BCG & Bain Case Interview

Creativity Questions

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Creativity questions

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How to make the most of the sample questions

Our sample questions are based on past McKinsey case interviews to ensure you train
with the most realistic material possible. Here are a few tips to make the most of them:

1. No calculator

The questions are designed to be completed by yourself or with a partner interviewing

you. In both situations, you should aim to solve the full case without a calculator and
without looking at the answer key.

2. Do questions out loud

If you are practicing by yourself, you should both play the role of the interviewer and of
the interviewee and you should speak out loud. This might sound a little odd but
candidates who force themselves to use this technique are progressing much faster than
others because it better reproduces the conditions of the interview.

3. Study the answer key carefully

After completing the question, you should study the answer key in details. You need to
pay attention both to the content of the answers and to the way it is communicated.
Most candidates are only focused on the content and whether they got to the right
answer. But in reality, your interviewer will also evaluate you on how you communicate.
Do not hesitate to repeat parts of the answer out loud. This will help you develop a
habit of communicating in a structured way.

4. Do questions multiple times

Finally, do the questions multiple times. You might think that you will remember the
answers, but if you wait a couple of days you probably won’t remember them very well.
In our experience, it is better to do 20 cases and to learn a lot from them than 40 cases
without spending time analysing the best way to answer them.

Doing questions or cases a second time will enable you to keep track of your progress
and to double check that you are not making the same mistakes twice. We also
recommend that you keep a notebook where you write down what you've learned at the
end of each case. You can then refer back to it when you do a case for the second time.

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Finally, we are here to answer any of your questions, so if you get stuck trying to
understand the explanations in the answer key, just drop us a line
at: support@igotanoffer.com. We’ll be happy to fill any gaps!

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Table of Contents
Creativity question #1 - Hurricane ................................................................................................................ 5

Creativity question #2 – Bable ......................................................................................................................... 8

Creativity question #3 – ABeer ..................................................................................................................... 11

Creativity question #4 – Pregnacare .......................................................................................................... 14

Creativity question #5 – Duke Bank ........................................................................................................... 17

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Creativity question #1 - Hurricane

Situation

It’s 2100. Storms have been getting stronger and stronger in the UK as a result of
climate change. A large hurricane is approaching London. It’s the first time the city faces
such a strong storm and it is unprepared as no one was expecting it.

The Mayor of London is one of your friends and she gives you a call to pick your brain
on how to best manage the upcoming crisis. She’s worried about Londoners’ safety and
wants to make sure she does everything possible to soften the blow of the hurricane.

Creativity question

What are some of the ideas you’ve got to help the Mayor manage the upcoming
hurricane?

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Answer

To answer creativity questions, you should:

• Ask for some time to gather your thoughts if necessary

• Develop a simple mini framework
• Brainstorm within this mini framework

In this case, we can split ideas into two groups. Proactive actions the Mayor can take
ahead of the storm hitting London. And reactive actions she can take during and after
the storm has hit the city.

1. Proactive actions
• Create an evacuation team. The Mayor could create a team to prepare the
evacuation. This could include representatives from: the weather prediction
team, the police, the army, the transport department, etc.
• Plan transport for evacuation. The Mayor’s team could work with the transport
authorities to plan and rehearse evacuating citizens through all transports
means available including cars, buses and trains.
• Organise shelter and food for evacuees. The Mayor’s team could reach out to
neighbouring cities which are not expected to be impacted by the hurricane
and work with them to organise shelter and food for Londoners.
• Prepare evacuation communication. The Mayor’s team could also work with
major media channels (i.e. TV, radio, social media, etc) to prepare and test
messages to be broadcasted if the decision is made to evacuate.
• Securing properties. Finally, the Mayor’s team could also encourage citizens
and building managers to protect their properties by boarding up windows
and strapping roofs ahead of the hurricane.

2. Reactive actions
• Decide to evacuate. As the storm approaches the Mayor should be ready to
give the order to evacuate the city or not depending on how likely the
hurricane is to hit London. She needs to clearly lay out under which conditions
she will order to evacuate or not. This will ensure she doesn’t have to make a
decision under pressure.

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 • Assess damage. Once the hurricane has gone through London the Mayor
should send teams to assess the damage incurred (i.e. infrastructure, people
wounded, casualties, etc).
• Prioritise actions. Top priorities after the hurricane will probably include:
restoring water and electricity supply, reopening roads and train tracks,
ensuring hospitals are functioning again, etc.
• Communicate transparently. Once the storm has passed the Mayor should
also continue to communicate transparently about the damages incurred and
the steps that are being taken to fix things.

Once you have developed the ideas above, you should:

• Prioritise them by impact

• And highlight risks related to them if necessary

In this case, the Mayor should really act in two steps. First focus on what she can do to
soften the blow of the hurricane ahead of its arrival. And second, reacting as quickly as
possible after London has been hit.

The main risk in this scenario is London’s inexperience with this type of situations. To
mitigate that risk the Mayor could consider reaching out to cities or states which are
used to organising evacuations (e.g. Florida). She could ask them if the plan we’ve
outlined above is robust enough or if they think other actions should be taken.

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Creativity question #2 – Bable

Situation

Bable is a New York based start-up. Their product is a video conferencing software
similar to Skype but specifically tailored to tutoring (e.g. maths, physics, etc). Tutors pay
a monthly subscription to Bable and then conduct tutoring sessions on the platform. So
far Bable has only sold to self-employed tutors who find their own clients. They haven’t
sold to agencies who connect students and tutors and take percentage fee on every
tutoring session.

Bable is different from Skype in two main ways. First it includes a whiteboard where the
tutor can draw to explain concepts during the session and also share images and
exercises during the tutoring session. And second, all sessions are recorded so that
students can have access to them after the session.

The start-up has been active for 12 months now and is happy with the feedback it is
getting from early adopters of the product. The founders feel they are ready to scale up
the business. They have asked you to help them think of ways they could acquire more
customers.

Creativity question

What are some of the things Bable could do to grow its number of customers as quickly
as possible?

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Answer

To answer creativity questions, you should:

• Ask for some time to gather your thoughts if necessary

• Develop a simple mini framework
• Brainstorm within this mini framework

In this case, Bable could both target self-employed tutors (B2C) and tutoring agencies
(B2B):

1. B2C (Individual tutors)

• Paid advertising. Bable could advertise its product through different channels
where the audience is likely to include tutors. For instance, it could target
tutoring groups on social media, sponsor podcasts related to tutoring, etc.
• Content. Bable could also create a blog or write a book about how to become
a tutor or how to grow a tutoring business. This could help create awareness
of Bable in the tutoring community.
• Partnerships. Bable could also partner with other companies who sell products
used by self-employed tutors. For instance, this could be products that help
tutors manage invoicing for their sessions or find new students.
• Referral programme. Finally, Bable could also ask its existing group of tutors
whether they know any other tutors who would be interested in their product.
And they could offer bonuses to incentivise referrals.

2. B2B (Tutoring agencies and marketplaces)

• Outbound sales. Bable could hire a small sales team to target agencies who
employ a lot of tutors. The sales team could cold call the managers of these
agencies and convince them to get all of their tutors to use the product.
• Events. The sales team could also go to industry events where tutoring
agencies gather. This would be a great way of meeting new prospects in
addition to the cold calling mentioned above.
• Webinars. Finally, Babel could also offer webinars on its website to explain the
benefits of using their product to agencies’ managers.

Once you have developed the ideas above, you should:

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 • Prioritise them by impact
• And highlight risks related to them if necessary

In this case, it would make sense for Bable to first focus on growing the number of self-
employed tutors who use their product as they currently don’t sell to tutoring agencies.
But once it has made progress it should also look into the B2B channel as agencies
would enable them to bring a lot of tutors on the platform at once.

The only risk that comes to mind here is when Bable will start targeting tutoring
agencies. These clients might need the product to be modified to be able to supervise
whether all their tutors are using it or not. This is something that’s probably doable but
would require additional work from the Bable team and is therefore worth keeping in
mind.

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Creativity question #3 – ABeer

Situation

ABeer is a Brazilian beer conglomerate. It owns three main brands which have been
assembled through mergers. Historically each brand operated independently under its
own business unit.

The company was recently purchased by a private equity firm which has decided to
bring the three brands and units much closer together in order to drive cost savings and
improve profitability.

The private equity firm has hired you to help them achieve a successful transformation.

Creativity question

What are some ideas you have to decrease ABeer’s costs both short-term and long-
term?

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Answer

To answer creativity questions, you should:

• Ask for some time to gather your thoughts if necessary

• Develop a simple mini framework
• Brainstorm within this mini framework

In this case, let’s find short term cost reduction opportunities and also look for ways
ABeer can keep costs low in the future:

1. Fixed costs reduction opportunities (Short-term)

• ABeer could consolidate duplicate central teams across its different units. For
instance, instead of having three different HR, finance and marketing teams it
could pool resources into just one team and decrease headcount.
• The company could also close inefficient small plants and consolidate all its
production at larger facilities to enjoy economies of scale. This might require
some initial investments so would need to be analysed in detail.

2. Variable costs reduction opportunities (Short-term)

• ABeer could purchase everything it needs on behalf of its three brands which
would give it purchasing power and therefore decrease costs. This could apply
to everything from raw materials and packaging, to logistics contracts and
advertising placements, etc.
• The company could also look into standardising parts of its products and
processes to take full advantage of its scale. For instance, it could slightly
modify its beer recipes so they all use some of the same ingredients. Or it
could use the same bottles for some of its beers. Etc.

3. Changing cost management framework (Long-term)

• ABeer could implement “zero-based budgeting”. Instead of reusing the same
budget every year teams could be asked to build a budget from scratch. This
would give an opportunity to cut costs every year. Or at least to prevent costs
from naturally ballooning.
• Team managers could also be given incentives (e.g. performance bonuses) to
make sure their teams run on as small a budget as possible. And the

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 management of the company could try to implement a culture of keeping the
organisation lean.

Once you have developed the ideas above, you should:

• Prioritise them by impact

• And highlight risks related to them if necessary

In this case, it would make sense for the private equity firm to drive cost reductions first
and to then change the cost management framework and culture. Among the costs to
be reduced variable costs seem to be easier to attack than fixed costs so they could be a
better starting point.

One of the risks related to this aggressive cost reduction programme is employee
morale. The private equity firm should identify the young talent they want to keep and
consider promoting some of them so they don’t leave the company.

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Creativity question #4 – Pregnacare

Situation

Pregnacare is a network of private specialist obstetrics hospitals in the US. Obstetrics is

the field of medicine concentrated on pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnacare wants to
improve the experience it delivers for pregnant parents from end to end and has hired
your team to help.

Creativity question

What are some of the ideas you have to improve the experience of pregnant parents
from end to end?

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Answer

To answer creativity questions, you should:

• Ask for some time to gather your thoughts if necessary

• Develop a simple mini framework
• Brainstorm within this mini framework

In this case, let’s use the different steps a couple getting pregnant goes through and
think about ways Pregnacare could improve their experience at each step:

1. Getting pregnant
• Things to know before trying. Pregnacare could provide future parents with
information about what to consider before trying to get pregnant (e.g.
recommended vaccines, stopping certain foods, cost of raising a child, taking
folic acid, etc.)
• Things to do to improve chances. Pregnacare could outline options for
parents who are trying to get pregnant but are not managing to (e.g.
frequency and timing to improve chances, in vitro fecundation, etc.)

2. Pregnancy
• Patient pathway. Once parents are pregnant Pregnacare could give them
access to a mobile app which outlines the full patient pathway they will follow
from the point they are pregnant to when the baby is delivered. This would
help parents have full visibility over the process.
• Appointment booking. Pregnancy probably involves a lot of scans, midwife
and doctor appointments. The mobile app mentioned above should therefore
allow patients to book and reschedule these appointments really easily
instead of having to phone the hospital.
• Continuity of care. Pregnacare could also appoint a single midwife to each
parent if they don’t already do so. This would enable parents to have a point
of contact and to enjoy continuity of care instead of always seeing different
members of staff at their various appointments.
• Meeting other future parents. Finally, Pregnacare could also organise group
antenatal classes. This would give parents an opportunity to meet other future
parents and to also learn how to take care of their newborn baby.

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 3. Childbirth
• Choice of how the baby is delivered. Pregnacare should also enable parents to
have a strong say in how they would prefer their baby to be delivered if this
isn’t something they already allow (e.g. natural childbirth, C-section, at home
with midwives, in the hospital, etc.)
• Comfortable rooms and privacy. Pregnacare should also make sure its rooms
are comfortable and big enough so parents can receive visitors when their
baby is born. There’s an obvious cost element here that needs to be
considered but this is worth exploring nonetheless.

4. First few weeks

• Ability to call with any issues. Parents probably run into issues regarding how
to manage their newborn baby in the few weeks following birth. They
probably rely on their families and friends to answer questions. But it might
be helpful if Pregnacare gave them access to expert parenting advice.
• Meeting other parents. In addition to the advice mentioned above Pregnacare
could continue organising gatherings between parents and their newborn
baby during maternity / paternity leave.

Once you have developed the ideas above, you should:

• Prioritise them by impact

• And highlight risks related to them if necessary

In this case, it’s difficult to prioritise any of these improvements as we don’t really have
any information about what Pregnacare currently does and doesn’t provide. A good way
to prioritise these different initiatives would be to talk to parents and understand what
initiatives would solve an actual problem for them.

The main risk to bear in mind with these different improvements is the cost that’s
attached to them. Before going ahead, we should get an understanding of the benefits
and payback we would expect Pregnacare to achieve from each initiative.

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Creativity question #5 – Duke Bank

Situation

Duke Bank is one of the oldest high street banks in Europe. It was established in the
1850s and slowly grew to become a Top 5 player in Great Britain, France and Germany.
However, Duke’s market share has been rapidly decreasing over the past 5 years mainly
as a result of start-up challenger banks launching in the market.

Duke operates a network of local branches where customers can go to deposit cash and
cheques, talk to advisors about loans and other products, etc. It also offers online
banking and mobile apps to its customers but they aren’t rated very highly (3.5 out of
5).

Challenger banks operate a different model than Duke. They are mobile-only and don’t
offer any in-person services. They focus on a single mobile app and go above and
beyond to create a delightful experience on that platform which is rated very highly by
its customers (4.9 out of 5).

Duke’ CEO wants to halt the company’s market share decrease and has hired your team
to help.

Creativity question

What are some ideas you have to help halt the market share decrease Duke is
experiencing?

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Answer

To answer creativity questions, you should:

• Ask for some time to gather your thoughts if necessary

• Develop a simple mini framework
• Brainstorm within this mini framework

In this case, it makes sense to generate ideas to halt the market share decrease along
different dimensions:

1. Product
• Duke could work to identify the main pain points felt by customers when
using their website and app. This might include: difficulties to login, the
service being down, difficulties to execute some tasks (e.g. pay bills).
• The company could go beyond expectations and find ways to delight
customers. Here are some features it could experiment with: easily see how
much and how often you are spending, no foreign exchange fees on your
bankcard when travelling abroad, make it easy to pay friends on your contact
list (phone), etc.
• Finally, if the different ideas listed above are difficult to implement for Duke
using its existing technology platform it could consider building a challenger
bank from scratch to move faster.

2. Marketing
• Duke could involve customers in the product transformation described above
by creating a community. This could work as an open channel to receive
feedback and broadcast improvements made to the product.
• The company could also think of ways to attract new customers by using non-
traditional marketing tactics for banks. For instance, it could create referral
incentives for its existing customers, or create bank cards that really stand out
(e.g. pink bank cards).
• Finally, once the product has been fixed and improved, Duke could consider
rebranding to refresh its image. Note this might not be necessary if it decides
to launch an entirely new brand on a different technology platform.
3. Operations

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 • Duke could refocus its efforts by closing down high street branches and
shifting resources to the improvement of its web and mobile app products.
• The company could also invest heavily on in-app and web customer support
to make sure customer queries are resolved promptly despite the fact that
less branches are available.
• Finally, it could also make sure that signing up to the bank is extremely easy.
Ideally customers would just need to download an app, answer a few
questions and they would receive their bankcard at home the next day. This
would help acquiring new customers.

Once you have developed the ideas above, you should:

• Prioritise them by impact

• And highlight risks related to them if necessary

In this case, in order to maximise its chances of being successful, Duke should probably
start by focusing its efforts on Product and Operations. Once this has been improved
then investing in Marketing will pay off. Investing in Marketing before the Product and
Operations are improved could be counterproductive.

One key risk here is that Duke doesn’t manage to make the improvements discussed
fast enough. As a first step, the company should therefore assess whether it is better to
build a new challenger bank from scratch, or to try to transform itself.

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