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IIM BANGALORE CASEBOOK Volume 6

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ICON-IIMBCONSULTINGCLUB

FOREWORD This casebook documents the interview experiences of students across consulting firms to assist the students of IIM Bangalore in their preparation for case interviews during placements. The aim of sharing these experiences is to inform students about the case-interview experiences of past batches, and to accordingly help them prepare for their placements. The experiences listed below are not necessarily the best way in to handle case interviews. They only serve to give students an idea as to what to expect when they walk into a case interview. Every individual could have his / her own unique way of tackling consulting interviews, each of which could be correct. This document has contributions from students who appeared for campus interviews conducted by consulting firms during summer placement process over the past five years. The interview experiences have been sorted firm-wise. Special thanks to all the contributors and all the very best for summer placements!

Best regards, Team ICON 2016-17 IIM Bangalore

CONTENTS FOREWORD......................................................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................................ 5 WHAT TO PREPARE ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 HOW TO PREPARE ........................................................................................................................................................... 6 A. Case Preparation ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 B. Fit Questions ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 WHEN TO PREPARE ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 A. Case Preparation ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 B. Fit Questions ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 INTERVIEW PROCESS..................................................................................................................................................... 7 A. Resume Short Listing ............................................................................................................................................ 8 B. Interviews .................................................................................................................................................................. 8 i. Fit Interview .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 ii. Case Interview ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 iii. Practice Cases .................................................................................................................................................. 10 SAMPLE CASE.................................................................................................................................................................. 11 MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE INDUSTRY ..................................................................................................................... 16 INDUSTRY WRITE-UPS ............................................................................................................................................... 19 1. Construction industry ............................................................................................................................................. 19 2. Indian Banking Industry ........................................................................................................................................ 22 3. Indian BPO (Business process outsourcing) Industry............................................................................... 23 4. Infrastructure ............................................................................................................................................................. 25 5. Pharmaceuticals Industry ..................................................................................................................................... 26 6. Power Sector ............................................................................................................................................................... 28 7. Information Technology Sector .......................................................................................................................... 30 8. Telecom Sector........................................................................................................................................................... 32 9. Automobile Sector .................................................................................................................................................... 33 10. FMCG Sector ............................................................................................................................................................. 34 CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES – SUMMERS 2016 ..................................................................................... 36 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES ................................................................................................................................. 36 Accenture Strategy ........................................................................................................................................................ 39 Alvarez & Marsal ............................................................................................................................................................ 48 AT Kearney ....................................................................................................................................................................... 50 Bain and Company ........................................................................................................................................................ 58 BCG ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 66 Deloitte............................................................................................................................................................................... 78 2

GEP ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 80 McKinsey ........................................................................................................................................................................... 82 Roland Berger ............................................................................................................................................................... 103 Strategy& ........................................................................................................................................................................ 105 Appendix ......................................................................................................................................................................... 113 CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES – SUMMERS 2015 ................................................................................... 113 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES ............................................................................................................................... 113 ACCENTURE STRATEGY ...................................................................................................................................... 115 AT KEARNEY............................................................................................................................................................. 120 BAIN & COMPANY .................................................................................................................................................. 126 BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP ......................................................................................................................... 128 GEP................................................................................................................................................................................ 142 MCKINSEY & COMPANY....................................................................................................................................... 143 ROLAND BERGER ................................................................................................................................................... 154 STRATEGY& .............................................................................................................................................................. 155 CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES – SUMMERS 2014 ................................................................................... 157 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES ............................................................................................................................... 157 AT KEARNEY............................................................................................................................................................. 158 BAIN & COMPANY .................................................................................................................................................. 159 BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP ......................................................................................................................... 164 DELOITTE STRATEGY & OPERATIONS ......................................................................................................... 170 MCKINSEY & COMPANY....................................................................................................................................... 172 ROLAND BERGER ................................................................................................................................................... 179 STRATEGY& (FORMERLY BOOZ & COMPANY) .......................................................................................... 180 CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES - SUMMERS 2013 .................................................................................... 185 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES ............................................................................................................................... 185 BAIN & COMPANY .................................................................................................................................................. 186 BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP ......................................................................................................................... 189 MCKINSEY & COMPANY....................................................................................................................................... 192 CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES - SUMMERS 2012 .................................................................................... 198 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES ............................................................................................................................... 198 ACCENTURE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING ................................................................................................ 199 BAIN & COMPANY .................................................................................................................................................. 200 BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP ......................................................................................................................... 202 BOOZ & COMPANY ................................................................................................................................................. 204 DELOITTE STRATEGY & OPERATIONS ......................................................................................................... 206 GLOBAL E-PROCURE ............................................................................................................................................. 207 3

MCKINSEY & COMPANY....................................................................................................................................... 209 SIEMENS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING ....................................................................................................... 212 CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES - SUMMERS 2011 .................................................................................... 214 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES ............................................................................................................................... 215 AT KEARNEY............................................................................................................................................................. 215 ALVAREZ & MARSHAL.......................................................................................................................................... 219 BAIN & COMPANY .................................................................................................................................................. 221 BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP ......................................................................................................................... 226 BOOZ & COMPANY ................................................................................................................................................. 232 MCKINSEY & COMPANY....................................................................................................................................... 236

INTRODUCTION Over a period of time, a career in consulting has become the numero uno aspiration for a majority of management students across B-schools in India and abroad. The adrenaline rush to solve a gamut of intriguing business problems faced by a wide spectrum of industries is enticing enough for most students to want to explore the intricacies of the consulting sphere. Considering industry trends and student expectations, many consulting firms visit IIM Bangalore campus every year for the recruitment process; although the main thrust is on summer placements in different domains like strategy consulting, IT consulting, operations consulting and analytics. Experience across the globe has given evidence that an internship with consulting firms gives the student an insight into the industry on a real time basis and helps consulting enthusiasts make informed career decisions. The selection process is predominantly based on resume-based shortlist, followed by case interviews. Thus, when the competition is amidst the best, it becomes imperative to have a fundamental understanding of the case interview process of major recruiters. The case interview processes of most of the companies are conducted in a similar manner and follow a similar pattern. ICON, IIMB’s consulting club seeks to equip IIMB’s students with a sound understanding of the consulting industry and provide valuable insights into the entire process as they gear up to tackle the upcoming summer placement interviews. In a constant endeavor to practice learning by experience, the following pages present the “as it is” interview experiences of our contributors during their summer selection process at IIMB. This case interview guide aims to provide a preview into the summer selection process of top consulting firms like McKinsey & Co., Strategy& (formerly Booz & Co.), BCG, AT Kearney, Accenture, Bain & Co., Deloitte, Roland Berger etc. ICON through this guide has endeavored to assist the students in understanding the consulting industry, the process involved in selection, the detailed preparation guidelines. The interview experiences will help the students develop a fair idea of what to expect in the interviews and how best to approach the probable case solutions.

WHAT TO PREPARE A typical interview for a consulting firm is a mix of “case” and “fit”. A. Case Preparation Cases are arguably the most important aspect of any consulting interview. A good performance in a case puts you in a very favourable position with the firm; an excellent one virtually guarantees an offer. A typical case is a business situation, requiring strategy formulation in order to fix a problem or enhance efficiency (optimization). It can vary from a detailed problem statement, supported by several facts to a one-liner conceptual statement with a very broad problem description along with few, if any, facts available. Case interviews are designed to help the interviewer assess the candidate on the following parameters. i. Thinking process – The interviewer constantly evaluates the candidate as the latter thinks through the problem ii. Structuring – This involves breaking down the problem into simple, logical components and structuring a broad approach framework. 5

iii. Analytical and Quantitative skills – A typical case problem requires application of basic quantitative concepts, achieved through an analytical approach to the problem in hand. iv. Demeanor – In addition to the above, interviewer also judges the candidate on his poise and maturity. Finally, cases also provide the candidate a flavor of the consulting world in terms of kind of work they can expect in the industry. B. Fit Questions The objective of these questions is to determine the degree of fit between the candidate and the firm. This part of the interview serves the following purposes: i. Helps interviewer know more about the candidate, his life-story and ambitions ii. Explore candidate’s interests, and how they “fit” with those of firms iii. Assess how coherently the candidate can present himself in a conversation In parallel to the above aspects, the candidate is continuously assessed on his communications skills as well. Typically, a very good performance in both parts, i.e. case and fit, is essential for a final offer. Very strong performance in one section can compensate for average performance in the other to a certain extent; but a minimum decent show in both aspects of the interview is mandatory to be considered for the next round/final offer.

HOW TO PREPARE A. Case Preparation i. Resources   

ICON Casebook Case examples provided on McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other firm websites Casebooks from other business schools

ii. Case Study group     



Typically, a group of 3 – 4 PGP‐I students to discuss cases and conduct case interviews among themselves A thorough preparation of 10‐15 cases is recommended through this mode Ideally, all members should be focused on consulting as the career option. It ensures consistent, enthusiastic participation from all members throughout the preparation period. Diversity / uniformity in academic background and work experience within a team do not matter. What indeed matters is group dynamics, the amounts of trust members have in each other, so as to pass honest feedback to others and accept the same in a constructive manner. The purpose is lost if members do not believe in other members’ sense of judgment and ability to pass on accurate feedback. A couple of cases can be prepared with some other case study groups to break the monotony and, in the process, obtain varied feedback.

iii. Miscellaneous  6

Mock interviews and case workshops are also conducted by PGP‐II students, typically the summer interns from consulting firms

    

Self-study of solved cases, when group activity is not possible, is beneficial Knowledge of basic statistics, such as population counts, can prove to be enormously helpful One should not quit until he or she becomes 100% confident in case analysis Sector research, especially those in which interviewers specialize, can come in handy Equally important is to gain basic understanding of the sectors in which the candidate has undertaken any academic projects in the past

B. Fit Questions i. Typical questions preparation  

A list of ~40 questions is generally circulated by the Placement committee towards the end of Term‐I. Interview questions from summer interview process of previous year should also be prepared.

ii. Company Research    

It’s recommended to obtain a basic knowledge of the company operations, its history, culture and vision. It helps in aligning one’s responses on appropriate lines as well as asking relevant questions during the interview Vault guides Limited help from mentors appointed by consulting firms (for shortlisted candidates only) Company’s websites (and neutral sources such as Wikipedia!)

WHEN TO PREPARE Considering the importance of the entire process and the great deal of preparation required, sufficient time should be invested.

A. Case Preparation Case preparations are done best in case groups of 3-4 people, which should typically be formed as the students begin their Term-II. This should give the students sufficient time of about 20-25 days for preparation before the summer’s selection process kicks off. It is advisable that students form their case groups well within time so as to avoid last minute bottlenecks of not finding the right case partners.

B. Fit Questions Another important aspect as discussed above is preparation of answers for the fit questions. Answers to these can’t be framed at the last moment, as it requires great deal of introspection and successive reviews to frame the best possible answer. Hence, it is in the interest of the students to start working on the first draft as early as possible, preferably from the beginning of Term-II.

INTERVIEW PROCESS The selection process has following stages:

A. Resume Short Listing 

All heads are looked at, and the base criteria need to be passed in each of the heads. The base criterion depends on the batch strength and is not an absolute cut-off. After crossing the base cut-off, 1-2 spikes are looked at. A Spike is defined as a unique attribute in a resume ‐ something that is not shared by anyone else in the batch.

B. Interviews   

Number of interviews varies across candidates and companies The interviews for all consulting firms are mostly case based These are not stress interviews. The interviewer directs the candidate through the cases, providing leads and hints, to understand your approach to a particular situation.

As discussed in the last section, a typical consulting interview has two parts – “fit” and “case”. Generally, a consulting interview lasts for ~40 - 45 minutes, with following being the breakup  

Fit Interview: 15 – 20 minutes Case Interview: 20 – 30 minutes

i. Fit Interview

A fit interview is taken to assess your nature and check your suitability to the firm’s work culture.      

Fit Interview involves personal questions – Typically of the kind “About yourself”, “Why do you want to join a consulting firm?” etc. A typical consulting interview starts with a few personal questions, lasting for 5 – 10 minutes. This initial phase is used to establish rapport. These questions are used to gauge whether the candidate fits the company culture. Personal questions can also be asked during and after the case, hence be prepared for a question when you are least expecting it. The interviewer forms an impression of the candidate after going through the resume and tries to verify it during the interview based on the candidate’s responses to these questions. The fit questions are not directly addressed, but are asked through a chat session, where the interviewer will try to understand the kind of person one is. You are less likely to be asked direct questions like “How will you fit in the company culture?” Instead, if a certain consulting firm stresses on a team culture, you will be judged on how good a team player you are.

DO’S AND DON’TS OF A FIT INTERVIEW DO’s:        8

Adopt a calm and composed manner throughout the interview – Consultants spend a lot of time in direct contact with the client where this aspect of the personality is very essential Be yourself – projecting a false image of being someone else does not work. The person on the other side of the table is a seasoned player and would easily spot pretense Present a coherent picture of yourself in an articulate manner Be confident – Nothing would compensate for shaky responses and a fumbling tone Be friendly and show that you can present your thoughts in a clear concise manner Consider case solving as a fun experience. The recruiter should be convinced that you enjoy the job Display a good knowledge of the firm, and how it fits in your career goals

 

Be honest – Admit if you don’t have knowledge of the topic interviewer wants to discuss Express your own expectations and interests with respect to the firm

DON’Ts:     

Get defensive when the interviewer presents a counter argument Feign interest in subjects just to impress the interviewer – artificial poses don’t carry weight. Appear confused about joining a consulting firm – your career aims should be clearly outlined. Narrate stories that present contradictory images of who you are. Appear ignorant about the position or the firm for which you are being interviewed.

ii. Case Interview CASE Consulting firms use cases to gauge how well the candidate will perform on the job and if he/she will like consulting as a job.   

The case is given as a 3-5 statement caselet The caselet is either number based or strategy based. (Guesstimates may be given either as a part of number based or strategy based case) The caselet gives the objective of the case

APPROACH            

Take 1-3 minutes to structure your thoughts. You are not judged on the final solution that you recommend; but on your approach to solve the problem Feel free to note down your thoughts, take your time to think before coming up with a solution Make sure that you have touched upon all the areas concerned to the problem11 Make the session interactive by asking questions, instead of taking it as a test. The interviewer would guide you to the solution by giving hints if you approach is wrong Industry knowledge is not required - ask them questions about the industry, which are relevant to the case Making assumptions is a necessity- always confirm their validity Try to have your own approach to the problem. The standard frameworks can act as a guideline. They would not like rehearsed problem solving approaches Have your own style of how you are going to approach cases (top-down, bottom-up etc.) Make sure to listen to the information given properly, before asking questions; keep noting down any extra information given during the case discussion. You can take time to restructure your approach with the new piece of information given Industry knowledge on few important sectors as telecom, IT will be helpful Take your mistakes easily. Be calm and try to address the problem based on the hints provided to rectify any error made Make sure to summarize your findings and analysis so that the recruiter has a clear picture of your thought process

Parameter

Importance

Personal Questions

Very Important

Communication Skills

Very Important

Approach to Problem Solving

Very Important

Final Solution to Case

Important

Stress Level

Low

Guidance by the interviewer

Medium

iii. Practice Cases                        10

A Mobile Handset Manufacturing Company, which has 60% market share want to strengthen their position and understand where the growth will come from in the next 5 years A foreign bank wants to start credit card business in India. What options would you suggest? An upcoming BPO wants to understand the manpower crunch (Supply is less than demand) in the next five years An Indian youth channel wants to start a new music magazine. Is it a good venture? A VC firm needs market size for institutions for music and creative skills (on similar lines of NIIT for computer skills) Increasing efficiency and reducing costs for a call center setup Selling strategy for condensed milk and packaged milk products in India Infosys is starting BPO services, how would you control the attrition rate? Estimate the market for platinum and diamond jewellery in India for a European company. Feasibility of a corrugated cardboard carton manufacturer going into the paper business (profitability analysis) A Telecom call-center BPO couldn’t cope up with the amount of calls it was getting. Figure out the multiple problems ailing the company and generate methods to solve all of them There is a coffee shop on the ground floor of a 40 floor building. Guess its monthly revenue A call centre wants to cut costs by 10 percent. What are the measures? Entertainment Company in music, planning to launch a magazine. Data given such as expected readership of other magazines, industry growth, competitor prices New heart hospital in New Delhi. It would cost X to set it up. What would be the breakeven time for it? Call center – cut costs per employee by 0.65$ Tractor Company losing sales. 2-minute case. Write 5 possible reasons Chain of stores was losing business, identify the problem Petrol pumps, set up on highways. Suddenly, revenues were going down. What might be possible reasons? How would you make quizzing a national pastime? You are a consultant to the government Movie producer has come to you with four scripts. You need to choose one. Which one and why? What are the parameters you will use to evaluate? Confectionary major is planning to get into India. Should he buy a factory that is on offer, or should he enter on his own?

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TEM of mobile phones. Sales of your handsets have gone down. Your dealer says that this is because competitors’ prices are better. What do you do? How much investment is required in infrastructure in India in the next 5-6 years An Indian private bank wants to go global. Which countries should it focus on and what should be its strategy? How much time would it take a 100 bed heart care hospital to break even and how many customers would they require to do so A box manufacturing company which made a better quality cardboard box (at a higher cost) as compared to local manufacturers. Analyze ways in which they could cut costs and communicate the value proposition of their product Various options that could be explored for a potential market entry (acquisitions, tie-ups, green-field etc) of an international chocolate and confectionery manufacturer in India A mobile handset manufacturer, which had a leading position in the market but its retailers were threatening to shift to other brands because they weren’t making as much money on the sale of this brand. Examine possible reasons for this and suggest ways to overcome the problem Market Entry Strategy Case in Retail. Develop a 2 by 2 framework to evaluate the prospects of 3 lines of retail business – Baby Care Products, Soft Clothing like screens, bed spreads, etc. and Leather Accessories Guesstimate – demand for a Mosquito repellent band that can be worn on the hand in India

SAMPLE CASE (This case was asked during a case interview to Aditya Muralidhar by Bain & Co. in Summers’15. It explains the process on how a case interview is usually conducted and should be mocked while preparing for case interviews in groups of 3-4.) Client & service overview: Case interviewer to describe the Client situation to the interviewee The Client’s company was founded in 2009 by a set of Indians who were targeting computer technical support for the aging population in the United States. The customers were buying laptops at an average price of $150 apiece and were obtaining nine-month hardware and threemonth software warranties. The founders spotted a whitespace in the market, as the customers were seen to require support beyond the provided period and they targeted common computer issues including malfunctioning software, drivers, etc. as part of their solution portfolio. The service was modelled as a subscription-based offering, which would give the customer yearround remote support in any software related issue. Focusing on the bottom-line, the founders decided not to target traditional Above-the-line (ATL) channels and took the digital marketing route. Owing to this, the customer purchase cycle was different from that of the traditional tech support businesses. Traditionally, tech support was sold either through retail channels or directly bundled with the device. However, for the Client, the customers were first attracted to the website through online advertisements and search engine marketing. Subsequently, interested customers would then place a call to the number listed on the website and speak with a customer care executive. The customer care executive would then engage the customer to understand the issues with the computer and suggest a solution for the problem. All this is free of cost. Upon fixing the problem, the remote technician would then pitch the annual subscription to the calling customer and would 11

subsequently sell the service. At the end of a year of subscription, the customer has the choice to renew or cancel the service. Case questions: Proceed to subsequent question only upon completing previous ones 1. What would the price of this service be for the company? 2. A competitor, say Dell, has priced a similar service lower than the estimated pricing in Q1. What is a profitable pricing strategy that you would adopt and why would this work? Also, what are the different ways that one prices a product or service? 3. At a high-level, what are some of the problems that you could anticipate in such a business? 4. What are the opportunities that exist for the company to gain further revenue? Data / Hints: To be provided only if the interviewee expressly requests for them or if the interviewer wishes to guide the interviewer 1. What would the price of this service be for the company? a. Cost per click: 50c b. Click to landing page conversion: 10% c. Landing page to pre-sales call conversion: 10% d. Cost per 60 min. of call (pre-sales): USD 12 per hour e. Average duration of call (pre-sales): 60 min f. Pre-sales call to buying conversion: 10% g. Cost per 60 min. of call (pre-sales): USD 10 per hour h. Average duration of call (post-sales): 60 min i. Number of calls per year (post-sales): 6 calls per year j. Margin: 20% 2. A competitor, say Dell, has priced a similar service lower than your estimated pricing. What is a profitable pricing strategy that you would adopt and why would this work? Also, what are the different ways that one prices a product or service? a. Competition price: $250 b. Target pricing for company: $200 (maximum) c. Customer retention: 30% 3. At a high-level, what are some of the problems that you could anticipate in such a business? a. No additional data / hints 4. What are the opportunities that exist for the company to gain further revenue (Hints)? a. Who is the target population? Elderly persons b. Apart from emails, what are they likely to use the internet for? Information gathering, games, gambling c. What is likely to be found on several gaming sites? Malware Answers To be provided only if the interviewee expressly requests for them or if the interviewer wishes to guide the interviewer 1. What would the price of this service be for the company? a. The approach is to find the ultimate cost of a “buying customer” and apply the margin value to find the price b. First, split the purchase process into “At landing page”, “At pre-sales call”, “At postsales call” to clarify and bucket the information.

c. At landing page (A): 1 person on the landing page means 10 persons clicked (@10% conversion). Per click it is 50c, thus, it would cost the company USD 5 to obtain one engaged customer. d. At pre-sales call (B): 1 person on the call means 10 persons were on the landing page (@10% conversion). Per page landing is USD 5, thus, it would cost the company USD 50 to get one pre-sales call. e. During pre-sales call (C): Per call, the duration is 1 hour at USD 12 per hour. Hence, per call it costs USD 12. To convert one customer to post-sales, you need 10 customers (@10% conversion). Hence, the pre-sales call cost per converted customer is USD 120. f. At post-sales call (D): After the customer bought the service, they will place 6 calls for one hour each at USD 10 per hour. Hence, the cost of servicing a paying customer is USD 60 per year. g. Total cost: Thus, the total cost across stages is USD 50 + USD 120 + USD 60 (A + B + C + D)= USD 230 h. Pricing: Margin was given to be 20%. Hence, the price is USD 230 / (100% - 20%) = USD 287.5 (Refer The Interview – Quick Note for clarification if needed) 2. A competitor, say Dell, has priced a similar service lower than your estimated pricing. What is a profitable pricing strategy that you would adopt and why would this work? Also, what are the different ways that one prices a product or service? a. Let’s say that the price that we calculated was USD 290. The interviewer tells us that the competitor has priced it at USD 250 and we want to hit a maximum price of USD 200. b. We need to understand that this customer is a repeating customer (accounting for some attrition / churn rate) and that all the cost need not be recovered in one year. c. It is also important to note that in the subsequent years, the cost is only USD 60 per year and this is the cost of servicing the paid customer (D). d. This, let’s say that the average life of a customer is 3 years, the total cost comes to be USD 290 + USD 60 + USD 60 = USD 470. Thus, on a yearly basis, we can target a price point of USD 157, approximately USD 160, lower than the USD 200 target. e. As to how this would work, we need to look at the concept of Customer Lifetime Value, which refers to the total margins that a company makes from a customer before the customer switches to a competitor or stops using the service. Given that this is not a one-time payment model, the company can split the costs over a longer time window, which keeping the annual pricing lower than competition’s. f. With regards to the pricing strategies, at a high level, companies can use: i. A cost plus model – Where a markup is added on top of total costs ii. A customer surplus model – Where the estimated value of the service to a customer serves as the guide for pricing, or iii. A competitive pricing model – Where products are priced against their nearest competitors 3. At a high-level, what are some of the problems that you could anticipate in such a business? a. To give the appearance of structured thinking, look at the purchase lifecycle in each of its stages and brainstorm on what the problems can be. It is recommended that you communicate your thought process so that the interviewer does not feel like he is in the dark. b. Here are some potential answers by stage: i. Landing page: Customer unable to find the number easily; customer unaware that the phone service is free 13

ii. Pre-sales call: Customer calling regarding hardware problems (which cannot be serviced but yet imposes costs on the company); customer cannot understand the technical support personnel’s accent; customer calling during closed hours (affecting brand equity); sales person inefficient at converting the customer (which leads to increasing unrecoverable costs) iii. Post-sales call: Customer calling regarding hardware problems (which cannot be serviced but yet incur costs); customer cannot understand the technical support personnel’s accent; customer calling during closed hours (affecting brand equity); sales person unable to attend to a significant proportion of the arising problems (indicating the need for training, better recruitment or better diagnoses) 4. What are the opportunities that exist for the company to gain further revenue? a. The interviewee must note that 60 minutes offers significant sales pitching time even in the post-sales segment for the company to potentially expand into other services. b. Again, to approach this in a structured manner, the interviewee must clearly identify the scope of problem resolution / solution recommendation. Here, the interviewee must once again clarify if hardware issues can be expanded into. If not, the recommendations should target only software. c. Assuming the latter case, the candidate must analyze problems arising from the user’s behaviour and problems that are extraneous to the user behaviour. i. Due to user’s behaviour: The use cases of the customer, such as visiting gaming sites, gambling sites and adult entertainment sites, should be listed with threats such as malware and viruses being identified. The technician can then cross-sell licenses to anti-virus packages, from which the company can gain commission income. ii. Extraneous to user behaviour: The technician can identify outdated operating system (keep in mind that this is 2009) and other software versions and can recommend updates, from which the company can gain commission income. iii. The interviewee can also hint upon tie-ups with software firms to understand potential areas of collaboration to, both, improve the company’s technical support capabilities and to cross-sell products. The interview Proceed to the next question only upon completing the previous ones I was called from the common pool and led to a room with a single interviewer, who was a Partner at the firm. The following describes interview flows and notable junctures: Me: Partner:

Good morning, may I come in? Yes. We are in a bit of a hurry apparently, so we don’t we have time for pleasantries. I suggest we get started. What industry are you familiar with? Me: I have worked in Consumer Markets at my past consulting firm, which includes industries of FMCG, eCommerce, fashion and jewellery. I have also dabbled a bit in agri-business. Partner: What about tech support? Are you familiar with it? Me: Not really, but I am sure I can pick things up as we go along. Partner: Great. So let’s get started. This was an actual case that we were working on. Let me start off with an overview of the case and we can get into the details subsequently. Interview The partner proceeded to cover the portion in Company & service overview section progress described above. The description alone took a good 10 minutes. Note that the 14

Partner: Me: Partner: Interview progress Partner: Me: Interview progress Quick note Partner: Interview tip

Interview progress Partner: Interview tip

Partner: Interview progress Partner: Interview tip Interview progress

interviewee should feel free to clarify questions when needed, but should take care not to interrupt too frequently. Let’s get to the important part now, I suggest that you take notes. I’ve been taking notes as we have been going along. I will be describing the Customer Purchase Cycle and there will be some numbers. I hope you can take notes carefully because I would like to avoid repeating the numbers. The Partner covered Case Question 1 & Data / Hints 1. During the course of the calculation, when I was structuring the numbers… (Covers my sheet of paper with hand brushing my pen away) Mental arithmetic. Yeah, okay sure. After a bit of a jolt, I completed the computations and gave the answer, which was right fortunately. The Partner proceeded to Case Question 2 & Data / Hints 2 Margins are calculated on the revenue. That is, 20% margin means 80% of the revenues are costs. Thus, when we have cost on hand, we need to divide by 80% rather than multiple by 20% (of total cost). The latter is the case when we use “markups”. Okay, so let’s get to the main part of the problem. At a point in this problem, I did not comprehend what the exact question was. An interviewee should feel confident in explaining what was understood about the question and ask if it has been understood correctly. In my case, there was an aspect that I was stuck with and asked the interviewer for 2 minutes to think, which he was happy to grant. He was also gracious in clarifying an aspect of my understanding, so it should be noted here that interviewers do not mind helping guide candidates towards the answer (again, once in a while) as long as they are made aware of the thought process. After completing my answer, as detailed in Answers 2, the Partner proceeded to Case Question 2 & Data / Hints 3 Okay, so that was the easy part. Let’s get to the main part of the problem. He proceeded to elaborate on Case Question 3 and 4 in parallel. In Case Question 4, I was not sure what he was expecting as he wanted “ways to cross-sell and up-sell”, which I deemed to be a broad question. The interviewer once again was gracious enough to guide me towards the type of answer that he wanted and in my belief, this guidance was not taken to reflect poorly on me. Give me a minute. The Partner arose and walked out of the room stating that I can use the time to think through the two questions. He entered after 5 minutes to take my answer. That’s fine. Fair answer. Now tell me, why Bain? Interviewees should be prepared with the softer questions as the likelihood of being asked these is high. After giving my answer, the Partner once again excused himself. Now, this was my first round of interview and I was not sure at this point how many rounds there would be with the firm. I was getting worried that subsequent companies might be filling up their slots and was considering clarifying with the Partner regarding the subsequent process. Fortunately, however, he concluded the interview at that point and made the offer.

MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE INDUSTRY The following table provides an overview of the major players in the industry. DISCLAIMER: The data collated in this table is obtained from websites and feedback from past interns. ICON does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the data. The data was last updated in 2015. This data is not necessarily required for interviews but provided just for the reader’s knowledge. Accenture Strategy

Alvarez Marshall

Consultants worldwide

2000

5000+ workforce

1700

Offices worldwide

Countries present

Staffing model

Regional

Global

AT Kearney

Global Scenario

3 broad service areas (management, # industry system integration & 12 practices technology consulting)

#functional practices

India office Bangalore locations

Mumbai

New Delhi, Mumbai

Partners

50 partners

Consultants

175

Managing Director

Sankar Krishnan

Vikas Kaushal

Comprehensive solution, beyond strategy, offered to clients

Restructuring, M & Strong operations A, right-sizing and and manufacturing corporate turnpresence around

India Specific information

Speciality

Priorities 16

Global brand recognition due to NA services outside consulting

Oil & Gas, Consumer & retail, Industrial &

Automotive, technology & telecom, metals & mining

Career progression

Consultant

Associate

Manager

Manager Principal

Partner

Partner (Vice President)

Bain

BCG

GEP Consulting

Consultants worldwide

3100

4500

1500+ workforce

Offices worldwide

Countries present

Staffing model

Office

Regional

# industry 15 practices

7 broad service areas

#functional practices

Global Scenario

India Specific information India office New Delhi, Mumbai locations

New Delhi, Mumbai, Mumbai Chennai

Partners

Consultants

160-180

280

Managing Director

Srivatsan Rajan

Neeraj Aggarwal

Mainsh Sharma

Private Equity Devising strategy or Procurement, supply Strategic diligence portfolio chain transformation Speciality

Priorities

Provides 6 months externship period NA (not provided by other firms)

Challenge Maintain & establish Mckinsey's market NA loyal client roster leadership Keep the lead in PE Hold on to areas of NA Work strength:

Financial services, Consumer goods & industrials

Career progression

Consultant

Case Team Leader

Manager

Principal

Partner

Partner McKinsey & Company

Roland Berger

Strategy&

Global Scenario Consultants worldwide

8500

2400+ employees

3300

Offices worldwide

Countries present

Staffing model

Global

Central

Regional

# industry 22 practices

#functional practices

India Specific information India office Gurgaon, Chennai, Mumbai, locations Bangalore, Mumbai Delhi, Pune

New Mumbai, New Delhi

Partners

40 (13 directors)

Consultants

400

Managing Director

Noshir Kaka

Wilfried Aulbur

Speciality

Devising portfolio

strategy

or Strong presence in Energy (oil & Automotive sector Power, FMCG

Largest consulting NA firm emerging from Europe

gas),

Priorities

Targetting a 3 fold NA increase in consultancy reach in next year

Market leader

Establish differentiated value proposition

Create deep impact

Consultant

Manager

Assoicate principal

Principal

Partner

Career Associate progression Engagement manager

Director

INDUSTRY WRITE-UPS The following write-ups cover a brief introduction of the most commonly discussed industries in the case interviews. The interviewers do not generally expect you to have an in-depth understanding of any industry (unless you’ve worked in this industry), but it helps to have a general idea of the value chain, key players and how the industry operates. PLEASE NOTE: This information doesn’t need to be memorized for interviews in any way. A thorough reading few days before interviews should be sufficient.

1. CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Overview: Construction, the second largest economic activity in India (after agriculture) contributes around 8-10% to the national GDP and employs over 35 million people making it the 2nd largest employer as well. Construction activities in India are largely fragmented with only about 250 firms employing more than 500 people. A unit increase in expenditure in construction sector has a multiplier effect on other sectors with a capacity to generate income as high as five times in other sectors. During the period FY 2011-15 Gross Value Added (GVA) by construction activities increased by a CAGR of 4.6% to reach INR 9,284 Bn. in absolute value terms. Construction sector includes broad spectrum of activities including planning & design to actual construction. The sector is broadly divided into two: real estate construction & infrastructure construction.

Construction

Real Estate

Residential

Infrastructure

SEZ

Commercial

Utilities

Urban Infra

Transportation

Exhibit 1.1 Construction Industry Outlook SEZ: Special Economic Zone (SEZ) refers to a totally commercial area specially established for the promotion of foreign trade. The economic policies regarding taxation, trading quotas, customs and labor regulations are more liberal. Construction Sector Analysis

A Access to technologie s

Growth Drivers

Regulatory Environme nt

•Govt. thrust on Infra spending •Falling Interest Rates •Increase in Foregin Investment

Procuring Approvals / Permits Sector Risks

Financing

Growth Inhibitors

Shortage of Skilled Labor

•Cash flow for developers stuck due to unsold stock •Highly leveraged balance sheets - inability to raise capital •Increase in debt default, CDR cases •Land acquisition bill

Exhibit 1.2: a) Sector Risks b) Growth Drivers vs Growth Inhibitors Financial Analysis –Real Estate Industry Raw Material

Power & Fuel

Salaries & Wages

SGA Expenses

Interest Expense

Net Profit Margin

FY 2010

13.9%

0.2%

4.6%

13.5%

15.2%

FY 2011

18.6%

0.2%

0.8%

12.4%

14.4%

FY 2012

21.5%

0.2%

5.6%

1.3%

14.4%

11.6%

FY 2013

16.6%

0.4%

6.1%

1.7%

17.7%

9.4%

FY 2014

15.2%

0.4%

6.5%

2.1%

17.5%

5.1%

Source: CMIE Prowess, Sample: 43 Companies 20



Interest expenses form the largest part of the cost structure of the industry. Huge debts raised to acquire lands and to complete projects have resulted in a higher outgo of interest payments



Construction sector is highly labor intensive and is among one of the largest employers in the country. Consequently salaries & wage expenses form a substantial part of operating expense.



Cement and Steel are major raw material costs for the real estate companies. Going forward, increased usage of green building products which help to lower usage of cement and steel is expected to benefit the companies in controlling their raw material costs.



Profitability in the sector remained hampered by declining sales and higher expenses including a surge in interest costs and rising employee expenses.

Financial Analysis –Infrastructure Industry Raw Material

Power & Salaries Fuel Wages

FY 2010

37.8%

1.5%

FY 2011

33.8%

1.9%

FY 2012

35.7%

FY 2013 FY 2014

& SGA Expenses

Interest Expense

Net Profit Margin

0.2%

4.5%

4.7%

5.5%

0.2%

5.6%

4.2%

1.5%

5.2%

0.3%

7.4%

2.4%

34.5%

1.5%

5.4%

0.3%

9.3%

-0.2%

34.8%

1.6%

5.2%

0.2%

10.7%

-2.2%

Source: CMIE Prowess, Sample: 47 Companies 

Raw material expense & expenses such as land acquisition cost, maintenance, transportation etc. has stood as the largest component in the cost structure.



Huge debts raise to acquire lands and to complete the projects has resulted in higher outgo on interest payments. The delay in project completion resulted in increased interest cost & made the financing of the project costly, thereby lowering the PAT margin.

Leverage Ratios – Real Estate vs. Infrastructure Real Estate

Infrastructure

Debt Equity Ratio

~0.71; Firms face a major debt crunch owing - heavily leveraged post FY 2010 expecting a continued boom in housing demand. However, rising interest costs affected demand as well as their interest costs.

~1.86; It is capital intensive by nature and companies operate with high debt equity ratio. Also, due to high upfront capital investment & lower investor appetite for equity offering to construction firms, companies depend on debt for capital needs.

Interest Coverage Ratio

~1.21; interest coverage ratio has been on a ~1.3; the twin impact of rising interest decline owing to slowdown in sales & fall in expense & lower profitability growth led to a revenue decline in interest coverage ratio & has kept debt servicing ability low.

Source: CMIE Prowess, Sample: 43 Companies- Real Estate, 47- Infrastructure Companies Other key ratios: Return on Assets, Net worth to total liabilities, ROCE etc.

2. INDIAN BANKING INDUSTRY Overview: The Indian Banking is set to become the 5th largest in the world by 2020 & 3rd largest by the year 2025. Total banking sector credit is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 18.1% to reach USD 2.4 trillion by 2017. In India, the universal banking model is followed. The general principle is that para-banking activities, such as credit cards, primary dealer, leasing, hire purchase, factoring etc., can be conducted either inside the bank departmentally or outside the bank through subsidiary/ joint venture /associate. Investment banking and insurance services are provided by the universal/foreign banks as an in-house departmental activity or through subsidiary. Credit, market and liquidity risk studies suggest that Indian banks are generally resilient and have withstood the global downturn well. Indian banking industry has recently witnessed the roll out of innovative banking models like payments and small finance banks. The central bank granted in-principle approval to 11 payments banks and 10 small finance banks in FY 2015-16.RBI’s new measures may go a long way in helping the restructuring of the domestic banking industry. Banking System in India: Structure Scheduled Banks

Scheduled Commerical Banks

Scheduled Cooperative

Rural Cooperative

Urban Cooperative

Public Sector Banks

Foreign Banks

Regional Rural Banks

Other SCBS

Credit

BFSI

Exhibit 1.1: Banking Structure in India

Banking System in India: Business Segmentation Wholesale Banking

Deposits

Treasury

Retail Banking

Merchant Banking

•Term •Demand •Current •Savings

Business

•Term loans •Cash Credit •Overdraft

•Gurantee & advisory services •Insurance & investment •Para Banking Products

Exhibit 1.2: a) Business Segmentation; b) Products and Services

Banking Industry Performance Metrics: 1. Advances: Loan given by banks can be either for short term or as working capital or term loans for longer durations. Banks performance can be judged from the quality of advances given, the performance of the sector in which bank has provided financial support etc. 22

2. Net Interest Income: One of the key parameters used to analyze a bank is the Net Interest Income (NII). NII is essentially the difference between the bank's interest revenues and its interest expenses. This parameter indicates how effectively the bank conducts its lending and borrowing operations (in short, how to generate more from advances and spend less on deposits). Interest revenues = Interest earned on loans + Interest earned on investments + Interest on deposits with RBI. This could also be calculated form the net interest margin or the spread kept by the bank between their term loans and deposits. 3. Net Performing Assets: NPA is used by financial institutions that refer to loans that are in jeopardy of default. Once the borrower has failed to make interest or principle payments for 90 days the loan is considered to be a non-performing asset. In order to prevent banks from liberally restructuring assets to avoid slippages, the Reserve bank of India has made all assets restructured from 1st April 2015 to be treated at par with NPAs as far as provisioning is concerned. This means that the provisioning in case of the restructured assets will increase from 5% to 15%. The gross NPAs of banks (PSBs + private) increased over the last one year from 3.9% to 4.6% as on March 2015. The stressed advances that include restructured advances rose from around 10% to 11.1% of total advances during the year. The PSBs recorded the highest level of stressed assets at 13.5% of the total advances as compared to 4.6% in case of private banks. 4. Capital Adequacy Ratio: Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), also known as Capital to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio (CRAR), is the ratio of a bank's capital to its risk. National regulators track a bank's CAR to ensure that it can absorb a reasonable amount of loss and complies with statutory Capital requirements. The capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of banks slipped from over 13% to 12.9% as on 31 March 2015. PSBs continued to report the lowest CAR that stood below 12% whereas private banks recorded a CAR of around 16% as at 31st March 2015.

3. INDIAN BPO (BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING) INDUSTRY Overview: India is at the No 1. Position in BPO industry having a market share of 55% of the total global sourcing landscape. It is highly export oriented and revenues in exports has crossed $70 billion. In the last few years, Indian BPO industry is witnessing a paradigm shift towards more of “Verticalized Approach” – developing in depth capabilities across entire value chain in specific intervals. Firms are implementing non-linear growth initiatives ensuring high realization for service providers while controlling costs, facilitating faster time-to market and improving client satisfaction.

BPO Structure in India By Ownership model 1. Captive BPO: In the case of a Captive BPO, the parent company set up a dedicated call center for servicing its own clients. The objective of setting up a captive BPO is to ensure that customers get excellent and quality service within the least possible time. 2. Third Party BPO: Under this form of BPO, one BPO company handles many accounts or processes. To take an example, HCL, could handle 6 processes, of which 3 processes could be from U.K., 2 processes from U.S. and one process from Australia. These processes can again be either inbound or outbound or a combination of both.

By Services Model 3. Horizontal BPO: Horizontal BPO involves function centric outsourcing. The vendor specializes in carrying out particular functions across different industry domains. Examples of horizontal BPO are: outsourcing in procurement, payroll processing, HR, facilities management and similar functions. Automatic Data Processing (ADP) is an example of a horizontal BPO vendor. ADP focuses on providing services in horizontal functions such as payroll, HR, benefit administration, tax solutions, etc. 4. Vertical BPO: A vertical BPO focuses on proving various functional services in a limited number of industry domains. Healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and retail are examples of vertical BPO domains. EXL Service Holdings is a vertical BPO having focus on industry domains such as healthcare, business services, utilities and energy and manufacturing.

By Business Model: 5. Transactional: Transactional BPO handles one aspect of a process only. The customer has to carry out a significant part of the process in-house and hence the customer owns the risk of the process. Also, outsourcing many aspects of the process in a transactional mode leads to complex fragmentation which can pose a threat to productive delivery. 6. Niche BPO: A niche BPO carries out 3-4 aspects of a process. A niche BPO, which also makes certain investments in the customer's process, aims at improving the efficiency of the process. The vendor in a niche BPO works in close coordination with the buyer, sometimes seeking the services of the customer's employees. Both the vendor and the buyer share the risk of the process. 7. Comprehensive: A comprehensive BPO handles both transactional and administrative tasks in a process and takes 70 percent responsibility of the output. The vendor purchases the buyer's assets and also hires most of its employees. Comprehensive BPO has bulk deals lasting for 7-10 years.

BPO Operational Metrics 1. Capacity Utilization: Capacity utilization is a measure of the extent to which the productive capacity of a business is being used. It can be defined as: The percentage of total capacity that is actually being achieved in a given period. In BPO utilization rate is calculated as Total Talk Time / Billed Hours. 2. Attrition Rate: The percentage of the people leaving the organization over a period of time. High employee attrition is an issue in this sector. The rate tends to peak towards the first half of the financial year, especially the first quarter. Many of the exits are seen to be happening as employees move to next-generation technology-backed companies, where they get to learn newer skills. High attrition levels have pushed the BPO companies to initiate employee engagement activities, skill training and development, thus adding more to the operational cost. Revenue per employee (calculated as the revenue from the services / no. of employees) and operating ratio (calculated as (Total direct cost + indirect cost)/net revenue) are other benchmarks which is used to assess the BPO’s performance.

Trends / Strategies adopted by BPO industry 1. Expansion to Tier II and Tier III cities: Companies are expanding their business to Tier II & III cities to have low cost advantage

2. Movement to SMAC and digital space: Social Computing, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) is taking significant leaps. Companies are getting into this field by offering big data services, which provides clients better insights for future cases 3. Product and Pricing Differentiation: Firms are now changing their pricing models to facilitate flexibility in operations thus improving cost visibility and cost predictability to customers. There is gradual paradigm shift from low cost advantage pricing model to delivering value model thus enabling non- linear growth. Firms are various non- linear strategies like cloud computing, M&A, enabling growth incremental CoEs, delivery accelerators and branding. 4. Switch to Fast growing verticals: Knowledge services, data analytics, legal services, Business Process as a Service (BPaaS), cloud-based services is gaining attention of BPO firms.

4. INFRASTRUCTURE Overview: Acknowledging the need to make infrastructure publicly available to all to promote inclusive growth, infrastructure sector has observed massive investment from government. In wake of growing scarcity of resources and diversion of public resources towards social spending, the government is encouraging private participation in infrastructure sector. Further, expected softening of interest rates is likely to spur new investment in infrastructure sector and contribute toward overall economic growth. However, these measures are bound to take time and pick-up in the sector is only expected to happen in mid to long term. Envelopes sectors such as Power, Roads, Railways, Ports, Airports and Telecom

A B C

Increase in Govt. spending in infrastrucuture, lower interest rate regime, pickup in economy major growth drivers Slow moving environmental clearances, budget constraints, land acquisition major growth inhibitors

Exhibit 1.1: Outlook on Infrastructure in India

Infrastructure Performance:

Key Challenges: The increasing number of stalled and delayed projects has deterred the investors to fund the infrastructure projects. Regulatory issues, rising finance cost have further added roadblocks to infrastructure sector. As of FY15, 6.9% of GDP worth projects are either stalled or delayed. Stalled projects result in blocked investment, which sets in motion a vicious cycle resulting in additional project delays. Stalled projects affect the balance sheet of banks, which leads to lower fund availability which hampers investment in projects which causes additional delays. A major challenge investment in infrastructure projects is facing is weak private investment via the PPP model. A possible solution may be to increase public investment to catalyze the project investment process. Other solutions include speeding up of the approval and award process and identifying projects for receiving public financing.

5. PHARMACEUTICALS INDUSTRY Overview: The Indian Pharmaceutical market (IPM) accounts for approx. 1.4% of the global pharmaceutical industry in value terms and 10% in the volume terms. The IPM is highly fragmented with about 24,000 players (330 in the organized sector). The top ten companies including domestic and MNC companies make up for more than a third of the market. The market is dominated majorly by branded generics, which constitutes nearly 70% to 80% of market.

Trends 

 26

Currency depreciation had both positive and negative impact on the Indian pharmaceutical companies. Depreciating rupee helped some companies garner better margins as they were export oriented. On the other hand, those with forex loans on their books witnessed higher payments. The industry continued to face bigger challenges on the regulatory front. The companies faced issues from the USFDA, as they lacked good manufacturing practices (GMP). Because



of this, there were instances of import alerts being issued, drug recalls, warning letters and so on. The regulators have become more stringent now and have also been conducting surprise checks. High growth witnessed in the generics to the tune of USD26.1 billion in 2016 from USD11.3 billion in 2011.

Pharmaceuticals Industry Structure Pharma

Active Pharma Ingredients (API)

Branded

Generic

Formulations

Chronic

Acute

Market Dynamics India's pharmaceutical industry is reportedly among the top three in the global market in volume terms, but much lower in terms of value. The discrepancy is because India’s pharmaceuticals production is highly cost-driven and that the country is world famous as a generic drugs hub. Moreover, in an attempt to provide affordable healthcare for all, India’s Government is undertaking series of measures to preserve the low prices of medicines on the domestic market. Although good for customers, those interventions reduce company profits, affect competition and may hinder the expansion of the sector. Moreover, there are regulatory problems with clinical trials and significant delays in patent approvals.

Mapping Pharmaceutical Companies Performance 



One aspect that could affect the company's revenues is the therapeutic segment in which it operates. If the company generates a major portion of its revenues from the high margin lifestyle segments like diabetes, cancer and asthma as compared to low margin traditional therapeutic segments like anti-infectives and anti-biotics, obviously, the growth prospects and margins of the company will be higher. Revenues in the domestic market are also influenced by the prices fixed by the regulatory bodies. These organizations fix very low ceiling prices for bulk drugs and formulations, thereby limiting pricing power. Although, powers of these bodies is expected to reduce tremendously with the introduction of product patents, there is an apprehension that they might survive in some form even after product patents are implemented. A company's product portfolio age is also a crucial factor that affects the company's growth prospects. As a drug matures, its volumes decline. Thus, a company with a relatively older product portfolio is likely to witness slower growth rates as compared to a company that makes aggressive new product launches. Moreover, aggressive new product launches also demonstrates parent's commitment towards the Indian arm. Outsourcing is the second avenue of revenue available for an MNC pharma company. Here, the company can either manufacture its parent's patented drugs or act as an R&D base. An MNC pharma company can utilize the lowest cost manufacturing ability of the Indian subsidiary for drugs sold globally. However, to get such manufacturing contracts, the Indian arm will have to prove its cost effectiveness not only in comparison to its fellow subsidiaries

but also Indian companies specializing in the same. This apart, the demand for the parent's product is another key factor that could influence the flow of revenues from this avenue.

Key KPIs: 

Parent's R&D expenditure as a percentage of sales: In a regulated market, new drug discovery research and product launches are key to a global pharma company's survival. Aggressive new product launches can only be made if the company is committed towards making R&D investments. This can be numerically measured by calculating the parent's R&D expenditure as a percentage of its sales. The higher this ratio, the more committed the company is towards its R&D initiatives.



Advertising and sales promotion expenses as a percentage of sales: In the domestic market, an MNC pharma company has to compete with generics manufacturers who sell drugs at a much lower price as compared to the MNC. Hence, to justify its premium price, an MNC pharma company has to undertake nation-wide product awareness programs and also conduct seminars and conferences. Although these initiatives eat into the company's margins, they are essential in the long term.



Market capitalization to sales: This is a very important ratio while analyzing an MNC pharma company, as it will give us an idea about the market's perception of the company's brand value. Higher the ratio, bigger the company's brand.



Other parameters: Apart from the above ratios, the usual ratios like operating profit margin, net profit margin and P/E ratio should also be considered before investing in an MNC pharma stock. As far as price to earnings is concerned for an MNC pharma major, better earnings visibility (provided the parent is committed) and access to the parent's global expertise could result in a premium valuation compared to domestic pharma majors.

Govt. Policies: 1. New Pricing Policy: The new pricing policy is definitely favored by customers but it is also helpful in a way for the sector, as it provides additional clarity for the industry regarding its decisions and growth plans. Nonetheless it shrinks profitability in the domestic market and, while it requires higher-priced products to be priced lower, it prevents lower-priced products from automatically revising their prices upwards. 2. Compulsory Licensing: Countries can resort to such licensing when important patented goods are too expensive for the local market and generic versions of the products at lower price rates could cater for the needs of the public. 3. Obligatory Generic Drug Use: – all state hospitals must prescribe only generic drugs. The decision is highly controversial as there are doubts not only about possible drug shortages, but also about the ability of generic drugs fully to replace patented ones.

6. POWER SECTOR Sector Overview: The Indian Power sector is considered to be the tipping point for the growth story of Indian Economy. Growing at the CAGR of 6-7% in period FY10-FY15, India’s Power sector has reached an installed capacity of 303 GW. At present, the country is power deficient having annual per capita consumption of 700 kWh. This sector is highly dominated by the Public Sector Companies and is capital extensive. 28

Value Chain: Power Generation

•70% share of PSUs •Dominance of Thermal based generation (60%) •Highly gestation period, capital intensive

Power Transmission

•200 kv (52%) and 400 kv (40%) major transmission lines •250K+ circuit kilometers in grid. •High commission period (6-7 years), less upgradation in technology

Power Distribution

• Major bottleneck in the power sector - Loss making PSUs • T&D losses > 25% of power generation; 2.5X of global average

Power Trading

• 10% of power generated is traded • Indian Energy Exchange & Ppwer exhange of India - major power exchange • Lack of long term power contracts

Power Generation: 1. Generation: Revenues are a function of electricity generated and tariffs applicable. Generation of electricity is a function of PLF (plant load factor) and the capacity installed. PLF, in simple words, is like capacity utilization. The level of PLF varies depending upon the kind of generation plant. Generally, a hydro power plant or a wind energy plant have low PLF (industry average 35%-50%). Thermal and nuclear power plants have higher PLF (industry average 50%-65%), which ultimately results in higher production. 2. Availability of funds: As we had mentioned before, the sector is capital intensive. It costs almost Rs 40 m to Rs 45 m to set up one megawatt (MW) of capacity. If a company is planning to increase capacity by 1,000 MW, it requires Rs 40 bn. Cash balance and the current debt to equity ratio of the company from the balance sheet will give an idea whether the company really has the muscle power to expand the stated capacity in the time frame mentioned. 3. Regulatory Framework: Since it is dominated by PSUs, lot of projects get blocked due to regulatory frameworks. Social issues like Land acquisition, deforestation and environmental restrictions limit the investment in Power generation. Power Transmission: 1. Concept of Commissioning: On an average it takes 60 months to commission transmission line. At present incentives for a developer doesn’t encourage faster execution of the project. Revenues can flow in from the contractual COD only (commercial operation date) even If a developer is able to commission lines before COD.

2. Land Availability: Presence of a transmission line reduces the commercial value of the land to almost nil as it can't be put for any alternative commercial use, often leading to protests from the land owners. It also affects the nearby eco-system, more so while passing through the forest cover. 3. Excess Demand: Transmission lines are added at 30% annually whereas production capacity is increasing at 50% leaving a large gap between demand and supply 29

4. Lack of up gradation in technology: Upgradation of existing lines with high performance conductors can save valuable time, cost, RoW, and forest cover. Re-conductoring takes much lesser time (~6 months), as compared to creating a new parallel corridor (~4-5 years). It also increases the power transfer capacity by 3X. Cost is measured in terms of Rs. X / Km / MW added. Power Distribution: 1. The distribution company can also generate electricity in-house, but the process remains

same. Distribution Companies have pre-defined areas called 'circles' where they can supply electricity. For a distribution company, metering plays a vital role. 2. Metered units = Inhouse power generated (if any) + Power sourced from a generator to meet additional requirement - T&D losses. 3. A major concern for the Indian distribution companies is heavy T&D losses due to poor infrastructure. Due to weak anti-theft laws, 10%-15% of power supplied is lost in distribution.

Key Financial and Operating Parameters: a. Guaranteed return: A power company is guaranteed a certain return on capital employed on generation by the government. If input cost increases, a generation company passes on the cost through increasing the capital employed to maintain margins. Affects profitability of a power company. b. Net Asset Value: NAV is important from a retail investor perspective. Mentioned in Balance sheet of the company. NAV = ((Capacity * rate per MW depending whether it is pure generation company or a combination of both) - Debt + Cash) / (number of shares outstanding) c. Dividend yield: Dividend yield is a very useful parameter. But if the company is in the process of expanding capacity, the dividend payout is unlikely to be high in initial years. d. Other Ratios: PE, PB, EV/ MW

Cost Structure: Value Chain

Major Cost Heads

Power Generation

Raw Material Cost (LNG fuel, Coal etc.) and Interest Cost

Power Transmission

Conductor Cost (ACSR – 38%; HPC: 66%); Tower (18%); Erection and Foundation (10%), Using HPC increase material cost by 2X but reduces overall per MW per km cost by 15%

Power Distribution

Cost of Electricity, Infra cost

7. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR 1.0 Sector Overview: NASSCOM expects the sector to grow at 10-12% in FY2017 (lower than FY2016). The IT sector can be divided into 6 categories: Software Products, IT services, Engineering and R&D services, ITES/BPO (IT-enabled services/Business Process Outsourcing), Hardware, and ecommerce Characteristics and trends: 30

  

Highly export oriented (over 60% of business from USA) and hence susceptible to global conditions Dominated by services rather than products Driven by low wage levels

2.0 Value Chain: Secondary Activities Enterprise Architecture & Portfolio Management Sourcing Staff: Engineering graduates with low-medium level software skill set Risk, Security and Compliance: Industry standards like MISRA and software development models Facilities & Operations IT Enablement

Primary Activities Demand/Relationshi p Management

Software Development

Software Support

3.0 Market Entry Considerations: Supply

Abundant supply across segments, mainly lower-end, such as ADM (Applications Development and Maintenance). Lower supply in higher-end areas like IT/Business Consulting, but competition is very tough.

Demand

The global downturn had put considerable pressure on global IT spending. Factors like Brexit and US visa restrictions has aggravated the scepticism.

Barriers to entry Low, particularly in the ADM & BPO segments as these are prone to relatively easy commoditization. It’s high in value-added services like IT/Business Consulting and R&D where in-domain expertise creates a barrier. The size of a particular company/scalability and brand-image also creates barriers to entry; as such firms have built up long-term relationships with major clients. Competition

Competition is global in nature and stretches across boundaries and geographies. It is expected to intensify due to the attempted replication of the Indian offshoring model by MNC IT majors as well as small startups.

Substitution of IT continues to be a driving force towards all aspects connected with our IT services and lives. While a particular technology may become obsolete and a particular products company specializing in it may suffer, the obsolete technology can only get substituted by a newer technology offered by the same/different player in the IT/ITES industry. 31

Market Entry Considerations – IT Sector (Source: Equitymaster)

8. TELECOM SECTOR 1.0 Sector Overview:

India’s tele-density has increased from 4% (2001) to 81.82% (2015) in 15 years. Growth has shifted massively from fixed line services to wireless and data based services. Characteristics and trends:    

Key driver: Growth in rural areas (tele-density < 50%) Most recent spectrum auction took place in 2015 High debt among many service providers due to spectrum costs and capex Emergence of fiber optics based high speed communication in recent years

2.0 Value Chain: Secondary Activities Firm Infrastructure: CRM Tools, Networking Exquipment, Telecom equipment for coverage and signal strength HR Management: IT Skilled workforce, Telecom Engineers, Customer Service and sales training Technology development: 4G/5G enabled services, mobile banking and commerce Procurement: Supply Chain network to procure tools, and software

Primary Activities Input • Network Infrastruct ure • Software and content provider • Finance

Process • Network Integration • Competitiv e Positon • Capable supplier

Output • GSM Services • Value Added Services • Fixed Lines • Broadband

Marketing & Sales • Strong distributio n channels • Advertisin g of plans stc

Post Sales • Recharge/ Top up

3.0 Market Entry Considerations: Supply

Intense competition has resulted in prompt service to the subscribers.

Demand

Given the low tariff environment and relatively low rural and semi urban penetration levels, demand will continue to remain higher in the foreseeable future across all the segments.

Barriers to entry

Complex regulations, high capital investments, well-established players who have a nationwide network, license fee, continuously evolving technology and lowest tariffs in the world.

Bargaining power Improved competitive scenario, mobile number portability (MNP), and of suppliers commoditisation of telecom services has led to reduced bargaining power for services providers. 32

Bargaining power A wide variety of choices available to customers both in fixed as well as of customers mobile telephony has resulted in increased bargaining power for the customers. Competition

Competition is expected to increase when Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) enters the industry in 2016. Reduced tariffs have hurt all incumbent operators. Whatsapp calling proving to be a substitute.

Market Entry Considerations - Telecom Sector (Source: Equitymaster)

9. AUTOMOBILE SECTOR 1.0 Sector Overview: Indian automobile sector can be divided on product basis into 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, commercial vehicles (light/medium/heavy) and tractors. The profitability of this sector is highly related to income levels. 4-wheeler penetration is very low in India as compared to 2 wheelers. Characteristics and trends:   

Key driver: Increased government spending on road infrastructure development Prospective move towards intensive emission standards (Bharat Stage 6) could increase production costs Brexit impact on automotive part exports, as UK and Europe account for high proportion of export

2.0 Value Chain: Secondary Activities Firm Infrastructure: Financing, accounting, manufacturing equipment HR Management: Assembly worker supervision, Recruitment Technology development: Product design, emission control technologies Procurement: Components, Spare parts

Primary Activities Raw Material • Raw material • Steel & Polyerethane

Tier 2 Supplier

Tier 1 Supplier

• Manufacturers of subcomponents for basic components • Low margins

• Make components for OEM's • Highly Integrated to supply chain of major OEM's

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) • Component assembly and vehice production

Dealers • Dedicated point of sale • After sales support

3.0 Market Entry Considerations: Supply

The Indian automobile market has some amount of excess capacity.

Demand

Largely cyclical in nature and dependent upon economic growth and per capita income. Seasonality is also a vital factor.

Barriers to entry

High capital costs, technology, distribution network, and availability of auto components.

Bargaining power of suppliers

Low, due to stiff competition.

Bargaining power of customers

Very high, due to availability of options.

Competition

High. Expected to increase even further.

Table 1: Market Entry Considerations - Automobile Sector (Source: Equitymaster)

10. FMCG SECTOR 1.0 Sector Overview: FMCG

Personal Care

Healthcare

Food & Beverages

Household Care

Characteristics and trends:   

E-commerce is becoming a significant distribution channel in addition to convenience stores and modern retail Rural and semi-urban segments are key growth areas in the coming years GST is expected to enable FMCG players improve logistical efficiency by cutting cascading tax costs

2.0 Value Chain: Secondary Activities Firm Infrastructue: Manufacturing plants, integrating suppliers and distributors through SAP Recruiting Staff: Graduates from top b-schools Facilities & Operations: Total Productivity Maintenance Product Design

Primary Activities

Manufacturing Sales & Operations planning

Demand Manageme nt

MRP

Production Execution

Pricing and Discount

Credit Managem ent

Delivery Managem ent

Quality Management

Waste Manageme nt

Invoice

Returns and Complain ts

Sales Sales Order Processin g

3.0 Market Entry Considerations: Supply:

Abundant supply through a distribution network of over 8 m stores across the country. Distribution networks are being strengthened in the rural areas.

Demand:

With food and consumer products being items of frequent consumption, demand is less impacted by slowdown. Processed food and personal products are segments growing at a robust paces. Rising contribution of women to the working force and growing nuclear families led to higher demand for convenience foods, especially in urban areas. Tobacco demand being habit-forming is largely inelastic.

Barriers entry:

to Huge investments in establishing brand identity and setting up distribution networks.

Bargaining power suppliers:

Suppliers being small and fragmented have limited bargaining power. Most of tobacco companies have integrated backwards and have their own supply chains. Therefore, the bargaining power of suppliers is not high.

Bargaining power customers:

Rising competition and the onslaught of the e-commerce boom does provide of good bargain opportunities for customers. Tobacco consumption is more or less a habit, and thus the bargaining power of consumers is only to the extent of choice of the brand.

Competition:

Domestic unorganized players pose competition. Domestic players also feel the competitive pressures from large well established MNCs. In case of tobacco, branded cigarettes, bidis and contraband compete with each other. Market Entry Considerations - FMCG Sector (Source: Equitymaster)

CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES – SUMMERS 2016 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES Graduation Name

Work Experience

Company Branch

College

Resume Spikes(not in order)

Company

Duration (months)

One

Two

Bain & Co.

B.Tech, Civil NIT Trichy Engineering

KPMG Advisory Services

Work Experience

Bain & Co.

B.Tech., Computer Science

Microsoft

Work Experience

Academics

Bain & Co.

B.Sc. in Physics, St. Joseph’s Oracle Chemistry, College & Math

Work Experience

ExtraCurricular

Bain & Co.

B.Tech., Computer Science

NTU, Singapore

Barclays Capital

Work Experience

Awards & Achieveme nts

Sankhadeep Pal

Bain & Co.

Dual Degree, Electronics Engineering

IIT Kharagpur

Broadcom

Awards & Achieveme nts

Sanchit Singhal

Bain & Co.

B.Tech.

IIT Kanpur

Rio Tinto, 34 Australia

Work Experience

ExtraCurricular

Abhishek Somani

GEP

B.Tech, ECE

Thapar University

Goldman Sachs

Work Experience

Best Allrounder Award

Academics

Awards

Aditya Muralidhar Himani Arora

Pradeep G.

Ritika Jain

IIT-BHU

Aayushi Agarwal

Accenture Strategy

Electrical

Delhi College of NTPC Engineerin g

Amit Kumar

Accenture Strategy

Chemical

IIT Guwahati

Reliance Industries

Awards

Academics

Prabuddha Guha

Accenture Strategy

Mechanical

Jadavpur University

BPCL

Work experience

Awards

Sohil Mahajan

Accenture Strategy

Electrical

IIT Kanpur

Ericsson

Work experience

PORs

Kottana Naveen Kumar

Strategy&

Metallurgic al and IIT KGP materials

Tata Steel 34 Limited

Well rounded

Strategy&

Mechanical

SKCET, Anna University

Srikkanth Sridhar

A.T. Kearney

Electronics and communica tion

Himanshu Khera

A.T. Kearney

Process Engineering

Buddharatn Ratawal

Alvarez Marsal

Khizar Sherrif M

and Industrial Engineering

TVS Motors

Work experience

Academics

PSG College of Technology

Academics

PORs

IIT Roorkee

Axtria

Academics

Work experience

IIT Kharagpur

ZS Associates

Work Experience

Extra Curriculars Academics

PORs

Awards and Achieveme nts

IBM Software Labs

Work experience

36 months

Keerthika

A.T. Kearney

Electrical & SSNCE, Electronics Chennai

Janani

A.T. Kearney

Computer Science

McKinsey

Metallurgic al and MNIT, Materials Jaipur Engineering

ZS Associates

Electrical Engineering

Quantitati ve Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Preksha

Koustav Dey

McKinsey

NIT Trichy

IIT Kanpur

Metallurgic al and Materials IIT Madras. Engineering

24 months

Work experience Awards and Achieveme nts

Sports

Work Experience

EXL Services

23 months

PoRs

Overall balanced profile

Essex Lake Group

30 months

Academics

Work Experience

Academics

POR/ Extracurri culars Academics

Ashwin

McKinsey

Priyanka Bagai

McKinsey

B.Com (H)

SRCC

Utsav Giri

McKinsey

Mechanical Engineering

BIT Mesra

Harsh Shah

McKinsey

Civil engineering

IIT Kanpur EXL Services

35 months

Work Experience

Anuradha Rao

McKinsey

Economic (Hons)

LSR

(Don’t believe in spikes)

Deloitte

B.Tech Mechanical Engineering

Praful Parakh Utkarsh Prasad

Shubham Mittal

Balanced ResumeExtraGood acads Curricular

IIT Roorkee

Axtria Inc. 12 months

BCG

B.E., Electrical and Electronics

BITS Pilani

Texas instrumen ts

PoRs

Awards

BCG

B.Tech, Chemical

IIT Kharagpur

ITC

Departmen t Rank 2

Awards

BCG

B.Tech, Civil

IIT Kharagpur

Atkins

Academics

Awards

S Aatresh

BCG

Chartered Accountant

KPMG, Nestle

CA All India Work Ex Rank 3

Agrim Gupta

BCG

M.Tech & IIT Kanpur B.Tech, Civil

Opera Solutions

ExtraCurriculars

Work Ex

Sharmili Adhikari

BCG

B.Tech, Electronic & NIT Communica Durgapur tion

Oracle Financial Services

Institute Rank 1, Awards

PORs

Smriti Priya

Roland Berger

B.Tech, Mechanical

NTPC

Institute Rank 2

Awards

Allen Babu

Dan

NIT Allahabad

ACCENTURE STRATEGY CASE 1 Candidate: Amit Kumar Case: Guesstimate Interviewer: You are from IIT Guwahati. Tell me how’s Guwahati doing? Candidate: Guwahati is doing really well sir. (Mentioned some current campus news.) Interviewer: There were Reynolds pen kept at the table. Can you tell me what is the market size of Reynolds pen in IIMB? Candidate: Can I have a minute sir? Interviewer: Sure, take your time. Candidate: I would go for an approach of finding the total population of IIMB, calculating market penetration of Reynolds in different segments and then calculating the market size. Interviewer: Approach looks fine. Please go ahead. Candidate: IIMB has a mix of PGPs, EPGPs, Faculty and their children. Assuming a PGP batch size of 400*2, Executive MBAs of 100 and 80 faculty members. I am assuming a rough estimate of 4 members/household so there would be 320 members from faculty. The rough population of IIMB thus comes out to be approximately 1200. Interviewer: It seems fine. What will you do next? Candidate: IIMB has a batch size with people with high work experience. Not all of them would use Reynolds given that it’s a cheap pen of Rs. 5. I will assume a market penetration of 40% in PGPs and 50% in executive MBAs. Though professors wouldn’t use Reynolds as a regular pen but their children might use it. I will assume a market penetration of 40% among professors. Interviewer: (Interrupts.) Can you tell me the components of a balance sheet? Candidate: Balance sheet is divided into 2 broad categories of assets and liabilities & equity. Assets include cash, inventory, trade receivables, investments and intangible assets. On the other side there is trade payables, current liabilities, long term debts, retained earnings and stockholder’s equity. Interviewer: Good. Go ahead with your guesstimate. Candidate: Total market size will be (800*40% + 100*50% + 320*40%). This comes out to be approximately 500. Each pen if used completely could last for half a month and every person will use 2 pens in a month. Annual consumption of pens in IIMB is 500*2*12 which will be 12000. A market size of around Rs5 *12000 = Rs. 6 lacs Interviewer: Sounds good. Thank you!

CASE 2 Candidate: Amit Kumar 39

Case: Guesstimate Interviewer: Why are you looking for consulting? Candidate: (Gave a prepared answer on how it fits his goal of doing an MBA.) Interviewer: (Goes through the CV.) What is this P&G Emerging leadership? Candidate: (Gave a small overview of the program) Interviewer: Can you know name some brands of P&G? Candidate: Tide, Pampers, Gillette, Olay. Interviewer: (Draws a product life cycle graph on paper.) Can you identify the graph? Candidate: It is a product life cycle graph with product sales on y axis and timeline on x axis. It has 4 stages of introduction of a product, growth, maturity and decline. Interviewer: (Writes 1, 2, 3, 4 on paper.) Can you identify what is this with respect to P&G? Candidate: I am not entirely sure on this. But it looks like introduction of different products as P&G settled in India. Interviewer: Do you know about Gillette strategy to increase market share? Candidate: I know that Gillette has a unique strategy of selling razor at low prices but sells blades at higher prices and makes on the money by repeated usage of blades Interviewer: This (1,2,3,4) is related to Gillette. Can you guess it now? Candidate: It could be number of blades in a razor. Like Gillette started with 1 blade, moved to 2 and latest I know Mach3 has 3 blades. Interviewer: Good. That is correct. Now suppose you are the marketing manager of Gillette and the growth is slowing down. What will you do to increase sales? Candidate: We could grow in our present markets or extend to new markets. Gillette having a huge global presence I will stick to present markets. Shall I go ahead? Interviewer: Yes. What will you do? Candidate: I would try to understand the issue of why our growth is stagnating. Is it due to a competitor producing high quality products or has the market been very competitive on prices. Apart from this, competitor external factors might have affected our growth, like new products coming into fashion replacing our razors. Interviewer: What do you think are the major threats for Gillette? Candidate: I feel Gillette is hugely penetrated. So a major threat for it is the growing demand for trimmers and shavers among the population. Another threat could be shaving going out of fashion, where people with beard are considered fashionable. If shaving goes out of fashion then people will reduce the frequency of buying blades and our growth will decline. Interviewer: Being the marketing manager, how will you solve that problem? Candidate: I would design an IMC campaign with bringing shaving back into fashion. Most of the fashion industry is controlled by fashion shows, magazines like Glamour, Vogue etc. I will collaborate with editor in chiefs of fashion magazines and create a suitable environment of shaving being the “coolest thing”. I would associate with fashion shows and ask designers to design themes around shaving. I will hire an ad agency to make advertisements showing how 40

shaved men are more successful in life and girls love shaved men. I would associate with fashion shows and ask designers to design themes around shaving. Interviewer: Can you suggest any other ways to grow the Gillette business? Candidate: Women razors market is also growing and Gillette could design special soft razors. These razors would be soft, delicate and flexible to cater towards target segment needs. I am not much aware of women razors. Interviewer: (Laughs) That’s completely fine. The strategy seems good. Now suppose one of the brands in US is gaining considerable market share in trimmers/shavers category. It is eating into your market share and trimming has become a fashion there. What will you do? Candidate: I would do the above mentioned steps and bring shaving as a “macho” thing whereas trimming being a more feminine stuff. Interviewer: If that strategy doesn’t work out. What else will you do? Candidate: I think Gillette is a mega brand and to develop new products would involve considerable time. Besides I am not sure of the current capabilities to be in the trimmer business now. I will acquire the small brand and make it a sub-brand under Gillette. Interviewer: Great. You need to acquire smaller players and consolidate the market. Thank you. Candidate: Thank you sir.

CASE 3 Candidate: Aayushi Agarwal Case: Cost Reduction (After the initial exchange of greetings, was told, “Sorry I’m not carrying a copy of your resume can you please provide one”. Quick tip: Carry a number of copies of your resume at the time of your interview.) Interviewer: Can you please walk me through your resume. Candidate: (Started talking about the resume points. Interrupted by the interviewer in between and asked about the cost saving number mentioned, what was the role of the candidate in particular in achieving those savings. The candidate explained the details of the cost savings mentioned and her role in particular. This helped in building the initial conversation.) Interviewer: Okay Aayushi. Let’s take the case of ABC Construction Company. Can you help them in achieving savings? Candidate: For this, we will first have to analyze the costs involved. (Started writing down the different costs in the sheet simultaneously.) Interviewer: You can continue. Candidate: Drew a chart and started explaining about raw material cost, labour cost, and the number of costs involved in the entire value chain. (Tried to follow think aloud tips as mentioned in a no. of case preparation interview books.) Interviewer: You can take your time, there is no hurry and I understand it is difficult to think and explain at the same time. 41

Candidate: Structured all the costs, and then gave pointers about effective sourcing of raw materials, entering into long term rate contracts using the prior knowledge of contracts. I also talked about transportation involved, ways to reduce those costs. In the close to 4 years of work experience, the candidate had spent a year in purchase department and close to 1.5 years in contracts. Interviewer: (Didn’t go in much detail of the case after this.) Alright. Why Accenture Strategy? Candidate: Said the usual prepared praising stuff about the company. (Quick tip: Questions like this are asked frequently and the candidate should be well prepared to answer.) Interviewer: Okay, thanks, we are done for this interview and we’ll let you know about the subsequent rounds. Candidate: Thank you.

CASE 4 Candidate: Aayushi Agarwal Case: HR Round Interviewer: Aayushi, what are your favourite subjects at IIMB? Candidate: Hesitantly mentioned Finance. Interviewer: Okay, can you tell me what all are the line items before Profit after tax? Candidate: Explained confidently. Interviewer: Do you have any idea about provisioning? Candidate: Explained. Interviewer: Why Accenture strategy? Candidate: So wished that this question is not asked again, but it was! No option, had to answer, so tried framing again. Accenture is one amongst the few companies that has pro women policies. (Interrupted) Interviewer: The person who came just before you was also saying the same thing. Candidate: Thought again on the feet. Tried to justify how it is the best company for me. Interviewer – Thank you, we’ll let you know. Candidate – Thank you.

CASE 5 Candidate: Aayushi Agarwal Case: Market Entry Interviewer: Our client wants to enter into a new industry, what do you suggest for him? Candidate: Sir, what are the current capabilities of our client and what industry does he want to enter into? Interviewer: Just walk me how will you go about analyzing the new industry 42

Candidate: Drew the standard value chain of an industry. Porter’s five forces. Never named the framework, but essentially did everything similar.

Threat of New Entrants Bargaining power of Suppliers

Industry Rivalry

Bargaining power of buyers

Threat of Substitutes Suppliers: We will first see how many suppliers are there for the raw product. If suppliers are very few as compared to the incumbent players in the industry, in which our client wants to enter, we will deduce that since supplier power is much higher, it’ll be a negative from point of view of entering this industry. Buyers: Again we need to see the number of buyers as compared to existing players i.e. what is the volume purchase of each buyer vis-a-vis the production capacity of existing industries. If buyers are few in number, we can deduce that bargaining power of buyers will be much higher. Again a negative to enter such an industry. Industry rivalry: How many existing players are there? Are they competing on cost or any other factor? Threat of new entrants: What are the barriers to entry? How easy or difficult will it be to enter for any other player? Explained this in greater detail. Threat of substitutes: Took Aquaguard example and what can be substitutes to Aquaguard for explaining this. (No specific reason for taking Aquaguard example. Just tried to explain concepts using examples.) Interviewer: Okay, do you know of any other things which we might have to check? Candidate: Yes, we will also have to look at exit options available, in case our client turns out to be unsuccessful after entering. We will have to do a research before selecting a region where we would be interested to start our industry. We also need to consider macroeconomic factors and political stability in the region that we are considering. In case we are to enter into huge technology based investment, we will need to check how fast the technology gets outdated. Interviewer: Great. (Suddenly HR person enters, and now they are three people, Partner, one more guy, and the HR person.) So any questions for us? Candidate: I would like to know, do we have any say in choosing the internship projects? HR person: Do you have any specific preference?

Candidate: I am open to working in any sector, but something involving cost savings gives me a kick, as there, I can right away see the impact of my work. HR person: Alright Aayushi, we’ll consider this during allotment of projects. It was nice talking to you. Thanks, have a great day. Candidate: Thank you.

CASE 6 Candidate: Prabuddha Guha Case: Profitability Analysis The first interview was taken by a Manager. It was a case interview where the candidate was given a one liner problem statement and asked to explore plausible causes and suggest solution. Interviewer: Hello! How are you? Feeling confident? Candidate: I am good sir. Interviewer: Ok then. Let’s get started. So there is a factory that manufactures pumps. The factory was setup 3 years ago and the project plan predicted that it should turn profitable on a standalone basis in 2 years. But even this year, it has registered a loss. You are the consultant and find out the problem for the client and propose an implementable solution. Candidate: So the profitability issue can be broadly viewed under two different categoriesrevenue and cost. Interviewer: The factory has no control over the pricing aspect as it is decided on a national level. And the sales team is pretty efficient- other factories are profitable on a standalone basis. So we are pretty sure it is not a revenue side issue. Let’s explore the cost angle. Candidate: Fine. So the cost can be segmented into two different headers- fixed and variable cost. The fixed cost can be further subdivided into different categories- Plant and Equipment Cost, Employee Salaries, Training and Development cost. So have the actual costs varied significantly from the projected costs in these categories? Interviewer: Yes, you are right, plant and equipment is significantly different from the original project plan. Can you tell me why? Candidate: Well, there can be various reasons for the same. Did the market prices appreciate significantly for the machinery in between preparation of the project plan and procurement of the machines? Interviewer: No. Candidate: Okay. So was any addition made to the original factory layout to include any additional machinery? Interviewer: Yes, an additional testing facility was included as per the modified industry guidelines after the project plans were drawn up. Ok, so you have identified one issue. There is another. Let’s try to find that out also. Candidate: Ok so has the salaries spiraled off projections? Interviewer: No both salary and T&D costs are under control. 44

Candidate: So then can I move onto the variable cost header or am I missing something in this section? Interviewer: Are you sure you have covered all the fixed costs? Candidate: Can I have minute to think? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: After a small pause. Well I can think of only one more relevant fixed cost componentdepreciation. Interviewer: Good. Let’s explore this. Here are the income statements filed by the company for the first 2 years. Have a look at them and tell me what is wrong. Candidate: Analyzed the statements for a minute. Well, based on the depreciation amount in the two statements, I can say the factory is using a straight-line method of depreciation (both amounts were same). Did the project plan also consider a straight-line depreciation? Interviewer: No. Can you tell me what they considered? Candidate: Well if they considered an accelerated depreciation, then projected profits will be higher than the actuals (arrived at using straight-line depreciation). Interviewer: Very good. That was the problem. Thanks. We are done for the first round. Candidate: Thank you sir.

CASE 7 Candidate: Prabuddha Guha Case: Balance Sheet Analysis This round was taken by two partners. It started off with the candidate being asked to analyze two different balance sheets and comment on the nature of the companies. One of the balance sheets had a high proportion of fixed assets compare to the other. So the candidate predicted that one was a manufacturing based company while the other was service company. The interviewers accepted this premise. Then the discussion went on to oil and gas domain and macro-economic impact of the sector on the nations’ economy. The entire pricing structure of a petroleum products was discussed in detail and the candidate was asked how the subsidy mechanism can be improved. The candidate suggested targeted and need based subsidy program through direct benefits transfer. After this, the dynamics of oil price movements was discussed. The candidate was asked to explain the logic why OPEC was moving away from their supply constrain mechanism to control world-wide oil price. The candidate was able to successfully explain how OPEC is trying to protect their market share and keep the oil prices low temporarily to put the shale oil upstarts out of business. This was followed by another interview by the HR Manager and another partner. A few profile based HR questions were asked. 45

CASE 8 Candidate: Sohil Mahajan Case: Market Entry The candidate had three rounds of interview. First round was case based, second round was resume based and third round was MD interview. (There were 3 interviewers. One of them was observing and the other two were conducting the interview.) Interviewer: Hi, How are you? Candidate: Good Morning sir, I am good, thank you. Interviewer: Can you introduce yourself. (Interviewer was going through candidate’s resume.) Candidate: (Gave his introduction.) Interviewer: (Stopped the candidate while he was talking about work experience.) Since you have worked on IoT, let’s discuss a case around the same topic. Candidate: Sure sir. Interviewer: Consider a situation where your client is a device manufacturer who wants to launch a new product in India. What factors should they look into and how should they proceed? Candidate: Can you please tell me about the device? Interviewer: The device can be attached to an LPG cylinder and it can indicate the user if the level of LPG reaches below a certain minimum level. It would help the user book a new LPG before the current one is empty. Candidate: Asked about the company, if it was a startup or a multinational company. Has it launched the same product elsewhere? Are there any market share or profitability or break even targets? Interviewer: You can assume that it is a startup and is launching the product for the first time. Candidate: Asked for a minute to pen down the structure. Interviewer: Sure, take your time. Candidate: I would like to start by looking at the market attractiveness, estimate the market size, at what price point can they enter into the market, how would they enter (greenfield or JV), what kind of margins are they looking at and how long would it take to break even. Can I proceed? Interviewer: Yes, that looks fine. Candidate: Households and commercial users of LPG cylinder would be our target customers. I would like to estimate the market size. Interviewer: You can discuss what factors you would consider while estimation. A numerical estimate is not required. Candidate: Sure sir. Started with the rural, urban divide: Households: Family sizes in rural and urban would be different. In rural areas not everyone would be using LPG. Families use kerosene, coal and other means as well. In urban areas, some families would have a gas pipeline and this device would be of no use to them. 46

Commercial users: In urban areas most of the restaurants or food stores that use cylinders have a spare cylinder ready and so this device would be of little use to them. However, in rural areas the device would be beneficial and we can estimate that. Interviewer: Is it a fair way to target both household and commercial at the same time? Candidate: Since it is a startup, they can target households currently. Also, commercial users may find little use of this device. Interviewer: Okay. Let’s move on to pricing. How would you price the product? Candidate: Pricing could be customer’s willingness-to-pay based. Without this device, the customer would have to wait a few days for the next LPG to get delivered. In the meanwhile, either the customer would order food or electric Chula or manage with other sources of cooking. Customer willingness to pay for our device would be the amount that the customer would spent in these alternative means plus a premium for comfort. Interviewer: What else? Candidate: Another way to price is look at the competitors in the market. Are there any other players in the industry with the same product? Interviewer: No, our client is the only player with the product. Candidate: In that case, willingness-to-pay based pricing would be appropriate. Interviewer: What else must the client do? Candidate: They can tie up with the existing LPG suppliers and tap into the LPG distributor network to reach out to customers. Interviewer: What else? Candidate: Since they are the only ones with such a device, they should patent their product to avoid any duplication in the market. Interviewer: Okay, that makes sense. Let’s end this case discussion now. The other interviewer started going through candidate’s resume. The candidate had mentioned a few points on cryptography events at UG College. The candidate was told that he would be given a couple of puzzles with only 30 secs to solve. They were typical undergrad puzzles. Interview ended. The second interview was a resume-based interview. Just one interviewer. Discussion was mostly around candidates work experience and undergrad extracurricular activities. Also a few questions on why consulting and why Accenture. The third round was a MD interview. It was very informal. Discussion was mostly on hobbies, things that the candidate was good at but not mentioned on resume, etc.

ALVAREZ & MARSAL Candidate: Buddharatn Ratawal Case: Profitability (Same case was asked to all the candidates in Summers’15.) Interviewer: Hi! Good morning. Please sit. (After a few questions on resume) Interviewer: Are you with cash flow accounting? Interviewee: Yes, I pursued a course on Financial Accounting in Term I. Interviewer: Good! Do you know any shipbuilding company facing a financial crunch? Interviewee: I am afraid that I do not. Interviewer: No problem. Let us take a hypothetical situation of a Gujarat based shipbuilding company which is quickly running out of cash. You have to identify the reason and provide the solution for the company to come out of this situation. Interviewee: Alright. Can I have a look at the Balance Sheet of the company? Interviewer: Sure. (Hands over the balance sheet to the candidate) Interviewee: (Takes a minute to go through the balance sheet) I notice a significant increase in the YoY fixed asset. Has the company invested heavily in land or any heavy machinery? Interviewer: Yes Interviewee: Can you handover the cash flow statement of the company? Interviewer: Sure. Interviewee: I observe that the company has invested heavily in a particular machinery. What is it? Interviewer: It is a ship building platform which partially automates the ship building activity and helps in overall decrease in manufacturing time. Interviewee: I find this as the prime reason for the company to be in this cash crunch situation as they have invested heavily recently which doesn’t leave them with much quick liquid assets to burn. Interviewer: Alright. How should the company come out of the situation? Interviewee: The Company should focus on generation revenues. Where has the company dedicated its resources currently? Interviewer: They are focused on the on-going projects. Interviewee: How many live projects are the company resources working on? Interviewer: Five. Interviewee: Rather than working on all five, is it possible for the company to focus selectively so as to generate the revenue at the earliest? Interviewee: Of course. But how will you decide that? 48

Interviewer: We can prioritize based on the client, returns and urgency. Who are the clients of all the five projects? Interviewer: Two of them belongs to Indian Navy which is the largest client of the company equivalent to approx. 70% of the revenue while the other three are private ships belonging to various traders, let’s say Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Interviewee: May I have a look at individual projects cash flow statements, if that is available. Interviewer: Sure. (Hands over 5 cash flow statements) Interviewee (takes a minute to scan through): I am looking to find a project with minimum investment but maximum & early returns. Project Beta is the ideal project to direct all the resources as its returns for first module completion is highest. Interviewer: But would you recommend stalling Indian Navy’s projects considering they are your major clients? Interviewee: Given the current condition of the company, it will soon be out of cash in order to work on any projects. So either it can ask for advance payment from Indian Navy to continue on its project or focus on Beta to generate revenues and subsequently work on multiple projects. Interviewer: Fair point. I think we are good with the case. Thanks a lot.

AT KEARNEY CASE 1 Candidate: Himanshu Khera Case: Guesstimate Interviewer: (After a few standard questions on resume) Let’s do a case. I want you to forecast revenue for a switch manufacturer. Candidate: I would like to ask a few questions to get more understanding. Interviewer: Please go ahead. Candidate: Where is the company located? Where does it sell its produce? Interviewer: Kerala. It manufactures and sells in the same state. Candidate: What type of products does it manufacture? How many different types of switchesresidential, commercial, high voltage industrial, low voltage industrial to be used in electrical appliances or equipment’s etc? Interviewer: Only residential. Candidate: Okay. What kind of customers does it have? Does it have direct tie-ups with builders? What all channels does it sell its products through- exclusive outlets, distributors? Interviewer: It has direct tie-ups. Also a wide distribution network in Kerala. Candidate: How many competitors in Kerala against the company? What is the probable market share? Interviewer: Very few competitors. 50% market share in residential segment. Candidate: Alright. Give me a minute while I frame my thoughts. Interviewer: Ok Candidate: (starts thinking aloud). Revenue is a function of value, variety and volume. I would like to first focus on volume. So assuming a population of 3 Cr in Kerala and an average family size of 4, there are almost 75 lakh households. Out of these I can assume that 20% do not have proper accommodation as they are below poverty line. I would like to categorize the remaining 60 lakhs in different categories based on house ownership. Interviewer: Go Ahead. Candidate: (Again thinking aloud) I assume a class division like: Upper Class (10%), Upper Middle Class (25%), Lower Middle Class (45%), and Below Poverty Line (20%). I further assume the type of residential accommodation people of different classes use: Class 50

# bedrooms

# kitchens

#restrooms

#balconies

Upper Class Upper Middle Class Lower Middle Class Below Poverty Line

4 3

1 1

3 2

2 1

*Each house will also include restroom, kitchen and balcony Do you think these assumptions are relevant? Interviewer: Please go ahead. Candidate: Combining the above 2 assumptions: #bedrooms = 75,00,000*[4*(10%)+3*(25%)+2*(45%)] = 1,53,75,000 #Kitchens = 75,00,000*[1*(10%)+1*(25%)+1*(45%)] = 60,00,000 #restroom = 75,00,000*[3*(10%)+2*(25%)+2*(45%)] = 12,750,000 #Balcony = 75,00,000*[2*(10%)+1*(25%)+1*(45%)] = 67,50,000 I will assume that each bedroom, kitchen, restroom and balcony will have 2, 1, 1, and 1 low voltage switch boards respectively. The same number for high voltage switchboard (used for running appliances etc.) will be 1,1,1, and 0. So based on above methodology we arrive at #low voltage boards= 1,53,75,000*2+ 60,00,000*1+ 12,750,000*1+ 67,50,000*1 = 5,62,50,000 #high voltage switch boards= 3,41,25,000 Interviewer: Fine. Don’t you think you are missing something? Candidate: I will include 2 more: 1. Allowance for housing societies which have lighting in corridor as well= 6% (an additional factor of 20% for 30% of the people who reside in housing societies, as in Kerala most of the people (70%) reside in independent houses) 2. Allowance for new housing starts= 10% Is this fair to assume? Interviewer: Fine. Go Ahead. Candidate: What is the average price for each type of switch board? And what is the average life? Interviewer: Rs 150 for high voltage and Rs 200 for low-voltage small. Average life is 5 years. Candidate: The revenue will come out to be Revenue= [5,62,50,000*200 + 3,41,25,000*150] *1.06*1.1/5*50%= 190 Crores Interviewer: Great. I think you have done a fair job.

CASE 2 Candidate: D Keerthika 51

Case: Telephonic Case Round during ‘buddy’ interaction (in the middle of a casual conversation) Interviewer: Keerthika, let us see you solve a case. I hope you are ready! Interviewee: (surprised but composed) Sure. Let’s go for it. Interviewer: My neighbour wants to buy a gift, but is confused on what to get and is now asking for my expertise on the same. (Thought for a few seconds as she framed the sequence of questions) Interviewee: How old is the neighbour and what gender? Interviewer: The neighbour is an 8-year-old kid. Female. Interviewee: Who does she want to gift to and what is the occasion? Interviewer: She expects to gift her mother for her birthday. Interviewee: What gift was given to the mother last year? Interviewer: She didn’t gift anything to her mother. Interviewee: Did the mother receive any gift from the family last year? Or have they planned anything to gift this year? Interviewer: The kid’s elder sister is gifting the mother with a family photo. Interviewee: What is the budget of the gift? Interviewer: The kid can’t decide on the budget. What do you think she would be wanting to gift from the discussion we have had until now? Interviewee: (thinks for the moment) Something to do with the photograph, I believe. Interviewer: Alright. The kid wants to gift her mom a photo-frame to put the family photo in. Key Takeaways: The answer “photo frame” is not going to fetch you any marks with the interviewer. In fact, the answer doesn’t even matter. The ability to think from various angles is the one that matters.

CASE 3 Candidate: D Keerthika Case: Market Entry (India map outline with certain red spots (rectangular & triangular) on it and was placed on the table.) Interviewer: (no salutation - no questions from resume – directly jumps to the case) Before you are the current locations of the manufacturing plants of XYZ chemical company. Rectangular red spots represents that they are owned by XYZ and triangular red spots represents that they are 3rd party outsourced manufacturers. The company wants to expand its manufacturing locations. What are the parameters it should consider to analyse? Where and how (owned or outsourced model) should it expand? You have 1 minute to think. (Interviewer starts working on his laptop) 52

Interviewer (after exact one minute): I’m going to close my eyes and all I want to hear are the keywords and no full sentences of whatever that you have thought. Remember, no full sentences. (The interviewer closes his eyes.) Interviewee: Questions to be framed withWhy expand? Future demand? Lost sales due to unmet demand? Demand centre? Transportation cost? Tax benefit? (The interviewer doesn’t speak in-between till now and stops the interviewee at this point) Interviewer: Do you think you performed well? Interviewee: Considering the limited time and resource & information constraints, I believe I have covered broad aspects which would further allow me to narrow down on key aspects. Interviewer: Ok. You may proceed to the next interview. This was followed by another short interview. (After long discussion on resume) Interviewer: Alright, now let’s get into discussing a case, shall we? Interviewee: Sure. Interviewer: I want to launch a reality show. What are the parameters I have to consider in doing it? Just the parameters – only the keywords! Interviewee: I will list the parameters asCountry or location? Type of reality show? Channel: Star Plus-type or Disney-type? Target audience? Budget? Interviewer: (interrupting) Alright. Thanks.

CASE 4 Candidate: Janani Case: Profitability (Partner Round) Interviewer: Hello Janani, how are you? Me: I am doing good. How are you doing? Interviewer: How was the last one month? Me: It was hectic and the environment in college was tense. Interviewer: So Janani, quickly tell me what aspects in IIMB met your expectations and what did not? Candidate: I am really happy with the teaching, courses and the friends I made here. I was told about how hectic it would get, but never imagined it to be this way. That was probably something that did not meet my expectations, especially last two months. 53

Interviewer: Interesting, Say I walk across your wing in Under-grad what would be the three words they would say to describe you. Candidate: (Answers in three words) Interviewer: Hmm, now I walk across your wing in IIMB what would be the three words they would say to describe you. Candidate: (Answers in three words (two common & one different)) Interviewer: Do you have siblings? Candidate: Yes, two sisters Interviewer: What would be the three words your sisters would say to describe you? Candidate: (Answers in three words) Interviewer: So good Janani. Shall I give you a case now? Candidate: Sure Interviewer: There is this shop in a college. The shop has been in the college for many years. The shop‘s profit has reduced and the owner is wondering why. Can you help him understand why? Candidate: Okay. So I have a couple of questions. Shall I ask you? Interviewer: Go ahead, shoot them. Candidate: So what does this shop sell? Interviewer: It is a basic stationery shop with Xerox as well. Candidate: Since when did they start facing these reduced profits? Interviewer: You could say couple of months back Candidate: Is this the only stationery shop present? Interviewer: Yes, like any college, there is only one stationery shop present and it has been around for long. Candidate: Ok. Thanks. Can I have a few minutes to think through this? Interviewer: Yes, of course. (They had left a notepad on the table and on that I drew a chart)

Profits

Revenue

Sales of stationery

Cost

Xerox

Stationery related

Inventory Cost

Xerox Related

Rent

Cost of stationery bought

Cost of Xerox Machine

Labor charge

White paper

Candidate: Have the revenues dropped recently? Interviewer: No, the sales have been good. In fact, they have increased. Candidate: So it is safe to assume, it is a cost related issue? Interviewer: Go ahead. Candidate: There are multiple costs associated with the shop. I would like to bucket them to Stationery related and Xerox related and apart from that Rent and Labor costs. Interviewer: Valid, so elaborate further. Candidate: In the stationery, have our costs of purchasing increased in the last two months? Interviewer: No, they have been pretty much the same. Candidate: So I can assume, our ties with our suppliers is also good. Interviewer: Yes Candidate: So, with respect to inventory cost, is that higher? Is the shop storing more than required or higher than the turnover? Interviewer: Not really, everything has been more or less the same. Candidate: Now I will move on the cost for Xerox related activities Interviewer: Yes, go on Candidate: Has the shop added more machines? Interviewer: No they have been working with 2 machines for a long time. Candidate: Are the machines facing frequent break-downs? Interviewer: No Candidate: Have the costs of A4 paper increased? 55

Interviewer: No, that has been the same as well Candidate: Have the rents for the shop increased? Interviewer: In a way yes, the shop was present in the campus for very long time and no one really questioned the legality. Recently the administration changed and they imposed a rent on the ship which was not present earlier. Candidate: That explains the sudden increase in costs. How much was the increase? Interviewer: Around INR 30,000/- month and the owner of the shop is worried as he cannot afford 30,000 every month. He is protesting with the administration and requesting them to consider not charging them. What would you do as the administration? Candidate: There are three aspects to this problem a) Softer aspects b) Financial aspects c) Legal aspects With respect to the softer aspects, it may be difficult to be harsh to a shop owner who has been in the campus for a long time. Financially I am assuming, even if the college is in some financial trouble; the money from this rent would be miniscule. And finally legally, they may face issues when new shops come and set up their stores without permission. Then it may become difficult to place rents differentially. Interviewer: Fair point. Thank You Janani.

CASE 5 Candidate: Srikkanth Case: Profitability Interviewer: (After the pleasantries of a few standard questions).So let’s do a case. Our client is a coffee retail chain whose profitability has been declining. Please help him out. Interviewee: Just to get my bearings correct with regards to the client- Does our client own a chain of retail outlets throughout India? Interviewer: Yes, that is correct. Interviewee: Has our client been facing declining profitability across all outlets or is it specific to one or two outlets clustered in a particular region? Interviewer: Across all outlets Interviewee: Let me get a better understanding of the client’s business. What are the products he sells and are there any other sources of revenue? Interviewer: It’s basically a cafeteria with Coffee, Tea and Pastries being the main products. There are no other sources of revenues. Interviewee: Okay. So the profitability issue could be connected with either the pricing/profits or the costs incurred by the outlet. Can I look in to the costs involved in operations now? Interviewer: Yes, please. But restrict yourself to one outlet for now. That should give you the insight for the entire coffee chain. Interviewee: Alright. Just give me a minute. I’m working under the assumption that the cafeteria controls all the operational activities right from sourcing till retailing. The major costs would be, 56

1) Procurement of raw materials. 2) Logistics involved in transporting raw materials 3) Operational costs in the cafeteria 4) Advertising & Marketing Interviewer: This looks like a comprehensive list of costs. Please proceed. Interviewee: Has the raw materials costs gone up significantly, or are we paying our suppliers more than before, as compared to our competitors? Interviewer: Nope. Our costs have been going up as according to the standard rate of inflation. But the client has already factored that in. Interviewee: Alright. Anything regarding our operations? Have we incurred additional operational overheads or logistics costs? Interviewer: There has been some increase in the operational costs since we have recently changed our raw material delivery system to a hub & spoke model. But our profitability hit seems to indicate a much more serious issue. Interviewee: Shall I hold on to the cost aspect of this for now, and look at the revenue side of things? Interviewer: Sure. Interviewee: Have we reduced the pricing of any of our products? Interviewer: No Interviewee: Is there a decline in demand of our products? Interviewer: Our demand on an aggregate level has remained constant. If anything, it has seen a slight increase this year. Interviewee: Do we have details about the various products stocked & their respective demand fluctuations? Interviewer: Yes. The demand for tea has gone down by 10%, whereas the demand for coffee and cakes have increased by 12%. Interviewee: Do we have the profit margins for the individual products? Interviewer: Yeah- we make 25% on tea, 10% on coffee, and -10% on cakes. Interviewee: This seems to be the major source of the problem. The demand for the most profitable product has gone done, while we are making smaller margins on our fast moving products. Interviewer: Okay. So what do you suggest? Interviewee: First we will need to identify if these products are price sensitive. If they are we could reduce the prices of tea to see if demand rises Interviewer: Okay, I think we can leave it at that. Good job.

CASE 6 Candidate: Srikkanth Case: Market Entry (It was an open-ended strategic case with a Principal from the firm over Skype.) 57

Interviewer: Hi. Our client is an automobile manufacturer who has been operating his manufacturing plant at less than 40% capacity. In order to better utilize their capacity, they plan to export. They have hired us to tell which the prospective countries to look at while exporting are. How will you go about this? Interviewee: Sure. Please give me a minute. Interviewer: I need you to come up with a list of factors/criteria that you would use to narrow down on the possible countries. Interviewee: Firstly, we can eliminate the right-driving countries, since I assume the client wants to use his existing facilities to produce cars for export. Interviewer: Yes- fair point. Interviewee: Next, we will have to look at the regulatory environment to see which countries have emission standards that are comparable to India. For instance, some European countries have very stringent emission standards - an Indian automobile might not be able to meet these standards. Hence, we can eliminate such countries. Interviewer: Okay. What else? Interviewee: Now coming to the actual industry & market. Our target market should have a percapita GDP which is on similar lines with India (or higher), otherwise we will not be able to price it competitively and make profits. Interviewer: Okay, good. Any other major factors? Interviewee: Yes- a good proxy for this would be to see the markets in which our existing (Indian) competitors are in, and the type of cars they are selling, their price range etc. Interviewee: Coming to the competitive environment, our client should not enter a market which is dominated by a few big players. We might be construed as a threat and they may lobby to shut out new entrants. We should target markets which are a little fragmented with more players – we might have a better opportunity to come in with a superior product. Interviewer: Is there any other reason you would chose a fragmented market? Interviewee: Fragmented markets would have lower entry barriers. Assuming that some of these players had entered the market recently, there is a clearly a scope to make in-roads and establish our brand. Interviewer: Okay. Take a couple of more minutes to summarize and then we can conclude.

BAIN AND COMPANY CASE 1 Candidate: Himani Arora Case: Analysing Indigo airlines (The interviewer was very friendly, attempting to diffuse the tension of day 0 by small talk. The interview was a small case, testing very basics of case solving.) Interviewer: Have you ever travelled from Indigo Airlines? How will you describe this airline? 58

Candidate: Yes, I have travelled from Indigo Airlines. They are low cost Airlines whose value proposition in the market is cost leadership. It is the only airline which is profitable and has shown consistent discipline to maintain its position. Interviewer: You mentioned about profits, how does Indigo ensure that it makes profit? Candidate: It does that through a number of factors – having a single fleet of aircrafts to minimize training cost, no frill services e.g. no free meals and other in-flight services, allowing only 15 kg of Baggage, increasing aircraft utilization by having more number of seats by reducing the leg space. Interviewer: Can you think of any other factor? Candidate: There are a number of other ways in which they save cost. Interviewer: Is cost the only factor? Candidate: No, They have found ways for making revenue also – selling meals in-flight instead of providing it for free, charging for services like – priority luggage, selling products through their magazine. Interviewer: Okay. Great! Is there anything you will like to add to this? Candidate: One more thing, which is not specific to Indigo but usually adopted by many airlines – following hub and spoke model, in which flights are routed through a hub, usually big city, facing high traffic compared to other cities. Further, the airlines aim to reduce the turnaround time on the airport, thus improving utilisation of the aircraft. (This was followed by five minute chat in which Interviewer mentioned that all the points were adequately mentioned. He shared exact numbers/data points about Indigo)

CASE 2 Candidate: Himani Arora Case: Merger and Acquisition (The interviewer had experience of cases in technology. She started by asking me about my role in Microsoft. After listening to my past experience, she chose to give me a case different from technology sector.) Interviewer: This is a small case about Merger and Acquisition. Are you comfortable with that? Candidate: Yes, I will try my best! Interviewer: Okay. So a little background about the case. It is about the two firms who supply palm oil to FMCG conglomerates like HUL. This oil is a raw material in the manufacturing of soaps, shampoo, etc. The typical steps involved in palm oil extraction is plantation, followed by crushing and extraction of oil in a mill. This is followed by processing in refinery and then transportation via the port. These two firms are located in Africa. Let’s call them Firm A and Firm B. Firm A owns two palm plantations close to each other, one mill and one refinery. Firm B owns one palm plantation, one mill and one refinery. What are the synergies that they can exploit if they merge? The mill of firm A is located closer to one plantation of Firm B. Candidate: There are a lot of synergies that they can exploit if they merge. I will use the value chain to list all the synergies. Give me some time to list the same if you are alright with the approach. Interviewer: Sure. Go ahead 59

(After 2-3 mins) Candidate: To start with, the two firms can standardize the approach they adopt in growing of palm trees. They should choose on the basis of which approach is more productive. Interviewer: The farming practices is more or less standard across the industry. Candidate: Oh I see. Next, they can have some gains by economies of scale – buying the seeds, fertilizer, equipment, labour together for all the three plantations. They will be able to bargain better due to increased scale of operation. Interviewer: Ok good. What next? Candidate: In the next step, they can use mills that are closer to the plantations so that the transportation cost is reduced. For example, you mentioned that plantation of Firm B is closer to the mill of Firm A. Interviewer: Apart from transportation optimization, what else can they do in this step? Candidate: May be they can operate only 1 mill to achieve greater utilization. Again this will depend on how much transportation cost they will bear to transport everything to one mill. Interviewer: Great. What else? Candidate: They can do a similar thing in refinery – operating only 1 refinery. After refinery, they can transport the end product via ports Interviewer: What other benefits can they get via transportation? Candidate: They can transport all the refined oil together, from the refinery which is closer to port. They will have economies of scale by shipping them together. Interviewer: How exactly will they save money? Candidate: (Falling short of words) I am not sure but if they book a ship each to transport oil. They can send output using only one ship instead of two. (not convinced with my own answer) Interviewer: Ok. Almost there . So, their oil was transported in the barrels which were half full because of the smaller scale of operations which increased the cost of transportation per tonne. With the merger, they could fill the entire barrel, reducing per unit transportation cost. Candidate: Oh I see. (This was followed by a general chat about her role in Bain & Company.)

CASE 3 Candidate: Pradeep G Case: Internet of Things (Case Interview Not Cracked) Interviewer: Partner (Technology, Media & Telecom), Bain (This wasn’t so much of a case, but a discussion. The interviewer guided me at several points. Not sure if there is a solution; If there was, I don’t think I got particularly close to it. A takeaway: reading the news is important even for consulting interviews!) Interviewer: Have you heard about Internet of Things (IoT)? Candidate: Yes, I have. Interviewer: What do you know about it? 60

Candidate: It’s technology that enables everyday objects to communicate with each other? For example, when you leave from work, your phone could communicate with your geyser at home, and ensure that you have water for a hot bath once you arrive. That sort of thing. Interviewer: Okay, fine. Say you were advising Mr. Modi about an IoT strategy for India. What points will you consider? Candidate: Okay, an IoT strategy for India. Can I have a couple of minutes to think about it? (Quite frazzled, tried to think of a way to bring some sort of structure to the case) Candidate: Is there a particular timeline for this strategy? Interviewer: Take it as long term; 10-15 years. Candidate: Alright. So my guess is that why the Indian Government will even be considering IoT is because of its role in developing smart cities. I think the Government recently shortlisted 100 odd cities, and will decide in a few months as to which will be the first few smart cities. Interviewer: Okay, go on. Candidate: So the way I would think of IoT is, devices and software (the best structure that I could come up with in a minute). Let me take a look at software first. I don’t think the government will have a significant role to play here; I think Indian software companies like Infosys and Wipro may have already begun exploring IoT service solutions, and since IoT is set to take off globally, they may already be evaluating this opportunity. Interviewer: Okay (hesitantly). Candidate: On to devices. Here, I could look at foreign firms setting up manufacturing units in India (to meet India’s demand, and overseas demand), and India importing the devices and technology. With regards to setting up manufacturing units, India will have to look at various ease of business measures such as taxes, reducing red tape, land acquisition, quickening the process of approvals etc. Several of these measures may be legislative. Interviewer: Okay. Candidate: Initially however, India may have to export the technology. For this, the government may need to look at reducing import duties, customs etc., to ensure that the devices can be adopted. Interviewer: Okay, anything else you’re missing? Candidate: Maybe some measures to build an indigenous device and software ecosystem? Help innovators take their products to market? Things that come to mind are setting up more incubators, strengthening IP laws, perhaps having a central seed fund for IoT startups etc. Interviewer: Alright, anything else that you can think of? Candidate: No, I think that’s about it. Interviewer: Okay, thanks.

CASE 4 Candidate: Ritika Jain Case: Growth Strategy for an IT Service Provider

Interviewer: How are you doing today? How was your first interview? Candidate: I’m doing well, thank you. I think it went well, we agreed to a solution the client would ultimately appreciate. Interviewer: Are you nervous? Candidate: A little, but I think a little nervousness is always good  Interviewer: Great. So let’s start with the case then. I see on your resume that you’ve worked in Finance and IT. Which of the two industries would you prefer a case from? Candidate: I’m comfortable with both, so either work. Interviewer: Let’s do an IT case I did last year then. There’s an IT hardware service provider in US and he’s threatened with the advent of new cloud computing services. What should he do? Candidate: Thanks for the question. Could you answer some of my questions regarding this client? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: Where is he located? Interviewer: US Candidate: What kind of hardware services does he provide? Interviewer: He provides storage facilities, networking infrastructure, and servers and routers. Candidate: How’s the business split across these three services? Interviewer: 20%, 40%, 40%. He differentiates in the market with the quality of his technological solutions. Candidate: What kind of clients does he have? Interviewer: He has three types of clients – enterprises, telecom companies and retail companies. Candidate: Of these clients, are all of them moving towards cloud or is any specific preferring to stay? Interviewer: The fixed demand from enterprises is staying, but the variable demand is shifting to cloud services. Enterprises are fairly non-responsive as of now. Candidate: How about retail? Interviewer: Retailers are themselves scared with the onset of cloud services since they pose a direct threat to their business as well. Interviewer: Before we continue, could you tell me ways in which cloud services could provide better solutions than hardware solutions? You understand cloud right – basically Amazon Web Services, hosting on Dropbox, etc. Candidate: Thanks, Sir. Yes, I understand cloud services pretty well being a software developer myself. There are a couple of ways cloud services can be more useful than hardware – they’re cheaper to host and provide more flexibility since they don’t really take up any physical space. Interviewer: And can you think of any downsides? Candidate: Yes, cloud services aren’t as secure as hardware solutions, being hosted on clouds. Interviewer: Perfect. Now given all the above information, can you recommend me a way for this hardware provider to survive in this shifting market? Candidate: Sure. Can you give me 15 seconds? Interviewer: Of course. 62

(I penned down all the possible ways he can continue to thrive in this market in the next 15 seconds.) Candidate: I have thought of 4 possible ways in which he can sustain his business. I’ll explain them briefly: The first option is a very short-term solution for immediate action. They can offer long-term contracts to existing customers with some attractive discounts. This will avoid immediate drop in sales in a very short span. However, this is not a very sustainable solution. The second way is to specialize in security intensive companies, such as defense, which will always need secure storage and network facilities. This will always have a constant demand and they won’t switch to cloud services. The third option is to forward integrate with the telecom clients and provide an end-to-end solution to customers. Since telecom clients are also threatened by cloud services, they’ll be willing to collaborate and this association can provide a differentiated solution to customers. Interviewer: That’s perfect! That’s what we recommended to our client, to forward integrate. Candidate: Thank you, Sir. If you don’t mind, can I also explain my fourth recommendation? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: In an industry undergoing such an inflection point, I don’t see any advantage in avoiding to adopt new technologies. This was the reason Nokia and Kodak failed. I believe that the client should create an ambidextrous organization and start researching on expanding to cloud services alongside. Interviewer: Sounds great! We have good news for you! (He went out to fetch another partner and congratulated me on receiving the offer.)

CASE 5 Candidate: Sanchit Singhal Case: Growth strategy for a BPO player Interviewer: Let’s get into the case. An Indian BPO player provides services to US and European clients. Majority of its revenues are from its call centers in 3 major cities of India (Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai). It also has a small establishment in Europe. The business has been doing good but lately it has been under pressure with new competition coming from countries like Indonesia and Philippines. What should the company do for its next phase of growth? Candidate: What are company’s plan w.r.t to growth? Is it planning to grow in its existing US and European markets or is it looking for other markets as well? Interviewer: They want to grow in the existing markets itself. Candidate: How is the competition threatening the client? Is the competition on the quality of service or the price? Interviewer: The quality does not differ across players. The processes are quite standard. The competition has been beating the client on price. Candidate: That’s very helpful information. Can I take a minute to think about it? Interviewer: Sure. 63

Candidate: We know that competition is beating us on price, so we can either provide better services at higher price or reduce our price. You mentioned that the processes are quite standardized so can I assume that better service is not a differentiating factor and we need to reduce our prices as well with the same service quality. Interviewer: Yes, you can assume that. Candidate: So now we know that we need to reduce our price keeping the service quality level same. So we need to reduce our cost, else our margins will go down. I will try and identify the major cost heads. Interviewer: Okay, go ahead. Candidate: As I understand, the major cost head for a call center will be its employee cost. Interviewer: That’s correct. So, how can you reduce the employee cost? Candidate: So, a customer calls the call center and the call is picked up by either an employee or IVRS. There is automation in certain activities. Has the BPO used sufficient automation to reduce the employee cost? Interviewer: Yes, it has sufficient level of automation. Candidate: Okay, another way of reducing employee cost is to increase utilization of employees. Interviewer: How will you do that? Candidate: We can measure calls/employee/hour to check if the utilization is above industry standards. We can check average time/call and see if it can be improved using better technology/software. We can also check if utilization varies across different shifts and we can optimize that. Interviewer: Good thought but utilization is quite high already. Candidate: Okay, then we should check the average salary of the employees. As, I understand call center jobs are generally low skilled job. Often, call centers might prefer to employ unexperienced people to keep the salaries low. Interviewer: That has already been taken care of by the client. Which are the other cost heads you would want to look at? Candidate: Besides employee cost I understand rental or real estate cost might be another major cost for the client. Interviewer: Good. So can you do anything about the rental cost? Candidate: Yes, we can either shift to tier 2 cities or keep the present call centres in metros and open the next set of call centres in tier 2 cities. This will reduce the rental cost and also the employee cost as the salaries will be lower in tier 2 cities. Interviewer: That’s a good answer. This is actually what we recommended to the client. Thank you.

CASE 6

Candidate: Sankhadeep Pal Case: Growth Strategy for an Electronics Company (Started directly with the case, after very brief round of introductions.) 64

Interviewer: Since you have worked in the tech industry, let me ask you about a case in the same industry. Candidate: Sure! Interviewer: Your client is a foreign electronics company. It has several products in the Internet of Things(IoT) sector. It is thinking whether to enter the Indian market or not, and if yes, what segments to target. Can you help them? (Clarified the question, found out that it is a strong player in the segment, with a presence in Europe and China) Candidate: So IoT is a huge field. Are there some specific product lines that the client has expertise in? Interviewer: Yes, it is a major player in the smart lighting business. Candidate: In the countries that it is present in, what kind of clients does it have, commercial or residential houses? Interviewer: Both Candidate: Do you want me to estimate the potential market size in India? Interviewer: In the interest of time, let us skip that. If our client does want to enter India, which segments should it target? Candidate: Is it okay for me to assume that our client’s smart lighting products are priced at a premium to ordinary lighting? Interviewer: Yes, you may. Candidate: Since these lighting systems are expensive and middle class Indians are, in general, sceptical of spending a lot of money on new technology, I will follow a two phase strategy. First, I will go the B2B way: target the office buildings, especially the modern ones which are IT and financial centres. Assuming smart lighting will reduce their electricity bill and make them more cost effective in the long run, they will be more open to adopt this technology. They would also have the capital to invest in this. I will also target 4-5 star hotels. Since these are relatively large segments, they will be a good launch pad for our product. Interviewer: Okay, then? Candidate: Then we can target the rich home owners, who would probably be working in these offices or visiting these hotels. Having understood their usefulness, they would probably want it in their apartments as well. Interviewer: Is there anything else that the client can do? Candidate: Yes, actually the government has announced plans for 100 Smart Cities in India. May be our client can tie up with the government for the implementation of smart lighting projects in these cities. Once this is done and the efficacy of this new product is well known, the client can go to the mass-market. Interviewer: Okay, that will be enough. Thank you.

BCG CASE 1 Candidate: S Aatresh Case: Reduction of Market Share Interviewer – (Started with the standard breaking the ice question) Tell me about your startup experience of MainbhiMBA.com? Candidate – (Told him about the motivation behind it, how I went about it and learnings from its failure) Caselet: A large FMCG has a small business unit which manufactures and markets an “Energy drink”. It had a market share of 90% but now its share has dropped to 40%. You have been asked to help them gain back their market share. Candidate – (Repeated the question to make sure I understood the problem statement correctly) Apart from market share, do I need to look at any other issue like falling profitability? Interviewer – No. Let us concentrate of market share first. And later if time permits, we will get into profitability. Candidate – Sure. Can I take 2 minutes to gather my thoughts and structure my ideas? Interviewer – Sure. Go ahead Candidate – (Started with standard probing questions. Since when market share is slipping, has a new competitor entered etc) Okay. So I have drawn the possible issues that I would like to look at. (Showed him my sheet) Internal

External

Product issues

Competition

Pricing

Regulation

Distribution

Xx (Could not think at that time)

Branding

Xx (Could not think at that time)

Capacity My hypothesis is that the new competitor in the market is offering a better product. Can I go ahead with it or do you want me to look at a particular issue? Interviewer – As you rightly said, there is a new competitor in the market. But I want you to concentrate first on product, distribution and capacity. Candidate – Sure. I drew a table something like this Product

Distribution

Capacity

Colour issues

Retailer penetration

Do we have adequate capacity to serve the market?

Taste issues

Urban/ Rural mix

Container type

Scarcity Supermarket/Hypermarket

Container size

Drew a value chain from factory to retailer comprising warehouse, DC, distributor, redistributor, retailer and freight and asked him if he would like to look at a particular point

Side affects Smell

Any recent fire or strike in the factory that led to low in production?

Interviewer – (Shockingly) No. All that is fine but the actual issue is pricing. Look deeper into it Candidate – (I guess he was just trying to understand if I can double click whatever I say). So is there a differential pricing between us and our competitor? Interviewer – Yes. Our energy drink is priced at 966 and theirs at 874 Candidate – (I randomly started probing about where the difference is. And he seemed irritated due to my lack of structure. So got back into the groove and made this table) Particulars

Client

Competition

MRP

966

874

Retailer Margin Distributor Margin Price to company Margin to company Costs (Variable) -

Procurement

In Freight

Labour Cost)

Packaging

Distribution

Returns damage)

(Efficiency,

(Expiry,

Costs (Fixed) -

Rental

Salaries

Promotional

Under/Over capacity %

(His eyes gleamed looking at the last point) 67

Interviewer – Yes. Look at capacity utilization and link it to fixed costs. Assume margins are 26% of MRP and please do all the calculations in your head Candidate – SP of our client is 714 and that of our client is somewhere around 648. Why is there a difference in prices? Is it due to higher costs or higher margin or because our capacity utilization is less than our competitor. Interviewer - (He started throwing numbers in order to test my quant) Assume Raw Material is 366, variable cost is 160 and fixed cost is 176 for our client. COGS and VC is same for competitor but still both earn same profit per unit of the energy drink. Candidate – Since, costs and profit are same except fixed costs and the SP of our client is Rs. 66 (714-648) higher than competitor, our fixed costs (FC) then must be Rs.68 higher than our competitor. Hence, competitor FC is 110. And this difference is either due to capacity underutilization or in general higher fixed costs Interviewer – Good. Now tell me what is the volume I need in order to match the fixed cost of my competitor? Candidate – What is the current sales volume? Interviewer – Market is 19.5 million. Share was 90%. Present volume is 17.6 million. Don’t use paper. And I need the answer Candidate – 90% would be 17.6 m units. 178 per unit is FC on volume of 17.6 million. To achieve FC per unit of 110, required volume is 17.6*178/110, so 28-30 million approx. Interviewer – Yes. It should be 28 million. So now tell me what should the client do? Candidate – If the client is charging a higher price, then customers will be willing to pay only if the product is superior. Client should either sell excess capacity to reduce fixed costs or try to increase volumes through price reduction. Higher volumes will reduced FC per unit and hence push back profitability to earlier levels. Interviewer - Ok. Then finally tell me what are the two risks related to reducing the price of our product? Candidate – (Knowing that this is the make or break question because it involves synthesis of the entire problem). The 2 risks can be 1. Price Elasticity of Demand – Is price the only reason for reduced sale? And if the price is reduced to 874, will the volume actually rise to 28 million 2. Competitor reaction – How deep are the pockets of the competitor? A price drop might lead to a competitor reaction leading to a price war. Interviewer – (Seemed impressed) Good job. Wait here. Someone will let you know the way forward. Candidate – Sure. Thanks

CASE 2 Candidate: Allen Dan Babu Case: Market Growth Candidate: Good morning, Sir. How are you doing today? (Exchange of pleasantries) 68

Interviewer: (Looks at CV). So, why MBA? Candidate: (Give funda about my reasons for doing MBA. Interviewer looks happy) Interviewer: Ok, let’s get down to the case. The client is in the fertilizer industry in South India and is looking to expand into the animal feed market. How would you advise the client? Candidate: Sure, Sir, before proceeding with solving the problem, I would like to ask you a few preliminary questions to get an understanding of the client and its business, if that’s ok. Interviewer: Sure Candidate: Which part of the value chain does the client currently operate in? E.g. does it operate only in manufacturing or does it operate in manufacturing and sales? Interviewer: It operates in all parts of the value chain, right from manufacturing to sales Candidate: Ok. Sir, you mentioned South India. Which all states does it have a presence in? Interviewer: (mentions a couple of states) Candidate: Is there any specific reason why the client wants to expand into the animal feed industry? Interviewer: They have been recently advised that this might be a good opportunity. However, they wanted our advice before taking any action. Candidate: Ok Sir, just to make sure I have the right understanding of the problem, our client operates in the fertilizer industry based out of South India and is looking to expand into the animal feed industry and we are required to advise the client whether the company should enter the industry or not. Is that correct? Interviewer: That is correct Candidate: Sir, I’m not completely aware of the animal feed industry. Could you give me a brief overview of the industry in general? Interviewer: Gives funda about the animal feed industry. Candidate: (Noted down a few keywords) Ok, Sir, I would like to structure the problem into two steps. First I would like to evaluate the potential attractiveness of the industry and then I would like to evaluate the competitive positioning of our client before making a suggestion to the client. Interviewer: Sure Candidate: Sure, at this point, I would like to understand the size of the animal feed market. Do we have any data from the client on the market size or would you like me to estimate the same? Interviewer: You can estimate it Candidate: Can I take a moment to structure my thoughts? Interviewer: Sure Candidate: (after a few moments) The approach I would take is: I would like to estimate the number of animals covered by the feed industry and then multiply the number by the average feed per animal and the average price of feed to arrive at the market size. I would like to take the cow as a representative animal to calculate the feed requirement if that’s ok. Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: To estimate the number of cows, I would like to use milk production as a proxy. Interviewer: Sure. You can note down a few numbers here. 69

Annual milk production in India- x litres/ year. Feed required per animal – y tonnes/year. Average price of the feed - Rs. v/kg. Candidate: Sure, what would be the average volume of milk given by a typical cow in a day? Interviewer: z litres/ day Candidate: (walks him through the calculations and multiplies the daily milk production by 365 to get the annual milk production) Interviewer: Are you sure 365 is the right number? Candidate: (smiles realizing he’s made an assumption) Oh right, how many days would a cow give milk in a year? Interviewer: Assume 300 days/ year Candidate: Total market size=x litres/ year/(z litres/day/animal*300 days/year)*y tonnes/year/animal*Rs. v/kg*1000kg/tonne (arrives at a figure) Interviewer: What do you think? Candidate: If we look at 1% of the market size, it comes out to Rs. q. To evaluate the significance of the market share, I would like to compare it against existing revenues of the client. Can I know the current annual revenue figure of the client? Interviewer: Rs. w/year Candidate: 1 % of the animal feed industry market share works out to be 5% of the existing revenue. Even if the company claims 1% of the market share, the revenue growth is 5%, which is over and above the revenue of the core business. The interviewer has a discussion with the candidate about whether the growth is good or bad and before the candidate attempts to proceed with the remaining aspects of the case, the interviewer says with a smile that the case is over.

CASE 3 Candidate: Praful Parakh Case: Declining CASA Ratio Interviewer: Tell me about yourself? Candidate: I gave an intro and made sure that it was not more than 60 secs, then she asked me some work-ex related questions and also somethings that I was doing at IIMB Interviewer: So Praful, You client is a Public Sector Bank and facing declining CASA Ratio over fast few quarters. What could be the reason? Candidate: So what I understand by CASA is that it is the ratio of the Current and Savings Deposits in a bank to the Total Deposits and it is necessary to be high for current and liquidity needs of a bank and it is less costly. Am I correct or do I need to know something else? Interviewer: That is perfect! And a bank will need ideally a good CASA ratio as it a cheap source of funds. Candidate: Ok, Thanks! Now the CASA Ratio in itself can decline due to reduction in average Current and Savings account deposits or may be a disproportionate increase in the Fixed Deposits, which may be because the bank/economy is preferring and giving higher FD rates. Do we have any data which could be the reason? 70

Interviewer: The current account deposits are not increasing at the pace at which FDs are, hence focus on the Numerator only. Candidate: What has been the timeframe that we are seeing this problem and has this been a trend for our competitors too? Interviewer: The ratio has been declining in the past few quarters and our competitors are just fine. The numbers are not relevant. Candidate: Thanks. So, our client, which is a public sector bank, is facing declining CASA ratio and is it primarily because of our Current deposits not growing, which is only pertaining to our client and we need to solve this. Is that the only objective I should be aware of or is there something else the client is worried about? Interviewer: For the scope of the discussion, this is the only problem we need to focus? Candidate: Thanks, I will like to take a minute to structure my thoughts. . The deposits can decline because of broadly two reasons, external like Economic Condition, Interest Rates/Charges, but those should affect the others too, so I am ruling them out, and other reasons internal to our client and their offerings. So this growth can be reduced due to the reason that the average money in every account has fallen or that the number of accounts have not grown. The classic problem of retention vs acquisition and also is the problem more prominent in a certain segment viz. Business and HNI Accounts, Individuals (which can be Businessmen and Salaried and Others). Do we have data to state anything on that front? Interviewer: Our previous customers are still with us, but the number of accounts have been the same and normally we cater to all types of customers and this pattern is with all the segments, but more so with salaried and corporates. Candidate: So should I move to analyze why our CASA penetration is lower in Corporates? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: So is it that the interest rates/charges that we are offering any different from other? Interviewer: No. Candidate: Now new customer acquisition could be low due to the services and products we have, like Internet Banking, ATMs, mBanking, Letter of Credits, International Remittances etc. So do we have an issue with any one or more of them? Interviewer: We have our ATMs and other traditional banking facilities but our presence in the Internet Banking and mBanking space is not that prevalent. Candidate: So this can be a reason why corporates will not be on board and since they aren’t the employees, who normally have an account, (gave an example from my work life) with the same bank. In the situation when our services are not at par, corporates and salaried people will not come to our client. This is a problem that we have identified, I will like to move and see if there are any other facets that may be causing this. The CASA can also be lower due to our client’s Image as being a very businessmen-type bank and may be the advertisements/promotions don’t connect to the corporates. Also normally bank accounts for corporates and HNIs are through Relationship Managers and Sales people. So do we have such mechanisms in place? Interviewer: Yes, We have traditionally been a mercantile bank. Good, you have identified few issues. Summarize the case for me and what will you recommend? Candidate: So our client a public sector bank has been seeing declining CASA ratio. This was primarily because of our low foothold in the Internet and mBanking space, which has slowed our growth in the Corporate, HNIs and Salaried employee segment. Also the absence of RMs and our 71

image have aggravated the problem. Hence the bank should invest to get these systems up and maintain RMs because this will bring Corporate accounts along with their employees, which will normally be CASA in nature. Interviewer: Thanks! Price

Interest Rates Charges

Product

Internet Banking ATMs, mBanking Other Services

Promotion

Brand Image Advertisements

Internal Declining CASA External Place

Branch Network Locations of ATMs

CASE 4 Candidate: Sharmili Adhikari Case: Market Growth I was one of the last ones to be called in for the interview and needless to say, situations such as these bring in a completely different kind of jitters. The trick is to not think about it. You have prepared well. Now just let your learning take its natural course. Case interviews are essentially a two-waystreet, candidates are advised to ask questions and believe me, the interviewer is more than happy to guide them. I had just the one interview that lasted about 50 minutes. Interviewer – I really haven’t had the time to go through your resume. Could you help me out? Candidate – (One of the best ways to handle this is to drop cues on avenues you intend to be asked on. Exempli gratia, I had prior work experience in the banking sector and so that’s what I mentioned, among others.) Interviewer – Okay, so I see you have been associated with the SAC. What were your roles and responsibilities? Candidate – (Talked about it, highlighting on the tenets that I had learned in my capacity as a SAC member, some critical decisions undertaken etc.) Interviewer- So, let’s get started, shall we? A case on the banking sector, does that work? Candidate- (As expected!) Sure! Interviewer- Ok so there are four regions R1 through R4. Your client, the manager of a bank would like to know if it is lucrative making housing loans for these regions. Historically the bank has a customer reach of 20%, 30%, 10% and 20% respectively. In recent times the proportions are 25%, 30%, 5%, 20%. (I am making these numbers up as I type. For the life of me, I cannot recall the original figures.) The bank wishes to make an overall targeted profit of Rs. 150 (assume). Which region(s) should the manager pick and why? 72

Candidate- (Summarising is always a good way to go. Take notes as well, this obviates the chances of forgetting key points narrated in the caselet.) So to summarise, our client is a bank that wishes to rake in overall profits to the tune of Rs. 150 and is looking at regions to target in order to achieve its goal. May I ask some contextual questions before I begin my analysis? This is a commercial bank correct? The regions you speak of, can they be considered to be subject to the same macroeconomic conditions? Interviewer- Sure. Yes indeed. Candidate- Does the bank face stiff competition? Is that a reason for the differentials in penetration of the customer base? Interviewer- Not relevant. Can you tell me what factors the bank is looking at? Candidate- (Thinking out loud. This is a recommended practice, it tells the interviewer you have understood the question and analysing it systematically. Added benefit? If you are wrong here, he/she will correct you.) Well, the overall macroeconomic scenario is the same for all regions yet there exists a disparity in the banking services penetration in these areas. Also there has been a change in the penetration rates over the years for some of these regions. The locations- is there an industry (IT or otherwise) that can lead to a surge in people needing houses in the first place? Also, off the top of my mind, the bank is looking at credit worthiness of the people availing the loans, risk of default, size of loan, demographics like age, a thorough KYC and of course, available collateral. Also the bank relationship with the clients. Interviewer- Yes exactly. Well you may consider the regions are subjected to the same external forces. But yes that is indeed an important criteria to look for. You mentioned bank relationship. Can you elaborate how that is pertinent? Candidate – I am saying this because my dad is a banker and the loan disbursement, underwriting and other processes becomes a lot easier if one is a valued customer. Also, now that I think about it, there can some shortcomings on the services provided by the bank that could explain why their reach into the customer base has been disparate in the different regions. Am I correct? Interviewer: Interesting, can you explain what could they have done wrong? Candidate: Let us take a step back and understand how a loan disbursement process works. (A useful practise if you wish to clarify that there are no missteps in your basic understanding. You get this part right, there are only some areas you could go wrong thereafter) A customer goes to a bank to avail a housing loan, and after the necessary KYC and validations, the loan amount should be disbursed… Interviewer- It is a bit more basic than that. You mentioned shortcomings on the service. I want you to think along those lines. Candidate- Thank you for pointing me in that direction. Okay, so, there is a problem even before the customer submits his documents and all. May I understand what kind of customers we are looking at? Interviewer- Apt question. So you can now assume that there is an IT boom in all of these areas that has resulted in a surge of housing requirements. We have upper and upper-middle class families migrating into the city. What kind of services do you think they require from the bank while availing loans? Candidate- Well for starters, they wish to be treated as valued customers owing to the size of the loan they will be availing. Not to mention faster, hassle free loan disbursement process, being the ones with high credit scores. The bank may be negligent in this regard. 73

Interviewer- Yes indeed. So now that we have discussed the factors, could you get into some number crunching and explain which region to prioritise? Candidate- Sure. The methodology I would adopt is take an initial amount say Rs. 100 and see which area(s) are able to generate the required returns. This way I shall know for which regions status quo needs to be maintained and for which the bank needs to ramp up its customer reach. Am I okay with my analysis so far? (There is no shame in asking. Get his approval at every step and carry on.) Interviewer: Good. I think you have got the planning right. Go ahead. Candidate- Okay so if I calculate the total expected returns for all regions, it is only 80, so it falls short of the target by quite some margin. Also, judging by the current proportions, the bank’s customer base has dropped in R3 and increased in R1 possibly for reasons mentioned before. Therefore the bank would be prudent to increase its customer base in the expanding regions, maintain status quo in the regions consistently doing well and improve its services in regions it is performing poorly to maximise overall profits and reach its targeted level. Does that make sense? Interviewer – Fair enough. Can you briefly summarise our discussion? Candidate: (Summarised for a couple of minutes. Here I ensured I relayed pointers that the interviewer directed me towards during the course of the discussion. This shows that one is quick to learn despite having made a mistake in the first go.) Do you want me to suggest some recommendations for the bank? Interviewer: Decent analysis. Let’s wrap this up now. How do you think it went? Candidate- It was an interesting case and if I fared decently it would be because I enjoyed doing it. Interviewer: Good, glad you enjoyed it. Thank you Sharmili. (In my opinion, structure helps and being methodical in your approach is a plus. It is a good practice to ask those initial questions to attain a general contextual familiarity. But sometimes, you must think outside the purview of the said methods of tackling a case. You will surprised to find how crucial expanding the breadth of your analysis can be!)

CASE 5 Candidate: Utkarsh Case: Effect of GST on Operations I had only one round of interview. Although this season the BCG interviews were majorly restricted to one round only, candidates are advised to be prepared for 2-3 rounds. Interviewer – Shall we get started? Utkarsh please tell about your work-experience at your previous organization. Candidate – Talked about my previous work experience Interviewer – So what extra-curricular activities are you part of at IIMB? Candidate – Talked about being part of ICON and sports activities Interviewer- Since we have been in operations, you must be knowing a little about supply chain? Candidate- Sir, I have some idea though I don’t have a substantial work experience in this regard.

Interviewer- So you must be knowing about GST. Our client is a FMCG major who wants to understand how GST is going to affect his network planning. Can you help him? Candidate- Sir, I am not aware about the implications of GST. Can you please elaborate? Interviewer- Sure. So GST will lead to a uniform tax regime across all states. In fact the interstate taxes shall not be levied anymore post the introduction of GST. Can you predict the current warehousing model followed by our client? Candidate- Sir, since all states are levying their own regime of taxes, I think the client has its warehouses in each state to distribute to its retailers. Interviewer- Yes exactly. This was the model earlier but now with the GST coming up, the client is planning to consolidate its warehousing. Assume that the company has only 4 factories in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai each of which produce a different variant of the same product, say soap. Can you suggest the distribution network for the client post implementation of GST. Candidate – Sir, I think the client should be looking at consolidating its warehousing to generate economies of scale. However the client should first ensure aggregation of all the 4 variants of the specific product from the respective factories in the 4 geographical zones where the factories are located. Interviewer- Ok, Go ahead. Candidate- Sir, I also think that the client needs to utilize the hub & spoke model to distribute the products from the 4 zonal aggregation centres across India. Factory 1 Factory 2 Factory 3

Zonal Aggregation Hub

Factory 4 Interviewer: Good. I think you have got the network right. Now tell me some suggestions to improve the savings further in terms of network planning. Candidate: Sir, The major costs in this case are transportation and storage. I have already provided suggestions for storage model. In term of transportation I can think of ensuring backhaulage as one suggestion. Interviewer: What else? (Now I took almost 5-10 minutes to give suggestions. I gave multiple suggestions but even I was not convinced by the same. But finally came to what the interviewer was looking for.) Candidate: Sir, One thing which I can think of is the size of trucks utilized for transportation. I know from my work experience that 16 tonnage trucks although carry more load do not utilize proportionately more fuel as compared to 8 tonnage trucks. So 16 tonnage trucks should be utilized. Interviewer: Yes exactly!! Thank you Utkarsh. That will be all. 75

(I personally felt that standard frameworks prescribed in the casebooks give you a good starting point for preparation but on the D-day make sure that you are open to all possibilities.)

CASE 6 Candidate: Agrim Gupta Case: Profitability Interviewer: So Agrim, your client is a premium ergonomic luxury chair manufacturer for office. The company is making losses, so what could be the reason? Candidate: Sir, where is the company based out of? Interviewer: He mentioned some European country. Candidate: What does the company provide or what is their revenue model – do they sell chairs only or they sell chairs and provide services like repairing and maintenance? Interviewer: Chairs only Candidate: Is the client making those chairs or just selling? Interviewer: They design, make and sell Candidate: Since when has the company been making losses? Interviewer: Last 1-1.5 years, losses have increased steadily Candidate: (thinking in head) 2 ways to make losses – either costs have increased or sales have reduced Candidate: Do we know if the number of units sold/year are increasing/decreasing or if the average price of a chair has increased/decreased? Interviewer: Number of chairs sold is constant or growing at a normal rate. Price of chair hasn’t changed. Candidate: This means cost is the issue. (Here I felt my work-experience was being tested since I had worked on a business reorganization project on controlling costs.) Costs are either headcount costs (like labor, pension, severance, etc.) or non-headcount costs like Distribution, Sales & promotion, utilities, raw materials, etc. For a chair manufacturer, materials should drive the major costs. Candidate: What materials do we use to make the chairs? Interviewer: Wood/Plastic Candidate: Has material cost increase? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Has wood become more expensive? Interviewer: No Candidate: How have the material costs increased then? Interviewer: Transportation costs have increased since importing exquisite quality wood Candidate: Is this wood available somewhere else? Interviewer: It is available but of a slightly inferior quality Candidate: What’s the problem with acquiring this quality of wood for production? 76

Interviewer: Never thought about it Candidate: Why? Interviewer: Procurement guy is bringing wood across the Atlantic Ocean, has no incentive to change the wood. Candidate: So basically, there is a mismatch in incentives since the person holding the P&L doesn’t control the cost. The procurement guy has no KPI in reducing costs. He just follows vendor order. Interviewer: That’s right.

CASE 7 Candidate: Agrim Gupta Case: Market Entry Interviewer: Your client is a premium ergonomic luxury chair manufacturer for office. The client wants to pitch to a new market like India. Figure out if a country like India is viable. Candidate: Where is the client based out of? Interviewer: Europe Candidate: (Thinking out loud) Where can we sell ergonomic chairs? Who would buy these chairs? Factors affecting purchase decision can be figured out using 4Ps – Promotion should not be important for chairs, Place can be anywhere, Price seems like the most factor and with respect to Product we need to think would buy this product in India and at this price => This shall give the target segment. Interviewer: Okay Candidate: What is the price of a chair? Interviewer: $1000 Candidate: What are the selling points of the product? INTERVIEWER: It is an ergonomic chair and can be seen as style statement. It’s comfortable and one can sit on it for hours. Candidate: Who are the primary customers in Europe - Residential or Commercial? Interviewer: You tell me Candidate: It should be commercial. In offices in boss’s cabin which means can mostly sell to CXOs. We will see average size of a white collar company. In a building/office, on average around 250 employees. Interviewer: Fine, let’s go with it. Candidate: If we consider various head of divisions like HR, etc. and VPs, there would be less than 10 people per office with their own cabin. Interviewer: Fine (From here, it becomes a guesstimate) Candidate: So to target in India, we will not go to Tier-2 cities. We will go for Tier-1 cities. In India, there are 10-12 Tier-1 cities. Average population is 1 crore. Working population is around 50%, hence around 0.5 crores. 10-15 Lacs people in white collar jobs. So 12.5 lacs total people, 77

250 people/office implies around 5000 companies which implies maximum 50,000 chairs maximum in 1 city. Taking 25,000 chairs per city and 10 cities, we get 2.5 lakh chairs at $1000. Interviewer: So will you recommend? Candidate: I don’t think we should enter right now. Market isn’t right to enter in India with a chair priced at $1000.

DELOITTE Candidate: Shubham Mittal (Most of the consulting firms organize networking dinners whereas Deloitte conducts a case workshop for shortlisted candidates. In the case workshop they give a brief overview about the company structure which is pretty useful information to prepare answers for “Why Deloitte?” and other related questions which are generally asked in the final interview round. After the company overview, students are divided into small groups and the case workshop which involves discussion of a case. This is like a group case interview where individuals are being evaluated on the quality of their discussion. So do read and practice some common frameworks before the workshop.) Round 1: Guesstimate (The interviewer asked very basic HR questions and a guesstimate. The basic HR questions included questions like “Tell me something about yourself”, “Hobbies”, “Examples illustrating leadership skills”, Work experience related questions etc. Based on the hobbies or work experience, the interviewer would ask a guestimate. I was not asked a guesstimate probably because I had work experience in a data analytics firm. One of the other interns mentioned Cricket as his hobby and was then asked to estimate the no. of cricket balls bought in a month in IIMB. It is generally advised not to start the guestimate with population, choosing any other proxy is preferred in Deloitte.) Round 2: Merger & Acquisition Case (Not sure if it was a coincidence but every selected intern was asked the same M&A case.) Interviewer: A company X which is a Wi-Fi or some electronic chips manufacturer with net worth of $1 Billion wants to acquire another firm Y whose net worth is $2 Billion. Should firm X acquire firm Y? Candidate: To be clear, we are looking at a company which is interested in buying a much bigger company, so let’s look at the possible advantages of acquisition. Do we have information on the manufacturing sites of both these companies, markets to which they are currently serving or any other information about the electronic industry? Interviewer gave me 2 sheets of information which had a lot of numerical data. I found the following data on the sheet:   

Manufacturing plants – X had its plant in US and Y in Europe Serving Markets – Both served Global markets Industry trends  The shelf life of the products is very short and hence there is a requirement of constant R&D to stay ahead of competitors  Market growth rate  Some technical capabilities which company Y had over company X)

Candidate: Okay, so it is possible that company X wants to start its operations in Europe and hence is looking to grow inorganically by acquiring firm Y Interviewer: Might be true but tell me how do we evaluate if Y is a good company to acquire? 78

Candidate: Do we have sales data to compare the acquisition cost with the increase in sales coming from company Y? Interviewer: We don’t have any sales information of the competitor; do you think we can use any other proxy for the same? Candidate: Since this is a capital intensive industry due to regular requirement of investment in R&D, we can compare two scenarios1) Scenario 1 – Invest in R&D and analyze the return on investment 2) Scenario 2 – Invest in Company Y and analyze the return over investment Should I continue with these two scenarios or do I need to consider other scenarios as well? Interviewer: Let’s discuss these two scenarios in detail. (Interviewer handed over 2-3 more sheets of information. Information in the sheets provided was as follows- Company X’s financial numbers and various ratios (Ex- Investment in R&D, Income, ROI) - Market share data of various competitors in the industry and their Net Worth (Graph) - Information of some M&A deals that took place in the past in the same industry o Deal value o A multiplier which was a measure if the acquired company was smaller or larger than the acquirer o ROI of those M&A deals) Candidate: (Discussed Scenario 1 using company X’s financial data ROI was estimated to be in the range of 7-10%. For Scenario 2, in order to obtain ROI, a proxy can be used which can be comparing the current deal with the past deals and assuming the same ROI). Out of the given 8 deals, some deals can be rejected from analysis as the acquired company was smaller than the acquirer, which is not the case here. One of the remaining deals is comparable in size and shows the obtained ROI was 9.5%. Since this ROI is at the higher end of the expected return from Scenario 1. I would suggest that Company X should acquire Company Y. Interviewer: That’s great, we got what we were looking for. All the best! (Deloitte generally expects you to support your understanding with data so you should ask for more and more data. A M&A case is very different from other cases in terms of the frameworks used. You need to have an understanding of financial ratios so that you can compare various companies) Round 3 (This was a partner interview and the objective of the interview is to see if you are a good fit for the firm. Initially the partner asked some icebreaking questions. Expect all HR type questions like - Why Deloitte? - How is the day going? - Why should we choose you over others? - Hobbies - Responsibilities in your previous firm These and other HR questions were asked.) Partner: How many interviews have you already given today? Candidate: This is my first interview

Partner: Why so? Candidate: Deloitte was my first preference so I had been waiting for this interview since morning. (Actually Deloitte was my only consult shortlist so gave that answer with full confidence and it worked. Don’t use this until it is true as some company officials know about the candidate’s shortlists.) Partner: Why did you choose Deloitte over other firms? Candidate: Deloitte is better than other firms as (Gave 2-3 points) Partner: How do you know about this? Candidate: There was a company presentation in the case workshop where I go to learn about Deloitte. Partner: What else you know about Deloitte? Candidate: I have heard from a friend who works at Deloitte that the culture in Deloitte is very good and colleagues are very knowledgeable and helpful. (The conversation went on for 15-20 minutes with some more HR type questions. In every interview, in the end, you might be asked a question like “Do you have any questions for us”. You are expected to ask something about the firm. So do prepare for that.)

GEP CASE 1 Candidate: Abhishek Somani Case: Guesstimate Interviewer: Do you know about what GEP does? Candidate: (told about what GEP does in 2-3 lines) Case let – How many flights do you think Indigo has for its operations in India? Candidate: Just to clarify we will be looking at Indigo’s business in India only or do you also want me to look at the international flights by Indigo. Interviewer: Let’s look at Indigo business in India for now. Candidate: Alright. For the fleet size I will assume that there are 5 major (Tier-1) cities and 25 Tier-2 cities that Indigo provides its services to. I will be ignoring Tier 3 cities as part of this analysis. Interviewer: Go ahead. Candidate: Since Tier-1 cities will be having more traffic daily, I will assume that we will require 4 direct trips daily between those cities. So by that combination, we have 10 routes where the flights will be flying 4 times a day. 80

For Tier-2 cities, since the traffic is low, we can use connecting flights. We can follow a hub and spoke model. Since, we have 25 Tier-2 cities, I would like to create a cluster consisting of 1 Tier1 city with 5 Tier-2 cities. Therefore, all Tier-2 cities would be connected via Tier-1 city. Is this a fair assumption? Interviewer: Yes, looks fine. Go ahead. Candidate: For Tier -1 to Tier-1 since we have 10 routes and 4 times a day, I would assume that 2 flights per route are required to achieve this. Therefore, we require 10*2 = 20 flights. So for Tier-1 to Tier-2 cities we will have 2 flights daily connecting them. So we will have 5 routes from each Tier-1. Therefore 25 such routes 2 times a day. For these 25 routes I would say 1 flight per route. Therefore, 25 flights more. So a total of 45 flights. Interviewer: Do you think you require 25 flights exclusively for this or can you utilize the flights between Tier-1 to Tier-1 to connect some of them? Candidate: Yes, we don’t need exclusive flights for Tier-1 to Tier-2 cities. Some of these routes we might be able to complete with our Tier-1 to Tier-1 flights. So, if our flight has to do 2 trips between Tier-1 to Tier-1, then I would say it can do maybe 1 more trip to a Tier-2 city, taking into consideration that it will require maintenance etc. at every stop. Is that a fair assumption? Interviewer: Ok, go ahead. Candidate: Therefore, we can say that one Tier-2 city can be covered by our existing set of fleet. So we need 20 flights for the rest. Therefore, a total of 40 flights maybe required for this set of combination we assumed. Interviewer: Alright. I think we are good here. Do you have any questions for me? Candidate: None, as of now. Interviewer: Ok, please wait outside.

CASE 2 Candidate: Abhishek Somani Case: This interview wasn’t a case but it was a round where the interviewer wanted to test on-the-spot thinking. Interviewer: Do you know about any startup opened recently? Candidate: Yes, there is a startup named – Quifers. It’s a startup for logistics, started in 2013. Interviewer: Ok. I will give you 10 mins, why don’t you think of a new start-up idea and think like I am a VC. You have to convince me to give you funding. (Candidate takes 10 mins to think about a possible idea) Candidate: My idea is to come up with an app which will be targeted to restaurants and customers. Currently the issue for customers is that you have a lot of wait time at many restaurants and you don’t come to know about that till you reach there. And many times since the restaurant is crowded the delivery time of food also increases. While if we look at it from restaurants’ perspective, it increases their waiters’ cost. Since they have to keep high numbers to serve. This app will try to resolve both the issues - help customers to book a table if they want to go to a restaurant. Once they have booked the table they can also look at the menu in the app and while 81

they are on the way they can order what they would like to eat. This reduces their wait time drastically because as by the time they reach, their food might be almost ready. From restaurants perspective, they now don’t need many waiters, since the order will directly appear in the app with the table number. They just need waiters to serve food. Once customers eat they can also pay via this app so that they don’t have to wait for the bill to come and the inconvenience of waiting for their card to be swiped or cash to be returned. Interviewer: Ok. Your idea seems interesting. But how will you earn money? Candidate: In this case my revenues will come from tie-ups with restaurants as we would be helping them reduce their waiter cost. So we will charge a mere 5-10% of the bill amount. So if we reduce no. of waiters by 2, we reduce their cost by almost 30k. We provide more convenience to them in terms of crowd management. Also our app will provide ratings to the restaurants and to their dishes, which will make it easy for the customer to order. Interviewer: Ok. But Zomato also provides similar kind of service. How will you make sure that they don’t copy this and incorporate it in their app, given that they already have a huge database of restaurants with them? Candidate: That’s a fair point, to counter this I would start off by targeting big chains like Pizza Hut since they will give us a lot of restaurants in one shot. Once we are able to get them on-board, we can convince small restaurants by telling them about our associations with the big restaurant chains and how we have been able to help them. Interviewer: Ok. I think we are good for now. Please wait outside for next round. (Just to tell, I didn’t get this idea like on the spot. I was talking to a friend of mine in IIM Bangalore who before joining IIM had a startup. He told me about this idea of his. My only recommendation is talk to people and try to know about their experiences before they joined IIM and you will learn a lot of things which will help you.)

CASE 3 Candidate: Abhishek Somani Case: This wasn’t a case round; it was more of a general round with questions around HR. I would suggest that for this round prepare the HR questions provided by Placement Committee well and it should be enough. Also some additional questions asked were –  What kind of manager do you think you like working with?  Give an instance where you didn’t like how your manager handled the situation.  Give an instance where you were given a responsibility and you failed to deliver.

MCKINSEY CASE 1 Candidate: Anuradha Rao Case: Profitability Analysis 82

This interview was quite unconventional and really made me think on my feet. (Interviewer makes some small talk.) Interviewer: So tell me, how have you changed the world? Candidate: Those are heavy words to use. I can’t really claim to have changed the world… Interviewer: No, I’m sure you have, just tell me how. Candidate: I’m not sure if I’ve changed the world but I can say I’ve changed the people in my world in a small but significant way by... (some instances) Interviewer: You are an economics student. Comment on the state of India’s economy. What do you think the government elected last year should be focusing on? Candidate: (Gave him my opinion) Interviewer: Interesting. I also gather that you debate and write poems. What kind of poetry do you write? Tell me about the latest poem you wrote. Candidate: (Told him about this) Interviewer: Oh, so can you recite a few lines from that poem? Candidate: I don’t really remember how that went, but I can perform another poem; one which I performed at IIMB last term. Interviewer: Sure, go ahead. Candidate: (performs poem) Interviewer: So I will give you a case now and I want you to present the solution to me in the form of a role-play or a poem. Candidate: Umm… Interviewer: Our client is a branded pharmacist and is facing declining profits at a particular store. Tell me why this could be happening and suggest some recommendations. Candidate: Alright. I will just ask a few preliminary questions before delving deeper. Is that okay? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: May I know where our client is based? Interviewer: In a metro city. Candidate: Are other pharmacies in the city also facing this issue? Interviewer: No. Candidate: You mentioned our client is branded. Are they attached to a hospital? Interviewer: No, they are an independent store. Candidate: Does the client exclusively sell medicines? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Alright. The problem seems to be an internal one, so I’ll look at firm-specific profits. So profits can be split into two components, as revenues minus costs. I’ll examine each of these in detail. Is there any particular branch you’d like me to examine first? Interviewer: Not really, your choice. Candidate: Ok. I’ll begin with revenues. At each stage, I’ll benchmark performance with that of competitors, who seem to be making profits. Factors influencing revenues are variety, price and volume. To gauge variety, I’m assuming our client stocks all sorts of medicines. Is that correct? 83

Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: What do other pharmacies sell? Is the variety here the same as the variety there? Interviewer: What do you think? Who do you think our competitors can be? Candidate: It seems to me like the competitors are small kirana stores that stock not only medicines, but also other goods like eats and other small goods. In terms of variety of medicines, our client is probably superior, but in terms of a holistic purchase, the small shop is probably better. Interviewer: That’s right. There are many mom-and-pop-stores stealing our company’s business. Candidate: Ok. So I understand that all these stores charge the same price, but overall volumes of sales are lower for our client than other stores. Our client doesn’t charge any premium for the medicines? Interviewer: Everything is sold at MRP, just like competitors. Candidate: To explain this difference in volumes, I’m going to look at some factors like convenience and customer profile. Interviewer: We are running out of time, suggest some recommendations based on what you have done so far. Candidate: As a poem?! Interviewer: No need, just state them. Candidate: Sure. I have identified the major problem so far to be the existence of competition that is catering better to customer needs. I think some recommendations are: 1. Identify what conveniences these small stores are providing to the customer. Our client should try and offer the same kinds of services. This would include stocking other kinds of goods and offering home delivery service to improve ease of access. 2. Differentiate the store. After all, local stores do not have an air conditioned setting, pakka bills or a brand name. If our client can advertise or make their presence better known, customers, especially from upper income segments, would probably prefer buying from here despite the products being the same as those in competitor’s stores. 3. Try tying up with a nearby established hospital. This would mean guaranteed volumes from patients there. 4. We have not discussed costs, but costs could be reduced as well. Interviewer: That’s alright. We’ll end here. Please wait outside. Candidate: Thank you.

CASE 2 Candidate: Anuradha Rao Case: Guesstimate (Interviewer makes small talk) Interviewer: When was the last time you travelled by flight? Candidate: During undergrad, from Delhi to Chennai. Interviewer: What do you usually do during a flight? Candidate: I like reading. 84

Interviewer: Is there a bookstore at Delhi airport? Candidate: Yes, there’s one in Terminal 1, it’s called Relay. Interviewer: Estimate the daily revenues of the Relay bookstore outlet at Delhi’s domestic terminal. Candidate: May I have a minute to structure my thoughts? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: Relay sells small items other than books as well. Do I need to take those into account? Interviewer: No. Candidate: Ok. Revenue = Price x Volumes x Variety. I can assume an average price and not take into account variety, but that would be too simplistic. Interviewer: You read books, so tell me some way in which you could account for that. Candidate: I’d divide books into paperback and hardback, because there are major price differences between the two. I’d then take an average price for paperback, and another one for hardback. Interviewer: Ok, go ahead and make assumptions. Candidate: Alright. So we have 2 average price points, say 400 for paperback and 700 for hardback. Since these are averages, variety within paperback and hardback is accounted for. I will now calculate the volumes of books sold. I’ll trace the customer purchase journey for this. If I were buying a book, I’d have to be in the airport, then visit Relay, and then buy a book. So I will need to estimate: (I draw all this out) People in the domestic departure terminal  People visiting Relay  People purchasing books (number of books and type of book are important). Interviewer: Sounds okay. Begin the estimation. Candidate: To calculate the number of people in the domestic departure terminal, I’d split the day into two parts. Mornings and evenings would be very crowded, while afternoons and nights would not. So I’ll call these peak time and lean time. To calculate number of people in the departure terminal, I’d look at this information for peak and lean times: Number of flights taking off per hour x capacity per flight x utilization (ie, % of people who book and catch the flight) To calculate the subset of people who visit Relay, I’d examine: Number of people reaching the terminal atleast 15 mins earlier than boarding x % interested in books (over all the other shopping opportunities at the airport!) Then I’d look at the number who actually end up purchasing a book rather than simply browsing and going away. Maybe, I could look at information relating to the type of customer; a professional would probably work or sleep while a student or holiday traveller would prefer reading. By this method, I have volumes for peak and lean times. To get revenues from the volume figures, I’d have to see what kind of book is purchased, paperback or hardback. Information about latest releases or bestsellers would help. Interviewer: Ok, why don’t you do some calculations now? Candidate: But I have no idea about many of these figures. Interviewer: Make assumptions. (I make very random assumptions and get an extremely low figure.) Candidate: I think something is wrong, this figure is too low. 85

Interviewer: Ok, now go over your calculations again and tell me which figures you think are wrong. Candidate: (told him) Interviewer: (Agreed with some of them and told me what he thought were more accurate figures.) Alright, thank you. Candidate: Thank you.

CASE 3 Candidate: Ashwin S Kalkar Case: Guesstimate- Market Sizing (Interviewer: Arjun, Partner) Interviewer: Good morning Ashwin, how are you? Tell me about yourself. Candidate: I’m good Sir. About me. Discussed about work and IITM. Then told him about being Cultural Secretary and how I enjoyed organizing events. He asked will you be interested to join event management? Then I countered saying it would be nice but not forever since learning will be limited. I would rather join consulting and get diverse experience and learn. Interviewer: Let’s do a case. Your client is a diabetes checking instrument (like Accucheck) manufacturer. He wants to understand the market potential in India. The instrument will be priced at $10 ~Rs.650. Candidate: So if I understand correctly, we need to size the market for our client. Am I right? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Okay so I’d like to approach it by taking the Indian population (120 Crores), dividing it into urban (30%) and rural (70%). Further dividing it into age groups of less than 25, 25-50 and 50+. Then the factors I would like to consider is the kind of jobs people are into – low or high on manual labour, tendency to exercise; and then health problems due to age. In the rural areas, this would leave only the 50+ segment with about 10% having the capability of buying it. In the urban areas, there will be about 20% people not doing labour intensive jobs and of them about 80% might not be exercising normally. This gives a population of ~4.78 Cr and a potential of Rs. 3110 Cr. Interviewer: Okay now that we have the potential size, what are the factors you need to think about before suggesting he enters the market? Assume there is going to be some market penetration. Candidate: Market Size we know about. Margins in the market need to be looked at. Possible competition in the market. Barriers to entry – regulatory and value chain setup if need be. Interviewer: Anything else? Candidate: Not sure if I’ve missed anything. Interviewer: Okay now think what will happen in 3 years. Candidate: Let’s say the market is going to grow at 10% every year then after 3 years considering today is 0, it is going to be 3110*(1.1)^3 = Rs.4140 Cr. Interviewer: So how much will the company make in 3 years assuming 4 equal competitors. Candidate: Rs.1035 Cr. Interviewer: Are you sure? 86

Candidate: (Thinking for a while) No Sir, this is the total market potential but the penetration will not be 100% in 3 years so we need to know a % of market penetration before looking at revenue. Interviewer: Good. If we have a 10% penetration, then it’ll only be about 100Cr for the client which isn’t much. Candidate: So it doesn’t seem like a good idea to enter. Interviewer: Yeah. Good case, Ashwin. Thank you. Key Takeaway: This interview went okay though I could’ve spoken about market penetration earlier only. The initial HR part eased it a lot and though there was time pressure the interviewer was quite helpful and gave me enough time to do the calculations. Overall it was a good interview.

CASE 4 Candidate: Ashwin S Kalkar Case: Growth strategy for Nike (Interviewer: Kaustubh Chakraborty, Senior Partner, Head of Delhi Office) Interviewer: Let’s jump straight to the case Candidate: Sure Sir Interviewer: Our client is a sports apparel and equipment manufacturer like Nike and they want to make a strategy for 2025. They want to know where to invest in R&D to be doing well 10 years later. Candidate: Okay that’s an interesting problem. First I would like to understand a little bit more about the industry. In terms of products, I’m assuming like Nike we make equipment for most sports and have apparel for professionals and end-consumers. Is that correct? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Okay and we do have competitors in the Indian market? Interviewer: Yeah let’s take the competitors to be like Adidas Candidate: Okay sure. Now I would like to understand about the current R&D investments we have. Interviewer: But how will that matter since we’re looking at 10 years. Candidate: Yeah that’s true but it’ll help me get an idea Interviewer: Well we do have investments in all the big sports since we’re quite big. Candidate: Hmm okay. So now that we’re looking at 10 years down the line I would like to divide it in the following ways: Customers: Professionals and End-consumers. Sports Types. I think we should be looking at these 2 headings to broadly understand where we need to invest to be in a good position 10 years down the line. Interviewer: Sure, so tell me what you’re thinking. Candidate: Under Sports types, currently Cricket is huge and many other sports are also growing well like Football due to ISL etc. Interviewer: Yeah but how do you know they’ll remain the same 10 years later.

Candidate: Well. No, we don’t but we can see how Indian sports is headed. I believe Cricket would still be big. For the other sports, we can see which sports are being promoted by the Indian Olympic Association and which sport is getting maximum traction in terms of viewership as well. Interviewer: Still, we’re talking about 10 years. Candidate: Yeah so continuing on what I was saying earlier, on the customer side, we can look at celebrity professionals who are famous in the sports space. We will be having long term contracts with them for equipment and apparels. When these celebrities endorse our brand, it reflects on the end-consumer as well. Interviewer: But how do you know who’s going to be famous in 10 years. Candidate: We can look at the younger generation of sportspersons like U-19 Cricket Team etc. Interviewer: Okay we’re almost out of time. Candidate: Can I summarize where we stand right now? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: Summarized it overall. Key Takeaways: I thought this interview was terrible. We made absolutely no headway and after the interview I got to know that the interviewer thought I was nervous. I had almost lost hope in this round but I was called for another.

CASE 5 Candidate: Ashwin S Kalkar Case: Valuation of a Coal Mine (Interviewer: Satya Prathipati, Senior Partner, Head of Mumbai Office) Interviewer: So Ashwin (while walking and looking at my file), how was your PST? Candidate: I did okay I think. Interviewer: Yeah, you did okay but you didn’t do well. Anyway, how was the earlier round? Candidate: It was a good case but we could’ve made more headway into the problem. Interviewer: Hmm yeah, looks like you were nervous, that’s what Kaustubh thought. Candidate: I didn’t think so, Sir. Interviewer: Okay cool. (Going through my file) So you interviewed with us in IIT too, and you didn’t get through. Candidate: Yes Sir I did. But I’m back again. Interviewer: Good. So do you want to do a case or talk? Candidate: Anything is fine, Sir. Interviewer: Okay so tell me something not in your resume. Candidate: Spoke about traveling. Experiences in Sri Lanka, Canada and US. Interviewer: Favourite place in India? Candidate: Mussorie since I had gone there recently. Interviewer: Okay let’s do a case. Your client wants to buy a coal mine and wants you to value it. Candidate: Where is this coal mine and what is its output? Interviewer: It’s in China but do you need to output or the reserve? Candidate: (Thinking) I’d need the reserves to value but output to know the revenues we can make. Interviewer: Okay cool. Output is 1 ton/month and reserves need to be calculated. How will you do it? 88

Candidate: Assuming it is a cuboid since we’re talking about coal, the concentrations would be different in different areas. We need to find that out and then add up all to get the reserves available. Interviewer: I’ll give you numbers. Let’s take it as a cuboid – 1200m x 800m and 500m height. Uniform concentration of 70%. Candidate: Sure. So that gives me a coal mine of volume 0.48 cu. km. Effective coal is 0.336 cu km. Interviewer: Okay good. Do you need anything else? Candidate: Yes I’ll need the density to calculate the weight of coal available. Interviewer: Let’s take it as 100 tons/cukm. Candidate: Okay that makes it 33.6 tons. Interviewer: Now how will you value it? Candidate: I’ll look at the revenues we’ll make from it and how much time this is going to last. You mentioned 1 ton/month which means it’ll last for 33 months. Then I’ll look at the discounted cash flows (C-value per year) we’ll get over this period. Interviewer: Okay how will you get the price of coal? This is in China. Candidate: I’ll call up the McKinsey office in China and ask them to check. Interviewer: Let’s say no one is available. Candidate: The India office would have a coal expert. Interviewer: Not available. Candidate: In India, we can see the price on the exchange. Interviewer: But there is no one in China to help you. Candidate: Would their exchange have a website that can be accessed? Since we can look it up in India online. Interviewer: No they don’t Candidate: Then I’ll probably look at the Chinese counterpart of an Economic Times to check for the price. Interviewer: Hmm. That might work. Candidate: (Finally he agreed) Okay great. So we’ll use this price and calculate DCF. Interviewer: What about costs? Candidate: (Ah I should’ve mentioned it earlier) Yeah the C value is DCF should be the profits and not revenues. Interviewer: Right. Thank you Ashwin. (While walking) How keen are you on McKinsey? Candidate: Very, Sir. I really wanted to get through in IIT but couldn’t. Wouldn’t want to miss this opportunity. Interviewer: Hmm. Key Takeaway: This interview was fast paced and at the end I wasn’t very confident of getting through but they did like me after all. Couple of minutes later Satya came out to congratulate me Biggest takeway was you never know how your interview was so don’t judge it yourself. The case can be anything but you should just be calm and tackle it like a puzzle. It’ll eventually work out! 89

CASE 6 Candidate: Harsh Laxmikant Shah Case: Market entry strategy (HR question + case. The interviewer was trying to cross-question whatever I was saying. He wanted to see if I could maintain my calm, accept if I was wrong anywhere and improvise quickly.) Interviewer: Hi Harsh, Good morning! How are you doing this morning? Candidate: Good morning sir. I am doing fine. How about you? Interviewer: Great! Tell me something about yourself. Candidate: Standard intro focusing on my work-ex, US experience and academics. Interviewer: So what’s your GPA here? Candidate: Told him my GPA. Interviewer: Ok. So tell me an instance when you had shown leadership. Candidate: Told about a project that I was working on. (Basically focus on the strongest part of CV.) Interviewer: How many people did you influence? Candidate: A team of 5 with 4 analysts and 1 client POC Interviewer: Great. So Harsh let’s do a small case. There is multiplex chain across India with 400 screens and they want to enter the packaged food industry in India and want to establish a business worth 1500Cr. So how would you devise a strategy for them. Candidate: (repeated the main points of the question, confirmed the objective) So do they also have an in-house cafeteria? Interviewer: Yes but most of the products that they sell are procured from 3rd party vendor or are standard FMCG products like Pepsi, Lays, etc. Candidate: Ok. Makes sense. Can I take 2 mins to lay down a structure? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: So the entire packaged food industry falls into 2 categories: Solids (including paste forms) and liquid. They can focus on entering the liquids by finding a niche segment like Paperboat. Interviewer: Do you think that makes sense? There are already Cola and non-Cola products which are well established in the market. Candidate: Umm. No there is too much competition and we might not create a business worth 1500Cr in 5 years. (I was a little nervous here but I tried to maintain my calm and accepted that what I said doesn’t make sense). Interviewer: Precisely. So what about solids? Candidate: We can further create the segments based on serving size in solids: 1) Full serving: like MTR ready to eat 2) Medium serving: like chips, Kurkure, biscuits 3) Small serving: majorly confectioneries Does this segmentation make sense? Interviewer: Yes. This looks good. For segment 1 what do you think is more important- taste or health? 90

Candidate: Both are important but we will have trade-offs and can’t include both at the same time. So we can have 2 variants. One which tastes good and one which has good nutrients and is low on preservatives. This will help us to capture a good market share. Interviewer: (Smiling) Looks like you have spent a lot of time cooking and understand the pain of working bachelors. So what about the confectioneries and biscuits? Do you think with firms like Mondelez and Britania we can enter the market? Candidate: Sir we can always find a gap in the market and position our product accordingly just as Unibic has positioned itself in the market as premium cookies. Interviewer: Excellent Harsh. It was great talking to you. Good luck for other interviews. Candidate: Thank you sir. Have a good day!

CASE 7 Candidate: Harsh Laxmikant Shah Case: Defending market share (Only case. Case was pretty straight forward. Interviewer was trying to evaluate how much can I think on the spot.) Interviewer: Hi Harsh. Let’s do a small case. There is a tire manufacturing company and has the highest market share currently in India. The company at position 2 is catching up quickly. So what should our client do to tackle this situation? Candidate: (repeated the question, confirmed the objective) Sir can you please elaborate a little more on the value proposition of both the firms. Interviewer: No 1 produces tire with better quality and last for 50K miles and is priced at $250 per tire. No 2 produces tire which lasts for 40K miles and is priced at $240 per tire but now they have reduced the price to $225. Both are used in trucks. Candidate: Alright so No 2 is playing on the price elasticity of consumer and are increasing their market share. Interviewer: Right. Candidate: But if we look the total value of the product, our tires last for 25% more miles and the price is more by only ~10%. So we can focus on that and advertise better. Interviewer: Good. No 2 was expecting this move and they reduced the price to $200 for the same offering. Now what? Candidate: Now both the deals look equivalent. But we can focus on the fact that our product lasts longer and so it is of better quality. This is our POD (point of differentiation). We can emphasis on the low transaction costs and convenience. Interviewer: Good. Again they were expecting this and they have come up with new offer that their tire will last for 50K miles and they will replace the old tire with a new tire in case it wears out. Now what do you think? Candidate: Their offer is definitely better on paper. But it could be the case that the drivers are not exercising the warranty. Interviewer: Why? Candidate: They might have seen in the testing phase that very few drivers would come to actually replace the old tire because its very hard to detect if the threads are completely worn out and 91

most the drivers who don’t own the truck would not even care about it. So they might be piggybacking on this fact. Also for emergency they always carry a spare tire. Interviewer: Ok. What could be other reasons? Candidate: 1) They might have better technique to produce the tire at lower cost. May be they might be having better economies of scale. 2) They might have deep pockets and would be compromising on short term profitability to gain market share and have strong sales. 3) Average truck may be driven only for 40K-45K and so it doesn’t matter if tires last for more than 40K which most probably might not be the case but we could check that. Interviewer: Great Harsh. Thank you very much!

CASE 8 Candidate: Preksha Mangal Case: Automobile Industry-Declining Revenue (First 5-7 mins of the interview went in general chit-chat and HR questions. The interviewer was trying to make me feel comfortable before starting the case. He also asked about my opinion on auto industry.) Interviewer: Hi Preksha, Good morning! Is it your first interview? Candidate: Good morning sir. Yes, it is. Interviewer: Are you nervous? I think you are. So let’s discuss the case after some time. First, tell me three things you really enjoyed doing in school. Candidate: Told him my hobbies and 1-2 interesting incidents Interviewer: So do you know how to drive? What all cars have you driven? Which brand do you prefer and why? Candidate: Told him about my experience. Interviewer: Do you know how a car is designed? Candidate: Not much (told him the little bit understanding that I had) Interviewer: So, since you drive car and also take decisions in which car to buy, would you mind if I ask you to help me on one of my projects with an auto client. The client is the market leader in auto industry in India. But recently observed a drop in the conversion rate? Can you identify the root cause behind it? Candidate: Asked about the client – their presence across India, where exactly they are facing the problem and from how long. Also asked about the industry and competition landscape. Interviewer: Client has PAN India presence. They are facing this problem from last 1 year in one store located in Bangalore. Industry is performing as per the expectation. Candidate: Clarified if the drop in conversion rate is impacting only the revenue of the firm. Also, if it is related to the drop in footfall Interviewer: Footfall is same.

Candidate: Do we have any data that suggests that conversion rate has dropped in one particular type of car/model or across all products Interviewer: Same impact across all the products. Candidate: Ok. Let me take a couple of mins to lay down the points. Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: So the drop in conversion rate leading to drop in revenue (of a particular store) can happen due to following reasons: 1. Drop in # of customers a. Due to demand side reasons i. Drop in # of old customers ii. Drop in conversion of new customers 1. Changes in macro policies 2. Sales people – training and quality of service provided 3. Ambience of store 4. After sales services offered 5. Location of store 6. Competition is offering better services or products b. Due to supply side reasons 2. Price of the product Do we have any information about the above mentioned points? Interviewer: Great! We have some information. The conversion of new customers has dropped. Sales people are the reason. Somebody knocked at the door informing that only 5 mins are left. Interviewer: Ok. We don’t have much time left. Let’s quickly get to the solution. How can we make sales people more competent while dealing with customers in auto retail store? Candidate: The whole process can be divided into 3 stages: 1. Recruitment: following should be analyzed a. Evaluation of candidates on the qualities needed for the job b. Past experience/performance of the candidate c. Origin: a local candidate is preferred sometimes 2. Training a. Knowledge about product and company policies b. Brief description about different categories of customers c. Communication skills – emphasis on personalized conversation d. On job training sessions 3. On job monitoring a. Dress code b. Customer feedback c. Feedback from sales people Comparing the feedback from customer and sales people will help in getting to the root cause of the problem. Interviewer: Awesome. It was great talking to you. Good luck for other interviews. Candidate: Thank you sir. Have a good day!

CASE 9 Candidate: Preksha Mangal Case: Healthcare Industry-Increase in complaints 93

(Interview happened over call. The interviewer went straight to the case. Case was not very tricky, but interviewer wanted to check if I cover all the points leading to problem.) Interviewer: Hi Preksha! Since you have worked for Pharma and Healthcare clients in your previous company, let’s do a case related to that only. There is a hospital located in Delhi, which is doing very well. From last 1 year, the number of patient complaints have been rising. Can you please find out the reason behind it? Candidate: Asked a few preliminary questions about the client, objective of the study and if there is any pattern in patient complaints (type of patients, reason of complaint, related to particular disease/doctor, time of complaints). Interviewer: Yes, just one pattern has been observed. The patients are complaining that the waiting time has gone up. Candidate: Sure. Can I take 2 mins to write the possible reasons for it? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: The waiting can go up due to the following reasons 1. Increase in the number of patients a. External: i. Changes in weather or other macro factors ii. Deterioration of services by competitors b. Internal: i. Better services offered by the hospital ii. Better marketing 2. Decrease in the number of doctors a. Internal i. Changes in policies/pay structure ii. Reduction in recruitment b. External i. Poaching by competitors ii. Other lucrative alternatives 3. Increase in the service time: it can happen at one or more of the three activities listed below: a. Registration desk and alignment b. Service time by doctor c. Billing desk These can be the possible reasons for increase in waiting time. We can deep dive into the relevant options depending upon the data available. Interviewer: Good. Let me give you some information. On an average, 20 patients are registered per hour. 8 doctors are available all the time who take around 15 mins/patient. What do you think the problem is? Candidate: Ok. So, the available slots for treatment for patients per hour are 60*8/15 = 32 and patients arriving are 20. Average utilization of doctors is 20/32 = 62.5%, which is a good number. But this is average utilization which can be a misleading number. The actual utilization might vary during peak and non-peak hours. Interviewer: Perfect. The utilization of doctors during peak hours (8-9 AM and 6-8 PM) is 150200% and during non-peak hours, it falls below 50%. What measures can we take to avoid underutilization and over utilization of doctors? 94

Candidate: Possible measures could be: 1. Increase supply of doctors during peak hours: a. Appoint contract/guest doctors. This is a usual practice in some hospitals 2. Decrease demand of doctors during peak hours a. Discounts in consultancy fees during non-peak hours Interviewer: Great! Good Luck Preksha!

CASE 10 Candidate: Priyanka Bagai Case: Disinvestment Jain Sinha, an Ex-Mckinsey partner is the MoS Finance and has a 5000 crore disinvestment budget. Prioritise and achieve this target. (This was a telephonic interview, the first 2-5 minutes were about general courtesy and them apologising for the delay. it was supposed to be on VC, but technical glitches, etc. occurred.) Interviewer: You are aware what disinvestment means right? Candidate: Yes, from what I understand Disinvestment is the sale of government’s stake in a Public sector (PSU) undertaking for cash. Government ownership in the PSU goes down and the intent is to raise funds for fiscal expenditure. Interviewer: That is correct. And the funds raised go to the Union budget. Candidate: Well, seeing this as a budgeting exercise I believe it’s important to focus on both- the sources of revenue and the application of funds. Coming to the source of funds, we would need to determine (1) Which and how many units to disinvest (2) How would the process be conducted - would it be public or private disinvestment (The interviewer cut me here and asked) Interviewer: How would you decide what units to disinvest from. (I initially started by mentioning 1-2 factors, then realising that there were going to be multiple dimensions I could cover, I asked the interviewer for a minute to structure and prioritise them.) Candidate: There are a number of factors to be considered. First and foremost the performance/Profitability of the unit. There is an opportunity cost involved here, if I sell a high-performing unit I forego a continuous source of income in lieu of a higher lumpsum amount I can receive now. On the other hand, a low performing unit, which is a burden on public funds, will raise lesser funds. Then we might want to look at (2) the assets of the PSU (Tangibles vs Intangibles-IP, etc) (3) the people (briefly explaining about the impact on employment of the workforce, the severance costs, etc) (I had written the following factors on my sheet but somewhere in the middle the interviewer had interrupted me, writing these down for your reference) (4) Industry the PSU belonged to (5) Demand (what % of it is contributed to by the PSU) 95

(6) Regulation (7) People/Political Opposition (8) Cost incurred (I believe it was after the 4th point, because there was something specific the interviewer was looking for, and I realised later it was mentioned low on my list) Interviewer: There is this one specific and important factor I'm looking for, think about the recent cases, in Bengal- why have such initiatives been successful or otherwise. The political opposition - that can be a make or break in such decisions- as unfortunate as the case might be. Okay, so once you have decided which unit to disinvest from, what are the caveats to be wary of? Candidate: (1) Employee Resistance (2) Corruption in raising/deploying funds (motive behind sale) (3) Controlling interest- who runs the show (caveat being loosing the reigns) So the big Decision is to ascertain what % share is to be disinvested Interviewer: Once you've got the funds, tell me one sector you would want to use it in? Candidate: (thinking for 10 seconds) Education sector. (There was no political/economic rationale behind this, education is one field I personally believe in and I told the interviewer the same, further giving them justification on why and how.) Interviewer: That’s it, thank you! Key takeaways: (1) Mckinsey does a lot of government projects and the socio-economic ecosystem it operates in are key considerations (2) Factors to be considered are sometimes beyond the conventional P&L items that govern decision making in corporates. So it helps to bring out the nuanced factors first

CASE 11 Candidate: Priyanka Bagai Case: Tyre Industry-Market Entry (There is case on this industry, context being on how to enter the industry, which I recommend you go through (from last year’s ICON Casebook, Gaurav Chauhan’s interview with Accenture). It's quite comprehensive. My case, however, was quite different. It was a competitor analysis piece.) Interviewer: Two tyre companies having different tyre purchase costs for different technology/quality. Your competitor had a first mover advantage but this new technology investment could help change that. How will you evaluate the investment? Candidate: Maintenance costs were a key consideration- the frequency vs cost trade-off. And initial costs of purchase vs recurring costs of maintenance and life. Interviewer: How will you acquire new customers for this new technology tyres? Can this new technology be leveraged to poach existing customers? Is the investment a feasible one?

There were also two sales promotion Offers the company was trying to evaluate and I had to tell which one would be better. Helps to know the nuances of the industry- what factors influence the decisions of key stakeholders- for this industry, it is the truck drivers, and not the owners, who have more say. This was followed by another 10-minute interview. Case: Market entry strategy into F&B industry by multiplex chain (This was very brief- 10 minutes of which the first few minutes went into discussing about earlier interviews. Then about interests, of which food was one. This case was asked to two other people as well since it was an ongoing project and they were looking for fresh/innovative answers.) Interviewer: You have to devise a food and beverage strategy for a client who is currently among the top 50 multiplexes in India. He now wants to compete in the packaged branded foods category- 1500 crore, 5 years, from scratch. Candidate: Some decisions choices include: (1) channel for sale: multiplexes (premium pricing but niche) vs retail (mass volumes but intense competition from existing brands like ITC and Nestle. (2) Analysis of existing food categories - i could think of Confectionary, Ready to eat, Frozen Foods, carbonated Drinks, Health drinks. The intent here was to understand the competitive landscape and identify avenues lucrative for a new player to enter. My interview was stopped here.

CASE 12 Candidate: Utsav Giri Case: Telecom Sector-Declining Profitability & Valuation of a celebrity (I had a pretty long slot of interviews with McKinsey. I had three interviews in which I had to solve four cases. At the outset I would like to say that in none of the interviews that I had could I reach a conclusion that was satisfactory for the interviewer. However, in each of the interviews I learned something about the case interviews that multiple case prep sessions didn’t teach me.) (I went inside and after the initial pleasantries, the interviewer asked me why I was nervous. I told him it was a big occasion for me. He asked me why. I gave him my reasons (mostly revolving around how not getting into an IIT was a big regret for me and how badly I have wanted to prove myself ever since). He then asked me about myself and I dictated my “About myself” monologue.) Interviewer: The client is an Indian telecom major. Over the past 5 years, our client has been experiencing a decline in profitability even though its market share has been increasing. What information do we require from the client in order to solve this problem from him? Candidate: How I approached the case: I made a typical revenue and costs issue tree and tried to find possible reasons for the decline in profitability. Then I started suggesting what could be the possible problem for the client and how it could be solved. The mistakes I made: 97

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The question was what information is required from the client. This is like the typical first stage of the client engagement where data is required from the client. I was not expected to hypothesize possible solutions at this stage. I was just supposed to come up with a list of data sources. I didn’t suggest competitor benchmarking as a possible method to analyse the problem. I thought this was similar to a telecom case that I had solved and I tried to solve it that way. I didn’t realize that this was a completely different thing- unlike all the cases that I had prepped for I was not expected to solve this case at all.

The interviewer asked another case in the same interview. Interviewer: The interviewer asked me what I do in my free time. I said that I watch TV Series. He asked me what my favourite TV series was. I said Sherlock. Then the interviewer asked me to determine the valuation of Benedict Cumberbatch Candidate: How I approached the case: This case stumped me as it was completely new for me. I divided his valuation into two parts- current assets and present value of future projects. Current assets were easy to value. Future projects was where I got stuck and could not proceed further. The mistakes I made:  Didn’t think of competitor benchmarking as a possible solution. To evaluate any actor’s future valuation, we are supposed to compare him with another actor of similar calibre and assume that both their careers will follow a similar trajectory. Key Takeaways:  Always take an outside-in approach- Think of the competitors first and then go to internal processes.  Never assume that a given case is similar to a case you have practised- the interviewer will ensure that he gives a case that will stump you.

CASE 13 Candidate: Utsav Giri Case: Pharma Sector-Declining Revenues (The interviewer introduced himself. He then asked me about myself and I dictated my “About myself” monologue.) Interviewer: The client is a national-level pharmaceutical retailer. Over the past two years the client has been experiencing a decline in its revenues whereas its competitors’ revenues are increasing. What could be the possible reasons for this? Candidate: How I approached the case: I broke down the revenues to a store level including factors such as price of drugs, availability of drugs, customer footfall etc. Then I started listing down possible reasons that could impact each of these factors. I also considered competitive benchmarking this time. For every reason that I listed down, the interviewer said that this could not be a possible reason. After a point I could not proceed any further. Key Takeaways: One important difference in this interview was that the interviewer turned the concept of “solving the case along with the interviewer” on its head. When we do case prep we are asked to think loudly and verify any assumptions/ hypothesis/ conclusion with the 98

interviewer. In this case, when I was asking the interviewer if this assumption is correct, he was saying “I don’t know, you say. You are the consultant. I am paying you money to give me answers not ask question.” In other words, he was acting like a typical client. This situation can get quite stressful. It’s important not to get flustered in such a situation. More importantly, expect the unexpected.

CASE 14 Candidate: Utsav Giri Case: Market entry strategy in F&B Sector by multiplex chain (This was the final interview. The interviewer was a McKinsey Director so it was a make or break kind of interview. The interviewer asked me about myself and I dictated my “About myself” monologue.) Interviewer: The client is a national level multiplex chain. The client has decided to diversify into the FMCG sector. What products should the client start manufacturing? Candidate: How I approached the case: Since none of my prep cases were helping me, I decided to approach this case in a little unorthodox manner. My tree in this case divided the FMCG sector into all its different products (This was more of a brute force kind of approach). I then listed down factors that could be used to select the suitable FMCG products – synergies with existing products, distribution channels envisaged (internal at multiplexes or externa through grocery stores) and competition. The interviewer asked me to focus on competition. Ultimately, with the help of the interviewer we were able to narrow down to energy drinks as a possible market product. Key Takeaways:  Never be afraid to ask the interviewer questions. Unlike the previous interview, in this interview the interviewer was willing to help out. The final answer of the energy drinks was given by the interviewer himself.  If it’s a completely new problem don’t be afraid to apply brute force. It’s not necessary to have an efficient solution to the problem at hand. It’s more important to have a solution.  Always structure the problem, even if you apply brute force. Always think of ways of pruning the tree, i.e., reducing the number of possible solutions. Lessons Learnt Overall:  The “About Me” monologue is very important. Use it not to tell anything about yourself that is already there in the resume. Use it to tell the interviewer about your passions, your hobbies and your extra-curricular activities. As an example, I started my monologue with this line- “I am passionate about 3 things in life- quizzing, automobiles and fine arts…” and then went on about these things.  Structure the problem and write it down well on the A4 sheet. Try to make the tree as neat as possible. Practice drawing trees and writing in a good handwriting. Your entire problem solving approach should be understandable to anyone who reads that piece of paper.  Be prepared for a lengthy interview process if you desperately want to get into a particular company

CASE 15 Candidate: Koustav Dey Case: Healthcare industry- Hospital facing increasing customer dissatisfaction (Interviewer: Mandar Vaidya, Partner) (General discussion in beginning, gave introduction. The overall case interview was more like a discussion rather than a Q&A session. So I asked the interviewer for his inputs at various points.) Interviewer: There is a hospital in Mumbai which is facing increasing customer dissatisfaction, what could be the reasons behind this? Candidate: (Started off well, asked relevant questions) What is location of hospital? Are the complaints and dissatisfaction from out-patients or inpatients? Is there a particular segment of patients facing the problems? Interviewer: Customer dissatisfaction is with OPD patients Candidate: (Asked some good questions) Since OPD is taking an appointment and consulting a doctor, is the problem faced on certain specific days? Interviewer: Yes, the issues are mostly on Mondays and Wednesdays Candidate: What could be the reasons for there being complaints on these days? Could it be due to the doctors present on these days? Interviewer: Yes, there are specialist doctors who sit on these days. They are very busy and have a large influx of patients. Candidate: So the problems faced would be in terms of long waiting time and cancelled appointments. Also since these are working days, people must be suffering from traffic in Mumbai (Thought that case is over since problems have been identified.) Interviewer: What could be the solution? Candidate: Could we ask the doctors to change their schedule? Then we could distribute these specialist doctors on other days of the week Interviewer: Changing the doctors’ schedule will not be possible. Candidate: Okay, please tell me what is the process for admission at this hospital? Interviewer: Patients call up the customer service no. and book an appointment. Sometimes calls are not picked up. Also sometimes appointments are not given correctly. Patients may take an appointment and come to hospital but then have to return back due to no appointment available. After this, patients arrive at the appointed time. Then they have to register at the registration desk. There are typically long queues there. Candidate: So we can increase capacity at the customer service department. We can have an app through which patient can book appointments. Thus, patients can know well in advance whether they have an appointment scheduled or not. Interviewer: Where will you get this extra capacity from? How can we improve the overall service levels?

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Candidate: (after discussion, took time here) Extra capacity can be sourced from nurses and staff working in other departments/areas who were underutilised. Can have staff rotation and multiple shifts of staff. Design staff incentives such that they are rewarded for this. (Hardly 15 minutes had passed when interviewer asks to summarize the case.) Candidate: Summarizes case. Interviewer: How do you think the interview went? Candidate: I think it started off well however towards the end I could have done it better. Interviewer: Don’t worry you did fine for the amount of time available. (We usually practice long interviews which last around 30-40 minutes. However, this one as well as the others were short interviews which ended abruptly. So do practice cases which are of a shorter span of time.)

CASE 16 Candidate: Koustav Dey Case: Guesstimate- Market sizing for new product (Initially asked HR Questions. What drove you at IIT Kanpur? How would your friends describe you? Lasted for 10 minutes) Interviewer: US based company has launched an automatic insulin injector. This is a new product with an innovative technology. Traditionally you have to go to a hospital to get yourself injected. What would be the market size of this product? Candidate: Do you want me to estimate the market size of people who suffer from diabetes and would need insulin injections or the market size of this specific product only? Interviewer: Good question. Please estimate the market size of this specific product only. Candidate: Can this be sold over the counter, without a prescription, at any store? Or can it be sold only in medical stores, with prescriptions? Interviewer: Initially sold only with prescription. Candidate: (Took India’s population. Assumed family size to be of 4. Found the total no. of families. Divided this into urban and rural areas. Then did segmentation by income by dividing the no. of urban and rural families into income brackets. I did not take low income families in consideration due to lack of affordability for the product. I took that in urban areas there would be x no. of diabetic patients per family while in rural areas there would by y no. of diabetic patients per family. X would be greater than y as in rural areas many diabetes cases are not diagnosed. Using the assumptions made calculations to arrive at the answer. Made some calculation mistake and got an answer in billions) Interviewer: It’s okay, now tell me what should the price of the product be? Candidate: What is the competitive landscape? What all competitors are there? Interviewer: There are two major Indian competitors but our product is better than them. (Gave details of the two products). Tell me the rationale behind pricing the client’s product. Candidate: Sir could you tell me about the manufacturing costs? Are they significant? Interviewer: The manufacturing costs are very low so don’t use base your price on the costs.

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Candidate: Okay, our product is much better than competitors, but functionally it is comparable to the third product that you mentioned. Since we are entering the market, our prices should be less than the comparable product so as to achieve market penetration. We can increase it gradually after we have gained market share. So it should have a market price of $10. (The reasoning behind this was as follows: Our product could be used for around 20 insulin injections. Competitor’s product could be used for around 5 insulin injections and had a market price of $3. This was given by the interviewer. So based on this I said that it should be prices at $10 instead of $12 even though it has 4 times greater usage. When people get to know about the exact utility of the product we can raise the price.) Key Takeaways: I felt that that the interview was okay since I made a silly calculation mistake which should not have been done. The best part of the interview was the initial 10 minutes talk which I gave my introduction and talked to the interviewer. So the key takeaway is to have a good conversation with the interviewer. The initial part of the interview was about my life goals, how friends described me, the best feeling in life etc. Also whenever you are doing guesstimates or a numeric case, always pause in between and verify the numbers. Try to ask the interviewer if you are going in the right direction or not. Do not forget this while under interview pressure. Case 17 Candidate: Koustav Dey Case: Market entry of Flipkart into Financial Services (Interviewer: Sameer Shetty, Principal in the Financial Services vertical) Interviewer: I have to take a decision in the next 5 minutes whether to take you or not. So we will go through a very short case. So tell me if Flipkart or some company like it wants to go into financial services what recommendation will you give it? Candidate: What do you mean by financial services? Interviewer: (Sort of misled me.) What are the products you use in the financial services space, think about them. Candidate: So when I think of financial services I think of a bank, I think of a credit card, deposits etc. So maybe it can go into the payment gateway business. It can even get payments bank licence from RBI and accept deposits from customers. Interviewer: Very good question, but farfetched. Think of something else. Candidate: (Thinking along the same lines as before.) Sir I don’t understand how Flipkart can become a full-fledged bank or a credit card company. What do you say? Interviewer: Think harder. This is not the only kind of things in financial services industry. You have financial products also like loans, insurance etc. Candidate: (Should have thought of this.) Sorry, I was thinking about banks only. But even in this case how can Flipkart give loans without becoming a bank? Interviewer: It can extend loans to its suppliers that is the merchants which transact on Flipkart. Thus by giving loans to small sellers it can increase its suppliers base. Candidate: Okay, also since Flipkart does not have any core competency in selling insurance or loans or other financial products like say LIC has in giving insurance. It should, instead of specializing, become an aggregator of financial products. This will be something on the lines of policybazar.com but much wider in scope. Thus it can give people good deals on buying financial 102

products. People can search for the products they want. On choosing the product they get redirected to the site of the seller of the financial product. Interviewer: Welcome to McKinsey, you are hired. Key takeaways: You have to manage to do well under pressure. You should have the ability to think on your feet. Give examples like those of payment banks and policybazaar.com given in the interview. Take help from and discuss the case with the interviewer. Think of it as a team project, don’t think of it as only a Q&A session.

ROLAND BERGER CASE 1 Candidate: Smriti Priya Case: Cost Reduction (I was around 6th or 7th to be interviewed. There were 2 rounds of interview. Round 1 was technical and Round 2 was Org fit + Aptitude. Both lasted around 20 mins.) There were 3 panels on 2 people in each panel. My first round interview was with a panel of 1 male and 1 female interviewer. Interviewer 1: Give us a short introduction of yours. Candidate: I am Smriti from Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. I had my under graduation from NIT Allahabad and then worked as an Assistant Manager in NTPC for 3 years. Interviewer 2: Do you think you are intelligent? Candidate: Yes I believe so Interviewer 2: Okay I am giving you a small case to solve. It is an easy one but will depend on you if you find it so. There is an electricity producing company which wants to reduce it’s per unit electricity cost significantly. Can you suggest some ways in which it can do so? Candidate: We can arrive at the solution in different ways. The electricity charges we pay comprises of a significant component for amortization of fixed cost and the rest is variable component for variable costs such as operating and fuel costs plus desired margin. I will start with different cost inputs which go into the final electricity charges. 1 st and foremost factor is the set of fixed costs which incur before an electricity generating unit starts producing electricity. Since huge fixed costs are involved in various processes starting from acquisition of land to erection/construction and procurement of heavy-duty machines, a memorandum of understanding is signed between State Government and the utility company. As per this the State Government agrees to pay pro-rata based fixed cost over certain number of years. If a utility major is able to get land at reasonable cost and finalize good contract deals for say for Steam Generator, Turbo Generator, Cooling Towers, etc. and do reasonable cost saving without compromising on quality, it can reduce the fixed cost component of cost. Besides these contract deals, how efficiently and effectively the project execution team manages different construction and erection activities in project phase also decides how fast a plant will be set up and hence plays an 103

important role in deciding the fixed cost. Since I was working in project execution I can tell you that this is also a deciding factor. The variable cost components are mostly cost of coal, water and operating cost. Cost of coal is a major component and transportation cost is a big addition to that. If a plant is close to coal mines, its variable cost reduces significantly. An electricity major can also go for captive mines or alternatively strike good long-term deals for procurement of coal at reasonable prices. Percentage of time a plant is operational of reduced no. of shutdowns i.e. operational efficiency also has a significant role to play in deciding the cost. Further grilling on intricacies on production of power, engagements with vendors, contracts & procurement and operational aspects of power plant which were very subjective to my profile and resume. Interviewer 2: That will be enough (impressed). Interviewer 1: What is your favorite subject here? Candidate: Financial Accounting Interviewer 1: Tell me the formula for Return on Capital Employed Candidate: Net operating profit / (Total assets – current liabilities) Interviewer 1: What is quick ratio? Candidate: (Current assets – inventory on hand)/ Current liabilities Interviewer 2: What improvements do you expect from your 2 years at IIM Bangalore? Candidate: I would want to emerge as a more confident individual at the end of 2 years Interviewer 1: That will be all. Thanks a lot. I waited for few minutes outside and was called for Round-2. Round-2 panel consisted of India Partner of RB and the HR Manager. Partner was sitting in the balcony and he invited me there. Most of the questions were asked by him only. So I would refer to him as ‘Interviewer’ here. Interviewer: (After glancing through my resume.) You have scored high all your life, did you study all the time? Candidate: No I had many other hobbies too (spoke a bit about them) Interviewer: If you want to change something about the placement process, what would you recommend? Candidate: I would probably make the process more staggered i.e. extend over more no. of days. Interviewer: Describe yourself in 3 words to give me a reason to hire you. Candidate: I am smart, intelligent and diligent. Interviewer: You switched on the light of a room but it didn’t light up. Give me 10 reasons for that. Candidate: May be the filament is damaged or there is city blackout or the mains is switched off or the light is so bleak that I am unable to observe or I just entered from bright sunlight therefore find it dark……(gave 8 such reasons). I cannot think more Interviewer: How many other shortlists you have for the day? (There were 2-3 more HR questions before the interview was concluded) 104

STRATEGY& CASE 1 Candidate: Khizar Sheriff M Case: Market Sizing (The candidate got a sneak peek into the interview room. Waiting at the desk was the Director at the firm – about whom the candidate had done his research. He knew the case would most likely be from the Consumer & Retail Industry.) Interviewer: Hi. Is this the first interview for you? Candidate: Yes, sir. Interviewer: Great. Let’s get started. Our client is a Japanese beverage manufacturing company with global presence. They manufacture & sell jam/marmalade. They want to explore the idea of sourcing ingredients from India. What do you want to know? Candidate: What are the ingredients of the marmalade? Interviewer: Gave a rough break-up of the ingredients Candidate: Is there any particular ingredient they want to source from India? Interviewer: Yes - Orange oil extract. Candidate: Where are they currently sourcing it from, and why not from there? Interviewer: Good question. They are currently sourcing from Mexico. There is a widespread agricultural disease which has affected the quality of oranges, and there are other issues like the drug mafia. Candidate: Okay. What is the yearly requirement of the marmalade? Interviewer: 2 million tonnes of marmalade. Candidate: And what is the percentage of orange oil extract in volume terms? Interviewer: 5% Candidate: So that’s 100,000 tonnes of orange oil extract to be sourced from India. Interviewer: Right. Candidate: What is the yield? (Had to rephrase for easier understanding – how many oranges per unit of orange extract?) Interviewer: 1 tonne of orange will give you around 4 kgs of oil. Candidate: (Did some calculations: (100,000,000 X 1,000 / 4). Arrived at 25 million tonnes of orange as the requirement.) Interviewer: Alright, let’s stop here. Do you have any questions for me? Candidate: Yes. (The candidate had read an article that the interviewer had authored – asked a couple of questions based on that. The interviewer appreciated it.) 105

Key takeaways: 1. Do your research diligently about the top people at the firm 2. Sometimes there need not be a set framework to apply. Just ask the right questions, sequentially 3. Calculations can be slightly tricky during the D-day. Don’t mess up in conversions - tonnes to kgs & millions to thousands etc.

CASE 2 Candidate: Khizar Sheriff M Case: Guesstimate (This was with a Partner at the firm. It was a 40 minute interview, divided into 3 parts.) Part 1 : A 15-20 minute Q&A session solely about candidate’s work experience at TVS Motors. Questions from specific projects - how I went about doing them, etc. The candidate was able to answer all the questions here. Part 2 : Interviewer: Here’s a ball point pen. Tell me how many days it will serve you before the next refill. Candidate: Sure. (Paraphrased the question just to be doubly sure.) Interviewer: Yes. Tell me when you will come to me for a refill. Candidate: I’m going to take a week in my life as an IIMB student. I knew there were two parts to the solution – 1) The rate at which ink is consumed 2) Total no. of pages consumed by an IIMB student in a certain time period. I attacked the 2nd part of the problem first. Made some assumptions, and came up with the following table: Days in a Class Notes Home Prep Notes week Total Pages Total Total Pages Total no. of consumed no. of no. of consumed no. of hours per hour pages hours per hour pages Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Total / week

3 3 3 3 3 0 0

2 2 2 2 2 2 2

6 6 6 6 6 0 0 30

1 1 1 1 1 3 3

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 3 3 11

Total pages consumer per week = 30 + 11 = 41 The candidate took the partner through the assumptions in the table. He was ok with it. 106

Now, for the 1st part of the problem. Take a scale and measure length of ink in refill. Assume it is 15cm (150mm). Write an entire page and check the reduction in length. Assume it is 3mm. We’ve arrived at an equation i.e. 1 page consumes 3mm. Therefore, No. of pages before refill runs dry = Length of ink in refill / Consumption per page (150/3 = 50 pages) So, if you give me the pen on Monday, I will come back to you the next Monday night for a refill. Interviewer: Great. Sounds alright. Candidate: Do you want me to further refine it by including the impact of quizzes, exams and other miscellaneous purposes? Interviewer: No, this is good. We will stop the case here. Part 3: 10 minute discussion on Auto Industry Key takeaways: 1. Identify the variables in an equation quickly. Arrive at the variables by presenting it legibly. (No matter how simple the case might seem) 2. If you have work experience, know all the points in the resume very well - to the point you can defend it to nth level. 3. Be up to date with your industry of experience.

CASE 3 Candidate: Kottana Naveen Kumar Case: Guesstimate (Abridged version) Interviewer: Shall we get started? Candidate: Yes, Sir. Interviewer: Describe three aspects from your resume that I should remember. You have 30 seconds Candidate: 1) The patents that I filed & the self-initiated projects that I did demonstrates my motivation to do something new. 2) The National and International competitions that I won in technology domain indicates the expertise that I built in my area of interest. 3) The multiple musical instruments that I learnt within span of two years, indicates my focused approach and self-learning abilities. Interviewer: Good, let’s quickly do a guesstimate. Estimate the current users of fountain pen in IIM Bangalore. Candidate: (Repeated the statement for cross checking) Can I have 30 seconds to structure my thoughts sir? Interviewer: Sure, go ahead. Candidate: (Thought about the methodology as given below and asked for his approval to proceed further) Method: 1) Categorize people as per their profession 2) Drill down to second level of categorization 107

3) Quantify strength of each category 4) Come up with individual characteristics of each category from which a probability proxy can be assumed. 5) Compute the overall number using both strength and probability. Can I go ahead, sir? Interviewer: Seems fine. Please go ahead. Candidate: Classified all the people staying at IIMB and quantified with available information and reasonable estimations. Examples: 800 PGP students, 200 faculty members, 100 faculty families (remaining stay outside or visiting) etc. Students

Teaching staff

Non-teaching staff

Faculty families

PGP

Senior faculty

High level admin Age > 50 positions

EPGP

Mid-level

Mid-level positions

Others

Associates

Workers

Recruiters

admin Age 20-30

Age < 20

(Try to be exhaustive and ensure mutual exclusivity across categories) Interviewer: You can neglect faculty families and recruiters. Candidate: Sure, sir. Now I will try to assign probability of fountain pen usage in each sub category. Broadly we can assume that the probability of using fountain pen is a function of 1) Personal habits- Someone who is into literature will have more chances of using fountain pen. 2) Position -A senior faculty who is also a board member of various companies will have high probability to maintain such pens. On the other hand, non-teaching staff and someone not in administrative positions will have very low probability. (Wanted to go further, but the interviewer stopped). Interviewer: Ok, got the approach. Tell me if you want to find out how many students are inclined towards literature, how will you arrive at that number? Candidate: (Took a while to think) On campus, there are different clubs and students join these clubs according to their interest. We can take the relevant club membership number as a proxy to represent such people and a small fraction of them might be using such pens Interviewer: Yeah, that can used. But, don’t you think you are missing a platform where you can get data for few sub categories like students & Professors? Candidate: (Thought for a while) I think class room is one place where I meet both professors and students. But, I am not able to come up with what kind of data we can get there. Interviewer: Have you observed any student or professor using a fountain pen in this due course of 2 terms? Candidate: So sir, do you mean that direct observations like this can represent as a sample of that sub category (population) and we can use that for extrapolation? 108

Interviewer: Exactly. Anyway, enough of this. Do you follow news regularly? Candidate: No sir, not after coming to IIM Bangalore. Interviewer: (Started laughing.) Ok tell me “If you become the Prime Minister of India, what will you do to promote business in this country”? Candidate: To my knowledge, Indian tax system is complex and is not business friendly. If I become the prime minister, I will try to implement GST bill as early as possible. Interviewer: Don’t you think Land bill is more important than GST bill? So many projects were stalled because of this. Candidate: Yes sir, that is true. This is also a major issue that has to be resolved. Interviewer: Thank you Naveen. Please wait outside. We will let you know about the second round. Candidate: Sure. Thank you. Key takeaways: When you get such vague guesstimates, don’t panic. They might be just checking whether you can structure the problem or not, whether you can think of decent data proxies for arriving at a number or not etc.

CASE 4 Candidate: Kottana Naveen Kumar Case: Profitability Analysis Interviewer: Quickly tell me why your intermediate score is just 93%. I saw several people from Andhra scoring above 96%. Candidate: I took a two month break just before board exams due to health reasons. And also, those were transition years for me. Before that I used to study in Telugu medium that too in a local government school. But, I agree that I could have done better. Interviewer: Is that a chronical health issue? Candidate: No sir, it was severe jaundice which took me down. Interviewer: Oh, okay. You seem to have decent work-ex in steel industry. Let’s do a case on steel industry itself. You met Mr. Kaushik Basu, CFO Tata Steel Limited (TSL), in a conference. He said that he is observing significant decline in TSL’s profits and asked you to analyse about the same. How you want to go about this? Candidate: Can I take 30 seconds to structure my thoughts? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: Can you please tell me how the other steel companies are doing? Interviewer: They are doing fine. Only TSL is suffering. Candidate: Okay. So, it is not an industry problem but a company specific problem. Interviewer: Yes, absolutely. Candidate: Were the profits declining over a period of time or it was just a one-time decline? 109

Interviewer: They were dropping for the last 4 years. Candidate: Okay. So, can I conclude that it is some kind of chronical issue specific to Tata Steel? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Okay. I would like to start analysing the profit equation of Tata Steel. Interviewer: Do you want to consider entire Tata Steel or you want to narrow down further at this stage? Candidate: (Stuck for a while.) Sir, I think we can narrow down by geography. Is there any specific geography which is not performing well? Interviewer: Tell me what all geographies Tata Steel is operating. Candidate: India, Europe, South East Asia. If I can use the factual information, it is very well known that Europe division of Tata Steel is not doing well. (Then there was a discussion on a few things about Tata-Corus deal. The case went slightly off track but it was an interesting discussion.) Interviewer: Okay. Come back to the profit equation. Let’s analyse profit equation for Europe division. Candidate: Sure. (Explained the standard Profit equation also given below) Profit = Revenue – Cost Revenue = Market Size * Market Share * Price Cost = Raw Material + Labour + Inventory + Transportation + Maintenance + Finance + Marketing + Others Since we have already established that the problem is specific to Tata Steel, I won’t be analysing Market size and prices. Is that fine? (Prices can be firm specific. But in Steel industry, that too in Europe, there won’t be much difference in prices across firms. So, for other industries, you can’t assume price to be industry specific) Interviewer: Yes, seems like a valid assumption. Go ahead. Candidate: Was there any gradual decline in market share of Tata Steel Europe division? Interviewer: No. Candidate: Okay. From the above analysis it is safe to conclude that revenues are not the problem for the firm. So, I would like start analysing the cost side of the equation. Is that fine? Interviewer: Sure. Go ahead Candidate: Started with each cost head. Was there any increase in raw material costs? Interviewer: You tell me. What is happening outside? Candidate: Global Iron ore prices are dropping. Coal is kind of stable. (Discussed a while about global scenario of steel industry, china role etc. Again the case went slightly off track but we came back quickly.) So, raw materials are not a problem as per actual scenario. Can I assume the same for this case? (Never mix your outside knowledge with case until unless they allow you to do so. Because most of the time they want to check your structure, approach and comprehensiveness rather than what you already know) Interviewer: Yes. Anyway, I don’t think we have much time left. Just analyse the maintenance cost head. Candidate: Okay. So, I am assuming that the maintenance costs are going up over a period of time and leading to decrease in profits. Is that correct? 110

Interviewer: Yes. How can you measure the performance of maintenance department? Candidate: % machine utilization, recovery time, Spares inventory turnover ratio are some the metrics which can be used. Interviewer: Do you know what MTBF means? Candidates: Yes, Mean Time Between Failures. This can also be a good metric to measure maintenance performance. Interviewer: Assume that MTBF is going up. Come up with possible recommendations. Candidate: Sure. Please give me a minute to think. Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: 1) For immediate action, analyse all the failures, apply Pareto rule (80-20) and identify the major contributors. Form cross functional teams and assign these problems/failures as DMAIC or DMADIC projects. 2) For long term, study the maintenance philosophy that the firm adopted (Predictive/ Preventive/ Proactive) and assess what modifications are needed. Interviewer: Thank you very much Naveen. It was a nice conversation. Do you have any questions for us? Candidate: No, I don’t have any questions. Thank you very much. Key takeaways: Be prepared about the industry/company that you worked for. Make the interview more like a conversation. If you stuck somewhere, don’t panic. They will help you out. All the best!

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ALL THE BEST FOR YOU PREPARATIONS -Team ICON

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APPENDIX CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES – SUMMERS 2015 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES Graduation Name

Work Experience

Company Branch

College

Company

Duration (months)

Resume Spikes(not in order) One

Two

Gaurav Chauhan

Accenture Strategy

Mechanica l Eng.

IIT Guwahati

Philips, Think3

Work Ex

Awards/ Extra currics

Shrirang Chilapur

Accenture Strategy

Mechanica l Eng.

RVCE

RIL

Int’l internshi p

Acads PoRs

Harini Rao

AT Kearney

Coimbatore Inst. of Tech

EMC

Acads

Well rounded

Rushil Kaul

AT Kearney

Electronics & Comm

NSIT Delhi

ZS Associates

Work Ex

Extracurricular

Kapil Mathur

Bain Company

Civil Eng.

IIT Kanpur

SOM LLP

Work Ex

Awards

Nidhi Rai

Bain Company

Civil Eng.

NITK

Credit Suisse

Work Ex

PoRs

Ankur Agrawal

BCG

Chemical Eng.

IIT Kanpur

Opera Solutions

Acads

Work Ex

Kshitij Chaudhary

BCG

Chemical Eng.

IIT Delhi

Diamond Consultin g

Acads

ExtraCurricular

Vishwas Sharma

BCG

Civil Eng.

IIT Kanpur

ZS Associates

Dept Rank 1

Publication

Meenakshi Singh

GEP

Biomedical Eng.

NIT Rourkela

Sony India 35 software

Dept Rank 1

Issac Jojy

McKinsey Company

Civil Eng.

IIT Madras

ITC

Work Ex

ExtraCurricular

Ishita Kayastha

McKinsey Company

& BA (Econ.& St. Xavier’s Stats)

Acads

Karthik Krishna

McKinsey Company

& Electrical Eng.

IIT Madras

Irunway, Teeyenaar 56 Foods

Acads

PoRs

Mohit Aggarwal

McKinsey Company

& Mechanica l Eng.

IIT Delhi

Citigroup

Work Ex

Social startup

113

Swapnika Nag

McKinsey Company

Sumedh Vidwans Utkarsh Rustogi

Strategy&

114

& Engineerin g Physics

IIT BHU

ZS Associates

Awards

PoRs

Mechanica Roland Berger l

IIT Madras

Sabre Airline Sol.

Work Ex

Publication

Mechanica l

IIT Kharagpur

Caterpilla r

Acads

Work Ex

ACCENTURE STRATEGY

Gaurav Chauhan Interviewer: Hi. How are you? Candidate: Good morning, sir. I am fine. How are you? *pleasantries* Interviewer: So, please tell me something about yourself? *And I did* Interviewer: Let’s talk about a case. So there is a tyre manufacturing company that wants to know whether it should enter India? So how would go about consulting this client. Candidate: Sure, sir. Before I begin, our client is an international tyre manufacturer and wants to know if they should enter the Indian market. We need to formulate a plan for the same. Sir, do we have a time frame in mind? Also, can you tell me a little bit more about our client and its objective in entering Indian market? Interviewer: You can assume it is a big manufacturer with the necessary wherewithal. They want to be a big player in India in the next 5 years. Candidate: Sure, sir. I would begin by doing a market sizing to gauge market attractiveness. Interviewer: Please go ahead. Candidate: I am assuming, the client operates in personal automotive segment and hence I would try to do market sizing for 4 wheelers in India. Is that a fair assumption? Interviewer: Yes, that is fine. Candidate: I will assume India’s population to be roughly 1000 million (eases calculation) which translates to roughly 200 million families assuming a family size of 5. Now, I would break this number equally among the 4 zones, North, West, East and South. Interviewer: Do you think that is a fair assumption? Candidate: Not really. Since, north and east have different population densities. Do you want me to assume different numbers? Interviewer: No, go ahead. Candidate: So assuming roughly 50 million families per zone. Based on census, 30% of our population lives under poverty line and hence can be excluded from this calculation. From the remaining 70%, I would assume that 50% people would only be able to afford 2 wheelers which leaves us with 20% which is roughly 10 million. Assuming, similar number for all zones, I would assume 40 million cars pan India. Interviewer: Don’t you think that is a little too much? Candidate: Yes, sir. I still have to amortize purchase over the lifetime. So assuming a lifetime of 10 years since in India people keep cars longer, I would assume that 40 million / 10 = 4 million new cars are purchased every year. This means a market size of 16 million tyres per annum. Is there a specific market share we are looking at in 5 years? Interviewer: Okay, so that’s our per annum requirement in India. You can assume any market share that a dominant player would aim. 115

Candidate: Assuming market competition and the time it take to grow business, I would assume a market share of 2% in the first year when we start operations, which would linearly reach 20% in the 5th year. This will make us one of the big players in India. Interviewer: Okay. What other things would you consider in this analysis? Candidate: I would also look at the capital requirement for the company – whether they are going for Greenfield or taking over some plant. I would also look at tying up with car companies because they are the ones who would be our main customers. For this, I would look at their current contracts and timelines and look at offering them better deals. Interviewer: And what else? Candidate: I would also look at suppliers for raw material, rubber etc. And see if good deals can be struck at the onset. Interviewer: Any other things? Candidate: I would also look at the regulatory aspect since transport and regulatory associations are active in this area. Interviewer: Good. I think we have covered decent ground. Candidate: Thanks sir. Some questions on resume, post which I was asked to go for the second round. This round was about resume and personals and was taken by the HR head and Partner. __________________________________________________________________________________

Shrirang Chilapur Interview 1 (The interview was a market entry problem with real names of the players, so some industry knowledge was essential. The interviewer was a consultant at the firm. It went on for 45 minutes) The interview starts with pleasantries, the tension of day zero, etc. Interviewer: Let’s start with the case. What do you know about the civil aviation industry in India? Candidate: The civil aviation industry in India is one of the largest in the world, probably the third or fourth largest market. The modernisation of airports, the increase in business and corporates, travel preferences moving towards air travel, and the advent of low cost carriers has led to the boom of this industry. Interviewer: Can you think of a couple of key business drivers in this industry? Candidate: On top of my mind, hassle free booking of tickets, availability of tickets on all common sites, providing good passenger experience, competitive rates, connectivity between cities, adherence to schedule, etc. Interviewer: You spoke about the advent of low cost carriers in India. Can you tell me how it has changed the industry? Candidate: Before 2000s, we had few players, like Deccan and Jet, and a couple of other local carriers. Most of them were expensive to travel with, and flying was for the elite. After that, players like Kingfisher, Indigo, SpiceJet have come in and are providing services at highly competitive prices. Interviewer: How do they do that? 116

Candidate: As per my knowledge, these are the reasons:   

Ease of regulations have decreased costs to enter the market compared to pre 2000s Cost savings on frills – food is paid for separately, baggage costs separately, cramming up more seats leading to lesser leg space, etc. Availability of aircraft renting options – many investment banks are getting into this. This reduces capital investment needed. I think Kingfisher has mostly rented aircraft.

Interviewer: Does Kingfisher fall into the cost saving category? Candidate: No. It falls under the premium category. They differentiate based on service provided, and their prices are higher. Interviewer: What categories of players are there in the market? Candidate: Please allow me to think for a minute. (Doodled with a price vs. service 2x2, that looked somewhat like this and explained the positioning of each airline briefly)

Interviewer: Are you aware of the latest entrants in the airline industry? Candidate: Yes. Tata’s Vistara and AirAsia are planning to enter (they were in induction phase at that time) Interviewer: Supposing the Tata group is your client. How would you advise them to enter the market? Candidate: (After thinking through for a minute’s time) I would like to analyse the Company, the industry, the competitors in that segment and the customer segment it wants to target to start with. Interviewer: We have spoken about the industry. Please elaborate on the rest. 117

Candidate: OK. Firstly, the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines bring together the best capabilities. Here I knew some facts of the Tata group and how it has excelled in most of the businesses it has ventured into, the synergies of the group companies and its inspiration to come in the aviation industry. However, I did not know much about SIA, so I requested the interviewer to help me out, which he did. I then elaborated on how the two companies could have synergies. Interviewer: What strategy do you suggest to tackle competitors and gain customers? Candidate: I have heard that Vistara wants to enter the premium segment. Is that true? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: In that case, the only competitors are Jet and Air India (KF is no more a player). Shall I go ahead? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Let us look at the services Jet offers and the customers it caters to. Jet charges higher prices, but it offers a premium flying experience. It gives free meals, offers quicker check-in times, has India’s best frequent flyer program called Jet-Privilege, and it has a very good footprint. It attracts the business traveller and the wealthy traveller. People look at travelling in Jet as a special experience (compared to the service of Indigo and SpiceJet). So Vistara will be catering to almost the same customer segment. Hence, providing all of the above will be just the first step in building the brand. (I then provided a few additional ideas the carrier could offer, which the interviewer seemed to like) Interviewer: I like your ideas. But do you think it will be enough? Tata has always been associated with lower prices. How about reducing the prices to the level of Indigo/SpiceJet? Candidate: I think lowering the prices will have the following effects:   

Financial burden on the firm, immediately after it launches. It is manageable as Tata has deep pockets, but not sustainable in the long run Users may get confused with Tata’s offering (premium or not-premium) The price point in the minds of consumers will get set at that level for Vistara. So if they increase it later, it may have a negative effect and reduce customers.

Interviewer: So what do you suggest? Candidate: Start off with promotional offers so that the actual prices are visible and the consumers know that it is discount and that the actual prices are similar to Jet and Air India. Sway them with all-round excellent service. Give offers to fly again. (Add 2-3 more minutes of suggestions) Interviewer: Ok that was a great interview. As a personal opinion, do you think that Vistara will do well? Candidate: With the current price war and increasing fuel and airport costs, almost no player is making profits, except probably jet. If anyone has the deep pockets to enter the industry, it is the Tatas. Even then, I don’t see them making any profits for the first few years. Interviewer: OK thank you. (Interview 2 was with a Partner on the crude oil market; the case was on a public sector firm’s future expansion strategy: expanding in India vs. expanding abroad. This was asked because of my experience in the oil industry) (Overall takeaways: Industry knowledge is very important, at least to an extent where you can have a decent discussion. Prepare for this in groups. Especially know your relevant industries 118

(the ones you have an undergraduate degree in, or worked in) like the back of your hand. Always ask questions when you assume. Let the interviewer know if you don’t know a particular piece of info, it’s not a crime. He will gladly provide the relevant information. Structuring your answer is as important as the answer itself. It helps you get brownie points, especially if your answer is slightly out of track) ____________________________________________________________________________

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AT KEARNEY

Harini Rao Interview I – Numbers Case Caselet: A Hypermarket chain is planning to open a store in Bannerghatta. Estimate the expected monthly sales in the first month. (This is a quant based hypermarkets case. They were looking at the breadth of factors considered, not the depth) Candidate: First I would like to estimate the demand. This can be approached at by considering the population of Bangalore , which is about 4.2 million people. We can now narrow this population by splitting it in 3 ways: Area Split, Age Split, and Income Split. Should I continue with this approach? Interviewer: Yes, please go ahead. Candidate: Considering the area split first, Bangalore can be divided into 10 major localities, including Bannerghatta. Assuming an equal distribution of population among these 10 localities, Bannerghatta will have 1/10th of the population, i.e. 0.42 million. Now, assuming the same age split statistics apply to this region, as those of India, I would consider the 18 to 60 years old population segment. This makes up about 50% of the population. I am not considering people below the age of 18 years, because they either have no money, or don’t spend it in hypermarkets. I am not considering people above 60 years, because they generally make their purchases from nearby stores, instead of hypermarkets. Are these assumptions good to go with? Interviewer: Sure, we can work with these. Candidate: Okay, so this leaves us with a population of 0.21 million. Now, using the income split, 40% of this population will be in the middle and higher income group, which should be the relevant consumer base for a hypermarket. This brings it down to 84000 people. Dividing this number by 4, we get the number of families (assuming 4 to be the average size of a family). Thus, 21000 families. Now, assuming that a family spends about Rs.2000 – 3000 on groceries in a month. Interviewer: Let’s work with Rs.2000. Candidate: Sure. We should also consider that people buy only those groceries from a hypermarket that can be stored at least over a week, for example, vegetables, pulses, sugar, etc. They would typically not buy milk or bread from a hypermarket. Also, they purchase other products like electronics. (The interviewer concluded the analysis here) Interviewer: Okay, that should give us a good estimate of the potential demand. What else would you consider? Candidate: We should look at the footfall to the store. Are there any other hypermarkets in the area? Interviewer: Yes, there is one another hypermarket. It is a comparable brand. Candidate: Then we should divide the target group by 2. However, we could also consider that during the first month, the new hypermarket would conduct several promotion activities. People 120

will be attracted by these activities and also by curiosity to check the new store. Thus, for the first month, I would split the target group 60% to 40% between the new and the old hypermarkets respectively. Interviewer: Great job. That should sufficient to estimate the sales. Interview II – Creative Game Interviewer: I will give you a statement, a situation. You have to come up with a back story that explains the situation. You can ask me 20 questions, to which I will only answer in a Yes or a No. Statement: There is a naked man in the middle of the desert with a straw in his hand. (I approached it by dividing the statement into 3 parts: 1. Why is the man naked? 2. Why is he in the middle of the desert? 3. Why does he have a straw in his hand? I asked questions trying to solve the above parts step by step) Candidate: Is he alone? Interviewer: Yes (I tried to then answer the question, why is alone?) Candidate: Was he there with a group before? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Was he left behind by force? Interviewer: No Candidate: Did he lose a bet? Interviewer: No (I realised this may be related to the straw) Candidate: Is this piece of straw short? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Were these people in some difficulty, where they picked straws, and the person with the shortest straw stayed back? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Did they have a mode of transportation, and did the rest of the group leave in the same vehicle? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Thus, N came and (N-1) left. Is that correct? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Did the vehicle have a technical failure? Interviewer: Yes, but this information might be misleading. Candidate: Was there anything else around him? Like other people’s clothes? Interview: Yes, but again this information could be misleading. You have solved 90% of the case. What is your hypothesis of what must have happened? 121

Candidate: There is a group of people who came in a car. The petrol tank must have started leaking. So, they needed clothes to stuff the tank, to stop the leak. They must have picked straws to decide whose clothes that would be. Probably, the weight of the passengers was also a factor, so they had to leave the guy behind. (Now I think the situation must have been this: The problem wasn’t with the fuel tank, but may be a tire was losing air. They must have decided to offload weight from the car. So they offload some weight every few kilometres. First, the suitcases, then, the clothes that they were wearing. Then finally they picked straws to decide which guy should be left behind.) Interview III – Hypermarkets Case (not quant based) Interviewer: The sales of a hypermarket have tanked. Could you think of the possible reasons? (I thought this meant that the sales have decreased. However, this in fact meant that the sales have stagnated.) Candidate: Have the sales decreased only for us, or for others as well? Interviewer: No, the sales have not gone down. They have stagnated. Candidate: Have the sales stagnated only for us? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Have the sales stagnated only for this branch? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Have there been any major changes in the last one year that led to this? Interviewer: No. Don’t think of the typical, obvious reasons. Can you think of something else? Candidate: Have there been more competitors that have sprung around us? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Has the footfall stagnated, or have the purchases gone down? Interviewer: The footfall hasn’t increased year on year. (I concluded that this means that competitors are setting up in newer malls with high footfall) Candidate: Is customer service a problem? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Is the industry as a whole losing out? Interviewer: No. Candidate: Is the variety of the stock a problem? Interviewer: No. Candidate: Is inventory planning a problem? Interviewer: Yes, the store is experiencing frequent stock outs. Candidate: Is parking a problem where the store is located? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Is promotions a problem? Is the store not promoting itself enough? 122

Interviewer: No. Okay, these problem areas are well rounded. Thank you. __________________________________________________________________________________

Rushil Kaul Case 1: Your client is an Indian automobile manufacturer. They have recently doubled their production capacity...but are not happy with their sales in the Indian market. Their market share has fallen from 20% to 12% in the last few years and India is a stagnating market. Please suggest what factors you would look at while expanding to overseas markets. Approach: The problem statement was pretty long but the case was a simple market entry analysis really. Candidate: Our client is an Indian automobile manufacturer. Despite doubling their production capacity, they are faced with stagnating sales and their market share has gone down by 8% (down to just 12%). Now they want to expand to overseas markets and would like our help in analysing which markets are attractive. Is there any other objective? Interviewer: Nope that is the only objective. Candidate: Alright. I just need a few clarifications regarding our client. What kind of automobiles do they manufacture? Interviewer: For the purpose of this case, only consider commercial 4-wheelers. Candidate: Okay. And in the Indian market, are there any particular regions where they have a very strong presence (North, South etc.)? I’m asking this to understand if expanding in India is also an option for reviving sales. Interviewer: They have a strong national presence. And no. I don’t want you to think of ways of expanding in India. Just focus on expanding to foreign markets. What are some of the factors that you will consider? Give me a generic approach first. Candidate: Sure. Just give me a minute to structure my thoughts. Interviewer: Of course. Take your time. Candidate: (after about a minute). Alright to assess the attractiveness of any market, I would want to look at 4 key things: 1)

Understanding the Market: i) What is the size of the market? ii) What is the growth like? iii) Are there any trends?

Customer Analysis: i) Which segment am I going to target? ii) What is my value proposition and what are the possible substitutes?

Competitor Analysis: i) The number and size of all competitors

Barriers to entry: Government Regulations, Suppliers, distributors, Capital required etc.

After that I’d also want to look at how I’m going to enter: 1)

Whether I want to start from scratch

Acquire a smaller player

Have a Joint Venture

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Interviewer: Good. Now assume that we have market data available (population, number of automobiles sold, trends in the automobile industry, regulations) for all the major countries in the world. How will you go about identifying the right country to enter? Assume that the client only wants to enter one market/country right now. Candidate: (after thinking for 5-10 seconds): So the first thing I’d want to look at is the size of the market. In the sense I would want to know whether the demand in the market is large enough for us to enter. Can you tell me what our current production capacity is and how many cars are we looking to sell overseas? Interviewer: Assume that 2 million cars are sold in India every year. And that our initial production capacity was 200,000 cars a year. Candidate: Alright. Can I assume our market share will stay constant at 12%? Interviewer: Yes we expect it to stay at that level in the foreseeable future. Candidate: Okay. So that means 12% of 2 million. We should be able to sell some 240,000 cars in India. Our production capacity is now double and stands at 400,000. Would it be fair then to assume that we wish to sell around (400,000 – 240,000) = 160,000 overseas? Interviewer: Yes. How will you proceed further? Candidate: Since we’re an established player in India and have 12% market share, optimistically, even if we capture 5% of a new market, we would have done extremely well. So I’d only look at markets that are greater than 20 times 160,000 (automobiles sold per year). Interviewer: 5% is a little too optimistic but I like the approach. Okay now assume only 5 markets are big enough. – U.S. UK, China, Japan and Australia. How will you decide now? Candidate: We should look at our target segment of consumers? What kind of price range do we want to play in. Also look at what competitors exist in that segment? (went into a bit of a monologue here about how we should assess customer preferences in different markets) Interviewer: Assume that we sell cars in a variety of price ranges and all markets are equally competitive. Would you want to consider anything else? Candidate: Okay I’d take a closer look at barriers to entry. What kind of government regulations exist and what are my supplier options. Interviewer: Okay the U.S. and Australia have left hand drive vehicles only and we don’t want to modify our production lines to accommodate for that. In the U.K. , you have to set up your own manufacturing facility is you want to sell cars. In China, there is no such restriction but you have to procure 50% of the parts from local Chinese suppliers. In Japan it’s the same except you only have to procure 20% of the parts from local Japanese suppliers. Candidate: Hmm. I guess that rules out U.S. and Australia completely. I guess it doesn’t make too much sense to set up a completely new manufacturing facility just now right after we just doubled our capacity so that rules out U.K as well (interviewer nods). Procuring 50% parts from China may just bring down our manufacturing costs (if we are fine with the quality) but it might upset our relationships with suppliers in India. I guess with this information, Japan seems like the most feasible target market right now. Interviewer: Very good. That’s correct. Now just go through all your notes, take some time to think and tell me if you had to solve the case again, would you change the order of the questions you asked me to get to the answer.

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Candidate: Yes I would first begin with barriers to entry (especially government regulations first). That’s the first and most important filter that should be applied I guess because it could completely rule out some markets that are probably big enough or have the correct target consumers but are just not feasible to enter because of regulations. So we won’t waste any time analysing size and trends when it’ll eventually be pointless. Then I’d go with the order of questioning that I followed. Interviewer: Very good! __________________________________________________________________________________

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Kapil Mathur Interview 1 – A Numbers Case Caselet: This case is about a tech startup in 2009. The target customer segment is the ageing population in the developed world (US, UK, Australia etc.). Our client will provide tech support for laptop users in these countries by setting up a call center in India. We will market our service on the internet and the clients can call us on the toll free 1-800 number listed on our landing page. We will help them to fix the issue with their laptops over the phone. How will you go about pricing this service? Candidate: [I asked a few questions about the company, its business model and value prop., existing competition etc. to understand the context for further analysis. Interviewer gave general information about what kind of services Dell provides when you buy a laptop from them and for how long. He also explained the kind of issues we can tackle over the phone – say someone accidentally uninstalled a driver, we can help them fix it. Then I listed down three ways to price the service – benchmarking with comptt., cost-based, and value-based – and asked for relevant numbers]. Interviewer: I want you to focus on cost-based pricing. Here are the numbers, listen carefully.    



Search engine marketing will cost us $0.5/click each time someone clicks on our ad. that shows up in search results. This click will take you to landing page which provides our toll-free number to call on. 1/10 people who visit the page will call us. When someone calls us for the first time, we will follow a ‘serve to sell’ strategy, which means that we will solve their current problem for free and then we will make a pitch to them to buy our service. Each call of this kind will last 1 hour long on average and will cost us $12/call (everything included). 1/10 first-time callers will subscribe to our service. Once a caller subscribes to our service, he will call us 6 times a year on average. Each of those calls will be around 1 hour long and will cost us $10/call to serve

Candidate: I quickly calculated the cost of serving one subscriber annually: = [0.5*100 + 10*12 + 1*10*6] = $230/subscriber/yr. [The interviewer specifically asked me not to write down any calculations and just do mental math] How much margin do we want to keep on revenue/subscriber? Interviewer: 20% Candidate: Ok then we should charge $287.5/subscriber/yr for our service Interviewer: Good. Now, say Dell sees us providing this service and has decided to soon (in a year or so) enter the space and provide the exact same service at $225/subscriber/yr. To compete with Dell, you’ll need to bring down your price to $200/subscriber/yr. How do you stay profitable now? Candidate: [Profit = Revenue – Cost]. I can start looking at cutting down my costs first. Interviewer: Of course, assume you are barely able to meet your costs at this price. What else?

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Candidate: I’ll start looking at revenue then. [For a start, Revenue = price x vol. x variety. I started jotting down several ideas, thinking out loud and rejecting them if they didn’t make sense. Narrowed down to 2 ideas]. Variety brings to mind product mix. We should look at alternate revenue streams i.e. cross-selling Interviewer: Exactly. What would you cross sell? Candidate: Anti-viruses, other software that enhance performance of laptops [gave several examples.] Interviewer: Cool, What else? Candidate: Well, the other idea in my mind is that we should focus on renewal or repeat customers – making them stick with us. Interviewer: [Smiling] Why? Candidate: Cost of serving them will be lower – no need for initial clicking cost or ‘serve to sell’. In fact, the cost of serving renewed subscriber will be just $60/yr. [Then gave several ideas about how we can make them stick with us and not move to Dell. Some more mental calculations on pricing for renewed subscriber]. Interviewer: Great, can you summarize? Candidate: [I did the same. The focus here was on mental math and ideation] _________________________________________________________________________

Nidhi Rai Case: PE Client – BPO Industry problem Interviewer: Hello Nidhi. How are you doing today? First case interview of the day. Are you nervous? Candidate: I doing very well. A little nervous but I think that’s a good thing. How are you? Interview: I am doing great. Very excited to be back on campus after almost a decade.(Continues with a lot of small talk about himself). So tell me about yourself. Candidate: (Give my rehearsed introduction.) A little cross questioning about my hobbies is done. Interview: OK. So let’s get started. I have a case for you. The problem statement is - A PE Client wants to start a 2 week project based in the US. They are keen on investing in a BPO in Gurgaon which is the 2nd largest player in its space (Commercial dealing and Finance). The general concern is about the macro economic conditions in the country. They believe that man power is going to be an issue wrt to quality and numbers. They believe that this is a risk. Evaluate the risk and return. Candidate: (I repeat the main points of the problem for clarity and ask for a minute to think over the issue) Candidate: Could you tell me a little more about the PE client? Interviewer: Sure. The PE firm is a mid-sized firm. This is their first investment in India and for the next 3-4 years they plan to turn their focus to the IT industry. Candidate: Could you tell me a little more about the BPO they are looking to invest in? 127

Interviewer: This is a diversified firm. They generally recruit graduates and have a thorough training program. Candidate: Thank You. Could you also tell me how the BPO Industry is doing in India. Interviewer: So currently the industry requires 1 mn graduates annually. 20% is met by lateral recruitments and the rest are fresh graduates. Candidate: So I understand that if we can size the market of the fresh graduates and highlight the risks that the PE client may have and allay their fears we will be able to convince the client to invest in India. Interviewer: Correct. So can you size the market for me? Candidate: Sure. So I would like to work with sizing the fresh graduate market first. I would like to assume that the total number of metro, tier 1, 2 and 3 cities in India is 25. I would like to take the city of Bangalore because I am comfortable with it and to simplify it I will divide it into North, South, East and West. From this I will pick South Bangalore. Interviewer: That sounds good. Now how will you estimate the graduates? Candidate: I would like to assume that there are 5 big colleges with a graduating batch of 500 each and 15 medium and small sized colleges with a graduating batch of 300 each in South Bangalore. This gives me a total of 7000 fresh graduates in South Bangalore. Interview: Alright. That sounds like a fair number. How will you proceed? Candidate: Would it be safe for me to assume that of the big colleges only 20% would be interested in a BPO college. Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Ok. So that gives me 500 fresh graduates will to join the BPO. From the small and medium, we can assume that 60% of the graduates are engineers, 20% of the graduates are doctors and others make up the rest of the category. I would like to assume that 50% of the engineers may be interested in joining, 20% of the medical students might be interested and the BPO recruiting team will be interested in only the top 20% of the other colleges. This gives me a number of 3000 people in South Bangalore. This would give me a total number of 3,00,000 graduates available for recruiting by the BPOs. Interviewer: Ok. That sounds right. Now can you tell me what we can tell the client? Candidate: So with 3,00,000 fresh graduates available, we can safely assume that the crème de la crème will be interested in joining the top BPOs. Since our client is interested in the 2nd largest player in the market, they should not face any issues with regard to the quality and headcount of employees. Interviewer: Alright. Sounds good. So how do you think this case went? Candidate: (After some thought) I think it was okay. Interview: I think it was very good. We’ll see you in the next round. Thank You Candidate: Thank You ___________________________________________________________________________

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

Ankur Agrawal 128

Here is the detailed dialogue I had with the BCG recruiters during the 3 case interviews in Summers. I have tried to produce a narrative of the events that occurred on the D-Day to highlight the overall experience and also in between I have pointed out the key takeaways for someone who is preparing for case interviews. Interview 1 I first interviewed with a Senior Principal in the firm. Given it was the first interview of the day, I was both excited and anxious, however the interviewer was friendly enough and made sure I was at ease in the beginning itself. Interviewer: Hi Ankur! Have a seat, how are you feeling? Would you like some tea? Candidate: No, Thank you. I am fine. Interviewer: Ankur, I can see in your resume that you have been academically very bright throughout. So, what is the secret to that? Candidate: Sir, I have always been very hard working and I have always enjoyed performing better than others. Also, my school teachers have been instrumental in shaping up my confidence that I can go way ahead in life. Interviewer: Okay. I have heard about your school, CMS. What is so special about it? Candidate: Sir, there is a lot of focus on providing value based education which instils leadership and confidence in the students. Also, the school aims at holistic experience including international stints. (Proudly) It has the record for the largest number of students in a single city..! Interviewer: That’s great! So, Ankur tell me one thing you remember about being Head Boy of your school. Candidate: Sir, of all the activities I remember my active involvement in the International Mathematics convention which saw our school winning lot of competitions, something that was unprecedented. Takeway: Be prepared to speak about each and everything mentioned in your resume. Interviewer: Okay Ankur. Should we do a short case analysis? If yes, which sector would you like to work on IT hardware or Defence? Candidate: Sir, I would prefer IT industry. Equally clueless, I chose one of them. Usually, such choices are not given by interviewers. Interviewer: Our client is an IT service provider and they have hired us to cut down on their costs. What all can be done to improve the situation? Candidate: Okay, to be clear our client is a major IT service provider and their costs have to be reduced. Sir, just to get more perspective, is there any reason behind the client’s strategy to reduce costs. Have the costs increased in the past or the industry has become price competitive. Interviewer: That’s right, in the recent couple of years, many competitors have increased and the price points have gone down. The client is looking to bring down costs to maintain its margins. Candidate: Okay. That is helpful. Major costs in software development include hardware costs, employee costs, SG&A costs, rent/lease etc. I believe hardware and employee costs form the major portion of the company cost sheet. Interviewer: Let us look into the employee costs. Candidate: Sure sir. I would like to ask if some analysis has been done to assess if the client has optimum number of employees in the organisation basis the number of projects in pipeline. 129

Interviewer: The CEO communicated to me that there are 60 projects already in pipeline and they are falling short of bandwidth to complete them. Candidate: Interesting, so to summarise the client has a pipeline of projects which it is unable to take up and it is also hurt by high employee costs. (Thinking aloud) Interviewer: Precisely. Candidate: Is the company able to deliver projects in time. If no, then there is some issue with the productivity of the employees. Interviewer: Good! The client has faced significant delays in its project delivery. Candidate: Sir, can I assume that manpower utilisation as the metric to evaluate productivity of companies in the sector? Also, I wanted to know if other competitors in the industry are facing a similar issue with delay in projects. If it is a client specific problem then by improving the utilisation cost per project can be controlled and more projects can be completed per year. Interviewer: No, the industry is in its growth stage and there is no delay of projects. The productivity of our client is lesser than competitors and our client wants to know how they can improve the utilisation and churn out more projects annually. Yes, you can use the utilisation matrix to analyse the productivity. Candidate: Sure sir. Do we have any information on the current productivity levels of the organisation? Interviewer: I would like you to estimate that for me. Candidate: Sir, I would need data on the # of employees in the organisation and the time required to complete each project. Interviewer: Here is the data you need for the analysis.

He showed to me a sheet of paper with the below information. # of hours project (S1)

per # of hours project (S3)

Design

Development

110

Testing

Cost per hour

100

Team size

150

Projects completed in 130 2014

130

per # of hours project (S2)

per

Candidate: Sir, couple of observations here - It appears that S1 is the senior-most class of employees since they are able to complete the same project in lesser hours. Also, the S1 class of employees seem to be much more efficient than the S2, S3 class. There is only incremental difference in the performance in the S2, S3 class of software developers. Sir, I would like to ask if the employees are specialised in either of Design, Development or Testing. And the # of hours in the sheet given is the ideal time or the actual time taken by the employees? Takeaway: HR cases can in involve calculations too… Interviewer: No, the employees are well versed with each stage of software development and all 60 of them can take up any task. Each project is allotted to either of S1, S2, S3 class of employee. Aforementioned gives the ideal time which an average an employee takes to complete a project. Candidate: Sir can I take a minute to calculate the total capacity of projects that can be completed by the employees given their performance levels. Based on the actual projects done, we can arrive at the utilisation level. Interviewer: Sure, go ahead. Candidate: Assuming 10 working hours for each day and 250 working days in a year, the total man hours available is 2500 per employee. S1

Time for 1 project (hours)

170

230

260

Projects per employee

~15

~11

~10

Ideal no of projects

150

220

300

completed 90%

70%

30%

Total cost per hour

1000

1600

1800

Cost per annum(INR)

25 L

40 L

45 L

Overall utilisation

~60%

% utilisation projects)

(based

Candidate: Based on the above calculations, it is clear that the overall utilisation of the company is hurt by the inexperience and under performance of the S3 class of employees. Interviewer: So, what would be your suggestion to the company at this stage? Candidate: I would give 3 recommendations to the company: 1. Invest in the training of the S3 class of employees to improve their efficiency and reduce the time taken by S2, S3 employees in completing a project. 2. Hire better talent through campus recruitments, job portals. 3. Allocate projects based on the competency of individuals to increase efficiency of the employees. 131

Interviewer: There has already been significant investment done in training & development of employees. What else can we do here? The employees are trained extensively in each aspect of software development. Candidate: thinking with a pause… Candidate: May be the company should switch from a project based model to a functional model whereas the employees are focussed in a particular stage of software development and develop a competence over a period of time. Interviewer: Can you draw an organisational structure for the same? Candidate: The organisation structure will be as drawn.

Based on initial evaluation and interest, the employees can be ask to involve only in either of Design, Development or Testing stage. Working on design of multiple projects for the same function would exponentially improve the learning curve of the S2, S3 employees thus reducing the time in which they complete their task. Also, the more experienced S1 employees can be utilised in the project management and they can oversee the effort of the developers involved in design, development and testing phase of a project. Job enhancement based on experience would be an incentive for employees to work hard and perform better. Interviewer: Thanks Ankur. You can wait outside. Interview 2 Note: This case experience rather than practice should be taken as reference as to how to handle the situation when you are really grappling with the case This one was with a Senior Partner in the firm in the practice area of Financial Services. Interviewer: Good Morning Ankur, take a seat. How has the day been for you so far? Candidate: Thank you sir! The day has been good so far. This is my second interview of the day and I think my first interview went well. Interviewer: Okay. You have been editor to college magazines. Do you also write? Candidate: Yes, sir I write sometimes however, mostly that is for my own sake. I kind of use it as a medium to give vent to my thoughts. Interviewer: Good. Ankur, do you use a debit card? Candidate: Yes sir. I do have a SBI card. I use it quite often. Interviewer: And do you have other savings bank accounts apart from SBI? Candidate: Yes, sir I have an account with PNB, however I do not use it that often. 132

Little did I realise that the case revolved around the above statement of mine. Interviewer: Our client is a large PSU Bank and is losing out on profitability. We have been hired to solve the problem for me. They have currently 20 million savings/fixed deposit account. Takeaway: Take very careful note of each and every data thrown at you. Candidate: Sir, is this an industry wide phenomenon or only our client’s profitability has declined? Interviewer: No. Let us just focus on the client only. Candidate: Sure. So, can I assume that the interest rates and CRR regulations etc. are same for competitors and there have been no major changes? Interviewer: Yes, absolutely. Candidate: Sir, since this is about profitability I would like to first look at the revenues and then the costs to understand what could be troubling the company. Interviewer: ok. Candidate: Sir, give me a moment to lay down the revenue and cost drivers for a bank.

Candidate: (showed him the paper), Sir these are the areas I would like to inspect to assess the profitability. Interviewer: (little unsure…) Okay, let’s go ahead with your approach. Later I realised it was a cookie cutter not at all suitable for the context. Candidate: Sir, I am trying to understand if the interest income from our investments/loans has declined or there is a decrease in the brokerage income in the past few years. This might have affected the company’s bottom line. Interviewer: I don’t think that has been a problem for us. In fact, our loan portfolio has increased with the launch of the loan advisory portal. Candidate: Sir, have the overall revenues declined over the past year or it has increased? I should have asked this first before jumping onto the revenue drivers. Interviewer: I think our top line has been steady. Look, Ankur I think the case is not really going in the right direction. Can you rethink about it! I thought he is just trying to create pressure so wanted to complete the analysis of cost drivers as well. 133

Candidate: Sir, should I look into the cost drivers? I might find something there. Interviewer: (almost uneasy….) Go ahead! Candidate: Sir, has the default ratio increased, have we written off more debt this year than previous years? Interviewer: Look Ankur, I think we have spent a lot of time and we are not really going anywhere. Would like you to take a deep breath and think of an alternative approach. If it helps let me tell you that the total money currently deposited lying in the savings bank account of the client is INR 5000 Cr. Candidate: Okay… Can I take a minute to pause here….. Though the interviewer was calm and supportive, I guess I was now under a little pressure (okay may be I was totally clueless and nervous as to what I should do!) I spotted the no of accounts opened written in the corner of the page and suddenly realised I had not used that information at all. Candidate: Sir, INR 5000 Cr deposits and 20 million accounts that makes INR 25000 deposit per person. Interviewer: (same uneasiness…) Ankur, are you sure of the figure! Candidate: (checking the math...) Sorry, sir it is 2500 per person. Now that I am looking at this number, I think I completely went wrong on my approach. Interviewer: okay! Now that you have realised that can you quickly tell me where we went wrong, what would be the new approach and what would be your hypothesis. We don’t have much time left. Candidate: Sure sir, I think I missed out on the customer perspective totally in the beginning and our how our services might have affected our old/new customer base. My alternative approach in that would have been to understand the various customer segments and see if we are losing out on our customer share either the existing ones or the new ones. Interviewer: Customers is fine but you still haven’t got it completely. What if I tell you that new customers are daily opening our account? Candidate: In that case, as I calculated earlier INR 2500 per month means that they are not saving enough money in our bank. To further diagnose the problem, I would like to isolate accounts which have been dormant for more than a year. Some of the possible reasons for this could be: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Poor service as compared to competitors Low Interest rates Poor income of a certain set of customers Alternate investment options for customers

Interviewer: Now we are talking sense. Can you also tell me how dormant accounts could be hurting the bank? Candidate: Sir, this would happen in three ways: 1. This might hurt the liability side of the balance sheet of the bank. Less deposits would require the bank to look for alternate sources of funds for asset management. 2. Bank’s liquidity and solvency would also be affected. 3. The bank would unnecessarily bear the cost of carrying dormant accounts. Interviewer: Thanks Ankur. You can go now. 134

I was fairly confident that the interview could not have gone worse. The confident admission of wrong approach and laying down the alternate one would have been possibly my saving grace because I was asked for a third interview. Takeaway: Do not lose temper and never let nervousness come on your face. It is not really necessary to crack the case, most of us don’t manage that in 20-25 minutes. Important is to keep your calm, use your common sense and keep looking for hints from the Interviewer. Also, try to think aloud so that the Interviewer can steer you in the right direction if required. Interview 3 After waiting for about 10 minutes, I was escorted to meet a Partner in the firm. I was told he was from IIM Bangalore and had recently made a Partner. Also, I was given a feedback that I need to buckle up on my quantitative skills and I was always mindful of that during the interview. Interviewer: Ankur, Good to see you! Without wasting any time let us get to business immediately. Our client is a pharmaceutical major in and is looking to enter the snow melter liquid chemical market in US. They need us to estimate the market size and how they should enter the market. Candidate: Sir, to make sure I have understood the context clearly, our client is a pharmaceutical company and they are considering expansion into snow melter liquid chemical market in the US. I am required to estimate the markets size, analyse the current market players and decide whether to enter or not enter the market. Interviewer: That’s correct! Candidate: Sir, if I may inquire any particular reason why they want to enter the market. Interviewer: They think that there is a large opportunity in the market since the market share is quite fragmented, however they are not sure how big the opportunity size is. Candidate: Okay. I would like to first like to take a shot at estimating the market size and then think of the business opportunity. I would like a moment please to jolt down. Interviewer: Sure, go ahead and let me know what information you need. A minute’s pause… Candidate: Sir, I would first understand the market area – regions where there is regular snowfall and the product is most likely to be used. Areas with scanty snowfall are less likely to use the product as the weather would self-clear the snow (Demand side estimation). Then, based on the average snowfall in these locations (thickness * volume) I would estimate the amount of snow that needs to be thawed. Based on the frequency of usage per year and the amount of liquid needed to thaw per unit volume of snow, I should be able to estimate the volume of chemical needed in the market. Please let me know if this approach is correct.

Volume of liquid needed = Area * snowfall amt. (height) * frequency (per annum) * Liquid /unit snow Interviewer: Okay. How do we reach to an approximate area where it snows heavily? 135

Candidate: Well I am aware of approximate area of India and I would assume that USA is roughly 3-4 times our country’s size. Further I would need a weather report indicating areas with above average rainfall. Interviewer: So, can you calculate the area for me. I knew it was coming! Candidate: Sir, assuming India is a double triangle shaped body, Area = 2* (1/2*base*height). Base = East to west length = 2500 km Length = (North *South length)/2 = 1200 km Area of India = 3,000,000 km2 Area of US = 10, 000,000 km2 Sir, do we have the reports or should I assume a fraction of the area would be our target market? Takeaway: Due to paucity of information, you may have to take assumptions, however before assuming make it clear you know the real source of data. In some cases, interviewers do carry necessary reports and date. Interviewer: Assume 70% area is under consideration. The snow is thawed 20 times in a region on an average, average rainfall is 100 cm and per unit (metre cube) snow 10 mL of liquid is required. Can you quickly estimate the volume needed every year? Candidate: Sure sir. =7000000*1000*1000*1*20*0.01 =7000 billion *20 * 0.01 litres = 1400 billion litres Sir, what is the cost per litre of this liquid. Interviewer: 6$ per litre. Candidate: Okay, that makes the overall industry roughly 10$ billion in size. Interviewer: You sure, the industry size is this big. Check for the zeroes. Candidate: (Checking the calc. for moment) Yes, sir I think I am right. Interviewer asking you to recheck your calculations can be either a check of your confidence or you might have actually fluked. In my case, I knew he was checking my confidence. Interviewer: So, Ankur what is your understanding should our client enter into the market or not? Candidate: Sir, I would like to understand the current distribution of players. Who are the major players and what is the industry growth rate? Interviewer: The industry has 8-10 players currently and none of them have a share of more than 8%. There is not much happening in the industry, margins have also saturated. Candidate: Okay. Interesting! I am trying to understand that given a fragmented industry, our client might want to consolidate its position and emerge as the market leader. However, I am bound to think otherwise given the industry has reached its maturity. Interviewer: That is correct. 136

Candidate: Sir, I think I need to take a pause to assess if I have analysed the complete situation. Interviewer: Sure! Takeaway: Be prepared to apply frameworks in between of the case. In this situation, I had talked about the industry and the companies but forgot to ask about the Product because I did not propose any framework while discussing. A possible structure to think about market entry could be as follows:

Candidate: Sir, I am trying to think why the company wants to enter the industry. Is the product that they are offering any different? Interviewer: There you are, so our client has come up with a patented solution in an independent research which thaws snow using lesser amount and this would bring down the cost of thawing. So, given the scenario, how should the client enter the market? Candidate: The client could either enter independently, acquire small sized players in the market, or do a joint venture with one of the major competitors. I would suggest given the inexperience of the client and the Industry and the strong R&D support, it would be better if the client goes into a Joint Venture with a couple of the existing local players using their B2B local distribution network and building strong product capabilities through its R&D focus. Interviewer: Great! Ankur. That will be all. You can wait outside. _________________________________________________________________________

Kshitij Chaudhary Interview 1: I had heard that the interviewers generally start with some chit chat to reduce the candidate’s stress level. This is generally true but in my case, the interviewer decided to directly start with a case. So one should be mentally prepared for this. The case was a profitability case for a hotel franchisor. Interviewer: So Kshitij, I have gone through your CV. Let’s assume we know each other and directly get started with the case. Candidate: Sure. (It was a little unnerving to not get a chance to introduce myself) Interviewer: The client is the CEO of a hotel franchisor with revenues close to $600 mn. They are seeing declining revenues. The client wants us to find out why the revenues are falling and what can be done to revert this. 137

Candidate: (I confirmed the problem statement and then went on to get some information to understand the context better). I would like to ask a couple of questions before I begin to solve the case to understand the client and the context. Interviewer: Sure Kshitij. Candidate: Is the client the owner of a hotel who has taken a franchisee or is he the franchisor? Interviewer: He is the franchisor. Candidate: Where is the client located? And what kind of hotel segments are we looking at? I mean Budget hotels, 5 star hotels, 4 star etc. Interviewer: The client is located in the USA and the franchise deals in budget hotels and the lower end of the spectrum at that. Candidate: Thank you. Since when has the client been facing declining revenues? Interviewer: 2-3 years. Candidate: I would like to take a couple of minutes to structure my thoughts Interviewer: Sure Kshitij. Take your time Candidate: (I thought for a couple of minutes and then came up with a simple structure). So the revenues for a franchisor are a function of Average Revenue earned from a franchisee and the number of hotels it has signed a franchisee deal with. (I drew the above structure and showed it to the interviewee). Interviewer: Ok Candidate: The revenues can decline if the average revenue per franchisee falls or if the number of franchisees signed fall. Interviewer: That sounds right Candidate: So have we seen a decline in Avg. Revenue per franchisee? Interviewer: No Candidate: So no. of franchises signed up with us must have fallen. Have we seen that happening? Interviewer: Yes. Many of our hotel partners have decided to terminate the contract with us. Candidate: Ok. So, now this can again happen due to three reasons. Either the market itself is not doing well. Or the hotel franchisees might be going independent. Or they might be switching to competitors. Interviewer: We do see hotels moving to a competitor franchisor. What might be some of the reasons? Candidate: The hotels are typically looking for more profits. They would like to take the franchisee of a chain which helps them get more profits. Interviewer: That is right. So hotels have been complaining that they can earn 10$ per room more if they tie up with a competitor. Candidate: Ok. Can I take a couple of minutes to think. So revenue generated by the hotel is a function of the Avg. Price of the room, no. of rooms the hotel has, occupancy levels, number of days the hotel operates in a year and % revenue shared with the franchisor. No. of rooms and No. of days are not dependent of the franchisor that the 138

hotel has signed up with. So, somehow the competitor must be able to give the hotels a better deal at Avg. Price and occupancy or they might be giving a better revenue sharing deal. Interviewer: Good. Average Price and occupancy are related factors as you might have guessed. If Price is increased then occupancy will fall. (After this there was a discussion on how the franchisor helps the hotels by training the managers on how to handle different booking portals such as Makemytrip. A more skilled manager may be able to go for better dynamic pricing on these portals leading to higher profits. So the problem was that the franchisor had a centralized training system for hotel managers. As a result the hotel managers missed a lot of training sessions as it was a hassle to travel far. The solution is to go for a decentralized training system). Above are the offerings that a franchisor offers a hotel. Training was the issue in this case. Interviewer: So let us do a simple guess estimate on this case. A training session costs $200,000. In a centralized training system, 1 trainer can train 200 hotel managers in a session while in a decentralized training system, a trainer can train 50 hotel managers. Which one would be more profitable for the franchisor given that there are 5000 hotel partners with 100 rooms each? Candidate: Centralized training system: Cost is 1/200 * 200000 * 5000 = $5 mn Decentralized training system: Cost is 1/50 * 200000 * 5000 = $ 20 mn but there will be additional revenue of 10% * 10$ =$1 per room per day (mentioned above that training can increase revenue for hotels by 10$ per room per day. 10% of this is shared with the franchisor) Additional revenue: $1 * 5000 * 100 * 300 (Assuming that a room is occupied on 300 days in a year on average) = $ 150 mn. Clearly, decentralized training system is more beneficial. Interviewer: Good. The numbers are all cooked up but essentially we did a very similar calculation to recommend the decentralized training system to the client. Now suppose that you want to present a summary of your work today to the CEO of the client in 2 minutes. Can you take a shot? Candidate: (I summarized the case going through the main points and assumptions) (It was a pretty long interview, about 45 minutes. In summary, I was tested on structure, ability to handle pressure, quant skills and communication skills in just one interview) __________________________________________________________________________________

Vishwas Sharma Interviewer: Hi Vishwas, how are you? Candidate: I’m good. Thank you sir. Interviewer: Let’s start with the case, shall we? Candidate: Sure Interviewer: Ok, so our client is a mining firm in South Africa, who are looking to improve their profits. Simple enough, right? 139

Candidate: Got it. But I would like to ask a few questions. Interviewer: Go ahead. Candidate: Since I am unaware of the general background of this market and the firm. Could you please tell me more on the market trends, market positions of various players etc.? Interviewer: Sure. So the market is currently stagnant with a mere growth of ~1% YOY. There are many players in the market but no market leader. Each player has 7%-15% market share overall. Candidate: Ok. Next I would like to have more information on our operations. What metal is it that we mine? Interviewer: Assume it’s Mica. Candidate: Ok. Next I wish to know whether we own the mines or are we an intermediate player in the value chain. Could you please let me know more about what processes are we involved in? Interviewer: Good question. So we own the mines ourselves. There are numerous processes involved in the business, which are as follows in this order: Drilling, extraction, purification, trucking, transportation and selling. Candidate: Got it. May I ask if it is a B2B business model where we sell the extracted ores to other firms, or directly to customers? Interviewer: Why do you ask? Candidate: I ask because there may be some revenue side levers such as pricing, and cost side levers such as marketing etc. which may be explored. Interviewer: I think we can safely ignore the selling efforts as a part of this case.

Candidate: Please give me a few mins to structure my thoughts.

140

Interviewer: So Vishwas, where are we? Candidate: Yes. So I would like to begin by analysing costs incurred in the value chain. I think that the operations efficiencies should be looked at first. There may be some fixed costs such as machinery, administrative costs, salaries, as well as some variable costs such as the manufacturing costs themselves like electricity, fuel, transportation, cleanup costs etc. Do you want me to look more deeply into these?

Interviewer: Ummm… That may be one way but let’s start by analysing the value chain itself. Candidate: Sure. Let me start with drilling and extraction. Are we using the most efficient processes designed to reduce costs?

Interviewer: Yes we are. Actually all of our processes are up-to-date with respect to technology. Candidate: Ok. So then in order to enhance profits, is it possible to increase the extracted volumes by increasing the workforce or run-time for the mill? Interviewer: Good point but no. Carry on. Candidate: Ok. Next we have purification. Since you mentioned the technology is not an issue, is it fair to assume that purification processes will also be robust enough? Interviewer: Ok. You can assume that. Candidate: Alright. Next we come to the transportation. I would like to know how the extracted ore transported to the purification facilities. Is it through trucks? Also, in what form is it transported? Interviewer: Yes. We used trucks. Regarding the form, it is just like any other rock or pebble form Candidate: Ok. Next I would like to question the no. of trucks and their run-time frequency. Do we own these trucks as well? Or are they acquired on a lease basis? Interviewer: Good question. So we have leased these trucks from a local contractor, on a fixed contract basis.

141

Candidate: Ok. Does it mean that he provides a fixed number of trucks per day etc.? Or it’s a flexible limit? Interviewer: The contractor provides his trucks to many other players in the market. Terms of the contract are the same for all. Candidate: Ok. Then I assume it would be difficult to negotiate any different contracts. Next, regarding their run-time frequency, have we seen inventory pile-ups at extraction zones, because of delays in transportation? Interviewer: Yes, that has been the case.

Candidate: Ok. In that case, I believe that removing the inefficiencies in transportation due to over-reliance on the services of this external contractor can help us in generating more profits. I would like to advise the firm to either negotiate with a different contractor or buy their own trucks. Buying own trucks would be advisable in the longer run, to remove external dependencies. Interviewer: Good. Any other suggestions? Candidate: The firm may also look to revise the terms of contract to increase the no. of available trucks to get a higher run-time frequency, though it may be a difficult proposition. Interviewer: Good. That would be all, thank You. All the best. Candidate: Thank You.

________________________________________________________________ GEP

Meenakshi Singh What is the potential market size for cab services in Bangalore? Sir, I would like to approach this problem by dividing the customers into two broad categories: 1. Business Travellers: Regularly use cabs for commuting to office 2. Leisure Travellers: Book cabs for travelling to malls, restaurants hospitals (basically anywhere other than office) The demand of cabs for the former stays relatively stable over a workweek, whereas, it is variable for the latter category. Business Travellers: 142

From my limited knowledge of Bangalore, I would like to divide it into 5 major business districts: Electronic City, Outer Ring Road, (BTM, JP Nagar, Jayanagar), Indra Nagar, Kormangala. Assuming the average no. of organizations in each of these areas is Total Area of Bangalore

750 km2 (approx.)

Assumption

The 5 biz. dist. cover half of Bangalore’s area

Average Area per biz. district

750/2*5 = 75 km2

Assumption

15 organizations per biz. district

Average Area per Organization

5 km2

Population Density

Interviewer gave me some no. (X ppl. per km2)

Assumption

40% of the office goers commute by cabs

No. of business travellers in Bangalore

0.04*5*X

Assumption

Every traveller books an individual cab

No. of cabs used for office travel

Same as no. of business travellers in Bangalore

The interviewer stopped me from continuing with the Leisure Traveller category. He later explained that he was expecting the answer to be in terms of the average no. of trips taken by the driver per day however, this approach brought in a fresh perspective. NOTE: The panel is not concerned with the accuracy of the figures (The same is reflected very well from my intermediate figures☺): They want to understand if a candidate can break a bigger problem into smaller no. of structured problems. The logical flow of thought and a structured break-up of the problem is what they look in a candidate. Ensure that you confirm your assumptions with the interviewer, as and when you make them. _________________________________________________________________________

MCKINSEY & COMPANY

Issac Jojy Interviewer: A bank is facing reduced customer satisfaction. Can you please tell me what could be the possible reasons? Candidate: Is this a retail bank or a non-retail bank? Interviewer: Retail Bank Candidate: Can you please tell me how customer satisfaction is measured? (Thinking – Always quantify the problem first. Do not jump into the solution) 143

Interviewer: We have been receiving a lot of complains in the customer feedback register placed near the Bank ATM Candidate: Can I reduce the problem to customer’s journey to ATM and out? Are you ok with that approach? (Thinking – Always get the buy-in from the interview about your approach) Interviewer: Yes that is ok. Candidate: Can I take a couple of minutes to think? Interviewer: Sure Candidate: So these are the possible reasons I think could cause the customer to complain. (MECE) Are there any other elements to be considered? (Get Interviewer buying again)

External

Internal

Car Parking

ATM Process

- ATM location very congested

- Complicated process - Bad User Interface

Outside Ambience

Ambience

-Dirty

- AC not working

-Noisy

- Smelly

Security Guard - Behavior

Interviewer: No, this looks fine. Candidate: So have four options. Do the customer complains show any trends in relation to these? Interviewer: You can exclude the external parameters. I just wanted to see if you cover all options. Candidate: Ok. Now I am going to proceed by restricting the scope to internal parameters only. Is that ok? (Create a connection to solve the case collaboratively) Interviewer: Yes Candidate: Do we have any data to show problem with any internal factor? (Do not ask about particular aspect. First ask the data availability) Interviewer: Ambience is not an issue. 144

Candidate: Then it looks like an issue with the ATM process. Can I drill down further on that? Interviewer: Ok Candidate: I need a minute to think please. If I was the customer these are the 3 main steps I follow: 1. Insert ATM Card 2. Make transaction 3. Get cash Is there any issue in any of them? Interviewer: Yes getting cash is a problem. Candidate: So cash availability should be the issue. This could be because of no cash or denominations. Interviewer: Correct. A lot of times cash is not available and customers get an error. Give me some recommendations to solve this issue Candidate: Can I understand what the current system in place is? (Whenever you are asked for recommendations ask for current system in place to avoid repetition of solutions that might already be there) Interviewer: The bank does weekly data analysis, based on which vendor replenishes the cash twice a week. Candidate: Is the vendor putting in cash according to contact terms? Interviewer: No he is not. He sometimes misses replenishing the cash. Candidate: The following are the recommendations: 1. Get a new vendor 2. Multiple Vendors so you have backups 3. Ensure current system enforced by imposing penalty based contract Do you want me to think on other lines? Interviewer: No these recommendations sound good. Thank you. _________________________________________________________________________

Ishita Kayastha Interview 1 The first interview was with Noshir Kaka, the MD of McKinsey India, over a Skype call. It started off with him asking me to introduce myself. This went on for a good 5-7 minutes. Interviewer: Let’s give you a case outside your comfort zone, something you haven’t experienced at all? Candidate: Sure! I’m always up for a challenge. Interviewer: There are 3 large companies in the IT space – say Cognizant, Infosys and Igate with annual turnovers of $8.5 bn, $6.5 bn and $2 bn respectively. They service large banks for technology systems. Their sales productivity figures are $16 mn, $8-10 mn, and $6-8 mn. What is causing this difference in sales productivity? Why is one company able to get twice as much? Candidate: Firstly, how is sales productivity calculated? Per person or per hour of work? 145

Interviewer: Sales Productivity = Revenue/ Salesperson Candidate: Okay. Since I have no prior knowledge about this sector, I would like to know a little more about the functioning and revenue models of these firms. This conversation went on for a while, and I asked him basic questions about IT services. Realizing that this would take a little time, he decided to change the case question. I kept remained calm. Interviewer: What sector would you be prefer? Candidate: Anything that I have been exposed to would be fine – Retail, Hospitality, Tourism Interviewer: Okay, let’s pick a retail case. (At this point, someone walked in to the room to tell us that time was up. The interviewer asked for 5 more minutes) Interviewer: Zara has been experiencing a 2 – 5% loss of sales in India over the last year. What could be the possible reasons? You have 2 minutes. Candidate: I can think of 3 possible reasons, from the time of manufacturing to the time of purchase by the customer. First - customization of products for the Indian consumer. They need to have the right styles and colours, that will appeal to the Indian market. The fit of the garment and sizes need to be tailored as per Indian requirements. Second – Availability of products. This will depend on the method of procurement, i.e. whether products are manufactured abroad and shipped to India, or manufactured in India and distributed within the country. Third management at Zara stores. There should be uniformity across the country. Bad management in a particular city or circle could be the reason for drop in overall sales. Interview 2 The second interview started off with brief pleasantries, and chit-chat about how the first round went, after which we started off with the case. Interviewer: There is a Telecom company in the Philippines, in South East Asia. It has done well in the past, growing at a rate of 5-10%. However, it has stagnated in the last 1-2 years. Candidate: Firstly, is it a Telecom Infrastructure company or Service Provider? And is this the company’s primary source of revenue? Interviewer: Service Provider. Yes, it is the core business. Candidate: I would like to break this down into external and internal factors. External factors would cover the overall environment of the Telecom industry in Philippines, while internal factors are more specific to the company, such as revenue streams, pricing, and customer segments. Interviewer: Okay, go on. Candidate: I would like to know if other competitors are experiencing the same problems. If so, it could be an industry wide-problem, which can be attributed to external factors. Interviewer: Yes. The market has declined. What could be the reason for this? Candidate: I would like to explore this in the following aspect: Demand

146

Supply



Changes in macroeconomic environment leading to decrease in purchasing power Sudden shift in consumer demographics – lesser people using telephone services

 



Increase in the number of competitors Government regulations imposing restrictions on service Substitute services entering the market

Interviewer: New competitors have entered the market. The government has banned promotions. There has also been a trend towards mobiles, with fixed lines decreasing. Candidate: Okay, and are these competitors local or international companies? Interviewer: Local. Candidate: I would like to look along the following lines:   

Product – Do new competitors offer better network coverage, more packages and VAS Service – Better customer service? More payment options? Pricing – Are they priced lower?

Interviewer: The new entrants are offering services at a 20% discount. Candidate: That would force the other companies to lower their price, leading to Price Wars. As a result of this, the industry is declining. Our client is experiencing stagnation due to declining market share and revenues due to the low prices. Interviewer: Good. How can they now improve their position? Candidate: With such low prices, competing on prices is difficult. Thus, the company should aim to differentiate itself.    

Provide incentives to customers through long-term contracts Tie-up with companies like Apple (phones sold on discounted prices only on specific network) Acquire a smaller telecom company with different reach Increase Value Added Services, Online features.

________________________________________________________________ Karthik Krishna

Interviewer: We are short on time, so let us jump into the case. There is a public sector bank, which is facing service issues in its branches. What will you do? Candidate: What sort of complaints is the bank facing? Interviewer: Long waiting time at the branches Candidate: Are the number of customers of the bank comparable to other similar sized banks? Interviewer: Yes customer size is comparable but service is bad. Candidate: (Thinking that I need some more context) Can I understand the bank location and the customer profile? 147

Interviewer: It is a typical branch in a city. Assume that the customer profile at a branch is similar for all banks. Candidate: (Thought I had enough to visualize the problem, so done with opening questions) Could I have a minute to think about it? (Thinking) I have some possible reasons that could lead to bad customer service: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Bad processes as compared to other banks Poor computer systems or technology Poorly trained staff Complicated branch layout

Interviewer: The reasons you have given are good but none of these is the problem as these are all standard in the banking industry Candidate: OK … (Realized that I had obviously not understood the problem yet)... I want to take a step back. What are the customers complaining about? Interviewer: (Looking more attentive) that it takes them a long time to get anything done at the branch. Candidate: (He just repeated the same thing from earlier – from this and non-verbal cue I got the sense that I should probe better) Is it the time required at the teller window which is long? Interviewer: No. Candidate: So it is the footfall that is higher as compared to the other banks! Interviewer: (Smiling) Yes. Why do you think that is? (Was thinking that I could have structured this more eloquently into the previous question itself. Total Wait Time = Time per customer X No. of customers, or something like that. “Damn It!”) Candidate: (thinking hard…silently!)

Interviewer: (Prompting me) What are the different ways banks serve customers? Candidate: Oh… Maybe the other services are not so good so people are forced to visit the branch. For example, online banking and phone services – are they comparable to other banks? Interviewer: No, not many customers use the online services. Why do you think that is happening? Candidate: Maybe it’s a technology-related issue, or not enough advertising, or the processes are too cumbersome? Interviewer: Let us look at the technology, how will you solve that? Why do you think people are not using the online platform? Candidate: Maybe it’s not user-friendly? Interviewer: That can be fixed, what could be a more fundamental reason? … Do you use online banking? Candidate: Yes. 148

Interviewer: Do your parents use internet banking? Candidate: Hardly. (Could not figure out where we were going with this…beginning to panic) Interviewer: Do your parents use Flipkart? Candidate: Yes ... but Flipkart started with cash on delivery and eventually built trust. … (I was wondering whether he fed this to me! Thank you, kind Sir. Meanwhile, interviewer is looking at me like “So…?”) So, here the bank’s customers are yet to trust the security of the online services. The bank will need to strengthen security measures and ensure that the customers are aware of its online services and that they are secure. Interviewer: (Big smile) OK. We are out of time. Can you quickly synthesize our discussion? Candidate: A public sector bank is providing poor customer service because too many customers are visiting its branches in person. The main reason for this is that their online platform is not being used by their customers as they do not perceive it to be secure. Therefore, there is a need to strengthen and communicate the safety of their online platform. 3 (decision criteria to be checked after pilot for national rollout Risks  Direct seller becomes face of the brand – premium nature needs to be ensured – better sales force - salary costs may increase – N may increase  % conversion as opposed to no. of sales should also be high – skilled sales team – salary costs may increase – N may increase

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Gireesh Gera Interviewer: A truck manufacturing company has a new truck in development. Help it decide if it should launch the truck. If yes, what is the price premium it can charge over competition? And assume there is enough demand for trucks. Candidate: Sure. Sir can you help me with the description of the truck and its usage? Interviewer: It is a standard 20 T truck, same as competition and is designed to carry refrigerators from the warehouses to nearby dealerships. Candidate: Ok Sir. Could you tell me the differing features of the truck and it what aspects is it different from the standard truck of competition? Interviewer: Well, this truck has many advantages over the existing trucks of the competition. First, it has an air conditioned cabinet, a music system and a bed for the driver to sleep. All these are absent in the current trucks of the competition. Also, it requires minimal effort to drive, so only 1 person is enough per truck. Candidate: OK Sir. I’ll begin with quantifying the various benefits that the new truck has over competition. Sir, is it safe to assume that the current trucks run for 16 hours a day with 2 persons (driver and helper) operating the truck. And that they sleep for the remaining 8 hours. Interviewer: Yes, that is correct. Candidate: In that case, we can potentially run this truck for 24 hours with 2 drivers. Each driver can drive for 12 hours and the other can sleep comfortably on the bed in the AC cabin. They don’t have to stop on the road to sleep in the night. This means 50% more capacity utilization. Interviewer: OK well, what else? Candidate: Could you help me with the dimensions of the new truck’s loading area and if they are different from the current trucks? Interviewer: The new truck has 20 ft X 10 ft X 15 ft (length, width, height) loading region vs 18 ft X 10 ft X 8 ft for the current trucks. Candidate: Also, could you help me with the weight of each refrigerator? Interviewer: Weight is not an issue. Refrigerators are filled basis space available. 165

Candidate: Ok. Assuming a refrigerator size of 2 ft X 2 ft, we can fit 5 more refrigerators per truck in the new trucks. Assuming we can’t stack refrigerators on top of each other, the greater height of new truck won’t be of use. Could you tell me how many times on an average a truck would go from the warehouse to the dealers and the distance covered? Interviewer: A truck has 5 trips every day with one way distance of 50 km on an average. Candidate: Ok. [Then showed annually how many extra refrigerators could be transported]. Interviewer: Also, there is a difference in the mileage. The new truck is 14 kmpl vs 12 kmpl for the existing truck. Also, the tyres in the new truck last for 15000 km vs 5000 km for the existing truck. Candidate: [Showed him the annual savings per truck on fuel]. Could you let me know the difference between the cost of each tyre during replacement? Interviewer: Current tyres cost Rs. 5000 each. The new truck tyres will cost Rs. 10000 each. Candidate: Is it safe to assume that the life of the truck is 10 years and that there are 6 tyres per truck? Interviewer: Yes, that is fine. Candidate: [Then showed 10 years savings on tyres]. Sir is there any other difference between the 2 trucks? Interviewer: Yes, the new trucks are faster. They drive at 40 kmph vs 30 kmph for existing ones. Candidate: So this would mean faster delivery and more number of round trips. [Then showed how many more return trips each truck could make annually]. Interviewer: Any other thing? Candidate: Sir there are the intangibles like comfortable cabin, air conditioning, music player, etc. which will improve the efficiency of the drivers. Interviewer: Ok. Now you have all these numbers. How do I decide truck pricing basis these? Candidate: You see the savings under each of these heads annually and multiply by the life of the truck. That is the maximum premium that the company can charge over the price of the standard truck by competition. Interviewer: Would the company be able to charge such a premium? What are the hurdles? Candidate: No they won’t be able to charge the exact premium as calculated as the entire value is not visible to the customers who would mainly be the transporter companies giving services to refrigerator manufacturers. The upfront cost is very important to them. However with educating them and showing them the value, the company can charge a premium somewhere in between the value created. Interviewer: Ok. Thank you. [Basically, the interviewer was giving me more and more factors to work upon and wanted to see how quickly I could find out & calculate the value implications of those features.] ________________________________________________________________

Jincy James Patrick 166

Interviewer: A mine in South Africa wants to improve its revenue. They mine an ore which contains lead and zinc. They currently export to East Asia. But competition is increasing and so is demand. How will they go about increasing their revenue? Candidate: How is this product sold – as in what is the cost, concentration and in what form. Interviewer: Cost is irrelevant. It is sold in a concentrate form which usually has 20-25% zinc. Prices are fixed for this concentration. Candidate: Can we charge a higher price after increasing the concentration – say make it 40%. We can ask for almost double the price. How expensive would it be to increase the concentration? Interviewer: It would be difficult to attain that level of concentrate with the current facility. Up to an increase of 5% is possible but that will not improve the price significantly. Candidate: Alright. Can you draw the process? The process of extraction and concentration. All the steps involved and the resources used. [Interviewer draws a detailed diagram. Explosives being placed in the mines. Bombing. Drilling equipment. Followed by trucks to transport. And then chemical process to extract.] Candidate: What is the capacity of each of these and what is the current utilization? Interviewer: The trucks and the drill are working at 100% utilization. The chemical process has unused capacity. Candidate: So basically the trucks and drilling machines are the bottleneck. How expensive is it to buy this machinery? Interviewer: Cost is not a problem but the equipment will come only after a year. Candidate: In that case, the best option would be to rent trucks and drilling machine (if that is possible) for now and commission a new drilling machine which will come later. The mine can operate on the rented machine in the mean time. As for the trucks, if it is more economical to keep using the rented ones, do not buy new ones. Interviewer: Ok. Thank you. ________________________________________________________________

Loveenia Gulati Interview 1 [The interviewer had a sheet with some data about a truck manufacturing company (Company X). During the course of the interview, he suggested to refer to the sheet to answer questions.] Caselet: Identify a market enter strategy [How to sell, in simpler words] for Company X [company resembled Volvo]. The truck manufacturing market is a mature market with existing major players like Tata and Ashok Leyland. Candidate’s Approach: The existing players cannot be competed against based on pricing and discounting strategies. Also, trucks of Company X were not as fuel efficient. There is duopoly in the market with Tata and Ashok Leyland having national pockets, strength and fleet. Think what the customer wants - Provide him with more choices. 167

Possible offerings of Company X - Warranty, Value, Cost benefit, Extra sleeping berth, Wider axle implying more load carrying capacity, after sales-service. Follow-up question: [Interviewer referred to his note with diagram and data] Do a cost analysis for comparing two products, where Product A is from Company X and Product B is from a major rival company (based on data given in sheet) Candidate’s Approach: Calculate both fixed costs and variable costs. While fixed costs are given, variable costs can be broken down based on the following tree structure.

On calculating, it was found that cost was relatively same in both the cases. [Part of final answer not covered: Product A may also have a resale value] Interview 2 Caselet: Run a diagnostic of Bank X on the retail banking side. The bank has a growth rate of 10% in its savings account segment where as the market growth rate is 20%. Candidate’s Approach: I broke down the problem into several sub-parts to identify what could be the possible reason. Below is a tree structure of how the break-down looked like 168

Key drivers

Industry

Market share

New player

Customer s

Competition

Consumer

_______

External factors

Add new product

Economy

Technology

Substitute

Interviewer: Can you probe into the branch of customers? [He showed some data from which it could be interpreted that it wasn't the other two factors] Candidate’s Approach: The structure shown below gives an idea of the reasons for drop in savings by breaking it down further

Savings

Old

Number of customers New

Brand name

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Marketing

Size of deposits

Upon further discussion, the interviewer pointed out that the drop was actually because of marketing reasons and their front line interfacing with customers had deteriorated. The discussion pursued a while on how the issue could be fixed. ___________________________________________________________________

DELOITTE STRATEGY & OPERATIONS

Karthik Ram Caselet: Deloitte is consulting an Indian health care manufacturing company who wants to enter the US market. Design a market entry strategy for the company. Candidate’s Approach: I asked for the data points on states in US where the company is looking to enter. [Interviewer gave growth data and the kind of markets prevalent in each state] I chose state where there is less monopoly and the market is fragmented. These states also showed some growth potential for new entrants. Interviewer: What type of customers will you choose? Candidate: Market has to be divided into segments based on the amount of usage. Within segment choose individual groups. [One interviewer played the role of a Government regulator with subjective questions on entering markets] Some calculation had to be done to find out growth potential. Data was provided for calculating number of people in terms of usage and present penetration of competitors. Interviewer: What should you consider about your client company before suggesting these ideas? Candidate: We must know the life cycle of our own company. We must also know that their niche is. [The company was a growing Indian player] ______________________________________________________________

170

Sujitha Paramasivan & Ranjani Rajagopalan Caselet: Deloitte is consulting for an Asian company that wants to enter the heath care equipment manufacturing market in the US. The client is new to both the country and the market segment. The client has multiple product categories to choose from. [Data available on multiple product categories for the company to choose from] Which product should the company go with? Design a market entry strategy for the company. Candidate’s approach: Sir, to design a market entry strategy, I would want to look some data on the states in US the company is looking to enter, including the competitor data and competitor market share for each product [Interviewer gives data on kind of markets, competitors and growth for products in each state] Interviewer: Any other parameters you would consider? Candidate: Sir, I would also want to look at profitability of each product segment [Interviewer gives data on profit margins for each product segment] Interviewer: Anything else? Candidate: Since we have covered market size, competitors & profitability, I would also want to look at legal regulations specific to this market Interviewer: Why do you think this parameter is important? Candidate: Sir, since regulations & laws in Asian countries and the US are widely different and we are looking at the healthcare segment, I believe data on legal regulations would be relevant. [Interviewer gives data on legal regulations specific to each product in different states] Interviewer: Anything else you would want to look at? Candidate: Sir, I would want to look at internal capabilities too. Do we have the capability to manufacture all these products with precision? [Interviewer very happy with this new approach] Interviewer: Why this approach? Candidate: Sir, the equipment that the company is planning to manufacture are all high tech. If we do not have the internal capabilities to get into a particular product segment, the analysis would be pointless. Interviewer: That is interesting. For now, we will assume that your client can manufacture all the products/equipment with precision. Could you analyze all the data available and let me know which product your client should choose? Candidate: I analyzed the data – only one product has a clear cut advantage in all segments. It has few competitors in high density states. It shows high profitability and the legal environment is conducive to its launch. I suggested the same. Interviewer: That is it. Thank you. [Deloitte does not give you all the data upfront. They wait for you to ask for it. This is to understand your approach. If you miss any parameter while analyzing, the data sheet will not be given to you. In the end, the approach is more important than any amount of number crunching one would do] 171

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MCKINSEY & COMPANY

Akshay Goenka Caselet 1: You are the MD of a large firm that is looking to acquire a mid-tier pharmaceutical company. How would you go about it? Candidate: Could you help me answer a few questions like: - What kind of a pharmaceutical firm are we? - What kind of firm are we looking to acquire? - And why? - What markets do we currently operate in? - Are we looking to acquire firms internally or externally (in terms of markets)? [This was to understand if the acquisition is for integration in terms of some capability or is it just money driven] Interviewer: Ok, say yours is a private equity firm and not a pharmaceutical firm. How would you go about it now? Candidate: Could I take a minute to structure my thoughts? Interviewer: Sure. Candidate: Firstly, we should do an internal analysis of the firm and external analysis of the market. And the same for the company we are looking to acquire. Internal: What are our strengths and weaknesses? Are we currently in a position to invest? etc External: Is this a good opportunity? , Do we have better investment opportunities currently? Etc For the company we are looking to acquire: Internal: Is the company growing? How is the management? What is the competitive advantage? External: Is the market conducive for continuous growth?, How are the peers/competitors doing? Secondly, if we believe the company is going to grow, we need to analyze what is driving the growth: - Is it the patents the company currently holds? - Is it because it is ramping up production? - Is it in another country that is showing rapid growth? Based on this we can come up with a valuation - an initial valuation and a projection for five years. 172

Thirdly, we should look at exit options. If we are looking to sell it how should we sell it & who should we sell it to, when is the right time for exit? Also once we sell it, what do we intend to do with the money, will we re-invest? [This was one step more than they expected and the interviewer was really happy about it] [It is best to give a comprehensive list of all the approaches you would take and then ask the interviewer if it sounds good to go. In the interest of time, interviewers generally ask you to focus on one approach/ lever] Interviewer: That is a comprehensive list [sounds happy]. Can we talk about how you would go ahead with the valuation? Candidate: There are multiple approaches one could take -

Valuate the company in terms of its market capitalization and stock price Valuate it as a sum of its parts i.e look at all the businesses/sectors the company is in – separate intellectual capital, separate property and assets and valuate them Do a comparable company analysis. This information can be used to determine a company's enterprise value and to calculate other ratios used to compare a company to those in its peer group.

Interviewer: Would you dump the firm in the end? How would you evaluate exit opportunities? Candidate: First approach - At the given point, when evaluating exit opportunities, I would look at all opportunities to re-invest. If there is a better investment that would make more money, I would go ahead with that without being emotional. Second approach – A more emotional way of looking at it is if I feel that there is hidden potential in the firm that is not coming out in the numbers, say because they have spent much in R&D and I would expect it to show results only in a few years, I would stick with the company. Interviewer: That sounds good. Let us get you to the second round. Caselet 2 (with Director Rajat Dhawan): Estimating the cost of India’s Mars Mission Interviewer: Have you read about the Mars mission? Candidate: Yes, a little. Interviewer: How would you go about estimating the cost of the mission? Candidate: Ok. I would first look at different cost levers for such a mission - cost of equipment - cost of personnel - cost of R&D - cost of operations To estimate the cost of the equipment, I would first estimate the size of the rocket then look at different parts on board (including what would be left behind in the orbits) [guesstimate number] - Amount of fuel required [I asked the interviewer about the cost of jet fuel in the market guesstimate number]

173

- Number of personnel - Is it a manned or unmanned mission, how many people in R&D, how many people at the launch station? [guesstimate number] - Cost of setting up the launch station. [guesstimate number] Interviewer: Don’t you think they have many of these already? Candidate: Sorry, skipped my mind. If you don’t mind I would like to take a few minutes and divide these into what they would already have and they would not have. [I divided them into two verticals and started working out the costs. Along the way, I remarked that the cost seems small. NASA spends like 20 times this] Interviewer: [Gets excited & speaks about how he personally met Madhavan and how ISRO is doing a remarkable job] Good. Let’s get together for coffee someday and discuss this further. [More case interview related tips from Akshay Goenka can be found http://www.gradstory.in/gradschool/consulting-consulting-10-tips-success-iim-studentakshay-goenka/]

at:

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Rupali Jain Interviewer: How has the day been for you? Candidate: It's been good so far. I am excited as I have got the opportunity to interview with the company which topped my preference list. Interviewer: Good. Let's begin the case. Caselet: There is a telecom company which manufactures Base Station Antennas and its revenues have declined by 30% over the past 2 years. You have to identify: 

Why the revenues have declined? What shall be the future projections (say for 3-4 years) of the revenues?

Candidate: Began with clarifying questions like understanding the product (base station antennas), the scope of operations of the telecom company, its position in the market, competition, industry overview. Interviewer: Detailed explanation about the product and the telecom company followed by facts like- The company is a market leader with 60% share; the industry is growth oriented; onset of competition from foreign players from China & Europe Candidate: Is the declining revenue a trend across the industry & competitors or is it specific to the client only? What is the setting of the case- Location & Time period? Interviewer: Not an industry-wide trend. Specific to our client only. India and the time when 3G licenses were issued. Candidate: Broke the problem into two heads. Decline in Revenue can be because of :INTERNAL FACTORS

EXTERNAL FACTORS

Fall in Price

Technological change

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Fall in units sold    

Foreign Player's preferred

Contracts with buyers over Modifications in existing contract clauses/Terms with the buyers Unable to tap new buyers Renewal of existing contracts

Life of the antennas(Product Life cycle)

Other competitor's Growing

Intrinsic Flaw in the antennas/Product quality Government Regulation changes/Taxes Problem in network(Understanding antennas)

distribution 3G License scam Point-of-Sale for

Product mix/types of antennae sold and fall in Better Substitutes available revenue because of which type Defamation/Tarnished Reputation of the Client owing to some accidents/inappropriate BOD decisions leading to fall in units sold/prices Interviewer: Understood all the mentioned points and gave inputs at places about whether that point was relevant or not to solve the problem of the caselet. Asked me to give weights to the above parameters on the basis of their importance in solving the case making use of the information he provided. Also asked:How will you decide which among the two i.e. Price and Volume has a greater impact on the fall in Revenue? Say prices have fallen by 10-15%. Candidate: Let 10 units be sold for 10 rupees. Client's revenue= Rs 100. Since prices have fallen by 10%, so the total revenue on 10 units will be 90 rupees. However, revenue has declined by 30% i.e. it is Rs 70. Therefore the remaining fall of Rs 20 in revenue is due to fall in quantity sold. Interviewer: Good. Thank you. ________________________________________________________________

Sonali Jain Caselet: Calculate the revenue of a Barista Lavazza store at Bangalore Airport from 6 to 7am at any given day. Candidate: Sir, I will first look at the factors/decision-variables that will influence the estimation of revenue. They would be:       175

The time of the day for which we need to calculate the revenue (6-7am, as given) The no. of flights taking off/ landing/ stationed during that period No. of people waiting at the airport post security check(both passengers & airport staff) Product mix at Barista Pricing at Barista The number & type of restaurants/ eating joints at Bangalore Airport

Interviewer: Yes, the parameters chosen are appropriate. Could you focus only on passengers and not on personnel? Candidate: Sure. I would split the problem further into that of volume and price. The price would depend upon what a typical consumer’s basket of goods bought at a coffee shop contains. I will assume an average price for the basket (say Rs.300). After this, I would want to estimate the number of passengers who will visit that coffee shop. And calculate assuming:   

Capacity of the airport to station aircrafts(passengers for them could be waiting) The number of flights which take off in an hour(assuming a flight takes off every 5 mins, so 12 flights in an hour) Seating capacity of a plane- based on economy & business class, the number of rows in a class & seats per row including seats for flight crew Economy ~ (30 rows) * (6 seats per row) = 180 seats Business: ~ 20 seats (assumption) Total = 200 seats

I will then multiply the number of flights with the seating capacity. This number should be reduced based on the occupancy rate (assumption) and further reduced based on the conversion rate of people visiting Lavazza (assumption). The final number would be x. Interviewer: That sounds like a reasonable number. Thank you. [Interviewer understood all the mentioned points, kept on agreeing to clarifying questions and gave inputs at places about whether that point was relevant or not to solve the problem of the caselet. All in all, I was able to give an approximate number to the question and interviewer seemed satisfied by the approach.] _____________________________________________________________

Vivek Yelisetti Interview 1 Caselet: There has been a good growth in the media industry. One of the companies is diversifying into hyper local newspaper. It is planning to run a pilot for the same in Chandigarh. How will you choose an area within Chandigarh?

Candidate: Before proceeding into the case, can you explain what exactly the hyper local newspaper is for? Is the company already into the business or does it have to start afresh? [I asked a few similar questions about the company and its business to understand the context for further analysis]. Interviewer: The newspaper is primarily to cater to the local needs of Chandigarh. It would be a weekly newspaper. The company is new to the business. 176

Candidate: This is how I would like to proceed into the case analysis. First, I would identify the qualities that the company is looking for in its audience; identify various sources of revenue, the type of paper to be launched and such existing newspapers if any. Starting, are there any specific qualities that the company is looking for in its audience? Interviewer: Nothing as such. What are the qualities that you consider are important?

Candidate: Weekly Newspapers are normally categorised by the affordability, the population reach, their preferences and age - like retired people, housewives, and may be youth. As the revenues for such kind of newspapers are through advertisements and they depend on the reach and circulation, it is extremely important for the company to target such a sector where you maximise the revenues. Is that assumption right? Interviewer: Go ahead.

Candidate: Given the target audience of retired people and housewives, the revenues can come from food supermarkets and restaurants in the area.

Interviewer: What do you think retired people and housewives look for?

Candidate: Housewives might look for offers on household items, recipes, for discounts on fruit juices etc - jewellery, some coaching centres and tips regarding health and education for their children. The retired people might be looking for events like concerts that they can indulge in during their free time. Interviewer: Alright, so which area to target.

Candidate: We shall identify the area which has a lot reach in Chandigarh, an area which has lot of retail stands where the newspaper circulation would be maximum, an area which has good infrastructure – good roads, restaurants etc where businesses would be maximum. Interviewer: Cool, Can you quickly summarise the points?

I did the same. It was a short 15 minute interview. 177

Interview 2 [The interviewer was doing his own work sitting in a corner. I went into the room and sat but he was busy doing his own work. A minute or so passed. I initiated the conversation – asking which office he works in, which sectors etc. He said he has few mails to send and asked about Wi-Fi in campus and campus life. Then he came to the table and then mentioned about his sectors etc. and that’s how the case got started.]

Caselet: Our client is from the consumer space. It is a fast moving FMCG. The CEO is newly appointed. He visited some stores recently and found low on-shelf availability of products. He wants to analyse why is it so. Candidate: Asked a few details about the FMCG company and the kind of products to get an understanding of the type of business. Then I told him that I would analyse the supply chain to identify the problem. He asked me to go ahead with it. Candidate: I drew this regular diagram {Raw Materials – Plant – Warehouse – Distributors – Retailers – Consumers}. Is there any problem with the availability of raw materials or manufacturing techniques due to which there is a delay of distribution or any reent plant failures or shutdowns?

Interviewer: No. Nothing like that. Candidate: How are the products distributed – to warehouse and from there to distributors?

Interviewer: The products are sent daily to the warehouse and from there through small trucks every month. The distributors DBSR’s – They go every week to visit all the stores in the area. Candidate: How many stores does a distributor has to cater to?

Interviewer: Approximately 10-15 in an area. On an average a DBSR spends 3 hrs in a shop taking orders etc.

178

Candidate: Assuming, a DBSR spends 25 hours in a week (5 days *5 hours) working on this – client relations, taking orders etc, a DBSR would cover roughly 8 stores – there by not able to reach out to all the stores – leading to a low on-shelf availability. Interviewer: Good analysis. So what to do? Candidate: The Company has two options – Increase the number of DBSRs’ if it takes that much time for the order – or Reduce the time spent in each shop – In order to do this, incentivise the DBSRs so that they cover all the stores in the area etc.

Interviewer: Thank you. How are the placements going on?

[It was a short simple case. But I felt they tested me on whether I could start off a conversation with a random person and whether I could take initiatives.] ___________________________________________________________________

ROLAND BERGER

Soumya H. Interviewer: Hi, so could you please tell me about yourself? Candidate: Hi, I am Soumya, an architect. [Gave basic intro about myself, work experience, extracurriculars, PORs, everything included] Interviewer: That’s interesting, an architect, who worked on a project site. So tell me, do you know how much were the profit margins for your company? Candidate: Well, I could tell you how much they were for my project. We were working on a 12% margin. I must tell you that, although I was a designer, I was also given the responsibility of planning and billing and hence I had access to these numbers. Interviewer: Good, that’s good exposure. So how big was this project did you say? Candidate: INR 246 Crores Interviewer: Ok. So, how much was the ROCE on your project? Do you know what ROCE is? Candidate: Yes, ROCE is Return on Capital Employed. Could you give me a few minutes, so that I could work out the numbers? [Paused, worked out the numbers]. In terms of the capital employed, I would consider the assets; I am not considering the liabilities because we worked with very small credit periods of less than 30 days with their suppliers. [Gave the figures estimating the rent of plant and machinery on the 179

project site, and the cost of other materials on the site. I knew the value of the some of the resources on site, and used industry standard thumb rules to assess the others, and stated all of these to the interviewer]. The ROCE measures the Operating Profit as a percentage of capital employed. [It’s very important to walk your interviewer through every single step, every single assumption etc; they do not care about your answer, but the process] Interviewer: Ok now that you have a number, do you know what it signifies? Candidate: It shows the efficiency of the use of the capital employed to generate profits. Interviewer: And what is your conclusion, was your project making good use of the resources? Candidate: Well Sir, I cannot say that without knowing what the industry standards are in the construction industry. Interviewer: Ok. So how many companies have you applied to? Candidate: This is the only consulting firm that I have applied to. Interviewer: [Smiles] Or is it the only one you got shortlisted for? I am just kidding. So what do you want to do? Candidate: Sir, I see myself in the marketing domain. I would like to be in the top notch marketing companies such as HUL and P&G Interviewer: Ok, and do you have any questions for me? Candidate: Yes sir, the only thing I know about Roland in India is about the Jaguar deal. Your global website spoke about consulting in the consumer retail sector which really interested me. However, the Indian website seemed to be heavily focused on the automotive sector. Could you educate me a little more about Roland, particularly about its India operations? Interviewer: We came to India in 2012. We have worked with a few conglomerates, and are in the process of growing our business. It just so happened that we could gain a great access into the automotive sector. We are one of the top most consulting firms in Europe, and by nature not as media savvy like our American counterparts, so you know much less. We have 3 offices, in India - Mumbai, Delhi, and one coming up in Pune. Your interest in the consumer retail is great but we don’t know how fast we will be able to get there. Candidate: Ok. Thanks for that. Interviewer: Soumya, I think I really like you. Most importantly I like the fact that you are not desperate for this job. I will put my best word for you, but I have another Principal coming to have a word with you before we take the final call. [Meeting with Principal 2 was a casual discussion where he asked only about me work ex, and my strong and weak subject areas. I did not consider myself strong in both finance and analytics, and conveyed the same. He asked me if I could make good PPTs, and I said I was very good at it. He concluded by saying, that his partner had left him with little choice by putting in a strong recommendation for me. I thanked him at the end of the interview.] ___________________________________________________________________

STRATEGY& (FORMERLY BOOZ & COMPANY)

Amit Rao 180

Interview 1 [The interview started with a lot of PI questions. We spoke a lot about my work experience and thereby the case also was related to the company I worked for.] Caselet: A multinational automobile company wants to launch its electric vehicle in India. How should it go about it? How should it price it? Candidate: First I would try to understand the company [Since I had worked for the company anyway, knew everything necessary, I asked nevertheless to check.]. Then I would like to do a customer & product analysis. Interviewer: Yes that’s right. I want you to find out what car should they offer and to whom? Candidate: [Did market segmentation and identified which segment is likely to buy] I will now identify what this segment will want from this vehicle. Factors that they will look at include      

Mileage Price Convenience of travel Licence/ Ease of documentation Environmental issues Others

[Initially I had missed out the first point, but he hinted me at it and I got it] Interviewer: Okay. You seem to have got all the requirements. Now how will I position my product to meet these needs? Candidate: Use promotions to state the fact that mileage will be substantially lesser for electric vehicles, almost Re.0.5/km compared to fossil-fuel vehicles Rs.10/km. No maintenance. Do road shows to grab people’s attention. Price it such that it replaces a smaller vehicle like Nano or scooters like Activa. Give extra battery for emergency situations. Give boot space/ foldable seats options. Get pumps to have charging stations. Launch it primarily in cities with good infra since these vehicles are not made for rough roads. Touch the environmental sensitive aspect during promotions. [Gave a few more options] Interviewer: That’s sounds good. Now let’s look at the pricing Candidate: I believe that cost based pricing is the best way to go about this. Interviewer: That won’t be entirely right. Can you think of a better way? Candidate: I will calculate how much an average family spends on a car of same size and compare it with an electric car. Interviewer: That would be the correct way to do this. [Gave data about average monthly travel, maintenance costs, fuel charges etc.] Candidate: After the calculations, it turns out electric car is expensive than a petrol car due to very high battery replacement cost. Hence we need some government relaxations for taxes so that the benefit can be transferred to the buyer. Interviewer: Okay. That’s good. I will send you to the next round. Interview 2 181

[Again a lot of personals were asked here for almost 15mins. Somewhat repetitive.] Caselet: Our client is diabetes solution provider in Vietnam. Wants to increase market share. How will he do it? Candidate: I will want to do an industry analysis. [Did Porter’s 5 forces, took 2 minutes to write it down and then explained each aspect]. Can you tell me more about the client? Interviewer: Our client has 70% market share. Has the most effective remedy for diabetes currently. All other players are fragmented and provide temp solutions which are cheaper and not that effective. Candidate: Okay. Essentially we will be selling these drugs to the doctors? Or do we sell them to the chemists? Interviewer: Well, that’s a good point. What do you think? Candidate: Since, it’s a serious ailment I believe that these medicines will be availed through chemists but only on doctors’ prescription. So we need to target this market. Since they are knowledgeable themselves, it is easy to educate them about our product. Do we have any as such direct substitutes? Interviewer: That’s correct. Besides exercise and diet control nothing as such. How do you think will the market expand? Candidate: The market will grow as more people are made aware of the product. It doesn’t have to do with more people getting affected by this disease. Interviewer: Yes, that’s what I was looking for. [Then we did further analysis on revenue streams and costs to see if we can increase the profitability in some way. Turns out that they were importing some aspects of the drug and we came to a conclusion that since we have a got market share its best to invest in a facility at Vietnam] Interviewer: Okay. That will be all. [Both interviews went for around 45 minutes. I was given the offer after 2 rounds itself. I believe PI is as important as Case prep. They look at your clarity of thought, communication skills and passion to do consulting.] ________________________________________________________________

Kumar Dhruv Soni Caselet: Company A is an established player in the airline industry. In recent years, A has started facing financial issues. Company has hired you as a consultant, how would you go about suggesting a turnaround for them? Candidate: Since A has been an established player in the industry, recent facing financial issues means either their profits are declining or growth is not to the expectations. Interviewer: That’s right, in fact company has started incurring lose since last 3-4 years. Candidate: I believe either the costs have been shooting up or there is not enough demand in the market. Interviewer: yeah, but what do you think? Candidate: Let’s look at both of them, first I would like see what all costs are involved and if any of them have been shooting up in last couple of years. Then I would like to look at the revenue side and see if prices or demand has declined in recent years. 182

Interviewer: Well as far as prices are concerned it has always been very competitive market. What do you think about demand? Candidate: I can comment if we can see how has been the industry performance in recent years and if any other airline is also facing the similar issues. Interviewer: Well, as far as the industry is concerned, there are lots of competitors and the performance varies. However, the financial issues of A are more severe than any other player in the industry. [Got the hint that problem is specific to A and should analyze the costs] Candidate: I believe analyzing the costs incurred in airline operations for A would give a better picture. Interviewer: You are right, so how do you go about it from here? Candidate: We first list different costs involved, then see factors affecting each of them and if any of the costs are shooting up in recent years for A. Interviewer: That sounds good. But how would you go about listing the different cost heads? [I listed the cost heads for an airline as per below while following the conversation] Interest

Airport Rent Fuel

Salary

Add. Services

Repair & Maintenance

Candidate: Well, I think of it as if I am running an airline company. First I will have to buy the aircraft, which counts for initial borrowing or investment, hence the interest to be paid on the capital. Then I will have to pay rent to the airports. Interviewer: What else? Candidate: Then there are costs regarding fuel, salary to the employees, additional services offered on the flight as well as regular repair and maintenance costs and… [Interrupted by the interviewer] Interviewer: That’s good enough for the analysis. So Dhruv actually the fuel prices are going really high for A, in fact all the airline companies. Do you have any suggestions for them? Candidate: Actually there are couple of ideas which can be implemented based on the situation. To start with, not relying on single supplier. Have short term contracts, which would give opportunity to negotiate acceptable price variation range at each renewal. Having multiple supplier would increase the bargaining power for sure and hence better price negotiation. What can also be done is, create incentives for suppliers and provide opportunity to grow their business and negotiate price reduction in return. For example co-branding with Airline or use the same supplier for other business of company A. Interviewer: Thanks Dhruv, that sounds good. _________________________________________________________

Vinit Gawande Caselet: A pharmaceutical company has come up with a new diabetes drug and is looking to enter the diabetes market in Vietnam. How would you go about the same? Candidate: First, we need to estimate the potential market size to see if it is viable. 183

For estimating the size, I will start off by assuming the population of Vietnam to be roughly 100 million (i.e 1/10th that of India). Then assuming that around 5% of people worldwide have diabetes, I would arrive at the number of diabetics in the country. Assuming 5 million is a good size of the target market, I would start collecting data on the diabetic population of Vietnam. The entire potential market will not be the target immediately. We should only target people who are aware of them being diabetic. Interviewer: But how would you get the data for the same? A country like Vietnam would not have organized data available. Candidate: Maybe reach out to the national/ state health departments to get a record of the same. The records would give us an idea of -

Number of people with the knowledge of they being diabetic Number of people who can afford the shots

Interviewer: Sounds like a reasonable approach. Thanks. ___________________________________________________________________

184

CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES - SUMMERS 2013 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES Graduation Name

Work Experience

Company

Pushkar Aggarwal

Bain & Co

Aashish Dattani

Mckinsey Co

Branch

College

Company

Duration (months)

One

Two

Electrical

IIT Kanpur

ITC

Work-Ex

Academics

Dual Degree CSE

IIT Madras

Strand Life Sciences

Academics

Awards

IIT Bombay

ITC

Academics

Aditya Birla Scholarshi p

IIT Kharagpur

ITC

Work-Ex

Academics

SRCC

PORs

Extracurriculars

& B. Tech. IIT Kanpur (EE)

ITC

Work-Ex

Academics

& Maths Compt.

Academics

PORs

BITS Pilani Oracle K.K Birla India Pvt. 10 Goa Campus ltd

Academics

PORs

Ritesh Agarwal

BCG

Abhay Kumar

Mckinsey Co

Madhur Bansal

Mckinsey Co

Ishaan Puri

Mckinsey Co

Nikita Garg

Mckinsey Co

Ishan Vishnoi

Boston Consulting Group

185

Resume Spikes(not in order)

Electrical Integrated & MSc. Mathemati cs B.Com (H)

& IIT Guwahati

Comp. Sci.

BAIN & COMPANY

Pushkar Aggarwal Interview 1 The first interview wasn’t one case, but smaller discussions on graphs, charts and financial data showed by the interviewer on a laptop screen. The interview started of with general chitchat about high stress level on Day 0 Interviewer – Shall we get started? (Turns around his laptop showing a bubble chart) What do you infer from this graph? (It was a ROA/ROS vs RMS graph, example below)

Candidate – This is the first time I am seeing this kind of a chart. I can see that the Y-axis is Return on Sales but I am not sure what Relative Market Share means. Could you guide me through it? Interviewer – The Y-axis is correct, the relative market share is the ratio of that company’s market share to the share of the largest competitor. However, for the market leader, it is the ratio of its share to the 2nd largest player. Candidate – Ok, and the bubble size reflects the actual number of sales? Interviewer – Yes Candidate – Looking at the graph, I can say that Nike is the largest player in the market, with a size almost twice of Reebok, the 2nd largest competitor. However, Adidas is an outlier, generating a higher return than both Nike and Reebok. Also, beyond these three players, there are no major players. Thus, the market is highly concentrated. Interviewer – If Reebok were our client, what advice would you give them?

186

Candidate – Let me think about that for a minute. (Pause) I can see two paths for them. Either they can try to move up the Y-axis – by focusing on increasing return to sales or try to move up the X-axis – trying to capture a larger market share. Interviewer – What do you think is more suitable? Candidate – Seeing that Nike is such a dominant player, I would focus on increasing my return to sales, which Adidas shows can be achieved in the industry. (Moves to a second slide and shows me a profit and loss statement for two hospitals) Interviewer – Hospital #2 is our client, what would you recommend, looking at these statements? Candidate – Could you tell me, what is the market position of Hospital #1? I mean, why have we focused on them for comparison? Interviewer – Hospital#1 is the most profitable hospital in the area Candidate – If we compare the two statements, we can see that Hospital #2 has similar revenues but a higher cost than Hospital #1. Thus, we should focus on identifying cost-cutting opportunities. Interviewer – Ok, what specific suggestions would you give? Candidate – Looking at the major deviations from Hospital 1 again, I would focus on doctor’s salaries, consumables and insurance cost. Interviewer – How would you reduce cost in these heads? Candidate – We could look at multiple options 1. For doctors – We should look at rationalizing number of doctors; maybe we have too many on staff. Further, the type of doctors may be focused too much on specialists, driving up the costs. A benchmarking should be done for the salary structure as well, to see if the pay could be rationalized. 2. For Consumables – A benchmarking study will give us a better idea of cost. Then, we can look better procurement practices, including centralized purchasing, single vendor development, etc. to reduce cost. 3. For insurance – there may be overlapping insurance policies on the different facilities. We might be over-insuring due to an unduly high-risk assessment. Also, we might be able to renegotiate a better deal with the insurance provider, using this data as a benchmark. (We then discussed the feasibility of some of these ideas till the end) Interview 2 Interviewer – What are you planning to do after your MBA? Candidate – (gave a small overview of my career plan, mainly used as a icebreaker) Caselet: Are you aware of Starbucks’ recent entry into India recently? (I said yes). Let’s say they have appointed us as advisors, and they are looking to expand into Bangalore. What would you recommend? Candidate – To be clear, we are looking at Starbucks entering into the Bangalore city market through setup of coffee cafes in Bangalore city? (Interviewer said Yes). Since this is a specific question, I would first like to understand the background. Could you tell me the expansion strategy, and what is the aim of their expansion into Bangalore?

187

Interviewer – I agree. Right now, Starbucks is looking to setup a flagship store in Bangalore to establish a foothold into the Bangalore market. Candidate – So we need to figure out how to establish one flagship store in Bangalore. Am I correct? (Interviewer said yes) Can I take a minute to structure my thoughts? (Pause) So, I would like to look at the case on these dimensions –    

Identify location for flagship store Setup costs involved with the store Day-to-day running costs Sales and marketing

I assume product choice, pricing is fixed as per Starbucks standards. Is there any head you want me to start with? Interviewer – Why don’t you start in terms of importance? Candidate – Starting with location, we will need to identify the following: 



First, identify the locality in Bangalore – probably in high-end commercial market areas towards the centre of the city. As per my experience, the main commercial areas are MG Road, Koramangala and Indiranagar. We should look at customer footfall density in each of these areas, to choose one. Second, decide to setup a store on the high street (main road) or one in a mall. I would suggest a flagship store, since it is more premium. Further, it doesn’t limit the customer population to people who visit the mall.

Interviewer – How many people would visit the store in this location? Candidate – Should I do a first-principle estimate or there is any data available? Interviewer – Yes. You could use first principle estimate. Candidate - I would like to do a day-by-day hourly estimation. The first thing is the capacity of the café. In my limited experience of cafes, a typical café would suit around 50 people. Then I assume, on a typical weekday, the timings are from 11am to 11pm. During this, occupancy will be, Weekday

Weekend

11am-1pm

30%

70-80%

1pm-3pm

70-80%

90-100%

3pm-6pm

50%

70-80%

6pm-9pm

90-100%

9pm-11pm

40%

60-70%

Assuming, a person spends an hour on average in the store, we can calculate the total number of people in a week – 850 (weekday-350+ weekend 500) Interviewer – what do you think will make up the setup and running costs? Candidate – the setup costs will involve –   188

Initial interiors of the store Machinery and utensils for the store

 

Setting up a supply chain for the store Product launch costs – events, etc.

The running costs will be –     

Rental for real estate – including seating, kitchen, employee space Employee costs – for servers, cooks, cleaners, manager, security guard Maintenance Advertising costs – including promotions, signboards, radio ads Cost of coffee – We can look at average margin/cup from existing stores. Assuming, same products are being sold and no extraneous costs are present.

(This was followed by a detailed estimate of some of these costs, which involved breaking them down a level further. The focus was on the process of estimation and not the final number) Interviewer – That’s great, one last question. What do you think competitor response will be to Starbucks entry? Candidate – They have the following options   

Engage in a price war by cutting prices – but its not sustainable and not good for anyone. Further, Starbucks is a premium player and hence, price war won’t be applicable to them Develop stores to emulate Starbucks experience and products – like developing premium stores and range of coffees to prevent migration of customers. Start aggressive advertising and customer loyalty programs

Interviewer – Sounds good. Thank you. ___________________________________________________________________

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

Ritesh Agarwal Caselet: A cement company wants to decide which markets to sell its cement in. Help them do this. Candidate: So, as I understand, I need to help this company decide which markets to serve. I am assuming the company is looking to maximize profits here? Interviewer: Yes, you should maximize profits. Candidate: Is the company a regional firm or a national firm? What geographies does it operate in? Interviewer: Consider an Indian company deciding what quantities to supply in which markets in North India. Candidate: Ok. Before starting, I would like to know whether the company has multiple cementmanufacturing units. Interviewer: Yes, consider the firm has 3 units spread across 2 states in the North. Also, cement firms use warehouses to supply markets. Candidate: Thanks. I would like to take some time here and think my way through. 189

Interviewer: Sure, go ahead. (Took a minute here) Candidate: Okay, so here is how I am going to attack this problem. In order to maximize profits, I will look at the price that I can earn in a certain market versus the cost of serving that market. I assume the price will be given for a market. The cost will depend on various factors: Cost of transport from the manufacturing unit to the warehouse which is distance * cost per km, Cost of transport from the warehouse to the demand point, and cost of storage in the warehouse. Then, I will try to maximize profits. Is this okay? Interviewer: Okay, what are the constraints you need to keep in mind? (Here, I realized that this conversation was turning into a linear optimization problem – Second term: QM II. Thank you Professor Sastry) Candidate: (After a minute.) There will be three constraints for this: First, the total supply from a manufacturing unit should not be more than the capacity of the unit. Second, the total quantity that can be sold in a market should be less than the market demand. Third, the total quantity supplied by a warehouse should be less than warehouse capacity. Interviewer: Assume that each warehouse can be built as large as required; warehouse capacity is a choice and not a constraint. Anything else you need to do? Candidate: Well, this turns into a linear programming problem. Solving this, we will get the answer: how much to sell in each market, where to open warehouses, which market to supply from which unit. Interviewer: Okay, then write this problem on a paper with the objective function and the constraints. Candidate: (Writes and hands over the paper) Interviewer: Good. But there is another important constraint you have not considered. Candidate: (A little panicky) I am not sure which one. Can you help me with this? Interviewer: Will the price in a market remain fixed, or does it depend on something? Candidate: (Sorry look) Interviewer: Go back to your basic economics. The amount that you try to sell in a market changes the price that you can get in the market. Candidate: Yes, the demand curve, but I assumed that the price is given for a market. Interviewer: No, try to model this as a constraint in the linear problem. (Tried to build in the constraint, the interviewer seemed partially satisfied with the answer) Interviewer: Okay, no problem. You have solved most of the problem. Just the last part needs more thinking. Anyways, good job! Thanks. ___________________________________________________________________

Ishan Vishnoi

190

Caselet: Our client is a company ABC which wants to start a new venture revolving around supply chain management for small kirana stores in the villages of the country. Our client wants us to evaluate how feasible this model is and what can be possible areas of concern. Candidate: Sir, before I begin, I would like to ask a few questions. I understand that the consumers for this company would be the village kirana stores. But where do they plan to source the supplies? Interviewer: The supplies will be taken from large wholesale retail chains like Metro. Candidate: Alright, and I believe that they will have a hub and spoke model, where a central town/city will act as warehouse and then they can distribute to each of the kirana stores? Interviewer: Yes, that is correct. Candidate: Can I take a few minutes to understand what could be the possible areas of concern? Interviewer: Sure. (Take 2 minutes to think about the possible concerns that could be there in the model) Candidate: Sir, I would like to take a look across the value chain step by step. First of all, would like to take a look at the possible issues that can arise from the suppliers end. Some of the issues that I could think of were discount margins and availability of credit. Should I explore these issues in detail? Interviewer: No, that is not necessary. Why don’t you focus on the issues from the customer – village kirana store – side? Candidate: Sure Sir. From the customer side, I think the most important issues will be – product variety, credit facility and replenishment cycle. Have I missed out on anything? Interviewer: Do you think they will be willing to accept a model like this? Candidate: I think that also depends on what kinds of margins we are offering them. Better prices and higher variety of goods will be the motivation for them. Interviewer: Alright. Regarding your point on product variety, what kinds of products would be needed? Candidate: Sir, I think grocery products would be the main requirements in these stores. Apart from these, FMCG products can also be used. Agriculture products will also be useful in such stores. Interviewer: Hmm, do you think you are missing out on something? (Take 2 minutes to think) Candidate: Yes Sir, dairy products will also be an important part of this. This would include milk packets, curd and cottage cheese. Interviewer: Yes, that is correct. Could you think what kind of problems can be there in this? Candidate: Sir, dairy products are difficult to transport. They need to be consumed within a day of production due to lack of proper refrigeration facilities. Interviewer: Correct. Could you suggest a few ways to tackle this? (Candidate suggests a few ways like smaller spokes, use of mini-refrigerated facilities in the hubs of every district and tying up with local producers of dairy products in the villages)

191

Interviewer: Alright. One final question, the suppliers give us a credit window of 2 weeks. But the village kirana stores demand a credit window of 4 weeks. By assuming some interest rates, could you estimate what issues this might lead to? (Candidate uses the time value of money concept, along with opportunity cost analysis to come up with rough numbers) Interviewer: That is all. Thank you. ____________________________________________________________________________

MCKINSEY & COMPANY

Aashish Dattani Caselet: Company X has newly entered the BPO business in India and wants to set up its first call center in India. How many employees should it hire? Assume that company X is currently going to serve only one client. Candidate: I will break-up the day into 3 shifts of 8 hours each. Can I do the requirement analysis for each shift independently? Interviewer: Yes. You need not count the common administrative staff across shifts (e.g. HR, security, support etc.) in your calculations. Candidate: In each shift, there are two kinds of employees: call center operators and managers. Can I assume a constant operator-to-manager ratio? Interviewer: You can assume an operator-to-manager ratio of 12:1 Candidate: The number of operators required in a given shift depends on these factors: 1. Average time taken to service a call (including post-call processing) and 2. Average number of calls you would expect to receive per minute Interviewer: Are you sure it is average number of calls? Do you want to service only ~50% of the calls you receive? Candidate: Sorry. It depends on the maximum number of calls expected at any point of time during that shift. Interviewer: Good. But generally clients do not want all 100% of their calls to be serviced. It is usually ~95%. Can you reason why? Candidate: The incremental cost of servicing the extra 5% of calls might be much higher than the revenue generated from those customers. Interviewer: Can you draw a graph showing the trade-off? Candidate: Service-level on X-axis and cost/revenue on Y-axis. Drew two curves: Linear revenue line and exponential-looking cost curve. Intersection point is target service level Interviewer: Thanks Aashish. That’s it for now. ___________________________________________________________________

Ishaan Puri 192

Interview 1 (Partner interview) Caselet: Our client is the owner of a factory which is being built. A dashboard needs to be created for him. What all do you think would he be interested in and why? [So this is a slightly unusual case since it was more like a general discussion about what all would be useful to the client, rather than solving a problem] Candidate:     

Budgeted vs. actual expenditure till date and reasons for deviation Project schedule vs. actual completion Status of work and purchase orders and reasons for delay Present exchange rate and forecasts Regulatory developments

The candidate included reasons as to why these would be useful to the client. [Evaluation: The evaluation was based on the basis of coverage, relevance etc] Interview 2: (Partner interview) Caselet: Our client is a BPO operator and his profits are falling. We’ve been called to help him. How would you go about it? Candidate: Are the costs increasing? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: What about revenues? Interviewer: They are constant Candidate: The cost driver of a typical BPO are salaries paid to the hourly employees. Have the salaries increased? Interviewer: Yes Candidate : Is the increase due to increase in number of hours or increased new hires? Interviewer: The BPO has had increased number of people joining the company in the last few months Candidate : Assuming the business volumes have been the same, hiring more people means average productivity is going down. This could be either because personnel were getting less efficient, or some of the staff was on the bench. Interviewer: There are lot of people on the bench right now Candidate : The increase in the number of people on the bench could be attributed to the attrition plans of the BPO. 193

The company should create detailed plans on hiring and attrition. It should check if paying by the hour actually works or if there is a better way. Other recommendation would be to reduce salaries for those on the bench, better forecasting techniques as far as attrition is concerned and focusing on reasons for attrition. __________________________________________________________________

Nikita Garg Interview 1 Interviewer: A German manufacturer of trucks is operating in the US. The company has been facing declining profits over the past 2 years. Identify the reasons and then we can talk about what could be done. Candidate: First, I would like to enquire more about the manufacturer and its operations. Is the manufacturer operating out of the US or some parts are imported from Germany or any other country and assembled in the US? Interviewer: All operations are being carried out in the US. It has been in the US for quite some decades and is a market leader. Candidate: There could be two aspects to the reasons for declining profits: (wrote them down on the paper) •

Internal: Cost, Volumes, Prices, Sale schemes

•

External: Industry growth, Competitors, Regulation (if any), State of the economy

Starting with the first, has there been any increase in the cost of operations? Interviewer: No. The volumes and prices of new trucks have also remained the same. Candidate: Ok. Since volumes and prices have remained the same, can I assume that revenues are the same? Interviewer: Let’s not make any assumptions just now. Candidate: Ok. Not assuming that revenues have remained constant and exhausting all the internal factors, has the firm recently introduced any schemes or discounts or has there been in any change in the sales model of the firm? Interviewer: The firm introduced a buy-back scheme in which you can sell your used trucks to the firm for an appropriate price. The scheme was introduced 4 years back. Candidate: As I understand, the firm has been seeing falling profits for the past 2 years. Which is the current year we are talking about in the case? Interviewer: You can take the current year to be 2011. Candidate: A look at the external factors and the years under consideration hint at the recession in the US economy as one of the reasons behind falling profits. Interviewer: Go ahead. Candidate: As you mentioned earlier, the volumes and prices have remained the same but we can’t assume that revenues have been the same as well. 194

So one of the reasons could be that the general demand for new trucks has declined because of the slowdown in the economy but the numbers of existing users of trucks exchanging their old trucks for new ones have increased. Hence there has been no major change in volumes but the revenue from a sale (New Truck Price – Old Truck Price) has declined. Thus, prices and volumes and costs have been the same, but revenues have declined leading to declining profits. Interviewer: Good. Candidate : Thank you. ___________________________________________________________________

Abhay Kumar Case-let: Estimate the number of 4G users in India in 2020. Candidate: I would like to look at this problem from demand and supply side, i.e. the potential users for 4G Network and the availability of the network. Would that be fine? Interviewer: Sure. Go ahead. Candidate: I am assuming the current population as 1.2 billion and a growth rate of 2% till 2020. Do you think that is a fair assumption? Interviewer: Sounds fine. Candidate: That makes the expected population to 1.4 billion. Could you suggest the current mobile penetration rate? Interviewer: Assume it to be 80% Candidate: Since the market penetration is high, there is little room for further penetration. So, by 2020 it could be 85%. Interviewer: That sounds a little low. Consider it to be 90% Candidate: Okay. Let me now consider this 90% population belonging to Rural and Urban, with Rural at 60% and Urban at 40% in 2020 (which is higher than current 30% urban due to continuing urban migration). Can I now start eliminating the pockets of population which will either not have 4G enabled phones or will not use 4G. Interviewer: Sure Candidate: First, I will remove 60% rural population. Within urban, I will remove Kids (60), which would probably be 10% of the population. We are now left with 65% of urban population, from 12-60 ages. The last segment to remove would be urban poor from this range, say 10%, leaving us with 55% of urban population. Do my assumptions sound relevant? Interviewer: I would rather have 15% of the urban population removed from 65%, leaving you with 50% of urban population. Candidate: Okay. So, 50% of the urban population would translate to 50% of 40% of 90% of 1.4 billion ~ 250 million. I am assuming a rounded figure for ease of calculation. Interviewer: That is fine 195

Candidate: Now looking at the supply side - 4G is currently only in one city. And by 2020, it would only cover metros and tier-1 cities. Assuming a uniform distribution of urban population and 40% of the urban population of 250 million would be in metros and tier-1 cities in 2020, we would have 100 million potential users. But this is independent of the price point. Could you suggest average price of 4G services? Interviewer: Assume rupees 5,000/month Candidate: This price would reduce demand even in urban areas. I imagine only white collar working professionals and businessmen (age 25-60) and rich students (age 12-25) could afford it. Can I assume that 25% of the 100 million belong to working professionals and businessmen category and 5% belong to rich students category. Interviewer: Sure Candidate: So putting all the numbers together, it boils down to 30% of the 100 million I calculated earlier. Essentially, 30 million users. Interviewer: That sounds like a fair approximation. Thank you _________________________________________________________________

Madhur Bansal Caselet: An MNC banks wants to venture into the microfinance business in Bangalore. What all should they be looking at? Candidate: I would like to start with the assumption that their microfinance model i.e. the interest structure is such that the business can be profitable. Will that be a fair assumption? Interviewer: Sure, go ahead. But what all factors should this interest charge consider? Candidate: Well, apart from the cost of funds, this would include the risk of default (which is usually high in micro finance), administrative expenses for reaching out to the expectedly large customer base and profit margins. So, now I would like to look at the market potential, the competition in the region, and what all will be the requirements for the bank Interviewer: Fine. Let’s look at the market potential first. Candidate: So I would like to use the population base as the anchor for the market potential. Taking the population of Bangalore and dividing it by 4 (average family size), we can do a first level cut using income level as only the lower income groups will avail microfinance. Then we would have to normalize the figures taking into account the people who would have a job, willingness to take loan, etc. (This went on for some good five minutes and I ended up one a number) Interviewer: What all reasons can you think of for taking such a loan? Candidate: Since the amount of the loan is small, these would be ideally taken for things like buying a stall or a rickshaw. (Discussed various other avenues) Interviewer: Ok. So this is in terms of people, let’s talk money. Candidate: Ok. So an average microfinance is around 15,000. (Multiplied the figure with the guesstimate figure to calculate market potential.) Interviewer: Good. So what do you think will be the interest income on this? 196

(The interview got over after a brief discussion. We also discussed qualitative factors like what all will be requirements by the bank to give loans to such people, risk factors, etc.)

197

CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES - SUMMERS 2012 CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES Graduation Name

Company

Avinash K

Accenture Management Consulting

Saurabh Arora

Accenture Management Consulting

Mohana Rajan

Shobhana Raja Saurabh Bansal

Work Experience

Branch

College

Company

Duratio n

One

Two

Civil

NIT Trichy

NTPC Ltd.

34 months

Academic s

Work Experience

Chemical

IIT Kanpur

Indian Oil Corporation 23 (Operations months )

PORs

Bain

Mechanica l

NITK Surathkal

None

Academic s

BCG

College of Dell Force 11 Engineering, 10 months Guindy Networks

Academic s

PORs

BCG

Biotech

IIT Roorkee

None

Grant Thornton

11 months

1.Capgemin i Consulting

29 months

2.Boston Analytics

18 months

Shantanu Chaudhary

BCG

IIT Bombay

Amitansu Kar

Booz

Computer Science

BITS Pilani

D. E. Shaw & 47 Co. months

Nishant Katoch

Deloitte Strategy & Operations

IIT Kharagpur

ITC

Dhruv Shah

Global Procure

e- B.Tech (ICT)

DA-IICT

Vishwas

Global Procure

e- Mechanica l

NIT Surathkal

Kartik Yeleswaram

Global Procure

e- Mechanica l

Soumil Srivastava

McKinsey

198

Resume Spikes

Mechanica l

Academic s

Awards/ Achieveme nt

PORs

Extra curriculars

Awards

Work Experience

47 months

Extracurricular s

Work Experience

Deloitte Consulting USI

11 months

PORs

Extracurriculars

Tata Motors

22 months

PORs

Extracurriculars

BITS PilaniBHEL Goa Campus

21 months

Work Experienc e

PORs

IIT Kanpur

None

Academic s

PORs

None

Mohd Qasim

McKinsey

Production & Industrial

Rajamayyoo r Sharma

McKinsey

Electrical & Electronics

BITS Pilani

None

Academic s

Extracurriculars

Karthik Manivannan

McKinsey

Mechanica l

PSG Tech

Deloitte Consulting

34 months

Academic s

PORs

Ramya George

Siemens Management Consulting

Computer Science

NIT Trichy

ZS Associates

23 months

Academic awards

PORs

IIT Delhi

Caterpillar

35 months

Academic s

Work Experience

ACCENTURE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Avinash K Caselet: An electric utility located somewhere in Eastern Europe wishes to improve its operational performance. How will you, as a consultant, go about it? Candidate: What is the fuel type? How old is the plant? Interviewer: It is a thermal plant (using coal as fuel). The plant is about 15 years old. Candidate: Since it is a thermal power plant, we first need to understand the grade of coal used. The higher the grade of coal, the higher the calorific value of coal and higher is the energy output. We need to assess the quality of coal that is locally available and if local coal is of low grade then we need to look at importing higher grade coal. Interviewer: Fair Enough. What other parameters will you look at? Candidate: Is the plant located close to the sea? Interviewer: How is it relevant? Candidate: A sea side plant will use sea water as feed water in the boiler (to produce steam that ultimately drives the turbine, thereby generating electricity). Though sea water may be deionised, there can be residual salts present in the water. If this water is used it may lead to scaling, corrosion of tubes and frequent breakdowns. Interviewer: That is a good point. They were indeed a sea side plant. Candidate: As far as operating parameters are concerned, I will also look at the number of unplanned shutdowns in the plant. Every time there is a shutdown, it takes 2 to 3 days to bring the plant back on stream. This would affect the annual plant utilisation. I would compare these parameters with other plants in the country to benchmark this plant's performance. Interviewer: Okay. That was a very comprehensive analysis of the case. Thanks and I am recommending you for next round of interview.

199

Saurabh Arora Caselet 1: A heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer is considering introducing a new commercial vehicle in light-medium segment? How should they go about the launch? Candidate:

There

are

Marketing

Supply

two of

Chain

parts

the for

the

problem:

new the

product

new

product

Marketing:   

What could be the uses the vehicle can serve? Who could be the potential users? What should be the mode

communication

them?

Supply Chain:  

How is the current supply chain like? (In terms of dealers) What are the supply chain requirements for this vehicle?

What are the changes that one needs to make to the current supply chain? Caselet 2: You are in a flight with Mr. Mukesh Ambani. What will you suggest to him to improve his refinery business? Candidate: I enlisted down some important parameters, which one should be aware of in refinery operations and what are the best practices to increase efficiency. Then, I stressed upon the domestic and international avenues which a refiner should keep an eye on in the wake of changing Government and business scenario.

BAIN & COMPANY

Mohana T Rajan Caselet: A metro is being set up in a city like Bangalore. What factors will you take into consideration before pricing a ticket? Candidate: I shall first look at the various costs and revenue associated with a metro. Interviewer: Sure, go ahead. What would you consider to be the main expenses involved? Candidate: The one-time expense is the setting up of the infrastructure required. Interviewer: Essentially, the capex is never fully recovered and since it is a govt. undertaking. Thus, it isn't taken into consideration while pricing tickets. 200

Candidate: In that case, the metro officials must make sure that every metro run must at least break even and the opex involved must be taken into consideration. Interviewer: Ok, in that case what are the various opex involved? Candidate: The main expenses are the wages for the staff - the driver, security and ticketing personnel. The energy required for running of metro and the air-conditioning must also be considered. Interviewer: Now let's look at the revenue buckets. Candidate: The direct source of income is from tickets. Another source is advertisements in the stations and trains. The third source is the stalls that are inside the stations. Interviewer: Now, let's see what other factors you will take into consideration while pricing a ticket. Candidate: The main reason people use the metro is that it is cheaper than other modes of transport, well apart from bus transport. Metros have no traffic and thus would be time saving, as compared to other modes like road transport using auto-rickshaws. Interviewer: Very good, so finally how will you price the ticket? Candidate: The ticket would obviously be priced based on the distance - number of stops. The opex and getting a quantitative feel of how much value people place on their time, we can get a good idea of the prices. This would be offset by additional revenue through advertisement and other commercial activities within the metro station and trains. Interviewer: Excellent. That's it for now.

201

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

Shobhana Raja Caselet: An FMCG company, which is into food products, is experiencing reduced stock availability of 75% in their depots. This is impeding their growth. What should it do? Candidate: As per my understanding, 25% of the orders from distributors do not get fulfilled. Are these stock-outs specific to one particular brand or common across brands? Interviewer: This is a common issue faced across all brands. Candidate: Fine. It could be a supply side issue. Can you tell me the production capacity? Interviewer: There are 12 manufacturing sites. I don't think it is a supply-side issue. Candidate: In that case, some of the other reasons could be: 1. Seasonal demand for the product from the consumer 2. Poor demand forecasting 3. Poor stock deployment norms - Eg: Insufficient safety stock requirements at depots 4. Distributors not planning their orders sufficiently 5. Inefficient logistics resulting in stock not reaching depot on time Interviewer: Of these factors, can you look into demand forecasting? Candidate: Sure. Is there an estimate of forecasting accuracy of the company? Interviewer: The company has a good national-level forecasting accuracy. Candidate: Okay. I think there is a chance the depot-level forecasting accuracy is low. Interviewer: Yes. The depot-level accuracy is 40-50%. The traditional ways of forecasting have not worked. What should the company do? Candidate: The Company should use an automated tool (Eg: SAP) to manage the process. Interviewer: Thanks Shobhana. I think we can wrap up.

Saurabh Bansal Caselet: An international packaged foods company operating in India is facing stiff competition from domestic players. Design their future strategy to tackle this issue? Candidate: Can you give me a brief idea about the company? Interviewer: You can assume it to be one of the biggest food companies. It has been operating in India for a long time and has enjoyed a leadership position in food items like chips, wafers and other snacks. This position has been threatened by some Indian players. Candidate: How has the company positioned its products in India? Is it a premium/high quality player or are its prices comparable to local Indian players? Interviewer: The prices of our client’s products are roughly 10-20% higher. 202

Candidate: Since we are talking about packaged foods, I am assuming that some of the Indian players are attracting customers because of relatively lower prices with quality not being a significant deterrent to purchase. Does this assumption sound reasonable? Interviewer: Fair enough, go ahead. Candidate: Is there a significant difference between our client’s products and the products of these new competitors? Interviewer: Yes, our client entered the Indian market with products that have been successful in other countries, with slight tweaks to cater to India. But the essential form has remained the same. The Indian players however, have introduced more ethnic products. Candidate: Has our client’s position been threatened by competitors in the domain of chips/wafers? Interviewer: No, but the overall volumes have declined because of substitution with other snacks. Candidate: (Took a minute to organize before responding) With the key issue being declining volumes, the client has to look at ways to target customer segments other than premium product buyers. It has to prevent customer shift to other foods. Would you want me to go a level deep into this? Interviewer: Sounds good. What would be your recommendations to the client? Candidate: I think our client should focus on a two pronged approach for growth. Firstly, the client can look to leverage on its economies of scale to expand to more points of sale and gain an aggregate volumes advantage over smaller Indian players. Secondly, the client can launch another brand with a more Indian line of products that would appeal to the Indian taste. The new brand should be associated with high quality and should maintain the premium position of marginally higher prices than competitors. The rationale behind this is to maintain the premium quality brand and cater to the segment buying Namkeens/Bhujias etc. Interviewer: Can you think of ways by which the new brand you discussed can come about? Candidate: We can probably do a detailed market study to identify flavors/forms that appeal to large customer segments and introduce an assortment of products under a new brand. Alternatively, the client can look at acquisitions of smaller players and build on that leveraging parent company scale/expertise. It can also look at a partnership model if it finds itself constrained for resources. Interviewer: Sounds great. I think we have discussed the major heads.

Shantanu Chaudhary Caselet: A large diameter steel rod manufacturer is launching a new product from its stable which is small diameter steel rod. Do they need to build a warehouse after the launch of this new product? If yes, where? Candidate: Currently, does the manufacturer have a warehouse for the large diameter steel rod? Interviewer: No, they deliver it directly from their factory. Candidate: Does the factory have a large warehouse attached to it? 203

Interviewer: No. Candidate: So are these large diameter steel rods made-to-order? Interviewer: Yes. Candidate: Will the target customers for the new product remain the same as for large rods? Interviewer: May be, you tell me. Candidate: I would like to think about a few industries that may be potential customers of small diameter steel rods, may I take a minute? Interviewer: Sure. Go ahead. Candidate: I think construction, automobile and railway industries could be a major target. Could you help me identify the industry with which their current competencies align best? Interviewer: Yes, the industries you mentioned could be their targets, however they are looking at the growing construction business in India through various residential and commercial projects. Candidate: In that case, would I be right in assuming that these rods would be used as reinforcements to go along with the concrete for building structures? Interviewer: Could you think of any other major use of small diameter rods in construction? Candidate: May be window fittings in buildings, to name one. Interviewer: Ok, let's not go there; you assumed correctly that reinforcements are a major part of steel usage in construction. Candidate: Is there anything special that our client is trying to manufacture other than the normal steel rods used as reinforcements in construction? Interviewer: Yes, they are planning to manufacture the same small diameter rods that are normally used in reinforcements for construction. Candidate: Considering this product is common, am I correct in assuming that there would be several players in the market competing for this space? Interviewer: Yes, there are many players already in the market. Candidate: For a common product, I would like to think that this product should be made-tostock rather than made-to-order, so that the construction clients' orders are not lost to competition whenever there is a potential deal on the table. Interviewer: Yes, you are thinking on the correct lines. Go ahead. Candidate: In that case, it would make sense to have a warehouse for storing the made-to-stock inventory.

BOOZ & COMPANY

Amitansu Kar Caselet 1: One of the leading players in the Indian airline industry wants to re-paint the exteriors of its entire fleet. How many litres of paint would be required for this? 204

Candidate: I have some follow-up questions. Does the airline have international flights? Interviewer: No. Consider it to be a leading domestic player. Candidate: Fine. Do we have an idea about its reach - number of cities covered? Interviewer: What do you think would be a reasonable estimate? Candidate: Since, it’s a leading player, it would have a wide reach - say around 20-25 cities. Interviewer: That's a good estimate. Candidate: To arrive at an estimate of its fleet size, I would find out the # of planes required to cover its network of cities with an estimated # of frequency per day. I have segmented the cities into two buckets – Metros (Tier1) and Tier 2/3 cities. Tier 1: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad (Total: 6 in number) Tier 2/3: Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar etc (Total: 15 in number) Interviewer: Fine. Candidate: I assume there would be direct flights (to and fro - twice per day) between all Tier 1 cities, direct flights (to and fro - once per day) from Tier 1 cities to some Tier 2/3 cities (say half of them) and some direct and some hopping flights between some Tier 2/3 cities. Is it valid assumption? Interviewer: Sounds like a valid assumption. Candidate: (Reading out loud while calculating on paper) Among Tier 1 cities: 6C2 = 15 combinations. Avg travelling time = 2 hrs. To and fro plus waiting time = 2+2+2 = 6 hrs. Twice per day = 12 hrs. I guess a plane can't be used for more than 12 hours per day. Hence, 15 planes would be required. Between Tier 1 city and Tier 2/3 cities: 6C1 * 15C1 = 90; Not all combinations for direct flights would exist. Let's take 1/2 of this. That makes it 45. Avg travelling time (to and fro) + waiting = 6 hrs. Flying time per day per plane - say 12 hrs. (6*2). So, planes required = 45/2 = 23 Among Tier 2/3 cities: Say direct flights for 5 cities and they cover remaining cities as hopping destination. 5C2 = 10 (similar calculation as above) Hence fleet size = 15 + 23 + 10 = 48. Is this a good approximation? Interviewer: Yes, very good. So, how many litres of paint would be required? Candidate: The fleet would comprise of different types/sizes of planes. The ones connecting the metros would be bigger than the ones for Tier 2/3 cities. Do we have information on size of the planes? Interviewer: Well, what do you think would be fair estimate? Candidate: For the purpose of estimating paint required for exteriors, I can assume the plane to be in the shape of a cuboid. Length: Bigger planes have generally 30 rows of seats. Each row say occupies 3 feet. 30*3=90 feet plus cockpit plus restrooms space = ~120 ft Breadth: 3*2 seats in each row. ~6 * 1.5 feet each + separation distance = ~12 ft

205

Height: Interior height = one persons height (6 ft) + allowance of say 2ft = 8 ft. External height might be double of this = ~15 ft Interviewer: Sounds good. Let's stop the problem here. Caselet 2: We are a leading global consulting firm operating in India. Recently, we heard that another global player is entering the Indian market. What do we do? Candidate: I am assuming our objective is to maintain as much market share as we can? Interviewer: Yes - that's a fair assumption. Go ahead. Candidate: Could you tell me the competitive landscape of the Indian consulting industry? Interviewer: There are 3 major firms. Apart from that, some small players also do exist. Candidate: What are the market shares of each? Interviewer: Well you can consider one firm to have 40% share, the other 30%. We have around 20% share. And, the rest 10% is made up by small players. Candidate: Okay. Are the other firms doing something to keep this new player out? Interviewer: That's a good question. But, let's concentrate on our strategy. Candidate: We should follow a two pronged strategy: 1. Protecting existing clients 2. Getting new clients Since, consulting entails repeat business, we should mainly focus on protecting our existing clients. At the same time, we should increase our marketing efforts to get new clients. Interviewer: Sounds good. Could you tell me how you could protect existing clients? Candidate: Essentially, we need to raise the switching costs. Three points that I can think of: 1. Deliver our work really well so that it wouldn't make sense for them to switch. 2. Know the client well, their existing issues and pitch for solutions to those. 3. Incentivise and give them some benefits to re-sign us for another job/task. Interviewer: Sounds good. Let's stop here.

DELOITTE STRATEGY & OPERATIONS

Nishant Katoch Caselet: An Indian mobile handset maker wants to target rural markets. There are over 500,000 Indian villages not all of which can be chosen. What framework should they use to select suitable towns/villages? Candidate: (I asked for some time to jot down my points) I think we need to look at their potential customers, competitors. Interviewer: What competitors and which customers? 206

Candidate: Maybe we could look at regions that are close to cities that would be easier to catch. Interviewer: True, but this is a minor factor. (After this I mentioned factors like villages with a great profile of outstation workers, villages without existing telephone network etc.) Interviewer: Yes, you spoke of a lot of disjointed points but let me help you, why don't you think of demand and supply factors. So what is the first demand factor? Candidate: The population Interviewer: Precisely, in fact it is one of the best filters. In the rest of the interview, other factors like village connectivity, literacy levels etc. were discussed. I suggest you to be confident, improvise on frameworks and learn to pick up negative signals early on in your interview.

GLOBAL E-PROCURE

Dhruv Shah Caselet: A company has designed a new golf ball which can potentially last forever (can withstand any amount of wear & tear). How should it be priced? Candidate: What does the company manufacture? Do they already have a golf ball offering? Interviewer: They manufacture sports equipment and yes, they do have a golf ball offering. Candidate: Ok. What are the types of golf balls available in the market? Interviewer: There is very little variety, but there are two major firms (apart from this company) that manufacture golf balls. A golf ball would be priced in the range of $10-15. Candidate: My approach would be to first understand the value add this product brings. For that, I would estimate the typical number of golf balls used by an average user in his lifetime (discarded due to wear & tear) and the average loss rate of balls during play. Our product addresses the former issue only. Then I would compare it to the value a normal $10-15 ball gives (in terms of average life), and arrive at a price point for the new ball (by extrapolation). Next, I would like to know the cost of manufacture - to get an idea of the operating margin. Interviewer: Yes, but what would you do with the margin? Candidate: So the margin (difference in price computed and cost incurred) can be reduced - given that consumer acceptance would be low for a new product. We can divide the surplus between the producer and consumer. In order to fix the price, I suggest we could conduct consumer surveys to get an estimate of the willingness to pay within the arrived range. Interviewer: But who do you include in this survey? Candidate: Regular members at golf clubs could be a good starting point. Interviewer: Sounds good. So go ahead now with your pricing analysis. 207

Candidate arrived at guesstimate for average number of balls used in a lifetime. E.g. playing from 20-60 age (US context), plays 3 days a week, average plays per ball, factor in number of balls lost in a year etc. and finally comes with a price estimate.

Vishwas Caselet 1: A large construction company is to build a high-rise office complex in Mumbai, but faces heavy costs in sourcing material. Suggest how or why? Candidate: Rising commodity prices due to construction boom in India is a possible reason. Can the company explore alternative options such as plastic concrete or building bricks made from recycled plastic? Interviewer: Fine, green materials is one suggestion, but not practical. Candidate: How much material does the company source within India? How much from outside? Interviewer: There is very little sourcing from outside India. Candidate: Do they have any long-term contracts with suppliers? Can they negotiate terms? Interviewer: Yes, they have long-term contracts for a few materials. Can you guess what could be the terms of such a sourcing contract? Candidate: The Company would have arrived to the supplier through an RFQ or Reverse Auction process, correct? They would have received quotes from many suppliers? Interviewer: Yes, that is a fair assumption Candidate: So, the contract negotiated would have details of the price and an inflationary adjustment factor? Interviewer: Yes, go on. What could be the other conditions in the contract? The interview went along these lines till many concepts in strategic sourcing and supply chain management were covered. Caselet 2: A large Indian car manufacturer has huge revenues but poor profits. How would you approach their problem? Candidate: Clearly, their costs are too high. If I name various cost heads, would you suggest which ones I should explore further? Interviewer: Go ahead and name a few cost heads Candidate: Material costs (unsatisfactory relationship with suppliers, escalating commodity costs), R&D costs, production costs, recent investments and related costs of capital, import costs - which one should I explore? Interviewer: Explore each one of those and explain the technicalities. (After that was completed) Could there be any reason other than the costs? Candidate: Are there any heavy duties (taxes) that the Company is paying? Interviewer: Can you illustrate what kind of heavy taxes could be levied? (After that was completed, I was asked to elaborate on any other reasons for low profits) 208

Candidate: Could it be that the Company was not charging an adequate premium on the product? Interviewer: So, why would any Company do that? Could you list a few reasons? Candidate: Competitive market, poor industry profitability, Company has commitment to customers to sell at lower prices (like Nano), heavy exchange offers or discount schemes affecting profitability, month-end schemes to reach sales targets hitting profitability. (Reasons affecting profitability) The Company may not be making good use of its customer service channel. This is usually a profit centre. The company should check its spare parts sales and annual maintenance contracts (AMCs) Interviewer: How would an AMC affect profitability? Candidate: An AMC for a defective product would mean free replacement and hence, the Company loses money on them. It could also be that the AMC business is not doing well and the Company is spending on the business. This could pull down profits. Interviewer: What about spare parts business? How could that be critical? How does a Company manage that vertical? Candidate: The mark-up on the cost at which it is procured may not justify expenses. There are costs of maintaining warehouse, paying the service provider, transportation (FOC) costs, packaging costs, cost of schemes in the market, promotional material in the retail markets. Interviewer: Ok, you have covered the details fairly exhaustively. Thank You!

Kartik Yeleswaram Caselet: A Fortune 500 packaged foods company is facing a consistent rise in MRO costs for its plant in England. How can sourcing strategy be changed to mitigate this? Candidate: What are the different categories of MRO components? How is total MRO expenditure distributed across these categories? Interviewer: MRO components can be classified into 75 categories on the basis of functionality, required quality and criticality. These vary greatly with respect to expenditure per unit and frequency of purchase.

MCKINSEY & COMPANY

Soumil Srivastava Caselet: A car tire manufacturer is looking to enter the market for truck tires. Should they go ahead with this? Candidate: What is the current market structure for truck tires and the current product mix of the client? Interviewer: The market is mostly concentrated and has 4 major players currently. Candidate: I am going to focus on any unique competitive advantage that the client might have in the market if it decides to enter. 209

Interviewer: The client will be able to use its advanced production processes (which were being used for cars) to manufacture better quality tires which will have better performance characteristics such as dry/wet traction, force variation and would last longer. Candidate evaluated whether the truck tire market would actually value such characteristics, the expected revenues and costs. After profitability analysis, recommended going ahead with the launch of the product. Candidate was also asked to evaluate any softer aspects of the market entry.

Mohd Qasim Caselet: An Indian IT company wants to enter the health care segment in the US. It has two options either to develop software for hospitals or for insurance companies. Candidate: Could you please elaborate on the use of IT in the health sector? Interviewer: In US, health care is primarily cash less and insurance based. To run this effectively, both hospitals as well as insurance companies require systems to process the claims. Candidate: So, health institutions would require the software to process patients' billings while insurance companies would need it to process hospitals' claims. Am I right? Interviewer: Yes Candidate: What is the objective for the IT company to enter US market? Interviewer: To expand and increase revenue Candidate: (Asked for a minute to think) We can come up with some critical parameters to evaluate the two alternatives. Interviewer: And what would they be? Candidate: We need to look at the competition, market size, growth prospects of health care and insurance sector, margins, company's current expertise, time to implementation, regulations and required investments. We need to prioritize these criteria. (Interviewer asked to explain some of these parameters. He provided some data on each of the above parameters and based on which insurance sector turned out to be the preferred one.) Interviewer: Fair enough. What about the implementation? How should the company go about it? Candidate: Three alternatives can be considered- starting alone, forming an alliance with an existing player or acquiring another company based on its current expertise, capital availability, familiarity with the country, business relations and time it would take to enter the market.

Rajamayyoor Sharma Caselet: Estimate the number of flights in the air in India at any given time. Candidate: One way of estimating would be to narrow down the number of people using flights in each city. 210

Interviewer: Could you think of a different approach? You do not have any data regarding no. of aircrafts each airlines has or any other information from the airports, to help you. Candidate: Alright. Could you give me some sort of indication as to what sort of methodology you want me to use? Interviewer: Try and look at the constraints that would limit the no. of airlines in the air. Candidate: There are multiple constraints, one of them being the no. of airports we have. Would that be correct? Interviewer: Fair enough. Let’s take only the major airports, i.e. the metros, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Candidate: Sure. So we have 6 airports to consider. Within each airport, we can study the constraints, figure out the major bottleneck in each and this would help us decide the no. of aeroplanes in the air. Interviewer: Try and look at a single largest constraint that would be present across all airports and then see how it affects our estimates. Candidate: The single largest constraint could be the time on the runway, as each airport has only 1 or 2 and each runway can accommodate only one aeroplane at a time. Interviewer: Good. Now, how can you estimate the no. of flights in the air, once you have figured out the biggest bottleneck? Candidate: Let’s assume that each flight takes 2 minutes on the runway. So there can be about 30 flights that can take off or land in an hour. Will that be a correct assumption? Interviewer: Sure. Now, how would you convert this rate of take- off or landing into no. of flights in the air? Candidate: If we assume an average flight time of say 2 hours, all flights that take off in the first hour will land in the third hour. So roughly 2 hours multiplied by 30 flights per hour should be the no. of flights in the air from each runway. This, multiplied with the number of runways would give us an approximate number of flights in the air in India.

Karthik Manivannan Caselet: One of the magazine companies is diversifying into local evening newspaper. It is planning to run a pilot for the same in Chandigarh. How will you choose an area among 4 prospective areas within Chandigarh ( Eg: Indira Nagar Times etc) Candidate: (I asked a few initial few questions about the company and its business to understand the context for further analysis). Candidate: Are there any important qualities that the company is looking for in its audience? Interviewer: None is specific. But who do you think are the customers for such a newspaper? Candidate: Mainly retired people, house wives and may be teenagers could be included. Given that such newspapers are usually free of cost and revenues are mainly through advertisements, 211

the area that is chosen should have enough local businesses which will gain through these ads. Is that a right assumption to make? Interviewer: Yes that is right. Can you tell me what such businesses might be? Candidate: Given the target audience, I can think of apparel retailers, food supermarkets and restaurants. Interviewer: What do you think retired people look for? Candidate: They might be looking for leisure events, for e.g. a carnatic concert or any social event that they can indulge in during their free time. Interviewer: Fair enough. What about housewives? Candidate: Recipes, offers & discounts in apparel/cutlery and jewellery might be of their interest Interviewer: What else do house wives look for? (Hinted me towards mothers) Candidate: Mothers might look for heath tips for their kids. Some newspapers carry advertisements regarding tuitions and summer sports camps, which might interest them! Interviewer: Alright, Good then. Can you quickly summarise the points that we have discussed and factors to be taken into account? Candidate: Interviewer: Ok, cool thanks!

SIEMENS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Ramya George Caselet 1: A heavy engineering product company sells standard & customized products and services. Their current organization setup includes a product vertical and a service vertical. Each of these verticals has their own dedicated sales force. What are the structural problems that you foresee in this organization setup? Candidate: Could you please elaborate on the product verticals. Interviewer: The product vertical carries a huge portfolio of products – simple as well as complex. The service for each kind of product may vary from preventive maintenance to repair in nature. Candidate: One of the possible problems could be the tedious process involved in ordering products, because of the multiple talk-points for the customer. Interviewer: Any other problem that you can think of? Candidate: There might be an increase in company’s service response time because of lack of internal co-ordination between product and service verticals. Since there are separate sales force teams for each vertical, the scope of pro-actively monitoring service requirements is reduced.

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Overall implication with the current setup was contribution to top line was being driven more by product volume than service volume. The company had a legacy of products installed in the market and hence a huge service potential. Given the current internal situation, the service potential was highly untapped. The solution suggested was to have 3 verticals – product, service and sales. The sales vertical acts as a common link between product and service as well as drives service volume in the market.

Caselet 2: How would you estimate the market for flanges in India? Candidate: As I did not have much idea about the product, I clarified the product usage upfront. The uses ranged from construction to manufacturing to automation industries. I followed a demand-side estimation in which I classified the market into B2B and B2C. At this point, the interviewer stopped me from going further into numbers and we then discussed key distribution tie-ups possible.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES - SUMMERS 2011

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CONTRIBUTORS' PROFILES

AT KEARNEY 215

Siddharth Parthasarathy Caselet: Estimate the market size for an automobile repair chain in India Candidate: Automobiles include commercial and personal vehicles. Personal could be further split into 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers. What is our client’s focus? Interviewer: Four Wheelers Candidate: Is the client focusing on all the markets or the metro markets alone? Interviewer: Our client is interested in metro markets Candidate: I would like to start the estimation of market size with Delhi as the start case and extend it to other metros Interviewer: That would be fine Candidate: (I took a minute off the pen down my approach, which was pretty much like this)

We could broadly classify the revenue stream as shown (using the paper) , we may also include insurance also. Interviewer (interrupted): Why not

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Candidate: Of these revenue streams, I would safely assume 80% of the revenue would be through service stream and would want to focus on this stream. Is the approach & assumption fine or would you want me to consider other areas as well Interviewer: This would be fine, go ahead Candidate: (ran through the following calculations with the interviewer on paper with commentary) Delhi’s population is around 10Mn, 20% would be SEC A and another 30% in SEC B (Socio economic class). It would be safe to assume Sec A will have two cars per household and sec B will have one car per house-hold. Assuming 4 people form a household, No of cars in Delhi would be 10 x 0.2 /4 + 10 x 0.3/4 = 1.25 Mn cars in Delhi. Each car is serviced every quarter on an average No of services in an year = 5 Mn Cost per service would closely be around Rs 2000 Interviewer (interrupts): I get your approach, I know how you will proceed. Good work! Interviewer: Tell me about you work experience Candidate: Talked a bit on my work-ex. Interviewer: Any questions for me Candidate: I don’t think I have any questions Interviewer: Great, Thanks, That brings us to the end of the interview!

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Shovik Banerjee Caselet: A private equity firm is considering buying a stake in the BPO unit of a financial services company. The firm is employed on a 4-5 week project to evaluate the proposal. Do you think it is a good idea to buy out a stake in the unit? Candidate: The evaluation would require us to look into multiple facets and parameters. Would you like me to list the out for you? Interviewer: Fair enough (clearly he is looking for a comprehensive set to see if all options would be considered by me) C: Let me list out various factor grouped together under five primary categories – market attractiveness, company attractiveness, competitors, exit options and external factors. (I list out 5-6 factors under each category) I: (Appears satisfied with the listing) Ok let’s leave that aside. Let us assume you have considered all the alternatives. If I asked you to pick one hot button, which would it be? C: I would want to look at the profitability of the unit in terms of its revenue and costs (fixed and variable) I: Great. Let’s go ahead with the revenues aspect. C: I would assume that BPOs primarily have voice and non-voice services. However, these could be rendered to multiple clients. Which sectors does the unit specialize in? I : The BPO specializes in financial services as it was set up by a bank. The market is fairly large, about a $100 bn globally. (Randomly throws numbers regarding the industry in general to distract my attention) C: Do we have information regarding the revenue split between voice and non voice services? I: For every $8 dollars it earns for non-voice services, the BPO earns $4 for its voice services. Billing is done on a per contact basis. C: Non voice services seem to be generating more revenues than voice on a per contact basis. I’m curious about the volumes for each that the unit handles.

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I: Good you asked. About 75% of it’s per contact volumes come from voice services. C: (After a quick summary of the case facts) The revenues seem quite steady, however, I would like to know where the cash flows come in from i.e. who are its clients for its voice services. I: Almost 80-90% of its volumes stem from the holding bank itself. C: Prima facie, it looks like the BPO won’t have enough business once the bank sells it, it might not be a good idea for a PE firm to invest in it unless it has a larger portfolio of clients in the pipeline. I: That’s what we told them as well. C: (Looking back at the list I had initially drawn out) Are you sure you don’t want me to go through the remaining items listed down? I: (Smiles) It’s fine, you are good to go for the next round. We don’t believe in complicated frameworks anyways!

ALVAREZ & MARSHAL

Deepak Nanwani Caselet 1: A cement company is facing a problem of reduced margins and their performance is last 3 years has been very poor. You are hired as a consultant to identify the possible reasons and solve the problem After asking questions to develop basic understanding of their operations and the geography they operate in, candidate approached the case as below: Candidate: Is there a major change in competition, is there any new product launched? Interviewer: No change C: Are other companies also facing the problem of reduced margins?

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I: No, their margins are the same C: Is there any rise in material costs or other regulatory changes which have increased the costs? I: No, had it been the overall change, other companies would have faced the same problem. C: So, this cost increase is definite to their firm. I will start with identifying different cost buckets. These specific costs can be advertisement cost, transportation cost, distribution cost. I: consider transportation and distribution under one bucket and go in detail Conclusion: After going in the details of their distribution and warehouse strategy, candidate identified that the company was basically a south India based Cement Company which was trying to expand in North India. But the warehouses they were going for were not leased and they were on lease basis. This was one of the factors responsible for increasing their costs. Second issue was their distribution. They were trying to expand without a comprehensive hub and spoke model and without identifying key target regions. Suggestions to improve the situation: 1. Regional Warehouses, Hub and spoke model for distribution 2. Go for regions with high demand density, identify target regions and stop supply to regions which are not concentrated 3. Tie Up with Construction companies

Caselet 2: There is a US based confectionary brand trying to launch a new breakfast cereal. Explain the product strategy they should go for. C: I will start with identifying cost buckets. I: Is there a product already available? You should not assume that product is already available. Candidate listed 5 areas of focus: Target Segment Identification, product development, Branding Strategy, Distribution Strategy, and Pricing Strategy and explained each of them in detail

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Interviewer gave numbers on product development costs, advertisement budget etc. and candidate was asked to find out the break even volume. Overall, most of time candidate was asked to explain without much guidance.

BAIN & COMPANY

Aditya Mukherjee Main tips: The Bain cases I encountered were comparatively longer, with more direct analytical questions asked, including graph and accounting interpretation for data shown on laptops. Interviewers were very relaxed and friendly and gave guidance when necessary. Caselet: A hospital chain is looking to expand and wants to start a new hospital. Tell me the key things that affect profitability that they should look at. Candidate: The analysis can be broken up into cost and revenue drivers. On the cost side, factors to consider would be:   

Usage of reusable equipment such as gloves, thermometers, hospital gowns etc benchmarked against peer hospitals, sourcing discounts possible Costs in different specialties, equipment required for them and the break-even period, doctor/surgeon costs in different domains and geographical areas Nursing and maintenance staff costs per bed benchmarked against peer hospitals, staff attrition costs

Interviewer: That’s good, and on the revenue side? C: The market for different specialties in different geographies, and the price points at which different medical services will be accessible. This will depend on price-points offered by competitors in the locality. There will have to be deep analysis of which specialties to open in the hospital depending on estimated market since it will tie back to break-even period and amortization of equipment. I: Alright, any other revenue drivers? C: Sale of medicines will be another large contributor to revenue. Sale of medicines prescribed by different specialties can go into deciding which departments to open. Moreover, (luckily remembering snippets and terms from case done in strategy class) it is important to be able to convert IPD to OPD since OPD margins are typically higher than IPD. 221

I: Ok. What about prices? You mentioned competitor’s price-points. What else will determine the prices you can charge? C: (Completely blank) Let me just take a minute to go over the main drivers and see what I’ve missed. (Repeating some of the key drivers for prices) The specialties, competitors, internal cost and amortization needs, paying capability of customers. I: Which depends on? C: Location (with a happy sigh)! I: Exactly C: (Digging in) In fact, location will be a major factor of success for a hospital. Channel dominance in a service like hospital or hotel depends on taking up the limited number of good properties in major cities. I: Exactly. Alright so let us take the general issue of expansion of a hospital chain. Suppose you met Malvinder Singh in an elevator, what will the things be that you tell him for revolutionary growth? If you only have 60 seconds to talk to him. C: I would tell him to focus on bulk sourcing, attrition. I: (Interrupts) No, I don’t want cost-tweaking. I want revolutionary ideas. For 10x growth C: (Wondering if case preparations were any use at all) I’ll just take a (another) minute. I: Take your time. Give me something radical. C: (After a lot of thinking) They can tie-up with high-end realty. All these construction projects aimed at high-end homes that are happening – they can tie up to build in hospitals. Takes care of channel dominance. I: Ok. Anything else? C: They can also use their scale to go into the fiend of medical testing. 222

I: Ok great. (Opens laptop and shows their Balance Sheet and P&L) So here are the accounts of a typical hospital. How many days will it take them to break-even (He used a different term but clarified it upon asking) I went through the calculation with him, clarifying different items in the sheet to make sure I’m not making any wrong assumptions. He was very helpful and prompted generously. I: Ok that’s great. Any questions for us? I asked something.

Mansi Baranwal Introduction: Interviewer who is a partner introduces himself. Reads resume and asks about two-three points mentioned there – details, future plans, etc. Then, asks the question. Caselet: A construction equipment manufacturer is showing no growth in profits for the past 3 years. This quarter, the profits actually declined. What are the things that I should look at to determine the problem? Candidate: The way I understand the case is… (Repeats problem in own words). Then asked a few questions about the company’s product portfolio, if the trend is industry wide or company specific, etc (Picks up paper and pen) If you could give me a moment to structure my thoughts. Interviewer: No that’s ok. I don’t want you to draw the framework on paper and all that. Just tell me, what are the areas that could be problematic and why? C: (Don’t remember exact details) Started by using the classic revenue and cost framework. Went on to describe the possible constituents of costs and revenue and problems that might be there. Used the following framework: Revenue -> 1. 2. 3. 4.

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Revenue streams (prices, niche, differentiation) Product demand (market size, growth, segmentation) Competition and substitutes (market share, price, promotions, growth) Environment (technology, regulation, economic)

Cost -> 1. Fixed (depreciation/rent, salaries, marketing, maintenance, interest, etc) 2. Variable (materials, manufacturing, labor, freight, inventory) The important thing here is to say only the things that are relevant to a construction company and also say them in terms of a construction company e.g. depreciation on the equipment and manufacturing units; Differentiation in terms of use of equipment, scale of operation, longevity, material used, weight bearing capacity; Segmentation could be big infrastructure companies, builders, individuals). Say as many relevant things that come to your mind. They don’t expect you to know anything about the construction industry as such. Also list some of the related problems that might be happening with each of the component. Be brief and crisp. I: Very well. Can you tell me some other ways of looking at where the problem might lie? C: Then I elaborated using components from other frameworks such as 1. Industry analysis (size, growth, segmentation, lifecycle, players, shares, strengths, differentiation, pricing, external factors, buyers, suppliers, substitutes, etc), 2. Product analysis (past sales trend, volume, price, USP, portfolio, strengths, weaknesses, service, warranty, bundling, patents, substitutes, seasonality) 3. Market strategy (distribution, advertisement, value proposition, suppliers, promotions, competitors response, etc) 4. Customers (need, value, segmentation, growth) 5. Growth strategies (market penetration, new product development, new markets) Again keep making it relevant to a construction company and how this component could be posing a threat to the profitability. Be brief and crisp. I: All right, now consider that you fixed the profitability problem and the company has asked you for some recommendations to improve their business. I don’t expect you to know much about the construction industry. Just tell me some generic improvements that they could look at. C: This is an open-ended question and you could answer anything. They will look at how well you think on your feet. I don’t remember most of the things I recommended. I do remember saying something about financing deals, differentiating product portfolio with smaller equipments for small building projects in cities and heavier machines targeted at infrastructure companies, developing a renting agency for individuals and small companies, mobile equipment mounted on trucks, etc.

Shivani Pal

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Caselet: A San Francisco based credit card company wants to enter India. What should be the key considerations for this market entry venture? Candidate: There are two aspects to deciding the viability of the market entry: a. External: Market size, Industry growth, Competitors, Regulation(if any) b. Internal: Financing the entry, Sources of Revenue, Cost of Operations To assess the market attractiveness, I’d like to first understand the external factors starting from estimating the market size, industry growth and competitive scenario in that order. Then I’ll move onto discussing the internal factors with revenue streams, the cost of operations and finally the finances for entry such as debt/equity/leveraged buyout. Interviewer: Ok. How do you propose to estimate the market size of the credit card users in India? C: We can look at the demographics of India in the form of a pyramid:

I: Let’s now move to the internal factors. What do you think are the sources of revenue for the firm? C: The primary sources of revenue for the credit card company would be interest on the outstanding credit owed by the consumers, late fee if user fails to pay minimum amount by the due date, annual membership premium(if any), commission from the merchants and advertising charges from vendors issuing promotional deals with the credit card company. I: And what would be the internal costs to the card issuers? C: Besides their borrowing costs on capital from larger banks, the credit card issuer’s major costs would come from their “uncollectable” or “write-offs”. Many of the users could be declared delinquent after a certain credit period. Other costs would be Rewards such as Frequent Flier program, free dining and hotel stays etc. 225

I: Great. Thanks a lot. C: Thank you.

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

Rachit Chandra Caselet: A steel products company is diversifying into new products. Should the distribution network of the company change? Candidate: What is the current product mix of the company? What is/are the new product(s) that would be launched? Interviewer: Currently, the company only manufactures boiler-plates for very large boilers and hulls for ships. The new product to be launched is TMT bars targeting the entire country. C: What is the plant network of the company currently? Is it expected to change with the launch of TMT bars? I: Currently, the company has one plant near a port city, as the port is a hub for shipbuilding. The plant has spare capacity and hence the decision to produce TMT bars. C: One final question, is the company planning to distribute the TMT bars to a nationally distributed set of retailers/whole sellers? Or is the company looking to distribute the bars in bulk to a national distributor? I: The plan is to own the distribution at a national level. What do you suggest? C: I would assume that the market for TMT bars would be spread all over the country as they are used in construction. In such a case, the plant located at a port city, would be servicing far-flung markets. Till now, the client has been distributing high value-low volume products to concentrated markets in and around the plant. To set-up a distribution network to distribute the bars nationally doesn’t seem like a good idea. I do not think that they would have the in-house capability to set such a distribution network. 226

I: Interesting that the first reason you give is based on organization capability and not analytical reasoning. Can you give me one more reason why the client should not own the distribution? C: Am I right to assume that margins in this product would not be huge? (Interviewernods)In such a scenario, owning inventory in a national distribution network doesn’t make sense. Price fluctuations can have severe consequences on the profitability. The risk should not be borne by the company. I: Are you sure you don’t want to apply a framework? (Smiles) C: I can if you want me to… I: No I think we are done. Best of luck for the next round!

Ritesh Ritolia Caselet: A conglomerate which missed the IT revolution is now trying to open an IT company. Tell me what are the things the conglomerate should give to this company and what are the things it should not give? Candidate: Can you give me a brief idea about the conglomerate? Interviewer: You can assume it to be among top 10 business houses in the country. They have a diversified portfolio and are growing rapidly. C: What is the motive behind this diversification? I: Mainly profits. The conglomerate believes that the sector would be profitable in future. I don’t want you to get into deep numbers. You may just give me a qualitative idea. C: The primary resource will be finance or the startup capital. To identify other key resources, I would want to go ahead by taking P&L statement of an IT company and see how the conglomerate can help with each item of the statement. Does this seem ok to you? I: Fair enough, go ahead.

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C: Starting with the Revenues, the conglomerate can help the subsidiary in two ways: a. Internal Projects: Since the conglomerate is among the top 10 business houses in India, it is fair to assume that it will have huge IT expenditure. The routine work can be outsourced to the subsidiary. However, the critical-most jobs should be status-quo for now. b. Branding and relationships: The conglomerate can introduce the subsidiary to its key business contacts, who can be potential customers. I: Ok. C: Now moving to the costs side, I see two major cost heads for an IT firm – employees and real estate. Is it a safe assumption to make? I: Yes, you may consider these are the biggest cost heads and ignore the others. C: Coming to real estate first, the conglomerate can lease out space in its existing offices and buildings to the new firm. This way it can save on startup costs and lead time. Now talking about employees, the conglomerate’s branding may help the firm in getting talent at entry and middle levels. A big conglomerate will give them a sense of security not Associated generally with a new firm. I believe that the top management should be mix of people from the IT industry and conglomerate’s existing resources. Especially functions like finance and control should be from the existing setup. I: Is there anything else which can be important in terms of employees that the conglomerate can offer? C (had to think hard, a minute break): The conglomerate can offer functional expertise in forms of employees from the existing companies who can act as functional consultants. This can also be a core competency for the IT firm and help them get a foothold in the market. I: Great. I think we have discussed the major heads. Anything that you want to ask? C: No, nothing as of now. Thanks. I: Thanks Ritesh.

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Anurag Oak Caselet: An automotive distributor wants to enter India. What should be its market strategy? Candidate: Can you give me a brief idea about the automotive distributor? Interviewer: Please be more specific. C: Where is the distributor based and what cars does it want to sell? I: The firm is Japanese and it is a subsidiary of an automobile manufacturer. The distributor exclusively sells cars of its parent company. C: Is the automotive manufacturer already selling in India? I: Yes. They are a global major and had entered India 3 years ago. They had been selling the cars through collaboration with a cohort of local distributors. C: Can you give me more information on the type of cars sold by this firm and where it wants to sell through this distributor? I: The auto firm sells premium cars and has a set of popular brands. It wants to sell specific premium cars. Their focus is on metro cities and that is its target market. C: How does the distributor make money? I believe there will be sales margins and revenue through car service. Am I right? I: Yes. The distributor gets 10% margins on sales. The total market for premium cars is given as Rs. 100 Cr. Based on the information, following details about a city, give me a market strategy. a. The city divided into 4 zones b. Two zones have lots of existing cars and rich people. Other zones less car less people c. Services contribute more than sales to revenue. d. Two client bases corporate and individual C: a. Services is actually greater sales in revenue b. Land rentals in areas with more cars is very high c. For corporates relationship selling. 229

d. e. f. g.

For individuals test drive For sales have sales force targeted at these segments which visits clients For services again have service force which goes to client Put up showroom in cheaper areas

Arpit Nanda Caselet: A telecom company wants to enter the rural sector. What would be the key things they should focus on for this venture? Candidate: The major differences between the urban and rural sectors are : 1. Population Density 2. Purchasing power Taking population density first, the sparse population of the rural areas makes it more difficult to cover them, since efforts to tap them would need to increase. This would increase the costs to cover this area. Interviewer: What costs are we talking about here? C: I can think of two major cost heads that would increase if the client moves into the rural areas. 1. Infrastructure costs: A lot more towers would need to be established to cover the same number of consumers as in a city. 2. Sales and Distribution costs: Since the shops would be further apart, the costs of distribution to these remote areas would increase. 3. Publicity costs: Similar to infrastructure, the number of hoardings/banners etc to capture the same number of eyeballs would be much higher in rural areas due to sparse population density in comparison to urban areas. Although costs for such promotion would be cheaper in the rural areas, the trade off is something the company must be aware of. I: That is correct. Considering sales and distribution, apart from the increase in costs because of moving into remote areas, what other issues can you think about? C: Another issue could be of inventory management. Since these are remote areas, it would be very costly to service them regularly. But another limiting factor here would be the retailer’s working capital. Since SIM cards and recharge coupons are not very fast moving items, they would be in the retailer’s inventory for a longer period of time. Most retailers in rural areas stock all kinds of household items 230

together, and they would not want to lock up their working capital into a slow moving product if they can buy FMCG goods which give them much higher inventory turnover. This might lead to supply outages in the rural areas, and limit our sales. I: Good. As a matter of fact, these costs do increase, but they have become essential, since the urban markets are saturated, and thus some of these investments need to be incurred. ARPU (Avg revenue per User) is an important metric used in the telecom industry to account for revenues. Could you tell me the relationship between ARPU and reach for a telecom operator who is just breaking even? C: In case of break even, ARPU * No of customers = Costs No of customers = Reach * Mkt Size So, for break even, ARPU * Reach = const. Hence they have an inverse relationship, and the graph is parabolic.

I: If one was over the graph, one would be in profit, and if one is below the graph, one would be in a loss. If our client is in a loss, what are the ways to move up to a profit? C: There are 3 ways to do that: 1. Move up the Y axis: This would mean increasing ARPU. This cannot be done by increasing prices, as purchasing power of the rural customers is lower. So, the ways to increase ARPU in the rural areas should be through Value added services such as information about weather, crop prices etc available through SMS and phone. 2. Move along the X axis: This would mean increasing reach. This is through coming up with increasingly popular products which address the rural needs, thus helping in expanding the base of users. 3. Pull the curve down: One can also move into profits by reducing the fixed cost investment by investing into newer and cheaper technology, or taking advantage of scale to reduce infrastructure and other costs. This would also help the company make profits. I: Great. I think that more or less completes the case. Any questions for us? 231

C: No, nothing as of now. Thanks. I: Thanks, all the best.

BOOZ & COMPANY

Subhodeep Ghosh Caselet: You happen to meet the CEO of the Wall Street Journal at the JFK airport and he is contemplating entry into the Indian market. With one billion dollar revenue per year and a 50% market share in the US, it is the largest newspaper in the US, by circulation. The CEO wants to know if India would be a good market considering the entire buzz about emerging economy in India and its impressive year-on-year GDP growth. He says he has two months to go for the annual meeting where he would ideally want to make this proposal about entering India. He wants you to first tell him if it is a good idea to enter India and if yes, then how and in what capacity. Candidate: As far as I understand, WSJ falls into the category of business newspapers which primarily covers American economics and international business articles. So is that a right assumption to make that WSJ, if it enters India would be covering Indian economics and the news would be more catered to the Indian audience? Interviewer: Of course, Yes. WSJ is looking to enter India with local content, however they would ideally want to leverage their international stature and have a strong international section. C: Considering this in mind, may I know the business daily market size in India, or rather how it compares to the US market I: So I don’t have the exact numbers, but I can give you some relative numbers. The US market size, in terms of circulation, is almost 10 times the Indian market size. BTW, can you name some of the Business dailies of India? C: The popular ones are Economic Times with the largest market share, then Business Standard, Mint etc. I: Okay, keep going. C: So is it safe to assume that the US market size is 10 times that of India even in revenue streams or is there is a huge difference in the price points in the two markets. 232

I: Well, they are priced at the same level based on the buying power in the two markets. Is there something you should be looking at? C: Yes, the first thing would the currency conversion factor and how that accounts to determine the different market sizes I: Exactly, taking into account the currency conversion, the US market is about 50 times the Indian market size. C: So to summarize this, the US market is 50x of the Indian market. And as WSJ has a 50% share of the US market, WSJ’s business itself is about 25x the entire Indian market available. This makes India look like not such a tempting market to enter. However I have an opinion on this extremely small market size for business daily in India in spite of having one of the largest newspaper markets in the world. And that is probably due to the fact that the share of English newspapers is small as such compared to the local languages and then within English newspapers, the share of business dailies would be further smaller due to relatively smaller share of corporates in the country. However, this being the case, it presents a huge opportunity for growth in this segment, since as more of India develops, more and more readers would migrate to English newspapers and more so to English business newspapers. Keeping this in mind, do we have any numbers on the potential growth in US and India? I: Good analysis. Let us assume that the growth in US is about 1% and that in India is about 15%. C: If this is indeed the case, then the actual calculations would show that even with the 15x growth, it would take a much longer time for India to catch up with US, mostly because the base for growth in India is much smaller (about 50 times smaller) that that of US. But, even then, the US market with this slow growth shows that the market is almost saturated and if WSJ is looking to expand, then what are the potential options apart from India and what are the market size/growth estimates for those markets. I: Let us concentrate only on India for now. C: Okay. So given the high growth rate, India does seem to be a good market to enter, however there is a lot of analysis that remains to be done in terms of competition, distribution etc. I: Okay, now it’s been one month since you met the WSJ CEO and now you happen to meet him again at the London airport. He asks you what the current status of the analysis is. What would you tell him? 233

C: The brief summary would be that the current market size in India is about 25 times smaller than the business that WSJ does in the US itself. However, with the on-going economic boom in the country, the market is expected to grow at a rate of 15% that is 15x that of the US market. This presents a huge opportunity for WSJ to enter since the market is very ripe and expects a lot of readers to shift to business dailies in the near future. However, analysis with respect to competition is pending, especially with Economic Times which comes right after WSJ in terms of circulation globally. The other analysis would be on how to position WSJ in India and figure out how it could differentiate itself from the other business dailies, by leveraging its huge parent in the US. For example, a very strong international section with articles from all across the globe is something where WSJ can really differentiate itself. Also, pricing is a key feature in this industry. But then again, business dailies exercise the maximum margins as the target is not that price sensitive. So it would be interesting to see how much of the margins can WSJ get based on its international brand image. The last aspect would be that of distribution since that is a huge aspect in terms of dailies. This would highly depend on how WSJ segments its target market and its promotion strategy. I: Okay, good. I was about to ask where do you think WSJ can bring in some value on the table but you covered it well when you spoke about the ‘International section’. So I would wait for analysis to complete and let’s fix up a meeting in our HQ in a month’s time. Thanks for the good work and looking forward to the interesting results. C: Okay thanks.

Aritra Das Caselet: Your client is a major player in the Indian coal tar business, located in eastern India. Their primary product is Coal Tar Pitch (CTP) which is used as a binder in the Aluminium industry. With the demand for Aluminium growing strongly, the market for CTP is looking quite attractive, and as a result, foreign players are planning to enter the market. On the other hand, the supply has become tight with the rise in prices of coal tar in India. In addition to this, a recent controversy involving the mining major Sterlite has also affected the client’s business. You have been hired as a consultant to evaluate the strategic options available to your client and identify options that it can avail in order to sustain its leadership position. Candidate: Can you kindly give me a brief idea about the coal tar business, CTP and the source and uses of CTP? Interviewer: Coal tar is a by-product generated while processing coking coal into low ash metallurgical coke in a recovery-type coke oven plant (e.g. a steel plant). Coal tar accounts for 234

around 3.5-4% of coke produced. Coal Tar Pitch, which is manufactured from this Coal Tar, is used as a binder in the Aluminium industry – as a coating on the anodes used for electrolysis in Aluminium extraction process. C: Ok. And the controversy regarding Sterlite, which you were mentioning – was it the recent Nyamgiri Hills controversy with the Sterlite bauxite mines? I: Exactly. That is the one I mentioned. Sterlite is a major customer for our client. C: Then that would mean, due to halting of bauxite mining, the associated Aluminium plant is also not functioning and hence there has been a demand side shock for our client. I: Yes, that is correct. C: Ok, coming back to the case, let me first summarize it: The client, a major Indian coal tar player, is currently facing the following threats: 1. With the Indian market looking attractive, the international players are trying to enter the market and set up facilities in India. Alternatively, they may also be trying to export CTP to the customers in India 2. Coal tar feed stock has become tight and their prices have increased 3. Following the Nyamgiri Hills controversy, Sterlite has halted / reduced production in its Aluminium manufacturing unit in Orissa, which was a major buyer of CTP from your client I: Perfect. Please go ahead. C: I would like to look at the case from the following aspects: the company, its competitors, the product, the buyers, the suppliers, barriers to new entry, pricing & promotion and also other factors such as substitutes, regulatory constraints if any etc. I: Looks fine to me. Let me also mention here, that there are no presently available substitutes to CTP and hence the pricing and promotion are simple. And as such, there are no regulatory constraints in this business. C: Fine. Now looking at the company, as you mentioned, it is a market leader in the coal tar business in India. Can you give me an idea about the market share of the company in India? Is it present only in India or is present elsewhere? Also, if possible, can you give me an idea about the turnover and margin enjoyed by the company? I: Ok. The company is present only in India. Let us for now focus only on the CTP product. It has a 60235

65% market share in India. The annual revenue of the company amounts to Rs. 500 crore and it enjoys an EBITDA margin of 30%. Bain Capital holds a 25% in the company. C: A 65% market share and a 500 crore revenue would indicate that it dominates the market and would enjoy sufficient economies of scale. Can I make an assumption that there are no other major players in the market? I: Yes, that is true. The next 10 players account for up to a mere 5-7% market share. C: Is there any differentiating factor that puts the client ahead of its competitors? I: Most other competitors are European and US players, who export their CTP as a dried powder. Our client on the other hand enjoys benefits around logistics, using which it can deliver liquid pitch to the customers. C: In that case, I would assume that this benefit can only be enjoyed when the customer locations are located nearby to the CTP manufacturing plants. This can again imply that most of its buyers / customers are located in eastern India. I: Yes, that is correct. C: Ok, now coming to the suppliers – since coal tar accounts for a very small fraction of the coke produced, the revenue contribution of coal tar sale to the suppliers would not be very large. Also, there would be multiple other uses of coal tar other than CTP manufacturing, which would further reduce the bargaining power of our client. I: Exactly. In fact, coal tar contributes to hardly 1-2% of the total revenue of a steel plant.

MCKINSEY & COMPANY

Arijit Sarkar Main tips: I only had one case, which was more of a free flowing discussion than directed to any particular solutions. The interviewer was willing to let me take it anywhere as long as I put forth some structure. Caselet: A medical devices is looking to expand 3X in the next 5 years. If you were in the company, what are the questions you would ask? 236

Interviewer: I am not going to provide any answers. Kindly tell me your thought process. Candidate: In order to achieve a 3X growth, I would like to look primarily at topline growth, as my assumption is cost reduction would not be the primary driver. Is that fair? Interviewer: All right, let’s proceed with that assumption. C: In that case, I would like to figure out what are the kind of products that this company makes. I: Alright, let's say they are largely into higher end medical devices used for critical life saving applications, such as pacemakers and cardiac stents. C: Great, so in order to understand the potential sources of breakthrough growth, we would have to look into the characteristics of primary customers in order to determine current and future market size. I: Ok. What characteristics would be of interest? C: I believe that even though the patient pays for these devices, the consulting doctor would have a big role to play in determining which particular device is appropriate. Given that some consolidation is happening, hospitals might be important as well, though in India, most surgeries requiring devices that you mentioned would have doctors as stronger determinants than hospitals, as patients follow specialist doctor advice more than hospitals. I: That is partially correct but changing. C: All right, so I would probably segment the market according to urban centres, as Tier I, II, III cities. Smaller cities would be unlikely to have a major hospital industry able to support volumes of critical devices like stents and pacemakers. In larger cities, my primary customer group would be hospitals, and I would focus my sales force and market research to understand the key factors which determine purchase. I: What are some factors you could think of? C: Quality and reliability should be major, with cost as a secondary driver. I: Anything else. 237

C: (Clueless) Perhaps the vendors’ ability to source inventory rapidly would let hospitals maintain lower inventory and reduce their costs? I: (Interrupts) Good. Now any other macro questions that you think would affect their strategy? C: (Realizing I’m not even halfway done with my questions and this is a sign to speed up) I believe the increasing consolidation of hospitals would be important in defining the strategy. (Buying time while I think of something). Now since we have primarily looked at market sizing elements, I would also like to know about market share. What is the competitive landscape like? I: Well there are 3-4 other major players, but devices are a small component of their portfolio, and they’re unlikely to have focused strategies. What else? C: (After a lot of thinking) Perhaps the client can look into optimizing pricing as a lever. What are margins like? I: Margins are healthy, and all players price similarly. It is difficult to differentiate quality and hence pricing between the 5 major players. Though the market is price-inelastic on the whole, the choice between the device brands would have price as an important decision variable, and we cannot increase or decrease prices substantially without hurting ourselves and possibly our competitors. C: Perhaps the rise of organized insurance can be an important factor, as they would influence which device to buy, as these are expensive devices? I: That’s a great point. Thanks for discussing the case. Now tell me, which element of this case strikes you as remarkable? C: Umm, err…. I: Did you have Kotler as your marketing book? C: We actually do, but in this term. I: (Noticeably warming up) Oh, is that so? In my campus it was a first term course. Very well, then you might not be aware, but through your questions you might have realized that influencers are very important in this industry.

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C: (AHA!)Yes, that’s probably true. I: Thanks, Best of Luck.

Ayesha Jaggi Caselet: An Emergency Response Force (ERP) needs to be set up as a PPP. What is the magnitude of the problem in terms of the emergencies in India? (The question focused largely on estimating the number of emergencies in India) Candidate: To begin with estimating the emergencies in India it would be best to first define and lay out the scope of an emergency: 1. Broadly, and emergency would be an event that would require immediate attention and a typical response time would be within 2-4 hours. 2. The scope can be narrowed to include emergencies of the kind of road accidents, trauma and heart attacks etc. or broadened to include natural calamities, terrorist attacks etc. Interviewer: In specific, our client will be setting up an ERF for road accidents. Would it be possible to estimate that number? C: We could look at estimating that number by dividing road traffic in the following manner

Each of the types described above would have a different frequency and probability of accidents occurring. Let us say that the total number of cities are in the ballpark range of 5000 and the split between high, moderate and low traffic cities is 500, 1500 and 3000 cities. If this assumption is accurate could I proceed with calculating the number of accidents in a city in a day? I: Sure, lets proceed, for the moment though lets only concentrate only on the urban or more developed cities C: Sure, if we take the total population of India to be roughly a billion, roughly 25% of the population will be concentrated in a developed or urban city, which comes to about 250mn people.

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I: Let’s take the accident rate to be 0.15% for this group. C: So, on an average about 0.15% of this population will be involved in a road accident in a day which translates to 0.375mn? I: Fair, and suppose our ERP is to be set two years from now? C: In that case we could assume a growth rate over the calculated number and project a 2 year forward estimated number. I: Let’s assume a growth rate of 10% a year C: Sure, then 2 years hence we the estimated number would be 0.45mn I: Great. If the accidents reported at each call centre are 1% of the total accidents and each accident will make 5 calls, how many calls would we receive? C: At a rate of 1%, each unit would roughly get calls for 4500 accidents and at the rate of 5 per accident that would be 22500 calls I: And if each ER unit can handle 15 accidents what would be the requirement of the number of ER units? C: At 4500 accidents, we would require 300 ER units. I: Great, with that we can wrap up this case. Do you have any questions? C: Sure, No questions, Thanks!

Jitesh Khanna Caselet: The government of Bhutan wishes to revive its tourism industry which is currently facing the problem of high seasonality and highly variable returns even in peak seasons. What would be your strategy to help them solve these issues?

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Candidate: Asked for the split of various types of tourists that visit Bhutan, and developed it with some inputs from the interviewer as: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Nature lovers Therapeutic tourists Geographical researchers Religion based tourists

Interviewer: What should be your strategies for each of these sections? C: Develop a framework to analyze the possible issues with various sections and what should be the target advertising media to penetrate each section. I: So elaborate more on how we can increase our reach to these sections of tourists? C: Trade consortiums and fairs, govt. tie-ups, advertising in public media etc. I: These are okay, but they require a lot of cash, and the govt right now is cash strapped, can you suggest some economical yet effective mechanism to boost tourism? C: Agency models and tie-ups with travel agents based on a revenue sharing principle. They bear some parts of the cost and get a share of the revenues in return. I: So tell me which country should we ideally target if we wish to boost religious tourism, and why? C: I think Western European countries like Germany would be a good potential base due to a high concentration of religious scholars and researchers in these countries coupled with higher spending capacities. I: Great. I think we will stop here as you seem to have touched upon the major key-points. Will let you know about the rest of the process pretty soon. Do you have any questions for us? C: No, nothing as of now. I: Fine then, all the best. C: Thanks a lot.

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References