Consulting Club

Case Book
2021 - 2022
 2021-22 was a historic year for consulting placements at ISB. Consulting
firms that earlier had a solid appetite to recruit at ISB amplified their shortlist
and offer numbers manifold.

This book is a culmination of our individual and collective experience going

through the grueling placement process at ISB. We were supported by our
alums during the grind that the 2 months brought with it, and this book is
nothing but a show of gratitude and a means to pay all the help forward.

This edition of the Consulting Case Book aims to present frameworks,

general know-how of consulting, industry primers, real cases and buddy
cases that candidates were tested on in 2021-22. We hope that it helps you,
the reader, come up this steep learning curve and supplement your case
preparation.

Foreword This Case Book would not have been possible without the contribution of the
Class of 2022, recruiters and alums from recruiting firms who spent hours
coaching our peers on cracking their way into the firms of their choice. We’d
also like to take this opportunity to thank Consulting Clubs at peer B-Schools
across the country, whose content has been leveraged to design some
sections of our Case Book.
Alone, we can do
so little…
Consulting Club Core Team,
Hyderabad Campus
ISB Class of 2022
…Together, we
can do so much!
Consulting Club Core Team,
Mohali Campus
ISB Class of 2022
Contents

01 02 03 04 05
Introduction to Frameworks Industry Primers Buddy Cases Interview Cases
the process

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 Introduction to Consulting Interview Preparation
Consulting is one of the most sought-after jobs at Business Schools. Providing a rich professional experience,
exposure to industries and developing network with senior leadership at an early stage in one's career,
consulting offers a fast-tracked growth for B-school graduates.

Consulting interviews test a candidate's problem-solving/analytical abilities, ability to structure information and
communicate clearly. Preparing for consulting interviews requires a focused effort – a journey that this case book
hopes to take the reader along.

Use this book as a guide to understand the stages involved in preparing for consulting interviews, learning various
frameworks that are frequently asked in interviews, and as a source of credible interview experiences with leading
firms.

As you practice cases with your peers and within your case groups, use the content given in this book to guide your
preparation, test your interview readiness, and as a source of verified cases/interview experiences and best
practices on acing the interview.

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Writing a winning CV and Cover Letter (1/6)
About CV Your CV is not a laundry list of achievements you might have had in your life. Rather it is a list of 3-4 strong points which
making are able to highlight your key skill sets and achievements required for a successful management consulting career. It is
advisable to make extensive use of the KM portal & start your CV preparation immediately after Term 3.

What a great Each consulting firm on campus has its own subjective/objective criteria of shortlisting of resume. It completely depends on
resume how you can highlight the relevant skill-sets better than others and convince the firm that you have the ‘spike’ in your resume.
showcases Typical characteristics that firms look for in a candidate are:

Client/Senior
Problem solving
Analytical skills Communication Leadership Leadership
horsepower
management

Business/ Quality of
Non-Academic
Commercial People Skills Creativity work
initiatives
knowledge experience

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Writing a winning CV and Cover Letter (2/6)
Step 1: The first draft !
A good way to start preparing your resume is to:

1 2 3
Write down all the Make sure you give equal weightage is You have only one
achievements you have given to all the sections of your resume – page to advertise
had on a piece academics, work experience and extra- yourself. Use every
of paper. curricular while selecting your achievements line of your
for the resume. resume wisely.

4 5 6
Make sure that your achievements A good framework to For a good bullet point, make sure all
are recent but more importantly draft your bullet points in these elements are mentioned. Impact if
give an underlining story about an effective and impactful quantified through numbers or
you as a person. manner is Context – comparison with known references leaves a
Action - Impact. better impression than an unquantified one.

Example: “Youngest to get promoted in 2 years” is

good but “Youngest to get promoted in 2 years
against an average of 4 years” makes it even
more impactful.

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Writing a winning CV and Cover Letter (3/6)
What constitutes a ‘spike’ in your resume?

You will hear this word umpteen number of times and still would fail to understand what it actually means to
have a ‘spike’ in your resume. The boundaries surrounding the ‘spike’ are very vague as you guys will find
out as your ISB journey goes along. You need spike in any one of the three sections to get attention of
the reviewers:

1 2
Spike in academics: Spike in work experience:
If you are among the top
Brand value of your previous
10% of the ISB class.
organization. Role and
Extraordinary grade
responsibility handled in your
in your
previous job. Any significant
under graduation.
value addition to the
Extraordinary GMAT
organization.
score (740+)

Spikes
3 Spike in extra curriculars:
Any significant position of responsibility (in ISB or outside). Extra-ordinary
achievement in sports/cultural events etc. can be used here. It is noteworthy not
to write something very inconsequential. Remember what you write as an
achievement is reflective to the company of what you think is an achievement?
(Think relevant)

This illustration by no means implies that if you don’t have these things on your resume, your chances of getting shortlist are by any means less. These are
hygiene factors in resume which enhance your chances of getting a shortlist from a consulting firm.

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Writing a winning CV and Cover Letter (4/6)
Step 2: Quick Tests to check your CV’s effectiveness

“So what?” test • For every bullet point you write, you should ask yourself “so what if I did ___”. For e.g. if I have led a team of 5 people on xyz assignment
resulting in 10% cost saving.

• Now you should ask yourself “so what if I have done this”. Is this a strong enough differentiator for it to come on my CV?

• Does it suggest a strong skill required for consulting which gets communicated through this point and appears nowhere else on my
resume?

• Is it something which sets me apart from the rest or makes for an interesting read for the reader? If answer to any of the questions above is
yes, then keep the point or else discard it.

Half Page test • Once the first draft of your resume is done, take a printout and fold it into half along the longer side such that only the first half of every
bullet point is visible.

• See whether the first half of every bullet point gives the reader an idea of the content of the bullet point. If yes, the bul let point is correctly
framed or else you have to reframe the point in such a way that the first 4-5 words describe the point.

• This rationale behind the test is as humans, we tend to focus more on the initial part of sentence while scanning. Details in the middle part
or the latter part of the sentence tend to get missed out when we are hurrying through things.

30 second Test • This should be done when you have almost reached your final version of resume. Give your resume to one of your friends who hasn’t seen
your resume before for exactly thirty seconds. Take back your resume after 30 seconds and ask him/her what he/she remembers about
your resume and looking at the page, what he/she can make of you as an individual in one line.

• This test gives a check of whether the storyline you want to communicate through your resume is actually getting communicated to a third
person. If not, you need to focus more on the points which reflect your skills sets and leave an impression on the reviewer.

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Writing a winning CV and Cover Letter (5/6)
Step 3: Making the final draft
• Once you have the draft resume with you, make sure that it sees enough eyes other than you so that you get a feedback on whether your resume communicates the
messages you want it to convey or is it just another laundry list of bullets.

• Share your resume with your friends/family and ask them to comment and ask difficult question. This is where your alums can be very helpful. Reach out to them and
seek their advice on how your resume can be improved. This process is very iterative and takes most of the time in resume building.

• Guardrails to observe:

Flow:
Your CV will eventually subscribe to one or more of three formats - Chronological, Skill-Based or Hybrid. There is no single right answer; but it is
important to take a conscious call on how you want your CV/its sections to flow early on. An example of hybrid format would be to make work
experience in consulting project based and that as an entrepreneur chronological.

Flow: Your CV will eventually subscribe

Reviews:
Don’t get trapped into your own echo chamber! Get your CV reviewed Relentlessly. This could be by peers, alums or a mix. Again, there is no single
‘archetype’ to subscribe to – we have seen people focus overtly on alum-led reviews and land their shortlists, and those on peer-reviews alone and get
over the line, too. Let your sense of comfort guide you on what you do finally. But, the point remains – get your CV reviewed, because it is mission
critical for you to know how a reader/third person perceives what you are trying to communicate.

Misrepresentation:
Flow: Your CV will
A partner at a consulting firm will take no more than a few minutes to figure you have faked something on your resume. They’re in the business of
recruiting and developing people. Do not misrepresent.

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Writing a winning CV and Cover Letter (6/6)
Cover letter

• Some firms – e.g., Parthenon, LEK, Booz - require candidates to share their expression of interest in the job in question. This is done through submitting a
cover letter.

• Best practices to observe while writing a cover letter -

Personalization:
Give a personalized reason in your cover letter for why you are the best candidate for the job. Be sure to make a bridge between what you have done,
where you want to work and how the particular job posting help you to achieve your career goal. Do not copy letters or pieces of letters from
sample sources. Recruiters do recognize them!

Knowledge:
You need to exhibit some knowledge about the firm and demonstrate a fit between the company and yourself. Previous years’ EOI on KM Portal,
alums working in the firm and company’s website might come in handy for gathering information about the company. .

Homework:
Do not use generic statements about the company you are applying to (e.g. leading firm, excellent reputation, blue-chip company etc.). For one, this
also applies to most of their competitors. For another, this shows that you have not done your homework to identify why you really want to join the
company.

Sanity Checks:
Make sure the grammar and who the letter is addressed to, both are on point.

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Understanding the Buddy Process
What it entails • Consulting firms allot one of their people (generally, someone less tenured – perhaps at an Associate level) to guide candidates through the
recruiting process with the firm. This entails helping candidates with –
– Cases
– Inputs about the firm
– Connecting with leadership/relevant stakeholders from time to time
• The cadence of conversations is mutually agreed upon between buddies and tends to be once a week.
Why are they • The good news is, buddy interactions are non-evaluative. This means no hiring decisions are based on input from buddies. Therefore, the
important potential negative consequences of buddy feedback are muted.
• However, it is important to note that the recruiting process is after-all human led. Feedback from buddies does transfer to those who make
decisions either formally or informally. Making a positive (first) impression offers a disproportionate advantage. Therefore, if one puts their
best foot forward – be it in cases, interactions, or the likes – the upside is huge.

How one can • There is no real preparation required for the buddy process, besides always bringing you’re A-game to these interactions. You may misfire
prepare for this on case(s), but as long as you are pushing to imbibe all the feedback given by your buddies, you are covered.
component

Special Note • The above holds true for consulting firms at large, with the exception of –
– Boutique consulting firms
– Consulting firms that do not hire in large numbers
• In such cases, the buddy process is used as a soft evaluation and feedback from these interactions is factored in while making final
decisions.
• Candidates have, in the past, reported receiving questions from buddies such as “Which firm are you leaning towards”, which i s atypical for
those that hire critical mass from ISB.
• While the approach we prescribe remains largely the same, it is important that candidates be mindful about the things they share with their
buddies.
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Case Groups
Best practices

Forming case groups is one of the most important steps in effectively preparing for the case interviews. Forming and effectively utilizing case groups to practice mock
case/normal interviews is paramount

The best way to form and utilize case groups –

Size: Timelines: Workplan:

Ideal case group should consist of 3 to 5 Case groups should be formed 45 to 60 Case groups should be used to discuss
students from diverse backgrounds/ days prior the D-day/interview day. Ideal all the questions that can be fired at
industries/functions. Having a diverse time to start practicing cases within the candidates during interviews – Cases,
case group will help students equip case group is also 45 to 60 days prior Personal Interview Questions, Industry
themselves with diverse industry the D-day Frameworks, Guesstimates
business acumen and concepts that
might come handy during the
interview day

In the event that a candidate is unable to form a case group –

Try to schedule 30 to 60 minutes slots with your friends and solve cases. Try to strike a balance between diversity and stabi lity – practice cases with both, a range of
people and yet limit the number of people to those who are thoughtful about the feedback they share and your time

Myth Buster –
Contrary to popular belief, the case group is more a space to discuss feedback, cases, insights and learnings than cases themselves. Case groups may or may not be
used to practice cases among themselves, but it is imperative that any and all time together is utilized to discuss takeaways

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Acing the Shortlist Dinners (1/2)
What it entails • Shortlisted candidates are invited to either virtual or in-person meals (generally, dinner) in a bid to get to know them better in informal
settings. These sessions involve a plenary session wherein a regional leader talks through their journey/firm’s value proposi tion, and
breakouts wherein smaller groups of students interact with firm leaders.

Why are they • Let us start off by saying that they do not have a bearing on the final decision around one’s candidature, i.e., no hiring decisions are made
important on this day. However, these dinners are an important way to cast a positive impression on leadership; or, better yet, avoid casting a
negative impression.
• At the same time, it is important to remember that these dinners are a good way to evaluate the other way round too. These interactions
with leadership are a pivotal step in evaluating what the culture of the place is like, how one can expect to grow, etc.

How one can • Preparation for these dinners involves getting smart on 2 things only –
prepare for these
dinners – Perfecting your introduction: Develop a solid 45-60 second elevator pitch about yourself, which could potentially entail

– Where you’re from

– Where you’ve worked

– What you’re passionate about, etc.

• People will remember you by your introduction and the confidence you project!

– Asking questions: Curate a list of questions that display your genuine interest in the firm and/or its work; this could possibly entail

– Those around an industry you want to work in

– Those around growth, mobility, etc.

– Those around the firm’s value proposition

• Any questions asked for the sake of asking are easy to spot and make one reek of inauthenticity

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Acing the Shortlist Dinners (2/2)
Guardrails to observe:

Collaborate, not compete:

Do not talk over others - it is meant to be an easy-going conversation among a group of individuals! It is about being a meaningful contributor and not the
loudest voice in the room; if some questions remain unanswered, you can always reach out to firm leaders separately

Be a good listener:
Some individuals tend to ask questions only for the sake of asking them, and in that they end up asking questions that have already been answered. This is
of course, not good practice and if anything – only places you in bad light. There is also a natural flow to a conversation – also be mindful about when you
ask your questions.

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (1/12)
What it entails • Generally, the first 5-7 minutes of an interview are used by recruiters to get to know the interviewee at a personal level. The questions could
be pre-determined (which the recruiter’s thought of asking come what may), those based on your CV (which the recruiter might have handy
then) and those that come up by way of conversation.

Why are they • Consulting is a people-led business. Employee evaluations (semi-annual, annual) are based on a people development model, which is
important anchored around competencies such as –
– Personal leadership
– Ability to work in teams
– Ability to hold a sensible and interesting conversation
• While traditional wisdom dictates Case Interview makes or breaks a candidate’s chances, it is the personal interview that helps distinguish
one candidate from the other. This is because technical skills are replicable but qualities such as presence and gravitas are not.
• In addition, these conversations are used to evaluate whether or not the candidate is a culture fit for the firm. Popularly known as the
‘Airport Test’, recruiters look to assess whether or not the candidate would be someone they’d be able to/comfortable talking to if they were
stuck at the airport with them on account of a delayed flight.
• Finally, well-begun is half done. Starting the interview on the right note always makes it easier to crack the case – even seemingly twisted
ones.

How one can • Preparation for the personal interview involves getting smart on 3 aspects –
prepare for this • Resume: It is incumbent upon the candidate to know everything there is to know about their CV. Questions can be shot off on –
component – The numbers
– The context
– The learnings/takeaways from an experience
If there is one way to destroy one’s credibility during an interview, it is by not being able to answer a resume-based question adequately.
• HR Questions: These are questions around your story, strengths, weaknesses and the likes. They are aimed at developing a deeper
understanding on who you are at your core and what your aspirations are. Sample questions follow.
• Questions to Ask: Asking questions that you genuinely want an answer to displays your (sincere) interest in the firm. Sample questions
follow.

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (2/12)
Guardrails to observe:

STAR structure:
Stories, especially when pressed for time, come to life when told methodically. Anchoring one’s story around the STAR framework is a way to get this quick
win in an interview. STAR stands for –

• Situation: Set context

• Task: What was needed to be done

• Action: What was done

• Result: What was achieved

Sample HR questions:

Personal • Tell me about yourself

Note: This is one question that you will certainly be asked in the beginning of each and every interview. Have a crisp one to two minute answer
prepared for this (don’t overshoot two minutes). Broadly, cover your education, work experience and your interests (mention special
achievements, if any). Within the two minutes as well, dedicate the lion’s share to your work experience. Make sure you can speak for at least
five minutes on anything that you mention when you introduce yourself, because most interviewers will pick queues from this to lead the rest of
the interview. Hence, measure each word well and prepare thoroughly for this one.

• Do you have other offers? Why would/wouldn’t you take our offer over one of the others?
Note: This question can come if you are interviewing later in the day. The response to this question could swing either ways – take a judgement
call on how you want to play it.

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (3/12)

Personal • What would you like me to know about you that is not on your resume?
• What are the three most important events of your life?
• What were you doing during this gap of time I see here on your resume?
• Where did you grow up? What are your three major accomplishments?
• What was an experience in your life that you would want to go back and change?
• How would your friends describe you?
• Give me three words to describe yourself
• Enlist your top three qualities

Goal • What new goals have you established for yourself recently?
• What are your five-to-ten-year career goals?
• What are your career and educational goals?
• What are the attributes of an ideal job for you? If you could do “it” all over again, what would you do differently?
• What are you looking for from this role?
• How long a commitment do you plan to give me?
• What is your ideal job?
• What other types of positions are you considering?
• What kind of boss would you prefer?
• Why are you pursuing this field?
• What would you like your lasting impression to be?
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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (4/12)
Goal • Do you have a final statement?
• What are your career options right now?
• How could you have improved your career path?
• What salary are you expecting? In addition to salary, what benefits would most interest you?

Values • What does “success” mean to you?

• What does “failure” mean to you?
• Which is more important to you: money or the type of job?
• Who do you admire? Why?
• What do you get passionate about?
• Who is your hero, and why?

• Do you have an offer from the firm you worked with before doing your MBA? If yes, what are your thoughts on the offer?
Past
Experience • If no, why do you think do they not want you back?
• What can you tell me about your past bosses?
• How do you think a former supervisor would describe your work?
• What did you enjoy most about your last employment? Least?
• How did you find your internship experiences?
• Describe the job or the activity, which has had the greatest impact on your career goals

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (5/12)
Management • What is your management philosophy?
style / • Define leadership
leadership • Tell me about a time when you successfully resolved a conflict or disagreed with your boss.
• Give me an example of a leadership role you have held when not everything went as planned.
• What qualities should a successful manager possess? Do you have these attributes (of a good manager)?
• What two attributes are most important in your job?
• Give an example of a situation in which you provided a solution to an employer.
• Give an example of a time in which you worked under deadline pressure.
• Name a point in your life where you turned a negative into a positive.
• Tell me about a decision you have made that you later regretted.
• How do you feel about working overtime?
• Give me an example of how you manage multiple projects.
• What would you say to a boss that has a sub-par idea?

Strengths / • Are you creative? Give me an example. What have you done that you consider creative?
Weaknesses • What are your strongest abilities?
• What is your biggest weakness?
Note: Do not sugar-coat your weaknesses as strengths. Be genuine and recognise your shortcomings. Never say that being a perfectionist is
your biggest weakness. Some applicants think that this makes you look better, but it seems that you not secure. Also, mention what you are
doing to overcome the weakness.

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (6/12)
Strengths / • Why should we hire you?
Weaknesses
• Give me an example of something that you have done that shows initiative.
• What makes you stand out among your fellow students?
• What makes you different from the other candidates for this position?
• What can you do for us that someone else cannot do? What was the most important thing you learned from
your previous experience/internship?
• How do your skills relate to our needs? What can you offer us?
• What have you disliked in your past jobs?
• How long before you can contribute? In the past year, what have you been dissatisfied about in your
performance?
• What major problem have you encountered and how did you deal with it?
• Have you ever had any failures? What did you learn from them?
• How do you feel about working in a structured (or ambiguous) environment?
• Are you able to work on several assignments at once?
– In what kind of work environment do you do your best work?
– What kinds of tasks and responsibilities motivate you the most?
– What has been your greatest challenge?

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (7/12)
Inter- • How competitive are you?
personal
skills • How do you work under pressure?
• Give me an example of a time when you successfully worked within a team. 4. What types of people seem
to rub you the wrong way?
• Define cooperation.
• What kinds of people do you enjoy working with?
• What kinds of people frustrate you?
• Have you ever managed a conflict? How?

Education • Why did you decide to pursue an MBA?

• Why this Institute?
• What made you decide to major in____?
• What have you learned at this B school that will help you on
this job?
• Do you hold any leadership positions?
• What electives have you taken? Which did you enjoy the most?
• What college classes did you like the least? Why?
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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (8/12)
Education • Why didn’t you attend (another school)?
• How do you balance the different priorities MBA student life presents?
• Did your grades accurately reflect your ability? Why/Why not?
• Describe the course that has had the greatest impact on your thinking.
• Did you ever have conflicts with your study group? How did you resolve them?
• What are your five biggest takeaways from your MBA?

Extra- • What extra-curricular school activities are you involved in?

Curriculars
• What have you learned from your activities?
• Were your extracurricular activities worth the time you put into them?
• How did you become involved in your extracurricular activities?
• What do you enjoy doing outside of work-in your free time?
• What is your favorite book/movie/song/painting-or author/actor/singer/artist?
• Which magazines/newspapers do you read regularly? Which books have you read recently?
• Have you ever done volunteer activities?

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (9/12)
Job/ • Why are you interested in ______? / Why do you want to work for us?
Company/
Industry
• What makes you want to be a _____?
• What makes you think you would be successful in _____?
• What do you think this job requires?
• Given that you have no background in this field why are you interested in it?
• What do you predict is going to happen in this industry in the next 5 years?
• How would you go about evaluating a business?
• What do you know about our company?
• Do you know who are competitors are? How do you assess them?
• What interests you most about this position? What parts of the job do you think you would find the least
satisfying?
• You have five minutes to describe the most relevant and specific items in your background, which show you
are uniquely qualified for this position.
• What would you change about our firm?
• What particular expertise do you have that would lend itself well to this position?
• Demonstrate/illustrate skills that you can transfer from past experience.
• What concerns you about our company?
• What do you believe are the key issues and problems in our industry today?
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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (10/12)
Questions to ask
Company • What are your company’s strengths and how do you capitalize on them?
• What are your company’s weaknesses and how are you dealing with them?
• How have you strategically responded to the competition?
• Where will the major sources of your business be in the next 5 years?
• What challenges are facing this company? Do you think your company is reacting to them?
• Have you cut your staff in the last three years?
• What is the largest single problem facing your staff/department right now?
Industry • What changes do you anticipate in the industry?
• What risks will your company face due to industry changes?
• How does the industry react to recessions (or events like the COVID-19 pandemic)?

Industry • What are the best opportunities at your firm for new hires?
• How is worker performance measured and reviewed?
• Do you have a mentor program? How about formal training programs?
• Why do people leave?

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (11/12)
Industry • Why have you stayed with the company?
• Describe my initial assignments?
• If you hire me, what are the three most pressing issues you need resolved?
• What kinds of assignments might I expect during the first six months on the job? 9.
• Are salary adjustments geared to the cost of living or job performance?
• In what ways is a career with your company better than one with your competitors?
• Please describe the duties of the job for me.
• Does your company encourage further education?
• How often are performance reviews given?
• What is the usual promotional time frame?
• Has there been much turnover in this job area?
• Is there a lot of team/project work?
• Where does this position fit into the organizational structure?

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Personal Interviews – Telling, Showing and Asking (12/12)
Industry • Do you fill positions from the outside or promote from within first?
• What skills are especially important for someone in this position?
• What qualities are you looking for in the candidate who fills this position?
• Will I have the opportunity to work on special projects?
• What is the next course of action? When should I expect to hear from you, or should I contact you?

Culture • How would you describe your firm’s culture?

• What do you like best about your job/company?
• What characteristics do the achievers in this company seem to share?

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Contents

01 02 03 04 05
Introduction to Frameworks Industry Primers Buddy Cases Interview Cases
the process

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Profitability (1/2)
Profitability

Revenue Costs

Price Volume Product mix

1 Price sensitivity
lel < 1 (Inelastic) Market size (overall demand/supply) Market share
P R &
lel > 1 (elastic) Product/customer Industry Macro factors Supply
Need to see trade off 1) Substitutes 1) Product life cycle 1) Economic (Usually in
2 Price response of disruption (mature/decline) 2) PESTEL growth)
competitors 2) Behaviour 2) Cyclic
3) Usage
decreased
4) Demographics Demand Supply

(find bottle neck

If average prices decreases in value chain)

Internal External Awareness Preference/likeability Availability

 P to R& , did not work 1) Price wars 1) Ad spent 1) Product  Quality, price for 1) Channels  Convenience,
 Transfer pricing (internal division 2) Channels complement <__>, perceived Accessibility, feature (stock
2) Government regulations
transfer) 3) Message (purpose, communicate benefits, core attributes packaging outs/replenishment, display, shelf
3) Change of other margins in value spare, % penetration)
purchasing behaviour?) 2) Service  Quality, price, salesforce
chain
4) Discounts, cashbacks 3) Complement/Substitutes 2) Operational hours
4) Customer preference changed
5) Types 4) Right customer segment? 3) Distributor/Retailer margin
4) Salesforce effectiveness by
channel
P Unpaid social 5) Place features
ai media word of 6 senses: ambience, look & feel,
d mouth design, size, hours, accessibility

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 30

Profitability (2/2)
Product mix changed Costs (fixed vs. variable)
Fixed costs Variable costs
Product related Service related Customer  Rent  Contractual salaries
problems problems Preference  Employee salaries  Utilities
 SG&A  Raw and packaging material
1) Quality 1) Poor service 1) Change in needs
 Marketing  Overhead/other expenses
2) Inadequate product 2) Costly service  Equipment
width/depth 3) Inadequate accessibility — Depreciation
3) Network effects (with 4) Inadequate training — Repair and maintenance
other products)
 Insurance
 Interest expense
 Overhead/Other expenses

Costs (value chain)

Demand Raw materials & Storage & out-

R&D Processing Quality check Distribution
forecasting Inbound logistics bound logistics
 Equipment  No. of materials  Machinery  Warehousing  Different sales
 Human capital and cost per unit  Factory rent costs channel
 Cost of financing  Transportation  Labour hours  Inventory holding  Rent & Utilities
(profit)  Technology costs (trapped (confirm if self-
 Capacity capital) <_____>)
utilization  Transportation  Training sales
 Packaging costs force
 Utilities  Salaries

Customer
Return logistics Marketing
service
 Sales returns  After sales  Medium
service cost — Online
 Maintenance — Offline
teams  Promotions

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 31

Market Entry (1/2)
Scoping: Market sizing and attractiveness:

A. Objectives A. Industry attractiveness

 Strategic: Geographic expansion, market share, diversification,  Do we know the product price?
competitive advantage, vertical integration  Market size
 Economic: Revenue, Profits, Capital needs  Growth/Lifecycle
 Profitability
B. Company  Barriers to entry
 Current business model — Regulatory
 Value chain and capabilities — Economies of scale
 Geographies  Porter’s five forces: Competition, New entrants, Buyers, Suppliers, Substitutes
 Consumers  Risks (PESTLE)

C. Product B. Financial viability

 What is the portfolio?  Upfront investment
 What is the USP?  ROI/IRR, Payback period
 What are the benefits?  NPV/ Profit
 Any substitutes available?  Opportunity cost of investment
 Where is the product in the lifecycle?  Cash flows

D. Consumer C. Strategic viability

 Who is the core consumer?  Short term

 Who is the target consumer to sell to? — Prior experience in new market entry
— Synergy with existing operations
E. Market landscape — Competitive response/ Tactical decisions (4Ps)
 Long term
 State of the market — Creating customer lock in
 Concentrated or fragmented? — Creating barriers to entry/exit

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 32

Market Entry (2/2)
Mode of entry First steps post entry

How to enter? How to enter?

Organic Inorganic Business level Product level

1) Build 1) Joint venture/ 1) Commercial 1) Awareness

2) Import Partnership - Price 2) Access
2) Merger and Acquisition - Raising finance 3) Affordability
3) License 2) Operational
3) Building and developing
capabilities

Factors to consider: Sustainability and future growth:

• Cost • Customer loyalty

• Capability
• Timeline
• Level of control desired

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 33

Growth
Existing revenue stream New revenue stream

Quantity Price Adjacent Unrelated

• Avg. price/unit (check sensitivity) • Horizonal

• Product mix (upselling) • Vertical
Supply Demand • Substitutes
• Compliments
• [Capacity
Expansion]

Users Usage/frequency Uses

• Reminders
• Credit points
• Smaller SKUs
• Reduce life of product

Demographic Economic Psychographic

• Geography • Income segment • Based on behavioural patterns

• Age • Online/offline
• Gender

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 34

Pricing
Sale Retain Ownership

Lease Per use

Pricing Methods

A Cost plus pricing B Value based C Competitor

Compare your product

to competitor

FC VC Tangible Intangible

Use:
a) Auctions
Markup b) Survey
c) Pay what you like (charity) to
detemine WTP

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 35

Mergers & Acquisitions
Synergies Post-merger integration

Operational Financial People Technology Process

• Diff IT systems
• IP issues
Revenues Costs • Information
Low cost of ability to raise exchange
(how to (how to
funds funds
revenue) cost)

Monetary Non-monetary Internal External

• Pay structure • Cultural • Corp. governance

• Perks & benefits • Behavioral • Backend
• Other schemes
(e.g.: ESOP, etc.)

Customer facing Outreach activities

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 36

Private Equity
PE Investment (investment into business for financial gain)

I Objective: III Industry attractiveness: IV Target Analysis:

1. Why-strategic/financial Market Size, GR, Profit. (margin.), customers, Financial Non-financial Synergies
– Market Size
2. Target rate of return P5F → competitiors, suppliers, BTE, substitues People Proc Tech • Reputation
– Market Share
3. Timeline of investment PESTEL → environmental, legal regulation, etc. – Gross Rev ess
• Manage- • Comp. • Portfolio help
Financial metric → IRR, profits, growth in Customers → served • Margin ment edge (operational efficiency)
stake, NPV, revenues Customers → unserved (profitibility)
• Willing- • Unlock potential
• RACC (risks) ness to (leverage)
• Valuation sell • Geographic knowledge
II Scoping: • Customer base
Early vs. Late • Business model
1. PE firm Industry pref. 2. Target:
• V.C cababilities
• Fund style Location pref. • 3CP-accordingly
Team pref.
• Fund site (capacity) • Company
– R.S. – geography
V Exit: VI Recomm: Target:
• How much stake – V.C. – channels, etc
1. Public 2. Private Y/N on :-
• Portfolio • Products
– Direct competitors not a part – SKUs – USP
• IPO • Another • Investment style
of portfolio – Premium-ness fund
• Industry
– Price – patent
• Synergies (later) • Back to Else-
• Target

Industry
• Customer company where
• Exit period – Segments • Xxxxxx
– Preferences • To
individual
• Competition – M.S. (product & customers) investor

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 37

Salesforce Effectiveness
# people Efficiency

HIRE [full time on temporary] Skill Will

Redeploy talent
• Campus Reskill Upskill
(across levels) – UG Lateral (revise old (give new Internal External
– PG skills) skills)

Internal External Govt. mandates

Foun- New
Incentives Labour union (max. working
dation tech
hours)
Direct job Head hunter Agencies • External
Referrals Monetary Non-monetary
postings (poaching) training &
conferences • Salaries • Leaves
• Externships • Variable pay • Travel
and rotations • Perks and • Rewards
perquisites and
(F&B. Etc…) recognition
• Insurance • Work life
• Bonus and balance
subsidies

Organisational support

professional personal

• Promotion • Company culture

• Career growth • Brand
• Performance/goal measurement • Status
alignment with organisation
• Networking opportunities
(leadership)
• IP protection
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 38
Abstract
Breaking down the problem statement

4W How
•Scope
What Why Who When

What does the client want? Define scope of the case:

 Do we need an overall approach?
•Objectives  Do we need to come up with a winning bid, etc.?
Strategic Financial KPIs  Are there any constraints to be considered?

1) Use equations for increase/decrease parameters. Subsequently, focus on each parameter and discuss it further. Examples:
• Birth rate – Death rate = Migration Rate
• Cash balance = Cash in – Cash out
2) Decision making problems, following can be considered:
• Stakeholder cost-benefit analysis
• Decision trees
•Structuring • Pay-off matrix
3) Implementation problems: Outline the value chain and then get buy-in on focus areas
4) Various ways of approaching what to do with a resource: Use it, Sell it, Give it away
5) Problem solution:
• Investigate ‘why’ problem exists
• Give solutions to solve problem
• Explore further opportunities

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 39

Contents

01 02 03 04 05
Introduction to Frameworks Industry Primers Buddy Cases Interview Cases
the process

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 40

Airlines Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Marketing & Sales Service
• Route Selection • Ticket Counter/ Kiosk • Baggage System • Promotion/ Advertising • Lost Baggage
• Yield Management • Gate & Aircraft Operations • Flight Connections • Frequent Flyer Service
• Fuel • Onboard Services • Rental Car & Hotel • Travel Agent Programs • Complaint Follow-up
• Flight/Crew Scheduling • Baggage Handling • Reservation System • Group Sales • Support Centre
• Aircraft Acquisition • Ticket Offices • Electronic Tickets
• Aircraft Lease

Key Performance Indicators Sector Composition Key Market Trends

• Departure Punctuality • Seat Load Factor • Robust Demand: Rising working group and widening
Activity in AAI Airports – FY20 middle class demography is expected to boost demand
• Regularity • Arrival Punctuality
• Delay reasons • Misconnex Quota
100% • Opportunities in MRO: Expenditure in Maintenance, Repair
& Overhaul (MRO) accounts for 12-15% of the total revenues
50% – it is the second-highest expense after fuel cost. By 2028, the
Porter’s Five Forces MRO industry is likely to grow over $2.4 billion from $800
0% million in 2018
• Rivalry Among Existing Competitors (High): There is
limited product differentiation and economies of scale and Aircraft Freight Traffic Passenger • Policy Support: Foreign investment up to 49% is allowed
significant exit barriers Movement Traffic under the automatic route. Under Union Budget 2021-22, the
government lowered the custom duty from 2.5% to 0% on
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers (High): Powerful labor
Domestic International components or parts, including engines, for manufacturing of
unions control operations. Aircraft and engine producers are
aircrafts by the MoD.
concentrated oligopolies
• Bargaining Power of Buyers (High): Air travel seen as Cost Drivers • Increasing Investments: Investment to the tune of INR 420-
standardized product with low switching costs for most • Fuel: ~40% 450 billion is expected in India’s airport infrastructure between
customers FY18-23
• Rental of Flight Equipment, hangar cost ~15%
• Threat of Substitutes (Medium): Fast trains offer • Flight Equipment, Maintenance and Overhaul: ~10% • UDAN: Under this regional connectivity scheme, airfare for a
competition. Business travelers are increasingly opting for • User Charges: ~10% one-hour journey of 500 km has been capped at INR 2500
web-conferencing • General and Administrative Expenses: ~7%
• Public-Private Partnerships: $3 billion investment in
• Threat of New Entrants (High): There are limited • Flight Crew Salary and Expenses: ~5% greenfield airports in Navi Mumbai and Goa
incumbency advantages and low switching costs • Depreciation and Amortization: ~3%
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 41
Automobile Industry
R&D and Product Raw material Logistics & Marketing and
Auto components Product assembly
design management Transportation services
• Skilled Labour • Raw materials: • Engine/Battery • Body/Chassis • Warehousing • Advertising
• Process/Product Aluminium, Iron, • Suspension and • Casting, machining • Distribution • Finance, Insurance
Innovation glass, plastic, rubber braking and welding • Dealership • Used Cars, Rentals
• Warehousing • Electronics • Quality Testing Management • Service, Spares
• Auto Expo
Segments Key Drivers Key Market Trends
• Transitioning towards electric vehicles: Market size valued
Revenue Cost Growth
at USD 5 billion in 2020, and it is expected to witness a
3% CAGR of 44% by 2026
Automobile Raw Material Increasing Exports
Sales
• Bharat Stage (BS) - VI norms: India aims to reduce its
After Sales Labour Policy Support carbon footprint by 33-35% by 2030
Service
• Positive GST impact: Reduction in the overall cost
Financing Advertising Robust R&D Centres structure of Indian Automobile industry
services
• Policy Support: Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, Automotive
Mission Plan 2026 to promote manufacturing, export-
Porter’s Five Forces Industry Facts linked fiscal incentives, Voluntary Vehicle Fleet
Modernization Programme, FAME II policy for EV adoption
• Barriers to entry (High): capital costs, distribution network, • 7% Share in India’s GDP & 4.3% in India’s Exports
and availability of automobile components.
• $118 bn industry expected to reach $300 bn by 2026 • Market Developments: Organized pre-owned car market,
• Bargaining power of suppliers (Low): stiff competition shared mobility ecosystem
Bargaining power of customers (Very high): due Segment Global India Market
to availability of options. Scenari Leader • Covid Impact:
o –
• Threat of Substitutes (Medium): Increasing shared shortage of raw material and semi conductors
mobility options and improving public transport Two Wheelers #1 Largest Hero Motocorp – shifting of production to other countries,

• Rivalry (High): Competition from established international Passenger Vehicles #4 Largest Maruti Suzuki
– liquidity crunch
and domestic brands – preference for private ownership of vehicles
Commercial Vehicles #7 Largest Tata Motors – shrinkage in consumer demand due to WFH
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 42
Cement Industry
Procurement Manufacturing Distribution Sales and marketing
• Long term lease of lime quarries • Process: Limestone → Clinker→ • Major freight cost (higher in rainy • Strong relationships with
• Plant located close to quarries (grinding and additives) → seasons) contractors and developers
• Long term supplier contracts for other RM Cement • Rail-road mix used • Distributor-dealer network for
• High Automated setups • Warehouse network sales
• Imp: Economies of Scale • Large orders directly to • Bulk orders are cheaper
• High start-up costs dealers/customer

Key Performance Indicators Key Drivers Covid Impact

• Capacity utilization • Lockdown measures and economic uncertainty weakened
Capex Revenue Cost construction activity. This had a knock-on effect on the
• Cement factor - qty of cement contained in a unit
volume of concrete or mortar (in kgs.) Plant & Sale of cement Transportation demand for construction materials including cement.
Machinery (40%) (98%) costs (30%) • Higher selling prices were observed due to the tighter
• Clinker factor - percentage of clinker in cement
supply of raw materials following production disruptions in
• EBIDTA/ton Land (20%) Power & Fuel the mining industry.
costs (20%)
Interest Income • Lower energy prices, particularly during the first half of
Captive power (2%) Material cost 2020, have mitigated that, improving profit margins for
plant (10%) (20%) construction material manufacturers.
Porter’s Five Forces
• Supplier Power (Low): Companies opt for backward
• integration, weakening supplier power
Growth Drivers Leading Players in India
• Barriers to entry (High): High capex, fixed costs and need • Increasing foreign investment -> New construction • LafargeHolcim Ltd – largest player – based in Switzerland
for economies of scale
• Record-low interest rates -> New Housing+renovation – supplier of cement and aggregates
• Threat of substitutes (Low): No product exists to date
• Rapid urbanization -> New urban construction • Ultra Tech Cement Ltd– 2nd largest player in the market
that can substitute effectively for cement. Only qty can be
varied. • Government spending on infrastructure • Ambuja Cements Ltd Ltd – 3rd largest player – Indian
Company
• Buyer Power (Low): Low substitutability, oligopolistic
market
Growth in this industry is positively correlated to construction and
• Rivalry (Moderate): Concentrated market. housing market. India is largest producer of cement in the world.
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 43
E-Commerce and E-Retail Industry
Inbound Logistics Inventory Operations Marketing & Sales Service
• Sourcing • Demand forecasting • Owned logistics • Discounting • Delivery planning
• Vendor contracts • Warehousing • handling • Advertising, promotion • Third Party Logistics
• Quality testing • Assortment planning • Technology platform • Exclusive strategy • Omnichannel
• Mass customization • Working capital fees and • Customer retention fulfillment
• management maintenance • Market research • Return Management
• Order management • Redressal and
customer support

Key Performance Indicators W-commerce segments market share Market Trends

• Order to Deliver – How soon customer gets the product after Key Facts –
clicking purchase. 4% 2%
7% Consumer electronics • Industry value - $30bn in 2020, expected $100bn in
• Glance View – No of times the product description page is Apparels • 2024 and $200bn in 2027.
7%
visited Food and grocery
40% • CAGR 27% growth rate
Jewelry
• Out of Stock – Percentage stock out for a product • Active internet users – 624mn
Furniture
• CLV – Cust Lifetime Value, measures total spend of Others • Annual online shoppers – 190mn (11% of pop)
customer on the platform • Key Players – Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra
40% • Growth Drivers- Growing internet users, shift to digital
payments, hyper local logistics, analytics driven
E-commerce types Revenue and Cost Drivers customer engagement and advertisements

• E-Retailing: Online sale of products such as clothing, Revenue

Growth Opportunities –
mobile handsets, electronics and home products. Buying • Seller commissions
food and movie tickets also belongs to this. • Product availability and pricing • Tier 2&3 consists 90% YoY incremental growth
• Online Travel: Customers buy tickets, book hotels and • Private labels strategy • Apparels growth leading – serviced to 97% pin codes.
purchase tour packages online. • Customer retention 40-50% new u ’ first purchase item.
Cost • Policy Support – 100% FDI allowed in B2B E-com
• Classifieds: Portals connecting buyers and sellers by
• Production/Factory cost • Global Investment - FB, Google($4.5bn) invested in Jio
providing classifieds can advertise their products
• Warehousing/Inventory costs • Future Trends – Omni- channel presence, inclusion of
• Digital Media: Paid music, videos and games download • Technology platform fees
• regional language in interface, mass customization
• Financial: Mobile Wallets, Online sale of insurance, loans • Marketing
and mutual funds • Shipping and Returns • Covid impact – Consumer behavior shift due to
lockdowns, grocery and pharmacy gain momentum
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 44
Electronics Manufacturing Industry
Raw materials & Manufacturing and
R&D product Dev. Distribution and retail Reverse logistics
components assembly
• Research • RM: Metal, silicon, • Warehousing • Retailers • Reverse logistics
• Product design • polycarbonates, glass • Refining and smelting • Wholesalers • E-waste collection
• Conceptualization • Active (e.g., batteries, • Assembly of components • Distribution planning and • Processing
• Software development diodes) and passive (e.g., • Mass production forecasting • Recycling
• Product engineering transformer) components

Types of players Market segments Key Market Trends

• OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) - design products • Consumer electronics & home appliances (TVs, video Current market trends
based on the buyer’s specification and own the rights; gaming systems, mobile phones) • Electronics manufacturing is one of the fastest growing
outsource manufacturing • Industrial electronics (industrial robots, automation and industries globally. India is on its way to becoming a hub
• ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) - designs and • control systems, electronic testing) with 3% market share
• manufactures products on their own • Networking and Communications equipment (Routers, • Heavy stimulus by the Indian government to endorse ease
• EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) - design, LANS, Wans, switchboards) of doing business.
assemble, produce, and test electronic components for • Medical devices (X-ray machines, ultrasound devices) • Potential challenges include recovery from the economic
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) contraction during the pandemic, rise in e-waste and
• Computer/ office equipment (servers, mainframes) disruptive innovations
Porter’s five forces Growth Drivers • Policy- Production Linked Incentive Schemes for
• Bargaining power of suppliers (Low): Low product • manufacturing ACC Battery ( 50 GWh ) in 5 years
differentiation, low switching costs Driver Examples
• Bargaining power of buyers (High): High availability of Technology Transitions 5G, IoT Covid Impact
information for comparison
• Underutilized plants, unavailability of labor has impacted
• Competitive rivalry (High): Small points of Government initiatives and Export incentives,
the core manufacturing of electronics in India
policies product linked schemes
• differentiation and innovation increases rivalry • Temporary closure of technology-oriented firms in the US
• Threat of new entrants (High): Capital intensive and Liberalisation FDI inflow and Europe disrupted production due to the high
presence of economies of scale. dependance on foreign R&D
• Threat of substitutes (Medium): Frequent innovations Consumer demand Easy credit, urbanisation • Sharp increase in raw material prices due to the
pose a threat • disruption in global transportation and logistics
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 45
Energy, oil & gas industry
Exploration Production Transportation Storage Refining and marketing
• Surveys to assess potential • Sanctioning of the project • Crude is transported by • Ground tanks is used for • Transform crude into
• Identification of suitable site • Infrastructure creation tankers, pipelines, trucks and crude and finished oil petroleum products
• Field Development Planning • Strike Oil rail roads. products. • 3 Stages – separation,
• Extract and split oil, water • Natural Gas is shifted by • Underground spaces conversion and treatment
and gas pipelines and LPG tankers (reservoirs) is used for • Marketed via B2C and B2B
natural gas channels

Key Performance Indicators Growth drivers Market Trends

• Exploration and production output • Overall economic growth • Growing Demand: India is the world’s third largest
energy consumer. Diesel demand is expected to double
• Lease operating expenditure • Rapid technological advancements
by 2029- 30. Refining capacity is also expected to double
• Capital Project efficiency • Increased exploration of unconventional gas resources by 2030.
• Increased usage of petrochemical products • Rapid Expansion: GOI plans to invest ~ INR 7.5 Trillion
in oil and gas infrastructure in next 5 years. ~ USD 25
Billion investment is expected in exploration and
Porter’s five forces Market five segments
production by 2022
• Bargaining power of suppliers (Medium): Despite few • Transportation (Major segment; Consumes ~55-60%)
players, there are certain delays by govt in payments • Policy Support: GOI has allocated funds worth INR
• Industrial uses (Heating, Chemicals, plastics, Fertilizers are 12480 Cr for direct benefit transfer of LPG. OALP has
• Bargaining power of buyers (Low): Customers are price few of the major industries. Consumes ~30-35% ) provided opportunities to increase investments.
takers. Accept the prevalent prices.
• Residential and other usage(Consumes ~5-10%) • Supportive FDI guidelines: 100% Foreign Direct
• Competitive rivalry (Low): One – two players operate in Investment is allowed in upstream and private sector
each of upstream, downstream segments. refining projects. FDI limit for public sector refining
Revenue and cost drivers
• Threat of new entrants (Low): Capital intensive and projects has been raised to 49% without any dilution/
Revenue drivers disinvestment of equity in the existing PSUs
presence of economies of scale.
Crude Oil (~75%); Natural Gas (~20%); Others (~5%) • Natural Gas Boom: There have been significant gas
• Threat of substitutes (Low): Renewable energy sources are
yet to gain more traction. Cost drivers hydrates discoveries in the KG Basin. Feasible extraction
RM consumed, Transportation costs, Employee expense may lead to a boom in natural gas production
Capex drivers
Plant & Machinery, Buildings, Lands
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 46
Financial services – Asset management
Front Office Middle office Back office Sell-side firms Buy-side firms
Drive revenue generation • Risk Management Administration and support Offer investment products Manage portfolios
• Sales • IT • Accounting • Investment banks • Pension funds
• Marketing • Corporate Finance • Human Resources • Brokers • Endowment funds
• Customer Service • Portfolio Management • Payroll • Dealers • Sovereign wealth funds
• Trading • Research • Operation

Key Performance Indicators Growth drivers Market Trends

Asset management refers to the management on others’ behalf. Revenue drivers: Current market trends:
It is built on the notion that future is somewhat predictable, • ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing is
• Management charges: Charged on each Portfolio
although it is not. making asset managers offer new products and modify
Management Services (PMS) quarterly or annually
their operations to deliver them.
• Profit sharing: Fixed percentage on any profit made by asset
• Global asset manager are investing heavily in data
• Portfolio: Set of investments owned and managed as a management company
strategy, artificial intelligence and digitization.
collective whole with specific investment goals.
• Entry load: One time fee of ~3% at the time of
• AUM: Asset Under Management - total market value of the
• purchasing PMS Future market trends/growth prospects:
financial assets which a financial institution controls
• Others: Custodian fee, commission & transaction fee, Demat • Consolidation through M&A: By 2030 the industry will
• Net Asset Value (NAV): Value of mutual fund share (fund's have a small club of giant asset managers and a bigger
account charges, etc.
total assets-fund's liabilities)/outstanding shares. one of niche managers.
• Asset class: Securities with similar features e.g., stocks, • Competition will revolve around products for particular
bonds, cash equivalents, etc. Cost drivers: needs e.g., products for retired vs. those for millennials
• Capital gain/loss: The difference between a security's • Branch operation • Fed instructed banks to stop writing LIBOR contracts by
purchase price and its selling price 2021 end. SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate) will
• Maintenance of communication and IT infrastructure replace LIBOR by June 2023.
• Growth investing: Investment strategy that focuses on
• Market schemes implementation
stocks of companies and stock funds with rapid growth
• Partnership management Covid Impact:
• Value investing: Purchasing equity securities that you
• Increased focus on cost optimization specifically location
believe are selling below estimated true value • Salary and employee benefits cost of staff
strategy to downsize office space

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 47

Financial Services – Banking
Marketing Sales Products and services Transactions
Advertising, sales support is Customer acquisition is done Funding products - loans, securitization of assets, mortgages Investment Processing high volume
becoming increasingly through multi- channel, focus services in securities through capital markets Other advisory services like transactions at high
relevant due to high heavily on relationship asset & portfolio management speed for payments,
competition from NBFCs management trading and clearing and
settlements.

Key Performance Indicators Revenue and cost drivers Key Market Trends
• Net interest margin (NIM): The difference between the Cost Drivers • Digitization: Banking-As-A-Service platforms and open
interest income earned and the interest paid by a bank banking, increasing need to protect data, strengthen IT
relative to its interest-earning assets like cash • Consolidation: Huge consolidation in public sector banks
• Current Account Savings Accounts (CASA): Type of non- to improve capital efficiency & remain profitable
term deposit account. Has lower interest rate than term Fixed Variable Employee • NPAs & credit extension: Increase in ratio of stressed
deposits & is a cheaper source of funds for banks Cost Cost Salaries assets and bad loans leading to slow down in lending.
• Gross non-performing assets (GNPA): The total value of • Covid Impact: Difficult and slow recoveries, increased
non-performing assets in a particular time period. adoption of digital channels, greater cyber frauds
• CRR/SLR: Percentage of cash reserves/liquid assets that the Physical Digital Operational Employee
bank must maintain which guarantees solvency Infrastructure Infrastructure Costs Efficiency

Interest on
Deposits
Segments and key players
Porter’s Five Forces
Provisioning • Public Sector Banks: SBI – largest market share (23%) 3rd
• Supplier's power (Low): Money supply controlled by RBI Cost (NPAs) largest bank in India by market cap (383,312 Cr)
• Buyer's power/Demand (Medium): Increases with • Other PSBs: PNB, Bank of Baroda
income, credit worthiness. Financial inclusions scheme for • Privately Owned Banks (Indian): HDFC – largest bank in
Revenue
rural citizen India market cap (822,326 Cr), ICICI – 2nd largest by market
drivers
• Barriers to Entry (High): due to regulations and licensing cap. Others: Axis, IndusInd
• mandates, investment in physical, digital infrastructure • Foreign Banks: Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC
• Competition (High): High competition from NBFCs Interest from Transactions Value Added Investment • Rural Cooperative Banks: Saraswat Co-op Bank – largest
loans fees Services (bank's own)

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 48

Financial services – Digital Payments
Merchant Merchant bank Payment network Customer bank Customer
• Offline retailers like Kirana • Called acquirer • Paytm, Visa, Mastercard etc. • Called issuer • Initiates transaction
stores, Dept stores etc. • Not involved in wallet txn • Margin from both issuer and • Approves transaction on • Authenticates using
• Online merchants like (such as Paytm) acquirer behalf of customer PIN/OTP
Amazon etc. • Earns margin from merchant • May only be involved in
on $ value wallet loading

Key Performance Indicators Market Segments Key Market Trends

• Number and % of active customers 2018-19 2024-25E • Digital payments: Past 4 years the sector has grown at
• Average spend per customer 23% in volume and 21% in value
Card payments ~50% ~15%
• Average transaction per customer
• Card payments: Have grown at a CAGR of ~20% over
• Authorization rate Prepaid Instruments (Wallets) ~25% ~10% the last 4 years. Transaction value growing at ~25%
• Fraud rate
• Merchant discount rate (% of $ value paid by merchant to UPI 17% ~60% • UPI: Constitutes 40% of P2M transaction. Has grown at
acquirer) Others 7% ~15% 414% since inception in 2016. 7X growth expected in
• Interchange rate (% of $ value paid by acquirer to issuer) next 5 years

Revenue & Cost Drivers COVID Impact – V shaped recovery Key Market Trends
Payment network Payment wallets • Improved mobile & internet penetration
(Visa, Mastercard) Credit cards Debit cards
(Paytm)
54 Cr
Revenue • Transaction fee • Merchant • Government initiatives (MDR rationalization, payment
drivers • (% of $ value discount rate 43 Cr 46 Cr acceptance, Jan Dhan Yojana, e-tolling)
31%
+ fee/txn; 38 Cr
• Value added 29 Cr
charged to 29% 29% • Tech-savvy population (use of wearables, need
services 69%
bank for use 27% 27% for convenient payment)
(insurance, 71% 71%
of network)
loans etc) 73%
73% 71% 71% • Innovations (investments by mobile wallets, non-
Cost • Technology cost • Technology cost
drivers • Workforce cost traditional players)
• Workforce cost
• Discounts/Camp Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20
aigns
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 49
Financial Services – Insurance
Product development Marketing and sales Policy administration Claims/Benefit Mgmt. Asset management
• Market research • New customer acquisition • Request/ transaction • Claims prevention & • Strategic allocation
• New product development • Customer segment processing • mitigation • Asset-liability mgmt.
• Risk assessment & pricing • Cross-selling • Payment • Claims investigation & • Portfolio
• Product optimization • Churn prevention administration settlement management
• Campaign management • Disbursement • Risk modelling

Industry Key players Covid Impact

17% • Life & Health Insurance: Fear of COVID has increased
33% • LIC • Max Bupa • Bharti AXA
Life • SBI Life • Star Health • IFFCO Tokio purchase of life & health insurance policies, which now
8% Motor cover COVID if the patient is affected after the policy is
Health 52% • ICICI Prudential • HDFC Ergo • Bajaj Allianz
Fire signed.
General 12%
3% Marine • General Insurance: Challenges in automobile, travel,
75% Others hotel & infrastructure sector impacted general
Revenue Drivers insurance premiums. Post-COVID recovery in these
% of total premiums % of total premiums sectors has spurred an uptick in premiums.
• Insurance premiums
• LIC, the only public player in the Life Insurance segment, • Interest on investments (re-investing of premiums)
commands 50% market share, with 23 private players
controlling the rest
• Motor Insurance has 37% share of General Insurance Cost drivers InsurTech
• Globally, insurtechs attracted a 180% YoY increase in
funding in Q1 2021. Funding of insurtechs in India
Key information Fixed Cost Variable Cost
increased from $11mn in 2016 to $287mn in 2020.
• Regulator: Insurance Regulatory and Development • Reasons for growth: increasing digitization, COVID,
Authority of India (IRDAI) Admin. Expenses Customer service costs niche requirements, cheaper access, value-added
• Reinsurance: Insurance cos transfer risk (max 30% of sum services, collaborations with incumbents, product
assured) to reinsurance companies. innovations catering to changing customer preferences
Licenses Claim costs
• FDI: FDI limit in insurance sector increased to 74% from • Key segments: General insurance and B2C
49% in 2021 • Key players: Digit, Acko, Policybazaar
Employee salaries Commissions

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 50

FMCG Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Sales & Marketing Servicing
• Sourcing raw materials • Manufacturing • Distribution center, channel • Branding • Warranty
• Quality testing • Production, Quality Control • Order Handling • Advertising, promotion • Maintenance
• Warehouse storage • Packaging • Dispatch • Customer, order mgmt. • Education,
• Warehouse storage • Delivery invoicing • Sales analysis training upgrade
• Market research

Porter’s Five Forces Industry Specific Strategies Adopted Key Market Trends

• Bargaining power of suppliers (Low) - Huge companies • Strengthen rural network – introduce bottom of the pyramid Key Facts –
control pricing, fragmented commodity supplier products in portfolio • 4th Largest sector of Indian Economy.
• Bargaining power of buyers (High) - Low switching costs • Direct to Consumer channels • Valuation - $110bn (2020), $220bn (expected 2025)
• Competitive rivalry (High) - Highly fragmented, strong • E-commerce • Household & Personal Care (50%), Healthcare (31%),
• brands at a discount • Green Initiatives – sustainability fund, set up energy Food & Beverages (19%); Urban(55%), Rural(45%)
• Threat of new entrants (Medium) - Investment in efficient plants • 100% FDI allowed in food processing, single brand retail,
distribution network, promotions, advertising • Analytics – ML for market trends, Oracle/SAP for ERP and 51% FDI allowed in multi-brand retail
• Threat of substitutes (High) – Narrow product • International partnership • New GST in India would simplify tax structure (USD 15bn
differentiation, price war • Social Media Collaboration gain per year expected)

Key Terms Revenue & Cost Drivers Growth Opportunities –

• Sourcing Base (India - strategic sourcing hub for cost
• Out of stock rate: ability to meet customer demand Revenue Drivers competitive products)
• Delivered On-time & in-full: delivery performance • Pricing • Penetration (invest in food parks and labs)
• Average time to sell : time needed to sell products • Promotion • Online FMCG (E-commerce to contribute 5% to FMCG
• Cash-to-cash cycle time: Analyze cash cycle time • Distribution sales by 2022)
• Supply chain costs: supply chain costs by category • Rural Market (strong distribution, aspiration level)
• Carrying cost of inventory : costs your inventory holds Cost Drivers • Innovative Products (new, adaptable products)
• On-shelf availability: Measure impact on your sales • Raw material & processing costs • Premium Products (increase in disposable income,
• Margin by product category: find profitable products • Distribution purchase trend from essential to premium)
• Promotion

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 51

Food Processing Industry
Raw Material Warehousing Processing Packaging & Transport Distribution and Retail
• Producers( Farmers, • Cold Storage • Cleaning, Sorting • Grading • Carry & Forward
Breeders, Fishermen) • Collection Agents • Mixing, Griding • Quality Control Agent
• Inputs: Agri Produce, Fruit & • Cooperatives, FPOs • Pulping, Juicing • Packaging • Depots & Stockists
Vegetables, Meat &Poultry, • Direct Sourcing • Pasteurization • Cold Storage • Wholesalers
Marine, Milk • Logistics • Dehydration, Powdering • Food & Dairy Corp. • Retail Stores & E-
commerce
• International Export
Market Segments Cost Drivers Key Market Trends
Key Challenges:
Cost Drivers
5.0% • Supply Chain Infra and Institutional gaps
Meat, Fish, Fruits 100% 18%
• Procurement dependence on APMC Markets
80% 7%
Grain Mill 12% • Season-ability of operations and Low Capacity Utilization
20.0% 60% 1…
Beverages 53% • Lack of Product Development and Innovation
40.0%
Dairy Products 40% • Inadequate link between production and processing, lack
20% of processable varieties of crops, meat and milk
11.0% • Disruption due to Covid, Farm Law Protests
0%
Farm Gate Transit Processing Distribution Margins
Key Growth Drivers
Importance of Food Processing Major Players • India is an Agri-commodity hub, one of the leading
producer of multiple grains, fruits, milk and fish
• The market size of Indian food processing industry is Player Segment Turnover. (INR cr)
estimated to be US$ 543 billion, accounts for 10% share • India’s huge customer base of 1.3 Bn offers large market
in India’s exports, KRBL Rice Industry 3992 • PLI schemes worth INR 10,900 crores introduced under
• At present, India processes less than 10% of its Atmanirbhar Bharat, separate govt ministry
Britania Fruits & Veg 1010
agriculture output and only about 2% of fruits and
• Increasing spend on packaged foods with urbanization
vegetables, 6% of poultry, 21% of meat, 23% of marine Amul Dairy 52000
and 35% of milk • Growth of organised retails and private labels in India and
• India majorly does Primary processing, i.e., milling of Parle Agro Beverages 2,200 expansion of e-commerce with digitization
grains, sugar and edible oils.

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 52

Healthcare Services Industry
Appointment Booking Hospital Visit Diagnosis Treatment Post-Treatment
• Walk-in • Primary / Secondary / • Medical History • Medical procedure • Monitoring and
• Traditional Scheduling Tertiary Hospital • Screening based on • Clinical & ops support discharge
• Scheduling via appointment • IPD (In-patient care) patient symptoms • Doctor (GP, CP, Specialist) • Bill Payment
booking apps like Practo • OPD (Out-patient care) • Diagnostic Testing • Equipment & Supplies • Post discharge care
• Emergency Section • Follow-up visit

Key Terms Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends

Current market trends
• ARPOB – Average Revenue Per Occupied Bed Revenue drivers • Healthcare sector expected to reach $372bn in 2022
• ALOS – Average Length of Stay
OP Revenue • growing at a CAGR of 22% since 2016
• Occupancy Ratio - % Bed utilization • Rising instances of lifestyle diseases in urban areas
• GP – General Physician Consultation Diagnostics Pharmacy • boosting demand for specialized care
• CP – Consulting Physician • Growing medical tourism market due to availability of
quality services at relatively low cost
• OOP – Out of pocket expenditure IP Revenue
• IP – In-patient
Future market trends/ growth prospects
Room & medical
• OP – Out-patient Procedure Diagnostics
supplies charges • Public private partnership models for
establishing hospitals
Growth Drivers Cost drivers • Digitization of healthcare records via higher
• Increasing awareness adoption of eHRs
Fixed Variable
• Adoption of digital healthcare / telemedicine
• Ayushman Bharat (Universal healthcare program) Rent Medicines Covid Impact
• Change in attitude towards personal health and hygiene,
• Growing penetration of healthcare insurance
Salary Doctor – Revenue sharing health insurance and medical check-ups
• Increasing penetration in towns beyond metros • Adoption of digital technologies including telemedicine
Diagnostics & medical
• Higher prevalence of acute and chronic diseases Maintenance
supplies • Increase in healthcare budget allocation by 137% in 2021.
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 53
Hospitality Industry
Procurement Operations Guest Services Sales & Marketing Distribution
• Food & Beverages (F&B) • Front-desk operations • Check-In/Check-Out • Advertisements • Online Travel Aggregators
• Cleaning supplies • Housekeeping operations • F&B services • Promotions & discounts (OTAs)
• Room supplies • Kitchen operations • Laundry services • Loyalty programs • Direct
• Contractual services like • Laundry operations • Transportation services • Tour packages (Website/app/telephone)
internet, cable, security, etc. • Revenue management • Other on-demand services • Walk-ins
• Staff training • Tour-&-Travel Agents

Key Terms Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends

• Occupancy %: Total rooms occupied/ rooms available Current market trends
Determines the efficiency of the promotional activities Revenue drivers • India is the world’s 7th largest tourism economy in terms
pursued and business in general • of contribution to GDP
Room Revenue
• Average Room Rent (ARR): Room Revenue/Total • Industry has seen increase in ARRs by 8-10% y-o-y basis
rooms nights occupied. low demand post covid
Average Room
• Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR): Room
#Rooms Occupancy
Rate • Cyclicality and seasonality: This sector is highly
revenue/ Total room nights available. Indicates revenue influenced by positive cycles and peak seasons which
generated against total room inventory observe higher revenue and occupancy rate
Non-Room Revenue
• Online Ratings: Indicator of customer satisfaction.
Emerging Themes/Trends
Considerable influences customers’ decision. Laundry & other
F&B Events & parties
services
• Health safety concerns lead to adoption of contactless
• hospitality like mobile check-in services, etc.
Growth Drivers Cost drivers • Focus on sustainability led by high customer awareness
• Emerging trend of staycation and workation (post- from smart bulbs to sustainable materials
COVID) Fixed Variable

• Rising dispensable income of the population Covid Impact

Rent Distribution commissions • Pick-up in demand post first-wave was based on leisure
• Government push towards tourism circuits: religious travel, staycations, weddings & higher F&B revenues
circuits, heritage circuits, etc. Employee Salaries Consumables • Occupancy in Q1 FY2022 were at ~26-28% levels, higher
• UDAN scheme leading to better accessibility than ~10-12% of Q1 FY2021, basis demand from hotels
Maintenance Power & fuel entering into contracts with hospital chains
• Growing demand for medical tourism in India
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 54
Iron & Steel Industry
Raw Material Iron Production Steel Production SCM/ Logistics Sales
• Extraction of iron ore from • Blast Furnace: Pellets of iron • Oxygen Furnace (LD • Demand Planning • Pricing of all
rocks ore, carbon fuel & limestone Shops) : Molten • Service & Delivery products
• Creating coke from coal to with superheated air form • Iron, Steel scrap & high purity • Performance • Sales team efficacy
fuel furnaces iron in molten state oxygen are used in formation • Outbound Logistics • Key a/c
• Alternative: Buying of steel management
• Customer Service
• Support Tools
Porter’s Five Forces Key Drivers Market Trends
• Supplier Power (High): Due to limited iron ore Capex Revenue Cost • Industry Growth: Expected expansion of 250% over the
reserves. Companies opt for backward integration, next 11 years (Expected CAGR: 8.69%) as per National
Plant & Steel for Raw Material Cost
weakening supplier power Steel Policy, 2017
Machinery construction & (45%)
• Barriers to entry (High): High capex, fixed costs and (70%) automotive • Growth in Per Capita Steel Consumption: Low per
need for economies of scale parts capita steel consumption with a strong expected rise
fueling growth
• Threat of substitute (High): Growing demand and use Land including Steel for Power & Fuel costs
of aluminum in automotive roads (20%) Railway Parts (10%) • Increasing Investment: Ongoing consolidation of
companies & increased FDI is an opportunity for both
• Buyer Power (Low): Low substitutability, only few major Building (10%) Sale of Semis Salaries & Wages global & domestic players
player & By- products (5%)
• Innovation: Government directive to increase R&D
• Rivalry (High): Entry of exporters can further escalate it
projects by spending at least 1% of the sales turnover to
facilitate innovation
Top Players Industry Dynamics
• Import: Steel Scrap Recycling Policy to reduce import.
Capacity (in Market Capitalization
GOI increased import duties by 5% & imposed anti-
Name MnTPA) (INR Cr.) Segment KPIs Growth Drivers
dumping policies.
Tata Steel 33 1,71,158 Infrastructure EBITDA/ton Growing demand • Export: 30% duty imposed on export of iron ore to
in all sectors promote supply to domestic companies
JSW Steel 18 1,81,061 Construction Capacity Utilization Policy Support • The industry is witnessing consolidation of players (Tata
Steel acquired Bhushan Steel, opportunity for global
SAIL 4.37 55,328 Automotive Crude Steel Increasing
player to entry the market
Production/ROE/OEE Investments
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 55
IT and ITeS Industry
IT Knowledge Processing BPO/BPM
India is primarily an
outsourcing hub. A • Software R&D • Business Consulting • ERP
combination of IT, KPO and • IT Consulting • Legal Services • HRP
BPM services are tailored to • Development Services • Data Analytics • CRM
industry specific value chains • Infrastructure Mgmt. • Market Intelligence

Porter’s Five Forces Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends
• Potential Entrants (Low): Projects are quite large Revenue Drivers Global Delivery Model
for commoditized services, and learning effects make • Indian IT companies such as TCS are now opening
• Volume or the total number of person hours worked.
a considerable difference in service quality and cost service hubs closer to larger onshore customers in UK
This is the unit economics in the IT services industry
and USA to expand their global footprint.
• Pricing determines the rate at which each hour is
• Buyers (High): Services are now increasingly modular, charged
and buyers can assemble a suite of services from SMAC
• to the client
different vendors and can switch out too • Companies are increasingly looking to derive more value
• Utilization is the ratio of the total billed hours divided by from their IT investments and are now seeing their next
the total billable hours available across the company big opportunities in digital transformation in the Social,
• Substitutes (High): Philippines emerging as viable Mobility, Analytics and Cloud verticals
• Since most revenue is from exports, a favorable
alternative to India for outsourcing. Automation is also
exchange rate also results in better financial
rendering support services redundant
performance Cyber Security
• Governmental policy to combat cyber threats from foreign
• Suppliers (High): Specific suppliers of licenses and entities is being structured, with IT companies playing a
Cost Drivers large role in collaborations for their expertise
other public cloud providers hold very high bargaining
power. Infrastructure is also commoditized • Cost of Revenue: These are expenses incurred by the
company in delivering core revenue. An example of this PE-VC, FDI Investments
are the salaries and travel cost.
• This sector continues to be very attractive for investors,
• Rivalry (High): This industry is categorized by
• Selling, General & Administrative: These are costs over attracting $70B in FDI over the last 10 years, $12.4B in
rivalry between large firms, and the differentiation is very
and above the CoR. An example could be company PE investments in addition to offshore hub development
minimal, pushing them to compete on costs
marketing costs and costs of facilities. by Google, Microsoft et. al.

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 56

Logistics Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Sales & Marketing Servicing
Shipment received at • Damage-proof packaging • Multiple Transport modes: • Clustering of packages • Delivery time
customer service centers / • Material handling & Road, Rail, Water, Air, • Allocation for delivery intimation
picked up from customer movement Pipelines • Salesforce management • Last-mile delivery
location • Product labelling • Feedback

Sector Composition Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends

Segments Market Share KPIs Revenue drivers Current market trends
Road transport 59% • Delivery time • Domestic transportation • Industry size: Indian logistics sector is valued at 215 Bn
• Import and Export USD; forecasted to grow at CAGR 10.5% (2019-25)
Railways 35% • Cost to order
• Value Added Services (same-day delivery) • Rank: India’s rank has gone up from 54 in 2014 to 44 in
Waterways 6% • Warehouse
2018 in the World Bank’s LP Index (overall logistics
capacity
Air transport 1% performance)
• Avg. inventory Cost drivers
• Improved connectivity: Sagarmala, Bharatmala, &
• Transportation costs such as fuel
UDAN projects aimed at improving connectivity and
• Warehousing and packaging reach, greater opportunities
Top Players
• Shrinkage • Warehouse Automation: Market valued at Rs 20,200
• Labor, order processing and administrative crores; evolution of technologies like AI, IoT, AGV and
Player Segment Market Cap. (INR cr)
• Inventory Blockchain
CONCOR Multi-modal 39,893
• Emphasis on cold supply chain: Set to grow at CAGR
Blue-Dart Courier delivery 15,980 16% expected to reach $ 36 Bn by 2024, primarily driven
Growth drivers
by pharma sector
Transport Multi-modal 6,145 • Simplified freight policy
Corp. of India • Growth in 3PL & 4PL providers as manufacturing
• Improving road connectivity network grows: to provide agility, speed and mobility
VRL Logistics Parcel & priority 2,686 • Improving railway and air connectivity network
delivery • Green logistics: Implementation of sustainable practices
• Cold supply chain and other technology interventions due to technological evolution

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 57

Pharmaceutical Industry
Research & Development Testing and Approval Manufacturing/Formulation Logistics Marketing and sales
• Collaborative research • Testing on animals • Batch production • Storage, transportation • Promotion through medical
• Drug Discovery and • Pre-clinical, clinical trials • Process Inspection and • Wholesalers and distributors representatives
formulation • Focus group testing quality assurance • Pharmacies, hospitals • Free samples: physicians
• Formula adjustment • Approval and patents • Packaging • Online platforms • Doctor referrals
• Drug and facility compliance • Waste Management • Medical conferences

Key Performance Indicators Cost Drivers Key Players in India

• Return on Research Capital Ratio: R&D is the major • Manufacturer Selling Price: Acquisition cost after mfg. • Sun Pharmaceutical Limited : INR 273.28 Billion
cost for all pharma companies and not all drug trials • Cost, insurance, freight charges (CIF), import tariffs • Aurobindo Pharma Limited : INR 164.99 Billion
result in success and charges: Cost of importing an Active • Lupin Limited : INR 159.55 Billion
• Profitability Ratio: Operating & net margin determine Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) or finished product into • Cipla Limited : INR 155.77 Billion
investment into future research projects and also the country • Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories : INR 144.36 Billion
account for the high marketing expenditures in the • Importer margin: Applied by importer who procures and • Cadila Healthcare Limited : INR 120.50 Billion
competitive pharmaceutical industry receives the delivering of imported drugs • Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited : INR 108.86 Billion
• Liquidity and Debt Coverage Ratio: R&D expenditures • Distributor margin: Applied by wholesalers and sub- • Glenmark Pharma Limited : INR 91.86 Billion
are mostly financed by debt. Hence, monitoring these wholesalers for transportation and logistics of storage • Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited : INR 63.01 Billion
ratios will help analyze the health of the company • Retailer margin: Applied by retailers while selling the
drugs to the patients (last step of distribution chain)
• Taxes: At both national and regional levels

Porter’s Five Forces Opportunities Covid-19 Impact

• Threat of New Entrants (Low): high barriers to entry, • Technology plays a critical role in enhancing the China is the biggest raw material provider for APIs across the
high R&D costs, govt regulations and distribution outreach of medical facilities (e.g., telemedicine) globe and India (70-75%). The slowdown in supply chain due
network need) • Increasing Insurance coverage (Schemes like to Covid-19 will directly impact innovative drug development
• Bargaining power of buyers (Low-Moderate) Ayushman Bharat, Obamacare, etc.) and may cause short-term shortage for generic drug
• Internal Competition (High): large no of small • Advanced Analytics across the value chain producers like India as procurement of APIs will become
fragmented players and large no of drugs going off- • Strategic M&As to enhance company portfolio difficult in the current environment of uncertainty and fears of
patent • Improving operational efficiency to enhance bottom-line further shortages.
• Substitutes (Low): although Ayurveda, homeopathy
• provide some options but are not widely accepted
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Moderate):
difficulty in procuring raw materials like APIs

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 58

Retail Industry
Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Marketing and sales Service
• Sourcing (demand forecast, • Transforming inputs into the • Order processing • Communication • Delivery
vendor ops) final products • Inventory management • Discounts • Installation
• Network optimization • Allotment and • Warehousing • Pricing and promotions • After-sales
• Material handling • scheduling to stores • Distribution • Store operations
• Warehousing • Transportation • Salesforce management

Key Performance Indicators Revenue & Cost Drivers Key Market Trends
• Sales per square foot Market Size - India's retail sector was estimated at USD 883
• Gross margins return on investment (GMROI) Cost bn in 2020 and is projected to reach ~USD 1.5 tn by 2030. It
• Average transaction value contributed ~40% to India’s consumption and close to 10% of
• Customer retention India’s GDP as of early 2020.
• Conversion rate Variable
Fixed
• Foot traffic and digital traffic Market Trends
• Inventory turnover • Robust Demand – The retail industry achieved 96% of
Direct
• Shrinkage (loss of inventory) Rent Advertising Depreciation pre- COVID sales in Sept’21 with consumer durables and
material
QSR increasing by 15% and 18% respectively.
Industry Segments • Increasing investments – Cumulative FDI inflows in the
Direct labour retail sector stood at USD 3.61 bn between April 2000 and
June 2021. India’s retail sector attracted USD 6.2 bn from
6% 1% various PE and VC funds in 2020.
8% Apparel & Footwear • Policy – 100% FDI is now allowed in single-brand retail
28% trading and 51% in multi-brand retailing
Consumer Durables & IT Revenue Growth
11% Jewelry & Accessories
Sales Margin Rising income level Covid Impact
Health & Entertainment • Covid-related disruptions have dealt a major blow to the
Home Décor & Furnishings Advertising & marketing Digital innovations retail sector which is estimated to have lost more than
USD 1 bn (INR 75 bn) of sales due to the lockdown.
20% Beauty & Personal Care
Others Loyalty & rewards Increasing foreign
26%
programmes participation & investments

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 59

Telecom Industry
Tower Infrastructure Network Equipment Technology Provider Network Operators Consumers
• Forms framework of telecom • Manufactures hardware, • Software Technology (4G, • LTE Services to end • Recharge Plans
operations routers, modem, fiber optical 5G) customers • Customer Care Centre
• GIL Infrastructure, Indus • Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens • Sterlite Technology, • Other services such as voice,
Towers Mahindra, Qualcomm messaging and internet.

Product/service
Consumer journey Pre-sales Support Purchase Support Delivery and Activation Account Management
Offering Design

Key Trends in Indian Telecom

• Growth in Rural Demand: Tele-density of rural subscribers reached 59.33% in September 2021, from 58.96% in September 2020
• State Investment: In 2021-22, the Department of Telecommunications has been allocated $ 8Bn and the union budget allocated US$ 1.9 for telecom infrastructure
• Government Initiatives: 100% FDI, satellite based Narrow band IoT, and the Phased Manufacturing Programme
• Development opportunities: India's 5G subscriptions to have 350 million by 2026. accounting for 27% of all mobile subscriptions

Revenue & Cost Drivers Growth Drivers KPIs

Revenue Drivers: • Growing mobile penetration • Call Completion Ratio
• Internet and voice services • Increasing rural penetration and internet access • Average Revenue per User
• Cross provider calls • Relaxed FDI norms • Average Call Duration
• Affiliations (data monetization, device tech.) • Reduced license fee • Idle Time on Network
• Tele-density
Cost Drivers: Major Indian Service Providers (Market Share) • Churn
• Spectrum costs • Network Operating Cost
• Reliance Jio – 36.98%
• Network infrastructure and equipment • Subscriber Acquisition Cost
• Bharti Airtel – 29.82%
• Operating costs
• Vodafone Idea – 23.15%

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 60

Contents

01 02 03 04 05
Introduction to Frameworks Industry Primers Buddy Cases Interview Cases
the process

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 61

Profitability
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is a pharma company • About client – Indian company with operations in India
that is facing reduced
profitability. Figure out why and • Product categories – Generics and branded/R&D drugs
what the company can do to
• Value Chain – Manufacturing and distribution to retailers
address this
• Industry wide problem of declining profitability
• Market Structure: 4-5 players with almost equal market share
• Duration : profit declining for 1 year and assume COVID-19 related macroeconomic conditions

Client is Government of India • Crops under consideration – Commodities like rice and wheat
and they are looking to double
farmer incomes. Recommend • Meaning of income is profit
certain strategies to do so

Client is an airport operator and • Duration : ~6 months – 1 year

is facing declining revenues.
Diagnose the reasons for the • About client – Private airport operator with ~airports in 5 metro cities
same and suggest
improvements • Decline is across all airports

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 62

Profitability
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is an aerated drinks • Product Mix – Cola, Orange and Clear

manufacturer, and they are
facing declining profitability. • Competition – Large FMCG companies
Diagnose reasons and
• Profit has declined by 20% in last 6 months
recommend improvements
• Client involved in manufacturing, distribution, and marketing
• Pan India operations
• About products – Cola and Orange are sold in glass bottles and clear is sold in plastic bottles

Client is a biscuit manufacturer • Product – Butter cookies like Good Day

and has been facing declining
profitability for 1 year. Diagnose • Pan India operations
and recommend improvements
• Client involved in manufacturing, storage, distribution to wholesalers, and marketing

• About competitors and industry: It’s a commoditized industry and saturated market

Client is an airline company • About client – Client is a low cost carrier

and is facing declining
profitability for last 4-6 months. • About competition – Main competitor is Indigo which has ~20% market share
Diagnose and recommend
improvements • This is a client specific problem

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 63

Growth
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is Delhi Metro. Client • Goal – Double revenues in next 5 years

wants strategies to grow
• Current Revenue structure:
– Ticket Sales – 70%
– Advertisement – 20% (in train and station)
– Store rentals – 10%

Help a Mumbai-based cab • Owns a non-AC cab

driver double his revenue
• Works 7 days/week and 8 hours/day

• Current mode of operation: post every ride, the cab driver goes back to the railway station

• Cab operates as per meter fares: Rs. 50 fixed for first 3 kms and Rs. 10/km thereafter

A Gujarat based university is • About University – public university with 300 affiliated colleges
looking to increase the number
of foreign students. How can • Looking to attract students from across the globe (especially from neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, and
they do so? Afghanistan)

• Criteria of foreign students –

– Quality of education
– Accessibility of university
– Fees

– Employment opportunities

BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 64

Growth
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is McDonalds and they • Area: India

want to increase shareholder
return by 10% as compared to • McDonalds existing business: operates mainly through franchisees
benchmark. Recommend
strategies

Client is a ship manufacturer • About current business: 80% revenue from commercial containers and cargo; 20% from defence deals (10% India + 10%
and wants to increase revenue international)
by 10X in next 10 years.
Recommend strategies • 90% customers are Indian and 10% customers are international

• Current business model – Contract manufacturer (doesn’t have expertise in designing of ships)

• Competition: 1 main competitor in defence and commercial space

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Market Entry
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is a cab aggregator and • Geography in consideration – Pan India

they are considering entry into
the EV (electric vehicle) market. • Current business – app based cab aggregator (like Uber)
Design a market entry strategy
for them • Objective – Sell EVs commercially in India to increase revenue

• Category of interest within EV – 2 wheelers

• No current competition in EV market. But it is a high-growth market and competition is expected

• Government is providing incentives to both manufacturers and customers to promote EVs

Client is a financial services • Client current Business : Client is in asset management & corporate treasury management business
company and they are looking
to enter the insurance industry. • Customers of client: India-based corporates (sector-agnostic) (consider top 50-100 companies in India)
Help with a market entry
strategy • Competition in current business – 50+ competitors. Client is a medium-large player with ~10% market share

• Goal – Market share in current business has stagnated at 10% and the client hasn’t gained any new customers.
So looking at growth

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Market Entry
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is horizontal e-commerce • Geography – pan India

player. They are looking to • Competition in e-pharmacy business:
enter the e-pharmacy – Netmeds/Reliance : 25% market share
market in India – Pharmeasy & Medlife : 25% market share
– 1MG/Tata & Practo: 25% market share
– Traditional hospitals like Max, Apollo: 25% market share
• Goal – GMV (Gross merchandise value) of Rs. 800 cr by Y5 of operations (current e-pharmacy market GMV is Rs. 2000 cr,
growing at 10% CAGR y-o-y)
• Customer segments:
– Acute diseases (one-off purchases)
– Chronic diseases (repetitive purchase)

Client is a FMCG company and • What type of diaper – Kid diapers

they want to enter the diaper • Geography – India
market. Should they enter
or not • Goal – Profitable growth and capture 25% of Market Share in 5 years
• About diaper industry structure:
– 60% split between 2 large FMCG companies
– 10% share split between 2 startups
– Rest is fragmentedDiaper industry is commoditized
(Diapers sold at Rs. 10)
• About current FMCG business
– Personal care category
– 3 players have ~90% market share; client is one of these 3 players; other 2 players are also in diaper market
• Economy and diaper industry is growing

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Market Entry
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is Bajaj Auto. They are • About Bajaj – Bajaj had exited scooter business ~12 years ago to focus on bikes. They are leader in bikes segment
looking to re-enter scooter
market and need our help on • About scooter market – Market seems to be picking up due to changing customer preferences
whether they should do
so or not? • Geography – India

• Goal : Grow market share in the scooter market & break-even in 5 years

• Consumer segments –
– Lower segment – 50%
– Economy segment – 45%
– Mid-premium segment – 4%
– Premium Segment – 1%

• Scooter value proposition:

– Comfort and ease
– Affordable (Price : Rs. 80K)

• Competition in scooter market:

– Honda Activa -65% market share
– Hero/Suzuki/TVS/Yamaha and 2 startups (Ather, Ola) – 35% market share

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Market Entry
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is a Delhi based cricket • Competition in Indian Industry:

bat manufacturer and they are – ~30% market is organized and remaining is unorganized
looking to enter Australian
– Client has 15-20% market share
market. Should they do it?
• Value proposition for client’s bats:
– Premium look
– Durability (due to special wood from which they are made, which is sourced from Kashmir)

• Customer Segments:
– Professional
– Routine/Casual
> Kids (<10 years age) – Small bats
> Adults (>10 years age) – Big bats

• Goal: Capture 10% market share in 5 years

• About Australian market:

– Market is consolidated (4 players capture ~80% market)
– Market growing at 10% y-o-y
– IPL equivalent tournament being organized in next 6-9 months in Australia. Client looking to capitalize on increased demand due to this

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M&A and Private Equity
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is pharma company and • About client business – Client has drugs in 4 areas (oncology, diabetes, orthopedic, and dermatology).
they are looking to acquire All are prescription drugs
another pharma company.
Should they do so? • Pan India operations
• Goal – Growth in profits
• About target company business – prescription drugs for diabetes, cardiology and few other Over the counter (OTC) drugs
• Client has no prior history of M&As

Client is a PE firm looking to • About PE firm and its objective:

invest in an Australian – PE firm is based in Australia
cosmetic chain. Need advise on – Objective - $100M return in 3 years
whether they should – PE firm has expertise in the sector
invest or not
• About cosmetic chain (target company):
– Current revenue: $10M/yr
– Market : $500M
– Market and firm both growing at 10% y-o-y
– Offer laser hair transplant & botox treatments. They have 2 clinics in Australia
– Cost of treatment : $500
– Competitive advantage: No significant difference
– Target Customer Segment: High income customers who have disposable income

• Possible competition to Australian firm can be from a Korean pill which has the same effect as the treatment, and costs
$100 and has no side effects. This pill has been manufactured by another portfolio company

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Abstract & Guesstimates
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Estimate the market for Air • Type of establishment – Household only

Conditioners in Mumbai
• Unit of estimation - tonnage

Client is a national park. They • Location of National Park – North East India
have observed a decline in
population of red foxes. Need • About Red Foxes –
to find reason for the decline – NE India is natural habitat
– Small animals; eat berries
– Red Foxes are prey for larger carnivores (e.g. tiger, lions, hyenas, etc.)

• Duration of decline – 1 year

• Is the measurement of population decline accurate - Yes

Client is thief who wants help • Location – Noida

deciding the location of
next robbery • Type of places robbed/expertise – Regular commercial shops (goods); has been robbing for 3-4 years

• Any constraint – Robs in the night

• Consideration Set (3 locations: A, B and C)

– A has a roadside tea stall with Rs. 25K sales, all in cash
– B has a furniture store (inside a mall) with Rs. 2L sales (50% in cash)
– C has an electronics store (standalone store in a popular Noida market) with Rs. 1L sales (25% in cash)

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Abstract & Guesstimates
Problem Statement Scoping Question Data

Client is a pharma company • About client business – Client sells generics drugs of 3 types:
which wants to improve the – Acute (for short term illnesses)
efficiency of their medical – Specialty (for advanced diseases)
– Chronic (for chronic diseases such as diabetes)
representatives? What should
they do • Location – Pan India operations; But for the case, we can consider a city like Mumbai
• Drugs are prescribed drugs
• How is productivity of MR measured?
– Visits/day (current: 10/day)

Client is a paper cup • Impact of increased competition – Chinese competitor has undercut price by 20%. As a result, over last 5-7 years, client
manufacturer. Client is facing has lost 20-30% market share
intense competition from a • Customers of the client – Fast food retail chains like McD, Taco Bell, etc.
Chinese paper cup
manufacturer and wants • Fast Food segment is growing
suggestions on how to • Value seen by customers in the paper cups manufactured by client – Reliable
tackle this?
• Economics of production:
– Client - COGS: Rs. 7.5/cup & Selling Price: Rs. 10/cup
– Chinese competitor – COGS: Rs. 8/cup & Selling Price: Rs. 8/cup

Client is a Bollywood actress • Objective - she wants to teach the blackmailers a lesson
who is blackmailed by someone
• What is at stake – Actress has been asked Rs. 5 cr for not releasing photos
who claims to have her explicit
photos. What should she do? • Any constraints - Actress is not bothered about reputation loss

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Contents

01 02 03 04 05
Introduction to Frameworks Industry Primers Buddy Cases Interview Cases
the process

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Mahima Dev 1. Is there a minimum rate of return the asset holding
• An asset holding company has requested you to assess
company expects below which it shall divest?
Interviewer Name: Karthi Purushothaman, Partner whether they should continue to hold their stake in an
Type of Case: Abstract insurance company or divest from it. Please lay out the
factors you would consider to make this decision. 2. What is the opportunity cost of capital and alternatives
Interview Round: Round 1 the company has in terms of investing?

3. What was the rationale of originally acquiring stake in

this company? Has that objective been met?

4. How is the insurance co. performing in comparison to

a) peers, b) its own historical performance?

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

The partner liked my scoping questions but did not provide much
information except that 20% was the minimum expected rate of NA The personal interview question in the beginning
return on capital invested. I further broke down the problem by stumped me a little as I had not prepared for or expected
presenting a clear approach to calculating the rate of return by such a question (given I was a YLP with no leadership
projecting the revenues and costs of the company and asking for data experience as such) but staying relatively calm and
points along the way. Once the interviewer saw that I was going in keeping it conversational throughout helped. On the case
the right direction, he projected his screen with some key data points side of things, I would highly recommend to practice
and a chart. The chart was an insurance industry map with different cases by projecting data and charts on Zoom to avoid
players plotted on it (X axis was revenue and Y axis was profit and 10 nervousness should the partner choose to do the same.
players were plotted by their revenue and profit values). Finally, I was
asked to share some hypotheses on who each of these players could
be and which one would be an attractive acquisition target.

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Mahima Dev A credit card company has seen a decline in profit and The general profitability scoping questions like time
has requested your help in diagnosing what the issue is. period of decline, is just our client facing a decline or the
Interviewer Name: Shivanand Sinha
entire industry, is the decline in profit isolated to any
Type of Case: Profitability particular type of credit card or across the portfolio of
Interview Round: Round 1 cards? Is it in any particular geography, etc.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Started out with the basic profitability framework, Profit = revenue -
cost and was told that revenues have fallen. Pretty quickly figured out
NA I would highly recommend to practice cases with data
that the decline in revenues was due to the change in mix of cards exhibits and also be quick and accurate with mental
where the share of premium cards sold had fallen leading to overall math.
revenue falling. The interviewer projected his screen showing data on
the mix of cards sold today vs 5 years ago and I was asked to calculate
the a) Customer Lifetime Value Today (I used a weighted average
approach based on the number of cards of each type sold) and b)
Customer Lifetime Value 5 years ago and then compare the two. All
the data required for the calculation was provided and I was asked to
ignore time value of money. They were 2 calculations, and the trick
was to just pick up the correct data points from all the data given
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McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Abhishek Sinha Credit card company in UK witnessing declining Asked about the mix of customer base (retail vs.
profitability business), revenue model (fee, interest, merchant fee)
Interviewer Name: Sanchit Suneja
Type of Case: Profitability
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

The interviewer provided some data about credit utilization, Solve the two identified problems, like digitizing the A major problem was that I didn't walk the interviewer
customer acquisition cost and lifetime duration before and after onboarding process to reduce workforce, employ referral through my thought process, while doing the calculation
this problem and asked to calculate the net change in schemes which are known to reduce CAC, focus more on or even while providing recommendations. For example,
profitability. Calculations were a bit complicated. app or telemarketing rather than booths set-up in malls. I negated the recommendation of partnering with other
The interviewer finally suggested that we can also partner banks without discussion or uttering anything about it.
He then asked the interviewee to explore the reasons for this with other prominent banks to offer our credit cards, to Also, I realized after some time that I was asking too
declining profitability and based on the data provided, it was which the interviewee raised some concerns, and he many scoping questions as I had done in my prep days.
clear that the customer acquisition cost was a major reason for seemed okay with it During an interview, you have to identify when an
this. Low conversion rate and high employment cost were interviewer is getting annoyed with your questions and
identified as two reasons behind the same. wants you to work on the case.

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Abhishek Sinha An optical lens manufacturer in India is looking to adopt The interviewer explained the problem statement fairly
a new technique of lens manufacturing which will detailed and wasn't expecting me to ask any scoping
Interviewer Name: Aditya Sharma
completely replace the traditional technique and we had question. I clarified whether the competition have a new
Type of Case: Market Entry to figure out whether the firm should go ahead and if technique and after that he simply asked me to work on
Interview Round: Round 1 yes, then for how many labs out of the 20 it has in India. the case straight away

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

This was not a straightforward market entry case, but I had done a Recommendations in a market entry case are fairly I invested much time in explaining my structure and
similar case in my prep days and found the market entry framework to straightforward, which involve focusing on all angles and getting the interviewer's buy-in at each step, which often
be the best in such scenarios. Aditya asked me to not focus on anything gets annoying for the interviewer. Further, walking
not just financial feasibility, focusing on competitor
but the financial feasibility, but I was happy to walk him through all the him/her through your thought process is very essential,
actions, focusing on long-term implications of this
possible angles through which I wanted to evaluate this decision. In or you can take a wrong track with your assumptions and
financial feasibility, we talked about the number of lenses each change, etc. I was not given much time for this.
completely annoy the interviewer.
traditional machine manufactures (30k per year), and the new ones can
manufacture (100k per year), the quality and hence pricing of those
lenses (which we eventually kept unchanged), fixed and variable costs
associated with each traditional and new machine. Old machines cost
200k and lifetime is for 10 years while new machines cost 1.4 million
and lifetime is for 7 years. Further, for old machines we need 2
operator/machine and each operator charges 40k per year. For new
ones, we need 1 operator for 4 machines at 60k per year. Hence, I
calculated the cost of manufacturing each lens and made
recommendations.
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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Mukund Kakkar IT company is not able to grow only at X% while Understood about services/business model, client, and
competitors are growing at 2X% geography split. Scoped a bit about competition
Interviewer Name: Namrata Dubashi, Partner
Type of Case: Revenue Growth
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

1. Identified that employees are revenue driver for the IT company. Growth case so recommendations were asked throughout The interviewer wanted to test my structural thinking
the case and ability to think on my feet. At one point she asked
2. Then was asked to solve for this bottleneck. Used the salesforce me to just give innovative ideas without taking a pause or
effectiveness framework to broadly cover this aspect. using pen/paper. Moreover, I diligently mailed her the
missed bottleneck. So, I think it went well and she was
3. I was then told that to rapidly shoot ideas capture new business happy with my performance. Also, PI is important
opportunities considering that they couldn't hire more employees.
because she grilled me a lot on my answers and stopped
4. I suggested sub-contracting and acquisitions and she looked
only when she looked satisfied with the story
happy with those answers.

5. Then I was asked to mail her 1 more bottleneck that could slowed
down their growth

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Mukund Kakkar Electronic appliances company is not able to gain market Scoped about products and business model, market
Interviewer Name: Brajesh, Partner share on e-commerce platforms share/trend in the offline world, geography, value-chain,
and competition
Type of Case: Revenue Stagnation
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Started with analysing the supply chain. Identified that Interviewer didn't want recommendations, but we briefly The interviewer looked very happy with my approach as
transportation to the central warehouse was a bottleneck. We talked about basic ideas like timely delivery to warehouses I didn't force-fit a framework (L2 level) and used a
discussed that we should collect all the issues first and then through automation or outsourcing the transportation practical customer lens to figure out the problem. The
probably analyse them. On the customer side, I charted out etc. interview was conversational, and I took periodic buy-ins
the customer journey on the e-commerce platform from about my ideas/approach to figure out the problem.
Received the offer after this round
discoverability, look & view of the products, pricing
(including discounts) and serviceability (delivery time and
availability). Then interviewer pointed out that the product is
often not available because it is not timely delivered to the
warehouse

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Arpit Vashist Your client is an optical lens manufacturer and is Company? competition? customer? value chain?
Interviewer Name: Aditya Sharma, Partner contemplating replacing a machine in the company's manufacturing process of optical lenses? Any other
manufacturing facility. The machine is made using latest objective (apart from cost saving) behind replacing the
Type of Case: Operations/ Profitability/Quant heavy technology and can reduce the manpower requirement in machine?
Interview Round: Round 1 the manufacturing facility. The client needs your
suggestion.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

After asking about the manufacturing process, I found that the whole process consists of 3 sub-processes. The machine given will PI was and the 1- minute pitch was very strong. The
be used in only one of the processes. So, I ignored the other two processes and focused only on that process.Asked further Partner felt connected with me and was smiling all the
questions: what is the one-time cost of buying and installing the machine? By what quantity will the labor cost reduce? any time, listening patiently to what I was saying and asking
scrappage value of the existing machine? The Partner kept throwing figures. After a lot of calculations, I suggested that the client relevant questions. Build the CONNECT with the
will be better off with existing machines (because increased revenue from better quality of lenses and decreased labor cost will not partner, show him/her that you are an interesting person
offset the cost of buying and running the new machine). He liked the answer and smiled. But then he changed the figures and asked to work with For case: Work on basic first principles
me to recalculate. I recalculated everything and this time the suggestion was the opposite: the client should go ahead and replace the thinking. No frameworks will help you much.
machine. The Partner smiled again, and I knew my answer was right. I made one minor calculation error, but he nudged me, and I
corrected the error asap.

Just when I thought the case was over. He said that there are 20 other manufacturing facilities like this. Should the client go ahead
and replace the machine everywhere? I knew it was a different problem altogether. I asked few more scoping questions such as,
where are the facilities? Why 20 and why not one central facility? Is every facility running profitably? If there a possibility of
eliminating some of the facilities? After digging down further, I suggested that the client should buy the machines and eliminate 10
of the 20 facilities. The partner smiled again. Replace the machines. Eliminate the facilities
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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Timeline - 2 years , clarified that it is similar to a knowledge
Candidate Name: Tanisha Sabnis Client is a 500M USD company which is a tech service
provider. It is a contact center to clients globally in Media center ; client - across the globe - 50% in India and
Interviewer Name: Swati Sengar and Telco, Healthcare payers (Insurance). What could be Philippines, English speaking staff and lower cost than hiring
3-4 growth opportunities in the pandemic? in US and Europe. Call center - TMT - changing plan, change
Type of Case: Growth
the broadband box, payments. Servicing, sales - cross sell,
Interview Round: Round 1 upsellInsurance - enquire benefits, change policy, issue with
reimbursements, payments outbound reminder calls.
Competition - fragmented, differed based on cost and kind of
services

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Broke down the growth opportunities into existing market and NA After this I progressed to the next round
new markets. In new markets - geography - increase services to
different developed nations by training the staff in languages other
than English such as French, Spanish etc. New products/
services - expand to IT support, software as a service, consulting
implementation, hiring services, human resources. For existing
markets I was told that we cannot change the average charges per
service due to the competitive nature of the industry.
Recommended that we can attempt to increase the demand
through improving visibility and access of our services and
provided examples of the same. Possible threats/ hindrances -
barriers to entry, competitor reactions, customer complaints,
difficulty in acquiring and training people in other languages

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Tanisha Sabnis There is an infectious disease called Rupida that is 1. Timeline - 2 years
Interviewer Name: Vikas Bhadoria infecting children under 5 years of age. It is spreading 2. Objective - qualitative eradication plan
due to contamination of drinking water with sewer water. 3. Disease - muscular paralysis, need 5 doses before 5
Type of Case: Abstract It can be prevented with a vaccine and eradicated. It has years of age at minimum 1 month apart - oral drops - 4-8
Interview Round: Round 2 been eradicated in all except 5 countries. WHO has a degrees Celsius in cold storage
focus on the eradication in an African country. Provide a
solution plan

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Broke down into supply side and demand side issues. This interview was very conversational, and the
Demand side - interviewer was very happy with me and personally told
1. Assess how many children (guesstimate) and how many doses are required per child to get the number of total doses - 10 M me that I had got into McKinsey
children - 10% completely vaccinated, 40% 2 doses, 50% no dose = 4M * 3 doses + 5M * 5 doses = 37M doses
2. Concentration of children in remote areas and in cities
3. Improve the willingness of people to get vaccinated
Supply side -
1. How to hire and train staff to vaccinate
2. Method of cold storage and transport
3. Is there an access to remote areas - remote were the war torn areas - decided to start vaccinating from the middle of the
country in populated areas and then move to the war torn areas
4. Tackle the root cause of the problem - military assistance to the remote areas to check the contamination of drinking water -
rehabilitation of people from villages to vaccination camps

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Client is a large global insurance company looking to We went through scoping fast since the question itself
Candidate Name: Sukriti Chopra
acquire a UK based, midsized car and home insurance had a lot of contexts. Mainly asked questions around
Interviewer Name: Partner seller. However, the target has not been able to match the clientele, channels comparison vs competition
Type of Case: Profitability/M&A profitability of peers who are sustainably making 13% (specifically if there were any emergent digital channels)
profits annually. We wish to understand the problem and etc.
Interview Round: Round 1
provide solutions.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Started with the standard profitability framework post which he No recommendation as such was needed since the case I was confident throughout which I believe helped and
prompted me to think of all the things that could potentially be closed with the ideal cost we would need to optimize to. was quick to understand when I made a math error and
an issue so the case became slightly open-ended. Within rectified that as soon as possible. The personal interview
revenues, I broke them down into customer-centric and questions in the start definitely helped me feel less
operations-centric (Demand vs Supply), and on the cost side I nervous
broke it down into a value chain. The critical challenge was in
being MECE in the criteria I was listing (for instance, on
consumer side customer targeting was an issue). Eventually, he
asked me to focus on the cost side wherein admin costs were
the issue and showed me a chart which had the target's bubble
position on costs vs peers. I had to figure out the chart quickly
and understand what our current margins are (9%). Post this, it
became a purely mathematical case wherein I needed to
understand what the actual costs must be for 13% profit target.
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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client is Delta Optics who make lenses that get This case was mainly about being able to ask the right
Candidate Name: Sukriti Chopra
installed inside glasses. They've been using conventional questions. He gave me a lot of technical contexts in
Interviewer Name: Aditya Sharma, Partner technology for a while now but are now looking to make terms of lens manufacturing (surfacing, finishing etc).
Type of Case: Abstract lenses digitally which will result in lower wastage and
greater precision. Should they go ahead?
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I broke it down through the market entry framework After running multiple mathematical scenarios, the Aditya made it very easy to fall into natural conversation,
(operational feasibility, financial feasibility and expanded TAM). option to replace machinery in 5 locations while keeping and I answered the personal interview questions sincerely
He asked me to focus on financial feasibility and then the case the rest as-is was the most viable. I was told that this was and authentically which helped me get comfortable.
was about being able to source the right information correct.
(replacement costs, purchasing costs, maintenance costs, any
interest/financial charges paid to acquire new tech). I also
needed to source information about factories and total number
of machines that needed to be replaced.

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Advising a battery manufacturing company on which Asked about the company's objective, current supply
Candidate Name: Vishwajeet Sikchi
areas should be prioritized for investment in digitalization chain, customer segments, and understood current levels
Interviewer Name: NA of digitalization in the company
Type of Case: Abstract
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I started with the company's value chain, right from R&D to NA I did not do well in this round and was told the same
sales and marketing, and asked the interviewer if he wanted me later too. The case was a bit abstract, and the interviewer
to focus on a specific area. First, he asked which parameters was looking for some specific approach to solve the case
could be improved through digitalization in sales and marketing which I could not identify. However, what might have
and then shifted to manufacturing. In manufacturing, I used worked is that I did not lose my composure throughout
people, process, and technology framework to suggest the the interview and was able to continue the conversation
attributes which can be improved.

After this, he asked if there is any other way to look at this

problem apart from the value chain approach. I could not come
up with a satisfactory answer here, so he moved to a different
question - The company is observing market share loss at the
all-India level but not at the regional level and wanted me to
come up with the reasons for the same.
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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Mckinsey Institute of World solves macro problems of Target Year to achieve the objective? (2025). COVID/
Candidate Name: Ishita Jain
the world. Mckinsey has to increase Women’s Pre-COVID time? (COVID). Specific Geography? (India)
Interviewer Name: Shwaitang Singh contribution to world GDP. Mckinsey knows that GDP from which sector has to be increased? (Primary/
Type of Case: Abstract inequality and lack of participation can be one major Secondary/ Tertiary Sector)
factor. The objective is to increase women’s contribution
Interview Round: Round 1
to the annual World GDP. (Extra GDP that can be
created through best gender ratio)

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I began the analysis by breaking the problem into segments. Segment I provided the recommendations in 5 phases. Where Phase The interview was conversational, and I was in calm
– 1 focused on why the participation is low/ how can the 1 represented the quick fix and phase 5 presented the long- headspace. Didn’t try to fit a framework. Just went with
participation be increased & segment – 2 focused on the factors that term suggestion which could be implemented in the next the conversation. Shwaitang made me comfortable and
limit the performance of women once they decide to contribute to the five years was trying to understand my thought process
GDP. For segment 1 I began with the 4A’s framework and asked the
Phase 1: A market survey to understand the pain points
interviewer about A) Education (Awareness), B) Accessibility
and work on problems in a very targeted manner
(Cultural barriers/Experience/Language barriers) C) Affordability
(Money spent on Education) D) Availability (Opportunities). For Phase 2: Incentives – Corporates focus on diversity and
segment 2 I analysed the factors which limit women’s contribution to increase in no of women present in leadership roles
the World GDP once they decide to participate– Safety, household Phase 3: Digital application educating women in basic
responsibilities, male-driven workforce/ male chauvinism, pregnancy/ languages and maths
menstruation, Kids. Further, I analysed the type of jobs mostly taken Phase 4: Creche for Kids
by women in Indian society and drew a comparison between Phase 5: Indian Government promoting female
secondary & tertiary sectors. participation through “Make my India”

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client is a traditional kitchen company facing digital Understood more about the vertical marketplace. The interviewer
Candidate Name: Ishita Jain informed to consider Omni channels and firms such as Nykaa,
disruption. The company’s competitive advantage is its
Interviewer Name: NA Cars 24, and Spinny. Asked about the kitchen product categories
distribution network. The firm operates a horizontal & which product is selling more on the online platform.
Type of Case: Abstract marketplace model. However, recently vertical Interviewer informed to consider 2 products – building materials
marketplace model is seeing huge traction. Suggest if the & renovation materials & 50-60% sales for renovation material
Interview Round: Round 2 are achieved via online channels. Asked whether the company
firm should enter the vertical marketplace model i.e.,
wants to keep multi-brands on the online platform or wants to
online platform.
focus on the private label. The interview suggested focusing on
multi-Brand. Understood the distribution network properly.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I started the analysis by breaking the problem into three I suggested at the end of the analysis to proceed with the The interviewer was testing my ability to think on feet.
segments. Segment 1 – Ignore the vertical marketplace and vertical marketplace. I justified the recommendation by Didn’t try to fit a framework. Just went with the
continue what the firm is doing i.e., with physical stores. stating three reasons - Digitization is the key, internet conversation. Received the offer shortly after this round.
Segment 2 – Expand on other online platforms such as amazon. penetration, and global competition.
Segment 3 – Enter a vertical marketplace i.e., start its own
online platform. To rate which option is best I applied 4 A’s
framework and considered factors such as – Customer
Experience, Awareness, Information asymmetry, delivery
channel, growth, market size, macro factors including
infrastructure and government policies. I evaluated each factor
for all the 3 segments and provided ratings based on the
discussion with the interviewer.

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
A coal power plant wants to digitise. Where can they None - was asked to straightaway give some ideas
Candidate Name: Prashant Jain
implement this and how?
Interviewer Name: Rajat Gupta - Senior Partner
Type of Case: Digitisation
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Broke the problem in Process, equipment and people. For NA The PI went very well which cut down the time for case.
process, looked at supply chain and focused more on PI kind of compensated for average case performance
measurement losses and its digitisation. For equipment, yield
was the parameter we discussed on for few minutes. In people,
workforce indices based on workload/health were discussed -
this was the key point.

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Government of Kenya wants to rollout vaccine for a Questions on disease - long term short term, symptoms,
Candidate Name: Prashant Jain
disease affecting children aged 2-5 years. How should severity, vaccination available, population under threat,
Interviewer Name: Vikas Bharodia - Senior Partner they go about it? budget, goal (% immune)
Type of Case: Abstract (Vaccination Rollout plan)
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Broke down the problem into 5 stages - Procurement, NA The case was more of a discussion - kept numbers very
Communication plan, Medical Partners for vaccination, organised and easy, would recommend the same.
Workforce/ Volunteers and overall budget. Touched upon each
and the discussion went two levels deeper. Was then asked to
solve a small numerical on budget to be allocated.

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client is a US restaurant chain and has experienced I started by clarifying the objective and the time duration by when the cost
Candidate Name: Shreyas Prasannakumar optimization measures needed to be implemented. I used the 3CP approach
an increase in costs of small-ware in all its restaurants. We to scope the problem. Started by understanding more about the restaurant
Interviewer Name: Shivanshu Gupta - Senior Partner are appointed to analyze the situation as to why the small chain - The chain had 2000 restaurants all over USA with 75% of the
Type of Case: Unconventional / Cost reduction ware costs were higher than industry? restaurants were company owned and 25% of the restaurants were
franchised. These were full service restaurants which competed against
Interview Round: Round 1 other full service as well as quick service restaurants. It focused on
providing high quality service to customers which helped it differentiate
against competition. I also clarified the items included in small ware i.e.
cups and plates made of both plastic and steel.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

• Started breaking the problem by drawing out the value chain: I believe that the PI questions and the initial interactions
• (a) Understand the requirement of small ware across all restaurants (plan the type, quantity and replacement cycle of small helped me hit the chord with the interviewer and
ware) (b) Negotiate a masterdeal (Got to know during scoping) (c) Deal with the regional distributors / Inbound logistics (d) perform well on the case. I could have followed a better
Set up of small ware across restaurants (e) Maintenance and replacement MECE structure when it came to identifying the
• After discussing each element of the value chain, got to know that the company had followed an approach of customizing the problems related, but I believe the overall case went well.
small ware in each restaurant as per the likes of customers in different areas which increased the costs. Also the company
experienced breakage in inbound logistics which resulted in increased cost to the company. Was then asked to come up with
two recommendations and the problems in implementing the same: Solution 1: Standardization of small-ware across all
restaurants: Issues - (a) The focus of the chain was to provide superior service which helped them differentiate against
competition. Standardization would impact customer service. b) Given that different restaurants have unique small ware
standardizing would require re-training of staff and might not be preferred by the customers
• Solution 2: Procurement from low cost countries
• Issues - (a) Quality of small ware might be compromised which could impact customer service (b) Lead time (c) Change in
supplier could increase risk of non delivery and stock outs
• After this, was given a small numerical to arrive at the cost savings due to standardizing small ware across all restaurants.
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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
As I had worked in the FP&A team of Aditya Birla NA
Candidate Name: Shreyas Prasannakumar
Health Insurance, was asked to identify the most
Interviewer Name: NA important metric or target for the company
Type of Case: Unconventional
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

The company had a break-even target of FY22 and was asked NA The interview ended and was given an offer immediately
to identify the key levers for breaking even. Structured the levers after this round!
across both revenues and costs and came up with a path to
break-even for the company. The discussion then shifted to the
COVID induced expense management initiative (written in my
resume) and the ways a service sector company could reduce
costs

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 McKinsey & Company
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
The government of Assam is worried about the 1) How do you calculate the mortality rate - (% dying <
Candidate Name: Bharath Kaushal Alguri
increasing mortality rate and needs our help to diagnose 60 / total population )
Interviewer Name: Varun Prakash 2) National average comparison - Its higher than the
Type of Case: Abstratct national average
3) Timeline of this change - Last decade
Interview Round: Round 2 4) Expats and locals percentage affected - Both are
affected

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Broke it down into Deaths by diseases, accidents, and reporting errors
(after clarifying about the population distribution change as <60 age After identifying the problems, the recommendations were This round was split equally between personal and case
cutoff was given). Brokedown the diseases into the advent of new straightforward interviews (15mins each) and forming a good connection
diseases, increases spread of old diseases, lapses in medical treatment; during the personal interview helped sail through the
brokedown the accidents into infrastructure, people, and policing. case interview
Was directed to focus on medical treatment. Breaking down the
medical treatment into doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, and drugs.
Further the doctors into doctor density (per 1000 people), ability, and
operating hours, and then ability into specialization, training, and
experience - was able to find that Assam has high younger doctors
with less experience compared to the national average (1)
Moving to hospitals - reviews based on #beds and #tertiary hospitals
to find that Assam was not giving subsidies for private chains to
invest in opening new hospitals that other states were spending on (2)
Also, the pharmacist's education programs were very few leading to
dependence on pharmacists from other states to set up chains in
Assam (3)
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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Vishwajeet Sikchi A family-owned company has an opportunity to buy a NA
lithium mine in Tanzania. Although there is lot of value
Interviewer Name: NA
in buying, Tanzania has an uncertain business
Type of Case: Abstract environment. Discuss the factors which can be used to
Interview Round: 1 decide if the company should buy the mine.
Personal Interview: The interviewer asked me whether
I want to lead a good work life and then explained how
BCG could meet my requirements. It was more of a
conversation around his experiences at BCG, career path,
and why I should consider joining BCG.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

It was made clear that it's not a normal case. The NA NA
interviewer wanted me to come up with parameters that
can be used to quantify risk. I suggested looking at the
history of businesses, government behaviour, etc. It was
more of a discussion with the interviewer.

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 BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Divya Chopra Estimate the size of the online medicine delivery market Clarified the unit (Rupee value), Pre pandemic vs post-
in India pandemic (pre covid), Only medicines vs anything
Interviewer Name: NA
delivered through medicine platforms (OTC drugs, small
Type of Case: Market Sizing medical equipment (Oximeter, Thermometers))- He said
Interview Round: 1 let's stick to only prescription medicines for now-
Narrowed the problem to total rupee value of
Personal Interview: NA prescription medicines sold via these platforms

Problem Breakdown Reflections

Suggested two broad approaches:
1. Historical Data (industry reports, annual reports of medicine delivery platforms, global benchmarking etc.) I believed the case went quite well. I already had an offer
2. Guesstimate (Supply-side vs demand side-told to focus on demand-side only) so was relaxed. Took my time with the numbers and
Formed an equation: # Users X Orders / User X Average Transaction Value made approximations wherever required.
To estimate the users followed the typical top-down approach- Urban households (Tier 1 cities), smartphone penetration, factor
for offline vs online purchase
For Orders and Average Transaction value: Broke down the medicines by type of diseases-
1. Acute / Non-Chronic diseases- Have urgent short term symptoms- last for 1-2 months. Further broken into two buckets-
Require Hospitalization / Do not require hospitalization. Estimated the incidence based on my family to estimate the number of
orders and order value.
2. Chronic diseases- lifestyle diseases- require daily medicines- Hypertension, diabetes etc. Brokedown on the basis of age as
most prevalent in senior citizens. Threw in a factor for government-provided medicines via CGHS dispensaries for retired
employees etc.
The interviewer looked particularly happy with this breakdown.
Used the above to arrive at a total order value. Took a percentage for it to be online purchases as not all users order all medicines
online. The case became number intensive but I took approximations wherever required
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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Aditya Longani Client is a building material company which sells its 1. What exactly does the 'building material' company do?
products pan India. In Delhi NCR it has a 50% market Answer. produce tiles
Interviewer Name: Saurabh Chajjer, Partner
share but wants to further increase it by 10%.
Type of Case: Growth Recommend. 2. In how much time does it want the increase?
Interview Round: 1 Answer. 9-10 months
Personal Interview: I had written a line in my CV that I
have performed stand up sets. The partner asked me to Also asked about company, competitors, customer
narrate my best joke.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I asked if they are looking for organic / inorganic ways to Solution 1> Divide Delhi NCR into 4-5 regions. Map I think this was one of the cases where the breadth, and
grow. In hindsight, I should have laid more emphasis on demand in each area and see where client does not have a not the depth of solutions was being tested. This was my
inorganic first because they already have 50% market share. high market share. Apply 80:20 to focus on low hanging very first interview round at 8 am on day 0.1. I was
Under organic, having received some inputs about the fruits (since time limit was 9-10 months). feeling quite nervous so some things weren't striking
company's current sales, I said that we can focus on right away. I tried to stay cool, as much as possible. Was
distribution. The interviewer asked how I will decide which Solution 2> Partner with other home solution shops for happy to leave the meeting room with a laugh on the
geographical areas to focus on for increasing distribution interviewer's face because of the joke.
example, shops that sell paint since customers would
anyway be visiting these shops when they are building a
new home.

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 BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Aditya Longani Client is a steel manufacturer with an EBITDA of 7%. Mainly tried to find out about 3CP1- competition,
Interviewer Name: Abhishek Bhatia, Partner Benchmark company's EBITDA is 20%. Figure out why company, customer, product
EBITDA is lower and how it can be improved?
Type of Case: Profitability
Location of client and benchmark company? Are the
Interview Round: 2 operations integrated/upstream/downstream? Size of
Personal Interview: The interviewer asked me about my company?
past work experience briefly and about a book I have
written. He asked what I had learned from the process of How long has there been this gap in EBITDA?
writing and publishing it. (PI section was hardly 3-4 (Interviewer's answer was since "inception" of client
minutes and felt like a very easy discussion) company)

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Price could have been lower or costs could have been higher. I Marketing effort- Tell customers about the certification. My prior experience of consulting engagements with
pursued the price side first. Client company sold steel at ₹ Give warranty steel companies helped me ask pertinent questions. I had
60,000/MT which Benchmark company sold at ₹ 75,000/MT. I asked some ideas already about where the problems could lie
if the client company has ever tried to increase prices. Interviewer and kept sharing small factoids/insights now and then to
responded that yes they had, but sales volume had fallen terribly. I showcase the depth of my knowledge. The partner was
hypothesised that this ₹ 15,000 gap could be either because of smiling and seemed impressed by the end of this round
difference in product quality or brand. He responded that product (which was relieving because I wasn't happy with my first
quality is the same and client company had even got it certified. I round).
pursued the brand branch. I said that it could be because of brand
awareness (the lack thereof) or brand perception. He said that brand
perception is lower. After asking a bit about their marketing spend
(which was similar), I realised that it might be because client company
is much newer and hence unable to charge a premium.
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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Aditya Longani Client is a motorcycle company. Wants to expand Asked about the company, competitor, customer and
internationally. Recommend where it should. product. (The information on product was very
Interviewer Name: Anuj Khandelwal
important)
Type of Case: Growth
Interview Round: 3 Asked if the client has any specific regions in mind?
Personal Interview: The interviewer asked me about my (Answer. Client wants to pick 1/5 clusters: North
past work experience briefly and about a book I have America, China, Africa, South America and SE Asia)
written. He asked what I had learned from the process of
writing and publishing it. (PI section was hardly 3-4 What is the client's objective? Volume/revenue/profit?
minutes and felt like a very easy discussion) Answer - Volume

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

1. Asked about the size of each market. But this was the NA Once I had all the information, it was not tough to pick
size of all 2 wheelers sold the correct region. However, it was important to know
2. In product information, he mentioned that bike was a the right parameters to evaluate these regions on.
100-250 cc mass market bike. So then I tried to understand
the need/preferences and disposable income of users in The round went fairly well. It lasted only 15 minutes and
these areas. at the end of it I was given the good news.
3. Asked about the growth rate and competitors in each of
the regions.
He was giving a lot of information so my biggest challenge
was to write it all down quickly and neatly in a table format
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 BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Pulkita Sharma A bank has been facing declining profits. How to get it in 1. For how long has the bank been facing the decline?
Interviewer Name: Shashank Shekhar, Principal line with competition benchmarks? 2. What is the extent of the decline? - 5-7% below the
benchmark for 3-4 years
Type of Case: Profitability 3. Bank's operations (geography and extent) - 500
Interview Round: 1 branches across Eastern and Southern parts of India
Personal Interview: 4. Split between customers in rural and urban - Urban
Tell me about yourself? 45% and rural 55%
Why consulting and why BCG? 5. Bank's business - retail banking (commercial banking)
One major project I worked on in the past and learnings

Problem Breakdown Recommendations

Break down profits into revenues and costs. Start by assessing revenues as a function of loans given which is determined by Across two buckets-
the interest rates x average number of loans x average amount/ loan. 1. Bank - digitization (initial investment for future profits)
The interviewer tells that the average number of loans & average amount/ loan have not been growing as fast as the - mobile & internet banking services, expand into better
competition. performing geographies and focus on improving product
Looking at reasons for the same, assess across parameters to isolate the issue: Knowledge of bank offerings, accessibility of mix
the bank, customer preferences in terms of offerings and post loan services.
The interviewer indicates that accessibility is an issue. 2. Customers - Marketing and promotion, partnerships
Identified reasons for the same as - Location, No. of personnel per branch, road/connectivity issues and no. of services and focus on cyber security
offered.
Location was identified as an issue and further broken down into impact across urban and rural areas. This was further drilled
down to access possible reasons. Post this the interviewer asked for recommendations
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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Pulkita Sharma The client is a steel company with loads of cash. Need to Ask about the company's business model - manufacturing
help them with whether to and how to use the money. for both B2B and B2C clients
Interviewer Name: Anubhav Jain/ MD & Partner
Type of Case: Growth Case Area of operations – India
Interview Round: 2
Personal Interview: Product - commodity market (flats and longs)
1.Tell me about yourself
2. Why continue in consulting? Market size - 100 MT supply and demand
3. Why BCG?
4. Asked about extra-curricular and specific project- Market share distribution - 20 MT with the client; 3 other
related questions from work players with 20 MT each. Remaining with 3-4 smaller
players

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

1. Assessing current business Interviewer provided key customer industries and asked NA
2. Assessing potential growth options (across customers to estimate the growth rate of select industries such as
and geographies; related and unrelated) automotive and consumer goods. The discussion was not
3. Assessing how to grow a guesstimate but had to just come up with an industry
growth rate number and justify it theoretically. Also had
Started with a qualitative guesstimate to assess the growth to compare the same with the estimated GDP growth in
of the steel industry - broke down the problem into the current COVID scenario
imports and domestic production and split across customer
industry categories

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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Dishan Parekh NA. NA
Interviewer Name: Partner - Mario Gonsalves
Type of Case: Market Entry/Make or Buy Analysis
Interview Round: 1
Personal Interview:
1. Talk about your most challenging project at work and
your learnings from the same
2. What should BCG do to convince you to be part of
BCG (While the question came at the end, it give me an
opportunity to talk about why I want to join BCG)

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

NA NA NA

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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Big Bang is coming up with the next season which will What is the objective of Star in deciding whether to
Candidate Name: Pallavi Rathi
have 8 episodes and are looking to sell the steaming purchase the rights. Here the interviewer mentioned that
Interviewer Name: Gaurav Jindal, MD & Partner they want to keep people on their platform for longer,
rights. Your client is Star (Disney - Hotstar). Evaluate if
Type of Case: Pricing they should bid for the same. If yes, how should they improve brand and make money (in this order of
Interview Round: 1 price it. Also evaluate how can they make more out of preference). Checked if we can use Eyeballs as an indicator
this investment? to measure if the objective is achieved or not and if they
Personal Interview: Tell me about yourself, do you like were looking for some profit number / breakeven /
to watch shows, which one is your favourite
maximum loss to determine if financial objective is achieved
or not.
Obtained an understanding of whether rights – Whether it
would be exclusive; geography for which they are selling the
rights; period of exclusivity; duration of each episode
Discussed the Target audience for this show; if they were
Problem Breakdown Recommendations also interested in other shows of Hotstar; Cannibalization
due to prime time being utilized; Any existing show on the
Started with breaking down revenue streams from their Total revenue that could be generated should be the maximum platform / other new show in the market which we can look
OTT platform and TV and was told to focus on TV. bid price as Star's main aim was to increase eyeballs and ensure at instead to evaluate opportunity cost
Proceeded to compute advertisement revenue basis slots they don’t make any losses. Recommended ways to increase fan
for advertisement per episode (8 mins), period of each base.
advertising company (30 seconds), fill rate and cost of sale Other ways to generate revenue - Sell merchandize; Partnerships Reflections
of each slot. with Amazon and companies like Souled Store; Use data of Was very number heavy but it was conversational
The cost of sale was a function of number of viewers so viewers; Give save and watch later option on the OTT platform; throughout. In the end he kept pushing me to give out
computed existing and new viewers for the show. With this Set up physical events in major cities. of the box ideas on how Star can make more out of it
obtained the total revenue that could be generated. Consider Opportunity cost, example if a new show is starting So, then I spoke of partnerships and events and save and
with more seasons now, might make sense to invest in that rather watch later option on OTT, etc. then he seemed happy.
than last season of an existing show
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 BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Pallavi Rathi I was doing an ELP for the Tamil Nadu Government to Since I was doing the ELP I had most of the
understand reasons for lack of growth of Global information. I told him all the facts and discussions we
Interviewer Name: Natrajan Sankar , MD & Partner
Capacity Centres (GCC’s) and help them increase traction had till then with the client and confirmed if I could use
Type of Case: Market Entry to get companies to set up their GCC offices in Tamil those facts as the assumptions for the case as well
Interview Round: 2 Nadu. The interviewer made this the case. (Note: GCC is
basically KPO - Example Citi Group Global setting up
Personal Interview: Tell me about yourself and what their Finance and Accounting function for the country in
you have been doing in ISB. When I spoke of the ELP India)
he said that this sounds interesting (He was based out of
Chennai), what have you’ll done till now on it and what
are the reasons for Tamil Nadu not having growth in this
area and then made it a case

Problem Breakdown
The framework I used was to discuss key areas and key stakeholders.
I spoke of the following 5 key areas: (1) Awareness and current perception regarding capacity of TN Government to set up GCC’s; (2) Policies; (3) Availability of Infrastructure; (4) Sector focus
areas; (5) Competition – What were other states that had received high traction doing. Here I discussed how each of these would impact ability to set up GCC offices in the state. Then discussed
the following 4 key stakeholders, key concern areas and what would be the motivations to select / push for a particular geography: (1) Head office / Management of companies making the decision
of where to set up the GCC office (Ease of policies, financial or other benefits such as tax rebate etc., Cultural aspects, Decision makers - their awareness and perception about TN and Chennai
which is the major city in TN) ; (2) State Government (Revenue for the state, Job creation); (3) Citizens living in the state (Job opportunities, availability of required skills, migration in the city and
ability of the city to manage the population); (4) Infrastructure developers (Office space such as creation of a campus to accommodate offices of these companies, ecosystem around the office
campus including accommodation, roads, schools, hospitals, etc.)
The key areas that came out were – lack of marketing / awareness creation activities by TN government; perception that language would be a barrier; lack of readily available infrastructure;
preference for Mumbai and Bangalore for most companies due to better state policies, availability of ready infrastructure and cultural aspects; no separate team set up to focus on these areas.
I also discussed Opportunity cost for the TN Government in terms of what else they could do with available resources instead

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BCG
Case Details- Continued Recommendations Reflections
Candidate Name: Pallavi Rathi
1. Awareness creation – Build a team, build channels to Too much work had not happened on the ELP till
Interviewer Name: Natrajan Sankar , MD & Partner understand requirement of these companies and placements, so I mentioned that upfront. Then the
Type of Case: Market Entry communicate to them steps that the state is taking, conversation eased up to discuss that if I were to work
undertake brand building activities to improve perception on it as a consultant how would I do it. It was
Interview Round: 2 conversational throughout and we were discussing each
of the state; Sector focus – Build sector specific teams to
Personal Interview: Tell me about yourself and what engage with and attract companies point in detail. I felt very comfortable through the case
you have been doing in ISB. When I spoke of the ELP 2. Policies – Change in policies based on comparison
he said that this sounds interesting (He was based out of with other successful states and based on requirements
Chennai), what have you’ll done till now on it and what
of these companies
are the reasons for Tamil Nadu not having growth in this
3. Infrastructure – Build infrastructure and undertake
area and then made it a case
skill building activities based on requirements of these
companies

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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Dishan Parekh Your client is a maker of plastic pipes facing slower Slower growth timeline and quantification? - 15% sales growth for
growth than the competition. Do a Root Cause Analysis competition and 10% for the client. Happening for the last 2-3 years
Interviewer Name: Abhishek Bhatia, Managing
Product? - Home fitting pipes mainly for bathrooms not differentiated
Director Partner
Company? - PAN India presence however some geographies facing
Type of Case: Profitability more slowdown than the others
Interview Round: 1 Customers - B2B+ Real estate developers (mainly new homes)
Competition? - Unorganised moving to organized. Majorly
Personal Interview: NA
unorganised market currently.
Value Chain? - Selling through a distributor model

Problem Breakdown
Standard profitability framework. Started with revenues directly and did not mention costs. Sometimes, this is also important since the problem mentions it's a sales growth issue and you don't need to
talk about costs here.
Revenue Price vs. Units issue (Identified pricing is at par and this it was mainly a demand-side units’ issue) Broke down demanded into:
Need + Product | Accessibility | Affordability | Awareness | Customer experience
One important learning here was that keep your buckets when explaining your structure as less as possible. After 3-4 buckets the partners lose interest and often ask you to repeat the buckets.
Partner wanted me to focus on the Accessibility aspect. He said the channel performance wasn't good and we needed to identify reasons. Once I confirmed with the partner that it seemed like a
distributor issue, I used the salesforce framework. I broke down distributor issues into ability and motivation.
The motivation was broken down into monetary (payment terms, commission, timeline) vs non-monetary (personal + professional goals)
Ability was broken down into no of personnel, networks, people skills, tools, and resources used. Here the partner stopped me and asked me what some of the traits of a good distributor were (He
asked me to assume there were a total of 3 organised distributors for this entire market and asked me to assume Indore as the city)
I mentioned - knowledge of the local market, client coverage, depth of the distributors, time within which other distributors could deliver products to the client, and how they handled competition
from the unorganized sector.
He stopped and asked me to analyse further on the unorganized sector bit. Turns out that the unorganized market had become aggressive in the last 2-3 years and was able to provide better monetary
terms to distributors and more personalized know-how directly to clients. Thus, it was a case of both ability and motivation of our distributors being affected.
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BCG
Case Details- Continued Recommendations Reflections
Candidate Name: Dishan Parekh
Partner wasn't interested in the recommendations. The biggest hint was in the scoping. When the partner
Interviewer Name: Abhishek Bhatia, Managing Broadly he wanted to look at only my thought process scoped about a specific point such as an unorganized
Director Partner and structure market in the scoping, he wanted me to connect the dots
Type of Case: Profitability later during problem-solving.
Interview Round: 1 Received strong feedback from the partner. He said my
Personal Interview: NA structuring was solid, I did not move away from the crux
of the case, I was able to catch onto his hints and he
liked the way I arrived at the root cause analysis.

Shortly after this, I was called into another breakout

room. The lead recruitment partner came into the room
and told me we would have round 3 now. As I got ready
with my pen and paper, he said he was joking. He said
the partners were impressed by the case interview
performance and wanted to make me an offer

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 BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Vishwajeet Sikchi A leading 2-wheeler manufacturer from India needs help Understood more about what the commercial 2-wheeler
in deciding which country to enter with its commercial 2- segment means - Last-mile deliveries, ridesharing, etc
Interviewer Name: NA
wheeler offerings.
Type of Case: Market Entry
Interview Round: 1
Personal Interview: Tell me about yourself

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I started by giving an overview of the standard market
entry framework. The interviewer clearly wanted me to NA The catch was to understand that the case is not a
suggest ideas around how to identify the market size for standard market entry case and more of a discussion,
commercial 2-wheelers in different countries as no data is where I had to be receptive to his nudges and change the
available around this. Initially, I mentioned factors like e- direction accordingly.
commerce penetration, the number of SMEs who need
such vehicles, the tourism market for renting 2-wheelers,
etc. He asked me to think of macro-level factors that can
help in a quick analysis of around 190 potential countries.
Here, I mentioned per capita income, public transport
penetration, and population density as the factors to be
considered, which he agreed with.
Further, he asked me how we can present our analysis in 2-
3 slides. I suggested coming up with a composite scoring
system based on 6-8 major factors and then ranking the
countries accordingly.
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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Aman Nigam A lubricant company is facing decline in profitability. Started with 3CP framework - Only in India, 1 type of
Find out why? lubricant, competitors not facing same trend. Value chain
Interviewer Name: NA
analysis - Manufacturing, Distribution, Retail, Marketing
Type of Case: Profitability
Interview Round: 1
Personal Interview: Tell me about yourself

Problem Breakdown Reflections

1. Revenue decline or increase in costs
A: Decline in Revenue - No change in prices The interview ended and was given an offer immediately
2. Issue in Production push or Customer pull after this round!
A: No problem in production
3: In terms of product journey - wholesale, retail, marketing anywhere you would like me to focus
A: Let us explore retail more. This is a real problem so think how lubricants are sold in India
4: Lubricants are mostly sold in petrol stations as additional services and product brand choice is dependent more on the retail shop
owner rather than customer
A: Correct. Do you have any questions?
5: Yes, I would like to know if we are facing decline in any region/outlet? or across India? My hypothesis is that if it across India than I
would like to understand if there is any issue in product itself, new competing products, or incentive to push for our product? In case
any region or outlet than I would like to understand how our product is placed compared to other products in terms of price, shelf
space, marketing
A: Very well. I think you have already cracked it. The issue was in a particular outlet because the incentives from competitors increased
6: Would you like me to investigate the recommendations?
A: No that is sufficient. Thank you and good luck
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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Mohit Soni In the last 5 minutes, Atin gave me a non-standard case, Clarified the meaning of portfolio restructuring.
Interviewer Name: Atin Aggarwal (Project Leader, perhaps to check my structuring approach. Understood that the client is looking to make strategic
BCG) divestments and investments and wants BCG to suggest
The problem statement was -- "You've been hired by a potential targets for divestment and investment
Type of Case: Discussion
large Indian conglomerate, with business interests and
Interview Round: 1 investments in various domains, to lead the annual Clarified the objectives and understood that the client is
Personal Interview: For the first 25 minutes, Atin and I portfolio review & structuring exercise. How will you go looking for profitable growth within India with the
had a casual discussion. Coincidentally, Atin and I had about this". eventual objective of improving shareholder returns
several mutual friends (both current and ex-BCGers). We
spoke about them and about his work at BCG and mine At this juncture, Atin mentioned that he was just
with the government of Maharashtra. We also discussed interested in the approach and not the entire solution.
my interest in switching to consulting

Problem Breakdown Reflections

Broke the problem into 2 parts: Divestment and investment targets. I think Atin liked the discussion-led tone of the
1. For divestment, mentioned that the client should look at historical performance of subsidiaries and look to divest in conversation. He felt that he could have a conversation
companies that are either not performing well (beyond a hurdle rate decided by the corporate HQ) or are not strategically with me.
inclined.
2. For investment, mentioned that the client should look at targets both within and outside the conglomerate. Next, they must He categorically mentioned that he liked my structuring
prioritize the targets strategically and invest based on the potential return. and strategic thinking skills
At this stage, I was asking about mode of investment (debt or equity and if that would be relevant), however, Atin ended the
case.

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BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Priyank Nahata The second wave of Covid has just ended and air travel is International airport or just domestic- international
going to pick up. Your client is an airport, and their profit
Interviewer Name: Nitima, Principal
is currently 0. How will you increase profits for the
Type of Case: Profitability airport
Interview Round: 1
Personal Interview: General chit-chat about life at ISB
during Covid

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

First, I looked at ways to improve revenue. Made a Focus on covid related services such as sanitisation of Even though I missed mentioning cost reduction, my
customer journey map right from customer leaving their luggage & cars/taxis, contactless indoor food delivery & rapport with the interviewer and ability to make good
homes to the customer taking off. Figure out revenue vending machines conversation saved the interview and probably made her
collection points for the airport- such as parking, rent from feel like I could handle being in a client facing role.
stores and airlines, passenger fees, add on services etc. I completely missed cost cutting (which is what BCG had
Look for innovative ways to increase revenue at these actually done, by laying off staff and shutting down
entire terminals), but the interviewer was impressed with
points, especially in the covid context.
my knowledge of the airports sector and creativity of
ideas.

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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Shriya Chandrakar Your client is an Indian Conglomerate with 7-8 What is the goal of the Strategic Portfolio Assessment?
businesses in Hospitality, FMB, and Retail. It is owned by Diversification, growth- no fixed target as such.
Interviewer Name: NA
a prestigious family for 50+ years. The family's 3rd Where is this conglomerate based? - Indian company, but
Type of Case: Diversification- Unconventional generation is young and wants to start a new culture 40% revenue comes from abroad. (Basically, think of it
Interview Round: 1 change exercise called "Strategic Portfolio Assessment" like a traditional conglomerate that wants to grow/
which they plan to run for 3 years. They have approached diversify)
Personal Interview: NA you to help them plan the approach. You will be in touch
with 3-4 top members of the family, as it is a confidential
engagement. You have 6 weeks to roll out the Strategic
Portfolio Assessment

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

The interviewer is asking for the approach. This means they
want you to come up with a framework. There is no clear The interviewer wanted the framework/ approach. So, no Feedback from the interviewer:
recommendations are applicable The framework/ approach wasn't comprehensive
framework for diversification as such. Therefore, the interview
was very conversational. enough- could have used the ""Keep, Grow, End, Quit""
First level of MECE: Growth in either Existing Businesses or approach.
New Businesses. Did not clarify what the client meant by Strategic
Modified the BCG matrix into a 3-D matrix that the partner Portfolio Assessment during scoping
really appreciated for existing businesses.? The interviewer was not expecting any fixed answer,
3 axis- Market Growth, Competitive Advantage, Risk. wanted a structured calm approach to problem-solving.
Used NPV for comparing New Businesses (FCF, Risk for Engage in conversation with the interviewer in such
WACC) unconventional cases and get help when stuck
Risk- systematic (consumer demographic, regulatory), Business
specific"
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 BCG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Anirudh Raghavendran Client has come up with a cure for diabetes and need our Asked standard questions on whether there were any competitors
Interviewer Name: Rahul Guha/Senior Partner and help to price this therapy. or substitutes (no), and product: is it a pill or injection, how many
recruiting director doses are needed (1-month long course of pills), do we know if
competitors are developing any similar therapies. Also asked
Type of Case: Pricing
some pharma specific questions like whether there were any side
Interview Round: 1 effects, any restrictions on which age groups can take the therapy,
Personal Interview: Walk me through your resume has it received regulatory approval, and will insurance pay for it.
because I haven’t seen it yet Missed asking about patent

Problem Breakdown Reflections

Laid out standard pricing structure and eliminated competitor-based pricing first. I suggested that if there were any limitations on Stay calm even if you miss any scoping questions, you
quantity that can be produced, we could have an auction, then looked at value based. Said we could set a floor price based on cost and can ask for that info during the case if you need it. Even
asked if there was any info on what cost of production was. He said don't focus on that. Moved on to determining willingness to pay. I if you miss something or are not MECE at any time, it’s
said give me a minute and thought about various improvements to life that would come from being cured of diabetes and divided these important not to lose confidence, the interviewer
into tangible and quantifiable vs intangibles. Under tangibles I said paying less for healthcare/doctor visits, pay less for insurance, don't understands that it is difficult to be CE in 1 minute.
have to pay for insulin. Under intangibles I said quality of life/peace of mind etc. Here he pushed me to think more about a tangible
benefit I was missing, and I took couple of minutes but the best I could come up with was savings on diagnostic and lab tests. He said
what he was looking for was savings on things like gym membership and trainers because people with diabetes need to work more on
losing weight etc. I pushed back and said that the link between diabetes and going to the gym was a bit weak, and people should go the
gym anyway. He didn't seem so happy with this, but we moved on.He said that if we decided to price the therapy at 1 lakh, how would
we make it affordable, because it is a large sum and while most people can afford to pay about 5k a month for insulin, they may not
have 1 lakh on hand. I suggested right away that we could offer financing, and he countered that this was very risky as it would be an
unsecured loan with no way to collect after the people are cured of diabetes. I took a minute then said we could hold some other sort
of security form them (like a car or house) or get someone else to guarantee the loan (government etc, also said govt has an interest in
having a healthier population so they would do it). Wrapped up here, and he said he liked my structure, so I felt a bit better.

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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Divya Chopra It was more of a discussion rather than a case. We were I clarified with him about the nature and scope of the
discussing about my interest in public policy and one of problem. Challenges facing India as a whole? – YES
Interviewer Name: Abhishek Thakur
the projects that I had undertaken. Then he gave me the Full potential in what sense- economically, militarily,
Type of Case: Abstract problem statement- You are advising the PM and he has diplomatically etc? - Any domain you want
Interview Round: 1 asked you to identify the 3 major challenges that you Any time frame do we have to keep in mind? - No
think are preventing India from realizing its full potential constraint
Personal Interview: Tell me something about yourself? and give recommendations.
Why Consulting? Any constraints in terms of political compulsions of the
PM? –No
Is pandemic a factor? - Yes

Problem Breakdown
I said I will focus on Economic aspects as countries derive their diplomatic standing and military power from their economic might. The economy needed particular attention as it had been
faltering for 4 straight quarters even before the pandemic struck in 2020. Within Economy, I broke down challenges into 3 broad buckets:
1. Labour (Quality and availability of talent, spoke about a few issues that we identified during ELP, the falling labour force participation of females in India, Labour laws)
2. Capital (Capital flight from India, how attractive is India as an investment destination-FDI laws, GDP growth rate, property rights, the efficiency of the judicial process (role played by IBC),
cost of doing business in India)
3. Technology (Low number of research papers and patents filed in India, poor quality of research spending by Indian companies, government policies that can help etc.)
Was asked to focus more on the labour aspect of things- broke down challenges into supply-side (quality and skill levels of the existing workforce in India) and demand-side (majorly labour
laws). Had an in-depth discussion on current policies and what more can be done.
In the capital, he asked me that apart from the factors already discussed, what else do I think is important for an investor while evaluating the countries of investment. I thought for a bit and said
perception also makes a huge difference and sighted the example of China as the country that did extremely well economically but still companies are moving out due to human rights concerns
for Tibetans and Uyghurs, global perception on covid and problems with neighbours. He seemed quite satisfied with the discussion.
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Recommendations Reflections
NA I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, and it was a
breather as this was my 5th interview of the day and the
last two were intense numeric cases. Interviewers need
not go into a conventional case to test your first principle
thinking and MECE approach, they are looking to
understand you as a person. Even if you are not doing a
conventional case, always stay structured. Evaluate and
response keeping a structure in mind.

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Bain
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Pallavi Rathi A buyout PE fund is looking to invest in Biju's and has 1) Details of the PE fund - Ticket size of investment;
hired Bain to do a CDD. How would you go about it? where in the process for Biju's they are currently;
Interviewer Name: Prabhav Kashyap
Expected hold period; Return expectations - Since I came
Type of Case: Private Equity from a PE fund, I was asked to make reasonable
Interview Round: 1 assumptions for all these questions. 2) Details of Biju -
Personal Interview: Asked about my experience and Here I stated my understanding of the Company that
why am I looking to move from a PE fund to Consulting they have two businesses K12 and Test Prep. Asked if
the fund was looking to invest in both the verticals. 3)
Expectations from Bain - Clarified that expectations will
be doing Market research on the industry and company.
Also asked if ability to exit or building the model also
comes under Bain's purview - to which he said no.

Problem Breakdown
We started with discussing the two segments - K12 and Test Prep - their offerings, target audience, mode of delivery (online / offline / hybrid), competition and regulations applicable. Told him
my approach that I would do a Market sizing, growth of the industry, market share that Biju's will be able to capture and how that will change over the investment period and then drill down to
the unit economics and profit margins which will impact the valuation and returns for the fund. He agreed with my approach and told me to do a Market sizing for the Test prep market - this
market included NEET and JEE test prep and provides hybrid education (Online and offline). Here I estimated the Number of students who will prepare for these exams every year. Broke the
number of students into New and Repeat students. For New students, broke it by location (availability of offline class locations), age category of students appearing for a competitive exam,
willingness, and ability to prepare and take classes, took different ratios for male and female. Took a growth percentage for the new students year on year. Calculated Repeat students by taking a
percentage of new students who will repeat the exam next year. Once I got the Number of students, multiplied that with the Average cost of the course. Since I did not know the cost, took an
assumption by taking GMAT course fee as a base. The interview ended here. I kept confirming my approach and assumptions at each stage.

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Recommendations Reflections
The fund should prepare a detailed model basis expected It was a continuous discussion. Was very number heavy
valuation at entry and exit. Valuation to be done using in the Market sizing but I kept saying my approach out
EV/EBITDA multiple and Bain can help in confirming loud and the interviewer kept guiding me. I enjoyed the
the EBITDA number as well as Industry trends and interview quite a lot.
potential exit methods / buyers for the fund at the end
of their hold period. Basis this the fund can make a final
decision.

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Bain
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Pallavi Rathi Your client is a $1.3 billion IT Services Company in the Understood the objective - The client wants to make sure that the
Services Industry - assume something like Infosys / company they acquired should grow by 5x reaching $100 million
Interviewer Name: Kushal
Wipro. They develop Apps, Websites and provide Cloud revenue in the next 5 years - if not they would rather sell it off.
Type of Case: NA services. 80% of their revenues come from the BFSI Asked reason for acquisition, specifically if they were looking to
Interview Round: 2 industry and 80% of revenues come clients in US. 5 years create synergies given, they were a Services company, and the
ago, 2016, they acquired a Product Company in US that acquired company was a Product company. And if there had been
Personal Interview: Tell me about yourself - I spoke of makes Software with the main aim to enter Health
my experience, hobbies, and industries I have worked in. any integration issues. Also, what was the expectations of Health
Insurance market in the US. At the time of acquisition,
Insurance customers, were they happy with the product made by the
this company has revenue of $20 million and since then
there has been no growth. You have been hired to help acquired company and if they were looking for any additional
with next steps for this company. services. Understood more about the company that was acquired -
what kind of product did they make, which geography in US where
they present in, what kind of Health Insurance customers did they
serve, what was the Market size of Health Insurance in US and how
much was their penetration, was there in any impact of regulation
given it was the healthcare industry, impact of competition.
Problem Breakdown
From the Scoping I understood that the acquired company was present in Arizona and Nevada area and that there were State specific health insurance requirements. Thus, the company's product
was specifically oriented towards Arizona and Nevada. In this state they were one of the top 4 market leaders.
I also understood that they wanted to integrate Services and Products, but the integration did not happen due to cultural differences in the firms.
Here I explained the method I would use - understand other states in the US, if we could create products suited to their requirements, any regulatory challenges, and competitive pressure. For these
other states to see the market size and how much market we would be able to capture.
Also discussed plans to do an integration of both the companies’ such that the Product could be complemented by Services offered.
Using the above I could compute the Number of clients the client could sign up * The Volume from each client * Price charged. Here I also discussed how the pricing would work.
The interviewer was happy with my approach and did not ask me to do the numbers. He said this is exactly what they did and that the Company did achieve 5x growth over 5 years.

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Bain
Recommendations Reflections
Integration: I felt great. Even though it was a very long problem
statement it was a conversation throughout. When I
1. Change Management and policies
explained my approach, I could see he was very happy
2. Enable employee rotation program and from there we started discussing what happened in
this case.
Client expansion:
1. Use existing networks across US to obtain regulatory
approvals
2. Research to curate the product for other states
3. Offer Software + Services to gain market share
including Product customization for clients, Data
analytics and Creation of a Digital Market place

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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Tanisha Sabnis Estimate the number of dinner plates in Mumbai 1. What type of plates are we referring to? For example-
Interviewer Name: Saurabh Trehan glass, steel etc.
The interviewer said to consider all types of plates
Type of Case: Guesstimate 2. Which areas to look at? For example- Homes,
Interview Round: 1 Restaurants, Corporates, Schools etc.
Personal Interview: I was asked to introduce myself, a I was told that I can also consider plates being sold in
little bit about my work at Citi and some of the projects I shops however I was told to focus on plates in
had worked on and why I wanted to join Bain. restaurants.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations

Restaurants - 1. The size of Mumbai is 600 sq. km and assumed that on average there would be a restaurant every 2 sq. km as NA
Mumbai is a very populated city. Thus, there are a total of 300 restaurants/ small eating counters.
2. These 300 can be broken down into fancy restaurants, mid-level family restaurants, and small booths for people of lower
income such as daily wage workers.
3. For each of these, I explained that I would calculate the following = (Operating hours/ average time spent per person)*
capacity * utilization * occupancy
Reflections
4. Utilization was the number of plates per person which I estimated as 3 plates including the dish, quarter plate and an extra
plate. Since this was my first interview of the day, I was a bit
5. I highlighted that the traffic in the restaurant will be different during peak (weekends) and non-peak times (weekdays). nervous but with the help of the interviewer I was able
6. Calculated for the mid-level restaurant at peak time = (12 hours/ 1 hour per table) * 35 seats * 3 plates * 100%. to arrive at the correct solution.

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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Tanisha Sabnis Your client is a national, mid-range foods player with 1. Objective: Increase profits and market share
15% market share that has lost market share. 2. Timeline: 2-3 years
Interviewer Name: NA
3. Client: Located in North and West India, Manufacturer
Type of Case: Profitability and Growth - inhouse and outsourced
Interview Round: 2 4. Products: Biscuits with limited product differentiation,
Personal Interview: I was asked about why I wanted to premium brand which is growing
join Bain and why consulting. 5. Customer: 90% penetration into the market
6. Competition: Fragmented market with one player
having 50% share which had grown, similar pricing for
the commodity product but premium biscuit makers
charged more

Problem Breakdown Recommendations

Broke down Profits to see that the main issue was fall in revenues due to a fall in the number of units being sold. The problem I recommended to focus on premium products since the
was a demand issue. I broke down demand into number of customers, frequency, and average order size to realize that the national player had a larger size and a cost advantage
problem was in the number of customers itself. which was assisting it in taking away the market share
from our company and it would be difficult to compete
I highlighted potential issues with the product - SKUs, usage, visibility, bundling, cross selling, promotions etc. as well as access - with the large player.
sales/ distribution channels, online/offline to figure out the problem. The main problem was that new products from the
national player were taking away the market share. Reflections
I was then told to look at costs as well which had grown more than the inflation. The interviewer wanted me to assess whether
NA
the company should focus on premium biscuits with higher margins or the commodity biscuits with lower margins.
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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Divya Chopra Help estimate the cost of the loyalty program of a Basic scoping (5C+I), the interviewer said assume
leading e-commerce player in India. Amazon, Time period can be considered as 2.5-3 years.
Interviewer Name: NA
Type of Case: Abstract
Interview Round: 1
Personal Interview: None

Problem Breakdown Recommendations

Broke down loyalty programs into 1. Usage-Based (something like credit card points/reward system) 2. Payment / Subscription-based (Swiggy From here on he gave me the data. The calculations got a
One, Amazon Prime, UCPlus) 3. Other types. He said it is the first type in which customers get X coins on spending every rupee on the bit intense, and I goofed up with numbers a couple of
platform. With the interviewer's buy-in, I went ahead with the cost-benefit analysis of the program. First, I broke down costs into: times but was able to arrive at the final value for the total
1. Cost of the loyalty program itself which I further broken down into 1. Product costs of incremental merchandise purchased by customers via amount paid to BMS for the vouchers issued.
required coins; and 2. Service cost (inventory, delivery, returns etc.)
2. Promotional Costs- (cost of online/ offline advertising of making people aware of the program)
The interviewer was happy with the breakdown but clarified that the coins that customers earn are not used to purchase goods on the platform
but are converted into Bookmyshow vouchers. He told me to ignore the promotional cost. From here on the problem became completely Reflections
numerical. I broke down the problem into two equations:
1. Estimating the coins issued by the platform (#orders X % eligible for loyalty program X Average Transaction value / order X Coins / Order
value) The First 5-10 minutes of your interview are important.
2. Estimating the amount paid to BMS for the vouchers issued against the coins (Total Coins issued X Conversion factor for vouchers X % Being MECE helped me cover all bases and identify the
vouchers redeemed X actual amount paid to BMS / redeemed voucher) exact problem. The interviewer was satisfied with the
He asked me how I will estimate # Orders. I gave him both options- 1. Historical data (financial reports, industry benchmark etc.) 2. approach, which hopefully compensated for goof-ups
Guesstimate (broke further into supply-side (warehouse capacity, delivery capacity etc.) and demand-side (Top-down- #users X % active X with the numbers.
orders / User)

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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Prashant Jain Uber is facing drop in sales and poor AppStore rating. Since When, where, degree of sales drop, # of
What should they do? downloads, etc.
Interviewer Name: NA
Type of Case: Profitability (Sales decline)
Interview Round: 1
Personal Interview: Detail about my previous projects
at work. Had some discussion around retail and
consumer product practices at Bain.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Broke the problem into customer funnel. Increase mode of payments, reduce steps, own wallet for It was majorly about having a fluid conversation. The
faster execution, prepaid/post-paid model. interviewer was quite helpful and guided throughout
# Of people downloading > active users> Booking> given you kept him engaged and explained your thought
Frequency process.

The problem was bookings. Broke it into net bookings:

Total bookings - cancellations. Cancellations were higher.
Looked at all steps between booking and trip completion -
problem was in the payment gateway.

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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Mehakpreet Kaur Your client is a Private Equity form looking to invest in a 1. Geography: India
Sports Nutrition Company ("the target"), selling Protein
Interviewer Name: Arjun Upmanyu, Partner
Powder, Energy Bars and Protein Bars.
Type of Case: Private Equity, Market Expansion, 2. Distribution channel: 60-70% of sales via online
1. How large & attractive is the market? means (through amazon / healthkart); balance via
Guesstimate
2. Identify and suggest potential adjacencies in product pharmacy shops.
Interview Round: 1
categories to further expand the top line of the target.
Personal Interview: PI happened in the beginning of
There was not much scoping required since, the problem
the interview. I quickly gave an overview of my resume
statement was detailed, and the questions were self-
and then the conversation started around the PE practice
explanatory.
of Bain. I was asked if I have questions in the beginning
only - I asked about the intersection between the industry
teams and Private Equity at Bain.

Problem Breakdown
For question 1: #of customers interested * Grams / day / customer * Price / gram.

Bifurcated total population into rural and urban - then further into male and female. Within each, estimated the number of people within the age group of 20-35. I was asked to justify the age
group, the bifurcation into urban rural and male female. Then, I was stopped there - was asked how I would determine the consumption of protein powder. I suggested 3 ways - (A) Market
Survey, (B) Survey at a couple of gyms and then extrapolating that to total number of gyms (to estimate total number of gyms, suggested considering 1 gym per XX sq. km area (don't remember
XX), and (C) Using data from Body Building competitions.
Note - I suggested these methods because by this time, the entire guestimate became more of a conversation to understand my thought process rather than checking my calculations. Hence, I
could gauge that he needed practical methods rather than calculations. After this, he told me that the market size would be merely 1-2Bn dollars which is not big enough for PE to enter, so in what
areas can the target expand?

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Recommendations Reflections
I suggested that to determine other areas of expansion I think 2 things worked in my favour - First was the
we must look at - initial conversation that we had - which made me
comfortable, and second was that I was having a
conversation about the industry with the interviewer
(a) What competition is doing - In India as well as outside rather than trying to solve the case.
India
(b) Leverage our capabilities to expand in near products -
Our capabilities lie in (1) Distribution (online presence) -
leverage that to enter F&B space - Healthy drinks and
beverages; (2) Knowledge (expertise) - Curate products to
cater to lifestyle diseases like diabetes, PCODs etc.
(c) Look for inorganic growth - acquire companies in
nutrition and fitness space (like the apps that track
calories, give customized diet and exercise plans)
I also pointed out that my preference would be (b)
because that would be easier and would help us capture a
bigger market. In the end, I asked about his perspective
on the industry, he said that they were looking to enter
into supplements space (this would be a good overlap)
but approvals and all might be a challenge.

I could sense that he is satisfied with my

recommendations and points.

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Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Mehakpreet Kaur Our client is an Iron & Steel Company. They have been 1. Quantification of decline: Net Profits declined from
experiencing a decline in profitability over the past 2 10% to 7.5% over a span of 2 years
Interviewer Name: Abhishek Thakur, Senior Manager
years. Find out the reason and suggest improvements.
Type of Case: Profitability
2. Asked about the company: The client owns mines;
Interview Round: 2 manufactured iron and steel products; sells B2B (to big
Personal Interview: Interview started with PI. I construction companies) and B2C (via distributors)
connected with the interviewer over my 'other
achievements' section in resume. He was also a public
3. Geography: India
speaker and started explaining how public speaking skills
really help in management consulting. He also pointed
out about his career transitions - I tried to understand
more about his career.

Problem Breakdown
Started with Cost. Decided to split cost using value chain.
(1) Mining Cost (Labour, equipment and overheads) (2) Transportation & warehouse (Labour, Lease rentals, logistics, inventory, R&D) (3) Processing (Iron to steel, moulding costs etc.)
(4) Outbound logistics & warehousing of final goods (distribution & marketing costs, commission)
Interviewer told me - it's none of these, asked me to probe further. I threw a few more costs - but even that was not the reason. Then, I decided to approach via P&L method. I pointed out costs like Insurance, Hedging,
Depreciation, Tax, and Financing. He said that interest cost was the reason and explained that the value chain method is not exhaustive. It does not include items below EBITDA.
Next, I was told that interest costs had increased even though the company had not borrowed any additional funds. I had to find out the reasons.. After pointing out a few reasons that he said were not correct, I said that
the reference rate (like LIBOR) might have changed, or the spread might have changed (because of some addendums in the term sheet). He said that the term sheet has not changed and yes, the change in LIBOR was the
reason.
Next, I was tested on some calculations. He said that the original interest rate was 10%. What all data do I need to calculate the new interest rate (I knew that profitability has declined from 10% to 7.5% and interest rate is
the only reason for the decline). I had started panicking at this stage. I said I need to know tax rates (since interest is tax-deductible) - he said no change in tax rates. Then we had some discussions around this, and I could
sense that he was not happy with my response. After deciphering the correct answer, we closed this case.
I asked him if this was a real case that he has worked on. He said no. Then, I asked him about the current case that he is working on. He was happy describing that. I knew I had high chance of not making it through this
round (fortunately, I did).
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Bain
Recommendations Reflections
NA The case started off as easy but turned out to be
stressful in the middle. I could sense that I am not going
through this one. But I was calm, had developed good
rapport with the interviewer in the beginning and some
of my points were very good (could sense that from the
expressions of the interviewer). Also, my last question to
the interviewer probably showed that I am keen on
learning.
This case was one of the most unexpected & difficult
ones, but I am glad that I held on till the end.

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Bain
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Amar Parulekar Go back 4-5 years in time. Netflix is about to enter India None. Gaurav was not interested in any questions.
and would like to get a sense of the adoption rate of
Interviewer Name: Gaurav Nayyar, Partner
Netflix by Indians in the first year after launch.
Type of Case: Quick Thinking
Interview Round: 1
Personal Interview: None - just a 10-15 sec intro.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations

The interviewer knew exactly what he wanted to test me on - first principles thinking. Can never forget his opening lines. 'Hi, we NA
are going to keep this short, I will introduce myself in 10-15 secs, then you introduce yourself in 10-15 secs and this should not
take too much time. You do this quickly and it’s a yes from me'. After I heard the case prompt, I immediately tried to ask some
scoping questions like where Netflix planning is to launch (Tier 1/2?) etc. Gaurav was quick to dismiss these and said he is Reflections
looking for 3 ways to do this - one primary and two secondary. This made the case even harder because now I tried to second
guess Gaurav and abandoned any organised problem-solving effort for a moment. I soon recovered and understood that Gaurav I think I did well to catch on early that he was not
is looking for something very basic. A few seconds of thinking later, I said we can just carry out a simple survey. I arrived at this interested in any framework and consulting casebook
answer soon enough into the interview for Gaurav and his whole demeanour changed. I could sense I am on the right track and material. This is extremely important. A particular case
gave my second method - look for comparative markets where Netflix has launched previously. Gaurav wrapped up the from a previous casebook helped me. This case was -
interview after this and asked for any questions. I asked what his aha moment was where he felt this is why he is into consulting How will you estimate the rates of something etc? This
and this is why he is at Bain. looked like a guesstimate, but the answer was simply
'Google the rate'. I then tried to think of basic methods
for my case.

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Bain
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Amar Parulekar Your client is a Fund and need to evaluate whether it Not many. I just reaffirmed my assumption that we are
should invest in Byju's. looking at the EdTech space.
Interviewer Name: NA
Type of Case: PE
Interview Round: 2
Personal Interview: None. Quick intro at the start

Problem Breakdown Recommendations

Prabhav was not too interested in scoping questions, and I could sense that thinking out loud would be a good strategy to keep him
engaged. I used the simple PE framework and went through my answer step by step. In the first pass, I said I will look at the fund, NA
the EdTech industry, Byju's as a company and try to come up with the valuation. Prabhav asked me to go over each in detail. For the
Fund, I will look at prior experience in EdTech, how deep are the pockets etc. For the Industry, I will look at its Size, Growth rate,
Barriers to entry and risks etc. For the company, I will look at the management team, business model etc. There are obviously more
things under each head (Prabhav kept me moving along when he felt I know what I am talking about). Reflections
I felt I had done a good job. Prabhav then asked me if Byju's should place their bets on the K-12 supplementary market or Test Prep
market. I made sure to ask what he meant by K-12 (it is class 2-7, supplementary means over and above school curriculum). I
This interview was non-stop rapid fire and quite draining
recommended K-12 market and gave supporting arguments (Test Prep market is saturated with Bansals and Allens, K-12 is relatively
especially since this happened at around 3pm and I was
untapped, working parents would welcome a productive use of their child's time outside of school etc). Prabhav then asked how I
giving interviews since 9am. Prabhav frequently cut me
can choose between the two. I said we can use an analytic approach and come up with the Customer Lifetime Value. He asked what
and kept moving me in different directions. I remained
the CLV will depend on - I said Length of use, frequency of use etc.
calm and composed throughout (I think I was in a
I again felt this was the end of the interview. Prabhav kept going. Assuming Byju's has chosen to invest in the test prep market,
Zombie mode and that worked in my favour, lol). The
estimate the number of JEE/NEET test takers who Byju's can tap. I started with a reference point from my AIEEE days (12L test
conversation was extremely free flowing.
takers, assumed 10L). Then went through different filters like net connectivity (since Byju's will be offered online), income
segmentation etc. This part was solved more by Prabhav than by me. I think I did the bare minimum here to not be kicked out.
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Bain
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Shubham Tantia The partner spoke for 5 mins initially. I was overloaded Value chain
with info (unlike any of the cases I had practiced). In What are its competition? market share?
Interviewer Name: Joydeep Bhattacharya, Partner
these situations, it is best to keep on noting scoping info type of product - mass market etc
Type of Case: Non-conventional down. Extracts - the profits of a consumer good player
Interview Round: 1 have been declining for the past 2-3 years. Help analyse
why and give a solution. The case was interviewer led in The partner then gave some extra info about the industry
Personal Interview: Why Bain? which the interviewer spent more than 50% of the time
Why do you want to do consulting? speaking. From the scoping questions, I found out that ours was
the no 2 player and we were the only one losing market
Why do you not want to go back to investment banking? share. Regional players and the #1 player were doing well.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Here, we needed to note down the factors that help larger A combination of the factors would help us give a The cases given by partners are quite different from
players and those that help smaller players. I initially tried solution which will help us gain market share. those practiced in the casebook. The way you hold
to apply the growth framework and tried to use something yourself there and structure the conversation there is
on the lines that Sunfeast had done to differentiate itself important. Although, I was taken aback by the info
from Brittania. overload. I used my learnings from this to do well in the
next case. Just remember to keep calm and don't get
bogged down by a bad interview.

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Bain
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Candidate Name: Shubham Tantia Our client is a diesel 3-wheeler dealer. The industry is 1. Geography operated
witnessing a decline in sales. Analyse why. The case was 2. Product - the partner encouraged me to think on this
Interviewer Name: Mihir Sampa, Partner
interviewer lead. It was not an RCA. He wanted answers further (on uses for three wheelers)
Type of Case: Miscellaneous - industry analysis (was to specific questions which he presented and stimulated 3. Value chain
logical) my thinking. 4. Revenue streams (Servicing)
Interview Round: 2 5. Customers - the partner encouraged me to think on
Personal Interview: Was quite generic this further

Problem Breakdown
Product was both for goods transportation and people for goods - it could be both B2B and B2C. We needed to figure out at what stage were they used for larger as well as smaller goods. For
smaller goods - it was used till the retailer. For fridges etc - from retailer to customer too. Customers were mostly for rural India for goods and passenger transportation. For urban India, it was
mostly for passenger transportation
How was the market expected to perform in the future? - his ideal solution was to get a sense of growth drivers and risks to growth and give a qualitative answer after analysing these growth
drivers: 1. Population 2. GDP per capita
Risks
1) substitutes - 4 wheelers, buses etc. 2) substitute tech - electricity, cng, lpg 3) consolidation of demand 4) urbanisation (larger use in rural India 5) Underlying demand of goods
6) regulation

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Bain
Recommendations Reflections
Then I had to do benefits and costs vs 4 wheelers and Really aced this case. I used my experience of the
analyse when the people would use 3-wheeler. The previous case to help me in this. No point of trying to
answer was laying down revenue and cost side force fir any structure was my take back.
considerations and state that it would depend on the
NPV.
Considerations: -
1. Revenue side - business fit; safety risk
2. cost side considerations: ownership costs - purchasing,
insurance and interest;
maintenance - both regular as well as breakdown; running
- petrol, driver; resale value

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 Kearney
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Major ISP client in Gulf region with 2 main sources of NA
Candidate Name: Sriram Polisetty
revenue - 1) subscription 2) commission on all e-
Interviewer Name: Abdul Rahman El saadi commerce transactions (3%)
Type of Case: Market Entry
Interview Round: Round 1 Planning to enter African market. You are meeting with
CEO to evaluate profitability.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Calculate the expected profit and evaluate the financial
NA NA
feasibility of the entry. Competition currently offers service at
$10/mo in Africa. What to do?

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 Deloitte
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client is Tata Group and have acquired Air India. Asked questions relating to the current operations of Air
Candidate Name: Harsha Agarwal
How do they improve operating profits? India? Are we looking at any timeline or numbers?
Interviewer Name: NA
Type of Case: Profitability Interview told me Air India currently has 120 aircrafts,
Interview Round: Round 1 among which 60 are international & rest domestic. Focus
on qualitative analysis

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Started with the Profitability framework to recognize two
1) Decrease fuel costs: Hedging, longer contracts, decrease Overall, he was happy with my approach and points. He
avenues for improving profits, increasing revenues and
decreasing costs. Broke down revenue and costs further: load on flights etc. grilled me quite a bit on the route optimization aspect. I
2) Renew aircraft leases only for flights that are in use do feel like I could have done better but I kept giving
3) Route optimization logic for points I didn't agree with and considered inputs
• Revenue = #aircrafts*occupancy*frequency per day and
4) Leverage the experience with Vistara that I agreed with. This helped me build a rapport with
discussed some ideas to improve occupancy
The recommendation was more of a discussion of ideas. the interviewer and helped me get unstuck.
The interviewer was throwing ideas at me to gain my
• Cost as per value chain into aircraft & fuel--Inbound logistics-- input. We also discussed the overall strategy that Tata
inflight operations -- Outbound logistics -- Marketing & Sales -- should adopt between cost leadership and differentiation
Miscellaneous strategy.

Interviewer asked me to focus on cost-cutting and we discussed

each of the cost headers in details, with ideas to decrease cost or
improve efficiency.

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 Deloitte
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client wants to enter the mobile handset market in Timelines and numbers: 3 years and no target for profits
Candidate Name: Harsha Agarwal
India. Estimate the profits they can make.
Interviewer Name: NA Product Mix: 3 types of handsets: (High: Price: 50K,
Type of Case: Market Entry segment 10%; Medium: Price 20k, 40% and Low: Price
10k, 50%)
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

1. Started with the Revenues: Market Size*Market Share
Finally discussed strategies other than manufacturing on I thought I didn't do well as he didn't seem too
2. To estimate market size, asked interviewer for information;
own: We discussed outsourcing and China Model convinced with my answers. However, I showed
he told me there are currently 100 crore open connections
conviction in my answers and didn't change them when
so that can be market size
he tried to pressurize me. I guess that worked in my
3. Market share assumed to be 10% and then calculated the
favor.
revenues from each type of handset and total revenues in 3
years. Further looked into costs, broke it down into:
1. Fixed: R&D, IP, Infrastructure/office, manufacturing setup
capex, marketing. Asked interviewer for information: was
told fixed costs were 1000 crores
2. Variable: Employees, Raw material/component/chips - To
estimate variable costs, interviewer gave information of
margins Thus calculated break-even number for all three
handsets

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 Deloitte
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
A paint manufacturer created a new paint that can last 3x NA
Candidate Name: Sriram Polisetty
compared to traditional paint. Help them price the
Interviewer Name: Ashish Kumar product.
Type of Case: Pricing
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Used competitor-based pricing - compared to regular paint. The interviewer asked me to assume numbers and come The interviewer was very distracted and seemed tired as
The price of new paint can equal = (price of regular paint * 3) up with a final cost. But did not care about the values it was the last interview of the day for him (around
+ (painting charges *2) being assumed or the calculations. Listened to the final 8PM). I had previously solved the exact same case
proposed price in the end and said it was the wrong before, but his lack of interest made it very difficult to
answer. explain my solutioning to him

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 Deloitte
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
A food-based company that owns a supermarket chain Upon questioning, we find the reason is declining
Candidate Name: Sriram Polisetty
present in all metros in India is seeing stagnant revenues. customer acquisition rates and suggest online delivery as
Interviewer Name: Abhishek Identify opportunities for revenue improvement. one option. Additional Guesstimate - the total value of
Type of Case: Stagnant Revenues online orders every month in a metro city.
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

low revenue could be due to - 1. Low # unique customers 2. NA NA
Low average $ spend per customer 3. Low frequency of visits
per customer.

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 Deloitte
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Guesstimate number of daily orders in Amazon in India. Explicitly state the assumptions and rounding offs that
Candidate Name: Sai Divya Thota
you make, such as population, income etc.
Interviewer Name: Rohan Padha/Director
Type of Case: Guesstimate
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Population -> income groups -> urban/rural -> internet NA NA
penetration -> age groups -> number of orders per day

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 KPMG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
What factors would a global company looking to set up a Asked about objectives, timelines, constraints, etc
Candidate Name: Pramit Ganguly
shared services centre look at?
Interviewer Name: Aayush GoelAssociate Director
Type of Case: NA
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Narrowed it down into broad buckets such as People, Financial, Elaborated on each of these buckets. While talking, the This round went well, as I had read previously to
Regulatory, etc case turned into more of a back and forth conversation understand the work KPMG’s GBSA division does. Also
related it well to how my previous work experience was
relevant to them, and how I wanted to make a shift from
research to consulting in a similar field.

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 KPMG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Number of electric charging stations required for NA
Candidate Name: Sreeharsha Chunduri
California
Interviewer Name: NA
Type of Case: Guessestimate
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I followed area approach. Divided CALIFORNIA into light, NA Stay calm and think well
medium and heavy traffic zone areas. Assumed a certain number
of charging stations for a certain radius in each of the zones.
Stated my approach to the interviewer and he seemed to be
satisfied

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 KPMG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
NA NA
Candidate Name: Vaibhav Nagar
Interviewer Name: Director
Type of Case: Guessestimate
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

NA NA I was just being honest and upfront about my decisions.
It was received well by the interviewer and we had a
candid discussion.

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 KPMG
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
What kind of risks should the pension fund regulator be Only equity or debt or both? What about alternate
Candidate Name: Vaibhav Nagar
careful about? How many resources you would need to investments? - Man hours of resources, billing rates? -
Interviewer Name: Director deliver the report to the regulator? What would be the Costs? - Competitors?
Type of Case: Sales Pitch time frame and how would you price the engagement?
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

This was not a typical case interview. To break down the Keep duration of debt portfolio low to moderate as the
problem, I mainly divided the assets of pension funds into economic situation is not very stable and the world I was honest and candid and this led to a refreshingly
equity and debt (fixed income), and then used different risks economy including India is in recovery with RBI keeping a upfront conversation. Some situations were tricky but
pertaining to the two asset classes - credit/market/interest rate keen eye on inflation. Rising interest rates would hurt high I remained calm and asked for time to think. The
duration portfolios partner never adopted a stress interview routine and
risks. Also, I talked about liquidity risk during withdrawals. For
- While relying on credit rating agencies is standard, gave me enough time and information. While I was
the project management part, I used man hours information
pension funds may also develop their own internal credit negotiating for the position, the partner told me his
and formed teams with analysts/consultants led by 1-2
rating models in the long run story and convinced me. I think that I could have
managers for the entire engagement and the whole account Periodic stress testing of the portfolios should be
being led by a director/partner, if needed. I then calculated the been more confident while negotiating given that I
conducted
salary cost of the resources, added some overheads, and applied already had another offer from another company.
- More focus on asset-liability management to meet
a 50% margin to price the engagement. Also gave the caveat retirement related withdrawals. Keeping track of age
that we would need to be watchful of the competitors under- profiles and increasing investments in liquid assets to
bidding us and therefore suitable discounts might have to be reduce liquidity risk
applied.
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 Arthur D. Little
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client is a scientist who has invented teleportation. Asked more about the technology to understand nuances
Candidate Name: Harsha Agarwal
She hasn't told anyone yet about the invention and now and motivation of the scientist.
Interviewer Name: Fabian Sempf wants to monetize the innovation and has come to you
Type of Case: Abstract for help. What are the five most important aspects you He clarified that it was a beaming device that could be set
would look into? up at multiple locations, and the scientist wanted to use
Interview Round: Round 1
the technology for the greater good.

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

I first discussed the major stakeholders involved in the As per the stakeholder, discussed some important aspects: Overall, it was an interesting discussion. What went well
monetization aspect and then used that to guide the discussion. 1) End Consumers: Customer safety, perceptions and was that I used a structured approach instead of listing
Identified customers, manufacturers, govt/policymakers, the adoption, pricing model etc. important aspects. We also discussed the example of
scientist, and investors as the major stakeholders. 2) Govt/Policy Makers: New policies and laws to be Elon Musk and using a similar strategy of opening this
created for commercialization and guidelines for usage to early adopters similar to the Space X project.
3) Manufacturers: Whom to license the technology for
manufacturing, public or private organizations; how to set
up production facilities
4) Scientists: IP protection, equity and position in
company
5) Investors: Business Model, operations etc.

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 Arthur D. Little
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client makes sponge iron, the business is What is sponge iron?
Candidate Name: Tanuj Gupta transitioning from father to son, would it make sense to • What geography does the client operate in?
Interviewer Name: Senior Engagement Manager stay in the business • Does the client has any other businesses/products?
• What does the value chain look like?
Type of Case: Abstract
• What are the profitability metrics?
Interview Round: Round 1 • What are the objectives of the son?
• Are there any alternative uses for the product?
• How long have they been in business?

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Given the extensive scoping, broke down the problem into a Given the nature of the business and the limited It was a relatively short interview – just about 20 minutes
very basic Porter’s 5 forces model: opportunities of meeting the dual objectives of so was unsure of what to make of it. Looking back
• Bargaining power of Suppliers: High given that the only profitability and growth, recommended an exit for client however, was clear that the interviewer was largely
source of sponge iron was the mining areas, they would be from the business. interested in the approach, asking the right questions and
entirely dependent on them for the iron dust pace at which you solved for things. In case the interview
• Threat of New Entrants: Moderate, not a significant cost to is online (which is hopefully not the case with you), just
setup but given low profitability and high commoditisation, In a follow up to this was asked a basic question on how
we would do the valuation of the sale. Mentioned that we make sure that you have a handle on timings and are in
unlikely to have too many entrants
could do DCF, Comparables and also mentioned Slump touch with the co-ordinators to ensure you have access
• Bargaining power of Customers: High, given that only steel
Sale as a possible exit opportunity given that the client was to the meeting on time.
manufacturers use this, the product itself is a very low value add
• Rivalry: Relatively high considering there are a # players in the keen to sell early and the industry itself was not doing
market, there is not much differentiation in terms of product extremely well.
• Threat of Substitutes: Moderate, but not very important as the
product itself was not a significant value add

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 Arthur D. Little
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Estimate the number of vehicles plying in Gachibowli 1. Time?– 3-4pm on a Monday
Candidate Name: Tanuj Gupta
Interviewer Name: Senior Engagement Manager 2. Working Day or Holiday? – Working Day
Type of Case: Guesstimate 3. Any specific vehicles? – All vehicles
Interview Round: Round 2

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

1. Number of vehicles = Area of road/Area occupied by NA Building rapport with the interviewer really helped.
vehicles Initially mentioned that he was in Dubai so spoke a bit
about it and my experience having done a project there.
2. Area of road = Length x breadth of road On the finance vs consulting question was initially a bit
guarded in terms of balancing response but could gauge
3. Area occupied by vehicles - Broke down into smaller and from the interviewer’s reaction that he really wanted a
bigger vehicles. strong, opinionated, and honest answer so contextualized
it accordingly. He was extremely polite and seemed
4. First estimated road capacity at 100% utilisation and
genuinely interested in my perspective so was very easy
number of vehicles thereon
to have a conversation. He could easily see through
5. Then divided into using police data or a time and motion generic responses so make sure you have substance in
study to estimate the nature of vehicles typically plying on what you are saying and that is backed up by adequate
road or density examples. Know each line of your resume inside out.
Could be asked anything
BNG 20221017_Casebook 2022_v7 143
 Arthur D. Little
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Estimate Sales of EV Passenger Vehicles in 2030 1. Number of vehicles currently produced and sold
Candidate Name: Tanuj Gupta
Interviewer Name: Managing Partner 2. Number of EV currently produced and sold
Type of Case: Guesstimate 3. Existing growth rate
Interview Round: Round 3

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Broke this down into vehicles below 5L and above 5L. Asked a NA This was the interview I was the most prepared for
lot of questions and the interviewer provided all the data points having spoken to a few people beforehand. However, the
but did not really reach an answer to how to estimate a final guesstimate was a curveball and the interviewer was not
number. looking for a conventional answer. Could have probably
taken more time for responses but the interviewer
wanted to move ahead very quickly. Had thought of
some questions beforehand which helped build some
connect in the interview?

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 EY India
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Our client is struggling on GST compliances. Identify the Did not do scoping because the problem was directly
Candidate Name: Siddharth Jain key problems that might ail our client and bucket them in given from my relevant work experience in GST
Interviewer Name: NA 4-5 problem areas. Advise them regarding the errors. compliances. However, I did ask about the client, but the
Type of Case: Abstract and Guesstimate interviewer did not give any information and asked to
assume that it is any general client that I used to have.
Interview Round: Round 1
Also asked about number of flip-flops sold in a year in
India

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

1. Divided the problems under three heads- Man, machine, Adding multiple checks to reconcile data and reduce data Could have dived deeper into the problems. But the
process. entry errors interviewer was only looking for broad buckets.
a. Man- Data entry errors; Late delivery of data by
Making a database of tax authorities and how other teams
client; Imperfect communication with tax
at EY have dealt with them. Recording their experiences.
authorities
b. Machine- Automation problems with proprietary Constant upgradation of software basis employees'
tools of EY Process feedback
c. Manual processes; Improper reconciliation of
documents and data Making automation tools for reconciliation of data
provided by the client with the data on the GST portal
2. Population (1.4bn) x Urban (30%) x Age (10-40 yrs =
50%) x Males (50%) x Middle + Rich Income (50%) x
Preference for flip-flops (30% basis observation) = 15mn
assuming one-year life of a pair of flip-flops
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 EY India
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client has recently entered the Indian market (2 1. Does the client operate anywhere other than India?
Candidate Name: Siddharth Jain years ago). It has come out with an innovative product- a
Interviewer Name: NA liquid concentrate mixed with water which provides 10x 2. What products does it sell?
nutrition than a normal healthy drink.
Type of Case: Market Entry and Guesstimate 3. Who are its competitors?
Interview Round: Round 2 What will be the top 5 challenges for the client in
capturing the market share? 4. Pricing
How will it expand its market share?

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Price- Calculated one serving of this drink to be of Rs. 7.5, 1. Expanding market share: Took too long to answer the first part of the problem.
which is cheaper than its competitors such as juices, whey Didn't have time to focus on expanding the market
shakes, soft drinks. However, multivitamin tablets which cost 2. Bundling share.
around Rs. 5 can compete on price.
Negative perception of a new company which is launching a 3. Subscription
completely new product. Adulteration and duplicity of the
product. Easy to replicate formula by bigger companies, and 4. Online distribution
high patent cost. Competition provides taste and variety
5. Loyalty points
Low awareness of brand
Guess estimating the potential size of the market: Population
(1.4bn) x Tier-1 and Tier-2 Urban Areas (30%) x Rich and
Middle Income (50%) x Age 15-40 years (50%) x Fitness
preference (20%) = 20 mn

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 Indus Insights
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
 R1 - Guesstimate - Estimate the number of hours NA
Candidate Name: Hardik Jain spent by Indians on digital games
Interviewer Name: NA
 R2 - Case - helping the banking firm decide the
Type of Case: Market Entry and Guesstimate
interest rate for a new type of loan
Interview Round: Round 2
 R3 - Informal talk with company employee

 R4 – Personal Interview

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

NA NA NA

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 GEP
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Government of India has launched bullet train. What 1. What is the starting point and destination?
Candidate Name: Siddharth Jain should be the cost/ ticket? Don't compare other modes (Mumbai to Ahmedabad)
Interviewer Name: NA of transport for pricing and use cost-based approach.
Type of Case: Pricing 2. Questions about the company, customer,
Interview Round: Round 2 competitor, and product/ service (Got no
information

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

• Bucketed cost in two major areas- Infra and Operations. Interviewer didn't ask for the numbers, only the logic. He Bucketed the solution in a structured way. Involved the
asked for a very broad guess for the number of customers. interviewer in making sure that he is on board with how
• Infra: Number of customers will be 80% train capacity x 2 I am solving the problem.
rounds/ day x 365 days x 5 years
– Trains - Tracks - Railway Stations

• Ops: The total cost (Infra + Ops) should be equal to

– Maintenance of infrastructure #customers in 5 years x ticket price.

– Employees (Driver; Coolies; Masters; Management)

– Technology (R&D; Engineers and mechanics; Online
System)
– Food and VAS
– Incentives
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 GEP
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Sourcing raw material from China for a US based 1. Mode of transport?
Candidate Name: Pranjal Zambare glassware firm has become very expensive because of 2. How long is the problem expected to prevail?
Interviewer Name: NA Covid. How can they reduce the costs? 3. What does the competition do?
4. Similar questions on these lines - did not need many
Type of Case: Abstract
First answer assuming, that they don’t want to get raw scoping questions
Interview Round: Round 1
material from US, later answer assuming you want to but
reduce cost. Airline industries are seeing a dip in their
revenues, what can they do?

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

NA NA • The cases are slightly different from other MBB cases
that are being done.

• Practice for similar abstract and open questions like

these or for the MBBK kind of cases, spend good
time on formulating recommendations.

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 GEP
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
The milkman has 5l of milk and 3l container, how will he NA
Candidate Name: Snigdha Arora give 4l milk to you in the most efficient way?
Interviewer Name: NA
Type of Case: Puzzle
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

NA NA NA

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 GEP
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Estimate the price of a passenger ticket that would be 1. What is the capacity of the bullet train? What is the
Candidate Name: Siddhant Jain charged for the Mumbai to Ahmedabad Bullet Train frequency of trains every day? Do we know about
Interviewer Name: Mr. Pingle upon completion the cost structure of the project? What is the profit
percentage that the government is looking at?
Type of Case: Guesstimate
2. After every question, I was told to estimate what I
Interview Round: Round 1 felt was right. And after 4-5 questions, I was told to
provide a solution and not ask further questions.
3. I asked the interviewer for a couple of minutes to
gather my thoughts together

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

1. I started with costs and split it into fixed and variable costs. I further broke fixed costs into train & non-train costs (separate I have could have taken more time & structured my
rail lines, stations, booking counters - online & offline, offices, office personnel, etc). I broke down variable costs into fuel & thoughts in a better way.
nonfuel costs (in train services, electricity, pilots, repair costs, etc). I also made two assumptions – one that fixed costs would be
recovered within 20 years, and second that government is looking to not earn profit and just wants to cover their costs.

2. Then I moved on to the capacity of the train. I assumed that there would be 10-15 bogeys in one train, with around 80-100
seats. Then I assumed the distance to be 500 km and stated the duration to be ~3 hours. From this, I assumed the round-trip
duration and figured out the total number of trains required in a day (taking into consideration that rush hours and weekdays
would have more requirements)

3. Lastly, I moved to the utilization of capacity in trains. Rush Hours would have ~100% utilization. Weekends & night times
would have a capacity utilization of ~60%. On average, I assumed the utilization to be 80%.

4. The interviewer was satisfied with this approach and didn't ask for specific numbers

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 Analysys Mason
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Investing in a company that sets up telecom towers for NA
Candidate Name: Snigdha Arora telecom player
Interviewer Name: NA
Type of Case: Private Equity
Interview Round: Round 1

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

NA NA NA

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 Alvarez & Marsal
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
The client is a contract-based apparel manufacturer and is 1) Where is the client located and which are its other
Candidate Name: Shubham Goel experiencing a 5-7% decline in EBITDA over the last 2 geographical locations of operations (2) Is it a client-
Interviewer Name: Ranjot Singh Sobti, Senior Manager years. Further, the credit lines are stuck and recently the specific problem or an industry-wide problem (3) What
Type of Case: Profitability CEO & CFO have also resigned. Please solve the are the different SKUs (4) What are different distribution
problem at hand. channels (5) Who are the customers (6) How are the
Interview Round: Round 1
competitors performing (6) Is the problem specific to
any SKU or geography?

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Followed the profitability framework of looking at the problem Underwrite the account receivables It was not a typical profitability case as in the framework
from the Revenue and Cost sides. Brokedown revenue as a - Provide early payment discounts we usually do not discuss problems from the accounting
function of #of units of apparel and average price. There was a - Conduct demand forecasting for better inventory management side.
supply constraint because of a lack of cash. Further, I looked at
what could have been the various problems in the supply chain
that are leading to cash constraints. The interviewer hinted
toward looking at accounting side problems. The problems
were: longer accounts receivables turnover and longer inventory
turnover.

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 Alvarez & Marsal
Case Details Problem Statement Scoping Questions
Your client is a healthcare accessories manufacturer and is (1) What are the SKUs manufactured by the client (2) Is
Candidate Name: Shubham Goel incurring a packaging cost of Rs.20 cr. You have been the client also involved in distribution (3) Where does the
Interviewer Name: Neha Khandelwal, Senior Director hired to help the firm reduce the cost. client with respect to the competitors (4) What are the
Type of Case: Costing different layers of packaging used (5) Is the client
outsourcing the packaging material or making the same
Interview Round: Round 2
in-house

Problem Breakdown Recommendations Reflections

Since the problem was specific to packaging cost, I jumped - Alternate vendor I missed asking for the split of Rs.20 cr. Asking this in
directly to the components that drive the packaging cost - Change in packaging material the scoping could have made the approach more
including Man, Material, Machine, Facility, and Other - Negotiating the existing contract pertaining to sourcing the comprehensive.
Overheads. The cost was majorly driven by packaging material material
and the discussion majorly happened around how can we reduce
the material cost.

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