, a terminology that is commonly used is “Structuring the problem”
which basically means logically deciding on how you’re going to attack the problem. That’s all.
• So to understand the context you can state something like “Before structuring and proceeding
with solving this problem, I’d like to ask you a few preliminary questions to understand a

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 little bit about the client. Is that ok?” to which the interviewer almost always says yes because
they expect you to ask a few questions before you start structuring and solving the problem.
• Once again, structuring just means deciding what approach to follow to solve the problem.
• In the ABP case, you can ask a few context questions like
“So can I assume that ABP is like any other normal restaurant chain or is there anything specific that
I need to know” – Eventhough ABP as a restaurant might be known to you, you shouldn’t make any
assumptions. Just clarify with the interviewer before proceeding forward. Answer: “Yes”
“How long has the client been observing a fall in profits” – To understand when the problem would’ve
started. Answer: “3 months”
“How many stores does ABP have in Bangalore? ” Answer: “1 in IIMB and 1 in MG Road”
“What kind of products does ABP serve?” Answer “Mango Lassi and Hot Chocolate”
One question that I specifically ask in Step 1 (some of my friends used to ask this later) is
“Do we have any data to show that the fall in profits for ABP is specific to ABP or is it something
that ABP’s competitors/food industry as a whole is facing.” The reason why I ask this question at this
early stage is to check whether it is an internal client problem or an external industry problem. In my
next document, I’ll show you an example of how this question at this stage can be really powerful.
Most of the time, it will be an internal problem that the client faces.
Answer: “No. Industry is doing fine. This is an ABP specific problem”

• If you have no idea at all about the industry (like I had difficulty understanding Pharma, Insurance
and some other industires in the beginning), you might have to spend more time in Step 1.
• I used to ask questions like “I’m not completely aware of this industry. Can I tell you what I know
about this industry and before proceeding forward, I’d like to know whether there’s something
more I need to be aware of this industry as part of solving this case”.
• Tell the interviewer and the interviewer will help you out with more inputs about the industry.
The best part of consulting is this – You don’t need to know anything about any industry.
I’m not kidding. Just be logical and if you have no idea, you can just ask the interviewer directly
and that chap will help you out.
• Now you have some sense of what ABP is into – They have 2 stores, their products are known to
you and the fact that their profits have been down for the last 3 months is known to you.
• Before Step 1, you just knew that profits were down and absolutely nothing else. Now, you know
a little more information. Obviously, you can keep on asking context questions, but that will lead
you nowhere. You need to start solving the problem as well. After getting sufficient context details,
you need to start structuring the problem.
• With practice, you’ll know what all questions to ask in Step 1 and you’ll kind of figure out where
to draw the line between Step 1 and Step 2. Now, let’s move to Step 2.

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Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function

• Although the case question was to figure out ways to improve profits, you’re kind of expected to
restate/paraphrase the question on the lines of something like “Ok. So ABP, our client - a fast
food restaurant chain with 2 restaurants in Bangalore is experiencing a fall in profits. We’ve figured
out it is an internal client-specific problem. We need to help them figure out the reason and see
how to improve profits. Is that our only objective or is there any other objective as well or Can I
proceed forward with profits as our objective?”
• Ensure you cross check whether there are other objectives as well. I’ve gone through few prep.
interviews where there are multiple objectives that the clients will have. I feel these are rare when
it comes to B-School consult interviews, but do a check with the interviewer anyway.
• After he says “Yes”, ask him for a few seconds to structure the problem before proceeding
forward. The thing with a consult interview that I feel a lot of people miss out is to buy in the
interviewer and check with the interviewer at every level on the approach forward before you start
working on the problem.
• At every stage, whenever you’re writing something on the rough sheet you’ll have or whenever
you’re talking about something, you should’ve got an OK from the interviewer on the approach
you’re going to take. So here, he says “Yes” again to you asking whether you can take a few seconds
to structure the problem.

Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE
at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
This is the most important part of the Case Method. Step 4 and Step 5 will follow from this step and
how well you perform in Step 3 will kind of decide whether you convert the interview or not. If you
do not know what reverse engineering means – it just means logically working from backwards. As in,
in this ABP case the staff service levels were down leading to reduction in customers leading to
reduction in revenue of ABP IIMB leading to reduction in revenue of ABP Ltd. leading to fall in
profits. But during the start of the case, you’re only told that profits of ABP Ltd. are down and you’re
supposed to find out the problem. So you’ll have to work backwards and at each stage when you work
backwards, you’ll have to ensure that you state out all possible options at that stage (will be clear
shortly). This idea of including all options at every stage when you work backwards is called MECE
(Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive).
MECE is a very common consulting terminology and more on MECE will be covered in a later section
in this document. The most important thing is that the case analysis should be completely data based.
Because when you work backwards, you can only proceed further backward if you backup with data.
Will be clear in the following analysis. In the ABP case, the structuring will be something like this
Level 0 – Objective: Profits (You do not have to write Level 0 and
show the interviewer. I’m writing it so that you guys understand)
Level 1 Revenue – Costs (You’ve started the process of working backwards. At
this level, you’ve covered all options – Profits = (Revenue – Costs) – Revenue is completely different
from costs (They’re Mutually exclusive) and Revenue – Costs together make profits (Both together

5
are Collectively Exhaustive) Hence, at Level 1, you’ve MECEed all required variables. Sounds simple.
But will get complicated with difficult cases.
Now before proceeding further backwards, you need data. So you need to ask for data. The following
conversation will make it clear. Before this, we had asked the interviewer some time to structure the
problem. Here the structuring is fairly simple.
Candidate: “So Profits = Revenue – Costs. Do we have any data from the client to show that either
the total revenue has been going down or the total costs have been going up or both together are
happening?”
The interviewer answers: “The Revenue has been dropping over the last few months. Costs are under
control” In an actual industry assignment, this data will directly be available from the company balance
sheets of ABP Ltd.
Candidate: “Ok. So, I’ll not be looking at costs any further. I’ll drill down further on the Revenue side
to see where the problem is. Hope that is fine?” (Important point to be noted: The interviewer needs
to be bought in before proceeding further after every level)
Interviewer: “Yes. Please go ahead”
Candidate (after thinking for a few seconds) breaks the problem down further
Level 2: Total Revenue of ABP Ltd. = Revenue of ABP MG Road + Revenue of ABP IIMB
(You can see that both variables together are MECE for the Total Revenue variable. Now you can see
that you further need data to proceed further. So you ask)
Candidate: “As discussed before, ABP Ltd. has 2 stores. Total Revenue of ABP Ltd. can be broken
down into Rev. of ABP MG Road + Rev. of ABP IIMB. Do we have any data from the client
indicating that either of these revenue figures or both of these revenue figures are not matching the
projections and have been going down”
Interviewer: “Yes. The ABP IIMB revenue figures have been going down and are not matching the
expectations. ABP MG Road is fine”
Candidate: “Ok. So I’m limiting my scope of further analysis only to ABP IIMB and will not be looking
at ABP MG Road. Hope that is fine?” (Again, buy in the interviewer before proceeding forward)
Interviewer: “Yes. Please go ahead”
Level 3: Monthly Revenue of ABP IIMB = Price of products*Volume of products sold*Product mix
Product mix in this case refers to the Hot Chocolate (HC) + the Mango Lassi(ML). So in reality the
Revenue is actually = Price(HC)*Monthly Volume Sold(HC) + Price(ML)*Monthly Volume sold(ML)
assuming no price variations in that month. Again you can see that when you break down the variables
are MECEed. All possible options are covered. You do not have to write it down to this level and
show the interviewer. You just need to write it at the level shown at Level 4 written above and tell him
as follows:

6
Candidate (After thinking/writing down Level 4 structure on paper): “Monthly Revenue of ABP IIMB
= Price of products*Volume of products sold*Product mix. Do we have any data from the client to
show that for either or both of the products, the price has come down or the volume has come down.
(Please note that if the price has come down, the volume can go up as well – Supply demand
equilibrium concept but that is not the case here because we had set the problem in the beginning as
bad service leading to lesser number of customers coming in leading to lesser volume sold and nothing
related to the price)
Interviewer: “The prices for both the products have remained stable. However, data shows that the
volume of both the products sold has come down drastically at the ABP IIMB Store in the last few
months”
Candidate: “Ok. So that means prices of products are not the issue. I’ll drill down further on possible
reasons why the volumes would have come down for both products. Hope that is fine”
Interviewer: “Yes. Please go ahead”
Level 4: Volumes sold can go down due to 2 possible reasons – Either the demand from the
customer’s side has gone down OR the supply of products from ABP IIMB has gone down. Again at
this level, we have MECEed the variables. The reason for both these variables having gone down
could be plenty fold. Do not randomly start give reasons.
Candidate: “So if volumes have gone down, it’s either a demand drop from the customers or a supply
drop from ABP. Do we have any data from the client to indicate whether it is either of this or both
of this together happening?”
Interviewer: “From the supply side, there is absolutely no issues. The client had made the projections
and their operations were in line to supply as per projected requirements. But demand has gone down”
Candidate: “Ok. So I’ll limit the scope of further analysis only to the possible reasons why the demand
could’ve dropped. So broadly before I drill down on possible reasons why demand has gone down,
do we have any information on the competition for ABP IIMB. The reason why I’m asking this is to
see whether I need to look at something that the competition has been doing better than us because
of which customer are going to the competitors or something that we’ve not been doing as well as
compared to what we were before”
(I did not really break down into another level for showing the effect of competition, because it is an
obvious observation. If it wasn’t such an obvious observation for you or it did not strike you, don’t
worry. Just give it some time and practice – More on this will be discussed in a later section called
“Competitive Benchmarking / Industry Benchmarking. Now don’t worry about it and just proceed
forward with the ABP case)
Interviewer: “We do have some competition in the area. There are a couple of stores – Athicas, Amul,
PnE, NC etc. but they haven’t been doing anything different for a long time. So competition has been
indifferent for almost a year.”
Candidate: “That means that it is clearly an internal issue. Something that we were doing right
sometime back is not being done properly because of which the customers coming in have gone down
because of which volumes sold have gone down. Can I take a few seconds to think of possible reasons
7
why this can happen? For that, I’m going to assume myself as a typical customer and break down my
journey to the restaurant and back and look at possible reasons where the bottlenecks could’ve
happened. Is that approach fine?” (The Customer Journey Analysis is one of the most powerful tools
to uncover bottlenecks FYI as part of solving cases)
Interviewer: “Yes. Please go ahead”
Now comes the real breaking down part. The skill that is generally checked is the ability of the
candidate to break down logically and sequentially.
Level 5: Broadly all parameters that affect the customer can be put into 2 buckets
External Factors (Before entering the restaurant and after leaving the restaurant) + Internal Factors
(All that the customer experiences inside the restaurant) - MECEed
Do not just say “External factors + Internal factors” That is too generic.
External Factors include variables like Availability of good car parking + External Ambience +
Security Guard Behaviour etc.
Just because you know ABP doesn’t have car parking or security, don’t make such assumptions. If
you’re making assumptions, state it out loud.
Internal factors include variables like internal ambience, waiting time in the queue, staff service
quality, food quality, convenience (like ease of payment) etc.
Candidate: “So broadly the variables affecting the customer’s journey include external factors like car
parking availability, external ambience, security guard behavior etc. and internal factors like internal
ambience, waiting time in the queue, staff service quality, food quality, convenience (like ease of
payment) etc. I think I’ve covered a lot of the variables. Do you want me to think of other variables
as well? If not, do we have some data to show that any of these variables have been bottlenecks over
the last few months” (Please note that when I asked him whether I need to think of
other variables other than what I mentioned, I’m implicitly making it MECE because at this level,
there is a fair chance people might miss out variables. So play safe, make that statement and ensure
that you MECE it)
Interviewer: “No. You don’t have to think of other parameters. We have data to show that the staff
service levels have come down over the last few months. The customer surveys show that the staff
have become rather unfriendly and not responding well because of which the incoming traffic has
reduced. So you have drilled down to the core problem. Now please come up with recommendations.
If it’s an actual consulting assignment and it reaches this level, to collect the data, you’ll probably need
field visits to the ABP IIMB restaurant and get data to prove to the client the core problem which has
resulted in the profits going down. At every level for that matter, data is the primary thing. Consulting
is all about drilling down from a broad level objective function to the core problem with the help of
data at every level and ensuring it is MECEed as much as possible at every level.

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Please understand that there could be more than one core problem in a case. Then you’ll have to
prioritize and attack in such a way that you address the core problem which if corrected will create
larger impact on the objective function.

Step 4: Understand the current system in place to counter this problem:

Sometimes, no system might be in place to tackle this problem. Sometime, systems might exist but are
not really effective. Either way, before giving recommendations, you need to ask
Candidate: “Before giving recommendations, can I get an idea whether there are any systems in place
currently to counter this problem and if yes, why hasn’t the current system tackled the problem?”
Interviewer: “There is a system in place. There are monthly training programs for the staff where they
are regularly trained on how to deal with customers. The training programs are pretty effective.
However, in the last few months, a few new people were hired at ABP IIMB and they did not attend
the regular training and the management never came to know about this”
Step 5: Recommendations based on data based analysis
Recommendations naturally follow from Step 3 and Step 4
Candidate: “The core problem is reduced service levels, because of the lack of training for the new
staff. Various options to solve the problem include 1. Regular weekly training for the new staff until
service level standards are met. 2. A senior at the store to monitor the service levels of the new staff
to ensure that service level standards are met and no more customers are lost. 3. Increase service levels
beyond customer expectations until the negative effect of the reduced service levels is reversed and
then bring down the service levels back to normal standards. Do you want me to come up with more
options or is this fine?”
Interviewer: “Not required. This is fine. You’ve covered the solution we actually executed. Good job”

There are tons of solutions that can come as part of recommendations. But the main part is the drilling
down part (Step 3) and I believe that is where the evaluation of the candidate’s data-based breaking
down skills ensuring at every level the variables are MECE are tested.
Honestly, it is not really about giving recommendations. It’s more your thought process that matter
and they evaluate during Step 3. In one of my case interviews for summers, I did not even reach the
final recommendations stage – This is because I spent a lot of time with the interviewer on my CV,
post which we did not have a lot of time to complete the case. He was happy with the way my thought
process was during Step 3 and I passed that round.
The English and usage of words that I’ve written is subjective. You can talk whatever you want, but
ensure that the message is crisp, content is strong and you do not globe.

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It is not necessary to ask the interviewer so much as in this ABP example and not necessary to go to
all these levels I’ve gone to in this example. . I just showed it so that people are really clear on what
breaking down a problem means. This example gives you an idea of what the case method is.
The best part of the case method is suppose the actual problem was convenience issues (something
like ABP’s card machine is not working leading to lower customers coming in over time leading to
total revenue coming down), the same reverse engineering approach can be used to solve the problem.
In that case - At level 5, the interviewer would have mentioned that convenience is the core problem
and then you can drill down further to look at possible reasons under convenience and figure out the
problem. I hope you understand the power of the case method. You don’t even have to have any idea
about the core problem. You just need to be bothered about drilling down from the objective function
logically and sequentially and you need to be bothered only about the variables in every level. The final
core problem will naturally be found out in the process.
Suppose the issue was that the electricity charges were going up. Then after Level 1, we would go into
the costs vertical, drill down and find the problem in the exact same way.
This is the case method of solving problem. I created my own 5 step process. You guys can tailor it
to your requirements. Step 3 is indeed the most crucial one. Most of your time will have to be spent
there.
Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:
Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function
Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE
at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
Step 4: Understand the current system in place to counter this problem:
Step 5: Recommendations based on data based analysis

What are some of the important terms and norms in the consulting industry?

1. MECE:
I think I’ve made the concept of MECE very clear in the above ABP example.
a. The 26 alphabets are MECE to each other.
b. The 400 odd students of your batch are MECE when it comes to PGP 2015-17.
I hope you get the point. Sometimes, when you break down problems, it will be difficult to MECE
completely because you might not know the industry completely or you think you missed out
something. You can just play safe by stating “variable 1, variable 2…variable N. I think this covers
most of the parameters. Does this look comprehensive or do you think I need to look at some other
variables as well” – when you say that, there are 2 advantages

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 a. If there are some variables you missed out, usually the interviewer helps out
b. The interviewer understand that you are open to having acknowledging the fact that you
can’t possibly cover everything. That one statement from your side can make the interview
sound more like a conversation where the candidate is implicitly acknowledging “Yes. I
can make mistakes. I might not be able to cover everything. I’m open to admitting that
and open to know new things that I might not have thought of” which the interviewer will
definitely appreciate.
When it comes to MECE, the only thing you need to ensure is that at every level, when you’re
checking with the interviewer, you ask all options at one shot and ask whether there is data available
for any of them. For example – At Level 1, don’t ask “Has the revenue gone down” If the interviewer
says “Yes”, you might just start drilling down further, but the costs might have gone up as well. The
ideal question should be “Do we have data to show that either the revenue has gone down or costs
have gone up or both are happening together?”
So MECE it when you say it out loud at every level. Else, it’ll sound stupid. Say for instance in the
ABP case, after you reach Level 5, do not ask very open ended questions like “is it a problem with the
car parking?” If the interviewer says “No” Then you ask “Is it a problem with external ambience”.
That is a very inefficient way of asking. At one shot, finish all parameters at that level and ask whether
data is available to show any of these parameters or multiple parameters are creating the core
problem(s) (Ensure you use usages like “ Do we have any data or information to show that any of
these parameters is a problem (after stating out the parameter)” and not open ended statements like
“Do we know anything about any of these parameters”
2. Data-centric mindset
As discussed before, this is a key to be a consultant. You’ll have loads and loads of data to deal with
as a consultant. You need to be prepared for that. It is not boring by the way. I did not like it so much
it at the beginning during my summers purely because of the large amount of data involved, but
realized that the data-centric decision making is indeed the most logical way to take decisions.
In addition to the data-centric mindset, please do think of how certain data points will be actually
measured on the field while you ask for data during a case interview. End of the day, it is always
possible to map everything to a survey or a feedback form or some number and make everything data
centric. Sometimes during the interviews, when you ask for certain data points, they might just ask
you back “How do you think we can measure this?”
The data-centric mindset is something they’ll definitely evaluate and as a consultant, a large part of
your work life will be about analyzing such data, figuring out patterns, and drawing insights from the
data sources

3. Pareto Principle (80-20 rule)

Like I had mentioned briefly before, some cases, during the process of drilling down, you’ll realize
there are multiple variables that are creating the core problems and all of them will have to be handled
to solve the case completely. In the ABP case, for example, Staff service quality as well as convenience

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together might be the bottlenecks. At all Levels, ensure that when you drill down, you use this pareto
principle which basically means prioritize and attack the problem to first address the lever/variable
which will create higher impact on the objective function. The below is the wiki definition of the 80-
20 rule. Some of you might think it is obvious. But I knew a lot of my friends in my batch who had
absolutely no idea what this means. It is basically just prioritizing within the variables, and
attacking/addressing the variables which will create higher return/impact
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of
factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Also, in an actual consulting assignment, it might not be possible to MECE every possible option,
because the amount of data that will have to be analyzed would turn out to be so huge. So even then,
the 80-20 rule applies and you end up prioritizing and attacking the problems which you’re convinced
will create more impact on improving the objective function.
4. Competitive Benchmarking / Industry Benchmarking
This is something that was not covered in the ABP example. A lot of the work that consultants do is
primarily benchmarking. Like what the word benchmarking means, what it means in this industry is
compare the standards followed by the client with the industry standards or the standards followed by
better competitors and see where the gap is. Like for example, in our ABP case, suppose the actual
problem was that a hypothetical competitor at IIMB (Let’s call that restaurant XYZ), who is playing
in the same segment as ABP (same segment as in - both ABP and XYZ are targeting the same
customers) changes some of its internal food quality standards. As a result, the food quality at XYZ
goes up. The other side of it is that the costs for XYZ also might go up since higher quality food is
being served now. But the impact on ABP is that since the food quality at XYZ has gone up, the
customers that used to come to ABP will start going to XYZ. XYZ’s revenue will increase.
At some point, XYZ’s profits will also start increase (that point is where XYZ’s cost investment for
increasing the food quality breaks even with the extra revenue generated as a result of new customers).
But the issue for ABP is that their revenues will start going down as a result of customers going down
with absolutely no fault of ABP. ABP did not do anything wrong. But the competitor XYZ is doing
something better compared to what they were doing earlier. So in Page 7 of this document, where the
interviewer was asked about competition, if the interviewer had responded saying “Yes. This
competitor XYZ is has increased their food quality standards as a result of which customers are going
there” (XYZ could also increase staff service standards or ambience or a lot of other parameters). If
that is the case, then the case analysis would not have proceeded the way we did in the ABP case
above. Then, it’s a case on competitor benchmarking. And to know where the competition is doing
better than ABP, we’ll probably have to go through the same customer journey analysis and check
with the interviewer where the competition is doing better, accordingly find our bottleneck, correct it
and that is how that case will be solved. This is the idea of competitive benchmarking and this is
extremely important in consulting.
Industry benchmarking is more or less the same thing. Suppose instead of the revenue side, the
problem was in the costs side. And hypothetically, suppose the problem was that ABP is paying its
employees more than what the industry norms are, as a result of which the employee costs are high as

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a result of which total costs are high leading to lower profits. In such a case, the employee costs will
be benchmarked with the industry standards and recommendations will flow from the analysis
accordingly. This is just an example. The concepts of industry and competitive benchmarking are
extremely important and a lot of the work that consultants actually do is just this. I’ll not be explaining
any further in the following documents what benchmarking is. I think I’ve made it reasonably clear.
I’ll be just making statements like “This is a benchmarking problem. We’ll have to see where the gap
is and tackle this problem”. If you’ve understood this section on benchmarking, you’ll be able to
understand such statements. Else, read this again.

What are the different types of Cases?

The various cases I’ll be discussing in the further documents are the following:
1. Profitability cases: The ABP case discussed in this document is an example of a profitability case
2. Growth Strategy Cases: Suppose ABP wants to grow in Bangalore and increase its revenue
3. Market Entry Cases: Suppose ABP wants to enter the Mumbai market, how does ABP go about
this problem
4. Guestimates: Suppose ABP wants to understand the Mumbai market potential in terms of size
(INR) of the segment in which they’re competing. This number will be required as part of
understanding whether the market is worth entering. Guestimates are rough back-of-the-envelope
calculations to figure out such numbers, used mostly as part of Market entry cases
5. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) – Suppose ABP wants to merge with Company X or in another
case, acquire Company Y – How would ABP go about it? What are the things ABP will have to
look at ? M&A cases are rarely asked, especially because unlike other countries, in India, the level
of M&A that happens is less. So, I’ll just be covering basics.

I’ll not keep sticking to ABP if you’ve started to feel it’s boring. Atleast, I’ve started to feel ABP is
getting boring. So, I’ll bring in other examples.

This document has given you a fair idea about what a case is, what the case method of solving
problems is, a few important terms and norms in consulting and what the various types of cases are.
Now, let’s get into the various types of cases and a few simple frameworks to handle these cases, with
examples. Document # 15 and 16 that I have enclosed are 2 documents that really helped during my
case interview preparation. Doc# 15 was shared by ICON and Doc#16 is a file that I had received
from a friend of mine. The next few documents will have some similarities to these documents. I’ve
combined the best of both these documents and several other learnings in Documents 8-14. So, even
after going through the next few documents, do refer to Doc# 15 and 16.
The foundation/roots for the tree of learning for your case preparation has been set in this document.
The onus is on the candidate to have read this document thoroughly

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Now we’ll go into the next sections where we’ll start from these roots and make the tree of learning a
big huge one with branches and leaves and flowers ☺ (I know it’s a funny random analogy. It’s just
my style of communicating. If you don’t like it, you can ignore such random statements and just
takeaway the positive learnings)

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Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

8. Profitability Cases

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

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Before proceeding any further, I expect you to have read Document 7 thoroughly. A lot of the
concepts will be flowing from Document 7. You should know what a Case is and most importantly,
you should’ve understood what the Case Method is. The hypothetical ABP case is an example of a
simple profitability case. The broad structure that I used to solve the ABP case can be used for any
case and in this document, I’ll be showing you how it is used to solve general profitability cases.
Just to summarize the contents of the previous document –
A Case is any business situation that causes concern to the management of a company.
The Case Method is the most logical way of solving a case. From my learnings during case prep., the
Case Method has 5 parts (discussed in previous document)
Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:
Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function
Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE
at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
Step 4: Understand the current system in place to counter this problem:
Step 5: Recommendations based on data based analysis
Take a step back and think about what you’ve internalized. The broad structure to solve ANY case
is known to you now. The fundamentals are set. It is as simple as that. Don’t make it
complicated by thinking there’s a lot more to it. There’s nothing more to it. The only things
remaining are:
1. Get exposure to various kinds of cases & see how this above simple framework can be applied and
2. Effort from your side – Most important part - Practice, Practice and Practice. This is completely
the onus of the candidate and I can only help you until the extent of the previous point, which is give
exposure to the different kinds of cases. Your effort is something completely under your control and
I cannot push you to do it. You guys will have to put in that effort yourselves.
The fundamentals for solving any case have been drilled into your brain. The seeds have been planted.
Over this document and the next few documents, I’ll be just giving you some exposure to the different
kinds of cases and some simple tools to handle the different kinds of cases.

Profitability Cases: Cases in which the client will be facing decreasing profits and the consulting
firm would’ve been hired to find out the reason and give recommendations. This is exactly similar to
the ABP case discussed in the previous document. I’ll just give you some pointers under each of the
5 parts of my above mentioned framework.

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Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:
First things first – Do not panic when you listen to a case question. That panic is something you need
to get over anyway and then start solving the case. So, it is an unnecessary downtime for your brain.
With time and practice, you’ll get over it. Don’t worry.
Next – think whether the client is a goods/products based firm or a service based firm. The approach
to handle both these is slightly different. People usually associate with only product based firms and
when suddenly a service based firm’s case is given, they completely forget the service angle and look
at that as a product based firm, which will screw up the case analysis. For example, a products based
company like an FMCG company or an electronics manufacturing company needs to be handled in a
different way as compared to a service based company like banking or insurance or a restaurant
business. (A restaurant business does have products – the food items, but the primary categorization
is as a service industry)
The above 2 steps will take you maximum 1 second.
After that, I used to tell the interviewer something on the lines of
“Before structuring and proceeding with solving this problem, I’d like to ask you a few
preliminary questions to understand a little bit about the client. Is that ok?” to which the
interviewer almost always say “yes” since they expect you to ask a few questions before starting off
with solving the problem.
Depending on the nature of the industry and my familiarity with the industry, I used to ask questions
to understand the broad business model. Sometimes, I used to ask quite a few questions in this section
for me to clearly understand the business model. (You need to know anything about any industry). If
you’re making any assumptions about any industry, you need to state it out loud and cross check with
the interviewer whether it is fine. If you’re very sure that some of the assumptions are very obvious
and the interviewer is definitely not dumb not to know those assumptions, then you don’t need to
state it out loud. But don’t take for granted that everything that you think about the industry is what
is right. It is a judgment call what to ask and what not to ask and with time and practice, you’ll know
where to draw the line.
Just to have a broad idea on how long the problem has been bothering the client, you can ask the
timeframe in which profits have been going down. If you ask why this question needs to be asked, it’ll
be clear with practice. You get a fair idea of how different industries work and the associated
timeframes in each industry.
Before proceeding to Step 2, what I want to be clear is whether the problem being faced is an internal
company problem or an external problem that the industry is facing overall because of which our
client is also getting affected. Some people say that you don’t need to ask this question at this stage. I
have my own reasons for asking this question at this stage. This will be clear in the Park & Eat
hypothetical case that I will be discussing later in this document. Most problems with which clients
come to consultants are purely internal problems. Because if the problem is an industry wide problem,
the client would know the reason immediately since it is such a huge problem that the entire industry
is affected. In case if you get those rare cases where the interviewer tells you that “Yes. It is a problem
that the entire industry is facing. The profits are down not only for us, but for our competitors”, then

3
check with the interviewer whether you need to check only what the external problem is or in addition,
whether you have to check whether there is an internal problem as well. If the interviewer says “No.
there is no internal problem”, then state out loud that “Ok. So I’m going to be looking at the problem
as a purely external problem and try to find out what that problem is and accordingly give
recommendations. Is that ok” – The part of buying in the interviewer is extremely important. This
makes it seem like a conversation between people and not a rigid interview. The likeability part of you
will get boosted here. If the interviewer says that there is external and internal problem, then you’ll
have to deal with both and ask him whether he is fine with you jumping into either of them –
something on the lines of “So that means we have an internal and external problem. So I need to
tackle both the issues. Just to prioritize and attack the problem, do we have any data to indicate which
is the bigger problem” Buy the interviewer in and proceed forward in whichever direction he steers
you. Suppose you know that it is an external industry wide problem and you want to find out that
problem, there are 2 broad frameworks, which ideally needs to be used in combination. These are
really simple and powerful frameworks. With time and practice, you’ll know what combination of
these to use.
One very important tip for using these frameworks – Remember what I said earlier - The entire
interview should seem like a conversation. So even when you’re using these frameworks, I’ll strongly
suggest not using the work “Framework” anywhere in your conversation. It’ll seem to the interviewer
that you’re force fitting somebody else’s logic. It should seem like a normal conversation whether
you’re logically giving out some arguments. This will also come with time and practice.
Frameworks to handle External Industry wide problems affecting our client as well (These
frameworks will have to be used in Step 3 – Don’t worry if you’re confused. It’ll be clear in the
Park & Eat case example which will be discussed later)
1. PESTEL Framework:
PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal
issues that affect the industry. Some of these issues are completely out of the control of our
clients. For example, suppose the annual budget presented by the finance minister in March
leads to some policy changes, which affects the taxes on a particular industry in which our
client operates. And in one year, the profits of our client goes down because of this issue. The
client comes to the consultant at that stage for help. So this framework can be used to drill
down to this problem. Now if you’re question is “Wouldn’t the client already know it?”
Answer is yes – most of the time the client would know it since it affects the entire industry.
Hence, I made a statement early saying that such cases are rare. But nevertheless, you should
know how to handle them when they come.
2. Porter’s 5 forces Framework
In your Competition and Strategy course (Term 2), there’ll be a binder in which there’ll be an
article on Porter’s 5 forces. It was a revolutionary article in the management field. Read it at
least twice. I loved that article. It gives you a holistic perspective on how an industry functions
and what all affects an industry. Assume all companies in an industry combined together and
that combination is the industry – which is equivalent to a big huge company having the traits
of all the individual companies part of that industry. The article discusses the various forces

4
 that shape and affect that industry. I remember that article having some elements of the
PESTEL framework as well.
So, after you tell the interviewer that you’re going to look at the various external factors, ask
him for a few seconds to think of the various broad issues that can affect the industry as a
whole, think about the combination of PESTEL and Porter’s 5 forces in your head, write it
down on the rough sheet and ask him whether we have data to show that the issue belongs to
any of this. If he says “Yes” and gives you direction based on data, deep dive further on that
issue and drill to the problem and think logically and give recommendations (If you’re not
clear with this, it’ll be clear in the Park & Eat example I’ll be giving later in this document)
So, that is the case if the problem is an external problem. But like I mentioned, most of the time, the
cases are problems are internal problems.

Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function

In a profitability case, the objective function is almost always profits. But there might be cases where
there will be multiple objectives. Like for instance, some case might require you to have the primary
objective as profits but in the process of solving for how to improve profits, there might be a
secondary objective of reducing costs or increasing revenue to increase market share. Although rare,
do check with interviewer whether increasing profits is the only objective. And like I mentioned in the
previous document - Paraphrase the open ended question that you got from the interviewer before
you started Step 1 using the inputs you got from Step 1 and state it out loud to the interviewer.
Something on the lines of
“Ok. So ABP, our client - a fast food restaurant chain with 2 restaurants in Bangalore is experiencing
a fall in profits. We’ve figured out it is an internal problem and the industry is doing fine. We need to
help them figure out the reason and see how to improve profits. Is that our only objective or is there
any other objective as well or Can I proceed forward with profits as our objective?” (From previous
document). Buy in the interviewer and proceed forward exactly similar to the way I showed in the
previous document.

Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data,
ensuring MECE at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
After he says “Yes”, ask him for a few seconds for you to structure your thoughts and use the level
wise analysis that I showed in the previous document moving from one level to another level only
based on data ensuring MECE at every level.. I wouldn’t mind repeating it here, but the ABP example
that I wrote was quite self-explanatory. So, repeating it here will be redundant. But yeah, I expect you
to have understood what level wise analysis moving from one level to another level ONLY based on
data ensuring MECE at stage means before proceeding further in this document. If not clear, you can
go back, read it up and come back to this point and then continue.
The remaining part of Step 3 for profitability cases is to understand how to MECE and cover all
options within various scenarios. For that, there are a lot of simple concepts. Again, I’m taking it
directly from the document that I got from ICON last time. I’ve just taken screenshots of the same
document. If you feel that readability is less, you can directly refer to Document 15 for these
frameworks after you finish reading until Document 14. Even when I got the document, there was no

5
one to tell me what to do with that document. I think in the Document 7 and the previous part of this
document, I’ve kind of set the context for you to understand the below frameworks.

If the interviewer gives you data after Level 0 that it is a revenue problem, then you can use the below
2 sub-frameworks to MECE your options at every further level. From the context of the ABP case,
Variety refers to the Product mix (Mango Lassi and Hot Chocolate). All the other terminologies are
self-explanatory. If you do not understand a few terminologies in the below 2 pictures when you read
it for the first time, that is completely OK. I had not understood a lot of these frameworks initially.
With time and practice, you’ll easily understand all of this. For example, initially I did not know what
Cost + (shown below) meant even though I read the description given under it and kind of understood
the meaning. But how to apply it in an actual case was a question mark for me. Trust me on this – It’ll
come with practice. Don’t worry one bit about that. These frameworks are just tools to remind you
how to ensure MECE at every level as you drill down to the problem.

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In this picture above, when you get data from the interviewer that it is a volumes sold problem, there
are multiple options available for it being the reason creating the problem. The above picture kind of
encapsulates all of the problems. If you notice on the left side of the picture, you can see Porter’s 5
forces and PESTLE framework being used. Personally, I found it more logical to use it at STEP 1
(The reason will be clear when you read through the Park & Eat hypothetical case which will be
discussed later). There is no such constraint that you have to use my framework or the above
framework. You can tailor your problem solving style to whatever you feel is more logical to you and
apt to your style.
Only thing you need to take care is NOT TO GET WORRIED by seeing so much information on
the picture above. The first time I saw this slide, I was like “Man. This seems like complicated sh*t.
It’ll be difficult to understand all this” But nobody told me last time is what I’ve given in Document
7 and the preceding sections of this document. But it is extremely crisp. It’s just that all options at
every level have been MECEed. So it looks like a lot is there. In a case interview, there will be only 1
or 2 core problems and you’ll not have to go through all this. When you ensure MECE at every stage
using the above 2 simple frameworks, drilling down to the core problem becomes super-easy.
Suppose you get data from the interviewer that it is a Costs problem, the picture in the next page gives
you equivalent MECEed options which you can use to find out the core problem using the same
reverse engineering concept based ONLY on data and give recommendations.

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Actually, that’s about it. These frameworks will help you drill down to the core problem ensuring
MECE and your progress ONLY based on data. The next 2 steps just flow from this analysis. If you’re
reading this document for the first time – Don’t mug up all these frameworks now. You can refer to
them later during practice time and it’ll all naturally get built into your brain without having to mug
up anything.
5 things that you need to remember throughout STEP 3

• Products vs Service based – This is something people keep on forgetting. Even at Step 1, if
they realize that it is a service based company, some people completely forget it at Step 3
which messes up the analysis.
• MECE at all levels as much as possible using lines like “The possible reasons are variable 1,
variable 2, …variable N. I think I’ve covered most of the options. Have I missed out any
options? If not, do we have data to show whether any of these options are have a problem”
• Data-centric mindset – Ensure you reverse engineer only based on data
• 80-20 rule – Prioritise and attack. Don’t boil the ocean and attack all the problems. You’ll end
up reaching nowhere.

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 • Competitive benchmarking/Industry benchmarking – This is supremely important. Not all
cases might require this. But do keep this at the back of your mind.
When you’re reading through this document for the first time, you can switch to the next
document after completing this. But during your Term 2, refer to Document 7 and 8 extensively
to get your foundation set.

Step 4: Understand the current system in place to counter this problem:

Sometimes, no system might be in place to tackle this problem. Sometime, systems might exist but are
not really effective. Either way, before giving recommendations, you need to ask
Candidate: “Before giving recommendations, can I get an idea whether there are any systems in place
currently to counter this problem and if yes, why hasn’t the current system tackled the problem?”

Step 5: Recommendations based on data based analysis

The interviewer will give his answer. Based on the interviewer’s answer, ask him for a few more
seconds, think for yourself what the possible recommendations are. You don’t need to be really
creative in this regard. Try to give 2-3 options as recommendations. One word that can help you in
this Step is the word “Alternate” or “Multiple”. Just keep this word in the back of your head.
For example, suppose in Step 4, you get data from the interviewer that there is a vendor in place to
tackle some core problem that you’ve identified in Step 3 but the vendor is not effective in executing
the job given to him – Possible solutions could be

• Enforcing the contract with the vendor more strictly with penalties
• Alternate vendor to tackle the problem
• Multiple vendors to tackle the same problem so that there is more buffer
It is not that in every case, this will be of use. I found it useful in a lot of cases. So, thought I’d share
it with you guys.

Hypothetical Case 2: Park & Eat

Earlier, I had mentioned that I’ll show you the example of the Hypothetical Park & Eat Case to show
you the reason why I ask the question of whether the issue is external or internal (Industry wide issue
vs company specific issue) in Step 1. It is not necessary that you need to ask this question in Step 1.
Depending you your preparation, if you feel that this question can be asked at a later stage, go for that.
But I personally prefer asking this question in Step 1.
Case Question: Your client is Park & Eat, IIMB. They’ve been facing declining profits. Please analyze
the situation and come up with recommendations to solve the problem for the client”

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Case Solution:
Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:
Candidate: “Before structuring and proceeding with solving this problem, I’d like to ask you a few
preliminary questions to understand a little bit about the client. Is that ok?”
Interviewer: “Yes. Go on”
Candidate: “First of all, I’m not clear about what business our client is into. Can you give me some
inputs on the industry they’re operating in”
Interviewer: “Sure. So, they’re into snacks and eateries. The customers are primarily students of IIMB,
who eat at our client’s store from evening to late night”
(Candidate realizes they’re primarily a service based business)
Candidate: “Oh ok. By snacks, do you have some data so that I can get a flavor of what kind of
products they sell, just to have a better understanding of their business model. Also, how many stores
do they have?”
Interviewer: “By snacks I mean products like biscuits, momos, chai, maggi etc. They just have one
store at IIMB”
Candidate: “How long has our client been facing falling profits?”
Interviewer: “6 months”
Candidate: “Oh ok. Another question that I have is whether this issue that our client is facing is
something only our client is facing or do we have any data to show that the profits for our client’s
competitors is also going down. The reason why I’m asking this question is to know whether this issue
is an internal issue specifically our client is facing or it is an industry wide issue. I feel both need to be
handled separately. So, yeah do we have some data indicating this?”
Interviewer: “Actually yes. We do have data that shows that our key competitors in the region –
Athicas and NC who play in the same target customer segment – are also facing falling profits”
Candidate: “Oh ok.”
Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function
Candidate: “So, our client – Park&Eat, primarily into the snacks business for students at IIMB is
facing a fall in profits over the last 6 months. We’ve figured out that there is an external industry wide
issue possibly affecting our client. Our objective is to increase profits, after drilling down to the core
problem responsible for this issue. As of now, I’m planning to look at the external industry wide issues
possibly responsible for this. Should I also look at possible internal reasons or can I proceed forward
with just the on external industry wide analysis”
Interviewer: “For the scope of this problem, you just need to focus on the industry wide issues”

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Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE
at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
Candidate: “Can I take a few seconds to structure my thoughts to see how to tackle this problem?”
Interviewer: “Sure”
(Candidate uses a combination of Porter’s 5 forces and PESTEL ideally. If you’re not aware of Porter’s
forces as of now, let’s just stick to PESTEL – candidate writes it down on the rough sheet. But in
Term 2 – Read the HBR article as part of Competition and Strategy course )
Candidate: “I believe there can be multiple reasons that can affect our client from the outside. The
reasons that I can think of can be broadly classified under Political, Economic, Social, Technological,
Environmental and Legal issues. Have I missed out any factor? If not, do we have some data from
our client indicating whether there have been any changes in any of these external factors over the last
6 months”
(Actually show him your rough sheet with these factors written down neatly)
Interviewer: “Well. You’ve covered broadly all parameters that can affect our client. And yes, we do
have some data from our client which shows that the legal framework has changed over the last 6
months. Our client is heavily dependent on maggi as a product to the customers because students love
maggi. But 6 months back, Maggi got banned in the country, as a result of which students haven’t
been buying as often as they used to earlier.”
Candidate: “Oh ok. That means that this is leading to a decreasing revenue as well as possibly higher
inventory costs because of old maggi stock lying unsold. This is the core problem. Is this the only
problem or do you want me to probe further on any of the other parameters which I had identified”
Interviewer: “No. This is fine. You’ve drilled down to the core problem. Now, please come up with
recommendations”
Step 4: Understand the current system in place to counter this problem:
Candidate (after thinking for a few seconds): “Since the maggi ban is out of the client’s control, there
is no way we can bring in maggi and sell it. So, we do not have any systems in place to tackle this
problem. We’ll have to create some new system to generate the lost demand. Do we have any data
from the client indicating that there are other products in the market that can be used as a substitute
for maggi?”
Interviewer: “Yes. There’s this product called Yippee. Yippee is legal. Although taste wise, people
prefer maggi, the client – Parn & Eat believes from market survey that Yippee can act as a substitute.
No data other than that is available. Please come up with recommendations now”
Step 5: Recommendations based on data based analysis
(Candidate thinks for a while)
Candidate: “The possible options are 1. Use yippee as an alternate to maggi. The lost demand can be
compensated to an extent by this product and revenue generation increased. 2. Market research can

11
be done by our client to find other alternate products, not necessarily in the same segment as maggi,
but other new products which can take the shelf space of maggi, generate additional demand and
create more revenue. These are 2 options I can think of. Do you want me to think of more options
or is this sufficient?”
Interviewer: “Not required. You’ve solved it. We actually just replaced maggi with yippee and students
thought it was maggi itself. So that way, a lot of the lost revenue was recovered with this solution.
Thanks a lot for interviewing with us.”
Candidate: “Thanks a lot” ( in the candidate’s mind - yay ! ! ! I nailed it ! ☺ lol…)
Now you can see why I asked the question of internal or external at an early stage. If I had not asked
that there and drilled down assuming it is an internal problem like it was given in the picture in page
7 (please go back and refer, if you don’t remember), I would’ve wasted a lot of analysis time. But even
then, you would still find the issue when you realize that volumes have been going down. So, I’m in
no way stating that that approach is wrong. It’s just that most of the times, my approach of isolating
the problem as external or internal in Step 1 has worked out well for me. It’s your call what you want
to follow. Either way, if you ensure a data centric MECE approach, you’ll solve it. So don’t worry
about.

General pointers: It should seem like a normal conversation b/w people and not like you’re trying to
force fit the framework I mentioned. Even if you feel at this stage (when you’re reading these
documents for the first time) that you can only use it in a force fitting kind of way, when you
acknowledge that the case method is the most logical way of solving a problem and do a lot of practice,
it’ll naturally turn out like a conversation with time. Use the Case Prep Resources that I mentioned in
Document 3 and Document 4 for practice and the way you handle your interview will naturally seem
like a conversation with time and practice.

So, that’s about it from the perspective of Profitability cases. You’ve been exposed to the various
frameworks required to cover most profitability cases. All that’s left – Practice
Next up – Growth strategy cases

12
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

9. Growth Strategy Cases

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

1
I expect you to be completely thorough with the contents of Documents 7 and 8 before proceeding
any further. All the fundamentals for case solving have been covered there. I will not be repeating any
of that again.. This document as well as the following documents will only cover the other types of
cases and will not repeat the fundamentals to that level of detail I’ve gone to earlier
Growth Strategy Cases: Suppose your client has a lot of money coming in as part of investment
from some big private equity company or other investment firms OR if your client has a lot of money
has a result of its own revenue generation and the client is deciding what to do with the money.
Suppose the client decides – “OK. We’re in the growth phase. Let’s grow the company, Get a lot of
market share in whatever segments we’re playing currently or planning to play in the future and try to
consolidate the market” These kind of cases are called growth strategy cases. Unlike profitability cases,
the objective function here is either Increase Revenue within a particular timeframe OR Increase
Market share within a particular segment in which the client is operating within a particular timeframe
Revenue increase target will naturally result in a market share increase. Last year, some friends of mine
did know what market share meant – I know it is extremely basic stuff but just to ensure everyone’s
clear. Suppose an industry has 3 companies part of that industry. Suppose the sum of revenues of all
the 3 companies is INR 100 Cr and the split amongst the companies contributing to this 100 Cr is 50
Cr, 30 Cr and 20 Cr. The market share of those companies are 50%, 30% and 20% respectively – I
know some of you might be thinking – “That is so sad. Are there people doing an MBA who do not
know all this?” My answer to those folks – Remember – you’re a continuous learning machine. When
you came across this term market share for the first time in your life, you also would not have had any
clue. Forget about when you came across that term in your life. Everyone has to learn stuff at some
point. Just be happy you knew it at some point in life. If I gave you some very basic MBA jargon (basic
to me) and you do not understand that, will you like it if I thought the same way? So, just acknowledge
that everyone has to learn at some point in their life. I know I’m digressing a bit from the growth
strategy cases, but thought I should make my point.
Anyway, if the objective function is revenue, the target figures will be something like increase from
INR 100 Cr to INR 500 Cr in next 3 years. If it is market share, the objective function would be
increase market share percentage in a particular segment from say 20% to 60% in the next 3 years or
so. Unlike the profitability cases, the tools/frameworks that give you direction for growth strategy
cases are different and the costs involved are not really given a lot of importance because in the growth
stage of a company, the costs involved are all part of long term sustainable return. So in growth strategy
cases, we’re primarily bothered about the revenue and ways to increase revenue and NOT costs.
Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:
(Same learnings covered in previous 2 documents to be collated and used judiciously – Practice and
you’ll know when to use what in a matter of time)
During this step, also please ask “What is the timeframe expected by the client for this growth to take
place”. The interviewer may say 1 year, 5 years depending on the requirement the client gives etc.
Ask about the reason why the company wants to focus on growth. Some of the reasons could include

• Data showing that current markets in which the client is functioning is declining. So the client
has to look at other markets and look at other revenue sources.
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 • Data showing that there are attractive opportunities available in other markets. So the client
might want to tap in on those opportunities and generate more revenue.
In this way, try to understand the reason why the client wants to go for a growth strategy. The reason
will give you better direction on what approach to follow.
Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function
(Same approach as mentioned in the previous docs). Paraphrase the open ended question given to you
before Step 1 based on data you received from step 1 and state it out loud to the interviewer making
the objective function clear (Revenue increase within X years / Market Share Increase within X years).
Ask whether there are other objectives. Get the interviewer’s approval before proceeding forward.
Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE
at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
Once the objective function has been set as Revenue or Market Share, the most commonly used
framework to reverse engineer from the objective function is the Ansoff Matrix. It’s 2 X 2 self-
explanatory matrix, but really powerful tool to MECE all possible options to be covered as part of
formulating a client’s growth strategy. This was covered during the Marketing Management Course,
when I was a pgp1. I’ll just give a quick explanation of the 4 options possible for a company to grow
as part of the Ansoff Matrix.
Option 1: Market Penetration – The client currently functions with a portfolio of products or services
in particular segments of the market. When the client focuses its growth around these same products
and services in the markets in which the client is functioning currently, that is called market
penetration. For example, let’s take ABP. In the previous documents, I had mentioned that ABP has
only 2 stores – one at IIMB and one at MG Road. Suppose ABP, as part of its growth strategy decides
to a lot of advertisements at both these stores and give the customers food vouchers, discount
coupons etc., there will be a spike in demand for its existing products and services within the existing
markets. This will lead to a revenue spike. The cost involved in discounts/promotions/ads is not the
primary focus since the objective is revenue increase. This is a simple example of market penetration.
Option 2: Market Development: I think it’ll be easy to explain using the same ABP example. Suppose
the ABP management decides to open up new stores in Koramangala and Indira Nagar. In this case,
they’re using their existing products/services and getting into new markets/spaces. This will also result
in revenue increase. This is a simple example of market development.
Option 3: Product Development: Earlier I had mentioned that ABP had only 2 products – Mango
Lassi and Hot Chocolate. Suppose ABP introduces a few more products to get a larger customer base
in all its stores (Eg. Products like Chilli cheese toast or brownie etc). In this case, within its existing
markets, the client is developing new products/services. These products and services are developed
based on market research and extensive customer surveys and analysis (A lot of your elective courses
after Term 2 teach you this). Anyway, so this is a simple example of product development.
Option 4: Diversification – So this is just a combination of Option 2 and Option 3. Suppose ABP
gets into new markets like Koramangala and Indira Nagar with its newly developed products and
services in addition to its existing offerings, this is an example of diversification.

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The ansoff matrix has been summarized below. Don’t worry too much at this stage if this is seeming
a little too theoretical because it is on paper. You just need to practice cases with these frameworks
keeping the data-centric MECE mindset and with time, you’ll be able to handle any growth strategy
case.

4
A couple of tips in Step 3 for Growth Strategy Cases
1. Do not explicitly state that you’re using the Ansoff matrix. In general, whatever frameworks
you’re planning to use, DO NOT state it out loud to the interviewer that you’re using a
framework. Use these frameworks only as tools for your logic to flow and make the interview
seem like a normal conversation. Like for example, after asking for time to write down your
thoughts, you can make statements like “Broadly, I believe we can achieve growth through 4
paths” You can show them the 2X2 matrix that you write down on your rough sheet and tell
them crisply what each of the buckets represent.
2. Within the limited time frame of an interview, it might not be possible for you to get into all
4 buckets and analyze how the client can grow the business. So, use 80-20 rule and get the
interviewer’s buy in before reverse engineering further to come to the final conclusion. For
example, if the interviewer says that “Market penetration is already at a maximum for the
client”. Then state out loud that “Ok. Then we’ll not focus on that for the scope of this
analysis. I’ll move on to the other three. Do we have any data from the client to show that one
of these 3 has more potential so that I can prioritize and attack the problem? If not, can I get
into market development” After getting the interviewer’s buy in proceed further on each.
Don’t try to boil the ocean by trying to come up with recommendations on each of the 4
verticals. Even in an actual consulting assignment, there isn’t so much time available. So
depending on data from the client, the consulting firm uses 80-20 rule, prioritizes and analyzes
to come up with recommendations.
3. Suppose the interviewer directs you to get into one of the buckets – For example the
interviewer asks you to get into Market development. How to proceed further is something
dependent on the client context. Again, don’t worry if you don’t have complete clarity now.
Will come up practice. In this case, if we use the tools given in the pictures above for market
development, the various options available are geographic expansion, new channels to
distribute the products/services etc. After taking a few seconds to think about the various
options within Market development, show the interviewer your options and proceed forward
as per data given by the interviewer.
In the picture just given above, at the end, there is a small section categorized under “How?” This will
be handled in the next Step. Unlike Profitability cases, where the core intent was finding the root
problem through reverse engineering and then giving recommendations, the case here is different.
There is no problem as such. We’re formulating the future strategy on what to do for future revenue.
So the final step is different in this case. The final step is more of summarizing the findings as a result
of the analysis from Step 3 and giving an idea of HOW to go about executing the strategy. So, this is
slightly different from the profitability cases.
Step 4: Recommendations: How to go about executing the strategy formulated
For each of the buckets (market penetration, market development etc), there will be different
recommendations possible based on the client context and analysis.
For example, suppose market penetration for ABP was the part which was focused. And when
suppose we realize that there is a lot of scope to get more customers with the existing products and
in the existing market itself. The “How” part will address things like Advertisements, promotions,

5
discounts etc. And end it by asking “Is this sufficient or do you want me to look at more options?”
This is a simple example of how the recommendations flow from the analysis.
A very important one – New market entry – Suppose as part of the formulating the growth strategy,
we analyze using the Ansoff matrix and we realize that a particular market has high potential and we
want to enter the market. This comes under New Market Entry cases. Our hypothetical ABP client
with just 2 stores entering the
Another one would be something like – Suppose ABP wants to do market development and get into
Koramangala and Indira Nagar and currently suppose ABP does not have the capability to get into
these markets say, because of real estate space constraints in these areas. ABP can think of acquiring
other small food joints in these areas. There is an analysis that will be done in an actual consulting
assignment before this acquisition is done. Acquisition is an important sub-part of how to go about
New Market entry cases.
During a 20 minute case interview, it’ll be very rare that you are asked to do this analysis. So don’t
worry one bit that you’ll have to do all this. There is a framework for new market entry and acquisition
that will be discussed in later documents. You need to be aware of these and the cases that might be
asked might be like “ABP wants to enter Mumbai market as part of its long term growth strategy.
Help out ABP” Now it becomes a new market entry case flowing from a growth strategy case. So the
cases will not be big huge cases. The primary intent of these cases is to see whether you can logically
break down the problem ensuring MECE and reverse engineering using data. I believe that more than
the speed at which you crack the case, the clarity of thought in breaking down the problem is more
important. Initially, even if your speed at cracking a case is slow, with time and practice, your speed
will improve as well.

There are examples of these cases in the reference document I’ve attached (Document 16) as well as
other resources that ICON will send you. Prioritize and solve a few cases of each type.
That’s about it when it comes to Growth Strategy Cases. All these cases and frameworks I’ve
mentioned till now and will be mentioning further – Unless you practice, screw up, practice again,
screw up again and then practice more, you’ll not get better. It’ll only seem like theoretical paper work
on a pdf file. In terms of concepts, there’s nothing much more to it. All that’s remaining is practice.

Next up – New market entry cases

6
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

10. New Market Entry Cases

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

1
In the previous document on “Growth Strategy Cases”, I had mentioned that as part of formulating
the long term growth strategy for a client, Market Development and Diversification are 2 options.
Both of these options involve the client entering new markets using different tactics. This document
will give you a broad framework on attacking New Market Entry Cases. The 5-step framework that I
keep on using (it was compressed to 4-steps in the last document, but I’ll be calling it the 5-step
framework just for simplicity) can be used here as well.
New Market Entry Cases: The client wants to enter new markets as part of its growth strategy. The
client has data available on its current capabilities (What all the client is good at currently, what all
markets the client is actively playing etc). You’ve been hired as a consultant to help the client make
the decision on whether to enter the new market or not and if yes, how to enter the new markets. Let
me discuss the broad approach before going forward using an example.
Background: Assume that you are the CEO of company ABC. Suppose the company is into the tyre
manufacturing and sales business and ABC is based out of India. Now, as part of your formulating
your growth strategy, you get some preliminary data showing that the tyre market in some European
country – Let’s take Spain - is good and you have a gut-feel that you want to try entering the Spanish
tyre industry. But you have share-holders and the board of directors of your company to convince
why they should let you enter the Spanish market. If you were the sole-owner of the company ABC,
you can do whatever you want with your money. But since there are a lot of stakeholders involved,
you just cannot take a decision based on your gut-feel. You’ll have to submit a report to the
stakeholders, who’ll approve the decision to enter the Spanish market or not. Additionally, you’re also
not completely sure whether the Spanish market is worth entering because your gut-feel is based on
one preliminary data source which stated that the Spanish tyre market is attractive. So you need to do
some rigorous analysis before going to your shareholders/board of directors. The board of directors
have agreed to invest in the Spanish market if and only if the CEO proves to them that in 3 years, the
investment will give 5X return. (Invest Rs 100 now and get revenue of Rs 500 by the end of the third
year). You do not have the people or resources in your company to do all this rigorous analysis and
because of the same economies of scale reason (I think this is the third time I’m mentioning this :P),
you get an approval from the board to hire some top consulting firm to help you out with this problem
because a wrong decision can cause the company huge losses and can even take down the company.
Because the economies of scale reason, the consulting firm will know the Spanish market much better
than company ABC’s CEO. So you hire some fancy consulting firm and you tell the consulting firm
“I feel the Spanish tyre market is good, but I’m not sure how good it is. I want you to help me in
deciding whether to enter the Spanish market or not. Just to give you an idea about our company ABC
- In India, we’re in the top 3 when it comes to market share and we’re really good and capable. But
we need to grow to increase our stock price and the Indian tyre market seems to be stagnating with
sluggish vehicle growth rate (hypothetical). We need more revenue generation options and I feel Spain
is a good target. Please help”. It is such a big decision for the client and the consulting firm has to be
as rigorous as possible in the analysis that will be given to the CEO of ABC and based on the analysis,
the CEO will decide what to do. The consulting firm does the analysis based on extensive research,
helps the CEO convince the board, invests in the Spain tyre industry, and gets the 5X return in 3 years
and the head of the team who executed this project for the consulting firm is interviewing you during
your summer placements and asks you the question

2
“Your client is into the tyre industry and based out of India. They want to enter the Spanish
tyre market. Please help them out to make this decision” You are the candidate being interviewed
and you have no absolutely no idea about the background. Let’s solve try solving this case using the
same approach we used earlier and in the process, I’ll tell you whatever concepts and learnings for
New Market Entry cases that I remember in the process of solving this case. The learnings for New
Market Entry cases will be slightly different from the previous types of cases. So ensure you segregate
and write them all down on your case prep notebook.
Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:
1. Clarity on the objective: Unlike profitability cases or growth strategy cases, where the objective
functions are very clear (Profits and Revenue respectively), in this case the objective function based
on which the client will be making the decision is not clear when you listen to the case question.
It is based on this decision metric that we’ll have to reverse engineer from the objective function
to solve the case. So I believe the first question the candidate should ask is with regard to what
the objective function or decision metric for the client is. It can be something like
Candidate: “Before proceeding with structuring my thoughts and solving the problem, can I
know what our objective is for solving this problem or what the key decision metric is based on
which our client will take this decision to enter the Spanish market?”
Interviewer: “The investment should give the client a 5X return in 3 years. This is your objective”
Please note that this is just an example. There are a lot of possibilities when it comes to the
objective function / key decision metric for new market entry cases. Few of them are
• Break-even the investment at the end of 2 years
• Be the top player in the Spanish market by the end of 5 years
• Capture 40% market by the end of the 3rd year. These are all just examples, but the point of
giving you this is to make you realize that unlike profitability and growth strategy cases, the
objective function in new market entry cases is something you will have to ask in case the
interviewer doesn’t make it clear in the case question.
2. Then as usual you need to know a little bit about our client. So the candidate asks permission to
understand the client context before proceeding with structuring and problem solving, post which:
Candidate: “Thanks for making the objective clear. I’d like to know a little bit about our client
and the context in which the client is currently functioning. When you mention that our client is
in the Indian tyre industry, can you give me some more clarity on our client’s business scope –
Whether the client is into only manufacturing OR manufacturing and sales etc. Also, I’d like to
know about the capability level of our client in the Indian industry”
Interviewer: “Client is into tyre manufacturing, sales and marketing in the Indian market. The
client is really capable. They’re in the top 3 in the Indian market”
3. Why the new market? - This is something that needs to be understood early. Just because the
interviewer says Spanish market doesn’t mean that you need to accept it. You can probe a little
further
Candidate: “Ok. That gives me a lot more clarity. Another question I have is why the client wants
to enter the Spanish market. Do we have any data from the client indicating why the Spanish
market is a potential target and not any other market. What about the Indian market itself?”
Interviewer: “The Indian tyre industry is slowing down and the client does not see more growth
here. There’s a preliminary report the client had access to which showed the countries which will

3
 be growing fastest when it came to tyre selling. And Spain was on top (hypothetical). That is the
reason the client is interested in the Spanish market. Nothing else” please note that there could be
several other reasons as well depending the Background.

In all the cases I’m writing here (ABP, Park&Eat, ABC tyre company etc). I myself am creating
the data hypothetically. So I’ll naturally know where to draw the line between Step 1 and Step 2 in
terms of probing about the client context. When you actually solve cases, this judgment on where
to draw the line is something that will come ONLY with practice. So anyway, here the basic client
context is understood by the candidate. So the candidate moves on to Step 2
Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function
Candidate: “So before proceeding further, let me just summarize our objective – Our client, a top
indian tyre company into manufacturing and sales of tyres wants to evaluate whether entering the
Spanish tyre industry is worth it. The decision metric is whether the client will be able to make 5X
return in 3 years. Is that the only objective? Else can I proceed forward, take a few seconds, structure
my thoughts on how to solve this problem?”
Interviewer: “Yes. Please go ahead”
Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE
at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
The approach is exactly same – Reverse engineer from the objective function. But the tool that is most
commonly used for New Market Entry cases is different as compared to the other cases. Think about
it objectively – Imagine you had a company and you were deciding whether to enter a new market,
the parameters that you’ll evaluate can be broadly classified under 2 verticals – Market Attractiveness
and Competitive Positioning

Market Attractiveness: As simple as it sounds – We need to evaluate whether the market is

actually attractive to get into and invest. This has broadly 2 components which have to be evaluated
together to describe whether the market is attractive

• Market Potential: First and foremost, the market should have enough potential. That is evaluated
as part of understanding the attractiveness of the market. The Indian Cigarette industry has
immense market potential. In an actual consulting assignment, the market potential is evaluated
by doing this exercise called Market Sizing. I did a market sizing exercise during my internship and
it took me a week to complete it. Market sizing is part of the reverse engineering from the objective
function. For example, suppose our client wants to evaluate whether to enter the Indian Cigarettes
industry, the market sizing would involve calculating (based on data-based assumptions) an
estimate of the total revenue available in the Indian cigarette industry. Market sizing is extremely
important in new market entry cases, because it provides the start for all the further analysis.
Anything wrong in the sizing can screw up the entire analysis that follows and naturally the
recommendations will also be screwed up. In consulting case interviews, the ability of a candidate
to do the market sizing is tested using something called “Guestimates”. Broadly the intent of
giving guestimates is to see whether the candidate has the ability to think sequentially using data
and numbers to arrive at market sizing figures. In the Indian cigarette industry example, a simple

4
 guestimate question that can assess a candidate’s ability could be “How many smokers are there
in India?” It sounds like an open-ended question but just by multiplying this number with the
average price of a cigarette, you can size the entire Indian cigarettes industry, which can be used
by say a European cigarettes company to evaluate the market potential of the Indian cigarettes
industry. But the point is first and foremost, market potential of the industry/target segment needs
to be assessed. Analyzing the market potential in actual consulting assignments might take
days/weeks. It is crucial and hence guestimates (back of the envelope calculations) are given as
consulting case questions during interviews. Guestimates are covered in more detail in the next
document. In addition to market sizing, certain other important parameters that are assessed in
this section are growth rates of the segment (in actual assignments, this data usually is captured
from various industry analyst reports that market research firms generate), profit margins in the
segment (in an actual assignment, this data can be captured by checking the industry average profit
margin available in analyst reports, highest competitor profit margin from their annual report) etc
• Industry Forces: The next part is that the effects of prevailing competition and effects of industry
forces of the new market should be evaluated (Porter’s 5 forces will be taught in Competition and
Strategy – Term 2 – Read the revolutionary HBR article - This was discussed in brief in Document
8 as part of External factors affecting an industry) The Indian cigarette industry is an example of
an industry with immense market potential, but due to the Industry forces like government
regulation giving almost a monopoly for 1 company and preventing entry of new players, the
attractiveness of this market is reduced bigtime, although the market potential is extremely high.
So even if the European company mentioned in the previous sub-section understands that the
market potential is high in India as a result of the data from market sizing, the evaluation of the
Industry forces make it clear to the European company that the attractiveness is low. In an actual
consulting assignment, market sizing and evaluation of effects of industry forces might happen in
parallel and not necessarily sequential depending on the client context.
So after evaluating the market potential and effects of industry forces, the market attractiveness is
assessed. This a qualitative assessment based on data. It is not like we can say the market is 20% or
80% attractive. Based on the data as part of the above analysis, we usually say that the market
attractiveness is high or low. This is a basic way of defining market attractiveness. There are more
advanced ways using different theories. It is a little complicated and for the purpose of this document,
we’ll just categorize markets attractiveness to be just high or low based on the above data based
analysis of Market potential and Industry forces.

Client’s Competitive Positioning: Just because a particular market or segment is attractive

does not mean that the client should get into that market. Here is where the client’s current
competitive positioning comes into picture. One needs to analyze what the current capabilities of the
client, which can help the client tap into the attractive market. Say for instance, hypothetically we have
a Indian client who is into the soap industry wanting to invest in the Spanish tyre industry and another
client (ABC company which we had discussed earlier) who is an Indian tyre company wanting to enter
the Spanish tyre industry. The capabilities that the client has in both these cases are extremely different.
For the soap company, you can expect the capabilities that it currently possesses to be very different
from the capabilities required to succeed in the Spanish tyre industry because it is a completely
different industry, where for ABC company, there will be a lot of its current capabilities that it can
utilize if it decides to enter the Spanish tyre market. So, the point is that market attractiveness is only

5
one component. The other important component is the current client capabilities (current competitive
positioning of the client). More on this will be discussed in your Competition and Strategy course
(term 2) as part of a concept called the resource based view of a firm. This part of the course might
happen only after your summers, so I’ve just covered the very basics here that you need for your
summer placements. If you’re interested, you can read up your Competition and Strategy text book or
just google about the resource based view of the firm. So, broadly depending on the above 2 analysis
of Market Attractiveness vs Competitive Positioning, a 2X2 matrix. Consultants love 2X2 matrices.
Lol. The main reason they love 2X2’s is that they ensure MECE of all options possible in a very simple
elegant manner. So, I don’t really blame them for having a fascination towards these matrices. I myself
use a lot of self-created 2X2’s for different purposes.

In the next page, I’ve given the screenshot of a framework to handle market entry cases that I got
from an ICON document (attached Document 15) The above 2X2 matrix along with the framework
will give you a clear direction on what all questions to ask in Step 3 as part of drilling down. The only
thing missing in the below framework is a details of current competitive positioning of the client.
Hence, I discussed about that in the previous paragraph and explained why the above 2X2 will be
useful. After this 2X2 analysis, what comes out is whether to enter the market or not – Whether it is
a yes or a no. You’ll get more clarity in the next section.
Step 4: How to Enter the Market (Again, the 5-step framework is modified here to tailor it to the
New Market Entry Cases). Coming back to our tyre industry example
1. Suppose the market attractiveness itself is extremely low, the decision to enter would be NO.
2. Suppose the consultants do a market sizing and industry analysis, understands that the Spanish
market is really attractive. That means that there is a possibility to enter the market. Then, to
proceed forward, the consultant does a competitive positioning analysis to see what the current
capabilities of ABC Company are in entering the Spanish market. - what follows as a result of
this 2 X 2 is Step 4 – which is the answer on How to go about entering the market.
a. Suppose the current capabilities are too less and the investment involved in building the
capabilities to the required level is expected to be huge, the recommendation might be NOT
to enter the market.
b. But if that gap is not too less, there are multiple paths through which that gap can be bridged.
Some of the most common paths include the following and the decision to go for which of

6
 these paths is again based on a cost-benefit analysis of investment vs return on investment.
You don’t have to worry about having to do all this analysis during your 20 minute case
interview but you should know broadly how to do it, in case the interviewer asks you a broad
approach.
i. Starting from Scratch – The tyre company decides to invest a lot of money directly in the
Spanish market by building capabilities in Spain itself. For example, the Indian company sets
up its own manufacturing plant, employees people and managers, sets up sales and
distribution channels and does everything from A-Z
ii. Joint Venture: Partnership of the Indian tyre company with some other company in Spain.
For example, the Indian tyre company can export its tyres to Spain. The Spanish company
(which was probably already into sales and distribution of various products in Spain and
tyres was one product) can assist with sales and distribution in this partnership and the
revenue can be shared on some agreement basis.
iii. Acquisition: Indian tyre company can acquire a loss-making tyre company in Spain, revamp
the processes of the loss making company and ensures that the Spanish market is tapped
into. The below is the framework from the ICON document which kind of captures all that
has been discussed above. The 2X2 is not captured directly in this below framework. Use
the learnings from whatever I’ve discussed above and the learnings from this below
framework and practice cases to create your own framework.

That’s about it when it comes to New Market Entry Cases. All major concepts have been discussed
above. All that’s pending for you – practice. What I did not cover in detail is how to do guestimates
which is the core basis of market sizing which is extremely important when it comes to evaluating the
market attractiveness.
So, next up - Guestimates
7
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

11. Guestimates

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

1
I expect you to have read the previous document before going through this one. I’ve already given a
flavor of why candidates are tested on guestimates during the case interviews.

What are Guestimates?

Guestimates are simple back-of-the-envelope type calculations that you can do on a normal A4 sheet
paper in 10-15 minutes. As part of case interviews, guestimates are asked to test candidates on their
ability to handle abstract questions, which in reality are extremely simple. For example, a guestimate
question can be “how many cigarettes do Indians smoke?” or “How many burgers get sold in a McD
joint?” These sound abstract at the beginning, but in reality, these questions are really simple. I’ll give
you some simple tools in this document that will help you deal with guestimate questions with ease.

Why are Guestimates important?

Like I mentioned in the previous document, guestimates are a scaled down version of market sizing
calculations that are done as part of analyzing the market potential, which is important for New Market
Entry cases.
Either while solving a new market entry case, the interviewer might ask you to solve a market sizing
problem as a sub-case OR the main case itself can be a guestimate question.

When it comes to guestimates, what do you mean by “Assumptions”?

In an actual consulting assignment, market sizing is done by making a lot of assumptions. These
assumptions are the foundations for the market sizing. A wrong assumption can lead to a wrong
guestimate leading to a wrong market potential assessment leading to a wrong decision when it comes
to new market entry and that wrong decision can cause a huge negative impact. So the assumptions
that you make while solving guestimates are extremely important.
For example, suppose while solving a guestimate like “How many smokers are there in India?”, an
assumption that an average Indian who smokes cigarettes smokes 3 per day Vs 4 per day (These are
the assumptions while solving the guestimates) will completely change the answer because that
number will be multiplied by the huge population of smokers in India (whatever that number is) and
multiplied by the number of days in a year – The impact of a wrong assumption is huge and I know
of companies which have turned to losses just because an assumption that the company made during
the market sizing phase was wrong. So, point being that the assumptions need to be valid and in actual
consulting assignments, these assumptions are all based on data from analyst reports and extensive
surveys. While solving a guestimate, you will not be given that data. So what you need to do is:

• Make the assumption yourself, state it out to the interviewer, ask the interviewer whether it is fine
to make that assumption. If not, ask him for feedback on your assumption and modify your
assumption accordingly. But ensure that you buy the interviewer in at every stage you make
assumptions for solving your guestimates

How to deal with Guestimates ?

Guestimates are extremely open ended and I couldn’t really find any frameworks or guiding tools to
give me direction on how to handle guestimates. So I created a framework for myself and am sharing
it here. Unlike the earlier framework, this will seem a little open ended. It is because guestimates are

2
so open ended and you cannot expect a single framework to handle all guestimate questions. Anyway,
I’ll show you how I handled guestimates.
The following points given are not all sequential in terms of what you’ll have to use to solve
guestimates. It’s because the nature of guestimates will differ largely. So use these are broad guidelines
and try to use these pointers.(With practice, you’ll figure out when to use what). With practice, I did
not have to remember all these below points. Some of this might seem like force-fitting for you. Don’t
think of it that way. Think of it as general points, which you should keep at the back of your mind so
that you don’t miss out on any important parameters.
1. T – V – R (Time – Volume – Revenue)
When a question is asked, first thing you need to check for is whether the answer should be
in volume or revenue and what is the time frame for the analysis. For example, if the question
is “What is the cigarette market size in India?” Check with the interviewer whether he wants
you to calculate the volume of cigarettes sold ( in terms of number of cigarettes) or revenue
potential of the cigarette industry ( Volume * Average Price). Also, check with the interviewer
what the time frame for the calculation is (daily, weekly, monthly or annualy). Mostly, it will
be an annual calculation – like number of cigarettes had by Indians in a year. But still, do a
check with the interviewer so that there is clarity on these 3 parameters before going forward,
in case it is not made clear by the interviewer while giving the question.

2. Type of Product/Service (Household vs Individual vs Industrial)

This is for you to just think. Don’t say anything to the interviewer. Household products like
television or fridges or cars will have to be handled separately as compared to Individual
Products like cigarettes or t-shirts or even food at restaurants (Although families go to food
restaurants, all of them individually have food as against a TV where all members of the family
use the same product). With regard to Services, guestimates aren’t asked so much. Industrial
products are very rare when it comes to guestimates. But in all these cases, just take half a
second to think of the nature of the product so that you have clarity on what you’re dealing
with. Since largely, guestimates are involved only with Products which are either household or
individual, the rest of the document will primarily focus only on that.

3. Replaceable vs Non-Replaceable products

Again, take half a second to think about whether the product is replaceable or non-replaceable.
The reason why you need to do this is to ensure that you take care of a factor called the
frequency of replacement. For example, look at a product like car tyres. It is a household
product because a car is a household product. Now suppose you’re assessing the tyre market
size of India. The broad approach is to look at no: of households in India that will be buying
new cars in the year and multiplying that no: by 5 ( 4 normal tyres + 1 spare tyre). Also, you
have to include the old cars of households where they will replace some tyres. For this, you
need to assume a replacement frequency factor and incorporate it into your calculation to find
the total market size. This is just an example, but the point is not to miss out on the replaceable
products.

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4. Conversion factor
I’ll describe this using a personal example. So I was in charge of the pro-show for Unmaad.
As part of the promo work for the pro show, we wanted to put up an ad on the big LED
screens of some major malls in Bangalore. Now, that would require a cost investment. The
culsecy wanted me to justify this cost investment because it was not a small amount. So I went
to the malls, spoke to them, got a third-party approved document from them (which they
already had before) on the average no: of visitors to the mall on weekdays as well as weekends.
Suppose on average 100 people come to the mall – I used the conversion factor concept that
I internalized during case prep last year and told the culsecy – 100 people enter the mall
everyday. Since our LED screen is right in front and everyone can see it while entering the
mall, assume that 30% actually notice the LED screen and see our ad. Now out of these
people, assume that 10% of them are interested in music and wouldn’t mind coming for the
show. And assume within this, 20% would actually buy the tickets after going back from the
mall (this is dependent on the artist we’ve selected for the concert and the crowd’s attraction
to this artist). So after all the conversion factors are applied, the number of tickets that we can
expect to be sold as a result of this ad = 100* .3 * .1 * .2 which is a very small number. But
when you multiply that small number with the total number of days where the ad will be shown
and multiply it with the large average daily footfall per mall * the number of malls where you’ll
be putting the ad, you get the total number of tickets that can be sold and multiply that with
the average ticket rate to find the total estimated revenue. This was huge compared to the cost
investment that my culsecy was concerned about and when I showed him these calculations
and assumptions, he happily agreed. The numbers I gave were what I felt were random
conservative estimates and am sure were not the actual numbers. But this extremely simple
conversion factor tool helped me solve that guestimate problem. In an actual case, all these
numbers are the assumptions which make all the difference in the answer. So you need to
check with the interviewer and buy the interviewer in before finalizing on any such
assumption.

5. Packing efficiency
This will be easy for people who remember their chemistry from school days. I’ll give an
example. Suppose the question is something like “how many tennis balls will fit into an Airbus
flight?” How is this related to consulting ? – Don’t worry about that. The question is just trying
to see whether you can break down the problem in a logical manner. The approach will be
something like 1. Assume a standard flight size (after checking with the interviewer, making
assumptions on size – like you can ask the interviewer whether you can assume it to be a
cuboid instead of the weird airplane shape, ensure you tell the interviewer stuff like the size
assumption includes not only the passenger space but also crew area + cockpit + luggage +
fuel (MECE) – make an assumption on the size based on these parameters. Make similar
assumption on tennis ball size. Divide both these numbers. But then that will not be sufficient.
Since there will be a lot of gap between these balls and it will not be packed to 100% efficiency,
you’ll have to factor that in as well (say 80% or 90% packing efficiency – again buy in the
interviewer). This concept of packing efficiency can be used in multiple cases – How many
balloons in a car? How many cars in an airbus? How many humans can be packed into a

4
 classroom? etc and you can see the applicability of this in different situations, as the case may
be.
6. Peak vs Non-peak hours & Weekend vs Weekday analysis
This is something a lot of people miss out. When it comes to estimation of demand which
varies, you need to take into account the effect of peak hours and non-peak hours OR
equivalently the effect of weekdays and weekends, where the demands will vary accordingly.
For example, suppose a client is planning to set up a restaurant and wants to know the potential
monthly revenue. There are lot of factors to be considered for finding this. But you should
not miss out on understanding the time phases where the demand is high and low. Weekends
will have a high demand and weekdays will have relatively low demand. Within a day, the peak
hours will have a higher demand and the non-peak hours will have lower demand. May be,
this is all basic stuff. But you need to factor that in your guestimate calculation. And how do
factor it? Suppose a restaurant has 10 tables – And we assume that on average a customer
spends 30 minutes in a restaurant. And each table has on average 3 customers. So, if there is
a huge demand for people to get in the restaurant, each table will have (60/30)*3 = 6
customers. And then we make an assumption that during the peak hours the restaurant is full
and during the non-peak hours, the restaurant has an average occupancy rate of 50%.
So for peak hours the no: of orders per hour will be 100% * 10 tables * 6 customers/table per
hour = 60 customers. The same figure for non-peak hours will be just multiplied by .5 = 30
customers per hour. Based on this and other assumptions like average order value per
customer based on the nature of products being served (eg. CCD coffee vs Dominos Pizza),
the potential revenue is computed. The same approach is used for weekday and weekend
demand fluctuations and is taken care in the guestimate computation. The important thing
you need to note is not to jump into the solution. Tell the interviewer that so and so is the
approach you’ll be following. Buy him into your approach, make it seem like normal
conversation and proceed forward.

7. Occupancy Rate
This has already been mentioned in the previous point. I wanted to separately give it as a tool
because it is an important one and can be used in several areas. So do not forget this one.

8. Segmentation: This is another important one. While breaking down from a large abstract
level to the level you’ll be making the computation, you’ll probably need to segment the target
market in terms of various parameters like age income bracket, urban / rural, gender. The best
thing is to immediately think of this while you start the problem and include it as part of your
approach. Again coming back to the example of cigarettes, women in India smoke way less as
compared to men. So, you’ll need to check whether this needs to be taken care of and if the
interviewer say yes, then you’ll have to separately compute and add the numbers to get the
final figure. Another example – Certain products might be used only by certain income
brackets. In such cases, that also needs to be taken care as part of the analysis where in you
don’t include any other people apart from the target segment. For instance LCD HD TV will
be used primarily by households above a certain income bracket. This needs to be factored.
Likewise, the same approach for other segmentation options.

5
 9. Representative Sampling
In some guestimate questions, even after using all these tools that I’ve mentioned above, you
might have no clue how to go about solving the guestimate. In such extreme situations, use
this tool called representative sampling, which basically means look at a small sample size and
get a representative figure and then scale that figure to include the full sample size. For
example, suppose a thug asks you to answer in 10 seconds what the number of smokers in
India is and if you don’t answer in 10 seconds, you don’t pass and you’ll be thrown into a pool
of crocodiles – I’d look at it as “Within my friend circle of 10 people, 5 people smoke.
Assuming my friend circle to be a representative sample set of the Indian population, total
number of smokers = .5* 1.2 billion = 60 Crore smokers” The actual answer might vary
drastically from this number, but atleast you have some sort of reasoning for this answer within
the 10 second constraint. Actually you just need 3-4 seconds to come to this answer. The point
of giving this example is to give you an idea about what guestimates mean after all – it’s just a
representative number indicating the target market size and they test your ability to break down
an open ended question using logic and assumptions and they test your comfort level with
handling numbers. Use this tool only in extreme cases where in you have absolutely no idea
even after going through all the before mentioned tools. Such answers will not be appreciated
because within 10-15 mins, you have sufficient time to break down the open ended question
using the before mentioned tools and come to a way better answer, but do keep it at the back
of your mind, in case you the question is extremely open ended and your brain freezes :P
The above list is not comprehensive, but for most of the guestimate questions I practiced, the above
was more than sufficient. You don’t have to mug it up. That’s an inefficient way of learning. Use this
as a guiding tool and create your framework tailored to your thought process depending on your
practice. Please note that not all guestimate questions will require you to use all of these tools. In fact,
most of the guestimates will only require you to use 2-3 tools. These tools are just for assistance. The
main focus should be the logical approach in terms of breaking down the problem.
I’m not giving any long examples of guestimates as of now. There are plenty of resources you’ll be
getting from ICON. Even Document 16 that I’ve attached has plenty of examples. When you go
through them, try using whatever I’ve mentioned above as your starting point and create tools
customized to yourself to handle guestimates
Important Note: Like with the normal cases that I’ve discussed before, ensure you tell the interviewer
the approach you’ll be following and buy the interviewer in before actually starting to solve the
guestimate.
The next section is on Mergers and Acquisition. Although rare, such cases can also get asked. So I’ve
covered it briefly

6
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

12. Mergers and Acquisitions

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

1
This will be a very short one and at the end of this document, I’ll give an important pointer. In
Document 10 on New Market Entry Cases, on the question of HOW to enter a new market, two
options were getting into a joint venture with some other target company or acquiring a target
company. More generally, these options together are called Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As). The
reason I won’t be spending too much time on M&As is that since you already am pretty familiar with
the case solving approach, there isn’t much to explain. I’ve attached a screenshot of the framework
that was given in one of the documents sent by ICON. Usually M&A cases aren’t asked so much. I
believe that the reason for this could possibly include
1. Unlike US or Europe, a lot of M&A’s do not happen in India. So the need to use M&A frameworks
is very less. I’m not in anyway stating that M&As do not happen, but the frequency is less and
naturally, the number of M&A cases consulting companies get into are very less.
2. In most New Market Entry cases, the difficult question to answer is whether to enter a market or
not. If the decision is YES, the HOW to enter question has M&As as a possible option. In an
actual assignment, the bulk of the time is spent in analyzing whether to enter or not. Like for
example, in my summer intern, 90% of the team’s time was spent in understanding the in and out
of the industry of the market our client wanted to enter and doing associated analysis on answering
the question on whether to enter or not. Acquiring a target company was just one of the many
options we came up with. So the point is that the primary focus is on the main question of whether
to enter or not. Although important, the how to enter question (which in itself is a separate case)
is more of execution of certain set of standardized tools. So, in case an M & A case is asked, you
just need to broadly follow the framework given below. The 5-step standardized process applies,
but it’ll be easier for you if you structure your questions around the below framework and making
your recommendations ONLY based on data.

2
A few general points - In terms of objectives for doing M&A’s, I’ll give you a few options that you
can keep at the back of your mind just to know situations where M&A can occur. These options are
no MECE. There will be overlap and these are not completely exhaustive in terms of the possibilities,
but it gives you a broad idea about why M&A’s can happen. Don’t mug it up. Just go through and
you’ll have a fair idea. That’s enough. (These are already given in the above framework – I’m just
explaining it a little more in detail)

• Increasing the access for the client to the market through the target company – It can be either
just to increase the brand strength for our client or to increase market share
• The client might want to diversify the portfolio of products/services as part of reducing risks
in the industry that it might be operating and create multiple revenue sources
• The client might have got some data that the competition is going to make some move that
will affect our client. So, the client might want to do an M&A with some target company to
counter such competitive moves.
• The client might get some tax advantages if it does an M&A with some target company
• Synergies can be created if M&A’s take place (Synergies can be in terms of cultures, resources,
competitive strengths etc. of the companies being part of the M&A
However, in the market, a lot of M&A’s turn out to be failures. Reasons are many, but I believe the
primary reason is the analysis done before deciding to go for an M&A would not have been robust
enough. If the analysis was robust enough, there is no reason why the M&As can be failures. The
execution of an M&A just flows naturally and logically from the analysis. If the foundation (analysis)
is weak, it is bound to fail. But there are a lot of M&As that succeed as well. Anyway, that’s broadly
what you need to know about M&As
If you felt that unlike the earlier documents, this one was too broad and generic, it is precisely because
of the 2 reasons I mentioned earlier in this document. Moreover, while practicing M&A cases, you’ll
realize that using this above framework will be more than sufficient. It’s just that at this stage when
you’re reading this document, you’re probably apprehensive that it is not as clear and in detail as the
earlier documents. Trust me – For M&A cases, practicing a few cases with the above simple
framework will be more than sufficient.
Your MBA is done: Theoretically speaking, all fundamentals required for you as part of being an MBA
graduate have been covered by now. There’s nothing more to MBA. All the courses from Term 2 just
builds on this foundation.
Now, you’re thinking : “Is this why I spent all the time reading through 12 documents? I don’t feel
very different. I don’t feel transformed. This was not a great time investment”
My response: “The capsule administration is yet to be completed. Now starts the real transformation”
☺ Read on….

3
IMPORTANT NOTE:
With this, we’ve covered broadly the major types of cases. There are some additional types of cases,
some of which I’ll discuss in the next document. The approach is always the same:
Client Context – Setting Objective function – Reverse Engineer ensuring MECE and ONLY based
on data at every level to isolate the problem – Understand the systems in place to counter the problem
– Provide recommendations based on need-gap analysis. In some of the case types we discussed, we
did modify this framework a bit based on the requirement. So, use this approach judiciously.
One additional point that I wanted to cover – After going through all these documents and during the
course of your case prep - If you feel that a lot of the work that consultants do is theoretical paper
work, please note that it is definitely NOT the case.
For example, in an actual pure strategy formulation case project, the amount of interaction consultants
have with the top management of the clients is huge. The consultants collaboratively creates the
solution with the client for the client. The result – the consultants will know the in and out of the
industry the client functions almost as much as the client itself, even though at the beginning of the
case, the consultants would not have had any clue whatsoever about the client’s industry. The learning
curve for a consultant is huge, to the point that if the consultant feels that the business model of the
client can be improved, the consultant has immense knowledge of the industry that the consultant can
just start up his/her own company using the knowledge that he/she has gained. The reason why a lot
of investors invest in companies run by ex-consultants is precisely the same reason. They know that
these consultants would know the in and out of that industry, not just from a theoretical point of view,
but also the practical perspective. To show this, let’s take an implementation case project. For example,
an operations case – where the client does not have any systems in place in the client’s manufacturing
facility and the consultants are hired to set the systems so that the operations are streamlined. The
consultants go to the factory, spend months there, work alongside the managers and supervisors of
the factors to understand the current client systems from the basics, use industry standards and
benchmarks to set systems for the client to streamline the operations to give the client long term
return. Now in this project, the consultants would’ve understood the basics from the grass root level
of how an industry functions. So, if you look at the full spectrum – consultants have the opportunity
to be as close to the combination of “Jack of all” and “Master of one” which is “Master of all”. A lot
of it depends on luck as well in terms of which sector and which function you get allotted to. But that
is the case with every field whether it be consulting or marketing or operations etc.
I agree that there is a flip side of a work-life balance and spending time on ppts. End of the day, it’s a
trade off. Every coin has 2 sides. But even then, I was able to manage these 2 issues very well.
The reason why consultants use ppts is to communicate the analysis to the clients. PPTs are indeed a
good way to communicate all the information in an audience friendly way. Regarding the ppts, like I
already mentioned before, the firm in which I interned had a separate ppt making department. So I
did not have to spend too much time working on ppt formatting or creation. I could just draw my
slide requirement on a white A4 paper roughly, take a photo of that using a camera and send it to the
ppt department which would create the ppt within a matter of minutes/hours depending on the how
much content is there to be made on the ppt. And I feel all consulting firms will be moving in that

4
direction with time. So this issue will be sorted out in a matter of time. So don’t worry too much about
this.
Regarding the work-life balance and how I found it very easy to manage consulting – I have written
my approach extensively in Document 14 – “Some life gyaan and Overall summary” where I’ve
discussed my strategy to manage work-life balance not just from a management consultant perspective,
but overall in life – Please do read it – Once you read it, you’ll be convinced how I handled the work-
life balance issue with regard to consulting – It’s about focusing on the right things in life and having
the right mindset. In this compilation of documents, Doc # 14 is the most important one without
a shade of doubt. So read it with complete focus and attention.
Anyway, personally for me, all the flip sides for management consulting have been countered.
Management Consulting for me provides immense diversity in terms of learning with an awesome
platform for maximum brain capacity utilization, in depth understanding at a theoretical and practical
level of various functions (operations, strategy, marketing, sales etc) across different industrial sectors
(FMCG, pharma, Insurance, Retail etc). Please don’t get me wrong - I’m not trying to sell consulting
as a field to you and am not trying to force you to get into consulting. I’m just trying to be as objective
as possible in my reasoning. Whatever you feel is not right in whatever I said, you can ignore and do
your own research and find out for yourself.
For me, consulting is definitely not theoretical paper work where a top consulting firm just submits a
report to a client. Over the course of the first few documents as well as some inputs scattered here
and there throughout the course of all these documents, I’ve given you my reasons. Use these reasons
that I’ve given as a start, do your own set of analysis and research about consulting to decide whether
you actually want it.

The next document discusses certain unconventional case types. As of now, you DO NOT have to
read the next document. It’s too early for you to read Document 13. Once you form a case group and
start doing cases, you can come back to Document 13 to get exposure to a few different types of cases.
You can skip Document 13 as of now and move on to the Most Important Document of this
compilation – Document 14. If you’re confused whether you should go to Document 13 or 14, you
have to go to Document 14. Even if you go to Document 13, I would’ve redirected you to Document
14. Ensure you focus completely on every word of Document 14 – “Some Life Gyaan and
Overall Summary” ☺

5
Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

13. Unconventional Cases

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

1
As mentioned in the previous document, if you’re coming here from Document 12, please go to
Document 14 for now. You can come to this document in Term 2 once you start your case preparation
actively.
I expect you to have read Document 14 and only then proceed forward
In addition to the normal cases types I’ve discussed before in the previous documents, there can also
be certain unconventional cases. Whatever the case type may be, remember that it either affects the
revenue side or the cost side of the client somehow or the other. Unconventional cases are also the
same, but when you listen to the case question, it really doesn’t strike you quickly, because of which
people get psyched out. People think that just because it is not the normal case type, they can’t solve
it. Trust me – The approach is exactly the same. There are 2 examples I’ll discuss which will convince
you of this after which you can use the approach for solving ANY case. One example will be discussed
in this document. The other example was a case that I was given during my summer placements. I
have given the case solution in detail to the ICON JC, who interviewed me. So when ICON shares
with you the case interview summaries from last year, you’ll be able to find the solution there.

Unconventional Case Example 1 –

Case Question: Your client is an Indian airline company. The client is facing delays in flight timings.
Please help the client to solve this problem (This was one of my favorite cases that I did as part of
case prep for summers. I did this case with one of my buddies. This was an actual live case that a
major Indian airline company faced. I did mess up a little while solving this case, so as part of the case
solution - I’ll write down how I messed up and how I managed it)
Case Solution:
Step 1: Understanding a bit of the client business context:
Jojy thinks: The objective function is not very clear. I don’t understand what delay in flight timings
really means. I need to ask what that means.
Jojy: “Ok. Before I start off, can you please tell me what delay in flight timings really means? Is it
something related to flying time of flights or departure time or something else. Can I get some clarity
on this before proceeding forward?”
Buddy: “Sure. It’s simple. It just means that flights arrive a little late as compared to the time when
the flights are supposed to arrive”
Jojy thinks: Ok. So that gives a little bit more clarity. I need to understand a little bit about the client
context before proceeding further. So let me ask a few questions around that
Jojy: “Ok. Before structuring my thoughts and starting to solve the problem, I’d like to get some basic
information regarding the client. Is that ok?
Buddy: “Sure. Go on”

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Jojy: “You mentioned that our client is a Indian airline company. I have a few questions. 1. Is our
client a passenger airline or a cargo airline? 2. Is our client operating only within India or is our client
an international service provider?”
Buddy: “Passenger airline. The client has international services but for the scope of this question, let’s
just stick to domestic services”
Jojy: “Ok. Within India, does the client fly only on limited local routes or it is a national – wide airline.
Also, is the problem that the client is facing something specific to few of the routes that the client
operates or is it a problem that our client is facing in all the routes? And how long has our client been
facing this problem”
Buddy: “The client is a national level airline having services all across the country. The client is facing
this problem across all its routes and it has been noticed for the last 6 months”
(If you’re thinking how I was able to think of all this – It’s just practice. I just broke down trying to
make it MECE with every question and this skill comes only with practice. When I started off my case
prep., I really did not have this skill so much.)
Jojy thinks: That gives a lot more clarity on our client and some idea about the problem. Now, I want
to ask a little more about the problem that the client is facing. But before getting into the analysis, I
want to be clear whether the problem is an external industry wide problem or an internal client-specific
problem. So I need to ask that
Jojy: “Great. That gives me additional clarity. Just another question. Do we have data to show that
this problem that our client is facing is something that only our client is facing or is it something that
the entire Indian passenger airline industry is facing?
Buddy: “The Indian passenger airline industry is fine. This is specific to our client”
Jojy thinks: Cool. That’s sufficient info for me to start structuring my thoughts and solving the
problem. But before that I need to buy in the interviewer of my approach.
Step 2: Set the objective(s)/goal(s) function
Jojy: “Fine. So basically, our client, an Indian passenger airline company has been facing an internal
problem across all its routes for the last 6 months, as a result of which there is a delay in the flight
arrival times. We need to find out this problem and solve it. Is there any other objective? If this is the
only objective, can I take a few seconds to structure my thoughts to decide the approach to solve this
problem?”
Buddy: “Sure. Go ahead”
Step 3: Reverse Engineer from this objective function ONLY based on data, ensuring MECE
at each stage to drill down to the core problem(s)
Level 0: Total time to reach destination = Total flying time + Total time for the flight to depart from
the airport (MECE)

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Jojy: “So, basically total time to reach the destination for a flight is a sum of the flying time + the time
taken for the flight to depart from the source destination. So the problem will be with either of these
or both of these. Do we have data to show that the either of these or both of these have been different
from our target timings for each of these?
Buddy: “Data shows that the flying time is not an issue”
Jojy: “That means that the internal problem that our client is facing is with regard to the flight
departure time. For the scope of further analysis, I’m planning to look at only this. Is that fine? If yes,
can I take a few seconds to see what are the possible reasons that can lead to this?”
Buddy: “Sure. Go on”
(Jojy is going to mess up a little now)
Jojy thinks: It’s a passenger airline. So, let me think on the lines of what all can cause passenger delays.
The entire passenger travel journey to the flight should be broken down logically and sequentially and
somewhere there would be a bottleneck. Let me find that out and try to solve it
Jojy: “The flight departure time can be delayed due to multiple reasons. The approach I’m planning
to follow is look at various delays that can come in as a result of passengers and their luggages. For
example, issues like passengers checking in late, their luggages reaching the flight late etc. I feel this
approach will help isolate the core problem and then we can solve it. Is this approach fine? If yes, can
I take a few seconds to look at the various components of the passenger journey until reaching the
flight”
Buddy: “Hmm…Your approach does not seem right. May be, it’s because you’re not familiar with the
airline industry. Think about whether it is actually the passenger journey that needs to be analyzed”
Jojy: “Oh ok. Let me take a few seconds to think about it”
Jojy thinks: (Brain freeze for a few seconds because I was sure that was the approach. But now it is
wrong as per the interviewer. So I must be missing something. Let me think again..(10-15 seconds of
silence)…Yes.. I was wrong. It is not the passenger journey to the flight that matters. It is the flight’s
journey until it flies that matter and passengers entering the flight is only 1 part of it. So I need to
break down the various components of the flight’s journey until it flies and see where our problem
can be
Jojy: “Oh yes. I was wrong. It is the flight’s journey that we need to analyze and passengers and luggage
entering the flight are only 1 part of that journey. So can I take a few seconds to analyze the various
components of this journey so that we can isolate the problem to solve it. Is this approach fine or do
you want me to follow a different approach?”
Buddy: “Yes. You’re right. Your approach is fine now. Go on”
Level 1: Flight departure time = Time to load passengers, crew & luggages + Time to fuel / refuel
the aircraft + Any regular maintenance work before refueling after the aircraft would have landed after
its previous flight + Any other variables which I might have missed

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Jojy: “Ok. So I’ve broken down the flight departure time into few broad buckets. Flight departure
time = Time to load passengers, crew & luggages + Time to fuel / refuel the aircraft + Any regular
maintenance work before refueling after the aircraft would have landed after its previous flight. I think
I’ve covered most of the variables. Since I’m not very familiar with the airline industry, it will be great
if you can tell me whether there are some additional variables that I need to think about. If not, do we
have any data from the client that shows that any of these variables are taking more time than whatever
time standards each of them would have?”
Buddy: “No. This is fine. We have data to show that the passenger/luggage/crew loading times as
well as the fuel filling times are fine.”
Jojy: “Great. So that means – Can I assume that for the further scope of analysis of this problem, the
regular maintenance time is our core problem or is there something else that I need to think about? If
not, can I break down the maintenance time further to isolate the core problem?”
Buddy: “Yes. Maintenance time is the problem. Your approach seems fine. Go ahead”
Jojy thinks: I’ve worked in core engineering in a factory and I should be able to use some of my
learnings to get some idea about what all can lead to maintenance time increasing
Level 2: Maintenance time can be impacted as a result of various maintenance resource constraints.
The various resources for maintenance that can create issues are 1. Maintenance manpower constraints
(like not enough people to do the maintenance leading to more time to complete the tasks OR/AND
quality of workmen going down leading to more time to complete the tasks) + Maintenance tools
and spare parts constraints (not enough tools/spare parts OR/AND quality of tools/spare parts going
down due to some purchasing issue or not replacing old spare parts etc)
Jojy: “Broadly I feel maintenance time can be impacted in a negative way as a result of issues involving
manpower as well as tools/spare parts for maintenance. Is there anything else that I need to consider?
Else, do we have some data to show either of this or both of this is a problem?”
Buddy: “Tools/Spare parts is the problem”
Jojy: “Ok. So various issues under Tools and spare parts can include either quantity or quality of
tools/spare parts creating an issue. Quantity related issues include not having enough tools/spare
parts Quality related issues include quality of tools/spare parts going down due to some purchasing
issue or not replacing old spare parts etc. Any of this can affect maintenance time affecting the total
departure time affecting the total arrival time. Do we have any data to show that any of these issues
I’ve identified are a problem?”
Buddy: “The quantity of spare parts is the issue. Last 6 months, we don’t seem to have sufficient spare
parts required for maintenance and the management never came to know of it. Every time, during
maintenance, when the workers realized that the spare parts weren’t sufficient, they had to arrange for
alternate spare parts which took time leading to this issue cropping up. Now, come up with
recommendations to solve this”

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Step 4: Understand the current system in place to counter this problem:
Jojy: “Before I come up with recommendations, can you tell me whether there is a system in place
currently to counter this problem and if yes, why is this system not effective?”
Buddy: “We have a vendor who supplies all this spare parts inventory to us. The vendor has not been
delivering up to the mark as per the vendor’s agreement with us”
Step 5: Recommendations based on data based analysis
Jojy thinks of few options
Jojy: “Ok I have 4 recommendations as part of the analysis we have conducted. 1. Enforce contract
with the vendor strictly charging extra penalties for not delivering as per the contract 2. Employ
multiple vendors as backups for each other so that the client is safeguarded. 3. Revamp the spare parts
inventory management system by the client so that even if the vendor does not deliver, we’re
safeguarded. 4. Once the flight lands itself, do all this checking so that the before departure, there is
no time wasted because of this. Are these options fine? Or do you want me to think of other options?”
Buddy: “Not required. This is fine. We actually executed one of the options you stated”
This is an example of an unconventional case but solved using the exact same approach.

Unconventional Case Example 2 –

Case Question: Your client is a bank and is facing reduced customer satisfaction levels. Please help
the client to solve this problem.
Case Solution: (Please refer to the document ICON will be sending you guys in Term 2 containing
summaries of summer placement interviews from last year. This was a relatively easier case compared
to the previous example. The ICON document will have the detailed solution)
In addition to all this, I did have a lot of case-specific learnings from solving various cases. Initially I
felt like sharing those learnings as well, but then realized that I’ll not be doing justice to you guys as
you’ll probably be doing those type of cases with your case group or buddies or using other resources
and you should ideally learn it by yourself and not get spoonfed ;)
I think I’ve actually given quite a lot of learnings already. If 1 week before your summer placements,
you’ve done your bit of practicing cases and you want to know whether there are any more inputs that
you’d want or you’ve missed out, you can mail me at that stage. I have another ~2 months until then
and would’ve created that document by then. So I can send it to you at that stage. But for now, focus
on improving your skills yourself with a long term collaborative mindset and an attitude of putting
in the maximum infinite effort not being bothered about the result but only focused on the
learning.
I hope you’ve already read Document 14 and that has helped you find yourself some peace of mind.
Once again, all the best ! ☺

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Management Consulting and Case Solving
for Dummies

14. Some Life Gyaan and Overall Summary ☺

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16

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In this document, I’ll give you some general gyaan which I tell my friends and it really helps them.
(also how to handle work-life balance in a very simple super-easy manner which in Doc# 12, I
mentioned I’ll cover here), There are 2 broad things I’ll cover. One is regarding a person’s mindset
when it comes to putting in effort for whatever the person wants. The other is the person’s mindset
when it comes to dealing with people as part of putting in the effort. This is just my personal view.
Whatever you feel is useful for you, you can use. Rest of it – whatever you feel is crap, you can ignore.

Mindset change for putting in effort

In a lot of people, society has created a mindset from the time they’re young that personal efficiency
is defined as “I’m a human being. I have limitations and I am finite. Within my limitations, I’ll
put in the minimum effort with a focus on getting the maximum return on my effort, with a
strong focus on the result that I want” – I personally feel this is WRONG. This creates a lazy
complacent mindset in people. This limiting mindset turns into an infinite loop and makes a person
dull wanting to put only limited effort for whatever the person wants. When it comes to effort, the
way I look at life is “I’m an infinite being. Just because society tells me I’m finite doesn’t mean
I’m finite. What society is telling is only limiting my potential. Moreover, there is absolutely
no logic to what society says – There is no proof that human being are finite. It is just a
random societal notion. So, I consider myself to be an infinite being. I will put in infinite
maximum effort for whatever I want. The only thing that I can control is my effort. The result
is not always in my control. So, I will not bother about the return on my infinite effort. The
fact that I’m putting in the infinite effort will ensure that I get the maximum infinite return
automatically because that is how infinity is defined” This is a mindset I had from a young age
and it has paid off extremely well for me. As kids, we’re all told more or less the same thing but
somewhere while growing up, I saw a lot of my friends getting affected by the societal notion that
humans have limitations and turning out to be lazy. To friends who come to me for general gyaan,
few tips I give them when it comes to putting in effort are:
Step 1: Most importantly, acknowledge that their previous mindset created by society is WRONG.
Just because society tells you to do something a particular way doesn’t mean it is right. It is because
society has influenced you so much that you have a rather complacent lazy mindset. When you realize
that your effort is limited by this mindset, acknowledge that your earlier mindset is wrong.
Step 2: Consciously change the mindset to what I mentioned earlier. This will take time and effort.
But hey, if I can do it from the time I was a kid and a lot of my friends to whom I’ve asked to
consciously change their mindset can do it, there’s no reason you cannot do it. The only reason you
think you cannot do it is because society has created a notion in you that human beings are finite and
you can only put in finite effort. If you think that you’re a logical person, please prove this stupid
illogical notion. There is absolutely no proof to this notion. So, change your mindset consciously.
Step 3: Put in infinite effort for whatever that you want not being bothered about the return/result
on your time and effort. Infinity here is defined as the “never give up” attitude and practice, practice
and practice with a focus ONLY on the effort. The fact that you put in your infinite effort will ensure
that you reach your goal. And for whatever reason, out of your control you don’t get it, you’ll be
satisfied that you put in your maximum infinite effort. Like for instance, after doing a lot of cases,
suppose you develop your case solving skills and your people skills very well but during the interview,

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for whatever reason the interviewer was an a** and doesn’t select you – From your point of view, you
did your best. Over time, I have trained my mind to handle such situations by thinking “Big deal. I
put in my infinite effort and tried my best. There’s possibly nothing more I could’ve done. That
company doesn’t deserve me”. The effort is what matters. Making yourself dependent on the result
of that effort will make you lose your focus from the effort to the result. The result will happen, if it’s
meant to be but the effort is all that is in your control and your focus should only be on that. Period

Mindset change to counter the rat race effect

Disclaimer: Some parts of what I’ll be discussing in this section might irritate a few of you because as
part of life gyaan people used to come to me for, I used to tell them what I’ll be telling you know and
they used to get really disturbed and irritated. So you also might get irritated. But what I would request
you to do is think logically and objectively about the meaning of what I’ll be discussing. When I asked
my friends to do that, they realized their mistake and they put in effort and their performance
improved disruptively.
The effort mindset that I mentioned early is something I had from my childhood. But this second
mindset change was something I learnt the hard way. For explaining this, I’ll just define 2 simple terms:
Positive Energy: Thoughts and actions that result in a good positive feeling in you
Negative Energy: Thoughts and actions that result in a bad negative feeling in you.
I’ll explain this using my personal example. When I was doing my engineering, I was really affected by
the rat race mindset that society built into me from the time I was a kid. “Life is a competition. You
need to be better than the other person” Somewhere during my engineering, I figured that that
mindset was creating a hell of a lot of negative energy in me. I was really bothered by what grades I
got because I used to compare it with my friends and think “Yes, I got a higher grade than him” or
“F*ck, I got a lower grade than him”. At some point I realized that at one extreme, society tells you
that we’re all here as a family and we should all co-exist and help out each other. And on the other
extreme, the same society tells you that “You need to be better than your friend” and creates the rat
race mindset. For me, I figured both cannot co-exist together. If I try to maintain a balance between
the 2, I figured I’ll turn out to be a confused individual on an absolute scale. The “World is a family”
mindset created positive energy in me. The “Short term-competitive rat race – I need to be better than
someone else” mindset created negative energy and both these energies were clashing bigtime. I
acknowledged that only 1 of this can be true on an absolute scale and to decide which one is the
right one, I just looked at whichever mindset gives me more positive energy. I acknowledged that my
“Short term competitive mindset” is wrong because relative to the “World family – Long term
collaborative mindset”, the previous one was creating a lot of negative energy in me. I put in conscious
effort. It took time, but I know for a fact that as of now, I’m freed of the peer pressure competitive
mindset. The result – A hell of lot of positive energy which results in a lot of free time in my life,
which earlier I used to spend on handling the stupid negative energy created as a result of peer
pressure. And in that time, I started doing a lot of other stuff which resulted in more positive energy
like learning multiple instruments, stage performances, watching movies, reading books, playing
multiple sports, blogging once in a while etc. Again, the same thing as before – Just because society
has created a negative competitive mindset does not mean that society is right. And by society, I mean
our parents, teachers, professors, friends, movies that we watch etc. They’ve also been influenced by

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the same confused society. It’s just stupid to follow something you know for a fact is creating negative
energy in you. Just because your parents or teachers or professors or some friend tells you “that’s the
way the world works” doesn’t mean that they’re right. They’ve been influenced by the same confused
society before them. It will take time and effort for you to free yourself of peer pressure. But the best
part is you can use what I mentioned in the earlier section on the effort mindset – Put in infinite effort
to free yourself of peer pressure. That is what helped me. You can use it as well. It’ll be just a matter
of time and you’ll be full of awesome kicka** positive energy.
Moreover, even if you’re looking at it from a result point of view - a collaborative mindset creates
more Long Term WIN-WIN output for you and your friend than a competitive mindset which might
create a short term WIN-LOSE output for you/your friend. It’ll take time. Just follow these steps
Step 1: Most importantly, acknowledge that your earlier rat race short term competitive mindset is
WRONG. On an absolute scale, you cannot have both the “The world is a family” mindset and “I
need to be better than my friend” mindset true at the same time.
Step 2: Consciously put in effort once you’ve acknowledged that the earlier mindset is wrong. Do not
give up. It will take time, because all throughout your life you’ve been asked to have the competitive
mindset. It will definitely take time. Don’t expect this to happen overnight or in a matter of a few days
Step 3: Put in infinite effort using what I mentioned in the previous section on the effort mindset.
You’ll cross the threshold at some point where you’ll free yourself of all this stupid rat race peer
pressure effects - you’ll be full of positive energy which you can use for the time that has been freed
up in your life (which the negative energies used to take up earlier) to do stuff that creates more
positive energy and it is like an infinite loop creating more and more positive energy in you. ☺ A lot
of my friends used to argue “Why can we not go for a middle path between the 2 extremes”. My
response to them was simple
1. When you acknowledge that both mindsets lead to clashing energies within you, and you still
follow through the middle path, you’re consciously making yourself a confused person – For me,
that is just consciously making yourself insane. I know it’s a strong way of putting it, but hey,
that’s my point of view. Think objectively whether this is right or wrong and decide for yourself.
2. If suppose everyone in a society follows such a middle path between these 2 extremes, the result
I believe is mediocrity and average performance of society on an absolute scale. And that means
that even your performance is just average on an absolute scale and you just think that it is good
because you’re so used to thinking that the middle path route is the right route. On an absolute
scale, your performance is also average if you follow the average path (middle path between the 2
mindsets). And in such a mediocre place, there has to be someone who is at the top of the class
and there has to be someone who is at the bottom of the class. It does not in any way mean that
on an absolute scale, the person at the top is better than the person at the bottom or the other
way. If your focus is on your infinite effort and continuous learning with a collaborative mindset
not being focused on the result at any stage, you wouldn’t care about what grades you get, what
companies you get placed or any of this stupid rat race parameters. You’ll be just bothered about
your effort, the learning in the process of putting in this effort, having fun with friends where in
you ask for help and help them to make yourself happy in both cases and have infinite positive
energy within you. This will disruptively improve your performance in whatever you genuinely

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 want. There is an element of consciously changing your mindset for this and consciously putting
in your maximum effort to change your earlier mindset, after you acknowledge that your earlier
mindset is wrong. The results will naturally follow but the effort is all that matters.
3. I’ll give you my personal example. This is a pretty long one. If you have some positive takeaways,
ensure you internalize it. When I joined IIMB, I had 4 broad reasons for joining. 1. Try out
consulting because I was interested in the diversity and brain capacity utilization in this industry,
although I knew that the lifestyle might be a little messy and some part of my time would have to
be spent in making ppts, which I wasn’t really fascinated about. I wanted to get an intern at a
particular firm for certain reasons, but trying out consulting as a possible career option was the
primary agenda. 2. I wanted to go on exchange and have fun for a few months. 3. I wanted to
properly chill out for 2 years before going back to the corporate world. 4. I wanted to explore
more in life on things beyond these corporate jobs. With these broad targets with no special focus
on the result, but only on the effort – I put in my maximum infinite effort for all 4 goals. I focused
primarily on the learning in Term 1 not being bothered about grades with a collaborative mindset.
The grades naturally came. My exchange was confirmed – Goal 2 achieved. I got into a club on
campus with a primary agenda of wanting a dedicated social platform for chilling out and having
fun and NOT a resume point. (I even mentioned that during my club interview – If you don’t
believe me, it’s ok. I don’t feel the need to prove it to anyone anyways) and additionally the
collaborative mindset helped me get a lot of friends on campus for chilling out – Goal 3 achieved
and still being achieved. For summer placements, I targeted the firm that I wanted to get in –
Put in my infinite effort to get into that firm, with a focus only on the effort and even if the result
had not been to my benefit – My response would’ve been “Big deal I tried my best. I will not have
any regrets” – But the fact that I put in my infinite effort led to the result of me getting placed in
that same firm and have currently got a job offer as well from the same firm – Goal 1 achieved
– Again the focus is only on the effort. During all this, I was exploring more beyond these
corporate jobs and I found a brilliant idea that I’ve been working on. I am interested in consulting
and interested in joining this firm I got an offer from. But right now, as I write this, I’m more
interested in this new idea that I’ve got and I’m even seriously reconsidering getting into consulting
even though I’m convinced that I’ll be a good management consultant. I was so fascinated by this
idea that after Term 2 when I got this idea, I’ve been putting in infinite effort on this idea that the
learning that I personally got from working on this idea was much more than some of the MBA
courses – This lead to me getting grade drops in a few courses, almost failing multiple courses but
wasn’t regretting it one bit because I had freed myself of peer pressure long time back. A number
like 3.9 or 2.1 CGPA doesn’t define me. Those no: systems have been created by society as part
of unknowingly promoting the rat race mindset. For me, this new idea is what I’m focusing all my
infinite energy and effort on – Goal 4 achieved and is still being achieved. If you noticed, even
from a result perspective, I’ve achieved all my 4 broad goals even though I never bothered about
the result and was only focused on the infinite effort with a collaborative mindset. And it is not
like I have succeeded in all my efforts. But the cases where I’ve not succeeded in my efforts are
only ones where there were things out of my control. But when I put in my infinite effort, I’m
convinced that I’ve tried my best. And what I so called don’t succeed in is only failure from another
person’s/society’s perspective. From my lens, with my motto of me being a continuous learning
machine, all those which society calls as failures are learnings for me to take care in the infinite
effort for the next time. So what is the result of having such an attitude – I always succeed from

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 my perspective and always win – ALWAYS WIN - whether it be academics, work, relationships
or whatever it is. The point of giving my personal example is not to tell you not to go to MBA
classes or do things you feel are radical. Actually on an overall basis, MBA has added way more
value to me than my engineering. For me, I made my decisions according to my genuine interests
on what makes me happy. That’s just my case. You’ll have to acknowledge that you are unique
and different in your own little way and look at what you genuinely want and what makes you
happy. And even if you’re confused in the process at some stage – That’s fine. A lot of people are
confused. If you want to try out consulting or any other industry for that matter, put in that infinite
effort to try out whatever field you want to try out and then make a decision. The tools to make
this easy and make you less confused are 1. the mindset change to kill the negative energies as a
result of being in the rat race and 2. the mindset change to put in maximum infinite effort for
whatever you want. The result – You end up being happy for yourself and not bothered about
someone else’s approval. And only when you’re happy for yourself can you put in the effort to
make other people happy creating positive energy in others which will feedback again to yourself
(Remember – we’re all created from the same energy source so all our energies are
connected to each other - so the positive energy will feedback – that’s why you feel good
when you help others ☺ ) making you even more happy making you want to help people out
further making you even more happy and it is like an infinite loop all of which together skyrockets
your confidence and your positive energy. Even preparing this compilation of documents – My
attitude was the same – Put in infinite effort to make these documents as robust possible to make
life for pgp1s a little easy making them happy creating positive energy in them which feedbacks
into me and makes me happy and creates a hell of lot of positive energy in me and the infinite
loop continues to create more and more and a lot more positive energy. Infinity is by far my
favorite word - by an infinite margin over any other word that I love to use in my life.
Infinity is infinitely awesome \m/ ☺ \m/ (All throughout these documents – teaching you
case solving and management consulting and all that was just my secondary objective. Because of
the nature of the content, I know that most of you would have found some part of the content
really boring. That is because you have a “result-oriented I’ll put my minimum input as effort”
mindset. If you had a “non-result oriented completely learning focused mindset” – that would
have resulted in you putting in infinite effort to learn and be happy for yourself in the process as
a result of which you wouldn’t have been bored” So unless you change your mindset, you cannot
be happy for yourself - My primary objective of doing this was to build it up logically and
sequentially to make you realize that if you change your mindsets and add the word infinity to your
life, you can also do anything you want and make yourself infinitely happy ☺ )

Overall Summary
The above 2 mindsets changes are my suggestions. End of the day, all what I said are points that will
be useful to you only if you feel it is right. Otherwise, there is absolutely no point. At least ensure you
internalize all the positive takeaways. All the rest you can ignore. The next 2 documents are references
I had used last year for case prep. You can also refer to the same. In all these documents I’m sharing,
I’ve tried to cover most of my learning from last year as part of consult prep as well as some personal
tips on how to live life. I believe I’ve covered most of what I wanted to convey.

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Don’t think of this as a bible. Ensure you just use this as a base/start for your preparations and put in
infinite effort ☺ using Case Prep-Resources 1 and 2 and any other resource that you’re able to access
and always remember that you’re a continuous learning machine ☺. Don’t focus on the Problem
solving speed when you start off your case preparation. It’ll take you time, but focus on the learning
and only on the learning, with an acknowledgement that you’ll screw up badly, very badly and burn
yourself into ashes in the process of screwing up, but the attitude of infinite effort will ensure that
you’ll rise from the ashes like a phoenix bird and rise higher than you had ever risen (I know
it’s a dramatic way of putting it but the point had to be made strongly). The problem solving drill
speed will naturally come with time. Also, in the process of your case prep, if you do not know
something (some random MBA jargon term or concept), don’t get psyched out. Keep it simple - Just
ask someone or google it and find it out. Everyone has to learn at some point. The continuous learning
and infinite effort are the only things in your control and the only things that matter – Not the grades.
Not the companies you get placed in. Not the recognitions you might possibly get. Not any of that
which makes you focus on the result which gets you into the rat race mindset. ‘Those are discrete
points in your life and the happiness is only momentary. But when your focus is ONLY on the
learning with an attitude of putting in infinite effort for whatever you want without caring about the
result with a long term collaborative mindset – You’re a continuous learner and unlike the
DISCRETE happiness that you have as part of the rat race mindset, the infinite effort
combined with the collaborative mindset makes you CONTINUOUSLY happy NOW and
FOREVER ☺ (“Forever” is just a summation of “Nows” ☺ in case you did not think of it).
And if you think about it deeply (might sound funny when you think about it initially, but do give it a
very deep thought logically and objectively), if this is scaled across 7 billion people (For example, after
setting the context, you can send it to your friends and they can send it to theirs – cascading effect),
people’s confidence and positive energy will increase leading to their productivity increasing which
can lead to a Global GDP boom in a matter of the time and effort that it would take people including
yourself to change the old mindsets and put in the infinite effort. And since people will be happy to
help other people (long term collaborative mindset + positive energy feedback as a result of others
being happy leading to your personal happiness increasing again), all the major problems in the world
like corruption, unemployment, poverty and all other problems people face can be solved and you can
actually imagine an ideal happy world where there is complete harmony and no rat-race mindset at all.
If you’re thinking “Yes. It sounds possible theoretically. But there’ll definitely be practical limitations”
My response: “In the last 1 year, I’ve worked extensively on solving these practical limitations based
on an infinitely strong idea that struck me and I have put my infinite energy and effort and created a
completely practical super-robust pragmatic solution (as part of my Goal 4) that MECE’s all possible
such practical problems/limitations that any human can think of and this solution will transform the
global education system in a matter of time. So get ready for a positive societal mega-disruption that
is going to actually make the world live like a family. Moreover, you just need to be bothered about
your personal happiness ensuring you have the right mindset and put in infinite effort to make yourself
happy and others happy which feeds back and makes you even more happy and you’ll naturally add
to making the world happy. Just ensure you make yourself happy – You don’t have to worry about
the practical limitations one bit - I’ll take care of all the so called practical limitations – put in my
infinite effort, making myself happy, making others happy which feeds back making me super-
infinitely happy. So, just wait and you’ll see how it all unfolds naturally and beautifully. ☺ ”

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Anyway, right now, you don’t have to think about all that. If that happens, it’s good. Otherwise also,
it’s good (Again – The Non-result oriented + ONLY infinite effort oriented mindset always gives
awesome peace of mind and infinite energy and effort focus to anyone and everyone with that right
mindset – Handling work life-balance is super easy now ☺ ) Just change your mindset if you feel it’ll
help based on the inputs I’ve given and make yourself happy by putting in infinite effort for whatever
you want without being bothered about the result but having a long term collaborative non-rat racy
mindset to fill yourself with positive energy to make yourself happy and to make others happy which
again feeds back positive energy into you and makes you happy again and it’s an Infinite loop –
Woohoo \m/ ☺ Change yourself to make yourself filled with infinite positive energy and infinite
happiness and the world around you will adjust accordingly. ☺

Again, do this conscious mindset change only if you feel it’ll help you increase your happiness and
positive energy. Don’t do it because I told you to do it. Do it only if you are convinced it will help
you. But not doing it after you realize it will help you is just a dumb stupid way of looking at life.

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 Below is the link I had mentioned earlier in Document 6 – A post I had written post getting placed
in summers (Read later) http://zindaginamilegidobaraa.blogspot.in/2014/11/taking-control.html
“Don’t take life so seriously. But be sincere to it”
http://justsomething.co/these-25-pictures-will-make-you-completely-re-evaluate-your-
existence/ Go through this link after this finishing this document – Influenced me a lot when I saw
this sometime back – Will give you more reason why you shouldn’t take life seriously and be sincere
to it. By “being sincere to life”, I mean that you need to put in infinite maximum effort for
whatever you genuinely want with a long term collaborative mindset when you deal with people
as part of putting in the infinite effort. The “don’t take life seriously” part ensures that your
dependency on the result of your infinite effort is 0. If the result happens, it’s good. If it does not
happen, even then it’s good. The only thing in your control is your effort and ensure you maximize
it – You can see the sky from earth. So, not even sky should be your limit when it comes to
effort. It should be infinity and more infinity – Never ending never give up attitude
Practice with a focus on ONLY the effort because that’s the only thing you have full control
on - not just as part of Consult Case Prep., but generally for everything you want in life ☺
You can send this capsule to your MBA friends if you think it’ll help them and that’ll make you
more happy with the positive feedback infinite loop concept I’ve mentioned several times ☺. You
can forward them the mail I sent and ensure you ask them to go through it sequentially from
Document 0 and not just Document 14 because the entire capsule needs to be administered and not
the final bits and pieces of the medicine inside the capsule. If they change, it’ll be easier for you to
change your mindset faster. If you feel like sending it to your friends – Send it & make yourself
happy. If you don’t feel like sending it, don’t send it & make yourself happy even then ☺
I’m currently in Milan, Italy on exchange on a short break achieving my personal Goal 2 (in parallel
working on Goal 4 as well – Even sending this to you is part of that) ;). So I feel it is customary for
me to use a random local language finishing line for this learnings compilation.
Ti Auguro il Meglio ! ! ! = All the best ! ! !
After making the mindset changes and after you start putting your maximum infinite effort with a
long term collaborative mindset – you can mail me if you need further help not just with case prep,
but with regard to ANY problem you’re facing in life however small or big you may think it is. But
with my exchange travel itinerary and limited access to wifi, I can’t promise a quick response. Still, I
will try my best to help to solve your problem, make you happy and in turn make myself happy ☺
Remember once again that summer placements aren’t the biggest thing on the planet.
\m/ You guys are all going to kick a** ! ! ! \m/
Signing off,
Jojy \m/
Take care. Bye ☺

Go through the 25 pictures link given above NOW ITSELF, and then ensure you come back
and read this document once again. After that, if you’re interested - visit my blog
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http://zindaginamilegidobaraa.blogspot.in/2013/04/hello-there-people.html