SECTION 1: Example Exercise Outcomes

SECTION 2: Competencies and Behavioural Indicators

Case Study Exercise

Candidate Instructions Booklet

AssessmentDay
Practice Aptitude Tests
 General Instructions

When asked to complete a written analysis exercise, or case-study, you will be given a
Case Study Brief by the Administrator. This is a pack of various types of information
relating to a single company, including a set of instructions. The administrator will read
through the instructions with you, and will ask you if you have any questions. This is your
only opportunity to clarify anything that you did not clearly understand in the
administration instructions, so be sure to ask. Any administration-type question is
appropriate. However, you will not be provided with the answers to any questions about
the content of the Case Study.

Then you will be advised of the time that you are allowed to read through the Case Study
Brief and to write-up your answer in the template provided. A typical time is 90 minutes,
as is allowed here in this practice example. Again, a template is typically provided for you
to write your answer into. Pay attention to the details of your audience for your written
report. If this to be given to a Company Board member then the document needs to be
written accordingly, paying attention to the style and type of language that the Board
would expect in such a document.

Background Information

You joined a management consultancy firm called Volta Consulting last year as a graduate
trainee. Eighteen months later, having finished your Graduate Training Scheme, you’ve
been working for several months in Volta Consulting’s Financial Consultancy Division.

You are tasked with conducting a strategic review of a financial services company called
Personal Finance Ltd (PF), who are based in Canary Wharf, London. The company’s recent
drop in profits has given their management team some cause for concern.

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 Specific Instructions

For the purpose of this exercise your name is Alex. You have 90 minutes in which to read
through the content of the attached documents.

You need to read, digest and analyse this information, and then to address the following
two points:

• Analyse the business and identify problem issues.

• What actions are you recommending for improving the business’s operations?

After the case study, we would like you to present your recommendations to the Chief
Executive of Volta Consulting.

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 Item 1: HR Manager Introductory Note

To: Alex (You)

From: Susan Raye

Date: 1st October 2012

Re: Your New Role

I have been asked by our Operations Manager, Petra King, who needs to be in the US
for the next couple of weeks to task you with conducting your first strategic review.
Petra informs me that you stood out on our graduate programme and are an ideal
person to conduct a written exercise review of a finance company’s operational and
business strategy issues.

Our long-standing client PF has had some bad publicity recently, in particular the poor
service recently offered to some of its key clients. They have therefore asked us to
consider ways to improve its operations - particularly its customer-facing staff - so that
PF can make up for market ground that it has lost in recent years.

I have included some press coverage that does not make for pleasant reading. I’ve
supplemented this information with things I’ve picked up from speaking to the Heads of
Business contacts we have at PF and requesting key documents on your behalf. I
haven’t had a chance to review these myself – I’m expecting you to sift the wheat from
the chaff here!

There’s also a copy of our company values. Throughout last year I lead a training
programme cascading these values from the Board down to the lowest level of our
organisational hierarchy. Always remember that here at Volta Consulting we pride
ourselves on delivering results and meeting each of our customer’s expectations.
Particularly one as valued as PF.

I would ask you to keep me updated on the decisions that you recommend to improve
PF’s operations. Best of luck with your first company review assignment, I’m sure you
will do just fine.

Regards,

Susan Raye
(HR Manager, PF Consulting)

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 Item 2: Rheuters Stats and News
More greed (taken from www. thesnoop.com)
The Chief Executive of PF says that its key staff
can justify their high bonuses on the basis of the
profits that their client accounts bring in for the
company. When asked directly if any of his staff
were overpaid, Robert Moyle said “No”. Mr
Moyle, who featured in last year’s New Year
Honours list, went on to say that there were no
plans in place for a route and branch overhaul of his
company’s pay structures. This statement comes
despite the outcry from shareholders following the
publication of PF’s latest company results last
Financial news, PF, DIX, SYMONDS
In the Daily Spread, the latest company
results of PF, the specialist finance firm,
and one of its competitors Dixon Simmonds
are compared. In brief, the former darling
of the stock market PF is now a victim of its
own success as its competitors continue to
copy aspects of its business model...
Questions have been asked about PF’s
customer segmentation strategy...
Second quarter interim statement from PF
released today
12% lower earnings were declared compared to
the company’s income over the same quarter
last year from corporate bonds, gilts and ISA
markets. A member of the non-Executive Board
commented that the company continues to
benefit from its diversified business model and
strong cash flow generation. Most analysts were
predicting improved results and disagreed with
elements of the Board’s strategy to diversify its
operations so broadly.
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week. Many believe that an example needs to be
set so to encourage other financial organisations
to follow suit. There was a sharper fall in profits
than analysts had predicted and the share price
fell by 6% alone on the day of publication of the
results. There has been a further 4% fall in the
company share price over the last week. Interim
results had already shown an underlying trend of
decreasing profits, however the company had
committed to customer service improvements to
reverse this trend.
This week’s Exchange Traded Fund of the
Week is the Small UK Companies High Yield
Index. ETFs track the price of a commodity or
an index in such a way that the funds are
tradeable as shares.
UK market close down, Com. Provident
After a strong start, financial stocks again fell
today following some downbeat comments
from Pierre Bonnard, Chairman of the
European Central Bank...
Financial stocks fall, other FTSE 350 movers
Following Spain’s latest attempts to revive the
There were mixed results too for the currency
trading services across trading in dollars, Euros
and the yen. This appeared to echo many of
the Shareholders - clearly skeptical of the
company’s recent diversification strategy -
who had caused such consternation at last
year’s AGM. Most dissatisfaction had been
directed towards PF’s poorly received new
online services platform. There are other
potential causes for concern, according to
Paula Hines, Senior Analyst at Suize Partners.
She highlighted the threat to future profits
posed by new entrants, based originally in the
Far east, who are eroding the market share
that PF’s traditional businesses currently
have.
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 Item 3: Customer Feedback Scores

Every 6 months, PF sends all its highest-

paying clients an email link to a
customer service survey for their
completion. The survey’s questions use
the following rating scale; 5 = strongly
agree, 4 = agree, 3 = neither agree nor
disagree, 2 = disagree, 1 = strongly
disagree.

I’ve included a sample of the latest

results for your perusal – enjoy!

Susan Raye
HR Manager

TEAM ALPHA TEAM BETA

CUSTOMER REPS CUSTOMER REPS
Rating 1-5
Rep Rep Rep Team Rep Rep Rep Team
a b c Overall a b c Overall

Knowledge of
2.3 1.9 2.2 2.1 3.4 3.6 3.5 3.5
customer’s business

Day-to-day quality of
2.8 2.4 2.5 2.6 4.3 4.1 4.0 4.1
response

Proactive approach to
2.2 2.3 2.7 2.4 3.9 3.6 3.7 3.7
customer requirements

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 Item 4: PF Consulting Employee Engagement Survey (London subsample results)

Percentage of the 655 respondents

Strongly Cannot Strongly

Key Benchmark Question Disagree Agree
Disagree Tell Agree

I can speak openly with my manager. 30 24 15 18 13

Senior management has provided

supportive coaching opportunities.
22 23 10 34 11

Senior management communicates

the organisational strategy clearly to 18 17 15 28 22
me.

My team is fully engaged with the

organisation’s sales procedures.
15 13 21 26 25

My team has an innovation strategy. 16 19 22 23 20

My team is fully committed to our

organizational values.
8 15 32 26 19

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 Item 5: FiVe VALUES Flyer

ONLY CONDUCT QUALITY TRANSACTIONS

 Aim for the highest quality in every transaction with a client
 Adopt a quality mindset
 The sum of each of your quality actions is a quality performance. And the
sum of everyone’s quality performance is quality customer service

Question colleagues who are not committed to striving for excellence

---
AN INNOVATION A DAY
 Trust your own instincts and think creatively
 Be open to the ideas of others
 Be on the lookout for our next commercial success!

Take pride in spotting where we can do things better.

---
SHARE OUR CLIENTS’ SUCCESS
 Effective client management is the key to client success, so give each client
your undivided attention
 Reward good performance whenever you experience it
 Share successes with your team
 Challenge poor performance wherever you find it

Be proactive about customer service. Be an inspiration to colleagues

---
DO IT NOW!
 There’s no time like the present
 Always use your own initiative
 If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing now

Always act with a sense of urgency and meet clients’ needs promptly
---
INVESTIGATE SYNERGIES
 Know how internal targets link to company strategy
 Cooperate with your colleagues and with other departments
 Set your targets high, align them with individual strengths

Focus on maintaining the positive relationships our business has built with our
key revenue producing clients

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 Item 6 (a): Company Values Survey Feedback

Hi Alex,

Not sure what to do with this info so left it until you started
with us. I don’t see how the company values affect the
bottom line unless I’m missing something here?
Please enlighten me!
Vikram
(Finance Manager)

Team A's Client Representatives have shown this value...

Investigate Synergies 10 35 35 20

Do It Now! 35 15 25 25

Share Our Clients' Success 25 20 35 20

Innovate Daily 30 40 20 10

Only Engage in Quality Actions 40 25 20 15

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Team B's Client Representatives have shown this value...

Investigate Synergies 30 30 15 25

Do It Now! 15 45 30 10

Share Our Clients' Success 35 20 25 20

Innovate Daily 25 40 20 15

Only Engage in Quality Actions 20 20 35 25

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

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 Item 6 (b); PF’s Employee Survey of FiVe VALUES framework (London HQ – 315
respondents out of 425 staff)

Pie-Chart 1: FiVe VALUES Framework (subsample 1 - London HQ only: 315

respondents out of 425 staff)

Managers aged under 40 years

9% Strongly Agree

Agree
23% 41%
Cannot Tell

Disagree
12%
15% Strongly Disagree

Pie-Chart 2: FiVe VALUES Framework (subsample 2)

Managers aged over 30 years

9% Strongly Agree
23%
Agree

Cannot Tell
12% 41%
Disagree

15% Strongly Disagree

Overall Pie-Chart Conclusions

• Overall, the responses show that all PF managers aged under 40-years responded
more positively to the values survey.

Additional Employee Survey Comments

“Everyone on the HR team worked hard to ensure that all training programmes were delivered to
schedule.”
“The FiVe VALUES implentation has been highly successful”
“My team remain enthusiastic about bringing our organisational values to life in any way possible”

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 Item 7: PF Commission Fees 2012 (London Office)

Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Target: Quarters

Commission Fees 2012 2012 1 and 2 combined
(£100,000s) (£100,000s) (£100,000s)

• Corporate Bonds 42 38 100

• Gilts 45 55 85
• Interest Rate Hedges 12 9 25
• Investment Trusts 32 38 60
• Financial Advisory Services 95 105 260

NEW SERVICES
• Exchange Trade Funds NA 9 15
• Currency Trading NA 16 40

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 Item 8: Client Liaison Manager Statistics

All of the employees listed below work as Client

Officers, who work alongside Client Reps (in the same
Alpha, Beta, Gamma Teams). Hope you find these info
samples useful. Let me know if you need anything
more!

Susan Raye
HR Manager

Name Length Team No. of Annual Turnover

of Key Account (£m)
Service Client
(months) Accounts
Fred A. 48 GAMMA 5 143.5
Jim D. 22 BETA 4 57.3
Marie J. 14 BETA 6 34.1
Mohammed A. 23 ALPHA 9 83.2
Naomi P. 12 GAMMA 3 23.7
Paul M. 18 BETA 5 68.2
Penny H. 40 ALPHA 12 145.1
Peter W. 22 GAMMA 8 26.2
Petra W. 23 GAMMA 5 8.2
Sarah P. 52 BETA 7 104
Shanti G. 62 ALPHA 10 92.1
Simon B. 55 ALPHA 10 155.2

Team (1) Average Basic Annual Salary (2) Average Bonus, as % of column (1)
ALPHA 70,000 52%
BETA 69,000 55%
GAMMA 41,000 30%

Sales Data New Client Sales (August 2012)

TEAM ALPHA Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4

Highest performer 9,000 6,500 6,000 10,500
Lowest performer 12,000 11,000 4,500 3,000
TEAM BETA
Lowest performer 1,000 5,500 5,000 6,500
TEAM GAMMA
Lowest performer 6,000 4,500 5,000 4,000

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 Item 9: PF Company Results

31-Mar-12 31-Mar-11 31-Mar-10

Income Statement
(£m) (£m) (£m)
Revenue 163 158 146

Operating Profit / (Loss) 22 26 24

Net Interest -2 -4 -3
Profit Before Tax 20 22 21

31-Mar-12 31-Mar-11 31-Mar-10

Balance Sheet
(£m) (£m) (£m)
Assets
Non-Current Assets 131 145 160
Current Assets
Trade and Other Receivables 7,205 6,790 5,464
Cash at Bank & In Hand 55 37 38

Total Assets 7,391 6,972 5,662

Liabilities
Current Liabilities 7,210 6,796 5,476
Non-Current Liabilities 7,233 6,813 5,499

Total Liabilities 7,210 6,796 5,476

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 Item 10: Competitor Financial Summaries (conducted by PF Analysts)

Wuckle Inc. Pendletons Derward

(£) (£) (£)
Specialisms Gilts, Corporate Currency Investment
Bonds trading trusts
31-Mar-2011 (£m)
Revenue 158 122 535
Profit Before Tax 21 10 47
31-Mar-2012 (£m)
Revenue 153 135 605
Profit Before Tax 20 11 58

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 Item 11: Invest Magazine’s Best Customer awards (Summer 2012)

PF Wuckels Pendleton Derwerd

Value for Money 3rd 2nd 1st 4th

Range of
4th 1st 3rd 2nd
Services

Customer Focus 3rd 1st 2nd 4th

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 Item 12: Email Chain (a)

From: sally.james@personalfinance.co.uk
To: arthur.jones@personalfinance.co.uk

That’s just great Arthur, why is every new software update such a
headache for us?

What you fail to understand is the severe impact that this has on
our customer base. Many of our most important customers had put
their complete trust in you to deliver. We remain totally reliant on
you managing this external supplier. Why didn’t you get someone else
in if you weren’t happy?

S.

From: arthur.jones@personalfinance.co.uk
To: All Staff

Subject: ETF and Currency trading online platform

There have been some further complications with incorporating our
client’s requested additional product features for these updates. I
am in ongoing negotiations with our external contractor to complete
this work with the utmost urgency. I am now considering switching to
a new contractor.
This seemed like an ideal opportunity to share my project plan.
Overall progress has been slow but steady. A number of redundancies
were made by IKY Consultants which included some key personal
working on our project. Unfortunately I could not have foreseen such
an outcome and I can only apologise for any convenience caused to
our customers.
Please contact one of our IT Support staff if you have any
questions.

Regards,
Arthur

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 Item 13: Email Chain (b)

From: simon.king@personalfinance.co.uk
To: sally.james@personalfinance.co.uk;
arthur.jones@personalfinance.co.uk

Subject: Compliance!

Now that you have raised these issues with me I have no choice but
to inform the Financial Services Authority. I will take the
opportunity when their representative visits us to ask whether our
customers are due any form of financial compensation.

I would like you both to be present at the earliest opportunity for

an initial meeting with the FSA Client Contact Advisor. We will need
to jointly consider the best next steps to take in the interests of
our customers.
Simon

From: dave.dell@personalfinance.co.uk
To: sally.james@personalfinance.co.uk;
CC: All Staff
Subject: Re: Online ETF and Global Currency updates
I realize that our older members of staff do have certain
skills gaps. Some are more used to dealing with our
traditional services. Many are still having difficulty with
the new Exchange Traded Funds service.

This is in spite of having had the online training and the

training manual made available. It makes me think that this
approach has not proved adequate. It does explain why errors
continue to be made, although I’m sure this isn’t true of all
staff.

Dave

From: james.delaney@personalfinance.co.uk
To: sally.james@personalfinance.co.uk;
CC: simon.king@personalfinance.co.uk
Subject: Online ETF and Global Currency updates

I realize that we are all currently experiencing one of our

busiest times of year. That said, I wanted to raise some
concerns about the level of negative customer feedback I’ve
received over recent months.

Many customers have complained to me about their frustration

with the lack of awareness of our customer representative
teams with our new Exchange Traded Fund and Global Currency
services. Also, a number of the online features that Marketing
had promised our customers on launch of these new services are
still not available. Some of my teams’ largest clients have
complained that this needs to be resolved and an improved
service offered asap.

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 These are niche services and I was never in favour of offering
such services in the first place. I have copied in our
Compliance Manager, Simon King, to this email in case the FSA
gets wind of what’s happened.

Jim

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 Item 14: Project Update (new online services)

Red/Amber/Green
Project Status Update
Project title: New online features Prepared by: Month: July 2012
for ETF and Currency trading
Overall project Red Behind plan Progress Lost time
summary Amber On time X this Kept even X
Green √ Ahead of plan period Caught up time
Tasks planned for this period since last update (June 2012)
First draft of new design completed by contractors
First draft of new design circulated to stakeholders
Stakeholder meeting
Stakeholder sign-off
Issues Suggested Resolutions
Delayed delivery of the final IT - Stakeholder meeting set-up for 8th Oct
Design revisions by the - Withhold payment of next installment for contractors
contractors B.Z. Ltd - Change to a new, cheaper subcontractor
Tasks/Actions planned for next period until next update (August 2012)
- Next draft of site content reviewed by contractor team
- New website pages uploaded to test site
- Final changes following internal review/feedback
- Final amends to website created
- Website user acceptance testing
R isk Register
Likelihood Impact RAG
Nature of risk: Delay to circulating first draft of site Medium Medium Green
content for stakeholder review impacted go live date
Additional Notes:

IT costs for external supplier higher than expected.

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 Item 15: GANTT Chart for Spread-Betting IT Platform

May 4 11 18 25 4 11 18 25 3 10 17 24
July July July July Aug Aug Aug Aug Sept Sept Sept Sept

1.0 MILESTONE: Procurement

1.1 Expression of Interest Issued
1.2 Prequalification Review of bids
1.3 Short listing and Bid
Presentations
1.4 Selection of preferred supplier
2.0 MILESTONE: Concept defined
3.0 MILESTONE: Spec Agreement
3.1 Interview key stakeholders
3.2 Write Requirements document
3.3 Concept and Spec sign-offs
4.1 MILESTONE: Site build
4.2 Review code
4.3 Trial site construction
4.4 MILESTONE: Design Sign-off
4.5 Training Team Alpha
4.6 Training Team Beta
4.7 Training Team Gamma

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