Unconventional | Moderate

Case Prep Solution: Indian B-school

Your client is a newly launched unique Indian B-school. However, it didn’t see full occupancy for its first batch. It wants you to analyse why?

Interviewee Notes Approach/ Framework

• Special MBA curriculum- unique
to India College related Course related Student related
• State of the art campus, no major
fallouts in terms of the
proposition and the college Brand/ Quality of Relevance/ Scope & admission
Infrastructure Location ROI awareness
• Simple and standard admission Goodwill Faculty Curriculum Career Path criteria
process
• Decently high traction
• 5:1, shortlist to seat ratio Case Facts Admission Process
• Waitlist of 100 over and above
• Newly-launched B-
300 offers released Aptitude Test Personal Results Offer Session
school promoted by Applications Open Shortlisting
Declaration Begins
(CAT) Interviews Acceptance
India’s top techies and
entrepreneurs
• Located in Bangalore Not joining
• 2-Year residential B-school
program combining Willingly
Joining other Document
management along with B-school
Dropping out requirements
technologies such as
after offer
AI,ML and Big Data Process related Communication
• 20K applicants Unwillingly
Financial Availability of Fee payment
Credit schedule

Recommendations
• Try getting into active partnership with at least one of the banks or NBFCs to provide loans at standard education loan interest rates to its students
Bharatendu Verma
• Leverage the promoters goodwill to introduce need-based fellowships and scholarships for students
• Explore the idea of changing the fee payment schedule with a tradeoff of reduced effective revenues (given the financial feasibility for the institution)
Observations / Suggestions
• It is important to take a buy-in from the interviewer before diving deep into the problem, doing that in the factors would have diverted away from the solution
• Missed out on seeking about the exact fees of the program in the first half of the case, it being an important factor from a student’s perspective
• Providing you approach in conventional cases may not seem very direct, but it showcases the ability to have diverse perspectives and doesn’t let you move towards closed doors

Bharatendu
(C) Consult Verma
Club, IIM Ahmedabad 2020-21 Page 1
 Unconventional | Moderate
Indian B-school – Interview Transcript
Your client is a newly launched unique Indian B-school. However, it didn’t see full occupancy for its
first batch. It wants you to analyze why and solve this for the upcoming batch.
I would like to ask a few clarifying questions to understand the context better. The client wants to
diagnose reasons for incomplete occupancy and correct it for the next batch. Is there any other
objective? And do we have a number of the batch size and current occupancy?
Yes, achieving full occupancy over the next few batches is the clients’ immediate objective. The first
batch witnessed 60% occupancy across the 300 seats.
Okay, that’s clear. Now I further want to understand three things- What makes the B-school
unique, where is it located and what are the other B-schools it is competing with?
Alright. Firstly, we’ve a specialized MBA program which is a unique blend of management and
forward-looking technologies such as AI, ML and big data. The course is a 2-Year residential
program at the state-of-the-art campus in the outskirts of Bangalore. The institution is backed and
promoted by top techies and entrepreneurs from India. The course is very unique and does not
directly compete with any MBA course/B-school in India.
That helps. I would want to look at the factors that determine the demand side for the B-school. I
will also deep dive into the admission process and try to identify the stage(s) that are seeing
maximum drop-offs.
Sounds good. Can you start with the factors for demand of B-schools.
Sure. Incorporating the fact that there is no competition for this unique course, I can broadly
classify factors across college related, course related and student related factors. Within college, we
can look at the goodwill, infrastructure, quality of faculty and the location. In the course; relevance
or curriculum, scope and career path and the overall ROI (Fees Vs Placements) are important. And
Bharatendu Verma
Finally, within student related factors, we can look at admission criteria and awareness levels
amongst students.
Fair enough. Let’s not deep dive into these and move ahead.
Sure, I would now want to look if the admission process is simple and efficient enough, and look at
identifying the step with maximum drop-offs. So can you give me some information about the
process we follow? Is it similar to the standard Indian B-school process or is the system different?
Our admission process is very simple and traditional. Students need to apply through a application
form and then either appear for CAT or GMAT examination. After the results for CAT are
announced a common shortlist based on merit is released. Students appear for two-rounds of
personal interviews and offers are extended.
Bharatendu
(C) Consult Verma
Club, IIM Ahmedabad
In that case, I don’t think that there is any complexity in the admission process. CAT and GMAT are
the most popular entrance exams for B-schools in India. What is the number of candidates that
applied our application form? Did we shortlist enough candidates? Was there any major drop-off in
the interview process? Were we able to get enough candidates of the quality as expected by the
interviewing panel? If yes, did we extend a waitlist?
We had more than 20K applicants for our initial registration form. We shortlisted the top 1500 as per
the merit list. More than 95% of the shortlisted candidates appeared for the interviews. We extended
300 offers and had 100 candidates waitlisted.
We seem to be having sufficient traction reflecting in the number of applicants. A shortlist of 5 times
the number of seats also seems to be a fair approach, If I benchmark it with other reputed B-schools
in India. With what it looks like, there seems to be an issue with the selected students accepting their
offers. Is that the case?
Yes. Can you explore it further from here.
Sure, I believe this drop-off could either be voluntarily/willingly done or there could be some other
reasons that may be stopping the students from confirming admission. If it’s a voluntary decision,
either the students are doing another course at another B-school or are completely dropping the idea
of an MBA. However, 220 students effectively(more than half of all selected students) dropping out
seems difficult due to this since there are no similar alternatives and because these students have gone
through multiple rounds of the process with sincerity.
In terms of barriers, it could either be financial issues such as credit availability or an unfavorable fee
Bharatendu Verma
payment schedule or process related issues such as communication and verification criteria related to
admission confirmation.
The students are facing a lack of loan from any national or regional bank since the course and college
are fairly new. The course fee is comparable to other B-schools in India at INR 25 Lacs but 60% of the
total fee has to be paid within 15 days of admission confirmation.
The students are not being able to arrange the sum of INR 15 lacs to be submitted within 15 days
through informal or alternate credit sources or from their own savings.
What would you suggest to the management to improve this situation?
Since credit availability is the primary reason for drop-offs, I would firstly recommend the management
to get into active partnership with either one of the banks or NBFCs to provide loans at standard
educational loan interest rates to its students. Along with that, they could also leverage the promoters
goodwill to introduce fellowships and scholarships for as many students as they can, so that they could
eliminate the risk of financial burden from at least some students.
They should explore the idea of changing the fee payment schedule with a tradeoff of reduced
effective revenues, given the financial feasibility for the institution.
Alright. That makes sense. Let us wrap it up here. Thank you.
Thank you. It was a pleasure interacting with you.
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