National Institute Of

Industrial Engineering

Case Book 2021

NITIE STUDENTS’
CONSULTING
CLUB (NSC2)
1
 1
CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

BRAINSTORMING: WHERE DO YOU STAND 5

INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING 8

FRAMEWORKS 14

CONSULTING INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES 25

GUESSTIMATES 102

APPENDIX A: BASICS AND FORMULAE 115

APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY 111

APPENDIX C: BALANCE SHEET AND INCOME STATEMENT 122

APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS 123

APPENDIX E: DATA-INTENSIVE CASES LINKS 128

TEAM NITIE STUDENTS’ CONSULTING CLUB 129

2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Preface
In preface to first edition of this book, brought by NSC2, the students’ consulting
club of NITIE, which tried to gave the readers a crisp insight and overview of all-
important frameworks to solve the cases as well as real-time experiences of the
candidates(both success & failure stories). Parallelly, the case book covers
additional sections of Guesstimates, case interview preparation tips for readers.
Making the case book more detailed, it also covers consulting & accounting basics,
datasets, formulae, synergies & risks followed by the reference to the best of the
data intensive cases.
Primary goals in preparing this second edition of Case book, over & above the
pedagogy of first edition of book is following,
• Provide a detailed aspect of real-life case interviews in the form of transcript,
against what went right for the interview & varied suggestions to the
candidates.
• Refined Approach to approach cases, vis-à-vis, the updated consulting
frameworks

It is being extremely gratifying to see the first edition of this book become a
standard text and reference in the subject. Hope this edition exceeds the
expectations of students’ community.

Structure of the casebook

The casebook is primarily divided into six sections. The sections have been kept in
an order such that the readers can start from the basics and slowly develop &
further refine structured thought process & problem-solving skills –
• Beginning with ‘Brainstorming’ section which is dedicated to tickle the
consultant in you. Given a sample case, which you need to solve on your own
without any prior guidance. The proposed solution to the case will be provided
at the end of the section. This will serve as a-self assessment for you in
consulting space.

• Next section is ‘Introduction to Consulting’ – what consulting is all about,

how the interviews are conducted, situations candidates face, do’s and don’ts
and tips to ace them.

• ‘Frameworks’ section will cover all the basic and important frameworks that
are commonplace to solve different types of cases.

• ‘Consulting Interview Experiences’, a compilation of students’ interview

experiences. This will cover most of the consulting companies that have visited
the campus for recruitment. Experiences of students from diverse academic and
professional background has been compiled to maximize the utilization and
relevance among all the students.
• ‘Guesstimates’ have more often than not been an important part of consulting
interviews. So, a compilation of different types of guesstimates has been given
in the next section.

3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

How to make most out of it

The readers can utilize the contents based on their requirement and preparation
level. However, for people who are starting afresh, it is suggested that they start
from the basics. The solutions or case structures provided are by no means fixed
or exhaustive, rather they are guides to approach the problems. The readers are
encouraged to come up with alternative thought processes or structures if they
feel the suitability is better. For practicing the cases, it is recommended that the
reader form a group of two or more and utilize the interview transcripts to solve
the cases like it happens in a real consulting interview. Afterwards, the solution
and approach can be compared with the ones that has been provided.

The guesstimates and additional references should be given separate attention as

these might turn out to be an edge factor in your consulting interviews. Since
acing a consulting interview is not only about solving a case, but also about how
the candidate carries him/herself during the process, it is recommended that the
readers keep the do’s and don’ts in mind all the time. Lastly, preparing oneself
separately for individual consulting companies via deriving insights from past
interview experiences will be of paramount importance.

Wish you all the best for the process of preparation… Let’s crack it!

4
BRAINSTORMING : WHERE DO YOU STAND
Given below is a handpicked sample case for your preliminary practice. With this,
you can check your current ability to approach a solution to a real- time business
scenario. Go through the problem statement and come up with a step by step
solution to address the issue. A possible solution is also provided at the end of this
section to help you compare it with the solution proposed by you.

Introductory Case
A successful chain of Canadian auto service stores (Autoland) has entered several
markets in the United States in hopes of duplicating their success in America.
The stores offer two services:
1. Retail sales of auto parts for customers who prefer to perform their own
maintenance.
2. A service center for fixing any automobile problem, from an oil change to new
transmission.
Since entering the U.S., Autoland has experienced $50MM in revenue with losses
of $20MM. The owner is considering pulling out of the United States. You have
been hired to determine if they can improve their performance or if they should
exit the market.

Your Approach
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BRAINSTORMING : WHERE DO YOU STAND

Possible Solutions
In a real interview, you should start by confirming the solutions that is being
expected of you. Also, confirm whether you need to address any other additional
issues with the one that has already been mentioned in the problem statement. To
address the problem, start by analyzing the internal and external factors that can
affect the system or business in hand.

In this case, Analyze the following factors-

• Competitive situation
• Current capability of the company
• Market potential/ customer segments
Next, draw a basic framework based on your analysis and understanding.

Competition ? Capabilities ? Market/Customers

•How competitive is the •Buying power of •Are customers
market? company compared to segments different for
•Major competitors? competitors? two businesses?
•Is profitability similar •Important factors for
for both the business attracting customers.
segments?

1. Pricing 2. Marketing 3. Location

Competitive Situation
Q: How is the present economic condition in US when compared to Canada?
A: It is mostly on the similar lines. In fact, going by latest data available, the US
economy is doing slightly better than Canada.
Assumption: Alright. Based on that it can be assumed that the economy is not
affecting the overall industry conditions.

Q: How has the automobile industry been doing in the recent past?
A: The industry is doing good. The manufacturers recorded excellent sales no.
Additionally, cheap interest rate and lower price of petrol is fueling the uptrend.
Q: What is the competitive situation in Canada?
A: We are the major player (few local stores)
Q: Are we providing the same services in Canada as in the U.S?
A: Yes

6
BRAINSTORMING : WHERE DO YOU STAND
Solutions- Continued
Q: Do we have strong competition in the U.S?
A: Yes, a national chain of stores in the exact format as Autoland exists in the
U.S. They copied our Canadian format and have about 10 locations in every major
city. They are very profitable in all cities including our U.S. markets.

Assumptions: Due to size, I would guess they have superior buying power over
Autoland in the U.S. Is this true?
A: No, we have the same cost structure due to our presence in Canada.
Assumption: The market has potential due to the competitor's performance. Key
is to determine why they are out-performing Autoland.

Autoland Capabilities:
Assumption: We have two businesses under one roof, is one more profitable than
the other?
A: In Canada - No.
However, in the U.S. we are profitable in retail sales and losing heavily on the
service centre.
Q: Are the costs associated with each side of the business different?
A: Yes, the service center is much more expensive to operate, we must pay
mechanics and have high fixed costs. Assumption: We are profitable in retail but
losing in service. We attract the wrong consumer.

Market/ Customers:
Q: Autoland provides two services, are the customers for each service different?
A: Yes. The customers that shop for retails parts typically have lower to middle
incomes and are trying to save a few dollars by performing their own
maintenance. The customers who utilize the service centre have higher incomes
and no interest in fixing their own car.
Assumption: We are attempting to attract two distinct customer segments. Are
we doing this successfully?
A: We are not sure; how would you help us determine if we are?

Factors:
Marketing.
A: We do the same as the competition Pricing.
A: Identical to competition Location.
A: Different, we located in the inner cities to save money on leases.
Where are competitors located?
A: Between the inner city and the suburbs (on the border)

Assumptions/ Recommendations:
Our location is great for the retail sales business but prohibits heavy use of the
service centre due the distribution of income between the inner city vs. the
suburbs. In new markets, locate between the lower- and upper-income areas to
attract both segments.
In existing markets, move, or drop the service business and retain the profitable
retail Portion.

7
INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING
What is Consulting
In its simplest form, consulting is the business or act of coming up with a solution
to real world business situations or problems. Often such solutions take the form
of advice offered by specialists in their respective fields (to which the problems or
situations belong).

What are the parts of the Job?

The nature of consulting means that you can be working on several projects in
different industries. You’ll often be based at a client’s office which means you may
be away from home during the week, staying in hotels and travelling lots. So why
would you want to be a consultant? Well for one there is never a dull moment.
There is a huge amount of variation in your work – you get to work in different
industries with diverse people and clients when you change projects. You will work
with important, high-level people & will learn new things.

Why Consulting?
• Non-monotonous & Challenging Work: A career in consultancy is highly
versatile – one day you’re working on a market research, the next on a
competitor analysis, while yet developing a management dashboard or helping a
client with a big change of management. Consultants are constantly warped into
a new environment – if not a new branch, then a new field of operation or new
client. Furthermore, the location is also continuously in flux.

• The Learning Opportunity: Consultants get the opportunity to work in

multiple projects and in intellectually challenging environment, getting you
acquainted with a variety of sectors and domains. Each project will add to your
skillset. Moreover, consulting firms offers plethora of opportunity for the
personal development of their consultants.

• Exponential Monetary Growth: Consulting offers a very good pay and

performance related bonuses.

• Working with the best: Consultants are expected to operate well in teams and
to work with like-minded, hard working & ambitious professionals. Big
consultancy firm have the best people recruited from the premier institutes.
There is an opportunity to learn and gain from the best in the area.

• Career Launchpad: Many professionals see consultancy as a good starting

point to launch their future career. A lot of private and public organizations view
consultants as appealing employers, partly due to their mix of functional and
their personal skills. Experienced consultants leave the consultancy branch to,
for instance, work in corporations in a management function.

• Client Centric work: The work is always client centric and the clients include
the biggest companies in the world. The opportunity to understand and learn
from the processes and cultures of the clients is immense.

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INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING

Types of Consulting
Consulting varies in focus: it can be structured by topic, type of problem or
industry, with specializations ranging from the relatively broad to the extremely
niche. Some consulting firms specialize in giving advice on management and
strategy, while others are known as technology specialists. Some firms
concentrate on a specific industry area, such as financial services or retail, while
others are more like gigantic one-stop shops with divisions that dispense advice on
everything from top-level strategy to saving money on staples and paper clips.

For example, here is a classification based on specialization.

Strategy Operations Analytics

Macro-level strategic Study existing Leverage statistical

challenges for the operations techniques to
client identify trends &
Design & Implement Benchmark against predict behavior of
an action plan existing practices customers

Recommend a new How to streamline Determine optimum

strategic direction for purchasing processes pricing policy for
a growing pharma How to optimize potential credit card
company supply chain costs? customers.

McKinsey, BCG, Bain,

Accenture Strategy, Genpact, Inductis,
Booz & Co., Kearney,
Deloitte, McKinsey, Fractal, Dunhumby,
Alvarez & Marshal,
BCG, Kearney Opera, Symphony
Monitor Deloitte

9
INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING

Types of Consultancies - Contd.

IT HR Boutique

-Understand Client’s -Compensation &

Business Benefits
Sector specific work
requirements -Recruitment,
content
-Design & Implement training & dev.
Optimal IT solution -Org. Dynamics

How to design & Examine fit across

Feasibility study &
implement the culture in M&A
valuation of
customer data base Implementing
infrastructure
How to implement employee incentive
projects
MIS/ERP sys. programs

IBM, EDS, TCS, Hewitt, Hay Group, Feedback ventures,

Wipro, Deloitte, Mercer, Towers, ICF International, ZS
Accenture, CBC Perrin, Watson Wyatt Associates, Meibach

Some of the well-known consulting brands

• Big 3 (MBB): McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Co

• Big 4: Deloitte, EY, PwC and KPMG

• Accenture Strategy & Consulting

• Strategy&, Oliver Wyman, Alvarez & Marsal, Booz Allen Hamilton and Kearney

• L.E.K. Consulting, Putnam Associates, ZS Associates, GeP

• CBC, IBM & GBS

10
INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING

Consulting Hierarchy (Job titles might differ between firms)

What to do in Consulting Interviews?

Communication
Creating and operating a small business is a complicated process that often
involves making decisions and performing tasks that are outside of the owner's
area of expertise. Consultants are professionals who are experts in certain fields
and provide advice related to their areas of expertise. Excellent communication
skills are vital to be a successful consultant.
Consultants are advisers who are paid for their insights. Consultants must be able
to communicate their ideas to clients effectively to make their services worthwhile.
Communication skills can be just as important to consultants as technical
expertise. Per O*NET Online, an information service created by the U.S.
Department of Labor, oral expression, oral comprehension and written
comprehension are the three most important job skills for management analysts,
including management consultants.

Mental Math
If you don’t like mental math, especially mental math with large numbers, then
PRACTICE! Even if you feel numerically challenged, practice! Test yourself
repeatedly in this area and make sure you continue to wean yourself off Excel and
your calculator. As with any muscle, it will grow stronger the more you use it.
There are 2 aspects of inspired mental math – accuracy, and speed. Accuracy
comes by developing a process, practicing under simulated conditions (e.g. out
loud, with a timer), and taking great notes. Accuracy is more important than
speed – without accuracy, speed is nothing.

11
INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING
Speed, in contrast, is icing on the cake. Top candidates demonstrate the ability to
boss around numbers. They use them in casual speech. They think numerically.
Mental math is a fun game they play, and they enjoy the math section of the case.
Speed comes through short-cuts and strategies, but mostly just through
confidence – you hear a problem, you plan, and you dive right in.

Identify the question’s objective

This is a very important weapon to have in your case interview arsenal. It’s not
unlikely that you will get asked at least on very broad and open-ended question in
each case interview. The temptation, especially if you’re feeling nervous, will be to
jump in head-first and hope for the best.
There’s a problem with this method: the chances of you going off on a complete
and unnecessary tangent are high. Too high. Time is an important issue in case
interviews, so you don’t want to waste it. Remember, spending a few extra
seconds at the beginning of each question getting to the heart of the issue can
save you valuable minutes later.

Whether you are opening the case, where you must make sure you understand the
case context and background, or mid-case, where you want to make sure you’re
driving toward the correct conclusion, don’t just ask if there are other objectives.
Give it a college try by offering a choice or suggestion about what you think the
interviewer is asking.
If you do get asked a very broad and open-ended question, you have a great
opportunity to shine and demonstrate a level of incisive, analytical prowess that
not all candidates will possess.
A quick example of this could be the interviewer asking you;
“What issues do we need to better understand here?”

To which you might reply;

“Are you looking for company specific issues, or industry wide problems?”

Never confuse company & industry wide problems

If you ran the risk of doing this, we just saved your bacon. You’re welcome. If you
did happen do confuse the two in a case interview you practiced before, we’re sure
you understand how far off course this could take you. Make sure you differentiate
between these when you’re trying to diagnose issues. For example, you may be
given a case interview about a car company who came to the firm because their
profits are suddenly declining. An example of company specific vs. industry wide
problems may be:

Company-specific – The company using very expensive raw material to build their
cars, leading to very small profit margins.
Industry-wide – Three of their main competitors have released similar
performance cars recently, all of which are cheaper than theirs, and they are
losing market share.

We usually recommend focusing on eliminating industry-wide problems first – if

they aren’t there, you can dive more deeply into company specific problems. If you
do uncover an issue, you can explore the company’s
position first before identifying recommendations.

12
INTRODUCTION TO CONSULTING

Segmentation
This is vital. If you’re trying to get to the heart of the issue, you must remember
that you cannot just use a one-size-fits-all label, “customers” or
“products/services”. It would not be fully accurate to work from the assumption
that the only thing happening is general decline in revenue across the customer
base, or across all products and services.

It is very unlikely that all customer or product segments are being impacted in the
same way. In keeping with our example of the car company, it may be that they
have seen a 10% increase in purchases among 35-50 year-old men, while seeing a
60% decrease in purchases among women in the same age range.

What are the insights? What they’re doing is working among men but is failing
among women. If women used to make up 75% of their clientele, this accounts for
the oversized downturn in their revenues and related profits. But not only that: it
gives us insight on how to fix it – targeting the women either with the old
strategy/message/process or dividing them out to understand them better going
forward, or both.

Common types of segmentation: product segmentation, customer demographic

segmentation, customer needs segmentation, channel segmentation, and
geographical segmentation.

Have an opinion and stick with it

By the time you’ve finished all your deliberations, considering all the data that has
been put in front of you, can you conclude and summarize it?

Most interviewers are going to shoot from the hip and ask you to tell them
exactly what you think at the end of each question and at the end of the case. This
isn’t the time to tell them what your notes say, but for them to hear what you
think. Here, it’s important you don’t beat around the bush and ask for time, but
that you just spit it out (McKinsey is the one exception – they don’t mind as much
if you do take time).

This also isn’t the time for you to be shy. Be confident and give your answer in
the self-assured manner that is befitting of a case interview genius.

13
CONSULTING FRAMEWORKS

14
1. PROFIT AND LOSS
1.1 Profit and Loss Framework

Profit Eqn.

Revenue Costs

Product Variable
Price Volume Fixed Cost
mix cost

Whenever you hear the words "bottom line," "profits," "costs," or

"revenues," you should immediately think: Profits = (Revenues - Costs).
However, I'm going to change this formula to the framework or structure:
E(P=R-C) M. The E represents the economy, and M represents the market
or the industry.
You always want to look at external factors first. You want to know
whether this is a company problem or an industry-wide problem.
Breaking profitability down to its simplest components is the key in consulting
cases. The structure shown above will be useful in exploring how to go about
exploring the case.

Deconstructing the case-problem

The profitability problem is very vast and generally comes in varied
dimensions. Thus, scoping of the problem becomes very important in order to
make a structured headway in the case. This could be done by asking a
sequence of logical questions.

Defining the problem

• What is the magnitude of loss/profit? Since when has the trend occurred?
• What is the target of profit / profitability? Any other constraints or
secondary objectives (e.g. market share)?
• Is there a timeline that the company wants to solve the problem in?
• Find out the background of the company, For e.g.: Ask the product mix and
revenue streams for the company.
• Ask for data on trends of each product and ascertain the product(s) which is
leading to the problem.
• Is the profitability problem across the industry and trends for the product?
If problem is across the industry, ask for context
Competitive landscape – No of competitors, market share and its trend
15
1. PROFIT AND LOSS

Define and reiterate the statement: Improve Profits in X product from

A% to B% by n years. A brief structure as below would help to
landscape the problem –

Among the Internal Factors, the problem may lie in two areas -
revenue and costs. What are the trends of revenues (up or down) and
costs (up or down)?
Depending on the response, choose which one to go in first. Although there
is no hard and fast rule, you can start with either of the factors.
Revenue
Revenues are dependent on two factors –
1. Average Price - Thus, if revenue side has been affected then either
Average Price across the product mix has decreased (majorly due to
competition or company policy). Quantitatively, we can see that
Average Price = Price of all the products/Total number of products
Here, the advice is to stick to first principles and be aware of the fact that
price of the products in the product mix and total number of products could
also affect the revenues.

• Company tried to reduce price to increase revenues, but it backfired

• Transfer pricing (may be relevant if problem is limited to a division of a
company)
• Other stakeholders demanding more in value chain e.g. – increased
distributor margin
• Government regulation (price cap)
• Customer preference changed. Had to reduce price
Resolution:
Product Differentiation

• Better features
• Better brand
• Better packaging

Innovative Pricing Methods

Different methods of pricing (Refer the pricing strategies)

• Loss Leader Pricing/ Captive Pricing (Razor Blade)
• Consolidation: Acquire other markets players
• Charge premium price bundle

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1. PROFIT AND LOSS
Volume
Ascertain changes in number of units sold. The two potential reasons for a
volume decline are –
a)Market share decline
Reasons
• Insufficient differentiation
• Being outcompeted
• Need to refresh strategy
• Competitors dominating some channels
• Introduction of new disruptive technologies
• Supply chain bottlenecks
• Limited operating capacity
• Restricted access to distribution channels
Solution:
• Increase distributor margins
• Target new segments
• Launch new SKUs
• Increased focus on customers and their needs
• Increase market penetration by using various marketing strategies

b)Market size decline

Reasons
• Decrease in demand of the product
• Increased value for money of substitute goods due to lower prices or
improved quality
• Shrinking size of the regional, national or global economy
Solution:

• Expand into new markets to sell existing products to new customers

• Develop new products to be sold in new markets

COSTS
Following approach can be used for cost analysis:
a) Fixed costs and variable costs
Fixed costs are costs that are independent of output. These remain constant
throughout the relevant range. Examples of fixed costs include insurance,
interest expense, property taxes, utilities expenses and depreciation of
assets.
Variable costs are costs that vary with output. Generally variable costs
increase at a constant rate relative to labour and capital. Variable costs
may include wages, utilities, materials used in production, etc.
17
1. PROFIT AND LOSS

Complexity can arise in numerous parts of cost structure

• Manufacturing
• Sales/distribution
• Administration
Remember it can be a product specific problem or a product mix
problem something such as that we are selling more of higher cost
product
b) Value chain analysis
Albeit simpler, FC and VC approach is considered limited in considering the
entire set of costs related problem. Here Value Chain analysis helps us to
consider all the costs in detailed manner.

1.2 Value Chain cost analysis framework

Storage
Distributi
Raw & Customer
R&D Processing on Sale Marketing
material Transpor Service
force
tation

Cost of Transport Sales Marketing

Equipment Machinery to channel Repairs
RM Channels
warehouse

Contracts Storage
Human Factory (rent, Sales Spare
& bulk Strategy
Capital rent labour & force parts
deals
inv)

Cost of Quantity Transport

Labour Training Returns
finance used to
hours
customers

Technology

Capacity
Utilization

Packaging

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 2. NEW MARKET ENTRY
Market entry cases can be quite tricky if the basic factors such as basis of
entry, companies As-Is position etc. are not understood properly.

Determine why? What’s our goal? What’s our objective? Does it fit into our
overall strategy?
This framework broadly outlines the major considerations in a market
entry case. Different portions of the framework may be important in
the given sequence for different problems depending on case.

A comprehensive analysis includes the following:

1. Situation Analysis
2. Industry Attractiveness
3. Entry Strategy

2.1 Market Entry Overall Framework

New Customer
Entering
market - New Product Company Industry
strategy?
Entry market

Customer Competit
Product
Vision Segments expectati ors and
offerings If
ons share
YES, NO
How?

Available Resources
Needs capital SWOT
products
tech,
labour
Goals

Identify Barrier’s Organic

Profiling gaps of Our to entry
above strengths and exit
and
strategic
assets Acquisiti
Objectives Our on
Size &
estimate
Growth
of market
share
Market
Share
Join
Client’s Venture
Target
Mkt.
share

19
 2. NEW MARKET ENTRY

2.2 Industry Analysis Framework

Analyze a
given
industry

Objective Opportunity Identify Verdict on

of analysis identification Risks attractiveness

Entry/ Current
Entry Decision on Regulatory Substitutes Exit macro
into the expansion/ barrier economics
market growth

Industry
fundame Synergies
ntals with
Need gap
existing
business

20
 2. NEW MARKET ENTRY

2.3 M&A Framework

• Synergies
• Boost Brand
• Cost Savings
• Increase market share
• Cultural Integration
Objectives • Diversify holdings
• Distribution channel
• Pre-empt competition
expansion
• Taxes
• Shareholder Value
• Fair Price? Is it profitable?
• Can we afford it? How to pay for it?
Acquisition Costs
• Reintegration Costs
• What if the economy sours?
• What shape is the economy in?
• A market leader?
• How secure are markets, their customers and
Due Diligence suppliers?
Risks
• Industry overall/ technology risks
• Margins
• Competitive response

• Hold for how long?

Exit Strategy
• Break it up and sell off its parts?

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3. PRICING STRATEGIES
Before selecting any pricing strategy, we need to investigate about
the product such as competition/ alternates available, R&D costs,
pricing of competitive products.
It also needs to be found out that what is the motivation behind the
pricing? Is the company interested in profits (usually priced higher) or
market-share (usually priced lower)? This can often be the deciding factor
when picking a price.
Basically, there are three main ways to price the product: competitive
analysis, cost-based pricing, and price- based costing.

3.1 Pricing Framework

Value based pricing/

price skimming

▪ Willingness to pay
of buyers
Pricing a
▪ Opportunity cost of
product
no product
▪ Supply vs. demand
tradeoff

Pricing Cost based pricing

Modification Like
Radical w.r.t to
to existing existing
innovation another
a product product product
▪ R&D costs
▪ Manufacturing/Servi
cing costs
▪ Break-even costs,
WACC

Comparable/ Parity
pricing

Competition Competition
exists doesn't exist
▪ Existing product
with similar features
▪ No similar product
then check NPV of
substitute
▪ -Supply/Demand
trade-off

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4. GROWTH STRATEGIES
As we have highlighted earlier, it is important to identify whether
we are considering inorganic or organic growth strategies. In the
below sections, we will focus on the frameworks for organic
growth.

4.1 Consultant’s Matrix

Product
New Diversification
Development
PRODUCTS

Existing Market Market

Penetration Development

Existing New

MARKETS

4.2 Increasing Growth Framework

Revenue
Growth

Increase
Increase
revenue
number of
per
customers
customer

Increase New
Increase Existing
volume per markets
price markets
customer

New Improve
Cross-selling
geographies marketing

Loyalty New
Improve
programs customer
access/
segments
distribution
Bulk channels
discounts New product
launches
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4. GROWTH STRATEGIES

4.3 New Product Entry Framework

New Product
Introduction

Establish Profit and

Initial
Value Break-
Investment
Chain even point

Self- Debt- Equity

Financed Financed Financed

Production Distribution Marketing

challenges challenges Challenges

No. of units Price per Variable

Fixed cost
sold unit cost per unit

4.4 Diversification Framework

Current Market Synergy

Business Structure Analysis

Reason/Need for Core Cost –Benefit

diversification Competencies Analysis

Competition Regulation Sizing Trends

24
INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES

25
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Rishabh Agnihotri Company: Deloitte USI S&O

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Decision
Electrical Engineering, Punjab Analytics Associate, ZS Associate (21
Engineering College, Chandigarh months)
Academics: 87%, 92%, 76.8% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
My preparation was divided into 3 parts:-
1. Solving Guesstimates- I started my preparation by focusing on solving
guesstimates from different sources (Quora, LinkedIn & different case
books). I used to solve at least 2 guesstimates daily and tried to solve the
same problem through different approaches (Ex. demand side, supply side,
top-down, bottom-up, area approach etc.), This really helped me to get a
good command over guesstimates.
2. Case Study Prep: For case studies, I started with Case in Point and
watched YouTube videos of Victor Cheng to get familiar with different types
of cases and frameworks. After this, I started solving cases from different
case books with my friends in Interviewee/Interviewer mode. Simulating
the interviews helped me in providing confidence to deliver my thoughts in
the real interview. Candidates should try solving at least 15-20 mock case
interviews in this mode.
3. CV Backup & HR questions: Prepared a thorough CV backup and HR
questions like why consulting, why Deloitte etc.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (25 minutes): It started with the basic introduction, and
then the interviewer asked me a few questions on my CV points and some
questions on inventory management & forecasting, it was followed by a mini
case.
Case- Client is an ice cream manufacturer and is facing stockouts and
delays. How will you help them manage their finished goods inventory?

26
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

2nd Round (25 minutes): Case Problem: An Investment bank wants

to automate some of its processes, what are the factors you will look at,
and provide your recommendation whether they should proceed or not.
(This case is very similar to case- “To Automate or Not” from Darden Case
Book 2018-2019)
Approach: Stated the qualitative factors (tried to be as MECE as possible),
and was provided with data (no. Of employees, revenue, total cost, people
which will get fired etc.) to do the cost benefit analysis

3rd Round (10 minutes)

In this round I was asked about the projects I did during my work ex at
ZS. Interviewer deep dived into many of my CV points to understand
about my work. Then I was asked about why do I want to enter consulting
and why Deloitte

4th Round (10 minutes) | Cultural Fit

This was the final round where interviewer focused to assess the cultural
fit of the candidate. I was asked questions around my goals and objectives
in life and few other HR Questions like why should we hire you, what are
your weaknesses and Talk about a situation when as a leader you took an
unconventional approach.

What went right?

In the initial minutes of my interview, I was able to understand that the
interviewers were more focused on the structure of the attempt. I was
able to reflect that both in my communication and on paper and therefore
was one of the main reasons I was able to do well in the interview.

27
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Suggestions:
1) Be Positive and Be Yourself during interviews.
2) Prepare well for CV Backup & HR Questions. Interviewers want to see a
clarity in your answers for why consulting and why this particular firm
3) Solve as many guesstimates and cases as possible. While stating factors
during case interviews make sure to keep your answers as MECE.
4) Be calm & confident during your case interviews also try to make it as
conversation rather than a formal interview.

28
 CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Chandra Prakash Moon Company: McKinsey & Co.

Educational Background: Previous Work ex:
Mining Engineer, Indian Institute of Manager Operations, Tata Steel
Technology (ISM), Dhanbad Limited (24 months)
Academics: 95%, 92.2%, 77.1% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
I prepared for SCM as well as consulting domain. I devoted around 2-3
hours for consulting preparation after a month into NITIE. Case-in point
helped me in understanding the different basic frameworks. Victor Cheng
videos were helpful in understanding the frameworks and it also gave me
a taste of how consultants communicate to the client.
For Guesstimates, I practiced 2 guesstimates every day. It’s better to
practice these in a group of 3-4 friends, which gives you different
perspectives and approach to solve a guesstimate. Throw a new
guesstimate to yourself, not from any reading material and try to solve it.
It’s the structured approach and relevant factors that matters and not the
actual number.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (20 minutes): It started with the basic introduction and
the interviewer gave me a mini case.
Case: Uber wants to launch chopper service in Mumbai, should they do it
and if yes, what should be the pricing strategy?
I confirmed the case by iterating the case back. I asked some preliminary
questions such as if they are the first one to launch such a service, what
is the range of their service. I listed the potential market barriers and
clarified the operating model (Company owned chopper or leased one).
I asked him about the initial pricing to ascertain if this business would be
economically viable and he provided me a figure.
Identifying the expenditure from this transport mode helped me in
identifying the earnings of such customers. I concluded that consumers in
that earning band would rather prefer having their own chopper and
might not want to have an uber service.

29
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

2nd Round (30 minutes): Case: A firm with retail store chain (with
basically 2 set of products) wanted to increase their forecast accuracy.
They initially asked me about the causes of poor accuracy and then they
provided me a list of 5 different technology providers for accuracy
improvement. They had the initial investment, promised forecast accuracy,
yearly charge and some more data. I was asked to recommend the best out
of them.
I asked them what is the payback period the client is looking for.
I compared the expected increase in revenue due to the improved forecast
and the cost of investment to identify the best solution. The process included
some number crunching, so I made sure how I arrive to a particular figure
by breaking them into smaller pieces and keeping them informed about each
calculation.
This round tested me on my analytical, decision making, and communication
skills.

3rd Round (25 minutes):

This round started with my introduction and the interviewee asked me
questions from my CV mostly from my work in TSL. He deep dived into many
of my CV points to understand about my work.
After around 15 minutes, he was impressed by my understanding of the
industry nuances.

What went right?

I believe that my calm attitude towards their questions and the fact that
they were being informed at each stage of my case solution was one of the
reasons for my selection.
The 3rd round interviewer was a seasoned Mining and Metals professional
which I came to know after the interview. I feel he was impressed by the
kind of detailed and concise answers I gave to him.

30
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Suggestions:
1) Prepare your CV very well and be ready to dive deep in any of the CV
points
2) Communicate well, don’t be in a hurry to respond
3) Be calm and confident during your interview
4) Solve cases and guesstimates with your friends to gain a wider
perspective
5) I wasn’t asked Why McKinsey or why consulting, but be ready to answer
such type of questions

31
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Faisal Khan Company: Deloitte USI S&O

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Hindalco
Mechanical Engineering, National industries limited (24 months)
institute of Technology Raipur
Academics: 95%, 94.6%, 91.1% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
Specific to case interviews, Victor Cheng videos helped me understand the
basics of the case interview and frameworks that can aid in solving the case.
Again, the focus early on was to identify what are the various possibilities for
a given situation, for example – if a company wants to enter a new market –
it can pursue organic growth, acquire a local firm, partner with local firm etc.
Through mock interviews - learnt how to communicate, ask right clarifying
questions and summarize whenever possible.
For Guesstimates, I gathered approximate figures for demographics. I
practiced 25-30 guesstimates overall and focused more on the assumptions
made while solving them.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (25 minutes): It started with the basic introduction, and
then the interviewer asked me a few questions on my CV points. It was
followed by a mini-case.
Case: Let’s say person X wants to set up a premium coffee kiosk in
Hiranandani. Instead of renting a space and invest in creating ambience, he
wants to set up as a coffee kiosk and save the money to cut costs. What is
the demand for the premium coffee, and what should be the pricing of a cup
of coffee?

32
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

2nd Round (60 minutes): It started with the introduction of the

interviewers, few questions on CV points followed by case.
Case: An Automobile parts manufacturer from Japan is struggling to
maintain consistent sales and revenue has started to plummet, You have
been asked by the management to identify the problem and come up with
strategies to make a recovery.
Initially, I clarified the objectives. I was asked to list down all the possible
revenue streams and costs. Though the case seemed straightforward, the
use of profitability framework was not completely helpful. Determining the
root cause took some time. I was missing a significant element (of costs
incurred) which was later arrived using value chain analysis.
Then, there was a lot of number crunching in determining various financial
metrics. I arrived at the problem that there were cheaper substitutes
available for the automobile parts which drove the revenues down.
Observations followed by appropriate recommendations were shared to the
interviewers. I was asked to summarize the entire case, along with
recommendations.
What went right?
I carried out the same energy and stayed calm throughout. The interviewers
test your thinking (keep thinking out loud) and how well you engage them.
Being flexible with the frameworks helped me switch faster and leverage
hints provided by the interviewer. I wrote down the formula and then
calculated values (data was scattered throughout the handout they
provided), thereby avoiding silly mistakes.

Suggestions:
1) There are chances that the interviewers might have worked or come
across some of your CV points (projects). Be very clear and thorough on
whatever you are mentioning in CV
2) Be your natural self and always carry a smile in your face
3) Exhibit confidence throughout the interview and show lots of enthusiasm
4) Always focus more on assumptions you are making while solving the
guesstimate / case. Most of the times, breadth matters than the depth
5) Remember the interviewer names of present and previous rounds

33
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Company: PwC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Reliance
Electrical Engineering, The Industries Limited (47 months)
Maharaja Sayajirao University of
Vadodara
Academics: 9, 8, 8 Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
I prepared for SCM as well as consulting domain. Covered the supply chain
aspects from Chopra & Meindl and prepared for consulting using Case-in
point. Victor Cheng videos clarified the frameworks and how to go about
figuring out solution in a real case interview. Case Studies Preparation, SIP
Grooming Sessions taken seriously, worked on communication skills
For Guesstimates, I practiced 2 guesstimates on an average every day. It’s
better to practice these in a group of 3-4 friends, which gives you different
perspectives and approach to solve a guesstimate.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (20 minutes):
It started with the basic introduction and a brief chat on how my experience
was with Reliance. What learning did I get from there and how it has helped
me. This was followed by a Guesstimate
Guesstimate: It was taken on-the-spot from my CV. I was asked to calculate
the number of completed Coursera Certificates in India during the past 1
year.

2nd Round (20 minutes):

Case studies based on operations strategy. Was asked about the forecasting
factors to be considered for the sale of TATA Nexon car in India. 2nd case
was based on the sale of Boost brand (of GSK) to HUL. Why HUL bought the
brand, what factors did they consider and what synergies can emerge from
this sale for GSK.

34
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

3rd Round (20 minutes):

A case study and discussion based on procurement and sourcing strategy
in Oil & Gas Industry. Primarily the discussion was based on reducing
procurement cost using various methods and at what stages costs can be
reduced. Asked some clarifying questions regarding the case and strategy
or sourcing methods currently followed.

Suggestions:
1) Prepare your CV very well and be ready to dive deep in any of the CV
points.
2) Think smart and act smart
3) Solve cases and guesstimates with your friends to gain a wider
perspective.
4) Have a free-flowing conversation with the interviewer as they look
more for engagement, communication & interpersonal skills, apart
from knowledge.

35
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Garima Vaswani Company: Delloite USI

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: JP Morgan
Manufacturing Engineering, BITS- Services Pvt. Ltd. India, Mumbai
Pilani, Hyderabad
Academics: 9, 8, 8 Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
• Prep Methodology: Daily news, notes and reports for SCM, kept note of GD
and PI feedback and tried to implement them next time. Read notes, CV
defense and HR questions from a week before the SIP process.
• Study Resources:
• Work-ex related: Industry reports using free web, Investopedia and
videos by Aswath Damodaran for finance concepts
• SCM and current affairs: Daily Study Group news articles, Finshots,
Supply chain Brain and Chopra and Meindl
• Consulting: Guesstimates from FMS case book, Cases from ISB and
IIMA case books

Interview Experience:
1st Round (20 minutes):
1. A fitness company is planning to acquire a nutrition food retailing
company. The food retailing company provides semi-cooked and
cooked meals. What are the different synergies in the transaction.
2. Assume that the fitness company serves high income group only and
is a major market share holder across India. Do a guesstimate to come
to an approximate annual synergies generated.

2nd Round (20 minutes):

An Investment Banking firm, operational In 50 countries is looking to save
cost by implementing RPA. Analyse what are the processes which can be
automated and result in cost saving. How will you implement RPA.

36
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Suggestions:
It’s important to read about the company and the business. Asking a good
question to the interviewer is an opportunity to show interest and
enthusiasm about the company and can be a game changer. It’s also
important to be calm and genuine during the interviews, as this helps
think straight for any counter questions.

37
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Vishnu Hurkat Company: Deloitte USI S&O

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Deloitte USI
Electronics and Communication Risk & Financial Advisory
Engineer, Techno India Saltlake (35 Months)
Kolkata IT Advisory Risk Consulting
Academics: 93%, 76%, 89% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
• Prep Methodology: Practiced one on one Case Studies with peers from a
variety of casebooks covering all possible industries and categories.
Focused on developing alternative strategies/solutions to the given
problem statements. Solved 1 guesstimate daily and stressed on
different approaches to exhaustively cover all probable cases. Prepared
CV defense intensively focusing on industry-experience based questions
and latest technology trends. Crafted answers to HR questions stressing
upon the WHY behind all the major events in career so far. Read latest
news related to various business fields.

• Study Resources: Victor Cheng video series, CIP, NITIE Casebook, IIMA
casebook, IIMC casebook, cases from company websites.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (25 minutes): Online video interview : One female panelist
Interview started with HR questions seeking clarity to what my career goals
are, why I am choosing to return to Deloitte and why I am opting for
consulting. I was given a mini case where I was asked to find the probable
reasons behind frequent stockouts at our client’s local ice cream
manufacturing unit. I was then asked to state mitigation measures for the
each of the reasons stated above. The case then went into calculation of
inventory at any given moment. I was asked to state the key inputs I
would require proceeding towards this calculation. We further discussed the
approach of using the key inputs stated above to arrive at the inventory
count. Out of the box points were questioned by the interviewer to dig out
the logic behind bringing the perspective into the discussion. I was asked
whether I had any questions for her. Interview lasted for 20-25mins.

38
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Interview Experience:
2nd Round (45 minutes): Online video interview: One male and one
female panelist
Interview started with HR questions, I was asked about the previous
panelist and the kind of discussions I had with her. I was again asked why
I want to join Deloitte and if I had ever thought of switching Deloitte
before joining NITIE.
I was then given the case: “An Investment Banking firm, operational in 50
countries is looking to implement RPA. How will you identify the
processes which can be automated? “
Asked clarifying questions and gave them all possible criteria that can help
identify the right processes which can be automated. Was asked to reason
every criterion identified by me. I was then given data points to calculate
the cost of automated processes and the current cost of manual
operations involved to execute the same processes. Decision based on
these calculations were to be made to conclude about the feasibility of
automation. I was then asked about any questions I had for them.
Interview lasted for 45mins.

3rd Round (15 minutes): Online Video Interview: One male panelist
I was asked about what my career goals are, was interrupted and counter
questioned.

Questions focused on strengths and weaknesses were asked. Answered

counter questions. Why consulting and how will I contribute to the firm
was asked. The interview closed with any questions I had for him.
Interview lasted for 10-15mins.

Suggestion for future batches:

Have clarity about why you are opting for the job role and how it is
aligned with your personal goals. Be clear and thorough about the WHYs
behind the work you have done in the past. Be structured when solving
the cases. Be very attentive to the clues/directions being given by
interviewers.

39
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Pranjal Sharma Company: Deloitte USI S&O

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Hero MotoCorp
Mechanical Engineering, Thapar Ltd. (24 months)
Institute of Engineering and
Technology
Academics: 9, 8, 8 Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
Solving cases with study group members (one-on-one), studying topics of
procurement, sourcing, facility location and supply chain management.
Study Resources: (specify books and online content used): Case in point,
FMS casebook, Heizer, Chopra Meindl

Interview Experience:
1st Round (20 minutes): CV based, guesstimate and mini
case: It started with the basic introduction and the interviewer gave me a
mini case.
Case: Estimate the market size in US of Premium foldable phone Iron Man
Limited edition. Also give recommendation weather to make new facility in
US or outsource to China and why.

2nd Round (30 minutes):

Case: 2 Pharma companies have merged, with facilities and market all over
the world, one is specialized cancer drug making company and other is
making generic OTC drugs. Establish operational synergies, cut costs in
supply chain and give 30 second elevator pitch to the CEO on your
recommendations (lot of data for analysis was given to find area of
improvement)

3rd Round (10 minutes):

HR questions like biggest impact made, why consulting.

40
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
4th Round (10 minutes):
This round started with my introduction and the interviewee asked me
Cultural Fit Questions like why Deloitte, one weakness and what you did to
overcome it, what will you bring to Deloitte.

What went right?

I believe that my calm attitude towards their questions and the fact that I
stood my ground on the answer given by me in case study. I remained
confident throughout my interview.

Suggestions:
1) While attempting a case in an interview, listen carefully to the
interviewer as they will guide you to the correct solution and in the
process, give loads of insights in order to help you with the case.
2) Instead of cramming up the structures given in various casebooks, try
and understand the reason behind the problem in a top-down approach
3) Solve cases and guesstimates with your friends to gain a wider
perspective.

41
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Harsh Mehta Company: Deloitte USI S&O

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: KPMG
Electronics and Telecommunication (36 Months)
Engineer, Sardar Patel Institute of IT Advisory Risk Consulting
Technology
Academics: 90%, 79%, 75% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
Stage 1- CV Preparation: This is the first step and probably the most
important step in all the cases, as this is the basis on which you would
receive the shortlists. Consulting folks generally love numbers and hence,
they would be searching the same in your resume. Hence the first trick here
is to quantify each, and every point mentioned in the resume. Another
important point here would be to keep the resume very simple and avoid
using jargons to make it easily understandable. Get the same reviewed by
professionals of different domains and make sure that the resume is crisp
and easy to understand.
Stage 2: Setting the stage for Case studies and guesstimates: Now
comes the actual preparation phase where the ‘Consulting’ preparations
matter. Generally, the consulting interviews revolve around case studies and
guesstimates and this where we need maximum preparation as the students
are unaware about the structure and the approach to be followed while
solving a case or guesstimates. A case is a small problem statement given
along with the supporting data and a candidate is expected to arrive at the
solution to the problem in approximately 20-30 minutes’ time. The book
‘Case in Point’ is the best material to start with and know about different
structures and approach that a student can take to solve a particular case.
In the later stages, Mckinsey case study can be referred. When it comes to
preparation time, I would invest 3-4 hours a day in studying the frameworks
and solving at least 2-3 case studies daily. Coming to guesstimates, a
practice of 2 hours a day should be sufficient.
The best way to practice case and guestimates would be to form a group of
3-4 students and practice internally.
Study Sources: Case-In-Point, IIMA Casebook, Mckinsey Case book, Victor
Cheng Videos

42
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Interview Experience:
1st Round (45 minutes): CV based and Guestimate
I was asked about almost everything present in the CV, and was asked to
justify the numbers present in my CV.
Then I was asked why Consulting and then why Deloitte- Here I told about
my liking to face challenges and how I have always liked to make an
impact (Deloitte’s kind of tag line is ‘Making an impact’. Hence, I had
prepared the answer)

Guesstimate: ‘How much would a tea seller earn in a year by selling a

tea on the roadside joint in Mumbai’
Explicitly mentioned the assumptions that I was taking initially itself, that
I am considering Andheri station area, and I would solve the problem
differently for summer, winter and rainy season as demand in each season
differs and hence revenue would vary (The panel was extremely
impressed by this approach). Then solved the problem from supply side
and considered that there will be only 1 labor making the tea, hence we
can make approximately 1-2 cups in one minute. Then added
multiplication factor to sum up the revenue in 1 hour, followed by 1 day,
followed by 1 months. Following the same approach, calculated revenue
for all the three seasons.
I was then asked if the tea vendor wants to buy a bigger shop to sell tea,
what all factors should be considered? I told them all the factors
necessary to check before buying a real estate property. (Panelist was a
senior manager and she was leading real estate practice in Deloitte, that’s
why I mentioned real estate points to impress her. Such brownie points
really help to crack the interview)

2nd Round (25 minutes): Case Study round

Case- “There is a hardware company who is facing the issue of declining
profits in the past 3 years. My role was to identify the problem and come
up with the solutions”

43
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

I started by asking questions about the company, where is it based, how is

the market in that geography doing, who are the competitors and how are
they faring. Then I asked whether it is an industry wide problem or company
specific problem. Then I reiterated the problem and asked if there is
anything more expected out of me apart from finding the solution. (This is a
good step. Initially, confirm all the external factors and reiterate the problem
and the solution asked)- On this, I was told that it is an MNC company,
headquartered out of Asia and the problem is primarily existing in the Asia
region. Also, it is not an industry specific problem, on they are facing this
issue.
I noted the points and started analyzing the problem from the cost and from
the revenue point of view (This is the standard approach for a profit-loss
case)
Then I was told that the approach is really good, and I should move forward
with analyzing the problem from cost side. (They were highly impressed with
my approach). Then I listed the factors like fixed cost issues, variable cost
issues, misc. cost etc. And asked questions for each factor, that are they
responsible for the increase in cost and in turn reduction of profit?
They told that I am moving in the right direction and gave me a sheet where
there were complex calculations involved regarding the cost incurred by
managers, consultants and labor to the company (They were testing my
quantitative skills here). After I completed the complex calculations, they
told me it is correct, and there is one major reason for the cost increase that
I have already mentioned, and they want me to deep dive into it. I
immediately jumped to misc. cost as I knew that’s my answer, that during
servicing stint, managers and consultants might be spending more money on
external factors like, travel, stay, food, etc. which is actually not required and
can be avoided.
My round ended there as my solution was bang on. They told me that they
are highly impressed by both my rounds in their entire interviewing history, I
was the quickest to solve the problem. In the interview itself, they told me
that they are going to select me, and hence last 10 minutes was just a light
discussion among ourselves. I had solved the case in 15 minutes.

What went right?

My confidence, and my performance in the first round was the main reason
of my selection I feel because I feel they were already impressed by me
before me even entering my second round.

44
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Suggestions:
Be extremely well prepared with your resume, cases and guesstimates. Also,
keep the discussion open and both ended. Involve the panelist in the
discussion because they are interested to know the approach you take and
thought process behind it, and not your solution. The sooner you impress
them, the better it is for you. Do a very well thorough research about
Deloitte, consulting life and why you fit in the consulting world. Be ready with
all the HR answers and align all your answers with the vision and mission of
Deloitte.

45
CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Company: Deloitte USI

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Siemens Ltd (22
Mechanical Engineer, SPCE Months)
Mumbai
Academics: 96%, 84%, 87% Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
Cases from NITIE and IIML Case books. We formed a group of 2 and
practiced mock case interviews frequently. Also, I gave mock case interviews
to seniors during practice. I spent around 1-2 hours on consulting preparation
every alternate day. For supply chain preparation, I studied Chopra Meindl
and Material provided by Prof. Debabrata sir & Prof. Sushmita ma’am
Interview Experience:
1st Round (35 minutes): Platform-Zoom
The interview began with a general introduction and then the interviewer
asked me about my interests.He asked to recite Urdu couplet as I had
mentioned I love reciting Urdu poetry. Qs on experience about supplier
selection, Pros/cons of having a single supplier? I have worked on RFID
based project at my past company, so he asked why RFID? Pros/Cons of
RFID over other technology?
Situation based Q’s: My client is Maharashtra State Government & I want
to pitch to an automobile manufacturing company to start a plant in
Maharashtra instead of Tamilnadu. I was asked about factors to be
considered before starting a new plant.
Guesstimate: Our client owns a mine of Limestone at Meghalaya (90 sq.
Km).Guesstimate no. of years' limestone can be extracted from the mine.

2nd Round (30 minutes): Platform –Zoom

They seemed in a hurry & directly jumped to the case.
Case Statement: Our Client is an automobile manufacturer in Japan &
facing an issue in decline in spare parts sales. He has provided me plenty of
data & asked what my thoughts are after analyzing data.
I asked a few preliminary questions. Discussion on warehousing & vendor-
managed inventory? After 15 minutes of discussion, he told me to synthesize
the case without finding the root cause.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Company: PwC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Siemens Ltd (22
Mechanical Engineer, SPCE Months)
Mumbai
Academics: 96%, 84%, 87% Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
Cases from NITIE and IIML Case books. We formed a group of 2 and
practiced mock case interviews frequently. Also, I gave mock case interviews
to seniors during practice. I spent around 1-2 hours on consulting preparation
every alternate day. For supply chain preparation, I studied Chopra Meindl
and Material provided by Prof. Debabrata sir & Prof. Sushmita ma’am
Interview Experience:
1st Round: (45 Min) (2 panel Members)- Telephone
Introduce Yourself? Why PwC? Why Consulting?
CV-based questions like product costing? Commodity hedging? Digital
Invoicing?
Guestimate: Number of handheld thermal scanners currently available in
Mumbai?
Any q's if I have?

2nd Round (35 minutes): Platform – Google Meet (Only audio)

Case Statement: Automobile Spare part distributor has approached PwC as
he faces issues with the increase in distribution cost from the past year.
Business model: Procurement of spare parts at cheap rates from China,
India, Vietnam and sell them in the USA
Channels: Own e_Commerce platform, Retail Outlet & B2B bulk orders
Asked me to focus on B2Borders. After a lot of discussion on the cost front,
starting a new warehouse emerged as a root cause. Discussions around WMS
like, what is transportation cost? Factors on which it depends. The steps
involved in Warehouse Management.
Why PwC ? Why Consulting??

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
Round-3 (50 Min) (Google Meet- Audio and video)
Case statement: He asked to strategize organic farming business.
Expectations were 15% ROI within a year & so on. Tell me the approach to
proceed further.
Buckets in which I divided the approach was as below
Acquisition of land; Decide the crops to take for production on the farm;
Investment in equipment & technology for farming; strategy for selling in
the market
Then he asked to go in-depth for each bucket.
1) Land: it should be fertile, should be near to city so that commutation
would be easy, Abundance of water
2) In crops, I have given two types like perishable vegetables (Cucumber,
Chili, Tomato, Onion) & medicinal plants (Aloe Vera). He liked the
medicinal plant's concept
3) Technology: Tractors, Hydraulic Pump, Shade house, Playhouse,
storage facility with cold supply chain
4) I have suggested B2B business options like hotel chains, Reliance fresh,
etc. For Medicinal plants contract farming with Patanjali or HUL for
facewash, & beauty products.

Suggestions:
1) Listen carefully, Make right assumptions
2) Be transparent, genuine
3) Engage interviewer in conversation
4) If interviewer is giving hint about incorrect approach, then be flexible
enough to change it. Debate with them isn’t going to help
5) Be vocal for help if you stuck anywhere & most important
6) Believe in yourself

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Company: Deloitte USI S&O

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: None (Fresher)
Mechanical Engineer, NIT
Jalandhar, Punjab
Academics: 95%, 94%, 82.3% Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
During the preparation phase, I majorly focussed on preparing for SCM roles
with little regard to consulting since I was a fresher and believed I had little
to no chance at getting a shortlist. It was only after month and a half at
NITIE that I got to know this was not true.
After discussions with my study group and some seniors, I decided to take a
shot at the much-coveted consulting domain. In the short timeframe before
SIPs, I prepared using Case-in point to understand the various basic
frameworks. I indulged in mock case interviews with a dedicated peer group
where we usually took the cases mentioned at the end of Case-in point.
Similarly, for guesstimates, I used to solve them with my peer group to help
learn from each other.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (25 minutes): The interview began with a general introduction
and then the interviewer asked me about my interests.
He asked what attracted me towards consulting as a domain for which I gave
a prompt response. (Be prepared for such questions). He then gave me a
case based on one of my interests – Movies.
Case: Should Netflix launch Sacred Games season 3 in India? Why/Why not?
I began with reciting the case back to the interviewer. It served dual
purposes of helping me grasp the case accurately and if not, then giving the
interviewer a chance to correct me.
I began with asking the interviewer some preliminary questions such as if
there were any other objectives to the case and what other competitor OTT
platforms were to be considered.
As I had watched the show, I was aware of its global reach with the number
of viewers outside India much greater than within India and the dramatic cliff
hanger season 2 ended with.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

I defined some relevant factors for analysis based on a few standard

frameworks and attempted to conform my answer to the same.
Throughout the solving process, I kept the interviewer in loop. He asked
contradictory questions at times to put me in a stressful situation and
analyse how I dealt with it.
By identifying the factors, I presented the interviewer with a decision
framework and based on that I concluded that Netflix should release
season 3 to satiate the anticipation of the viewers.

What went wrong?

I defined some relevant factors for analysis based on a few standard
frameworks and attempted to conform my answer to the same.
Throughout the solving process, I kept the interviewer in loop. He asked
contradictory questions at times to put me in a stressful situation and
analyse how I dealt with it.
By identifying the factors, I presented the interviewer with a decision
framework and based on that I concluded that Netflix should release
season 3 to satiate the anticipation of the viewers.

Suggestions:
1) Start your preparations early
2) Practice case interviews and guesstimates with a dedicated peer
group.
3) Don’t rush to answer any questions
4) Try to create your own frameworks using relevant factors while
solving a case rather than conforming to a standard one. (This will
come naturally to you only through practice)

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Company: Deloitte USI S&O

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Advisory Analyst,
Electronics and Communications Assurance and Internal Audit, Deloitte USI
Engineer, Osmania University (24 months)
Academics: 8.84, 97.6%, 93.17% Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
Based on my profile, I was expecting more of consulting calls and hence,
started my preparation for consulting earlier. I first started solving
guestimates. After a week or so, I started my case study preparation
simultaneously by first studying approach and then moving on to solving
cases from NITIE and IIM A Case books. We formed a group of 3 and
practiced mock case interviews frequently. Also I gave mock case interviews
to seniors during practice. I spent around 3-4 hours on consulting preparation
every alternate day. For supply chain preparation, I studied Chopra Meindl
and looked on youtube for real-life supply chain examples

Interview Experience:
First phase of shortlisting for Deloitte was video interview. We were supposed
to answer 4 questions, each having a time limit of around 2-3 minutes. The
shortlisted candidates were given calls for physical interviews.

1st Round (20 minutes): Interview started with a brief intro and my work
experience. Post that, a mini-case was given.

Mini Case – You are the chairman of IPL and one of the teams is alleged to
have involved in match fixing. As a chairman, you should make sure that you
don’t lose upon sponsors and viewers. How do you approach? What are the
factors you consider? How can you use analytics to address this issue? Can
you predict which players might get involved in match fixing?

Approach – I thought for a minute and started solving the case with
stakeholder segmentation i.e., divided all the stakeholders related to IPL into
3 categories – sponsors, players and viewers. Asked questions to find out the
reason for match fixing (is it a single player or the owner of the franchisee
involved in match fixing).

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Solution Proposed: If it was individual one or two players involved in

match fixing, then those players must be banned for a specific period of
time. Also, contracts must be made with sponsors to make sure we don’t
lose on them.

For the question on analytics usage, I suggested the use of analytics in

recording historical data of players, their batting length and other metrics
and compare it with their best performance to identify any abnormalities in
the player’s behavior.

At the end of interview, I was asked to summarize my case.

What went wrong?

I covered the breadth of the topic but didn’t delve deep to find the actual
reason for match fixing. My approach was not well framed. I lost my path
in the middle. Also, I kept quite while solving the case initially. I was asked
to think out loud. The solutions that I proposed were generic and can be
more specific to cricket. I have poor knowledge on cricket, so I couldn’t
gather many ideas. My case summary didn’t come out like a story and
went into bits and pieces.

Suggestions:
1) Be well prepared with CV and HR questions. Have good knowledge on
the area of your work ex.

2) Whenever solving case studies always dig 3-4 levels deeper into the
problem.

3) Have good knowledge of 2-3 industries and high-level overview of

other industries.

4) Quoting examples impresses the recruiter. Keep 2-3 happening

examples on the back of your mind for every industry. Mention them
at the relevant point of time while solving case.

5) Think out loud and always backup your solutions with a rationale.

6) Finally, stay calm during the interview and don’t panic even if you get
it wrong. Always answer questions with a smile and a positive
attitude.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Name: Souvik Guha Company: Deloitte USI FC

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Solutions
Electronics and Instrumentation Designer and Architect, TCS (54
Engineer, Techno India Salt Lake months)
Academics: 96.4%, 91.25%, 83.5% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
ERP concepts, Order to Cash, Procure to Pay cycles, Modules of ERP
software, Different ERP offerings like Fusion, EBS, SAP, ERP forms, Cloud,
Saas, Paas, Iaas, Public and private cloud, On-premise vs Cloud ERP and
when to use each, Hybrid ERP, Conference Room Pilots, ERP project workflow,
Career Opportunities, Role of Functional Consultant, Fit Gap Analysis, CV
defence, HR questions, About Deloitte, Thoroughly read Deloitte website

Interview Experience:
1st Round Case Discussion (10 minutes):
Case: A firm needs to decide between on-premise, cloud, hybrid ERP based
on financial analysis.
GD was entirely on ERP based case, feasibility analysis of Cloud vs On-
premises, Agile vs Waterfall

2nd Round Case Presentation (10 minutes):

same group as case discussion would present their analysis to different panel
using chart papers

3rd Round Personal Interview (10 minutes):

Based on CV, previous work experience, HR questions
Mostly cantered around understanding of Python/R, Knowledge of different
Machine Learning algorithms, when to use each, Logistic Regression,
Supervised vs Unsupervised, Work experience and how solution design
works, Designer vs Architect

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

What went right?

When asked about any questions I had for the interviewer I focussed on
Deloitte articles that I read on their website that captured my attention,
mostly on Gig Economy and Crowdsourcing of talent and the future of
recruitment and the model in which companies would employ candidates,
how Deloitte is enabling this for clients, Deloitte offered technologies in
this sphere and what to expect for the future, I showed how much I
researched about Deloitte's determination to help clients with their
offering, interviewer was impressed that I had taken a keen interest in the
company

Suggestions:
Know fully well about ERP architecture, modules, prepare CV defence and
HR questions well, and read up the latest news about Deloitte and it helps
to know what they offer which is unique to them, this info will be available
on their website, logically suggest frameworks and don't just speak out
keywords for the sake of it in post GD presentation, have a well structured
form of presentation, let other's speak, focus on team work and address
the question with the client in mind and what would truly help the client in
such a situation and dissect the problem logically and structure solutions
accordingly

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Company: Deloitte USI Functional Consulting

Educational Background: Computer Previous Work ex: IT Engineer at
science and engineering, National Cisco Systems (29 months)
Institute of Engineering Mysore
Academics: 9.63, 94%, 8 Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
prepared questions related to CV and about ERP systems as the job
description explicitly mentioned it.

Interview Experience:
Decent. Focused on work experience and internship done during the final
year of engineering. Also focused on voluntary work done with the NGOs

What went wrong?

The Interviewer was happy with most of the answers. However, I feel I
didn't answer "why you want to work for Deloitte" satisfactorily.
Could have researched more about the company and job requirements.

Suggestions:
Read about the company, it's culture and answer in a way that shows you
are fit for the company's culture and the job requirements.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Name: Abhirup Mitra Company: PWC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Technology

Electrical Engineer, IIEST Shibpur Consulting, Deloitte India (35 months)

Academics: 95%, 92.2% 83.5% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
Guesstimates: Guesstimate preparation should be regular and spontaneous.
Once I was familiar with the necessary numbers (demographic data) and the
approaches, it's all about practice. One should be aware of the different
methods – top-down, bottom-up, demand side, and supply-side approaches.
We had a group of 4-5 people and used to practice random guesstimate
every day. That helps you bring in new factors and memorize the
demographics quickly.
Case Study: For case studies, I started with Victor Cheng videos and
watched case-solving videos online. Getting a clear understanding of the
frameworks and practicing enough to identify and lay out a clear structure at
the beginning of a case is crucial. I practiced case studies with my friends and
selected cases from different case books to get sufficient exposure to
different kinds of cases.
CV: CV is perhaps the most critical part of the internship preparation. One
should have a concise and well-rehearsed CV with a proper CV backup.
Company-specific: I interacted with seniors to understand the pattern and
the type of interview. PWC interviews require command over basic concepts
of operations and SCM. In all interviews, the questions are asked from an
operations perspective. All the case studies were operations-oriented too.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (CV & Guesstimate): The round 1 for PWC US Advisory is
a telephonic round and lasts close to an hour.
My interview was with a manager. After a brief introduction, the interview
proceeded as below: -
Interviewer (I): So, explain the procure to pay cycle.
Me(M): The procure to pay cycle starts from the generation of demand,
followed by the purchasing process, goods receipt, invoice verification, and
finally payment. A more detailed answer was given.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
I: What is safety stock, and why is it required?
M: Answered with the basic definition of safety stock. It is required to
cater to unexpected variations in demand.
I: How do you calculate safety stock?
M: Detailed discussion on service level and how it is determined.
I: What is the primary role of the account payable team from a P2P point
of view?
M: The AP team verifies the vendor invoice, then passes the entries, which
then allows the payment to be made from the bank/cash.
I: What is this matching called?
M: 3-way match. Explained in detail
I: what is a 4-way match?
M: Don't know. (Answer was additional matching with the quality team).
A few more questions were asked from my CV, mainly on inventory
management, 2 bin system, and 3PL.
I: Let's do a small guesstimate. Estimate the number of liters of alcohol
sold in August in India.
M: Verified the question. It was clarified whether he wants it from a
specific approach. He insisted on adopting an approach from the demand
side.
M: I will divide the country into three tiers of states. States with high
alcohol consumption, states with medium alcohol consumption and states
with low alcohol consumption. For tier 1 state, I will allocate say X liters of
alcohol per person, Y for tier 2, and Z for tier 3. Other important factors to
consider will be: - the difference in consumption based on social strata,
the difference of consumption based on gender, availability factors
(Independence Day is a dry day), Cultural factors like 'Savaan,' etc.
I: That's good.
Then we discussed which states to put in tier 1,2,3 and why?
I: Now approach the same from the supply side and come up with a
number.
M: Let's assume a single store. Now for each store, the store is open for
12 hours (10 to 10). Now, say 4 hours are peak hours (no idle time), 3
moderate and 3 hours with very less sale. Overall sales for a day will be
No. of hours X No. of customers/hr. (= total customers that can be billed
per hr. X peak factor) X avg. Liters sold per customer.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Now we multiply it with the number of days and the number of stores, which
will again include the tier concept.
I: Okay. That will be all. Thank you.

2n Round CV and Case:

The second round was a face-to-face interview that lasted around 50-60
minutes. The interview started with a quick round of introduction from both
parties. I was asked to explain certain CV points in greater detail and the
type of work that I had to do. My key learnings from the projects. This was
followed by small cases as described below: -

I: What is the S2P cycle? List its main stages?

M: I explained how the source-to-pay cycle is made of the source-to-contract
and the procure-to-pay cycle in detail.

I: Suppose a logistics company is facing high sourcing costs. Apart from

price, what other parameters can you discuss during negotiations?
M: Quantity discounts/rebates, payment terms, delivery schedule and
incoterms are some of the other things that I would like to negotiate.
Detailed discussion on incoterms followed.

I: Why do companies maintain inventory?

M: To circumvent the inherent variance between supply and demand.

I: What are the types of inventory?

M: Explained the types of inventory. Detailed discussion on anticipatory
inventory.

I: What is working capital? Which financial statement do you see to derive

that?
M: Current assets -current liabilities. It is obtained from the balance sheet.

I: Suppose a firm is facing working capital management issues. What are the
aspects you will investigate in detail?
M: Inventory at hand, accounts payable and accounts receivable will be a
good starting point.

I: That would be all.

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3rd Round: Cultural Fit
The final round is held via video conferencing where a director of the firm
assesses the cultural fit of the candidate. Questions are centered around
the life experiences of the individual. Clarity regarding basic HR questions
like why MBA, why consulting, why PWC can be expected.

What went right?

My previous work experience was as a SAP MM consultant. So, I was
functional consultant closely working on procurement and inventory
management. All my cases were based on what I had worked on. Besides,
in the first 3 months, I had acquired knowledge of basic operations and
SCM concepts which helped me in these interviews. They wanted to
evaluate my clarity on the things I had worked and more importantly if I
could build on that and use it in management consulting

Suggestions:
Practice cases and guesstimates regularly. Study the basic concepts of
SCM, operations and accounting Practice operations cases as well. During
the interviews, when prompted to ask any questions, please ask valid
questions. In consulting, they assess the conversational ability of a
candidate.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Name: Govind Shukla Company: PWC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Quality
Production Engineering, Control, Tata Metaliks Limited (23
Faculty of Engg., & Tech., Jadavpur months)
University
Academics: 83.5%, 78.8%,82.3% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
I started preparing for consulting interviews around 40 days before SIPs.
Case in Point helped me to get the hang of a consulting interview initially. I
followed Victor Cheng’s lectures too. My personal favorite is the ISB casebook
because of the explanation of different structures and the way they have
presented the cases. Understanding the end-to-end business functioning of
my previous employer allowed me to get a clear idea on business and
strategic challenges and this came in really handy during the interview. I
analyzed a sample company from each of the prominent sectors like Pharma,
Steel, Automobile, Banks and IT/ITeS, end-to-end to understand the finer
details pertaining to a particular type of company.

Interview Experience:

1st Round Guesstimate & CV based questions, Telephonic

(30 mins):

CV Based Questions: (dur. 10 mins)

• Why Consulting?
• What are the two most interesting projects are on your CV ?
• What was the most challenging part of each ?

Guesstimate: (dur. 20 mins)

I had Cricket in extra-curriculars, the guesstimate was about calculating the

total volume of paint consumed for maintaining cricket stadiums across
India.

Approach: I started with stating assumptions about the components of a

stadium which could need paint for maintenance namely: Right circular
cylinder-shaped outer walls, seats, inside of the roof, steel structure, paint
used for marking on the field.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

I also stated that structures like washrooms, galleries and entrances are
being ignored in mathematical calculation so a buffer amount will be
added to the total later to reduce the error. Then I started by calculating
the exposed surface area (area that requires paint) for a large size cricket
stadium, used boundary length to derive the radius of outer walls after
provisioning for seats between the boundary and outer walls. Calculated
area for roof (assumed to be only above the seats) and structures.
Assumed a certain quantity of paint being used per square meter of
surface (was asked to back this assumption and stated it as a fact of
observation). I went on to calculate the paint requirement for smaller and
medium sized stadiums by reducing the requirement of a large stadium by
a suitable factor. Finally, I summed up the total paint requirement by
adding up the requirement for different states according to popularity of
cricket in them. States were clustered according to popularity of cricket in
them : High, Medium and Low and a certain number of large, medium and
small stadiums were assumed to be present in states of each category
irrespective of the size of the state. All the assumptions and deviations
from common logic were clearly communicated to the interviewer as I
walked him through the guesstimate.

Total Paint Required for 1 stadium = (Surface Area that needs

maintenance * Paint per square meter) + Volume to compensate
for irregular shapes (galleries, washrooms, markings on field)

Round 2 : Case interview (25 mins)

Round began with a general introduction and my reasons to pursue a

career in consulting, and specifically in PwC US Advisory. After a casual
discussion of 5 mins. the interviewer began the case.

Case: A medical instruments company is losing market share drastically

since last financial year.

Me, Opening: I did my basic check for details with the interviewer
regarding the following possibilities:

• Discontinuation of a product line by the client

• Regulatory issues stopping sales of a popular brand of our client firm
• Launch of new product line by any competitor that has eaten up our
share
• Decline in our sales due to quality issues (This turned out to be the
reason)

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

(Hint: Try to relate a reason from previous work-ex and state it as one of
the reasons, especially during summers recruiters frequently ask questions
related to the candidate’s previous work-ex. This may not be the case
always, but in my case the interviewer as asked me a case related to
quality control.)

Interviewer: Yes, they have received multiple cases customer complaints

of quantity mismatch in cartons and product damage in last 1 year. Take it
forward now.

Me: Okay, this seems like a problem at the packaging and packing station
as final quantity check happens there and product damage happens due to
2 reasons : use of sub-standard packing material and not following the
packing, loading and unloading SOPs. Let me ask about the packaging
process at the client first for quantity mismatch issue, then I will discuss
the packing material and finally SOPs

Interviewer: They have recently switched their packaging station to

automatic image based counting station, they have changed some supplier
for packing material and the SOPs are unchanged.

Me: Okay, so I see that they have a new supplier for packing material.
Could you please tell me about the image based counting system at
packaging station ? Was it bought after a proof of concept ?

Interviewer: It’s a proven technology so management didn’t conduct any

pilot or POC. Please give me possible reasons of the complaints based on
the discussion so far.

Me: Yes, so to begin with there could be issues with the new packaging
station counting technology as image-based technologies need
tremendous amount of data and supervised teaching for different product
types and settings. So, they need to recheck that system.

Coming to packing material change, they must again check the compliance
of the packing material with their internal standards, involving a 3rd party
testing agency for unbiased results.

SOPs are unchanged but we must see that loading and unloading SOPs are
followed and re-training of workforce in that area might help.

Interviewer: What parameters do you need to check while switching

materials ?

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Me: Compliance of supplier with relevant standards, if possible we must
see the same for the incoming material right from the source as part of
supplier on-boarding or material change, compatibility of the material with
our internal processes and SOPs as well as the product, reusability of the
material if it falls in the multiple use category, material properties like
weight, resistance to moisture, reactivity with respect to other materials
we use, material durability in our environment and of-course total cost of
buying and handling the material through out the desired use.

Interviewer: Okay, what could be the most critical material for the client I
mentioned ?

Me: Material used for the parts that are used for incision, insertion or
similar processes involving subdermal contact.

Interviewer: What could be top KPIs for the client company’s QC

department ?

Me: General KPIs like : number of complaints/ units sold. This can be
broken down to cases of process failure, material failure and deviation
from SOPs to laser focus the efforts. I can think of only one at this point
especially given the nature of the case.

Interviewer: Thank you, we are done here.

(Hint: The interviewer waived off the 3rd round for me based on this
interaction, I feel she was liked the use of specific terms pertaining to
industry of the client and quality control)

Round 3: Waived Off

Round 4: Partner/ Director Round (Cultural fit round)(15 mins)

I was interviewed by a US based director over Skype. He asked me

questions around my goals and objectives in life and my take on certain
situational and ethical questions .

What went right ?

I was confident throughout all the rounds, making it a discussion in
essence, rather than a formal interview. The fact that I stated out my
assumptions clearly during both guestimate and case study round was well
received.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Suggestions:
1) Prepare well for questions like why consulting ? Ops. Consulting ? or
why in a particular firm ?
2) Prepare well for CV defense, make sure you know the calculation
behind each quantified claim, think of project scenarios like: most
successful, most challenging and all before hand and make answers
using star approach.
3) For consulting interviews put equal attention on business
functionalities as you put on framework. Understanding a business
helps you ask the right questions and list-down right parameters
whenever asked.
4) The best framework is created on the spot so don’t spend too much
time mastering the frameworks you find in different materials. Often a
case will be too unstructured as to be discussed through any pre-
defined structure, use simple logical trees or flow-charts in those
cases.
5) For guesstimates keep some numbers in mind like population of major
countries, cities, states. Especially figures of candidate’s hometown
and state apart from Mumbai and Maharashtra are important.
6) Expect guesstimates and cases to be around the interests mentioned
in CV or intro or work-experience.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Name: Harishankar Nallasivan Company: PWC US

Advisory
Educational Background: Chemical Previous Work ex:
Engineering, Laxminarayan Institute of Technology Transfer, Glenmark
Technology, Nagpur Pharmaceuticals Limited (34
months)
Academics: 92%, 93%,83% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
I started my consulting preparations alongside the Supply chain and domain
specific preparations. But I focused more on the consulting preparations as I
knew I would get a few shortlists there given my profile. So, the preparations
began with Case in point and Victor Cheng videos. This helped me get a hang
of consulting cases. Once I was through that, I started solving other
casebooks with my classmates. We used to play the interviewer and
interviewee roles for solving cases. The primary purpose of solving the cases
was to develop the right mindset for approaching them. I primarily focused
on supply chain cases since I had an operations background and expected
cases around that. Alongside this, I focused on CV defense as well.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (20 minutes):

CV Based Questions: (30 mins)

• Why Consulting?
• How did you approach the project (a particular project mentioned in the
CV)?
• What were the challenges?
• Few questions on pharma industry

Guesstimate: (40 mins)

Since I had a pharma background, I was given a guestimate as follows:
“A drug manufacturer (USD 3bn) has 3 products, X, Y, Z & Per unit cost
being $1, $2, $3 respectively. Find the aluminum foil requirement for the
Indian market”

Approach: I started with the market of the firm, Indian + Others. I asked a
few clarifying questions about the product lines, product specifications etc.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Once I got the info about geographies the player was catering to & the
products, I calculated the revenue distribution for Indian market. Using
the per unit cost of the 3 products, I calculated the number of tablets
being sold. Once I calculated the number of tablets, I inquired about the
size of each tablet. Then assuming a certain spacing above and below each
tablet in a particular strip, I calculated the area of one strip. Using this,
the total area was calculated. Once it was done, the foil volume was
calculated considering certain thickness. Using the density, the foil
quantity was calculated

Round 2: Case interview

(Duration: 40 mins., 1 interviewer)

The round started with a general conversation about my CV. This was
follower be a few HR questions.

Case: A Chocolate manufacturer is having a warehouse. From last 3

months, there’s a problem of Warehouse inventory level increment leading
to increased holding costs.

I started by asking a few preliminary questions which helped me align my

thought process. The gist of the interview is captured below:

Me: What are the different SKUs that the company produces

Interviewer: Chocolates in 7 variants. Anything else you need?

Me: Yes. Do we see a trend in the SKU pile up?

Interviewer: Can you be a bit more specific

Me: Do we see that a particular SKU is getting piled up in the warehouse?

Interviewer: Yes. There are 2 SKUs that are getting piled up. These are
relatively newer ones to enter the market

Me: Has there been a sudden shift in the demand of these SKUs?

Interviewer: Think from the supply side

Me: Since the problem has risen for the newer products, I would like to
delve a bit deeper into the forecasting aspects. What is the current
forecasting technique used in Company?

Interview: moving average

Me: Do we use the same method for old and new products?

Interviewer: Yes

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Me: Okay. This could be of interest. As the newer ones are getting piled,
this could be because of seasonality aspects. The seasonality is not
considered in the moving average technique.

Interviewer: Okay. What do you recommend?

Me: Since, we need to proactively monitor the actual demand as well, we

need the forecasts to be based on real time data. This can be achieved by
Adaptive forecasting method with Winters model

Interviewer: Okay. That should be good enough

After this, I was asked to build a warehouse layout. For this, I considered
the following areas:

SKU based area segmentation, Loading and Unloading, QC area, Stability

test area, Washroom, Admin section, Change room, Canteen, Parking
area, Small, Equipment area, Quarantine area, Measurement area, Garden
area, Security area.

Round 3: HR round (15 mins) This was an HR round where I was asked
the following:

- Why consulting
- Why PwC
- Biggest challenge you faced and learnings thereof
- Tools you know (Excel, Tableau etc.)
- Most successful project

What went right?

I tried to make the case interview more like a conversation. Even when I
was stuck with something, I started thinking out loud which helped. I was
confident at what I spoke during my CV interview which created a good
impact. Creating linkages with my previous work-ex while answering
something new was appreciated as well

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Suggestions:
• Be thorough with Consulting and PwC specific questions like Why PwC,
Why consulting etc.
• Prepare your CV defense properly. Be thorough with the HR questions
as well
• Although frameworks mentioned in the case books are important, it is
not everything. It’s important you understand the business. Try and
solve one case in depth from each sector. This will help you ask the
right questions to the interviewer
• For guesstimates keep some numbers in mind like population of major
countries, cities, states. Especially figures of candidate’s hometown
and state apart from Mumbai and Maharashtra are important.
• Expect guesstimates and cases to be around the interests mentioned
in CV or intro or work-experience.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Name: Rashmi Khandelwal Company: PWC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Management
Electrical Engineer, NIT, Surat consulting, ZS Associates (15
months)
Engineering design consulting, Arup
India Pvt Ltd (12 months)
Academics: 95%, 88.60%, 8.33 Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
Focused on the below-mentioned areas:
1. CV points: This is the most important part of the preparation and the
candidates should be thorough with each point mentioned on the CV.
Create a backup for each point and be prepared for any cross question
which may be asked from the mentioned points. Proper justification and
calculations should be kept ready for any numerical figures mentioned.
Also, create a good story around 2-3 points which can be used as the
best project that you worked on or the most interesting one and what
impact did you bring in that particular project.
2. HR Questions: Work hard for preparing the answers for the standard HR
booklet shared with the students and get it approved by a couple of
people. Read the answers aloud to make sure it shall come out as a story
that you will be able to put confidently in front of panelists. Try to add
personal experience for each answer as it adds a lot of impact and
increases the credibility of your answers.
3. Guesstimates: Practice a lot of guesstimates and keep some figures
handy which are used in most of the questions like the population of
India, Mumbai, home state, distribution of population with respect to
income levels, age, and gender. Also know the area of the country and
Mumbai, GDP. Form a group and practice among yourself.
4. Cases: Case in point is a good starting material for case preparation.
Properly develop an understanding of the frameworks for solving any
case. While solving the case try to ask as many clarifying questions,
think of multiple scenarios and from multiple angles and never jump on
conclusions. Practice daily with your friends with one person assuming
the role of interviewer and the other as an interviewee.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Preparation

1st round: Telephonic round| 1 interviewer | Manager | 45 mins

The first round was a telephonic one where the interviewer started the
discussion by introducing herself. Then the interview started with me
giving a small introduction about myself. Then there were questions like
why you moved from one company to another, why consulting and why
PwC. Then around 15 minutes of discussion was done around my CV
where I was asked about the most interesting project, what optimization I
had done there, what more could have been done.
Then a guesstimate was asked to estimate the number of pasta sauce
bottles that are sold in a month in Mumbai. I asked several questions like
the price of 1 bottle (to gauge which sections of the society will be able to
afford it), the volume of the bottle, and if the pasta sauce could be added
to other recipes as well. I took the demand approach and divided the
population into different economic sections. Then considering the average
family size of 4 people tried to find the buying rate and cooking rate of
different sections of the population. Then she asked me some strategies to
increase the sales and cases where the sales will drop. I suggested some
sales and marketing and B2B solutions. Then told that harmful
ingredients, high prices as per industry, smell and taste of the product
unattractive to the customers could lead to a reduction in sales.

2nd round: 1 interviewer | Manager| 45 minutes

The interview started with a small introduction about myself. Then some
questions were asked around my CV where the interview tried to
understand the kind of work I did in my previous firm. There was a long
discussion on one of the projects where the interview tried to gauge my
business understanding.
I was then presented with a case to reduce costs for an automobile
company.
I read out my understanding of the case, reiterated the business objective,
and asked if there is any other objective.
Interviewer: No
Me: Laid out the structure of P&L case, enlisted all the parameters of the
company, market position, product line and offerings, company’s financial
standing, operations.
Interview: We will only focus on the operations of the company.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Me: Listed down all the costs across different segments of the value chain
and, the sources of the costs.
Interviewer: How can we reduce these costs?
Me: Devised 5-6 strategies to reduce the costs across different segments.
Interviewer: How can we reduce sales and marketing costs?
Me: Laid out the plan if we need to cut down those costs based on the
lifecycle of the product and then suggested some plans to reduce it
Interview: Great.
The interview then ended and I was asked to go to another panel for 3rd
round.

3rd round: 1 interviewer | Senior manager| 1 hour

In this interview, I was asked about my understanding of the kind of work

consultants in PwC do, my proficiency with some of the tools like tableau
and excel.
I was then presented with a case stated as below:
The client is the CEO of the pharmaceutical company making generic
drugs. The client is contemplating the acquisition of another smaller player
in the market specializing in the same domain which is also making
generic drugs. What operational synergies should be considered for the
M&A case?
Me: I summarized the case and reiterated the objective of laying out the
various parameters that should be considered for M&A and make an
informed decision for the acquisition based on operational synergies of the
two companies. I also asked if I need to look into anything else.
Interviewer: Correct. No need to look into anything else.
Me: Will the smaller player add any additional service or product line to
the existing one?
Interviewer: No
Me: I shall solve this case by value chain analysis algorithm and try to look
into the operational synergies across each segment of the value chain.
Interviewer: Great. Please proceed.
Me: I made the entire value chain and started to explain each segment of
it.
Interviewer: Let's focus on sourcing and list down its components.
Me: I enlisted a number of factors like raw material sourcing partners and
how we can collaborate with the sourcing partners of both the companies,
how economies of scale can be brought into the sourcing of raw material,
MRO products, and packaging services.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
Interviewer: Let’s into the direct and indirect costs of the company.
Me: I listed all the direct and indirect costs and explained how synergy can
be brought into these costs. Also, I explained how distribution channels
can be integrated and how the network of small company can be
leveraged to venture into markets which were not touched by the
company.
Interviewer: Do you know about any statistical technique to locate the DC
and other facilities.
Me: I explained the considerations to be taken while locating any facility,
how cost changes with an increasing number of facilities. Then talked
about network analysis to locate a higher concentration of customers and
the location of facilities optimally, near to the dense clusters.
Interviewer: Great discussion.
After this, the case was closed. Overall, he was satisfied with the answers
and wished me luck.

4th round: 1 interviewer | Partner | 30 minutes

The interviewer was the HR head and this interview was the company fit
round. The discussion started with my introduction, then she asked me
why after doing electrical engineering, did I switch my career into
consulting and asked about my association with different firms. I was then
asked about my expectations from the firm and how do I see career
growth in this sector, the most interesting projects I worked on, what was
my biggest achievement. Then I asked some questions like the typical day
in PwC and about the flexibility to switch between various roles in PwC.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Company: PWC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex:
Mechanical Engineer, Sardar Patel
college of engineering, Mumbai
Academics: 94.91%, 84.5%, Verdict: Not Converted
85.1%

Preparation:
I was not expecting a consulting shortlist because of my profile. So, my
preparation was brief and concentrated on what was primarily going to be
asked in the interview. I prepared for guesstimates and solving cases from
various MBA institute casebooks, material suggested by seniors and
GOOGLE. I also used the help of my batchmates to gain various
perspectives into case solving and whether I was missing any key
information to be included in guesstimates.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (45 minutes):
This round was a telephonic interview round which mainly focuses on the
overview of the candidate and some guesstimates. Cases are very rare.
Basic questions on CV and background were asked
Was asked a tricky mathematical question in the form of a guesstimate.
(The trick was that this question could have been easily solved using
equations)
Guesstimate: Number of planes a medium sized nationalized Air Carrier
would have using Top-Down approach. The input given to me was the
annual revenue of the carrier.
Approach: Made clear some assumptions (by asking interviewer) like
Revenue will be similar across all days and months. Average flight ticket
price was considered. The annual revenue provided for the given financial
year was a typical revenue. No ticket cancelling. All planes having equal
seating capacity, turnover and passengers seated. Calculated Daily revenue
from the annual revenue. Calculated the daily no. of passengers using avg.
ticket price. Then considered the avg flight capacity, flight turnover and avg.
percentage of seats empty to arrive at the figure.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

After this, I was a small case which is mentioned below

Case: A large South American toffee manufacturer wishes to acquire a
European premium Chocolate producer. Should the acquisition be done?
What are the implications?
Approach: Clarified about the size of operations of both companies, their
sourcing, production and sales areas. Clarified about their supply chain in
both continents and got a connection. Talked about the M&A synergy
model, and value chain of the organizations, and how value addition will
happen. Discussion from suppliers to retailers and key stakeholders
happened.

2nd Round (30 minutes):

This round was in-person and primarily focuses on case solving approach.
Few questions asked were Why Consultancy and how is PWC US Advisory
different from other consultancy firms. Was also asked questions on
academic and industrial project along with detailed explanation of the
approach (both projects were on cost cutting in an existing process)
Case: A large bottled water manufacturer is planning to setup a plant in
the Himalayas. Should the company go ahead with the project? Perform a
cost-benefit analysis and what factors to be considered.
Approach: Asked about the motive to setup a new plant. Asked about the
capabilities of the company, the existing market size, increase in market,
whether the new plant will cater to new or existing consumers using STP.
Pricing and concept of the product. Explained about various factors like
raw material, workforce and utilities supply. Considered various geo-
political factors as well. Took into consideration the forecasted sales,
production capacity, probable break-even. Explained what all factors need
to be considered in the Cost-Benefit Analysis (mentioned the high
overheads and complications in operations and supply chain due to remote
location).

Area of improvement?
I had only 2 weeks of prep as I was sure I would not get a consulting
shortlist. It would have been better if I had prepared from the beginning
itself. It would have given me a larger strategical overview and deeper
insights on how cases need to be approached

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Suggestions:
• Be sure of what you are writing in your CV. You should be able to justify
the numbers as well as the jargons that you write in your CV.
• A proper and relevant introduction/why NITIE/why Ops/why consulting.
• Try to solve as many guesstimates as you can and try using various
approaches as well, and not just the one you are comfortable with. The
approach matters, not the answer. Try to consider as many relevant
factors as you can, and not all factors. Do mention what you are
considering/not considering and reason for the same.
• Always make sure you give a proper structure to your case. The
structure and approach should be clearly communicated. Always ask for
data. Clarify or make assumptions wherever required. Say out your
thought process. Keep in mind “Analysis-Paralysis”, so don’t overthink
everything. Lastly ask questions. Solving a case is not a monologue, take
it as an opportunity to highlight your communication skills and ‘on-the-go
thinking’.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Company: PWC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex:
Chemical Engineer, Government Tata Motors, ONGC in R&D,
Engineering College, Valsad Operations, Stock Management (34
months)
Academics: 85.8%, 80.0%, 80.7% Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
Referred Case in Point & IIM A booklet, daily practice of guesstimates of
usual things around to grasp better understanding. Had a fluent backup of
all questions related to my CV. For cases, logical approach is the key and as
mostly are real life problem associated with any business, many a times
ideas based on personal judgement worked in favor.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (45 minutes):
Call started with short intro about each other to let candidate stabilize
Interviewer: Ok let’s now do a quick guesstimate. You need to estimate no.
of malaria-virus carrying mosquitoes in Bangalore.
(Approached using traditional methods by estimating – bottom up & clarified
for season restrictions)
Me: Usually mosquitoes lay eggs in stagnant waters so we will first estimate
the area portion in Bangalore with stagnant water. As it will also depend on
rural and urban locality, addition layer is imposed to find net area with
stagnant water. Further argued that per square km of water, x eggs are laid
and y% of eggs turn successfully into mosquitoes. Out of total mosquitoes,
assuming only a out of b species can carry malaria virus, total no. is found
out to be z.
Interviewer: Ok, that seems fair. Now, can you find out, based on this
figure, how many patients will suffer from malaria in Bangalore?
Me: assuming out of z mosquitoes, some will bite multiple times and all
humans bitten will fall ill to malaria. Taking different probabilities of
successive bites, total no. of ill patients are calculated. To verify the
approach, total no. of malaria patients in Bangalore is compare with per sq
km population and is found to be within feasible limits.
Interviewer: Ok the approach is good.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

2nd Round (30 minutes): Case solving & basic inventory knowledge
check (related to previous work Ex)
Interviewer: What inventory classification techniques are you aware of?
Me: Told about commonly used techniques with criteria to use.
Interviewer: Assume you are a consultant to a hotel chain and the owner
wants to redecorate the interiors (assume only sofas) for the lobby. You
need to identify the best supplier for the purpose. What factors will you
consider for decision making?
Me: Started with clarity on the problem by asking preference of design,
material, price, etc. Wrote down a list of parameters to judge supplier
performance and then arranged it according to the client’s requirements.

3rd Round (30 minutes): Case solving

Interviewer: Assume you the owner of a departmental store. The average
footfall of customers is quite low at present. How will you increase footfall
to generate higher revenues?
Me: Started with improving the visibility of my store based certain
marketing techniques but was asked to restrict my ideas within store.
Next, products variety offered, pricing, availability, etc. were discussed to
generate higher revenues.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

Company: PWC US Advisory

Educational Background: Previous Work ex:
Mechanical Engineer, Bhilai Institute Operations Executive (Retail), Bharat
of Technology(BIT), Durg. Petroleum Corporation Limited (24
months)
Academics: 89.3%, 88%, 80.1% Verdict: Not Converted

Preparation:
I prepared for SCM as well as consulting domain. I devoted around 2-3
hours for consulting preparation after a month into NITIE. Case-in point
helped me in understanding the different basic frameworks. Victor Cheng
videos were helpful in understanding the frameworks and it also gave me a
taste of how consultants communicate to the client.
For Guesstimates, I practiced 2 guesstimates every day. It’s better to
practice these in a group of 3-4 friends, which gives you different
perspectives and approach to solve a guesstimate. Throw a new
guesstimate to yourself, not from any reading material and try to solve it.
It’s the structured approach and relevant factors that matters and not the
actual number.

Interview Experience:
1st Round: (50 minutes)

CV based questions

The first round was a telephonic interview. The first 25 minutes comprised of
my basic introduction, conversations around my roles and responsibilities in
my previous work-ex (Oil and Gas). The interviewer asked to elaborate on
some of the key points from my CV. After this the interviewer seemed
convinced and provided me a guesstimate.

Guesstimate: Estimate the no. of flights handled by Mumbai Airport

I had practiced this guesstimate earlier as well, so I kept calm and sailed
through the guesstimate.
As a preliminary question, I iterated what was asked and specified on
aspects like the time scope (day), type of day (weekday, weekend), time of
the year ( is it a holiday season), type of flights (domestic/international). I
started off with stating that there are 2 runways but only 1 is used at a time
and asked if I can go on with this data.

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CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
I divided the day into peak and non-peak hours and stated the assumed
runway utilization for both periods. I assumed the time between two flights
to be 2 minutes. The interviewer asked me the rationale behind it. I told
him how the flight take-offs are constrained by the landing and take-off
time of the previous flights. He was convinced by the provided rationale.
Finally, I concluded by calculating the total no. of flights. I was thinking out
loud, so he’s aware of what I am doing all along the interview.

2nd Round:

In this round, I was again asked about my work experience in Oil and Gas.
The interviewer provided me with different scenarios regarding the supply
and demand, refineries and terminal locations and asked me the effect on
lead time, inventory, safety stock etc. Then I was provided with a case of a
manufacturing client which is facing difficulties on meeting its promised
lead time.

3rd Round:
This round was with a senior partner. He asked some questions around Why
consulting? And about the structure of PRTM. I started off by saying that I
have some idea about the structure, then he explained the PwC structure to
me and where PRTM lies. Then he gave me a hypothetical case as per my
background: An Oil and Gas firm is unable to deliver the LPG cylinders on-
time in a particular region in South India. To gain more clarity about the
case, I stated the assumed structure of an oil and Gas firm and asked, if
there had been any recent changes to the company-dealership structure
around that region. He replied that the delivery issue is not seasonal and
exists for a long time. I suggested some of the possible root causes and
suggested some recommended solutions to address them.

Suggestions:
1) Be thorough with your CV points
2) Prepare well to the supply chain aspects in your work-experience, they
tend to ask questions around the same
3) Do your homework on the firm to understand its services and structure

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Mohit Company: Bain Capability Network

Srivastava
Educational Background: Previous Work ex: Fresher
Computer Science Engineering,
B.Tech
Academics: 95%, 88%, 88% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
Case in Point, IIM Ahmedabad Case Book, Mock Case Interview

Interview Experience:
Company: Bain Capability Network
Round 1: Guesstimate
Duration: 25–30 minutes
Panelists: (1, Partner)
Case: A juice company wants to launch a 400ml packaged Beetroot flavored
drink in India, and I had to find the market size of the product.

Round 2: Case Round

Duration: 45 -50 minutes
Panelists: (1, Partner)
Case: A premium French sunglass manufacturer wants who outsources 60%
of its manufacturing to China wants to enter a new market ( 3 countries
were provided along with the basic details like population , demographic ,
GDP , Per Capita Income ) and I had to suggest them the country they
should enter and why.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

What went right?

The very first thing that went right for me was the fact that during the
guesstimate round, I was making clear notes and thinking aloud. As, quite
often these interviews focus more on the way you think rather than the
final answer.

So, the eventual market size that I came up with was not accurate, but I
was selected for the next round because I made sure that I covered every
possibility and factored in all the possible parameters before locking in on
the final percentage or number. I also made sure that before making any
assumption I clearly stated it to the interviewer and moved forward only
after his approval ( in my case a simple nod :p )

What was your improvement area?

During a case interview one asks a lot of questions and gathers a lot of
information and it becomes hard to keep all the relevant information apart
from your calculation etc.

So, halfway into my interview, I suddenly realized that I have created a

mess by not keeping my information organized and I had to waste more
than 4/5 minutes just to reorganize everything I had noted down. This
made me realize, how important it is to ensure that you are putting proper
labels, follow a structure, keep the calculation away from your data.

Suggestions
I would suggest that while you are going through the basics like Case in
Point, IIM Ahmedabad case book etc. you create a habit of giving mock
interviews. Instead of reading cases, ensure that you are discussing with
your friends. Sometimes you can be the interviewer and your friend can be
the interviewee, but this will ensure that you are creating your own
thought process and not following a set pattern.

Also, try and do one guesstimate every day. Take a random question like
number of busses in Mumbai or maybe number of traffic lights in Mumbai
and try and solve them. Once you are done, show it to a friend and
discuss if you missed out on factoring something or is there a better
method to solve this problem.

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Name: Aritra Bhowmik Company: Bain Capability

Network
Educational Background: Previous Work ex: PwC India,
Electronics and Telecommunication 10 months
Engineering, Jadavpur University
Academics: 95%, 95.2%, 85.6% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
1. Prep Methodology: Focused mainly on guesstimates and case studies. I
prepared CV defense for possible HR questions as well.
2. Study Resources (specify books and online content used): IIM A, Kellogg
Casebooks, Heizer, Chopra Meindl

Interview Experience:
Company: Bain Capability Network
Round 1: Guesstimate Duration: 15–20 minutes Panelists: 1
Case: 1. Calculate number of breakfast servings needed for Vistara
Airlines from Mumbai airport on any given day:
Using number of runways and average turnaround time as parameters, I
calculated the total number of flights and then took a percentage of that as
Vistara flights. Henceforth, it’s a simple extrapolation as per number of
seats.
2. Calculate revenue of any barbershop in Mumbai:
I was free to consider any scale of barbershop. After that, I used the average
turnaround time, number of barbers and different time periods as
parameters in deciding the variability of demand from customers per day.
Furthermore, I calculated the average spend per customer considering
different care packages. Using the above two, I calculated the average
revenue.
Round 2: Case Study and HR Round
Duration: 20-25 minutes Panellists: 1
The panellist had a booklet with all the necessary data, but only showed each
portion once I asked for the specific data I would need.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Case given was an equity firm which had goal of increasing revenue 2
times over of a brewing company in the next 5 years. The conversation
initially focused on the possible drivers of growth.
Once the major growth driver was isolated after analysing company and
competition cost breakups, in this case labour costs; more data was
provided when asked and then based on that I was asked to calculate
possible revenue growth and cost reductions based on labour optimization.
After I successfully solved the case, interview moved onto HR questions,
regarding work experience, JD and consulting lifestyle.

What went right?

In guesstimates, it helps to have a clear idea of what assumptions to take
and their justification. Even if one goes down the wrong track, it’s
accepted if one can identify it quickly by themselves and make the
necessary correction.

For case study discussions, an understanding of possible drivers for any

problem is a must. Once the drivers were identified quickly, the discussion
quickly moved onto analyzing the data points and solving the various
problems given.

Throughout both processes, it helped that I was able to communicate my

thought processes succinctly and arrive at the solution in a collaborative
manner with the panelist.

What was your improvement area?

One can always improve the speed of calculations and thought process for
solving cases, which only comes with practice and experience.

Suggestions
Be prepared with all the necessary frameworks and practice quick
calculations for case interviews and guesstimates. Interviewers are willing
to let it go when you make mistakes if you can identify it quickly yourself,
backtrack and make necessary corrections immediately.

Practice walking other people through case studies as that gives the best
experience for handling the interviews, as well as asking the right
questions which progress the case discussion forward.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Devansh Shrivastava Company: Bain Capability

Network
Educational Background: MSc. Previous Work ex: 18 months
(Mathematics) + B.E. (Mechanical),
BITS Pilani Goa Campus
Academics: 90+%, 90+%, 70+% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
For Supply Chain: Chopra Meindl, GD topics related to SCM, Prep Material
shared by Placecomm
For Consulting: Practiced solving cases 1v1 to simulate the interview. Sources
Referred: Case in Point, IIM A Case Book, NITIE Case Book, Guesstimate
Practice question online, etc.
General: Backup for questions based on CV, HR Questions, Basic Economics
and Finance terms, GD group practice.

Interview Experience:
Company: Bain Capability Network
Round 1: Guesstimate Duration: 20-30minutes Panelists: 1
• The interview started with basic introduction, hobbies, NITIE etc.
• Guesstimate: I was then asked to estimate the amount tourists spend in
Mumbai during July-Sep
• Clarity about the role offered and what an Associate roles and
responsibilities are.
Round 2: Case Study
Panellists: 1, Director
• The interview started with discussion of my previous work experience
• Discussion about the job role offered, reasons for leaving last job
Case Study
There was a case of a Media company which publishes a magazine and it was
facing continuous loss in its business. The objective was to find out the
reasons for losses and suggestions for improvement.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

What went right?

Round-1: Asking the right questions and communicating with the
interviewer was important. The guesstimate given was very open ended
and clarifying the details, discussing the assumptions with the interviewer
was the key.

For Instance: Defining tourists (Business/Leisure and Foreigner/Indians),

for spending I considered hotel accommodation as one major expense and
after calculating this expense the interviewer asked me to stop solving
further.

Round-2: Have a clarity about the role offered by the organization,

solving case studies regularly 1v1 and simulating the interview experience
helped me.

What was your improvement area?

One can always improve the speed of calculations and thought process for
solving cases, which only comes with practice and experience.

Suggestions
For consulting, practicing guesstimates and case studies is very important,
getting exposure to wide variety of questions will help to face the
interview questions. Practice these diligently and if possible, solve case
1v1 and simulate the interview.

CV Backup is very critical, as companies expect you to know what you

have done earlier.

Keep calm, don’t overstress there are many companies who offer very
good projects focus more on learning and internship projects rather than
Stipend and Company.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Shyam Kumar Company: Bain Capability

Network
Educational Background: B.Tech in Previous Work ex: 36 months
Mechanical Engineering with Minor in
Economics
Academics: 95%, 87+%, 70+% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
General Awareness:
▪ Follow one Newspaper (Mint or Economic Times), discuss with your group &
makes short notes of important facts and their corresponding sources. This
will cover you for GDs.
▪ Online portals such as
https://www.supplychain247.com
https://www.supplychaindigital.com
https://www.supplychainbrain.com
▪ Follow consulting reports published by McKinsey, Accenture, Cognizant
Business Consulting etc. on various industries.

Differential Skills:
▪ Knowledge of Intermediate to Advance excel skills from Pivots to
Dashboards and Macros.
▪ Intermediate level Analytics certification either in R or Python. Learn Linear
Regression, Logistic Regression & Decision Trees. These are the commonly
used algorithms in the Industry.
▪ Do certification on Data Visualization platform such as Tableau or Power BI
▪ Strengthen your work experience-based skillsets and be thorough with all
the industry jargons around it.
▪ Correlate your work experience with the FMCGs, Automobile, or any relevant
industry and see what are the practical areas where business value can be
generated through use cases and implemented examples.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Interview Experience:
Round 1: Guesstimate Round (~30 minutes)
Details:
▪ Introduction, few questions on work experience.
▪ Two Guesstimates were given:
1. Estimating the number of breakfasts served by GoAir in Mumbai in a day.
Consider parameters such as Market Share of GoAir, Morning Flights
proportion, Proportion of people having breakfast, Aircraft capacity etc.
2. Estimate the revenue of a Salon operating in Mumbai:Ask questions to fix
the location(posh/residential/commercial location etc.) and the target
customer segment. Consider parameters such as Number of staffs,
Portfolio of Services and their corresponding pricing, Time to service,
Shop timings, Weekday/Weekend etc.
Round 2: Case Study Round (30-40 minutes)
Details:
▪ Started with an Introduction and then, a few questions around the work
experience.
▪ The Case was about 'Increasing the Profitability of the Company from 3%
to 5%’.
▪ Approach:
▪ Firstly, try to give a structure to the problem and think of all factors and
sub-factors within them which drives profitability of any firm.
▪ There are three broad ways of Increasing the profitability, one is by
Increasing the Prices, the other is by increasing the sales of higher margin
products and the last is by lowering costs.
▪ Price was supposed to be fixed, and so was the product assortment. This
led me to focus on Cost and now, considered the value chain framework to
drill down to the major cost driver in the firm.
▪ Ask data wherever you feel that its needed. Have asked data of
competitors to compare the cost levels across various components. Figure
out, what and why some costs are higher compared to the competitors.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

• In my case, it was the inefficient repair process which was lowering the
efficiency thus, resulting in higher costs per product. Compare it with
the feasible alternatives and calculate the effective savings.At the end, I
was supposed to calculate all the savings and show that the profit
actually jumped to 5% mark.

What went right?

▪ Create a calm environment around yourself, don’t get intimated by the
whole process as it may sometime appear to be overwhelming for a few.

▪ Be updated with general facts and numbers such as Mumbai Population,

India demographics, NITIE-related data, Market share of key companies
across domains etc.

▪ Listen to the questions carefully, note down any facts if possible during
the interview.

▪ Always have a structured thinking in all the solutions you propose during
the interview.

What was your improvement area?

▪ Wanted to prepare in more depth about the Economic Scenario across
Industries. This helps in correlating where any company is headed in
terms of roadblocks and opportunities.

▪ Could have read a bit more from the practical perspective through cases
on strategic Frameworks such as PESTLE, VRIO/VRIN, BCG Matrix etc.

Suggestions
• Stay confident, know your weaknesses and strengths.

• Try to align your strengths with your interest areas. This will enable you
put greater effort and ultimately, standing out among the crowd.

• Do go with the flow during the Interview rounds. Put the keywords or
things, which you want to discuss about during your answers. You
should be able to drive the interview, not the other way round.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Himanish Sinha Babu Company: Bain Capability

Network
Educational Background: B.E. Previous Work ex: Reliance
(Mechanical), Jadavpur University Industries Limited, 22 months
Academics: 91.6%, 93.4%, 81.2% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
▪ Guesstimates & Cases: Case in Point & other case books. Guesstimates
from online sources (Analytics Vidhya)
▪ Supply Chain: Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and
Operation by Peter Meindl and Sunil Chopra; Operations Management by
Jay H Heizer; Online sources for other relevant topics which would give a
more company specific information with use cases.
▪ Staying up to date with Livemint and Supply Chain dive updates
▪ Mock Group discussions and Interviews
▪ CV preparation and defense
▪ HR answers
▪ Company specific preparation

Interview Experience:
Company: Bain Capability Network
Round 1:
Introduce yourself, CV Points, Guesstimates, Why BCN, Difference between
BCN and Bain & Co.
Round 2:
Introduce Yourself, Case Discussion, Why BCN, Cultural Fit questions.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

What went right?

• Thorough with “introduce yourself” (this is elementary but vital at the
same time)

• Conceptual understanding of supply chain topics

• Structured answering and communicating the thought process

effectively (this is essential for guesstimates and cases)

• Problem solving and aptitude skills

What was your improvement area?

▪ Structured problem solving and answering

▪ Communicating effectively

Suggestions
• Be thorough with the supply chain concepts, operations management,
basics of finance and economics (account statement, law of supply-
demand and correlations), elementary marketing concepts (pricing and
promotion, different analyses, and frameworks)

• Develop a structure while solving guesstimates and cases (It should

sound logical to you, only then can the interviewer be convinced by your
answer)

• Be thorough with your recent academic/work experience.

• Be ready with 3-4 instances for each of the HR answers

• Communicating and expressing yourself to the interviewer is as

important as answering logically/correctly

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Himanish Sinha Babu Company: Bain Capability

Network
Educational Background: Computer Previous Work ex: Fresher
Engineering, LDRP Institute of
Technology & Research
Academics: 80+%, 80+%, 80+% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
Extensive preparation on HR questions, guestimates and case interviews

Interview Experience:
Company: Bain Capability Network
First round (15-20 mins, 1 panelist):
In the first round, questions were mostly on two aspects – HR and
Guestimates.
HR questions included questions like: Why Consulting? How has been your
stay at NITIE so far?
Guestimate asked: Identify the size of the bottled water market in Mumbai

Second round (25-35 mins, 1 panelist- different from the one in first round):
This was a full- blown case interview round along with some HR questions.
Case asked: Water purifying company wants to entre Indian Market, analyze
and suggest whether they should go ahead with market entry or not?
Insights: Panelist were more focused on analysis of data than strategy.
Sensing the same, I focused on analytical aspect of the case and calculated
payback period and based on that I arrived at a conclusion.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

What went right?

Articulation, Data-backed answers and a clear mindset during HR
questions. Always have a question to ask the interviewer at the end – I
was asked “Do you have any questions for us?” in both rounds of interview
and the interview stretched few more minutes just on the question I
asked.

What was your improvement area?

I would’ve liked to have more financial jargons/concepts in my quiver as
Private Equity service line is big at BCN and many panelists might have a
strong background in finance.

Suggestions
Be aware of why you see yourself as a good fit for the company and
emphasize that throughout the interview. It’ll be conversational interview
but don’t get carried away and be concise and thorough with HR questions
which might be thrown at you.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Abhimanyu Maharshi Company: PWC India

Educational Background: B.E. Previous Work ex: Assistant
Chemical Engineering from BITS Manager (Process) in BHARAT
PILANI, Goa Campus OMAN REFINERIES Ltd.- 20
months
Academics: 90.1%, 89%, 81.1% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
• Case interviews from various sources, preferably NITIE casebook, IIM A
casebook, IIM B casebook.
• Thorough study of CV with an explanation of each and every technical
detail mentioned. Since PwC India recruits students from core engineering
branches, generally, they expect us to be thorough with the technical
jargon mentioned in the CV.

Interview Experience:
1st Round (20 minutes):
Technical round: The entire round was divided into 3 phases.
• Case interview: 1 case on profit maximization by a firm was asked.
The intention was to see the depth of approach which was judged by the
variety of questions that I asked during the case interview
• Technical: Since I was from the Chemical Engineering background,
they asked me some basics of it. They also asked me questions on
integration and differentiation because of my interest in Maths.
• Puzzle: Lastly, a puzzle was asked, which I solved using common
sense instantly.

2nd Round (20 minutes):

Partner Round: The entire round revolved around the following aspects:
• Work experience: In-depth questions on my work experience were
asked, which spanned across the oil and gas. Each and every keyword
was questioned, especially the quantitative figures.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

• Guesstimate: A guesstimate on the no. of gaming centers in INDIA was

asked wherein they wanted to see the span of my thought process.
• General discussion: Finally, since I was from BITS PILANI, they asked me
questions on the type of curriculum, the entrance tests, etc. that were
followed in BITS.

3rd Round (15 minutes):

Human Resource Round:
5 Typical HR questions like strengths, weaknesses, future aspirations were
asked. In this round, they just check the level of confidence.

What went right?

In consulting, the primary thing that matters the most is the confidence
with which we back ourselves. The case interview and guesstimates were
handled by me with confidence. Also, I answered the puzzle instantly,
which created a good impression.

What was your improvement area?

HR questions could have been handled more efficiently. The list of HR
questions that is pre-circulated is extremely important.

Suggestions
• Practice 1 case and one guesstimate every day along with a partner

• Revise some basic technical knowledge regarding the engineering

stream.

• Be thorough with CV, especially the work experience part.

• Practice the HR questions.

• Be confident. All they are looking for is that one should be presentable
in front of the clients.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Anurag Mishra Company: PWC India

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: 36 months in
B. TECH. Civil Engineering, NIT Mazars Advisory, Financial Modeling
Bhopal
Academics: 88.4%, 89.8%, Verdict: Converted
82.5%

Preparation:
Prepared for Case Study Interviews and HR questions.

Interview Experience:
1st Round:
Very interactive interview. Was asked questions on which subject I liked
the most in engineering and during the MBA? Questions were mostly
based and extended on my own answers to their basic questions such as
Why you etc.
The interviewer was very informative, basically taught me a few concepts
during the interview itself.

2nd Round:
Partner round was slightly more formal. Questions basically based on CV
and past experience.

3rd Round:
HR round was mostly basic as to what do you expect from the profile,
past education, etc.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

What went right?

I was prepared on HR questions and CV points and was able to stay
focused.

Also, past experience of working in a consulting sort of firm came in

handy.

What was your improvement area?

I should have been more prepared on the supply chain jargon and
operations part, as I was not able to answer a couple of questions

Suggestions
1. Prepare well on CV points and HR questions and try to convey that
consulting is your most preferred career option.

2. Try to stay focused and sound interesting but honest. Directors and
Partners are very quick in catching a lie or aggression.

3. Be receptive to their responses and try to sound genuine during the

interviews. Try to convey that you are and have always been keen to
learn.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Name: Shekhar Pratap Singh Company: PWC India

Educational Background: Previous Work ex: 4.5 years-
BE (Electronics and Instrumentation ) Assistant Manager, Vizag
Refinery, Hindustan Petroleum
Corporation Limited
Academics: 92%, 88.2%, 82.8% Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
• Case in point
• Random Guestimate sessions with friends
• Supply chain overview
• Case books -NITIE, IIMs
• Strong CV Backup
• HR questions

Interview Experience:
1st Round: Manager round
1. Tell me about yourself in detail
2. Some informal discussion about the work experience
3. Guestimate: number of hotel rooms in a typical middle east capital
city with the oil wells.
Since it was a vague guestimate, the entire evaluation was based on how
I navigated to understand the problem statement and if I was able to get
the required information from the interviewer in a properly structured
manner. The entire time interviewer was helping me to understand the
scenario in a better way. At the end of the interview, a quick summary
was asked from me about the guestimate solution.
Although you may have a mindset of interviews to be highly formal in
nature, it wasn't so in this case. The entire interview was rather a
discussion which you could have with any of your college batch
mates/office colleagues. The idea was to get the interviewee comfortable
and confident to have a discussion over the subject problem.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

2nd Round: Partner round

1. Tell me about yourself in detail
2. Detailed discussion on the roles and responsibilities I had while working
in HPCL.
3. I asked me about the biggest challenges I had ever faced while working
in HPCL and how I was able to overcome the same.
This round is rather formal in conduct as compared to the manager round.

3rd Round: HR Round

• Why consulting
• Why PwC
• Where do I see myself in the next 5 years?

What went right?

1. I was able to have a very good discussion during my manager round
and was able to come with quite an accurate ballpark figure for the
guesstimate

2. I was having a very good hold on my work experience and was able to
answer things related to it.

What was your improvement area?

1. Having clarity and preparation about basic consulting related HR
questions.

2. Different guestimates frameworks

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Suggestions

1. Learn different structures and frameworks of guestimate

2. Ask your friend to create random guestimates around your work
experience and try solving that with the frameworks you have learned.
3. Be thorough about your work experience.
4. Say things only, which you can have a discussion about in detail. The
interviewer keeps stopping you from elaborating upon the things you are
saying, and it is always possible that he is already having good knowledge
about those.
5. Be confident and ready to have a discussion about anything during the
interview. And if you don't have the subject knowledge, you can always
tell the interviewer in a polite manner and ask him to through some light
about it.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Company: Miebach Consulting

Educational Background: Previous Work ex:
Mechanical Engineer, National Senior Engineer, Larsen & Toubro
Institute of Technology, Surat Limited (35 months)
Academics: Verdict: Converted

Preparation:
• Victor Cheng – Case Interview Workshop (YouTube)
• Case in point; practiced 20 mock interviews before SIP season.
• SCM from Chopra & Meindl
• Business Standard

Interview Experience:
1st Round: (50 minutes)

CV based questions

The interview started with generic questions like – introduce yourself with 3
follow up questions on work experience. Then the interviewer asked me to
state a few grilling problems of Mumbai. I replied about traffic, population,
climate change, etc.

Guesstimate: He quickly asked me to work the number of cars out there in

Mumbai city. I used the top-down approach to answer the question. I also
factored in commercial cars (cabs and company cars) along with passenger
cars. Lastly, I added Mumbai being an economic hub, a lot of people from
other cities, travel in, and travel out. And work out these outstation cars
estimate and added to the total. The interviewer seemed to be satisfied with
my approach.
He further asked what can be done to solve the problem of traffic in
Mumbai?
I quickly realized that even this question must be answered in a very
structured manner.

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CASE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
I quickly jot down the fundamental issues leading to traffic problems –
population clusters, business district clusters, the flow of traffic at different
phases of day (morning, evening, peak hours), lack of roads, not that
appealing public transport, etc.
Then, I jot down several measures like staggered office timings, coastal
roads, metros, AC trains, Startups (Shuttl), WFH, raising road taxes, and
creating a new business district Navi Mumbai leveraging upcoming airport.
The interviewer appreciated the points and closed the discussion.
2nd Round: (25 minutes)

The interview started with an expected question, “Why Consulting? And I

want you to answer honestly.” And then a case:
“The revenue of a sweet shop in Delhi is declining for three years now; the
client wants to know how to bring back the business growth.”
I applied a typical profitability framework and analyzed internal and
external factors and established revenue streams – snacks, sweets, dairy
products, and ice creams. I examined each revenue stream. Also, I asked
about changes in the workforce (chef) for our product. Ultimately, I
summarized and gave four recommendations.
The interviewer looked satisfied.
What went Right
1) Asking relevant questions, to the panelist
2) Having well prepared lucid & structured notes with detailed summary

Improvement Areas:
1) Asking more questions to the panellist about Miebach consulting.

Suggestions:
1) Be confident about everything & your CV points
2) Practice cases and guestimates as much as possible

101
GUESSTIMATES

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GUESSTIMATES
Things to master for guesstimates:

1. Structured Approach
2. General Data to remember
3. Maths
4. Handy Formulae
5. Misc.

Structured Approach
• Ask all the relevant questions to understand exactly what is asked
(what is required to be calculated)
• Don’t go for sunken cost fallacy (change your approach, if you think in
mid-way, it’s not going where it is required to go)
• Make tree diagram for showing calculation and flow in the structured
and legible way

General Data

India
GDP $3 trillion (nominal); $10.5 trillion (PPP) (2021 est)
Population 1.39 billion (~1.4B) (70% Rural & 30% Urban)
Land Area 3 million square km
GDP Growth Projected 7% (5% after Pandemic)
Number of Households 350 million
Average Family Size 3.6 to 4
Population Growth 1.25%
Sex Ratio 944/1000 ~ 1:1

Population Distribution of India

Age Group Population Percentage*

0-15 30%
15-25 20%
25-50 30%
50+ 20%

*these numbers are just the approximate ones which can be used for
guesstimates purpose

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GUESSTIMATES
Population distribution by Income

Income Group Population Percentages*

Upper Middle Class (>32k per month) 10%
Middle Class (16k to 32k per month) 30%
Lower Middle Class (8k to 16k per month) 40%
BPL Class (<8k per month) 20%
*these numbers are just the approximate ones which can be used for
guesstimates purpose

Population Distribution in India (Gender and Urban-Rural)

Total Population 1200
Males 620
Females 580
Sex Ratio 0.95*
Urban Population 350 (30%)
Rural Population 850 (70%)

Figures are in millions

* 950 females for 1000 males

Life Expectancy and Population Growth Statistics

Overall Expectancy 69 Years

Male Expectancy 67 Years
Female Expectancy 73 Years
Birth Rate 22*
Death Rate 7.5*
Pop. Growth Rate 1.25%

*Figures are for every 1000 individuals

Age-Wise Break-up of Population

Age Spread Population (%)

0-14 Years 350 (30%)
15-24 Years 250 (20%)
25-34 Years 200 (15%)
35-44 Years 150 (10%)
45-54 Years 150 (10%)
55+ Years 150 (10%)

Figures are in millions

Note: Median age for India is 25 (50% of Indians are below 25, 65% are below
35)

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GUESSTIMATES
Income & Expenditure
Data Head India Urban Rural
Size of Household 5 5 5
Annual Household Income 75,000 1,00,000 50,000
% Savings - 30% 20%

Expenses (Food) 50% 45% 55%

Expenses (Travel) 10% 10% 10%
Expenses (Others) 40% 45% 35%

Poverty: Approx. 25% of the population lives below the poverty line ($1.25
or Rs.75)

Class Distribution by Annual Household Income

Annual Income of Household Percentage

Low Income (Household Income < 45,000) 20%

Middle Income (45,000 to 1,80,000) 60%
High Income (Household Income> 1,80,000) 20%

Demographics by Religion
Religion Hindu Muslim Christian Others
Population 80% 15% 2% 3%

Population of Major Cities

Area Population (2021 est)
Mumbai 20.6 million
Delhi 19.3 million
NCR 30 million
Bangalore 12.7 million
Chennai 11.2 million
Kolkata 14.8 million
Maharashtra 125 million
NOTE: In Addition to this, note the population of your native state and city

• Population of top 10 Cities: 127 Million

Complete details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India

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GUESSTIMATES
Sector Wise Employment Distribution

Sector India (%) Urban (%) Rural (%)

Agriculture 40% 5% 60%
Industries 10% 20% 5%
Services 50% 75% 35%

Literacy Rate of India MATHS (order of magnitude)

India 74% Lakh 105

Male 82% Million 106
Female 65% Crore 107
Rural 69% Billion 109
Urban 85% Trillion 1012

Formula for total Product Requirement

Product Required = Existing Product that get obsolete + New Product
required = Q/n + Q*r

Q = Existing number of product

n = Average age of product
r = Average rate of growth (which can be taken as GDP growth rate)
For E.g.: For calculating the market of Automobile tyres: we are required to
take care of both new tyre consumed by new cars and the replacement of
old tyres.

Approaches

Demand Side:
1) We can start the guesstimates from the demand side, if we are sure
that demand = supply
2) In this approach, we can start with the overall number and along
the process, we can go on eliminating the numbers/fraction
which are not relevant to the subject at hand
3) In this approach, it’s important to think of all the factors which are
to be eliminated.
4) This approach approximately gives a larger number than
Supply side as it depends on how many eliminations have
been made.

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GUESSTIMATES
Approaches

Supply Side:

1) We can start the guesstimates from supply side, if we are not sure of
supply and there is possibility of supply being unequal to demand
2) In this approach, we have to take into consideration all the
sources that can contribute to the required subject into
consideration
3) MECE (Mutually Exclusive & Collectively Exhaustive) is very
important in this case. There should not be overlapping among the
sources considered and collectively all the sources must add to
represent almost entire sample space
4) This approach approximately gives a smaller number than Demand
side as it depends on how many sources have been considered, since
it’s practically impossible to take into account all the sources, therefore
it gives, in general, a lesser number.

IMPORTANT NOTES

1) In most other consulting firms you will be having around 7-8

minutes to solve the guesstimate, so segregate the questions only
in 4-5 (max) sections, so that at the end, a final answer can be
attained. They will be interested in the approach rather than the
number of segregations, moreover too many segregations will make
your calculations complex.
2) Guesstimates can be of any type. Consulting companies like to ask
guesstimates based on personal profile of the student, so it is
recommended that the candidate is well versed with the data and
some useful information about the following thing:
a. Home State & Home City
b. Current State & Current City
c. Industry & Company where he/she has worked in past
d. Hobbies and Interests (imp)
e. UG & PG College
3) Guesstimates can be based on recent events in political, economic,
political and sports fields (e.g.: Calculate the ticket revenue of the
Rio Olympic)
4) While doing calculation approx. the number to the nearest 10's, so that the
calculation is simplified
5) For all the number that is being assumed during the course of the
guesstimate, its highly recommended to give the justification to the
interviewer for why that value has been taken. This is very
important step in creating a positive image before interviewer as
this will show that the candidate has idea of how to use data
already known

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GUESSTIMATES
Start BIG vs Start Small Approaches to Solve Guesstimates

Problem: Find the volume of white paints sold in India per year?

START BIG APPROACH

START SMALL APPROACH

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GUESSTIMATES

1. Estimate the market for bicycles India.

2. Estimate the litres of cola sold in Delhi per day
3. Estimate the number of denims sold in India in a year.
4. Estimate the amount of petrol used in Delhi per day
5. Estimate the market size of paint industry in India
6. Estimate the amount of water that can fill an aircraft
7. Estimate the number of red lights in Delhi
8. Estimate the number of leather balls sold in India in a year
9. Estimate the number of light bulbs used in St. Stephens in a year.
10. Estimate the number of one-rupee coins that would fit in a normal size room
11. Estimate the number of vehicles crossing the road in front of FMS.
12. Estimate the number of number of subscribers of Economist in India
13. Estimate the number of cars sold by Maruti in India.
14. Estimate the number of beers sold in Goa every day.
15. Estimate the market for air conditioners in Bangalore in 1 year

(Solution:https://www.scribd.com/doc/283799818/Guesstimate-in-the-Indian-
Context )

MORE PRACTICE GUESSTIMATES

1. Annual Sales of McDonald in India?

2. Size of diaper market in India?
3. Number of Red-Coloured, Swift Car in Mumbai?
4. Size of Automotive Batteries industry in India?
5. Number of shoes (pair) sold online in Mumbai through Flipkart in one-day?
6. How many T-Shirts do you think, e-Commerce companies are selling per day
in India?
7. Calculate the total number of Taxi Driver in Mumbai?
8. What is the monthly profit of your favorite Restaurant?
9. How many iPhones were sold in India last year?
10.What was the ticket revenue of the Rio Olympic?
11.How many school teachers are there in your native city?
12.Estimate the total number of YouTube views per day?
13.How much money does Walmart makes per day in USA?
14.Number of one rupee coin that can fit in your hostel room?
15.What are the no of Smart Phones Sold in India per Year?
16.Estimate the number aircrafts in air at any point of time?
17.Surf excel detergent usage in a day in India?
18.What is the distance between New York and Delhi? (Delhi lies at GMT+5.30
and New York lies at GMT-5 (standard time) time-zone?
19.Estimate the number of student who take rounds around NITIE pond from 9
to 10pm?
20.Estimate the total number of Ranji Playing cricketers in India?

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GUESSTIMATES: SOLVED EXAMPLES
1.) Number of one-rupee coins that can fit in your normal hostel room?

In this question, it important to assume/guess the dimensions of room and coins

as close as possible from experience.

Initial Data:
• Room’s Dimensions: 6m*4m*3m
• Coin’s Dimensions: d=25 mm, t=2mm
• Void Spaces can be estimated as the 20% of the total space available

Total Number of Coins that can fit in a normal hostel room is 56 million
coins

2.) How many T-Shirts do you think, e-Commerce companies are selling
per day in India?

1.32
Total population of India Statistics of Indian Demographics
Billions
Percentage of people on age range of 15 to 40 will Statistics of Indian Demographics
be doing almost all of the online shopping 40% (Approx.)

Statistics of Indian Demographics

Percentage of BPL Population 20% (Approx.)

Statistics of Indian Demographics

Percentage of Low-Income Grp 20% (Approx.)

Internet Penetration in India 35% Statistics on Internet penetration

Percentage of people having internet connection Assumption made on the basis of

who shops online 30% observed behavior in the society

Assumption made on the basis of

Average requirement per person per year 4 observed behavior in the society

Average requirement per person per year served Assumption made on the basis of
by online shopping 25% observed behavior in the society

110
GUESSTIMATES: SOLVED EXAMPLES
.

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GUESSTIMATES: SOLVED EXAMPLES
Total number of T-Shirts E-Commerce companies are selling per day in India =
97,205 T-shirts
Also,
Total number of T-Shirts E-Commerce companies are selling per day in India =
(1.32*40%*80%*80%*35%*30%*4*25%)/365 = 97,205 T-shirts per day

3.) Estimate the number of tennis balls bough in India per month.

4.) Estimate the number of red colored swift cars in Mumbai.

For solving this Guesstimate, we should have a general framework of how to get
the result, as what are the things we should consider for finding the number.

Red Swift Car = (Number of cars in Mumbai) X (Market share of swift) X

(Proportion of Red)

Initial Data:

• Population of Mumbai - 20 million

• Household size - 4
• Total Households - 5 million

Total Number of cars in Mumbai

• Let us assume that 1/3rd of the households' own cars. Hence, Total Households
with cars = 1.5 mn
• Let us assume that every households has one car each, Number of cars in
Mumbai = 1.5 million

Market share of swift in Mumbai

Of the 1.5 million, we can divide them as,
• Super rich (10%) - who own high end cars
• Upper middle class (30%) - who own cars costing 8-10 lakhs
• Middle class (60%) - purchasing low end cars.

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GUESSTIMATES: SOLVED EXAMPLES
• We can assume that 30% of middle class and 5% of upper middle-class
purchase swift.
o Maruti Suzuki has around 47% (~50%) market share in India, same is used for
Mumbai also.

o Maruti Suzuki Swift’s price is around 5-8 lacs, so It major customer will be
middle income class population.

o It can be assumed that, since, Swift is one of the most used variants of Maruti
Suzuki, so in lower income group we can have around 30% of total middle-income
population having Swift

Market Share of shift = (60% * 1.5 million * 30%) + (30% * 1.5 million * 5%) =
3 lakh people
(approx.) Proportion of Red Swift Car in Mumbai

Swift comes in various colors. Assuming that there are 6 predominant colors and
assuming equal probability to all colors,
Number of red swift in Mumbai = (3 lakh) / 6 = 50,000 cars

5.) Total number of Maggi packets consumed in one month?

Clarifying Questions:

• Type of Packets : Normal Rs. 10 packet

• Consumption by whom? : Only by Students, no faculty or other working
personnel
• Kashi has been excluded from the calculation, as it is out of the main gate of
NITIE

Initial Data: Total Students in NITIE

• 1st year = 450

• 2nd year=450
• Doctoral and other students=100
• Total students in NITIE = 1000 (approx.)

Ways of consumptions?

1) Through Mess Consumption

2) Consumption at BRU Canteen
3) Self-Consumption

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GUESSTIMATES: SOLVED EXAMPLES
1) Mess Consumption: In general, mess makes Maggie once a week

Maggie packets used (per month) = (Student Residents) *(Avg Consumption)

*(Fraction of student who eat Maggie at Mess) (Monthly usage)

• Students = 1000
• Avg Consumption = 1.25 per student
• Fraction of student who eat Maggie at Mess = 80%
• Monthly usage = 4 times
Maggie packets used at Mess (per month) = 1000*1.25*0.8*4 = 4000

2) Consumption at BRU Canteen = (Student Residents)*(Percentage visiting

Bru)*(Avg
Consumption)*(Number of days)
• Students = 1000
• Percentage Visiting Bru = 15%
• Avg Consumption = 1.5 per student
• Number of days = 30

Maggie packets used at BRU (per month) = 1000*15%*1.5*30 = 6750

3) Self-Usage = (Percentage of students having appliances to prepare

Maggie)*(percentage who eat Maggie)*(Average Consumption)

• Percentage of students having appliances to prepare Maggie = 10%

• Percentage who eat Maggie = 60%
• Average Consumption = 10 per month (this is the number of Maggie cooked on
electrical appliance)

Self-Usage = 1000*10%*60%*10 = 600

TOTAL CONSUMPTION = 1) +2) +3) = 4000 + 6750 + 600 = 11,350 per
month

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APPENDIX

115
APPENDIX A: BASICS & FORMULAE
Return On Investment (ROI)

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or

to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate
ROI, the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. = (Gain from
Investment - Cost of Investment)/ (Cost of Investment)

Breakeven analysis:

Break-even analysis is used to determine the point at which revenue

received equals the costs associated with receiving the revenue. Break-even
analysis is a supply-side analysis; it only analyses the costs of the sales.

Units to Breakeven:

Total Fixed Costs = (Price Volume) - (Variable Cost Volume); solve for
volume

1. Price to Breakeven:
Total Fixed Costs = (Price Volume) - (Variable Cost Volume); solve for
price

2. Time to Breakeven:
Total Fixed Costs = (Revenues per day/month/year) - (costs per
day/month/year); solve for day/month/year

Profitability

Profit is a financial benefit that is realized when the amount of revenue

gained from a business activity exceeds the expenses, costs and taxes
needed to sustain the activity. = Revenues - Costs Revenues = (Price *
Volume) & Costs = (Fixed Costs) + (Variable Costs * Volume)

Profit Margin or Net Margin

Profit margin is part of a category of profitability ratios calculated as net

income divided by revenue, or net profits divided by sales. =
(Profits)/(Revenues)

Gross Margin

Gross margin is a company's total sales revenue minus its cost of goods
sold (COGS), divided by total sales revenue, expressed as a percentage.
The higher the percentage, the more the company retains on each dollar of
sales, to service its other costs and debt obligations. = (Revenues - Cost of
Goods Sold)/(Revenues)

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APPENDIX A: BASICS & FORMULAE
Net Present Value (NPV)

Net Present Value (NPV) is the difference between the present value of cash
inflows and the present value of cash outflows. NPV is used in capital
budgeting to analyze the profitability of a projected investment or project.
NPV = Initial Investment + (Cash Flow Year 1)/(1+discount rate) +
(Cash Flow Year 2)/(1 + discount rate)^2 +
... +(Ultimate Cash Flow Year X)/(1 + discount rate)^x

where,
Ct = net cash inflow during the period t
Co = total initial investment costs
r = discount rate
t = number of time periods
A positive net present value indicates that the projected earnings generated
by a project or investment (in present dollars) exceeds the anticipated costs
(also in present dollars).

Breakeven Market Share

This is the breakeven volume divided by market demand. It is the market
share needed to achieve breakeven profits. = (Breakeven Volume)/ (Total
Market Size)

Return on Assets (ROA)

Return on assets (ROA) is an indicator of how profitable a company is
relative to its total assets. ROA gives an idea as to how efficient
management is at using its assets to generate earnings. = (Net
Income)/(Total Assets)

Return on Equity (ROE)

Return on equity measures a corporation's profitability by revealing how
much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have
invested.= (Net Income)/(Shareholders' Equity)

Quick Ratio
Quick ratio is a measure of how well a company can meet its short-term
financial liabilities
= (Current Assets - Inventory)/(Current Liabilities)

Current Ratio
Current ratio is a liquidity ratio that measures a company's ability to pay
short-term and long- term obligations.
= Current Assets/Current Liabilities

Debt Ratio
The debt ratio is defined as the ratio of total – long -term and short-term –
debt to total assets, expressed as a decimal or
percentage. = Total Debt/Total Assets
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APPENDIX A: BASICS & FORMULAE
Debt to Equity Ratio

Debt/Equity Ratio is a debt ratio used to measure a company's financial

leverage, calculated by dividing a company's total liabilities by its
stockholders' equity. The D/E ratio indicates how much debt a company is
using to finance its assets relative to the amount of value represented in
shareholders' equity. = Total Debt/Total Equity

Free Cash Flow (FCF)

Free cash flow (FCF) represents the cash that a company is able to
generate after spending the money required to maintain or expand its asset
base.
= EBIT(1-Tax Rate) + Depreciation & Amortization - Change in Net
Working Capital - Capital Expenditure

Future Value
Future value is the value of an asset at a specific date. =(Present Value)*(1
+ i)^t

Perpetuity
An annuity is a stream of cash flows. A perpetuity is a type of annuity that
lasts forever, into perpetuity. Specifically, the perpetuity formula determines
the amount of cash flows in the terminal year of operation.
= (Cash Flow)/(discount rate - growth rate)

Price Elasticity of Demand

Price elasticity of demand is a measure of the relationship between a
change in the quantity demanded of a particular good and a change in its
price = (% Change in Quantity)/ (% Change in Price)

Cross Elasticity of Demand

Cross elasticity of demand is an economic concept that measures the
responsiveness in the quantity demand of one good when a change in price
takes place in another good.

= (% of change in Quantity for Good X)/ (% of change in Price for

Good Y)

Payback Period
The payback period is the length of time required to recover the cost of an
investment.
= Cost of Project/Annual Cash Inflows

Contribution Margin
Contribution margin is a cost accounting concept that allows a company to
determine the profitability of individual products. The phrase "contribution
margin" can also refer to a per unit measure of a product's gross operating
margin calculated simply as the product's price minus its total variable
costs.
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= Price/Unit - Variable Cost/Unit
APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY
Account Payable
A/P is the amount the company owes for goods or services received, but
not yet paid for.

Account receivable
A/R is the amount to the company for goods sold or services rendered for
which payment has not yet been received.

Activity-Based Costing
Activity-based costing (ABC) aims to provide a dynamic and realistic means
of calculating the true cost of doing business. It precisely allocates direct
and indirect costs to particular products or customer segments.

Assets
Assets are all of a company's physical or intellectual property that has
financial value.

Balance Sheet
A financial document showing the assets and liabilities of an organization.

Bottom Line
Bottom Line refers to the bottom line of an Income Statement. The bottom
line shows the Net Income Available to Shareholders. When a company
talks about increasing the bottom line, they mean doing things to either
increase the revenue or decrease expenses so the company's income
increases.

Cash Flow
Cash Flow is the movement of money into and out of a company. When
more comes in than goes out, it is said to be a positive cash flow. A
negative cash flow is when more goes out than comes in.

Cost of Goods Sold

Cost of Goods Sold (CGS) are the costs directly related to the purchase or
production of whatever the company sells.

Discounted Cash Flow

Discounted cash flow is a sophisticated technique used by financial
analysts. Despite its complexity, discounted cash flow analysis is based on a
simple idea - that cash today is worth more than cash promised in the
future.

Earnings Statement
An Earnings Statement is a standard financial document that summarizes a
company's revenue and expenses for a specific period of time, usually one
quarter of a fiscal year and the entire fiscal year.

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APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY
EBITDA
EBITDA is an abbreviation for Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation
and Amortization. It reports what the company would have earned during
the period if it did not have to pay interest on its debt; didn't have to pay
taxes; and had depreciated the full value of all assets at their acquisition. It
is roughly equivalent to the Operating Income line in the Income
Statements.

Expenses
Expenses are the costs of doing business that result from generating
revenue. They include parts, salaries, utilities, etc.

Fixed Assets
Fixed Assets are the non-liquid assets that are required for the company's
day-to-day operations. They include facilities, equipment, and real property.

Fixed Costs
Fixed Costs are expenses that don't change based on production or sales
volumes. They include salaries, rent, insurance, etc.

Gross Profit
Gross Profit equals sales revenue minus the cost of goods sold.

Gross Revenue
Gross Revenue is money generated by all of a company's operations, before
deductions for expenses.

Income Statement
An Income Statement is a standard financial document that summarizes a
company's revenue and expenses for a specific period of time, usually one
quarter of a fiscal year and the entire fiscal year.

Liabilities
Liabilities are all of a company's financial obligations that have a negative
value.

Long Term Assets

Long Term Assets are the non-liquid assets that are required for the
company's day-to-day operations. They include facilities, equipment, and
real property.

Market Share
A company's market share is the percentage of any of its markets that it
holds.

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APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY
Net Income
Net Income is total revenue minus total expense, what's left of the monies
received after all debts have been paid, the bottom line. If Net Income is
positive it is also called Net Profit. A negative Net Income is a Net Loss.

Profit and Loss Statement

A Profit and Loss Statement is a standard financial document that
summarizes a company's revenue and expenses for a specific period of
time, usually one quarter of a fiscal year and the entire fiscal year.

Revenue
Revenue is money generated by a company's operations, before deductions
for expenses.

RFP
RFP is the abbreviation for Request for Proposal. An RFP is issued when an
organization wants to buy something and chooses to make the
specifications available to many other companies so they can submit
competitive bids.

RFQ
RFQ is the abbreviation for Request for Quotation. An RFQ is issued when
an organization wants to buy something and chooses to make the
specifications available to many other companies so they can submit
competitive bids.

ROA
ROA is the abbreviation for Return on Assets. It is a measure of a
company's profitability and is calculated as earnings divided total average
assets. ROA is expressed as a percentage.

Sales Revenue
Sales Revenue is money generated by a company's sales operations, before
deductions for expenses.

Top Line
Top Line refers to the top line of an Income Statement. The top line shows
the Total Sales Revenue. When a company goal is to increase the top line, it
means to concentrate on increasing gross sales.

Variable Costs
Variable Costs are expenses that vary based on production volumes. They
include material, labour, production utilities etc.

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APPENDIX C: BALANCE SHEET & INCOME STAT.
.

122
APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS
The concept of synergies states that the sum should be larger than its
parts; 1 + 1 = 3. In other words, the two organizations together should be
more worth than the two entities’ standalone values. Sirower (1997) defines
synergies as “increases in competitiveness and resulting cash flows beyond
what the two companies are expected to accomplish independently.
Considering the potential upsides and results of synergies, it is to no
surprise that synergies often work as main incentives in M&As where the
arguments mostly involve the financial gains achieved by efficiency
improvements at different levels in the organizations. However, the talk
about potential synergies is little worth unless the plans are realized and
integrated in the organizations.

The concept of synergies is all about creating added value by sharing

resources and acquire benefits that otherwise would not have been possible
to achieve, or possible to achieve but at a higher cost. As synergies can be
found and used all over the organizations, synergies do take many different
forms depending on the type of M&A and the organizations’ businesses.
Several attempts have been done to classify synergies and an abundance of
categorizations exists. The classification is as follows:

• Cost synergies – synergies decreasing the costs. Often related to

economies of scale, such as administrative costs and overhead costs.
Resources and competences that do not use its full capacity (100 %) or
do not work effectively can be better utilized if combined with new,
additional or related activities that extend the usage thanks to decreased
average costs.

• Revenue synergies – synergies increasing the revenues. Often related

to economies of scope, for example extensions of customers and products
and cross selling or bundling.

• Financial synergies – synergies related to decreased costs of capital

through lowered risks, better cash flows and increased financial margins.

• Market synergies – synergies related to higher margins achieved

through increased negotiation capabilities towards suppliers and
customers

Advantages of synergy:

• Efficiency gains – economies of scale and economies of scope can be

seen as overall advantages where the purposes are to increase
efficiencies.

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APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS
• Entry speed gains – in growing markets where the pace is high,
organizations find it hard to attain the resources and knowledge in the
same speed as the market demands; resources must be acquired, people
needs education and required end products take several years to develop.
By acquiring other firms these essentials can be obtained faster by the
usage of short cuts such as M&As.

• Competitive Gains- In slow, static and mature markets where

competition is established the cost of expansion and building from the
scratch is not always worth its money.

Especially if it is hard for the organization to strengthen the current position

by simply adding additional resources. If the extra cost of adding more
resources cannot be counterbalanced by the benefits it will bring, needs to
go beyond usual methods occur. To acquire these resources through M&As
are in many cases seen as the only option to get away from this stuck-in-
the-middle position.

• Consolidation gains – especially in fragmented industries where there

exists an absence of specialization and ‘all does everything’, competitive
advantages can be gained or strengthened through increased focused on
core capabilities and niche areas.

• Resource gains – resources that cannot be attained at all, or acquired

at a higher cost, can be acceded through M&As. A typical example of this
is research and development, where it normally takes several years to
access knowledge by building up needed expertise and educate
employees.

• Knowledge and learning curve gains – transformation of knowledge

such as routines, information flows and best practices are more specified
resource gains. The exchange of knowledge contribute with opportunities
to learn more and to learn faster, owing to increased cooperation
possibilities or improved transformation.

• Gains of stretched corporate parenting capabilities – in situations

where M&As are not motivated by business similarities between
organizations, the motivations involve existing competences or
capabilities possible to use in new areas although no common operative
resources exist. In such cases, it is rather the skills at the corporate level
creating synergies between diverse business units.

• Gains of increased market size and succeeded market share – by

forwarding the organization’s market position not only customers can be
won from competitors, the synergies can also expand the whole market
pie. In addition, an alignment of business units creates increased
possibilities to offer the customers a broader product base in the same or
similar market, thus contributing with a more complete market offer
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APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS

• Gains of resource sharing – by sharing resources, for example by using

one machine instead of using two machines, cost savings are done.
Resources used by several business units at the same time, reused or
shifted back and forward also create cost savings.

• Price pressure gains – competitive advantages are gained through price

pressures enabled through different forms of economies of scope
decreasing the average costs

• Transaction cost gains – costs associated with transactions in relation

to customer’s suppliers and other closely related stakeholders can be
avoided or decreased through the internalization and the shortened
distance of these

• Bargaining power gains – the gains of bargaining power increases with

size since large volumes are used. The bargaining power is mainly
applicable in negotiations with external stakeholders

125
APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS
Post merger risks to watch for

126
APPENDIX D: SYNERGIES & RISKS
Post merger Integration risk types

127
APPENDIX E: DATA INTENSIVE CASE LINKS

McKinsey:
1) http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/diconsa
2) http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/electrolight
3) http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/globapharm
4) http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing/national-education

BCG

1) http://www.bcg.com/Interactives/ICL/

Deloitte

1) https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/careers/articles/join-deloitte-
preparing-for-the-case-interview.html

2) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/strategy-operations-
business-analyst-case-interview- preparation-tool-v2.html

3) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/strategy-operations-
mba-advanced-degree- program-interactive-case-interview-preparation-
tool-v2.html

4) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/business-technology-
analyst-program-interactive- case-interview-preparation-tool-v2.html

5) https://public.deloitte.com/media/caseinterviews/business-technology-
mba-advanced-interactive-case- interview-preparation-tool-v2.html

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