Analyse the issue OR propose solutions?

Question

Hi all,

I came across this case and formed a structure that is quite different from the sample answer. My proposed structure is to talk about ideas that we can analyse. The sample answer seems to immediately talk about the solutions. Would appreciate your advice whether we should analyse the issue OR propose solutions? Thanks!

Gist of the Case

Company X specializes in a product. There is a potential new entrant to the market.

Our client is concerned about losing market share.

What are the main areas that you would look at in order to help our client?

My answer

There are 4 areas that I would like to analyse.

Customer Needs

Understand whether customer needs have changed and if so, explore if we can better target their needs.
Are customers price sensitivity? We may want to relook at our pricing strategy.

Competitive Landscape

Do the new entrant or existing competitors have any competitive advantage?
Can we acquire a competitor to increase market share?

Product

How can we improve the quality of the product?
Can we create complementary products to increase revenue and entice customers to stay with us?

Company Capabilities

What are the gaps in our capabilities that we can improve on?
What is our expertise? Perhaps we can focus on that.
Should we review our operational capabilities and relook at our cost structure, to be more price-competitive?

Sample answer

Raise barriers to entry

Acquire critical technology or patents
Lower prices in the short-term

Keep existing customers

Strengthen existing relationships with customers
Establish longer-term contracts
Increase quality of product

Attract new customers

Acquire a competitor
Increase marketing efforts

Answer 1

Hi there,

1. This seems to be a badly written case - a badly written question and a badly written answer.

Rest assured that cases are not about “spitting out" the X theoretical potential ways to prevent new competitors from entering the market. While it is useful to know them for cases, and while this could at some point during the case be somewhat a “brainstorming” question, this would never be “the case”, as it has no context (which means, you are not being asked to think here).

This is also a badly written question as it specifically asks you to look into generic “areas”. No client asks for that. They want consultants to solve specific problems, not to “look into areas”.

Regarding the answer, the 1st level structure is a good one. But the detail the 2nd level is just terrible (random, generic, non-MECE).

2. On the other hand, regarding your own structure, it needs a lot of improvement (sorry for the harsh unrequested feedback). A few examples:

It is not MECE at all - not sure how you “better target client's needs” without doing something about your products or capabitilies.
Why do you care about current competitors competitive advantages? That's irrelevant to this case.
Sometimes it is about “areas to analyze”, other times it is about specific hypothesis on what to do
On your capabilities, this is all very generic. What specific capabilities or expertise do you have in mind? Please be specific.
And overall, the connection to the specific problem you are trying to solve is very loose, i.e., most of these things you would do in any other situation - not specifically because of a new entrant.

Your approach has to be developed with the objective in mind. Please stop using the generic 3C + P framework. This is not how cases work (and this also does not differentiate you from the majority of other candidates).

3. A better approach for this would answer two questions:

Do we risk losing market share and how much? (need to understand our customer segments and preferences, how do they align with our value proposition vs. new competitor value proposition)
What can we do to prevent it or minimize market share loss? (look at entry barriers across the value chain: suppliers, complementary products, competitors, retailers and even customers; look at how to reinforce your value proposition - price, product features, add ons, service levels, channel, promotion)
A final step could be how to reposition if the competitors are to be successful, but no need to detail upfront.

Hope this is useful to you and others, and I am happy to provide further guidance on how to approach this if necessary.

Answer 2

Hi there,

It's both!

Why is the CEO bringing in your team and paying millions of dollars for you to complete this project? (A case is a mini-project, remember).

Well, it's because they want to analyze the issue and find out solutions. You can't figure out the solutions without analyzing the issue.

Remember that your framework is essentially your project plan - make sure that when you're talking through it, in the same breath that you talk about what you'll analyze, you're also talking about how it will help you answer the problem!