Is it alright to take a moment to recap and draw a structure before concluding a case?

Hi, 

The basic flow is the following:

1. You ask for 30 sec to prepare the recommendation
2. You check the original objective to make sure you are answering the right question
3. You think of the arguments and spend 30 seconds collecting the numbers for the arguments
4. You provide the recommendation

There are also two types of recommendations - I call them hard and soft recommendations. Let me explain what this is.

In many cases, the interviewer will interrupt you and ask for the recommendations. It does not necessarily mean something bad.

1. Consultants want to save the time for your questions at the end of the interview. Actually, in many cases, they don't even expect you to go through the whole structure and get a final answer.
2. Consultants may be testing several things:

• Are you comfortable enough with providing preliminary recommendations based on limited data? (Imagine a CEO whom you met in the elevator and who wants to know the preliminary findings)
• Will you make a mistake of providing a recommendation with a high level of certainty without having a proper supporting data?

As a result, there are two problems that you may face:

1. In the interviewer-led cases, you have to answer the questions that the interviewer asked you and very often they don't all link up
2. In many cases, you can't provide a definite answer since you don't have enough information and were interrupted in the middle of the case

Addressing the first problem you should:

• Provide the recommendation for the initial objective of the case
• Put everything else you have discussed in the additional part

For example:

1. Our objectives were to understand why the profit is declining by X and how to bring the profit back within one year (Don't forget that your objective should be measurable in terms of money / other metric and time)
2. According to the analysis we've done so far, my recommendation is to shut down the division A and to concentrate on the divisions b/c if we want to increase the profit, and there is a number of reasons for that.. (Remember that your arguments should include numbers).
3. You provide the arguments a) First of all, problems in Division A are the major driver of the decline in profits - 90% of the decline in profits refer to Division A. b) Secondly, the decline is driven by the contracting market size that is shrinking at xx percent and is not expected to improve in the near future. c) Finally....
4. Additionally, I would like to check the following... (In the last bullet, you simply provide a list of other things you have discussed, but they were not the part of the original objective / the things you slightly discussed but haven't come to any conclusion, like the questions on creativity)

As for the second problem - Indeed, in many cases, you can't provide a definite answer.

Imagine a case when you have to make a decision whether a PE fund should acquire a company. You make a proper structure (Market, Competitors, Company, Feasibility of Exit) and in 25 min of a case, you've managed only to go through the Market and Competitors branches of the analysis. What will be your recommendation?

In this case, you have to provide a Soft Recommendation:

1. You start with an objective ("Our objective was to understand whether we should buy this company")
2. You provide a preliminary recommendation highlighting the uncertainty("According to the limited data we have so far, our preliminary recommendation is to buy this company and there are three reasons for that..." or "Purely based on the data we have about the market it looks like it's a good idea for a number of reasons..")
3. You provide the reasons ("First of all the market is big at X and growing at Y, Secondly the competition is fragmented with the target company having x% of the market. Thirdly...")
4. You Mention the pieces of data that you need to provide a full recommendation ("But to come up with a final recommendation I would like to look at the company financials, key capabilities and..." or "But to be 100% sure in our recommendation we need to check...)

Best,

Vlad

Yes, it's absolutely fine to briefly pause and make a structure.

Hi,

Unless the interviewer pushes you to close quickly I would highly recommend to take 30 sec to 1 min to prepare for your reco :

- you have been digging into the case détails bien for the last 30 min, so you definitely need to step back for a second and look at the big picture before formulating a reco

- you want to deliver your reco in an impacting way with sharp wording : this requires to quickly prepare  your arguments before your tell them

hope this helps

best

benjamin

You don't need a structure, usually I do:

Objective -> Recommendation -> Reasons -> Risks -> Next Steps

I ask for 30s before I give my recommendation